This is interesting, but not really that surprising.  Huge numbers of Californian, Australian, Hawaiian and Chilean queens are imported by commercial beekeepers every spring for early splits.  This will only be compounded by high winter losses as more queens are required for more splits to make up those losses.  Large numbers of packages from New Zealand have also been brought in with accompanying queens.  There are beekeepers working hard to develop good local stock, but those queens aren't available until late June - too late for honey production, but fine for splits, nuc's and requeening.  

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