Hi All

Peter said...

 > Breeding from the best is probably a good strategy if you are raising
 > race horses or milk cows, but it may be a fatal mistake that the
 > breeders of bees have been committing for decades

The trouble is that people select characters as being 'best' that are 
not linked to specific genes and so they do not get improvement, they 
merely propagate messy hybridisation, which may give the appearance of 
being 'good' due to likely more vigorous honey gathering, but gets 
nowhere in the end.

I think it was Joe said...
 > too narrow a genetic base and that this makes them vulnerable
 > to diseases.

The narrowness of the US genetic base of honey bees is a worry, but it 
is a problem of your own making.

Reliance on too few actual breeding projects, each of which has 
generated large numbers of 'similar' offspring, couple this with a 
strong reliance on Italian derived bees that have an inherently low 
mating frequency.

You can put all of this right... Many US beekeepers are adept at raising 
queens, add to that a little learning about what to select and why and 
within ten to fifteen years you could transform the situation to one of 
better stability, with less risk of disaster.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)

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