Jim Wrote
> The traits of value in beekeeping are complex -
> much more complex than the simple examples of
> "blue eyed versus brown eyed" offspring that
> are used as examples in school.
 Hi Jim and All,

This is a very good place to start. We work on finding out what is recessive
and what is dominate.
Thanks to the work of Dr. Laidlaw and Dr. Page Jr. , we have some mating
designs.
The problem comes in with the selection of traits. You have to find the
traits that you want.
 Guess what? You maybe finding them one at a time in different colony's. Now
you have to breed in and out for the right traits
that you want. In simple terms, you keep selecting. We have some tools to
work with now. II has its place and makes things move much faster that left
up to natural breeding.
It is much better to keep the trait numbers down to a few. I don't worry
about swarming with my Russian stock.
They like to keep queen cells all the time anyway. I'm interested in Varroa.
If they can keep them down , I'm happy.
I do need bees that make honey and winter well. Right now that is what I
have. 3 years of selection and a lot of requeening..

  Even more to the
> point, everyone tries to prevent swarming, which,
> for a bee colony, is "producing offspring".

 This is a very good point.  Think about, the bees need to keep there
species going.
Man wants to control an important natural trait. Some bees swarm at a drop
of a hat.
We do not have to live with that at all.So we select for a lower level of
swarming and do measures
to keep it down. I have a picture of a deep frame with 27 queen cells on it.
That was a record for me.
It was at the start of my Russian work. Now I have a few swarms that go off
every year.
That's what I want.The bees want it also. I'm getting bees out into nature
that can survive Varroa.
That's win - win.


how does ANY bee breeding strategy
> assure success in the inheritance of traits that are "complex"?
I can not see any way to have a straight walk to the traits that you want.
We have equations and mating designs to work with and that's as close as we
can get.
Nature is complex , much more complex than we can comprehend. Enjoy the trip
of learning, one step at a time.
Probability is as close as we can come , with the knowledge that we have at
this time.
  You can learn from the bees. Your observation , is the best tool you
have.Don't think you have the answers ,how can you learn if you carry a
bias.
Best Regards
Roy

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