Hello Dave & All,
Dave and I have had many discussions on the subject at hand. All in the
archives. Dave knows his bees! Due to being overwelmed at present with
beekeeping work I will be brief.

>and about two dozen strains of AMM.

The dictionary def. lists the word strain the same as race.

In the eyes of the beekeeping world the word strain means only  Bob
Harrison's A.mm. or Dave Cushman's A.mm line.

I could using Dave's termonology and say I have worked around a 100 strains
of Italians but in the eyes of the beekeeping world they are simply slight
variations of the Italian race . Id comes from several know and discussed
methods. DNA being the best ID method.

My friend Dee Lusby says her bees are a different *race* as the small
quarter inch wing venation is in a place different than known races. She
could very well have a strain of a race which is documented but the ID of a
different race other than those which have been Identified would be hard in
my opinion. Same for those 20 strains of Dave's.

All bee samples sent to labs fit into the known named races
of bees from around the world but are named by the race which represents the
most percentage. How else could you do it?

My only point on his post.

Bob

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