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Date: | Sat, 2 Apr 2011 10:39:07 +0100 |
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Mike
>Now we come to definitions. Exotic?
'of foreign origin or character; not native; introduced from abroad, but not
fully naturalized or acclimatized: exotic foods; exotic plants.'
'originating in or characteristic of a distant foreign country'
via Latin from Greek exotikos 'foreign', from exo 'outside'
Before someone points out that all our bees must be exotic because they
originated in Africa, I think that we must agree that timescales are a
significant factor!
>It would be like introducing one race of horses into the biome of another
>race.
Not really - horses do not mate in free flight. (I just know that someone
is going to say Pegasus!)
>If the introduced race survives without any additional help is it then
>exotic?
I would say that survival is irrelevant. Many species have done
exceptionally well when introduced into other locations - but that is not a
good argument for doing so - Japanese Knotweed anyone?
>Where you are living, are the feral bees primarily Amm or are they a
>mixture of several other races?
As I said, the background population has more A.m.m. than other races. Even
in this heavily introgressed area, a recent study showed 42% A.m.m. mtDNA,
but varroa has wiped out virtually all feral colonies - I know of only one
within 5 miles of home.
>If the others were exotice, would the feral population survive on its own?
Not quite sure what you mean. Before recent large scale imports most bees
in this area were predominantly A.m.m. Pre-varroa anyone keeping yellow
bees would soon be in difficulty due to crossing with A.m.m., both managed
and feral. Now varroa has wiped out that feral population and the exotics
have increased. Man is rapidly altering a balance that has developed over
thousands of years.
>I can understand trying to keep a line of pure Amm because there might be
>some genetic advantage contained within the race that might be desired at a
>later date.
How can we know what we will need in the future?
>However, I do ask does the race you are promoting provide a clear and
>distinct advantage over the other races that have been introduced to the
>area? All conditions being the same does one race stand out clearly above
>the others as being more valuable to us as honey producers than all the
>others?
Are we to judge a bee solely on the amount of honey that it produces? I
appreciate that there are those on this list - we might say dominate this
list - who make or have made their full-time living from honey production
(and/or pollination) and that they might have their own values. Perhaps I
could produce more honey from another bee, but to do so would require more
inputs, e.g. I currently average 100lbs crop per hive based on autumn count
and I feed approx 10lbs sugar per colony; ligustica would require double
brood boxes and 60lbs of sugar. Would moving to ligustica provide a better
return given that bulk honey here is more than double the price of sugar?
If so, should I do it because I would make more money? What would be the
cost to the environment of producing that sugar for me to effectively turn
into honey?
If personal gain is our only criterion then the world will be a poorer
place.
Best wishes
Peter
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