Geoff Manning: 
> So these places would only rarely have swarms issue from managed hives.

This is what I was getting at, there needs to be an explanatory mechanism to support the conjecture that we are talking about a separate population. To say that bees in trees are different from bees in hives, simply by virtue of the fact that they live in trees holds no water with me. 

On the other hand, the survival of bees in trees could definitely have much to do with the manner of living in trees. A tree cavity has many features which a hive does not. For example, the bees in the Arnot Forest live high up, spaced widely apart, and there may be other environmental conditions that promote their survival. None of these factors are heritable. However, there may be epigenetic factors involved. Tree dwelling bees could harbor a distinct microbial complex, which could be carried on with the swarm. This alone could confer survival benefits to the founding colony. 

On the flip side, bees kept in large apiaries are subject to all kinds of negative influences such as crowding, frequent manipulation, comb exchange and so on. None of these factors affect the genetic makeup, so far as we know. However, modern management tends to blur distinctions between colonies and may limit the abilities of colonies to excel to the degree that they would in isolation. 

It's quite obvious that domestication of animals tends to make them more homogenous and reduces selective pressure which would naturally cull out less vigorous stock. Survivor bees could in fact be distinguished by a more vigorous genotype, but whether they could retain this when outcrossing with the local drone population is the question. 

PLB

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