> I've had some of my ferals genetically tested and the diversity is remarkable, not just the normal commercial stock.

If you want, we can get into genomic testing and what it really means. I work at a department at Cornell University that is at the forefront of genomic research. 

For openers, a couple in my lab took part in a large study where they looked at the racial types reflected in the genomic DNA of thousands of students. This couple is white, from New Jersey but one of the results came back that the person had some "African" DNA. But what does this mean? There are a lot of racial types in Africa, and they didn't distinguish between them. But the bottom line is, it doesn't mean a thing. This person is no more African than the partner, who did not have any such "genes". 

Meanwhile, similar things have been uncovered in the testing of the Mitochondrial DNA of bees. At present, there are categorized four lineages: M, C, O, and A. This represents the NW European mellifera type, the Italian/Carniolan type, the Middle East type and the African lineage. Bees in the US have a mixture of these lineages. 

QUOTED MATERIAL FOLLOWS
Why are high levels of genetic diversity in managed
honey bee populations retained despite apparently
strong pressures from management? The answer lies in
beekeeping practices and honey bee mating biology.

Queen bees mate with 15–20 unrelated drones by flying
through congregation areas containing drones from
hundreds of surrounding colonies (Baudry et al. 1998;
Oxley et al. 2010). Regular stock importation combined
with artificial increases in colony density and movement
of colonies over large spatial scales could then
increase and diversify the gene pool of managed honey
bees, leading to admixed populations.

Domestication is associated with a reduction in
genetic diversity, but we have shown the opposite in
honey bees.
-- HARPUR ET AL.


QUOTED MATERIAL
The use of mtDNA to identify African-derived bees
became more complicated with the discovery that
populations of bees in north Africa and some parts of
southern Europe possess African mtDNA. This includes
A. m. iberica, particularly from southern Spain 
A. m. intermissa from Morocco
A. m. lamarckii from Egypt
A. m. sicula from Sicily
A. m. ruttneri from Malta

This is relevant because honey bees from many of the these
locations were introduced into the New World before
the arrival of A. m. scutellata
-- SHEPPARD AND SMITH

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