"locally adapted bees are best"

Yes, the phrase does need to be defined.  It might cause some truth in labeling to surface.  Not sure exactly what qualifies as a locally adapted bee, but I think I have an idea of what is not a locally adapted bee.

There are some queen & nuc "producers" which create queens and/or nucs for sale and label them as "local" bees.  The fly in the ointment is the "breeder queen" is one of the expensive artificially inseminated (AI) queens purchased which was anything but "local".   

Do not get me wrong, I do not have a problem with AI breeder queens or purchasing queens from elsewhere, but please do not label them local bees.  Do not take a local colony, split it 1 to 4+ ways and put in purchased queens (from who knows where) and call them local colonies.    I have no problem with purchasing queens to create splits, but do not represent them as something they are not.

Are bees which are wintered over in a different climate than where they spend the Spring and Summer and part of the Fall really locally adapted bees?

In my humble opinion, local  bees would be colonies which have survived at least a complete season cycle in the area they are residing  in (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter).   The following Spring, you take the most productive and vigorous colonies and remove the queens and do walk away or On The Spot splits (or graft if you have steady hands and good eyes) to have the colonies create new virgin queens which will mate with drones in THAT local area.     

I would think the bees which emerge from the newly local open mated queen could be classified as locally adapted bees, especially if they make it through the next complete season cycle and you repeat the process.   

Regards,

Steve Petrilli,
Central Illinois

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