<Do you suppose they are "locally adapted" as well?>

If you mean the plants I should have said all plants are adapted to where they are if they survive without any human intervention... 

If you mean the bees I would say they are very adaptable vs adapted as mine where brought up from Vancouver Lat 49 to Lat 60  (1500km as the crow flies) 2 years ago. I have a couple of Yukon bred queens that are currently overwintering which came from my best hive (wintering, honey and behaviour). I have found that most bees from various locations in Canada including some imported California queens (brought in from my supplier) have been able to overwinter well with the right preparation. I have been able to get 2 years out of the queens before I started getting issues during their 3rd winter. My 4 losses out of almost 20 overwinters has been due to Nosema C related issues (I self test with my microscope and confirmed type with sample to National Bee Lab). I am pretty sure I know what triggered my 1st 3 Nosema infections, the 4th was likely from re-using some equipment that wasn't properly disinfected and/or the other common theme has been the age of the queens (3rd winter). I currently have one hive showing symptoms of Nosema (dead bees test +ve, with very high mortality).  I have learnt a few things in the past 3 years that should help mitigate my Nosema issues. (Top Entrance = High heat loss = High Humidity in top box (therefore no more top entrance); Winter feeding includes Pollen Patties late July/Early August and winter feeding done by ear;y September).https://www.northof60beekeeping.com/north-of-60-research-projects/northern-nosema

I am currently writing up my findings on wintering configurations based on 3 years of Temp/Humidity data collections, observations and overwintering results.

I have always had very low mite numbers, no agriculture in the area and no other beekeeper in my area. Our current challenge up here is we have very little collected data (very small n). But we are now collecting some good info that should help improve our practices. I have now included re-queening every season and using the older queen (2 years old) in my splits as part of my system. A nuc costs me $365 shipped and a queen is about $75 shipped. We are also joining forces (2-3 beekeepers) to attempt to breed our best survivors in a local micro climate location. 

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