I can only second Bill's comments and add my deep admiration for Pete's scholarship!

The gist to the debate that we have often had here concerning managed beekeeping versus "hands-off" "live and let die" "natural" I'll add Pete's "black boxers" is why is one keeping bees anyway. I love my bees. I find great joy in studying their complex lives. Keeping them thriving is a challenge that requires skill and dedication. In the end however mine are working livestock and I make no apology for that. I keep the numbers that I do for profit and that requires making concessions to what one would believe is the best possible density and conditions.

Evolution is a very long process in almost every instance. And as Pete makes clear there are no guarantees of success. I think it is unlikely that minus human care honey bees will go extinct any time soon but I also believe that without our care in the last 100 years their numbers would be a tiny fraction of what they now are. People that buy a package or catch a swarm, put them in a box and leave them alone, and then convince themselves that they are promoting evolution are IMHO delusional. If that is your belief please confine you experiment to one purchase and let nature take its course. Science and careful breeding will get us to the promised land eons quicker.

There is certainly a place for wild honey bees in nature. Humans have distributed then globally mainly for agricultural reasons. We can't go back to them living only in their historic range and lineages. Nor can humans. How many hunter-gatherers are there among the the bee savers, bee havers? 

Paul Hosticka
Dayton WA

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html