Pete >We discussed this study earlier this year. [refering to Döke et al. ] Many people questioned the methodology. 


Admittedly, the study simply reinforces that good bee management of any regional queen-line results in higher winter survival regardless of where those queens are re-located.  One could leave it at that, but that would be dismissive of the study's genetic findings that reaffirm the possibility of breeding a superior locally adapted queen.  Meaning one capable of both mite and environmental tolerance.  


>Genetic differentiation at the regional level but not between individual stocks from the same region is intriguing as it may suggest that, despite different breeding populations and practices, stocks in >particular regions are genotypically similar, which would be consistent with local adaptation to broader environmental conditions. Genetic differentiation between regional groups of managed honey >bees in neutral markers such as microsatellites indicates that although there is gene flow between regions—likely a result of migratory beekeeping and commercial bee breeding operations— the >population of U.S. honey bees is not a panmictic [randomly mated] population, at least as reflected by the four stocks that we evaluated. Therefore, a genome-wide investigation of honey bees from >multiple relatively isolated sites and breeding operations in the United States has the potential to yield local adaptations in parts of the genome under selection......



Bill Hesbach
Cheshire CT

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