Hi all,
We delineated the issue of using the term "wild type" for various lab animals, including honey bees. The following authors are just a few using the term in this way — wild type = unselected commercial stocks

M Beekman, BP Oldroyd, JM Tsuruda, GV Amdam, RE Page Jr, AB Barron,  SD Kocher, TA Linksvayer, KM Kapheim, M Higes, AG. Dolezal, &c. &c.

One might suppose some selection is going on with commercial stocks but I can assure you it's minimal (first hand knowledge). Some very comprehensive explanations have been presented. The bottom line is that bees in hives and bees in trees have very little to distinguish them. After all, they are in the same gene pool. This is borne out by the fact that where scuts are wild in the woods, kept hives will have scut genotypes. 

As was mentioned, so-called ferals often have marked queens, and some folks like myself allow supersedure, which makes them essentially wild types (unselected commercial stock). The whole thing boils down to this: there are highly selected honey bee lines and there are run of the mill honey bees. I think the locally adapted bees (at least in the US) are mythological.  See


Borst, PL (2019) Black Box Beekeeping. American Bee Journal, December
Borst, PL (2019) Locally Adapted Honey Bees, American Bee Journal, April
Borst, PL (2015) Honey Bee Genetics. American Bee Journal, October
Borst, PL (2012). The History of Bee Breeding. American Bee Journal. July
Borst, PL (2008). The Red Queen’s Army. American Bee Journal. January

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