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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Mon, 22 May 2023 00:51:47 +0000
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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
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"can give a credible definition of genetic diversity"
No living human can give a credible definition.  It is more akin to pornography. Some judge said he could recognize it when he saw it.  It is also easy enough to recognize lack of genetic diversity when you see it.  The hard question is how much do you need?  One reason it is so hard is inbreeding more than some number of generations in the past simply does not count.  How big is that number?  It is going to vary from species to species but someplace between ten and twenty generations should cover the vast majority of species.  If it did count a lot farther back than that the math would say everything is 100% inbred and that is nonsense.  I see exactly zero evidence that domestic honey bees lack genetic diversity to even a slightly harmful extent.  Further, it would be very difficult to get a lack of genetic diversity in honey bees other than by breeding a very small population on an isolated island.  Certainly a breeding program like one of our members is running to make mite resistant bees that are also commercial quality producers is not going to ever result in any harmful loss of genetic diversity.  Not even if every single queen breeder in the US incorporated his mite resistance into all of their stock.

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