Ah  yes, you would have a unique situation. Interesting point that brings up, you
can obviously also control the purity of the line to a very high degree, moreso than
even breeding on an island. Breeding outside of the natural range of the species would
of course throw all towels out the window.
    In your case I would breed as much on my own as possible without "inbreeding" too
much. Trying to work towards a more cold tolerant honeybee would pique my interest.

    Thom Bradley
    Thinking working honeybees in Alaska would be cool.  sorry      : {)
    I bet Mr. Elliott doesn't worry about AHB much at night.

Tom Elliott wrote:

> Thom Bradley wrote:
>
> >  A hobbyist or sideliner
> > may not have the ability to establish a yard to favor  a successful mating area.
> > Besides weather and birds then a smaller yard may not successfully produce good
> > queens.
>
> I don't think this is a problem.  There are NO wild colonies in Alaska,
> and even though I have only four colonies, I have on several occasions
> raised fine queens from emergency cells.

> Tom
>
> --
> "Test everything.  Hold on to the good."  (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
>
> Tom Elliott
> Chugiak,  Alaska
> U.S.A.
> [log in to unmask]