> Something tells me the beekeeping community is getting quite distanced from the dairy farmers. No one seems to realize that they are comparing apples to oranges. 

Maybe you didn't follow the discussion all that closely. The rise in milk production was never attributed solely to genetics; the many other factors involved were all mentioned. What was compared was the huge increase in milk production to the lack of increase in honey production. Much as one might compare apple production to orange production (both fruit, both grow on trees, both picked by migrant laborers, both consumed regularly by Americans). 

The question was and is, are bees that amenable to improvement via breeding? Most domesticated plants and animals scarcely resemble their ancestral types. Look at strawberries, roses, hogs, etc. Furthermore, huge honey crops were reported a hundred years ago. Finally, once you get done beating up the straw man, you might go back and read through what was actually said: 

> I am not suggesting the dairy model as a good one for beekeeping, but merely pointing out that bees may not be particularly amenable to improvements via breeding, as compared to other truly domesticated animals. Probably this is one of the things I like about beekeeping: they are essentially still wild animals. 

PLB

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