Hi all
There is a lot of chatter about honey bees and stock improvement. I thought the following might offer perspective as to how difficult it is to make lasting changes in a given population.

> German bee breeders have tried to replace the autochthonous honey bee population Apis mellifera mellifera with A. m. carnica, a SE European race of honey bee, for more than 40 years. The data indicate that, in spite of tremendous breeding efforts, the bees of this area form a hybrid type between A. m. carnica and A. m. mellifera. Land-based mating stations have thus failed to produce pure racial types in this area.

Moritz, R. F. (1991). The limitations of biometric control on pure race breeding in Apis mellifera. Journal of Apicultural Research, 30(2), 54-59.

PLB

PS: I don't offer an opinion on whether this project is a "good idea" or not, just presenting the example

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