Dave Cushman said:
“If the amalgam that you propose is so desirable why has nature failed to 
capitalise on such a system ?”

We are talking about the DOMESTICATED honey bee here are we not?  I 
strongly suspect that absent human interference the honey bee would have 
found ways to survive anything NATURE dealt it.  Populations may have come 
and gone but the species would have continued on.  The point is that nature 
is not the entire cause of stress in the honey bee.  Of course humans are 
part of nature, but by convention we separate those factors that we produce 
from what is considered “natural”.  Anyway the problems we are trying to 
solve are largely those that our own involvement has created.  I am not 
sure that nature has much chance to capitalize on something that we are so 
closely involved in.  (I almost said: … that we are constantly messing 
with.)  We consistently confuse the distinction between what is a problem 
for the honeybee and what is a problem for us beekeepers.  So what 
capitalizing looks like to nature is not always what capitalizes us.  The 
way nature deals with things is not always pretty to us humans.  We might 
not like the results and we are tempted to short circuit the process.
 
Having said that, I personally find interfering is a big part of what makes 
beekeeping interesting.  I want control!       

  I think it is worth asking, absent human involvement, how much genetic 
variation would exist within populations of honey bees in nature and the 
answer is undoubtedly just enough but probably not all that much.  It would 
be at the places of overlap of otherwise isolated populations where you 
would find the greatest mixing of diverse genetic information.  But could 
you generalize and say that it is at these places of diversity where bees 
would have the greatest chance of survival in the face of natural 
challenges?  It seems like it would depend on the specific challenge and 
whether it generally or specifically related to the genetic makeup of the 
various populations within the species.  For example it’s clear that Varroa 
are harder on some varieties of honey bee than others, but here again there 
are man made factors at play that obscure this picture.  Cell size anyone?  
Unnaturally close distribution of colonies? Etc? 

Steve Noble
Whidbey Island, Washington

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