> Given the diverse surviving genetics of the feral bees found so far, and the reasonable expectation that the micro ecology of the feral colonies is different from the average well-traveled, medicated, increasingly homogeneous American bee, might it not be worth protecting those feral bees just for the sake of genetic diversity and what we might learn?

This statement is loaded with assertions and assertions, none of which are supported by any evidence. Has anyone analyzed the "genetic diversity" of your feral bees? Because they have analyzed the US population and have found it to be surprisingly diverse, not "increasingly homogeneous" at all. 

And again, worth protecting for whose sake? The native ecology survived for hundreds of thousands of years without honey bees, they certainly don't need them now. The honey bees are no respecters of genetic purity, the queens breed with the fastest drones on the wing, regardless from where they originate. 

Presumably, most of the bees of southern Utah are pretty much Africanized. Preserving an Africanized population is comical, these bees are the most widespread subspecies in the world.

PLB

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