Mike

>Now we come to definitions. Exotic?

'of foreign origin or character; not native; introduced from abroad, but not 
fully naturalized or acclimatized: exotic foods; exotic plants.'
'originating in or characteristic of a distant foreign country'
via Latin from Greek exotikos 'foreign', from exo 'outside'

Before someone points out that all our bees must be exotic because they 
originated in Africa, I think that we must agree that timescales are a 
significant factor!

>It would be like introducing one race of horses into the biome of another 
>race.

Not really - horses do not mate in free flight.  (I just know that someone 
is going to say Pegasus!)

>If the introduced race survives without any additional help is it then 
>exotic?

I would say that survival is irrelevant.  Many species have done 
exceptionally well when introduced into other locations - but that is not a 
good argument for doing so - Japanese Knotweed anyone?

>Where you are living, are the feral bees primarily Amm or are they a 
>mixture of several other races?

As I said, the background population has more A.m.m. than other races.  Even 
in this heavily introgressed area, a recent study showed 42% A.m.m. mtDNA, 
but varroa has wiped out virtually all feral colonies - I know of only one 
within 5 miles of home.

>If the others were exotice, would the feral population survive on its own?

Not quite sure what you mean.  Before recent large scale imports most bees 
in this area were predominantly A.m.m.  Pre-varroa anyone keeping yellow 
bees would soon be in difficulty due to crossing with A.m.m., both managed 
and feral.  Now varroa has wiped out that feral population and the exotics 
have increased.  Man is rapidly altering a balance that has developed over 
thousands of years.

>I can understand trying to keep a line of pure Amm because there might be 
>some genetic advantage contained within the race that might be desired at a 
>later date.

How can we know what we will need in the future?

>However, I do ask does the race you are promoting provide a clear and 
>distinct advantage over the other races that have been introduced to the 
>area? All conditions being the same does one race stand out clearly above 
>the others as being more valuable to us as honey producers than all the 
>others?

Are we to judge a bee solely on the amount of honey that it produces?  I 
appreciate that there are those on this list - we might say dominate this 
list - who make or have made their full-time living from honey production 
(and/or pollination) and that they might have their own values.  Perhaps I 
could produce more honey from another bee, but to do so would require more 
inputs, e.g. I currently average 100lbs crop per hive based on autumn count 
and I feed approx 10lbs sugar per colony; ligustica would require double 
brood boxes and 60lbs of sugar.  Would moving to ligustica provide a better 
return given that bulk honey here is more than double the price of sugar? 
If so, should I do it because I would make more money?  What would be the 
cost to the environment of producing that sugar for me to effectively turn 
into honey?
If personal gain is our only criterion then the world will be a poorer 
place.

Best wishes

Peter 

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm