> >Surely as soon as a beekeeper feeds a hive it ceases to be locally
> adapted and becomes beekeeper adapted.
>

What the beekeeper does is to alter the "realized niche" of the bee.  In
selective breeding, one breeds for bees adapted to that specific realized
niche.

In many areas, including mine, the carrying capacity of the environment
would not support the number of managed colonies stocked in the area.  What
we beekeepers do is to give the managed colonies a leg up on the feral
colonies, which get no help.

But that doesn't mean that those managed colonies can't still be "locally
adapted" to that realized niche.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

             ***********************************************
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