> When using hybrid bees, the best course would seem to be
> the same as in planting hybrid vegetables in the yearly
> garden:  always by new seed because the old seed will not
> reproduce true.

Nice post.  Quite illustrative of the problems associated with having a
hybrid that you cannot pen up in breeding season.

To me it seems that, for most of us, there is no good reason to buy and use
hybrids in the first place.  The maintenance problems/risks with them do not
justify the expense and hassle.

Vegetables just sit there and are harvested and eaten annually.  Seeds are
cheap and it is no problem which seeds one plants.  On the other hand,
ideally, bees should be able to sustain themselves over years without
*requiring* regular purchasing of outside stock and bothersome queen
introductions (re-seeding?).

Good non-hybrids will go on and on and often just get better if a few
precautions are taken, and if the neighbourhood is not flooded with other
undesirable bee stock.  Even in that case, where purchasing queens might
make sense, I don't know of a hybrid that can beat a good queen from
non-hybridized stock.

Having said that, I guess any time we buy queens from different suppliers,
we are getting some degree of hybridization if they go on to reproduce.
(Comments?).

The Important Thing is that -- as I've experienced it -- the crossing
between non-inbred bees does not seem to result in particularly striking
changes in traits.  Usually the offspring simply have  an obvious and simple
mix of the parents characteristics.

What I can't figure is all the talk of mean offspring from Buckfasts.
AFAIK, Buckfasts are not highly inbred or hybridized...  What gives?

allen