Dean writes 
> the exact makeup of this culture of microorganisms is a heritable thing...perhaps more so than the genetics of the bees, and perhaps more important. 

Of course, for me the operating word is "perhaps". But I find the concept extremely attractive, given that progress in breeding of bees has been painfully slow to bring about significant changes. And recalling Charles Mraz's statements about bee breeding decades ago, and how he developed a non-linear form of breeding from the best, I hope somebody looks deeper into this as a tool for propagating colonies that have the "right stuff". 

There are countless examples of methods of propagation that do not involve genetic recombination. For example, the grafting of fruit trees. These choice varieties cannot be reproduced by seed, because what is unique about them is lost when the genes are shuffled. Further, many of these choice varieties have to be grafted onto hardy rootstocks, because while the have properties which make them valuable to us, the often lack vigor. 

The Mraz method mimicked natural swarming by producing one colony from another, rather than hundreds or thousands from the same breeder. And in doing so, he may have fortuitously hit upon this essential feature: the transmission of non-genetic factors from the parent colony to the offspring. These changes could include microbes, other substances, as well as learned behaviors. 

PLB

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