errr...a few thoughts.

1.  inbreeding and outbreeding (or outcrossing) are not binary terms...you are never doing only either one or the other (although it might seem like you are when dealing with limited stock)...it is a continuum.

2.  Hybrid vigor (or heterosis) is generally defined as the opposite of "inbreeding depression"....they are 2 sides of a coin...not separate concepts.  Hybrids don't exist outside of a model of inbreeding...neither does hybrid vigor.

3.  Hybrid vigor "solves" issues related to inbreeding (in honeybees this is stark and clear because any inbreeding wrt the sex determination gene leads to nonviable diploid drones...cross such an inbred queen with another inbred queen whoes inbreeding is based on a different version of the sex determination gene, and you will have no diploid drones from the offspring queen).

4.  Line breeding or inbreeding can result in individuals that are "better" than their parents...this does not qualify as hybrid vigor.

5.  A race or line of bees (a population that is uniform to some extent or another) get their by inbreeding...this is what fixes traits in a population.

deknow

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