> Nature breeds evolutionary chages that are progressive, retrogressive, or clones when race/strain survivability is at stake. But who talks about this Allen? for to go back to progressive breeding or even retrogressive breeding one must have acclimitized honeybees FWIW

Concepts like "breeding" and "progress" are human activities and have
nothing to do with evolution. Evolution is a process of natural
selection that weeds out individuals who are not as well adapted to
the environment. This process may take hundreds or thousands of years,
so I hardly think that there are many bee populations in the US that
can be considered acclimated, particularly given that most so-called
ferals are escaped swarms from commercial stock which was probably
raised in Georgia or California.

The ability to survive a New England winter, for example, is a trait
that developed thousands of years ago in Europe. Despite hundreds of
years of being raised in Georgia, for example, bees have not lost this
trait. So, it may take a very long time for *any* trait to develop via
natural selection: that's why humans resort to breeding. And naturally
they will have specific goals. Being short-sighted and narrow-minded,
they may emphasize one character at the risk of losing other important
ones. For example, a breeder may select for color, or size, and
neglect health or viability.

But back to nature! The honey bee evidently evolved in the tropics,
where there are a lot of different types of plants and a lot of
predators. Most species of honey bees live in the open, high in the
trees. Some of the coping mechanisms they have are extreme
aggressiveness, a high rate of swarming, and the tendency to abscond.
These were not developed as breeding concepts, but by the weeding out
of bees that were less aggressive, reproduced (swarmed) less often,
and stayed put rather than flew off to evade predators or poor floral
conditions.

During the course of thousands of years, the bees in Europe were
separated from Africa and subjected to a different problem they didn't
have in the tropics: winter. Again, over a very long time, bees
gradually developed the instinct to seek cavities, hoard large amounts
of honey, and stay put during bad conditions. Swarming became reduced,
because larger colonies are needed to maintain heat and gather
sufficient surplus. In a warm climate, colonies needn't be so large.
The bees probably became less aggressive because living in cavities
protected them from a lot of the predators that would attack them in
the open; at any rate it is easier to defend a colony in a cavity than
one hanging on a branch.

Now, the biggest problem beekeepers see in their bees these days is
susceptibility to new pests that have been introduced as a result of
modern migratory beekeeping. If we didn't keep bees in hives and move
them all around the world, we probably wouldn't have trouble with most
of the diseases we now have. As bee breeders, our *goal* is to have
bees that can cope with these pests while *living in our hives*.
Natural selection, if allowed to proceed, might produce very different
results!

Swarming is one of the best mechanisms the bees have to rid themselves
of pests. Absconding, too, is another way of getting away from an
infested nest to start clean somewhere else. Bees that can abscond can
leave the region entirely, if necessary. Of course, very aggressive
bees tend to be healthier as well, being intolerant of foreigners of
all types.

Maybe you can guess where this is headed: the healthier, more disease
proof bees may already exist in Africa and Asia, in their original
range. It may be that the European branch is an evolutionary dead end.
It may be that the traits of cavity nesting, infrequent swarming,
docility and the tendency to stay put could ultimately spell doom. And
nature cares not a whit for her creations. They just slip quietly off
the face of the earth and there are plenty of other creatures waiting
to take their place.

So it is we, not nature, who want healthy bees that are content to
stay put and work for us. We don't want them swarming out and flying
off to other counties! We don't want them sending out the entire
population of adult bees to attempt to sting us to death every time we
crack the lid for a peek! But look, it might be better for their
survival -- their "fitness"--  if they did.

-- 
Peter L. Borst

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