Hi All

Whatever the true meaning of the word 'feral' is,
Mike's explanation below seems about right to me, my course in a similar
circumstance would have been selection, which can show good results in five
years and even better in 7+ years.

> I thought at the time you were having problems with TM.
> Now you have found some bees that have great patterns and resist TM.
> Perhaps it isn't that the bees are "ferals" but rather that you have
> found some good stock. The same could have been "found" by selecting
> from "domestic" stock. It's just that you didn't have to do the
> selection. Winter...the great equalizer...did it for you.

Mike goes on to say...

> talking about supercedure queens...good or bad. I find that many of
> my supercedure queens are very good, and feel that colonies that
> supercede successfully, should be selected for...better than swarming
> to requeen themselves...yes?

I am a person that selects strongly for supersedure, but I am doing it with
a race of bees that exhibits the behaviour strongly as part of it's make up
and has a mating frequency that matches the tendency, (is much higher than
the Italian types that are prevalent in US).

If you start to select for supersedure and do not get a corresponding
increase in mating frequency, you will run the risk of a degree of
inbreeding that you can only overcome by deliberately introducing extra
genes into the closed system that forms the next part of your post...

> isolated mating yards...are we leaving something
> important behind? Are there traits...even in some of our weaker
> stock...that we would lose by using isolated mating yards?

So to use a phrase that I often use 'horses for courses' I would suggest
that you will either run into inbreeding problems or inadvertently select
for genes of a racial type that you have been trying to eliminate (amm).

Any isolated mating system needs to have large numbers of colonies and wide
diversity within it's sphere of influence. This is hardest to achieve with
Italian bees, because they exhibit the lowest mating frequency of all races
and thus require a larger number of colonies within the system.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)

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