Chris Slade wrote:
>  All the  
> 'hybrids' under discussion are of different strains or 'breeds' of the species  Apis 
> mellifera and are thus, again using your definitions, are 'mongrels'.
>  
>   
Actually, that is exactly what they are, even the specific "pure" races 
of bees. If you trace them back they are a mix of earlier bees and on 
and on.

We do not call them mongrels since they are now stable and "pure". 
Mongrel would not be a term used by someone in a scientific study but 
mixed race would. Even then it is a lazy term since DNA would give an 
inkling of the racial origins. Mongrel is actually a disparaging term 
for what others would call a cross or hybrid. It infers bad or inferior 
characteristics, like hot bees, which you can also get with a hybrid.

Look at the Buckfast hybrid. It is a mix of many different bees, a 
classic definition of mongrel. But we know its parentage, so we can be 
nice and call it a hybrid.

The interesting thing here is that the term 'mongrelizing" is also used 
disparagingly for the local mixing of bee stock, while all the threads 
on the offspring of breeding a bee for local conditions is looked at 
favorably. Both are actually the same. It all depends on the prejudices 
of the observer and their choice of language. A good bee is a product of 
the beekeeper's fine breeding methods and a hot bee is a product of 
mongrelization.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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