Hi to all on Bee-l

Peter Borst Wrote:
What you call a "complex mongrel" is just the regular bee
that everybody uses. It is a mix of the various races that
have been used:Italian, Carniolan, etc. One thing about it,
it is vigorous and notin-bred. It is not a true hybrid.

Reply:
Good then Peter, you do understand what a "complex mongrel"
is, and then how it would ve variable throughout the whole
USA depending upon the mixture by geographical region.

Peter also wrote:
When you say *retrogressive breeding" I take it to mean
that you are trying to revert to some "previous type".

Reply:
Good Peter, then you will understand when I say, it is the
reversal of either natural or artifical hybridized
combinations of large or small caste races/strains of hot
or cold-weathered bees, resulting in the production of
uniform progeny within the framework of a fully naturalized
breeding program, which will then result in each separation
achieved, breeding true to their own hot or cold-weather
characteristics and large or small caste delineations.

Peter wrote:
But with this program, there was a particular goal in mind,
a particular type. What is the particular type you are
after?  How will you know if you have it?

Reply:
Have it now, just have to bring it's numbers back up in
spheres of dominance in the field more.

Peter further wrote:
I would expect feral bees of Arizona to be a mix of African
and American stock. From this, you are trying to separate
out some particular type, using open mating?

Reply:
Since no survey of managed colonies was or has ever been
accomplished in Arizona concerning this, nor also of the
Feral population (though isolated areas are in question
IMPOV) I actually do not formally know if there are real
African bees and further I question what is actual American
Stock. But yes, I/we are trying to separate out a
particular type, and using what I would call modified
open-mating in conjunction with selected virgin queen drops
to the field.

Peter wrote:
From what you have stated in the past, you apparently
believe that there was some type of bee in Arizona before
the arrival of the white man, and that you can somehow,
through the miracle of bee breeding, restore it to its
rightful place in the Southwest.

Reply:
Not the Southwest Peter but at least in S. Arizona.Also
there is more then bee breeding involved for knowing, in
accomplishing same.

Regards,

Dee A. Lusby







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