In message 
<[log in to unmask]>, allen 
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>This is all quite fascinating.  Seems to me that some time back you were
>importing stock and with seemingly good reasons.  Has this changed?

No Allen, it has not changed. The dark bees, after several generations, 
lose their vigour and revert to an essentially non commercial 
performance. The regular adding of  carniolan stock help rectify this 
and actually is why we got a heather crop last year and all our 
associates did not. We got a 5 day weather window and the high 
population colonies carted it in, and the lower population ( probably 
longer lived too btw) ones, almost exclusively the more pure stock, 
which prosper best on protracted flows, only got a little. In addition 
to the 1500 mainly black colonies there are also 600 carniolans. In 2010 
they had an average double that of the blacker bees.
>
>Additionally, it seems that while I was napping, somehow a consensus
>has emerged in the UK, favouring A.m.m.  to the point of institutionalising
>it and excluding non-A.m.m.

Not really, there is no concensus at all. The black bee lobby is 
somewhat in the ascendancy right now because of the availability of a 
bit of financial help, and by dint of some of the believers having the 
loudest voices. However many beekeepers, and the lines are a lot more 
blurred than a simple professional/amateur issue though in part it is 
that way, do prefer imported stock and mixed stock. ( I prefer the word 
hybrid anyway, as even the use of 'mongrel' as several do, contains 
negative connotations and you immediately know which side of the hedge 
they lie on.)
>
>
>It almost sounds as if an apian ethnic cleansing is at hand.

It is being attempted by some. Never going to happen.

Murray

-- 
Murray McGregor

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