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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Peter Loring Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 22 Mar 2015 18:13:13 -0400
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> >These things don't come about during short periods of time (decades).
> Can't agree with you on this Pete. 

Hi Randy
Then we agree to disagree. However, I have a lot of support for this idea, which I have assembled in the course of researching honey bee genetics. For example, 

Humans have been keeping honey bees, Apis mellifera,
in artificial hives for over 7000 years. Long enough, one
might imagine, for some genetic changes to have occurred
in domestic bees that would distinguish them from their
wild ancestors. ... Reliable artificial insemination was
invented in the 1940s (Laidlaw 1944), shortly after it was
developed for other livestock (Foote 2002). There is a significant
industry that breeds and propagates bees for sale
to honey producers and pollinators (Delaney et al. 2009;
Laidlaw & Page 1997). Yet despite these advances and
some early attempts at stock certification (Witherell 1976),
no specific breeds of bees have emerged that you could
reliably distinguish from other bees.

BENJAMIN P. OLDROYD
Molecular Ecology (2012) 21, 4409–4411

PLB

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