I've seen some statements elsewhere on the internet showing concerns about 
kept bees negatively influencing the genetics of the feral population but really 
how much influence do my bees have?

Assuming my bees are not resistant to varroa and the ferals in my area are 
resistant to varroa it makes sense that my drones will negatively influence the 
genetics of the feral population but will it be a significant influence?

What are the odds that feral queens will mate with my drones in the drone 
congregation area?

It would appear that any non-resistant offspring from my drones would be 
eliminated from the colony by varroa while the offspring from the varroa 
resistant feral drones would survive.  The negative influence by my bees 
would be relatively short lived.

The only ongoing influence from my drones into the feral population will be if 
the drones are fathers to future feral queens.  If those queens aren't resistant 
to varroa it would seem that they and much of their offspring would be 
eliminated from the feral gene pool.

Anyway, I have about a dozen more questions on this topic.

Do you know of any study that works out the numbers on this issue?

My gut feel is that my bees have an insignificant influence upon the genetics 
of the feral population but if I let my colonies raise their own queens that 
mate in the local DCA I would guess that the feral population would have a 
very large (positive in this case) influence on the genetics of my bees.

Thanks,
Dan

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