Thom Bradley wrote:
>
>         They are relatively well isolated from feral drones that are not
> actually from my stock.

It is my understanding that queens normally fly significantly further
from the hive to mate than do drones.  A built in protection from
inbreeding, which will slowly ruin the reproductive quality of your
bees.

If these bees have all the great qualities you see, they must have had
reproductive input from bees not too closely related.  They may well
have been bees with similar qualities, but the sex allele problem would
kick in if they were all too closely related.

Any other wisdom on this aspect?  I would appreciate input from those
more knowledgeable than I.

Tom
--
"Test everything.  Hold on to the good."  (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

Tom Elliott
Chugiak,  Alaska
U.S.A.
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