> Although knowledge about honey bee geographic and genetic diversity has increased tremendously in recent decades, the adaptation of honey bees to their local environment has not been well studied. The current demand for high economic performance of bee colonies with desirable behavioural characteristics contributes to changing the natural diversity via mass importations and an increasing practice of queen trade and colony movement. At the same time, there is also a growing movement in opposition to this trend, aimed at conserving the natural heritage of local populations, with on-going projects in several countries.

> Despite this, until now, no systematic comparisons of different strains of bees under standardised conditions in a range of environments have taken place. A bee that performs well in one region may not perform well in an area with different conditions, or indeed in another area with apparently similar conditions.

> The conclusions from this comprehensive field experiment all tend to confirm the higher vitality of the local bees compared to the non-local ones, indicating that a more sustainable beekeeping is possible by using and breeding bees from the local populations, although the interactions are complex. This may seem logical and obvious to many bee scientists, but has not been proven on such a wide scale before.

Meixner. Marina D, et al (2014) Honey bee genotypes and the environment. Journal of Apicultural Research 53(2): 183-187 

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