Mike Writes:
-- I merely introduced darker strains into my
>mix, and let the chips fall where they would. The dark bees survived.--
(MP)

Hello Mike!

When talking the “darkening of our bees“,  if you are introducing ‘darker 
races’ from non local sources into your bees.  This IMO is comparing 
grapefruit to oranges, and not necessarily related to the darkening of 
bees often observed by beekeepers to naturally occur ‘within a group‘ of 
survivors.  

For example:
In my honest opinion, it would not be an accurate assessment, if I were to 
obtain desired genetics from Weaver Apiaries, let the chips fall, and 
claim the resistance in my bees as ‘naturally occurring event’.

>How do you know these "survivor" bees are Italian?--(MP)  

These bees are best described as Italian.  Queen markings, worker markings 
and most associated characteristics match that of the Italians or wild 
Italian type more than any other strain found in my area.  As breeders all 
over the world continue to identify and sell queens of a ‘specific race’ 
based solely on their knowledge of a characteristics associated with races 
of  bees,  I too am highly confident in my abilities to assess these bees 
as wild Italian types based solely on my experience and knowledge of  
associated characteristics. 

,,,After years of seeing the "darkening" of my
>stock, I believe I'm seeing yellow bees making a comeback.--(MP)

This is true!  But it is extremely important that we note, "yellows are 
NOT leading the recovery".  When collecting ferals over a several county 
area, I have noticed that the ferals captured years ago that were leading 
the early recovery have the most interesting traits and continue to 
perform the best for me.  So, although I am seeing a general recovery in 
all places, I continue to focus most bee collection efforts in these 
identified ‘early recovery areas‘.   

That yellows are lagging in the recovery in my area, is a clear indication 
of a corresponding lagging in traits associated with varroa resistance and 
survival.   Perhaps, as all breeders are well aware, it can potentially be 
counter productive to select from a group of laggers when there are 
leaders to choose from.  So a focus in leading recovery areas is 
important, as well as assessment of new feral stock to weed out those 
lagging, or otherwise not the best stock. My goal is to identify and 
select from the ‘Alpha group‘,  the competitive group, the leaders in the 
recovery, not the followers and laggers. 

Have a Merry Christmas!

Joe Waggle 
Ecologicalbeekeeping.com 
‘Bees Gone Wild Apiaries' 
Feral Bee Project:
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FeralBeeProject/

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