I'm in complete agreement with Jon in this discussion.  Every bit of hard
evidence that I've seen supports the premise of honey bees, if left to
their own means, evolving into locally-adapted races.


Obviously we believe this to be true in the large scale.  But at what point
can we identify and decide what is "locally adapted"?  Obviously we can se
differences in Italian, Carniola, Russia, etc.   But at what point?  And
what regions can we identify that?    The map in Randys article in Bee
culture of the different regions in the US for example made me scratch my
head.  25 or so different regions in the US alone?? ( I didn't count exactly
I think there were more)   
That's more bee subspecies than have been identified so far, and they are
all basically mutts breed from the species we have so far.  Were it not for
Imported bees,  we would have no American honey bees, and as of yet we still
refer to them as where they come from.  Despite well over 100 years of
relative isolation. 

So maybe the question is when do we call them locally adapted?  100 years?
3 generations? And what do we use as judgment criteria?  And most
importantly how do you identify them?  
Without standards in these 3 areas we are doomed to continue this argument.

Obviously in my opinion the concept of locally adapted in our lifetimes is
unrealistic.  what I see is a ton of beekeeper manipulation and breeding.
Not leaving the bees alone long enough for them to really change.
But we are using the "locally adapted" moniker to sell things. A terrible
shame in my mind.

Charles

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