wiki on the process of domestication

> There is debate within the scientific community over how the process of domestication works. Some researchers give credit to natural 
> selection, wherein mutations outside of human control make some  members of a species more compatible to human cultivation or 
> companionship. Others have shown  that carefully controlled selective breeding is responsible for many of the collective changes 
> associated with domestication. These categories are not mutually exclusive and it is likely that  natural selection and selective breeding 
> have both played some role in the processes of domestication throughout history.

The European Apis mellifera races (mellifera, ligustica, carnica, etc)
of the Western Honey Bee species (Apis mellifera), have been subjected
to selective breeding by mankind for at least 150 years. Therefore, and
as far as I am concerned, they are domesticated. More so as the genetic
original wild forms are no longer in separate existence, but have
interbred with ferals for an equally long time. Those races have been
kept in one manner or another for more than two thousand years.

However, the sub-saharan bee races (notably scutellata and adansonii)
were never really subjected to bee-keeping as we (Caucasians) understand
it; with the exception of luring wild swarms into man-made cavities, the
bees usually being killed at honey harvest time.

As a result, we still have both, the domesticated races and the original
wild form genetics.
-- 
  Mario Pittori
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