Geert writes:
 >Breeding here in Europe got stuck by the policy of many Institutes  
that restrict their breeding purposes by limiting to one race, for  
some obscure reason.

Brother Adam wrote on pure bred vs cross breeding

Pure-bred Stock
It is widely assumed that by close inbreeding of pure stock a  
particular genetic trait can most advantageously and successfully be  
intensified.  Where close inbreeding is judiciously applied reasonably  
satisfactory results can thus be secured, but only at a snail's pace.   
More usually, before any worthwhile intensification has been achieved,  
a loss of stamina will have annulled any worthwhile advantage.  Pure  
stock, however, forms the anchorage of any success secured by way of  
breeding.

Cross-Breeding
This form of breeding has since the beginning of time — in regard to  
all sections of animate creation — been Nature's way of developing  
more vigorous genetically endowed races and strains, to supplant those  
that failed to match a particular exigency, according to her maxim of  
“the survival of the fittest”, within the limits of the genetic  
potentialities at her disposal.  Her endeavors were of necessity  
restricted to her more immediate facilities, whereas the modern bee- 
breeder has a worldwide choice at his command.  It was likewise  
Nature's sole facility of combating every kind of disease.  The honey  
bee proved in no case an exception.

However, cross-breeding as here envisioned, as the exclusive means of  
securing a fully efficient genetically based resistance to Varroa  
jacobsoni [sic] calls for a whole series of exceptional measures,  
without which any attempt at a task of this kind can be regarded as  
futile from the very outset.  Indeed, I believe very few beekeeping  
establishments have at their disposal the essential facilities for a  
task of this magnitude.  This is not based on an assumption, but on a  
lifetime of practical experience. [note: Brother Adam was in his  
nineties when this was published. He lived to be 98]

from "An Inescapable Challenge", by Brother Adam, published in  
American Bee Journal 131(8) 1991 p508-510

* * *

Peter L Borst
Cohen Lab
VRT T3001
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853

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