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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 1 Sep 2014 17:40:52 -0400
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Don't follow your logic Pete.  Traits are mainly due to genetics.  Timing and all other factors were the same for all colonies.

I said: serendipitous *combination of traits*, presumably as a result from different patrilines, in different proportions. By timing, I mean buildup of colonies, a very slight difference at the beginning can lead to a completely different buildup curve. By other factors, I mean for example, different task allocation, different success at finding forage sources, different strategies. 

Following this line of thinking, I was offer as support this excerpt:

Practically, you can think of it as the differences between identical twins who grow up in the same home. They share their genes, parents, older and younger siblings, home, school, peers, and neighborhood. So what could make them different? Under the assumption that behavior is a product of genes plus environment, it must be something in the environment of one that is not in the environment of the other. 

But this category really should be called "miscellaneous/unknown," because it has nothing necessarily to do with any measurable aspect of the environment, such as one sibling getting the top bunk bed and the other the bottom, or a parent unpredictably favoring one child, or one sibling getting chased by a dog, coming down with a virus, or being favored by a teacher. These influences are purely conjectural, and studies looking for them have failed to find them. The alternative is that this component actually consists of the effects of chance – new mutations, quirky prenatal effects, noise in brain development, and events in life with unpredictable effects. 

*Stochastic effects in development* are increasingly being recognized by epidemiologists, frustrated by such recalcitrant phenomena such as nonagenarian pack-a-day smokers and identical twins discordant for schizophrenia, homosexuality, and disease outcomes. They are increasingly forced to acknowledge that God plays dice with our traits. Developmental biologists have come to similar conclusions. The bad habit of assuming that anything not classically genetic must be "environmental" has blinkered behavioral geneticists (and those who interpret their findings) into the fool's errand of looking for environmental effects for what may be randomness in developmental processes. -- Steven Pinker, Harvard University

Comment:
When looking at colonies of bees, especially in an apiary setting it may be a fool's errand to look for genetic effects as well, especially if these are skewed or swamped by excessive noise and stochastic effects. 

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