> You also brought in different bees so you are both selecting for the best
> bee and trialling others to see how they stack up. Both of these probably
> have much to do with your success. I, also, took that route, but more in
> the local selection with only some new outside bees. Your approach is much
> better than mine since you have more lines to choose from. (Actually
> sounds a lot like what Bob is doing, but on a smaller scale.)

While speaking of starting with -- or introducing -- good stock, I wrote
recently of "Welfare Bees", and a writer whom I assume to be a bee breeder,
judging by his signature, replied:

> > Not knowing how you fed, treated, managed or bred these bees, I would
> > think you could have selected for a bee that survived well and still
> > would put honey on your table top for sales.

I , in turn replied:

> Of course I could have, and did at one point later, with better foundation
> stock, but that was not the point I was making.  Actually I bought the
> stock in question, then replaced it after it was not making me money and,
> frankly, breeding from it would have been a waste of time.  To get a good
> result, it is best to start with good materials.

---
At the time, I thought little of it, but then realised how important it is
to start with good stock in the first place and/or introduce superior stock
along the way .  Brother Adam searched the world for bees that had the
traits he sought.  He did not just work with the local stock and hope to
develop traits that were not at all apparent in his home apiary.  I realise
that some think he would have done better staying home, but that is the
counter-argument.

Selection for any characteristic is hard on the diversity in any population,
and when several traits are sought at once, soon the supply of differing
genes is exhausted, and the process deteriorates.

To simply select for survival neglects the most important factor for many of
us -- honey production, and the selection pressure is very heavy when
looking for survivor bees.  Many good bees fall by the wayside, and when we
are done, what is left?  If we started with good, productive, gentle stock,
hopefully most of that will come through in the end product, but, if we
start with junk, we'll end up with junk that survives.  That is all.
Welfare Bees.

Thus I wait with considerable interest to see how much honey Lusbys
eventually extract from their almost 1,000 hives.  They have hives,that
survive well and are resonably mild and also healthy  but I do not know how
much selection Dee has done for productivity.  Maybe she will say.  I know
she was grafting some time back, and I also know that this past year or two
have been very trying, with Ed's accident and the Big Move.

Futher, Justin Schmidt, who knows the Tucson area well, was up here the
other day and said -- in a different context -- that nobody can make a
living producing honey around Tucson.  I thought about that , and I guess I
have to conclude that if Lusbys can get much of anything, that will be a
proof of some sort.  What will be interesting is whether they will prove
productive in better honey regions.  Maybe Dee will comment on where else
her bees are under trial.

Anyhow, selecting for one characteristic is fairly easy.  Two is harder.
Three more difficult yet, and four can be impossible without a sufficiently
large and pre-selected population of bees to work with.

IMO, anyhow.

allen

He wrapped himself in quotations- as a beggar would enfold himself in the
purple of Emperors.
            -- Rudyard Kipling

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