Hello All,
Dictionary :
1. To tame
2. To civilize
The only way number 1 could be applied to bees  (in my opinion) would be in
selection in breeding programs such as Sue Cobey, Marla Spivak or other
queen breeders for gentleness, reduced swarming and other desirable traits.

Domesticated is not a proper term to describe honey bees in my opinion.

Stock improvement is certainly possible through breeding programs but unless
kept up then the stocks ALWAYS return to a state similar to feral colonies.

The best honey bee stock improvement programs have ALWAYS used instrumental
insemination as open mating has always been a crap shoot.

We have discussed on BEE-L many times that there are a handful of queen
breeders in the U.S. and the rest are queen mass producers. They are
different. However most queen mass producers now buy at least part of their
breeder queens from the queen breeders which has  improved our U.S..
stock.

Bob


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