>>If I had a hive of non locals and a hive of locals sitting side by side could you tell the difference? And wait and see is not an answer……

That’s a hard one for me to answer because the handful of keepers that I have the closest contact with are working with the same stock as me.

I’ve no personal experience with any other stock, but if I were going to try to evaluate them side by side to these and to do so properly I would need a full year.

I would want to compare how they regulate brooding in response to our flows and dearths, how productive they are without supplement feeding, how well they overwinter, and whether or not they are strong enough to swarm (or split) come spring.

I get what you are saying about the (mis)representation of expected performance based on this or that and I do not disagree.   What I try to explain to purchasers of my bees is that the overall stock is sound and proven for our area but each and every queen (colony) has the potential to be great or poor and over time they can expect to see examples of both.

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