In a message dated 17/05/2007 14:25:19 GMT Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

The  drone’s strategy to choose the nearer DCA would lead to a  genetic
over-representation of nearby colonies and increase genetic  differences
among the DCA’s within the region


BIBBA, the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders' Association, was founded 40+  
years ago by Beowulf Cooper as the Village Bee Breeders' Association based on  
his observation that local populations of bees on a village scale had their own 
 distinctive characteristics; as the Welsh would say of their sheep, they 
were  footed for the hill. 
 
In his posthumus book 'The Honeybees of the British Isles' Cooper described  
in some detail DCAs and how they are formed.  
 
It would appear to be advantageous to have a reasonable degree of isolation  
as the colonies that thrive best under the local conditions (micro/ area  
climate; vegetation) are likely to produce most drones at the most propitious  
time.  However, in the British Isles (where the honeybee is native) there  would 
nearly always be some overlap between local populations and so the  
disadvantages of inbreeding were unlikely to show up.
 
Chris



   

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