Hi Randy

Sorry for delay...

> European bee may have some old 
> African genes in the back closet, which could be selected for to breed 
> for the pest resistance that scutellata demonstrates.

One of the reasons that European bees are so called is that the races 
that are now considered to be European, do not exhibit certain gene 
combinations that would be present in the original African ancestors.

It is the loss of these specific combinations (probably by bottle 
necking) that have caused the differences by which we recognise the 
races as actually different.

So what I am saying is those genes that you seek for pest resistance may 
well not exist in the European types.

That does not preclude their ability to be absorbed back into European 
types, but when you do that, you will no longer have Europeans, but 
African Hybrids.

Scutellata is a modern race that itself was derived from an African 
ancestor.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://www.dave-cushman.net (http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman)
Short FallBack M/c, Build 7.01/2.01

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