The question is: has beekeeping narrowed or expanded genetic diversity in the honey bee? As I have pointed out previously, the answer is -- both. This concept is further confirmed by work done in Spain, France, etc. in the 1990s with mitochondrial DNA:

> Although bee-keepers have long been expert in managing hives to get the best productions out of them, they generally do not control the entire biological cycle of honey bees, especially the mating of queens and drones. Hence, the current genetic biodiversity in the west part of the Old World, the original distribution area of the species, is still structured in a way that expresses its evolutionary heritage, i.e. it is determined by past demography, adaptation to local conditions, duration of isolation and natural migrations. However, one has to take into account several technical improvements more or less recently introduced in hive management and which may have interfered with the natural evolution of populations. 

> First, queen breeding, when operated on a large scale, artificially reduces the effective size of populations, and can result in a loss of genetic variability. Second, importation of foreign queens can modify the genetic pool of local bees through hybridisation. This ’genetic pollution’ is mainly due to professional bee-keepers who import foreign subspecies for their own qualities and/or in the hope of producing superior hybrids with the local subspecies. 

> A third factor is the practice of moving hives several times through the year to increase and diversify the honey production. According to when and where the mating season occurs, this practice may have effects similar to those of importing queens. In addition to change in the genetic pool of populations, this can artificially increase the genetic diversity in two ways: by introducing new alleles and by increasing the effective population size.

"Genetic diversity of the west European honey bee"
by Lionel Garnery, et al 
Journal: Genetics Selection Evolution

posted by
Peter L Borst 

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