> Currently, most beekeepers in New Zealand show a strong preference for specific types of bees and often consider that their bees belong to a certain subspecies, even if this assumption rests solely on culling individuals that do not fulfil certain type requirements (e.g. of queens producing dark drones in an ‘Italian’ breeding scheme). This culling based on type, while rooted in a desire for bees with characteristics more aligned with the associated subspecies (e.g. high honey yields in Italian colonies), presents a danger to the sustainability of the population by reducing genetic diversity. 

> With the new source of information presented here, beekeepers in regions with climatically similar conditions (e.g. Marlborough, Canterbury, Taupo) can benefit from exchanging queens in an effort to diversify their genetics while still capturing the benefit of environmental adaptation and without having to resort to type characteristics as a proxy for selection. This creates an opportunity to break down breeders’ habits of selecting queens on the basis of parameters that are not relevant for performance and could also open the door to crossbreeding or hybridisation schemes that have been successful in other livestock species. 

Gertje E. L. Petersen. Management tools for genetic diversity in an isolated population of the honeybee (Apis mellifera) in New Zealand Animal Production Science, 2021, 61, 1856–1862

This clearly underscores the longstanding practice of using color as a measure of being "true to type" and the error of it. They also point to the value of crossbreeding to build a better bee, as advocated by people as various as Brother Adam and the Weavers of Texas. A highly selected variety is going to be tenuous and difficult to maintain at best; at worst it may be too heavily inbred and lacking vitality.

PLB

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