I have been following the letters on race and which bee is best with
interest.  I would suppose that in countries as large as the U.S. and Canada
beekeepers are widely spaced.  Thus most matings would be with drones from
one's own apiary and would be pure most of the time.  In my part of the U.K.
almost every beekeeper has another one within easy flying range.  In my case
I have four others within a mile of my apiary so any attempt to maintain a
pure strain would be doomed to failure.
I have long since decided that for me race is unimportant.  Starting from
scratch it took me some  five years of careful selection and culling to end
up with docile, non-swarming bees which wintered well and produced honey.
That was a long time ago and it is a continuous process of selection.  Any
stock attempting to swarm is artificially swarmed and ruled out of the
breeding programme however good it is.  Any stock showing undue defence
mechanism is immediately sorted out and requeened.  Bees which resent
handling have no place where there are neighbours.  After sixty years of
beekeeping I have yet to buy in a single queen.
I would advise any beginner not to worry overmuch about race.  Beekeepers
have been arguing for more than a hundred years about the relative merits of
the different races and there is still no agreement.  Had there been one
superior bee it would have emerged long ago. It is interesting to note that
instrumental insemination has been practised world wide for forty years but
the everyday beekeeper still has to raise his queens in the age old way.
Unless you buy in pure queens every year or live in an oasis you will end up
with hybrids.  Virgins from your queens will mate with six or more drones a
mile or more from your apiary.  IMHO a carefully selected hybrid will
perform as well as any pure bred.
To start a breeding programme you need five to ten stocks to  give a
reasonable range to select from.  If you have just one or two and they are
bad-tempered or swarmy you have nothing to start with and they must be
re-queened from outside.
Varroa arrived in my apiary in 1994 and started causing damage in 1995.
Testing with Apistan I have already found a wide range of mite infestation
so there is now another stage in the selection process in the hopes that I
might find some of my bees more resistant than others.  Another five year
programme?
_________________________________________________________________
Sid Pullinger                    Email :  [log in to unmask]
36, Grange Rd                Compuserve:  [log in to unmask]
Alresford
Hants SO24 9HF
England