Hi Joe

> IF I may retract that statement to read:
> 
> “the good old, long selected and proven strains“.

I am afraid your new statement does not hold up, where in US can you 
find localised or naturalised bees of any race or strain with a proven 
history ?

There is constant chopping and changing to whatever is 'flavour of the 
month' with strains imported over vast distances. This has been so for 
the last fifty years if not the last century, with the result that you 
have a situation that never gets the chance to stabilize.

Even US queen rearing programs expect results in four years, when 
everybody else takes seven, how many generations can you get in a single 
season ? It is just about possible to raise ten generations in a single 
season, but then the assessments have to take place in parallel and the 
numbers of colonies being assessed gets to astronomic proportions.

I do not think the answer is exotic breeds or any particular bee, it 
just requires some dedicated and tedious work making slow, but steady 
progress (a bit like the tortoise and the hare) it is progress that is 
needed, not magic bullets or miracle cures.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)

******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at:          *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm  *
******************************************************