It is interesting that some of the posts on selecting for traits use 
Darwin and "survival of the fittest" as the underpinning of their 
management practice.

Truth is, when the beekeeper is in the selection process, they are 
actually playing the part of "nature" and natural selection has nothing 
to do with it. What is happening is that the bees we want are the bees 
we select for, but they may not be the bess that do best in nature. I 
note that bees in Arizona are trucked from location to location in order 
to have good forage. That certainly has nothing to do with "natural" 
beekeeping but is a necessary management practice. However, will those 
bees do well if left alone and not moved?

I know that I "select" for bees that do well in my area. But I also 
"select" for bees that produce an excess honey crop. But the bees I 
discard because they do not produce well may be the best winter and 
Varroa survivors. I had one colony like that. From year to year it gave 
little honey, but survived well every year. I finally gave up on it. I 
decided that excess honey was more important than survival, yet I select 
for survival.

Those bees I discard may have attributes that would be best for years 
that are abnormal, such as too wet or too dry and too hot or too cold. 
In essence, each of us is selecting for what we want, not what nature 
wants.

Beekeeping by its nature is unnatural no matter how much we want to make 
it so.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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