Joe,

You mentioned research by Page, but I don't think scientific research will support many of your conclusions. For example, many current researchers have shown that the bee populations of various regions do not suffer from loss of diversity due to inbreeding. Inbreeding depression is the result of very close line breeding, which cannot be easily achieved when queens are free mated. Bee breeders inbred lines very closely in order to replicate the success of corn hybridization. The crosses expressed "hybrid vigor" but the parents had such low brood viability they could barely support themselves. I have seen similar inbred queens from the early SMR lines. They couldn't build up past 3 or 4 frames.

ROTHENBUHLER wrote:

>  One of the most promising procedures for improvement of honey bees is hybridization of selected inbred lines.  Without artificial insemination, development of inbred lines and controlled hybridization would be practically impossible.

As you pointed out, it is often very difficult to determine the cause of a spotty brood pattern. A lot of old timers will tell you that spotty patterns tend to clear up during a strong honey flow. Why should this be? The possible reasons are many. Foremost in my mind is that bees tend to become much more vigorous during a strong honey flow and redouble their housekeeping efforts. Perhaps this is to make certain that the cells are very clean when the fresh honey is put in them, to minimize the risk of contaminating their long term supplies. This could have the side effects of 1) more thorough cleaning of the brood area; 2) ridding the brood area of harmful microbes and other contaminants; 3) improved health.

I read recently that most of the major advances in human health occurred before modern medicine and had to do with better (cleaner) living conditions. Obviously a clean disease free environment and excellent nutrition are crucial to any species' health and bees are no exception. Poor nutrition, low levels of microbes, old failing queens, etc. all contribute to spotty brood pattern. Conversely, only in a clean healthy well nourished environment will the best queens be able to reach their full potential. I am not an advocate of annual requeening, but I have worked for outfits that do it, and believe me: queen bees do a lot better the first year than subsequent years and annual requeening does make a difference.

Finally, I would hasten to point out that workers like Page, Rothenbuler, Mackensen, etc. had no interest in wild mongrel bees any more than the breeders of thoroughbred horses want wild mustangs. For better or worse, they were trying to improve bees by line breeding. There is some evidence to suggest that feral bees may be healthier than bees raised by controlled breeding, but this is far from certain. And unless you are very far from any commercial beekeepers (50 to 100 miles, at least) it is likely that your bees are only a generation or two from being commercially raised stock. In closing, I offer another excerpt from ROTHENBUHLER:

> Mackensen reported finding a reduction in size of body parts appearing during the course of seven generations of inbreeding. Reduction, of the nine parts measured, varied from 1. 7 per cent to 10.8 per cent.

In other words, one consequence of inbreeding is runtiness. I know this is true as a result of my current work with inbred lab mice. They are often half as large as normal mice. On the other hand, outcrossing of diverse types could conceivably produce larger, more vigorous bees. Maybe that's the real cause of the reputed enlargement of bees over the past century.

see
GENETICS AND BREEDING OF THE HONEY BEE
By WALTER C. ROTHENBUHLER
Department of Zoology and Entomology, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa

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