Kevin Yager wrote:

> the queen market, and the  commercial breeders could very well be biasing
the genetics away from healthy honey producing colonies. 

Right, that is what I have be saying all along. Now, the interesting thing
is: we have seen some colonies surviving in situations of non-human care,
such as neglected colonies or so-called feral hives. Some people have
speculated (Tom Seeley and Joe Waggle, for example) that the colonies could
have "evolved" a natural defense against mites, AFB, etc.

This has always seemed *to me* to be highly unlikely as most of these
colonies have neither the requisite time nor isolation to develop into a
regional type. Maybe if the colonies were trapped on an island, like Santa
Rosa and lived there for years. But even in that case, the island population
was wiped out by varroa. It would appear that in that case, the pool did not
contain the necessary traits for natural selection to "produce" a
mite-resistant type.

On the other hand, the effect may be due to just the opposite. Not natural
selection of a particular type -- but -- perhaps these colonies revert to a
more heterogeneous "wild type" that is in fact a composite of the many types
that are present in the average location in the USA. States like NY and PA
see a continual influx of bees from many states, so it would be more likely
that the bees would become more diverse over time than they would become
more regionalized over time.

So again, it may be that by selecting bees for one thing or another we
narrow the gene pool and even though they are not inbred per se (which
causes the colonies to fail due to lack of brood viability) -- they may be
narrowed sufficiently to lose the genetic diversity needed to be vigorous
and healthy colonies. Time will tell what further studies from Tom's lab
will reveal!

--
Peter L. Borst
Danby, NY  USA
42.35, -76.50

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