Charles,

I agree those observations are interesting and promising.   So far I haven’t been aggressively splitting as a manipulation but plan on doing more of it as selling nucs is turning out to be profitable and it will result in less work for me.  At this point I don't what it is about these bees that is allowing them to succeed.   Hopefully Baton Rouge will be able to shed some light on it next year.

Like you I don’t necessarily consider the yearly swarming and summer brood break that the bees engage in on their own a ‘local’ adaptation.  That they appear to ‘anticipate’ local forage availability and/or lack of it by ramping brood rearing up and down one month in advance might be interpreted as having adapted to local conditions.  I feel that this is a plausible interpretation as the ferals in this area have had many decades if not centuries to develop it.

As far as marketing to the public goes I haven’t been making any claims that these bees are anything special but rather explain what I and the half dozen or so other keepers that I know who have them are experiencing.   I have been asked for queens to be shipped to other parts of the country and I always (as I think I did with you off list) express uncertainty about whether or not they will perform the same in other areas.

Peter and others have made a good case regarding genetics and the variability that is seen with the breeding of bees. I believe I am seeing that good stock generally produces good stock, but I also believe the performance of each and every queen has to be proven over time.   I’ve seen dinky colonies become great ones after swarming and getting a new queen and vice versa.  
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