Although this discussion is a little above my pay scale…ok a lot above
my pay scale, I would just like to throw in that even within a particular
yard no two colonies are going to face the exact same conditions.  To put it
another way, each hive in a yard is going to face a somewhat, maybe only
slightly, different set of conditions than its neighbors.  Not all the hives
are going to be exposed to the same pathogens for example.  Exposure to cold
winds might also vary.  This would seem to make it even more difficult to
determine that a given hive’s lack of winterability, in a single season
anyway, is due to genetic inferiority with regard to this particular
characteristic.  Perhaps a dink’s ability to recover would be an even more
significant indicator of good genetics.  I, in my limited experience have
seen this happen more than once so I have to kind of agree with Randy and
Stan that placing dinks in a special yard makes sense.  For me (10 colonies)
getting rid of dinks, or really, even having a breeding program is not all
that practical.  In fact Peter Borst has given me some reason to think that
breeding programs in general may not be as effective as we would like to
think.  But beekeepers seem to be, by and large, doers.  We’ve got to be
doing something, trying something, asserting our control over the situation
as it were.  Now Juanse here seems like a good business man.  But let’s not
forget, he is a beekeeper.  Good luck Juanse, and thanks for starting such
an interesting discussion. 

Steve Noble   

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