A selective breeding program requires that there is heritable variability
in a desired trait.
In my own operation, the first two years of evaluation (via alcohol washes)
indicated that roughly 2% of my colonies could keep varroa under control
for an entire year without treatment.  That means that only one queen out
of 50 exhibited the trait.  An even smaller percentage are able to maintain
that control during their second year.

On the other hand, if half the queens in your operation are black, and half
yellow, it would take a far smaller number of colonies in the breeder pool
in order to select for color.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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