> if you feed bees that on their own cannot gather enough to
> feed themselves would not make the cut in the natural
> selection process, and so as keith says, are allowed to
> pollute the genetic pool.

This viewpoint appears to ignore the inherent dichotomy
between the instinctive goals of bees and the goals of the
beekeeper.  I will list a few of the more obvious points
on the "conflicting agendas":

Bees want to build up ON the crop, while beekeepers want to
build up their bees FOR the crop, so they feed well before
the first blooms, as one cannot expect a colony to build up
on nothing.

Bees want to gather and store only enough honey to overwinter,
while beekeepers want to take some (or most, or all) of that
honey, as a "crop", and therefore feed the bees with HFCS or
whatever to replace what they took.

Bees want to build up the colony so that the hive can swarm.
Beekeepers don't like swarming, and try to prevent it.

Bees need to be fierce defenders of their brood and stores
if they are to survive in their own.  Beekeepers want "docile"
bees that can be worked without protective gear.

The end result is that the "gene pool" for bees that are
"productive" and "manageable" has nothing at all to do
with the "gene pool" for bees that would do well in a feral
situation, where they would be subject to "natural selection".

We can't expect our bees to make maximum profit for us without
any inputs in the form of management, feed, and medical attention.
My bees are not bred to show the traits that would help them
survive on their own, they are bred to show the traits that
help them be better "livestock" for my purposes.

Beekeeping is agriculture, and the moment we started "keeping"
bees in boxes, we were imposing our agenda on them.

The "keeping" in beekeeping is the "culture" in agriculture.

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