>Beginner beekeepers are in a hurry to start their new hobby, so will bring them in from anywhere they can find them, usually from California or Texas or Georgia.  The colonies are not well adapted to our particular flows, nor our winter so beginners generally sustain heavier losses or in many cases, total loss.....and the cycle repeats itself until the beekeepers either give up the hobby due to cost, or start realizing that local bees have a distinct survival advantage...


No dought an ecotype queen would have advantages in their home environment, but IMO everything else that's stated above mischaracterizes the issue. An experienced beekeeper in the northeast can make honey with a package that has a southern queen and the same is true for winterization. Experienced beekeepers can build up a package, control varroa, and prep the colony for successful overwintering. Beginners are simply that, beginners, and they kill more bees than they should because they underestimate the effort required to be successful. 

Local queens are difficult to produce and I'm not clear that many exist. If you are successful in breeding them, and you give them to new beekeepers, they are likely to kill them as soon as any other queen.

Bill Hesbach

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