D. Lusby writes: >But effort will be kept by the majority to keep the overly >man domesticated inbred lines that in Nature should have >died years ago. Remember in Nature there is no such thing >as a complex hybrid! from Summary of Western Apiculture Society Meeting August 15-18, 2001 at Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon >Speakers at the convention spoke on topics of honeybee genetics. Dr. >Steve Sheppard gave some excellent background information about the >differences between natural selection (there are currently 26 know >subspecies of honeybees worldwide) and artificial selection. >Currently there are 43 commercial queen producers in the US, using >603 breeder queens to produce almost 900,000 queens for commercial >use/yr. The queens selected for breeding have desirable traits for >beekeepers needs, not necessarily bee needs. This puts tremendous >pressure towards inbreeding. Shotgun brood pattern is one of the >best signs of an inbred queen. > >Dr. Sheppard advocates (1) that queen breeders maximize the >diversity of their breeder queens using stock from East and West >Coast as well as feral populations that have survived mites, (2) >that beekeepers purchase queens from multiple queen breeders, and >(3) that the US continues to monitor and support importation of >queens from other countries. Comment: The experts warn of heavy inbreeding, much as Lusby does. But the solution is not *further* isolation and selection, as she has advocated. The genetic base has to be *broadened*, not narrowed. Hybridization and inbreeding are two separate issues. Good traits are essential, but so is diversity. -- Peter Borst <[log in to unmask]>