But we're not dealing with a Founder Effect situation, nor is there anything approaching an island. The Bond beekeeper is not isolated, or at least I'm not, and I know of no one who is.
Ahhh geee.
The original questions was one that is more academic then practical, but a
good one:
"Live and Let Die - Do you really reduce the gene pool?"
I was answering that really the only way a "gene pool" or a honey bee
population's gene flow would be throttled to the point of damage would be
with pressure on sex alleles, not on "valuable traits" etc. It is a great
question. And sure, if there's open mating and one is using BOND, one
should have no genetic load or genetic bottlenecks.
Of course there's Founder Effect in honey bees--the USA is a perfect
example--honey bees were introduced here--the population is completely
artificially selected. Sure there are pockets of naturally feral bees, but on
the whole, we're influencing the honey bees with our agricultural
selection. I'd like my bees to survive AND make honey AND be gentle--that's
quite a bit of selection pressure I put on the bees I work with.
Island Biogeography is a concept where populations are split from each
other and they differentiate because of lack of gene-flow between them. That
also happens all the time here in the USA. Any commercial operator that's
using bees to make a living is in a sense practicing selection Island
Biogeography-style. Those populations are not under natural selection
--they're under agricultural selection. Much different then feral bees or bees
found in un-managed colonies in the wild.
The point I was trying to make is that the only area where "loss through
selection" can occur quickly in honey bee populations, is with homozygosity
in the the sex allele expression. This can happen faster than one would
think.
Any "loss" of traits through hard selection via BOND or non-treatment
scenarios will favor the survivors. Sure those might lack some possibly
good traits, but with open-mating and judicious re-selection, they can be brought
back.
A closed population is a perfect condition which does not exist for the vast majority of Bond style beekeepers. Michael Bush has other people's bees all over his territory, as do I, and everybody else I know of. On a side note, I have ceased bringing in outside queens as I have found them to be of poorer quality than the ones I already have. I will see what effects crop up over the next few years.
Yes, yes right...the closed population point was made to provide
an example where sex allele load can occur quickly without management.
If one is open-mating, one is going to have a very gradual selection
effect on one's population. Gradual is fine. Nothing wrong with
gradual. Most queens that are made properly following all the
necessary physiological rules are excellent. Often that's more
important in untreated success--quality queens can overcome many hurdles.
Adam Finkelstein
www.vpqueenbees.com