No! All Apis Mellifera had a common ancestor. Take into account, the habitation of Doggerland and all the surrounding areas from Germany to Ireland and as far south as North Africa. All a habitat of Apis Mellifera Mellifera.
Of the Buckfasts that I have, one is an F4 and of good temperament, mine last between 3 to 4 years, so there is no real difficulty of surviving my locale. I've had British bred as well as Northern Europe and South America, all survive,
I have mongrels as well as AMM, they are all good and this year I am trialling the Jolanta queens. While I somewhat respect BIBBA, I take what they say about best suited with a pinch of salt, my experience is rather different.
The argument regarding banning imports, would put a high number of amateur beekeepers at a disadvantage all down to supply and demand. If there is demand on a yearly basis for early queens, then the sellers have to be able to supply that demand, that is the way it is driven. Cut the supply and our AMM breeders would not be able to keep up with the demand, we have a short season and not many breeders will have the capacity to rear early queens, they could supply last year's queens if they had the resources to ramp up their business model. But i remember at one time the Cornish black bee had a 2 year waiting list. In some respects the BDI insurance holds us back in rearing surplus queens for ourselves, if you have over the number of hives you have insured for, you are no longer covered.
To finish if we all bred some queens to overwinter, then there would be less demand, but this is something I cannot see happening in the near future, even if it is done as a cooperative. So what stops some of them is the temperament of their bees.
