Evolution is continuous
You're sticking them in a box and feeding them then equating them to a wild creature best left to their own devices, delusional.
Try seeing how good your "blueprint"* is if you stop feeding, no less intrusive and prejudicial to survival of the fittest than varroa treatments.
You are right, evolution is continuous.
Feeding: that's exactly what I did for the first few years. I made them make all their own comb too, which is very often not the case in the wild.
Larger, earlier swarms tended to survive more often, as did cut-outs already equipped with wax, energy and brood. Which is exactly what you'd expect, and what happens in the wild. Its all about the energy - having it and keeping it. (I learned that keeping entrances very tight was helpful too.)
The later, and smaller, the swarm, the less likely it would build sufficiently to come through. And if weather was poor they would soon succumb - or more often shift to a hive with better prospects leaving a queen and an eggcup-full of dead bees behind.
You see I was experimenting all the time, to try to discover how to achieve my goal of having a stock of varroa-resistant colonies. I decided after not too many winters and losses, that it probably wasn't going to make too much difference to that goal if I helped - with what is, in effect, simply a good forage opportunity. With good mid late summer weather (and my location) many more swarms - and nucs - would come through, and so by feeding all I was really doing was giving them an artificial break. The important part is: if they can manage varroa they will live on: if they can't they will die later down the line. I still get the critical information, and the critical genes.
So feeding is not really an issue. And as, now, somebody dependent on honey sales for a livelihood, and given the toughness of the market, it is both necessary _and not harmful to my key aim of keeping my bees resistant to varroa- to take what I can, within limits, and give them syrup to overwinter on.
Do you see?
I'm I no way trying to block you posting or trying to shut down any conversations but if what I read from you or any other poster seems to me to be factually erroneous or misleading then it needs thrashing out.
That's fine. But tone matters. A rough tone puts your back up, and, worse, it encourages others to jump in. Before long you have one bloke trying to present a rational and well-founded case against what give every impression of being six or ten leery dolts.
To be taken seriously you may want to rethink posting such nonsense as you have about isolated mating in the vast wildernesses of Kent, you've amongst the highest density of bees in the country on your doorstep.
* the inverted commas imply acceptance it's not actually a blueprint but might as well be for the sake of this discussion.
Find any location in the North Downs AONB and take a close look on google maps. Now zoom in and count the number of houses in the villages. About 1/2 of this landscape is wooded or grassland valley; the other half rotates between grain, legumes and ****. Trust me, bee keepers are few, commercial beekeepers have better places to visit - apart from the ****, which, with our easterlies is usually poor, the honey from here is dark (the trees I think) and generally they want clear. They tend to work the orchards lower down along the A2, for pollination fees, and few move their hives.
Look at the attached map, look at the scale. Find a spot of your own and zoom in and count the houses. Bear in mind many are now second homes and out of towners.
Now read the abstract to this paper.
https://repository.royalholloway.ac...5be407bf77/1/Jensen etal 2005 ConGenetics.pdf
And try to take on board: in towns, villages, churches, the odd tree, there are feral bees. Read what Randy wrote to me yesterday.
Read Manley on mating.
Cogitate.
You'll get there. 20 or 30 high drone producing hives, most genes coming down queenside, nucs made from best queens only, a feral (varroa resistant) population, and the measure of isolation you can achieve here is ample for this purpose. Don't forget I don't need all my matings to be top-notch.
You are stuck in the rut of the treating beekeepers narratives. They are wrong. There is ample documentation if you choose to look.
Don't take this the wrong way: I can show you; but I can't learn for you. You have to do the reading, thinking, enquiring. It takes time and effort, but you'll be wiser for it.
Good luck.
