This is a question which I'm finding of increasing interest and I wondered if some of our experienced (or not so experienced) forumites might care to give us their take on it.

So.....we all know that Bro Adam travelled the world in his quest for the best bee races to use in his breeding for the "perfect" bee. In doing so he categorised such and such a race as being swarmy or another as being fond of the use of propolis etc etc. My question is this - are these and other characteristics intrinsic to these races of bee and unchangeable through breeding?

And if, as someone mentioned to me recently, AMM is less suitable for migratory beekeeping through a susceptibility to nosema is this something we could change through selective breeding? My instinct is to say that we can pretty much select for anything and change it with enough selective breeding.

It raises some interesting possible scenarios if that is the case. Could we change outright the generally accepted characteristics of any bee?

Anyone for a thrifty, non-prolific, cold weather mating Italian queen?!