Drumgerry, you're preaching to the converted as far as I'm concerned. I personally think you have a good idea and would love you to write what you've just posted - and a bit more - and send it in as a letter to the magazine. That has a much wider readership than here (sorry Gavin!). If you have more you want to say, make it into an article and submit that. I do appreciate the limitations of being tied to home for whatever reason but these days with the internet we're a lot less isolated than we used to be. You could write to anyone on the Exec or your area rep, or the whole lot. Meanwhile there's plenty of money out there for local associations to get going with breeding local bees - it just takes someone with the time and energy to set it up and keep it going, the latter being the hardest bit!