Dave Cushman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>No! It denotes a large number of alleles being available... 

Hi Dave,

OK, brood viability denotes a large number of alleles being available.

But how do you define brood viability diagnostically, in terms that would 
be useful to the average beekeeper?

I mean, what dose it tell you about what’s going on in your queen breeding?

Would it be fair to say that high brood viability would suggest an 
adequate breeding population and genetic variance?  Would it also suggest  
a high level of polyandry? 

This is what I want to focus on in my breeding, selecting for high 
polyandry.  I was experiencing low brood viability in some of my stock, 
but probably wrongly assumed it was the price I was paying for varroa 
resistance.  I also had suspicions that maybe there wasn’t an adequate 
variety of genetics to achieve good mating or maybe a susceptibility to 
virus.  BUT, a few years back, I discover that ferals that I captured from 
an ’undisclosed location’ all exhibit 98 to 100% brood viability.  I 
assess this ferals during the growth stage, and find that despite a 
drought, this group of ferals out perform to a wide margin all other 
ferals caught that season from other areas, which caused me to eliminate 
many of the other swarms I was assessing that season for under 
performing.  

I then breed from these ferals and find that daughter queens are 
exhibiting the same high brood viability and good colony performance.  So 
now I’m suspecting a high level of polyandry exists in this population of 
ferals.   Studies by Cole & Wiernasz suggest a rapid development during 
the growth stage in colonies with a high level of polyandry, and this may 
have been what I was seeing in the rapid development of these ferals when 
I assessed them durring the growth stage.   

So how would one select for a high level of polyandry so I can keep the 
selective pressure up?

So far, I’m looking at the growth stage, brood viability, and I’m assuming 
largeness of brood pattern would suggest a high level of polyandry.  
Anything else?

>Increasing the variability in the drone background, will reduce diploid
>drones, but result in more culling being required during selection.

I don’t see more culling as a bad thing, it’s a very important part of my 
beekeeping to rid poor performers.  But then, I don’t increase variability 
just for the sake of increasing variance.  I assess all ferals and new 
stock in a remote apiary with a very high standard expected from them.  I 
cull poor performers out from the start early on so I have less problem 
with poor genetics messing up breeding and a lesser need for such intense 
culling later on.

Best Wishes,

Joe Waggle ~ Derry, PA  
EcologicalBeekeeping.com
‘Bees Gone Wild Apiaries' 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FeralBeeProject/

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