Breeding better bees
By Christine Souza
California Farm Bureau Federation News
http://tinyurl.com/29nucb


excerpts

Researchers from the University of Minnesota visited several Northern
California bee breeders in late February to gather data and test hive
health.

"We weren't specifically looking for causes of CCD; that wasn't our
goal. Our goal was to work with the bee breeders to help them breed
healthy bees. It was a real positive mission," said Marla Spivak,
University of Minnesota professor of entomology who specializes in
apiculture and social insects. "The bee breeders are selling queen
bees all over the United States and in a sense they are controlling
genetics of our bees for much of the U.S."

"I was extremely impressed with the quality of all of the operations
we visited. I had a lot of misconceptions and biases when we started
and I was completely blown away in a positive way," Spivak said. "I
was very impressed with what the bee breeders are doing and the care
that they are taking."

This year, Spivak will continue to gather data and educate herself
about bee breeders' operations. During the second year of Spivak's
two-year grant, she intends to work with Dave Tarpy, assistant
professor of entomology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh,
N.C., to focus on specifics such as using genetic techniques to
determine how many times queens have mated. Queen bees mate with 10-20
males, Spivak said, and that genetic diversity is a good component of
colony health.

"Anything we can do to keep bees healthier so they don't collapse is a
good thing," Spivak said.

For the future, Spivak expressed interest in the possibility of
developing a technical transfer team that is modeled after a program
run by the Ontario Bee Breeders' Association. It is a permanent team
that visits bee breeders to look for pests and diseases in bees and to
assist in stock selection.

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