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Subject:
From:
Peter Loring Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 22 Dec 2014 12:06:54 -0500
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> What was their definition of inbred?

Crossing

An instrumentally inseminated inbred queen of each of the following races, viz. Apis mellifera ligustica,
A. m. caucasica and A. m. carnica, was obtained from the Stock Centre at Hawkesbury Agricultural
College. For two generations the ligustica and caucasica families were backcrossed to drones taken from
the appropriate original queen to produce two inbred lines. 

Virgin queens were then raised from the second
generation ligustica line and mated to drones of the caucasica line. Five virgin queens were then reared
from both of the second generation inbred lines, and five were reared from the ligustica x caucasica colony.
All these virgins were inseminated with a uniform mixture of semen collected from the carnica drones.

The crosses resulted in three sets of genotypes as follows:
1) Hybrid ligustica/caucasica queens, producing hybrid ([ligustica/caucasica] x carnica) workers.
2) Inbred ligustica queens producing hybrid (ligustica/carnica) workers.
3) Inbred caucasica queens producing hybrid (caucasica/carnica) workers.

Fig. 1 demonstrates that the hybrid queens were able to maintain significantly larger brood
nests than either of their parentals under virtually all environmental conditions. Table 2 shows
that of the 15 observations over 10 months, the hybrid queens maintained significantly larger
brood areas than the mean of the inbreds well over half the time. 

Despite the increased brood areas, the colonies headed by hybrid queens did not have
significantly increased honey production compared with colonies headed by their inbred parentals.

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