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On Dec 14 William G. Lord wrote:
 
< We have heard a lot about the virtues of
<hygienic behavior in bees, and now references are being made to
<hygienic behavior and varroa resistance.  Why isn't someone
<breeding for and advertizing these traits?
 
As a queen breeder I tried last srping to conduct a hygienic test on my bees.  I
 had never done this
before.  I had some problems doing it.  I would like to discuss these problems h
ere.
 
I was looking for a test that involves little labour because I wanted to run the
 test on a large
number of colonies (200-300).  My choice was to test all the offspring of my bre
eders, not only
my actual or potential breeders.  Advised by  Medhat Nasr from Guelph University
, I decided to
puncture 10 capped brood cells from each colony with a very fine nail, to mark t
he test area and to
come back 24 h later to count the number of cells that were not cleaned out.  Th
e results indicate
me that the method  needs adjustments.  Queens from 16 lines were tested but ver
y little variations
were found.  The queens from the best line cleaned 100% of the cells.  Those fro
m the worst line
cleanes 91% on average.  I suspect these results to be abnormally high and I thi
nk that more brood
cells should be killed to really show the good performers.
 
I see another problem.  If the age of the killed brood is not the same, the clea
ning challenge is not
the same.  The tissues of a very young pupa are very soft compared to those of a
n older one.  A
lot of caution should be used if individual colonies are to be compared.