Larry Connor, Ph.D, wrote:

For those of you who care but don't know, my personal background includes the
leadership of a bee breeding program in Florida for Dadant and Sons
and York Bee Company. Called Genetic Systems we mass produced
instrumentally
inseminated queen bees for production colonies. It was a noble effort, but we
closed the business in 1980 because we proved we could not compete with
mother nature. The genetic stock went to Hybrid Bees, and included the
Starline and Midnite programs.

from Bee-L Archives

* * *

Malcolm T. Sanford wrote:

The Illinois breeding program that produced the Starline and Midnight
varieties [used] hybrid lines originally developed under the guidance
of Bud Cale and Dadant & Sons. Over the years, the breeding effort
changed direction and focus

The Starline and Midnight hybrids were not designed to be
self-regenerating; the concept was for beekeepers to continually
requeen with hybrids produced by the program. Over the years, this
had varied success.

from January 1995 issue of APIS

* * *

BP Oldroyd and RD Goodman wrote:

Cale and Gowen (1956) mated hybrid and inbred queens [which] led to
the development of the highly successful 'Starline' and 'Midnight'
hybrid bee breeding programmes in the United States. See: Witherell,
P.  "A story of success - The Starline and Midnight hybrid bee
breeding programs" Am. Bee J. 116, 73-5. (1976).

In this study the performance of inbred honeybee queens was compared
with that of their
hybrids for brood area, colony weight gain and longevity, with a view
to quantifying the
commercial value of hybrid queens.

The brood area and weight gain of colonies headed by hybrid queens
were compared with those headed by their inbred parentals. Although
the colonies headed by hybrid queens had increased brood production,
this did not lead to increased honey production.

from "Inbreeding and heterosis in queen bees in relation to brood area
and honey production"

* * *

Dr. Roger Morse also told me that he thought the Starlines were heavy
brood producers but that this didn't seem to translate into more honey
production.

pb

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