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Date: | Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:51:29 +0000 |
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Hi Joao & all
Sorry for the delay in replying.
> Drone rearing is often recommended in the literature, but,
> according to some authors, it is, at best, controversial. Due
> to the potential inbreeding problems, like male diploidy, the
> honey bee developed mechanisms to avoid matings between relatives,
> or to lower the probability of such.
The situation is not quite as 'black and white' as this... There are
several points to consider.
The mating frequency of the race of bee concerned.
The possibility of 'bottlenecking' in the strain concerned due to
previous breeding selection and/or the use of 'quick and dirty' hard
crosses by single drone II.
The mating strategies that occur for the race of bee being discussed.
Mating preferences of the queen influence which drones actually get to
mate, the queuing that goes on in a drone comet, needs to be looked at
so that we can understand how that influences which drones get to mate.
In US conditions I would expect inbreeding to show up more readily than
most other areas of the world, because there is a high reliance on
Italian genes, so the mating frequency is low.
Similarly Italian strains rely mostly on DCA mating with very little use
of Apiary Vicinity Mating or minor drone assemblies.
Many of the established strains have a degree of bottlenecking in their
previous selection.
The only thing that I can see in the bee's favour here is that the
degree of racial purity is likely to be much lower than many would
expect, which will help diversity. How many of you keep behavioural
records and conduct assessment and testing of racial purity ?
Too many times we hear statements like "if it's got yellow on it it's
Italian" or "if it's black it is a Carniolan". Some people even
discriminate between queens on the basis of colour... i.e. "selecting
for the dark side".
Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---
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