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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
Trish Harness <[log in to unmask]>
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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 20 Jul 2019 14:35:04 -0400
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The classic book discussing queen breeding is titled "Bee Genetics and Breeding", and it's...OK.  I do apologize if anyone here contributed or knows the contributors - it is an amazing compilation of well written summaries of our knowledge on the topic up to 1986.  It's just not applied enough for me.  There are two chapters that anyone considering queen breeding at a deep or large scale level must read - chapter 6, Behavioral Genetics, and Chapter 16, Breeding Accomplishments with the Honey Bee. Oh, and Chapter 14, Mating Designs.  
There are two parts to successful queen rearing, and only one of them is thoughtful selection of breeder queens.  The other is supporting the whole apiary (and drone colonies beyond) adequately so that strong queens can be well mated to strong drones.  Steve Tabor, in "Breeding Super Bees", talks a lot about the importance of strong and healthy drones, which means a colony well supplied with protein.  And with drone comb, if you want drones early in the season.  As in, 10% of the total area of the colony devoted to drones.  This is not current practice in most apiaries at this time.  And there is great value in strategically placing drone mother colonies at out-apiaries within a couple of miles of the breeding apiary.  This is taken a step further in Denmark, as reported by Eigil Holm in "Queen breeding and Genetics", where there are isolated apiaries (as in, on an island) devoted to providing good drones to your queen - which you ship to the mating location in a specific design of mating nucleus.
And then you have the question of avoiding inbreeding.  The Russian Queen Breeders have a system that involves 18 queen lines, and strategic sourcing of queen lines to apiaries with drones of a different lineage than the queen's mothers.  See http://www.coldcountryqueens.com/russian-bee-breeders.html for more info.  
And only then is it time to consider scientifically based queen selection! 
Honey production:  One of the key aspects for success with this trait may be a combination of bees who want to draw comb and don't want to swarm.  Willingness to draw comb is worth measuring; google "collective personalities in honey bee colonies are linking to colony fitness".  This paper argues that honey production is hindered in defensive colonies. 
Defensive Behavior:  nice review from 2004, "DEFENSIVE BEHAVIOR OF HONEY BEES: Organization, Genetics, and Comparisons with Other Bees",  free pdf available, bless their hearts. 
I'd strongly recommend focusing on selecting against swarming.  There may be a serious drawback to taking a colony which produced queen cells in swarm season and then splitting those to mating nucs.  What you select for, you get more of.  This seems counter-intuitive for the small independent beekeeper!  After all, swarm cells are large and plentiful.  I'm in my first generation of selecting against swarming - more next year, around this time. ;)  
And... That's the best I've got at this point, for thoughts on setting up a queen breeding program.  I've been thinking a lot about it, especially in terms of the smaller queen breeder.  

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