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Subject:
From:
"Medhat Nasr, Ph. D." <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 24 Jan 2005 11:34:01 -0700
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Bob Said:

In an open mating scenario you can not *in my opinion* be sure the shotgun
brood pattern is from a genetic problem and not caused by inadequate
mating.

Answer:

I would like to make the distinction between inadequate mating and brood
viability.
Inadequate mating means that queens mated with few drones or queens mated
at older age. This mating will produce queens that lay fertilized egg in a
poor pattern and they will end up as a drone layers.

Brood viability is caused by queens mating to relatives who share part of
the genetics in the sex locus. The viability of eggs will depend on how
many of these alleles shared. In the case of homogeneity of the sex
alleles, the fertilized eggs will hatch and produce diploid drone larvae.
These larvae will be cannibalized by adult workers bees as soon as the
eggs hatch. This would lead to what is know as shotgun brood pattern.

Although you can see a perfect egg laying pattern, when the cells capped,
you will find those empty cells scattered in the brood. Dr. Woyke from
Poland was able to raise those diploid drones by feeding these larvae in
the incubator away from adult bees. He also was able to extract some
diploid drone larvae and spread the extract on normal larvae. This would
trigger adult bees to cannibalize those normal larvae. It is suggested
that a chemical pheromon would be responsible for triggering this
mechanism. Therefore, we don't have diploid drones in a bee colony.

Please keep in mind, if a sperm was damaged, it will never make it into
the egg. Sperms have to swim in the common oviduct of the queen to enter
the egg. If they are dead, there is no chance.

Of Course any breeding program, we need to watch for inbreeding and how
many queens used as foundation for a bee stock. Page and Laidlaw
calculated the number of queens needed for stock maintenance for certain
number of years.


medhat


Medhat Nasr, Ph. D.
Provincial Apiculturist
Crop Diversification Centre North

17507 Fort Road
Edmonton, AB, Canada T5Y 6H3
Tel: (780) 415-2314    Fax: (780) 422-6096
Mailto:[log in to unmask]

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