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 ---