Text Transcript with Description of Visuals
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| [Music] | A bee hovers above a mountainous landscape. On screen text. Washington State University Extension presents Selection Methods for Honey Bee Breeding. |
| >> I'm Steve Sheppard the director of the WSU Honey Bee Research Program. I'm here with Sue Cobey and Tim Lawrence, and this video will be a presentation of techniques for practical selection and breeding of honey bees. | Three people sit side-by side in a video studio with a white background. |
| Honey bees are fascinating animals to work with and essential to pollination of our food supply. Currently faced with many challenges, one of our most important tools for long-term sustainability and improved honeybee health is a program of selection for stock that is hearty, productive, winters well and has a reduced susceptibility to pests and pathogens. | Close-up of Steve Sheppard speaking. Text on screen reads Doctor Steve Sheppard. Director, W S U Honey Bee Research Program. |
| >> Beekeepers recognize the need for more rigorous programs to select, improve and maintain their breeding stocks. The Varroa mite and the movement of Africanized bees adds to this urgency. The principles discussed here serve as a guide to develop and establish a successful and practical breeding program with a focus on the traits you choose to enhance in your breeding population. | Close-up of Susan Cobey. Text on screen reads, Susan Cobey. Research Associate, Department of Entomology, Honey Bee Health Program. |
| >> The basic prerequisites of a breeding program are: maintain a diverse population to provide a basis for selection; proficiency in queen and drone rearing; establishing a selection index of desired traits; careful record keeping; control of pests and diseases and a method to control the mating. | Close-up of Tim Lawrence. Text on screen reads, Tim Lawrence. County Director, W S U Extension, Island County. Associate Professor. Text on screen reads, maintain a diverse population to provide a basis for selection; a proficiency in queen and drone rearing; establish a selection index of desired traits; careful record keeping; control of pests and diseases and a method of controlled mating. |
| >> The honeybee colony is a super organism and complicates the selection process. | Susan stands outside near a Langstroth style hive made of stacked boxes. She holds a clipboard. |
| Keeping your breeding program simple is key. Genetic diversity within the colony as well as within the population increases honeybee fitness. | Close-up view of bees flying around and landing on a hive. Similar views of bees and hives shown throughout the video. |
| Several mechanisms contribute to this diversity. | Susan speaking. |
| one, the high mating frequency of the queen. A queen can mate with up to 60 drones though typically mates with 15 to 20. Two, semen storage. After mating only about 10% of the semen collected migrates into the spermatheca although this represents each drone she has mated with. And three, the high rate of recombination which produces new combinations of alleles to create genetic diversity different from both parents. | Text on screen reads, The high mating frequency of the queen; Semen storage; The high rate of recombination. |
| This mating behavior seems risky and inefficient. | Susan speaking. |
| It was very successful in creating a genetically diverse super organism, the colony. | Bees cluster on the frames of a hive box. |
| The many sub-families of worker bees represented by the different drones mated. | Close-up of a bee flying high above a grassy landscape with tree covered hills in the background. |
| Some families specialize in different traits which together contribute to the colony fitness. | Wearing a beekeepers veil, she looks over a frame filled with bees. |
| The high rate of recombination provides the potential to test new genetic combinations that may increase resistance to pests and diseases and the ability to adapt to a changing environment. | Aerial footage of two beekeepers inspecting hives. |
| >> Narrator: Honey bees have a haploid, diploid sex determination system. Drones or males have one set of chromosomes meaning they develop from unfertilized eggs. They have a mother but no father. Workers and the queen are produced from fertilized eggs. Thus they have both a mother and a father. | Text on screen reads, Sex Determination in Honey Bees. Graphic on screen describes this process. Female. Heterozygous at sex locus. X 1 and X 2. Have a mother and a father. Male. Hemizygous at sex locus. X 1 or X 2. Have a mother but no father. |
| >> One of the challenges of honey bee breeding is that honey bees themselves are actually very sensitive to what's called inbreeding and that's where a female mates with males that are closely related to her. | Steve speaks to the camera. An infographic. The Queen represented by X 1 and X 2. Mating with Drone 1 represented by X 1 yields a Diploid Male, X 1 X 1 and a Female X 2 X 1. Mating with Drone 2 yields a Female X 1 X 3 and a Female X 2 X 3. the Diploid Male is crossed out with a big red X. |
| In the case of honey bees that leads to inviable brood. | Brood on a frame. |
| So one of the mechanisms for what we call outcrossing is the fact that the queen mates with multiple males. | Steve working in a hive box. He is holding a frame and replaces it. |
| So if she mates with 20 males and one of them is closely related to her, that's not such a deleterious effect on the whole colony. | Steve speaks to camera. Bees crawling around the entrance to a hive box. |
| In general you have to be aware of the relatedness among all the bees that you're involved in in a breeding program. | Close-up shots of bees on frames. |
| >> Honey bee breeding can be challenging because of these unique features that must be understood and considered in the development of a bee breeding program. | Susan in a lab. She uses a microscope. |
| An essential component of any breeding program is control of mating. | Then, Susan squeezes a drone to extract semen, collects it with a micro-syringe |
| Geographical isolation and drone saturation can be used and will provide partial control. | Susan places a queen in a tiny tube. |
| Instrumental insemination provides complete control. However, this is a specialized skill and requires training. | Susan uses tiny hooks to open the queen's vaginal orifice and inseminates her from the syringe. |
| >> With instrumental insemination it's fairly easy because we can control the males that the queen mates with and we can make sure that they're not from closely related lineages. | Steve speaks to camera. Footage of Susan working in the lab at a microscope. |
| But in the open mating or natural mating situation, you have to make sure that you have adequate genetic diversity in the mating yard. | Steve speaks to camera. A view of a mating yard. A row of single box hives in a tree shaded area. |
| Another one of the differences in breeding honey bees is that the unit of selection for us really is the colony because the colony itself with all the different groups of workers and all the tasks that they undertake is how we measure the quality and the viability of this sort of unit. | Steve and a colleague inspect a colony on a frame. They use flat edged hive tools to separate the hive from the frame. |
| You have to realize that involves the genetics of the queen plus the 10-20 males that she's mated with. So it effectively makes a colony that's composed of a number of sub-families, each fathered by a different drone honey bee. And the way that that unit works together is what gives you the traits that you use then for selection. | Steve speaks to camera. |
| >> To ensure colony fitness, selection for a variety of traits such as productivity, temperament, over-wintering ability etc., must also be considered. | Susan inspects a colony on a frame. She holds a hive tool in her hand. A montage of video images of bee hives. |
| Avoid selection for a single limited characteristic such as hygienic behavior, VSH or color. | Tim pours liquid nitrogen into a section of plastic pipe that has been pressed into a frame. |
| >> Worldwide the focus of many beekeepers is to increase resistance to varroa mites. Selection for resistance to varroa is complex. It requires a suite of traits. | Tim speaks to camera. Microscopic view of a varroa mite. Close-up image of a bee with a varroa mite attached to its abdomen. |
| Single traits selection programs such as varroa-sensitive hygiene or VSH and growing behavior have value but are difficult to maintain and these traits are highly variable. | Tim speaks to camera |
| These traits can and should be selected and added to your breeding population. | Close-up of bees on a frame. |
| The goal must remain selection from overall high performance of the colonies in the breeding population. Your selection is a balance of maintaining genetic diversity and enhancing the fitness to increase the frequency of traits that contribute to resistance. In the selection of high-colony performance, you may bring along traits for resistance of pests and pathogens including some we have yet to identify. | Montage of footage showing beekeepers inspecting frames and close-ups of bees on frames. Bees crawl on a frame. They queen is identified with a green dot on her back. |
| >> Beekeepers and bee researchers have been selecting the honey bee for many years. | A smoker sits on a hive box and a beekeeper works in the background. |
| Some of the earliest attempts included attempting to mate bees in a confined enclosure or by hand. | Black and white archival photos of bees being inseminated using a microscope and small instruments. |
| Discoveries in the queen's anatomy and physiology led to the first breakthrough and controlled mating of honey bees within instrumental insemination. | Text on screen reads, Sperm Storage and Distribution Favors Intra-Colony Genetic Diversity. The Queen discards ninety percent of Sperm Collected, Yet Stores semen from all the drones Mated. A diagram of the female honeybee's anatomy. From left to right, the two ovaries, then the Lateral Oviduct with the Spermatheca on top of that, then the Endophallus with the Sting above that. |
| We owe a lot to some of the early pioneers in bee breeding like Laidlaw, Watson, Mckinson, Roberts and many others. | More black and white photos of beekeepers in the yard and in the lab. |
| >> We talked about genetic diversity which is what you need is the raw material for artificial selection for selecting bees. So you need that diversity. | Steve speaks to camera. View from inside a hive box as a beekeeper lifts a frame from the box, inspects it, and returns it to the box. |
| Yet within the stock that you're say trying to produce a large honey crop, you don't want bees that don't produce much honey. So you're trying to have certain traits and high frequency. That diversity is separate. | Montage of footage showing a bee yard with many hive boxes. Close-ups of bees on frames. Susan working in a hive box with a flat tool to remove a frame. |
| That idea of diversity is separate from the idea of within colony diversity. | Steve speaks to camera. |
| So I mentioned that honey bee queens mate with multiple males. It's been shown that a colony where the different sub-families within the colony are quite diverse is actually a much more stable colony, much more able to deal with stress and diseases than a colony that is fathered by just say several drones or drones that are very closely related. So intracolonial diversity, you know, diversity within the colony is a very good thing. | Montage of footage showing a bee yard with many hive boxes. Close-ups of bees on frames. Steve speaks to camera Close-ups of bees on frames. |
| And that's the reason that we seek to have a diverse drone pool and allow the queens to be well-mated. | Tim wears a veil and pulls a frame from a hive. |
| Sometimes in poor weather when mating is difficult, queens will come back and begin lay after mating with several males and in general those colonies aren't as viable as the ones where the queen fully mated with the diversity of males. | Susan opens a hive while holding a smoker and a flat tool. Susan is holding a frame and inspecting it. She identifies the queen which is marked with a green spot. Steve speaks to camera. |
| >> The Page-Laidlaw closed population breeding program is one of the most successful, practical breeding systems used. | Black and white archival image of two people sitting next to each other, smiling at the camera. Aerial footage shows a view flying over a bee yard with many white hive boxes spread out in lines in a large grassy field. |
| The system basically is how most beekeepers approach selection. Choose the best and propagate from these. | View of a bee yard with many multi-colored hive boxes sitting in a grassy field. |
| The key component is the annual selection program supported with controlled mating and record keeping. | Susan speaks to camera. |
| The success of the closed population breeding program is based on simple evaluation and selection criteria and a propagation program repeated annually. The goal is to maintain selection pressure on the population over time. | Susan, wearing a veil over a straw hat, pulls a bee-covered frame from a hive box, inspects it, and replaces it. |
| >> [Narrator] As new issues arise, new selection criteria can be added | Close-up view of Susan adjusting frame spacing in a hive box. Close-up view of a frame covered in bees and brood. |
| >> The goal of the close population breeding program is to increase the selection pressure and the frequency of desirable traits in the breeding population. | Susan speaks to camera. |
| Given the behavioral complexity of honey bees, this can be challenging. To be successful and give the program longevity must be simple and repeatable. | Close-up view of a frame covered in bees. A person points to the edge of the frame. |
| Honey bees respond to selection. We're just trying to enhance and speed up this process to increase general fitness. | Susan pulls frames from hive boxes, flips them, and returns them to the box. |
| A successful, healthy and productive colony has the traits we value including reduced susceptibility to pests and diseases. | A hive box with many bees clinging to the exterior. Close-up shot of a single bee walking along a surface. |
| As researchers discover and develop simple selection criteria such as tests for hygienic behavior and grooming behavior to reduce pests and diseases, these can be incorporated into the selection criteria. | Susan speaks to camera. |
| The effects of the changing environment and the nutritional conditions must also be considered in the selection process. | View of Susan placing a small queen box between frames in a hive box. Close-up view of a frame from a hive box covered in bees. A person hovers their hand over the frame as they examine it. |
| >> One thing you have to realize when you're talking about breeding or selection for traits that you want is the balancing act between the fact that you need genetic diversity to have the raw material for selection because you want to select, for example, bees that fight off disease, bees that are gentle, bees that produce a lot of honey, bees that overwinter well -- a lot of traits that you really are trying to more or less fix or have occur at a high frequency in the population. | Steve speaks to camera. Full screen graphic with text. Text on screen reads, Genetic Diversity for Bees. Fight off disease Are gentle Produce a lot of honey Overwinter well View of Steve speaking to camera. |
| And at the same time you need to have the diversity to you know, from which to select these things. So if you make the genetic pool too narrow then you run into the problems of inbreeding that we talked about. Another thing to realize especially when comparing bees from different locations is that there are definite environmental effects. So you may have a colony that looks very strong and wonderful and you say, oh, I'll breed from that colony. And then you make a lot of daughters and you put them in another location and they don't produce a lot of honey. And it's because of course the phenotype, or what you see in a colony, is a combination of the genotype of the bees, the genetics plus the environmental interaction. So if you're in a very poor location, even if you have wonderful genetics the colonies won't look very good. So for us that's why we have to compare our genetic lines at the same locations. | Steve speaks to camera. |
| >> There are many ways to accomplish stock selection. Our goal is to provide a practical starting point open to modifications that will serve your beekeeping operation and management system. With any breeding program there are numerous steps for requiring a keen sense of observation. | Montage of Susan and Tim working in a bee field, inspecting frames and hive boxes. |
| A critical aspect is rearing high-quality and well-mated queens. | Cones of honeycomb on artificial brood cells. Female bees hover and land on the honeycomb. |
| Queen rearing methods will not be reviewed here but note the basic requirements to produce high-quality queen that have be reared in optimal conditions. | Close-up shots of artificial brood cells. Susan and Tim inspect hive boxes. |
| Drone production is critical and too often an overlooked aspect. To ensure a plentiful supply of mature drones from the desired stock takes some advanced planning. | A man kneels next to a hive box that is covered in bees. He picks drones up with his bare hands. Close-up shots of small boxes filled with drone bees. |
| Drones are slow to develop and their peak maturity is three weeks post emergence. Drones are also highly susceptible to stressors, pests and pathogens, chemical residues, poor nutrition, temperature extremes etc. | Close-up view of a frame covered in drone bees. A person gently moves the bees around with a finger. |
| If conditions are not optimal, they disappear or are compromised. | Low-angle shot of several stacks of hive boxes in a grassy field. Many bees are moving in and out of the boxes. |
| Older drones will be eliminated from the colony in favor of rearing a new batch of young drones for the future. | Close-up view of a bee walking on a bright yellow flower. |
| So be sure drones are reared in strong, well-fed, healthy colonies. | Close-up view of a bee hanging from a blue flower. |
| >> One of the first things you need to do before starting a breeding program is to determine what are your goals and objectives. What do you want to achieve? What will your time and resources allow? You can start slowly with a limited number of colonies and build up, or you can jump right into it with a large and highly diverse population to select from. | Close-up view of a drone feeding on a yellow flower. Full screen graphic with text appears. Text on screen reads What do you want to achieve? What will your time and resources allow? Start slow and build up. Start with large, highly diverse population. |
| You may have generations of bees that you and your family have maintained but you want to increase resistance or other value traits in that population. | Wide-angle view of a bee yard with several stacked hive boxes sitting in a grassy field. |
| Or perhaps you want to select stock adapted to your micro-climate and the forage you have locally. What do you want to improve and focus on? The more variables you include the more difficult achieving those objectives will be. | Susan places several small tubes made of wire mesh and capped with a cork into a hive box. She marks the cork with a permanent marker, writing B 1. |
| >> One of the most important considerations in a honey bee breeding program is the understanding that you're working with a population of bees, not just individuals. | Aerial view of two beekeepers working in a bee yard. |
| A colony may not express a desired trait because the frequency of this behavior is low. | Close-up view of bees moving in and out of a hive box. |
| The goal is to increase the frequency of expression of several desired traits within the population and decrease the undesirable traits. | Close-up view of a person holding a hive frame covered in bees and pointing to several individual bees. |
| This requires maintaining selection pressure on the population over time. | Susan removes a bee-covered frame from a hive box and examines it. |
| >> So what type of stock will you choose? Consider the various stains of bees and their characteristics, your beekeeping needs and the climate. | Tim speaks to camera. |
| If you are in a northern climate, a strain adapted to long cold winters and fast spring build-up may be preferred such as the Carniolan or Caucasian bees. | Full-screen graphic with text and thumbnail images. Text on screen reads, Climate Considerations Northern climate: Carniolanor Caucasian. Photo of Carniolan bees. They are brown-grey in color with lighter brown stripes. Photo of Caucasian bees. Dark in color with light stripes. |
| If in a temperate climate a more broody strain, that produces lots of bees for packages and nucleus colonies, may be preferred such as Italians. | Text on screen reads, Climate Considerations Temperate climate: Italian Photo of Italian bees. They are brown with yellow stripes. |
| First you want to establish a basic stock. | Tim speaks to camera. |
| Focus on a few general traits such as productivity, wintering, gentle temperament etc. Add a few specifics traits such as increased resistance to pests and diseases. | Full-screen graphic with Text. Text on screen reads Desirable Traits to Focus on. Productivity Wintering Gentle temperament Increased resistance to pests and diseases |
| Keep in mind the more variables you include in the selection criteria, the more labor-intensive and the slower the progress will be in achieving your goals and objectives. | Tim speaks to camera. |
| >> Your objectives should be to establish and maintain productive stock. | Susan opens a box and smokes the bees, then inspects them. |
| Over time in changing situations, you could begin to include selection for resistance to diseases and pests. | Close-up view of bees entering and leaving a hive box. |
| For example, from within your population test for hygienic behavior and select against colonies showing signs of disease such as chalkbrood and sacbrood. | Susan removes a frame from a hive box and inspects it. |
| Using the closed population system, pool your best colonies and select the best and graft a few queens from each of these. These virgins are then mated to the pool of select colonies to establish the foundation stock. | Close-up view of a wooden frame holding many wire-mesh tubes, sealed at one end with corks. The frame is covered in bees. Susan inspects a hive frame. |
| >> Establish a large population, about 200 colonies. From this based population of 200 hives, again select the top performers based on basic traits. | Full-screen infographic. Header reads Closed Population Breeding Program. A series of orange colored colony box icons is arranged in a grid pattern. The grid is 20 columns wide and 10 rows tall. There are 200 hive icons. Text below the icons reads One. Use a large base population for your initial selection. 200 recommended. |
| We call this the pre-selection test. | About half of the orange colony box icons turn white. Two. Using the criteria in your preselection to select the top half to test for industry (honey production). |
| You may initially screen that number down to the top 75 or more colonies. | The white colored colony box icons are removed, leaving a random pattern of orange icons. |
| From these, select and further screen colonies choosing the top 30-50 colonies as breeders based on their productivity. | About half of the remaining orange icons turn white. Text on screen reads Three. Based on weight gain during a honey flow select the top half for queens and drones to produce the next round of selection and repeat annually. The white colony box icons are removed leaving a random pattern of orange icons. Approximately 50 orange icons remain. |
| From this selected group produce a few queens from each of the top colonies and mate these virgin queens with a representative sample of drones from the selected pool of colonies. | Approximately 50 orange icons remain. |
| Here, instrumental insemination will give you the best overall result. | Susan works at a microscope in a lab. |
| Or, use an isolated mating area. Produce about 200 queens establish these in uniform nucleus colonies and allow them to build up on their own populations. These then become the base stock for the following years generation to select and the process is repeated. | A series of about a dozen boxes spaced apart on the ground under some trees. View of a brood-filled frame with many bees. A person places a wire mesh tube capped with a cork on the frame and removes the cork. A queen with a red mark on her back walks out of the tube onto the frame. |
| >> Using a large population will increase the life of your breeding program. Annually new generations of queens are reared and mated to a known pool of selected drones and established and full-sized colonies and valuated in the field. | Close-up view of a queen walking on a frame, surrounded by other bees. She has a green circle on her thorax. |
| A few exceptional rock-star selected breeders from previous years may also be included. This may help increase the frequency of value traits and also longevity. | Tim speaks to camera. |
| >> The success of your breeding program is dependent upon long-term commitment to rigorous evaluation and careful record-keeping. If this effort is relaxed, the expression of selected traits and the productivity of the stock will revert to mediocrity. | Susan speaks to camera. |
| General overall productivity should be your main goal. | Susan uses a smoker on a stack of hive boxes. |
| This is often based on a complex of traits. Consider honey production and resistance to pests and diseases. Many traits contribute. It's not necessary and not practical to measure each contributing factor. Simply select for high general performance and low varroa levels. Choosing the top performing colonies allows us to select for the combination of characteristics responsible for high production without detailed and tedious measurements of numerous specific traits responsible. | Susan speaks to camera. Montages of Susan and Tim working on hive boxes are interspersed with video of Susan speaking to camera. |
| Environmental conditions and seasonal effects vary in different locations and this needs to be considered so that colonies can be compared. | Aerial view of a very large grassy field. A small portion of the field contains two rows of hive boxes. Susan and Tim work with the hive boxes. |
| Therefore scores should be adjusted to reflect these conditions and selection priorities. | Susan removes a frame from a hive box. |
| To ensure and extend the longevity of the program, a large based population is maintained and occasionally new sources can be tested and added to enhance the gene pool. | The entrance to a hive is shown with many bees entering and leaving the hive. The box has the letters W S U carved into the wood. |
| These sources must be separate to the same rigorous selection process before incorporation into the program. Care must be taken to add these slowly and cautiously and prevent major changes in the stock. If an undesirable trait is added inadvertently, this can be difficult to remove. To add new stock, set up a test jar and observe the performance of the stock and its combining ability with the foundation stock before this is added to the gene pool. Make reciprocal crosses and test these. | Susan speaks to camera. Montage of video shots show Susan working on hive boxes, inspecting frames, and using a smoker. |
| >> To expand the gene pool and avoid major changes in the performance of the foundation stock, seed in a few drones. This will enhance genetic diversity. | Montage of video shots show Susan working on hive boxes, inspecting frames, and using a smoker. |
| >> To observe genetic variability and effectively make selection based on this requires that the environmental factors and management practices be as uniformed as possible. All colonies must be treated equally regardless of their performance. This is a comparison test. It is important that all colonies be evaluated are not managed differently. For example, colonies cannot be equalized or boosted with additional brood or bees. Colonies that do not meet the high standards for performance are simply weeded out of the program. | Tim speaks to camera. Montage of video shots show Tim working on hive boxes, inspecting frames, and using a smoker. |
| We recommend a two-phase approach of selection be used. The first stage refers to pre-selection is a design to evaluate the general performance. At this stage the poor or mediocre colonies are cut from the program. The evaluation and scoring process is designed to be simple. The following protocol is a guideline. You may need to adjust point values and priorities to address your conditions and needs. | Full-screen graphic with text. Text on screen reads Two-phase approach for selection. Pre-selection phase Evaluate general performance Poor and mediocre colonies cut Evaluation and scoring should be simple Adjust for your conditions and needs |
| >> The pre-selection process consists of observing several traits at a given time and ranking each of these with a number point value. | A beekeeper uses a small tablet computer. |
| A point value system of 1 to 5 is used. Five being the highest value. Two of the few key traits. We recommend selecting from 3 to 6 characteristics in your test population such as brood viability, temperament, pollen hoarding, colony build-up and color. A specific trait of concern can be weighted more heavily to give this priority attention. For example, if there is a concern the stock is defensive, a point value of 1 to 10 can be used to increase the selection pressure for this trait. Negative point values can be given for the low instance of minor diseases and reflect the severity of this occurrence or the colony simply cut from the program. | Full-screen graphic with text. Text on screen reads, Field Sheet A chart with the Breeder across the columns, then rows for factors such as Brood Viability, Temperament, Buildup, Pollen, Hygienic Test One, Hygienic Test Two, and Disease. Last two rows are total and comments. Data in the chart is numbers from negative one to five. |
| Scoring the occurrence of each value trait. The point value of several traits is added and the sum of the total compared among colonies. Several traits are observed quickly and simultaneously requiring only minutes per colony. | Susan and Tim work in a field on several hive boxes. Susan looks into a box and Tim is taking notes on a clipboard. |
| Colonies should be evaluated on the same day by the same person to maintain consistency. If colonies are located in different apiaries, a yard average can be used to compare scores between these. | Susan speaks to camera. |
| >> Selection for high brood viability is essential to maintain genetic integrity of the population. | Tim speaks to camera. |
| An estimate of brood viability is determined by observing the solidness of the cap brood pattern. Look at several frames as one might appear spotty due o nectar or pollen in the brood nest during a flow. The bees should be calm and gentle regardless of the colony size and in most conditions. | Susan shows the camera a frame with a solid cap brood pattern. Many bees walk on both sides of the frame. |
| Temperament can also be noted during general hive manipulations. This will help eliminate the reaction to any disturbance that may have unknowingly occurred before at evaluations. | Susan pulls a frame from a hive box and inspects both sides, then replaces the frame in the box. |
| Color is one of the easiest traits to select for and a good marketing tool. With proper selection your line will become more consistent in color. It can be an important first impression that beekeepers appreciate. Because drones are haploid, color is very easy to select with controlled mating. | Orange and yellow bodied bees with black stripes. |
| If selecting within a specific sub-species, queens producing daughters with unacceptable coloration should not be used as breeders. | Susan pulls a frame from a hive box and inspects it then sets the frame down on the hive box. |
| This indicates mismating [assumed spelling]. | Close-up shot of a queen bee walking on a frame and surrounded by other bees. She has a bright green circle on her thorax with the number 77 written on it. |
| >> At this point in the pre-selection phase, evaluate where you are in the overall selection process before going on to the next phase where you look at industry and productivity and more specific traits. Make a cut and eliminate the mediocre and poor colonies. | Susan speaks to camera. |
| The pre-selection colonies score sheet allows you to compare and choose the best-performing colonies. Based on criteria we have evaluated so far, each colony should have a score of up to 25 points. Set a cut-off point. Say all colonies with a score of 20 and above, these are taken to a historically good honey-producing location to test productivity. | Full screen graphic with text. Fall Preselection Score Sheet. A chart for a single breeder with columns for Excellent five, good four, Average three, Fair two, and Poor one. Other columns for Rejected, Negative, and Comments. Rows are the same factors as the previous field sheet. |
| >> The second phase of selection is the weight gain test indicating colony industry. | Tim speaks to camera. |
| Colony scoring average or above based on their fall and spring pre-selection test are given a weight gain. Colonies are tested during the honey flow in late spring or summer dependent upon flow conditions. | Tim uses a hand held spring scale and hooks one end onto the bottom of the box, lifting up the front side and reading the measurement. Then, lifting up the back side and reading the measurement. Susan takes notes. |
| >> Narrator: The amount of weight gain over a short term, a few days to a one-week period, correlates how the colony will do over an entire season. We are estimating the initial colony weight and then we will come back in a week and take the second weight to determine the gain over this time period. | Tim uses a hand held spring scale and hooks one end onto the bottom of the box, lifting up the front side and reading the measurement. Then, lifting up the back side and reading the measurement. Susan takes notes. |
| rather than trying to pick up the whole colony which can be rather awkward and clumsy, we take the weight on the front of the hive and the weight on the back of the hive, then add these two weights together and this gives you the weight gain. | Tim uses a hand held spring scale and hooks one end onto the bottom of the box, lifting up the front side and reading the measurement. Then, lifting up the back side and reading the measurement. Susan takes notes. |
| We can now compare the weight gain between colonies. | Full screen graphic of a chart. Text on screen reads Short-Term Weight Gain Test A chart with front, back, total, weight gain and percentage gain per hive. |
| >> When establishing a test chart, care should be taken to minimize drift. Place colonies in an irregular pattern or face colonies in different directions or color code the entrances to minimize drift. | Montage of footage of hive boxes in grassy fields. |
| >> After selecting the top performers for general traits and productivity, we can also look for specific traits such as test for behaviors that will reduce the severity of pests and diseases. | Close-up view of a queen bee with a green circle on her thorax. The number 77 is printed on the circle. |
| There's a high cost to single-trait selection as this greatly reduces genetic diversity which we know is essential for colony fitness. So it's important to first select for productive colonies then add selection to increase the frequency of specific traits we know contribute to resistance to pests and diseases. | Tim and Susan inspect hive boxes and frames. |
| >> One of the earliest examples of selection for behavioral trait was the work of Dr. [inaudible] hygienic behavior test for uncapping and removing dead pupa. | Close-up views of frames. One frame has a circular area of the comb removed. |
| This selects for olfactory sensitivity and is now a test most queen producers demand in their stock. | A person wearing thick blue gloves pours liquid nitrogen into a steel container. |
| It is an important tool to reduce the incidence of brood disease. It is a common trait found in all colonies but often only expressed in about 10-20% of the honey bee populations. With selection the frequency of this trait can be increased. To be hygienic, a high percentage of the bees in the colony must carry this trait. During a honey flower or when the large emergence of young nurse bees, colonies will appear more hygienic compared to a different time. Only colonies consistently displaying this trait will be considered hygienic. | A beekeeper pours liquid nitrogen into a cup. They then pour it into a short section of P V C placed over a frame and pressed into the capped brood. They pull out the P V C and return the frame to the hive. They pull it out later and brush off the bees to check the circular are for removed dead pupae. |
| Testing for varroa levels can be accomplished in several ways. A mite roll is an easy common test, though consider the time of the year and the climate to establish a threshold. | Tim speaks to camera. |
| Mite rolls should be taken several times a year. Mites factor [assumed spelling] pathogens and at high levels compromise colonies. Harmful viruses can persist for long periods of time after mite levels have been controlled. A top-performing queen in a heavily infested colony will not thrive. | A beekeeper collects bees from a frame into a jar. They add a liquid and swish the bees around. They strain and inspect the liquid, pointing out mites. They hold a tiny brown mite on their fingertip. |
| A final colony ranking is made and breeders selected to establish the next generation. | Tim speaks to camera. |
| >> The closed population breeding program is designed to be a simple, practical, flexible and effective method of selection within a known honey bee population. It is designed to increase the quality and consistency of value traits in the population. Is it closed in the sense of controlling the introduction of unwanted stock. It allows the controlled addition of new material to extend the life of the program. The key is the annual evaluation and selection program to maintain selection pressure on the population over time. Keeping this simple is important as this helps to get the workload accomplished. | Susan speaks to camera. Full screen graphic with text. Text on screen reads, closed population breeding program. Simple, practical, flexible and effective method of selection Increase quality and consistency of traits Closed in controlling introduction of unwanted stock Allows new material to extend the program Annual evaluation is key Keep it simple |
| >> So in summary, what we've demonstrated here is a simple, pragmatic approach that beekeepers can follow fro selection and breeding of honey bees. We've gone through phase one where we've looked for characteristics such as temperament, hygienic behavior, color, brood viability. And from that population that demonstrates the highest frequency of those characteristics, we've looked for those in the most productivity bees, in other words, those that produce the most honey. | Full screen graphic with text. Text on screen reads, Summary. Simple approach for selection and breeding Temperament, hygienic behavior, color, brood viability From those traits, choose the most productive bees |
| So remember we're selecting from a population of honey bees that demonstrates desirable traits and is productive. We encourage you to adapt this program to meet your needs as we all look for sustainable solutions to honey bee health. | Tim sits in a lab and speaks to camera while Susan works at a microscope in the background. |
| [ Music ] >> We hope this video's been informative and you can adapt these techniques to improve your own breeding program. It's worked well for decades for the [inaudible] and also the Washington State University program queens. | Steve, Susan, and Tim sit side by side in a video studio with a white background. |
| >> So thanks very much for your attention and happy bee breeding. | Steve speaks to camera. |
| [ Music ] | Credits: Funding for this project was provided by the center for sustaining agriculture and natural resources bio-ag grant program. Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources. Washington State University with additional support from Western State, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. Produced by C A H N R S Communications, Washington State University. Executive Producers, Tim Lawrence, Susan Cobey. Contributing Authors, Susan Cobey, Tim Lawrence, Walter Sheppard. Additional Material, Kathy Keatley Garvey-U C Davis, Bee Culture Magazine, Doctor Brandon Hopkins. Washington State University Extension. |