François Petit –
Russian stock breeder
March 2007
The Russian stock has
been available to Canadian beekeepers for a number of years now. For a while it was much talked about at
beekeepers’ meetings, as well as bee magazines and newsletters. Some studies were published in several
provinces about this strain of bee, showing its qualities and weaknesses. Many beekeepers have made up their minds
from the beginning, and others are still observing and listening, to see if it
is a worthwhile stock.
Personally, I have
come to appreciate the Russian bees for what they are. They are not the same as other strains of
bees common to North America. I adapted
my management scheme. Taking advantage
of the hygienic behaviour, and Varroa resistance demonstrated in trials, I am
able to manage these bees to the point of skipping spring and/or fall mite
treatment altogether, thus reducing labour time and cost. Of course, this must be accompanied with
regular spring summer, and fall mite surveys.
Additionally, we reduced considerably the use of antibiotics in the
prevention of AFB, EFB, and Nosema; thanks to the Russian bee genetics.
Having worked with
this type of bees for 5 whole seasons now, I have acquired a sense of how one
can utilize this stock in his or her operation. Talking with bee breeders on numerous occasions, I came to
realize the need for some practical advice on this subject.
Success in beekeeping
is a combination of 3 main factors, namely : weather, management, and genetics. The regular beekeeper usually exercise
control over management; which include mite and disease prevention treatment, inspection of
colonies, splitting, supering, feeding, and overwintering. But there is another aspect of management
that is often overlooked, and that is queen management, and the bringing of new or improved
genetics into their
operation.
GENETICS predispose the bees to behave in a certain way. If the beekeeper applies
selection to his bee stock, he can over time obtain a stock with more desirable
traits. But how to do this is sometimes
puzzling, as you consider the many options being offered. Should I use queen
cells, open mated queens, closed mated queens, select queens, or breeder
queens? Let me clarify these different
kind of queens available from the Russian stock.
The simplest and
cheapest way is to use Russian queen cells to requeen colonies, splits
or nucs. This will result in bi-racial
strain of bees, half Russian and half your stock. You get half the Russian genetics the first time, but if you
repeat the same procedure for subsequent seasons, you will actually obtain open
mated Russian colonies. This is because
the first Russian queen you introduced, even though it is mated with other type
of drones, will produce pure Russian drones of her own. Drones get their chromosomes from their
mother only, and are not affected by the sperm of the queen, used to fertilize
worker eggs. These Russian drones will
mate with the next round of Russian virgins and produce Russian colonies. Some beekeepers have adopted this method of
requeening with queen cells, and are reporting great success.
By definition, an open
mated Russian queen will produce a colony of bees which should be in majority
of Russian type. The genetic of the
colony should be at least 50% or more Russian, depending on the % of Russian
drones mated with the queen.
|
%RUSSIAN DRONES MATED WITH RUSSIAN VIRGIN |
0 |
25 |
50 |
75 |
100 |
|
%RUSSIAN GENETICS IN THE COLONY |
50 |
62.5 |
75 |
87.5 |
100 |
Several large and
small Quebec beekeeping operations use large number of Russian open mated
queens to requeen, make splits and nucs.
One Quebec queen producer reported selling 6000 Russian queens in
2006! The advantage is that queens are
not as fragile, can be mailed, the queens start laying faster, and you get the
full genetic advantage immediately. In
areas, where season are short, this can be advantageous.
A Russian closed
mated queen is a daughter of a Select Queen mated in an isolated mating
apiary with Russian drones from Select Queens used as drone
mothers. They are considered "pure" Russian queens because the
% of drones mated with the virgin queen is almost 100%. The only way to guarantee 100% is through
artificial insemination. These queens
are usually purchased to be evaluated for 1 or 2 seasons, after which they are
selected by the beekeeper or bee breeder for raising daughter queens or as a
drone source for mating. These queens
can also be used by some hobbyists to get the full advantage of genetic
selection. But it must be stated that
just because a queen is rated as purebred, it does not guarantee its
performance to be superior. Mating is
still random, the combination of genes that occur at fertilization is simply a
matter of statistics. What we are
trying to do with isolated mating is to increase the probability of getting
good combinations, and therefore superior stock. The rule of selection is about 1 :15, meaning that out of 15
pure sister queens, you will be able to find 1 superior queen. Therefore, it is not realistic to expect
superior results from a 1 queen shipment!
The serious bee breeder, the one who makes observations to select
breeders, would acquire several of them and diligently observe their
performance over a period of 1 to 2 years, before making a final selection.
A Russian Tested
Queen is a ½ year old queen sold as a 4-frame nuc in the early spring
(May). These queens are called Tested simply because their purity has
been established by letting the new queen lay until her offspring emerge.
That way we can see by the consistent colour of the workers and drones, if she
is pure Russian, and not open mated with drones from other strains
(Italians...). They are overwintered as a 4-frame nuc outside inside a
wintering pack, so overwintering ability is tested as well. Finally,
other traits like brood viability and resistance to brood disease is also checked.
These queens have not been observed for honey production, or any of the tests
mentioned below for the Select Queens.
You can start producing queens right away, because they are overwintered
and ready to go in the spring.
A Russian
Select Queen is 1½ year old queen sold as a 4-frame nuc in the early
spring (May). These queens have been observed 1 complete season for
desired traits: overwintering, disinclination to swarming, housecleaning,
gentleness, brood viability, absence of brood diseases, and honey
production. Additionally, these queens have been submitted to Hygienic
Behaviour test, 24-Hour Natural Mite Drop test, and/or Honey Bee Tracheal MIte
Resistance test (Quick-Test), and have scored high enough to be selected for
breeding purposes. They have not been used for breeding yet. They
should last an entire season as breeders, if properly taken care of. They
are used for mass production of queens.
This type of queen should be used by the serious bee breeder, who is
willing to invest a lot of time in his operation for producing queens, but does
not have the time or willingness to make selection observations. The cost is actually less than purchasing 10
closed mated queens!
A Russian Breeder Queen is a 2½ years old queen sold as a 4-frame nuc in
the early spring (May). These queens have been used extensively for
breeding purposes as mothers, and have been found to produce consistent
daughters of superior stock. They are at the end of their life.
They are sold only to provide superior genetic, and are usually good for 1
graft guarantee. They are not good to graft all summer, although a
large number of queen may be produced at once, before the queen is
supersedured. These queens are the best
and should be used in a serious breeding program which takes into account the
drone side. It is important to consider
the source of drones to be mated with the virgins produced.
The Russian stock can also be used as a drone source to mate with other strains
of bees, or to be incorporated into an existing breeding program. The Russian Breeding Program follows the
Closed Population system, using breeders as queen mothers OR drone mothers.
Whatever the method or
approach you choose, keep in mind that results are not always quick and
easy. Perseverance and hard work will
produce desired results, but you must be patient. Don’t give up at the first setback, keep at it. It took me 3 years to visibly see results in
the Russian stock. Now, I am excited
about this stock, and the popularity it is getting all over. Happy beekeeping!