The
Russian Bee Breeding Program
Stock Origin
This Russian Bee stock originates from the Far East
Russian region called Primorsky. It was
first imported into the United States in 1997 by USDA-ARS and was researched,
tested and released to the beekeeping industry in 1999. The OBA conceived the Russian Bee Project
and imported eggs and semen in 2000 to begin working on this stock. Geoff Wilson, graduate student and Dr.
Medhat Nasr, tech-transfer specialist conducted the project at the University
of Guelph, Ontario. In 2002, the
Russian Bee stock was turned over to François Petit for further breeding and
testing.
The Bee Breeder
Francois Petit has been a beekeeper since 1991 and
have been breeding and raising queens since 1995. Francois is a member of the OBA (Ontario Beekeepers’ Association)
and the OBBA (Ontario Bee Breeders’ Association) since 1997. François is assisted with a dedicated team
of beekeepers, who work with him faithfully to achieve the best results.
Objectives
1.
Conduct a closed population breeding program to
maintain pure Russian stock. Objective
fulfilled.
2.
Conduct annual (2002-2005) importation of queen
families (lines) release from the US. Objective
fulfilled.
3.
Select first for varroa and HTM genetic resistance,
and secondly for basic traits.
4.
Distribute breeder queens, pure and open mated
queens, cells and nucleis to Canadian beekeepers and bee breeders.
Breeding Program
The Russian stock is bred in a Closed
Population. This means only Russian
stock is allowed in the program. Queens
for breeding purposes are grafted from pure Russian colonies acting as queen
mothers, and mated with drones from pure Russian colonies acting as drone mothers.
This method of
breeding does not allow the incoming of other strain of bees of unknown
origin. In order to achieve this
objective we establish an isolated mating apiary. This apiary is isolated geographically, far enough so no other
colonies of bees of unknown origin can provide drones from unwanted source to
mate with the pure Russian virgins.
Only Russian drones produced from known Russian drone mothers are
allowed to mate with the daughters raised from known Russian queen mothers. So
far this approach and method has produced consistent results to keep purity
near 100%. The uniformity worker color
is the indication of purity. We
selected for uniform dark workers right from the beginning of our program in
2003. Consequently, the pure Russian
stock we have now is almost 100% dark.
Management
We use single
Langstroth brood chambers with 10 self-spacing frames. We use the IPM approach. We survey our apiaries twice a year with sticky boards for varroa
mite levels, and obtain bee samples once or twice a year to monitor for nosema.
All together, 14
families (lines) are divided in 2 blocks.
Every year we raise a set of daughters from each family belonging to one
block. The following year we do the
same with the other block of families, so on and so forth. Several families of Russian Stock are
maintained in each successive generation.
New pure Russian
queens are tagged (or marked) and clipped for identification, and then
overwintered as nucleis, or introduced in full-size colonies as replacement
queens. The following season they are
managed as normal colonies for honey and nuclei production. All colonies are managed similarly. We produce only 1 nuclei per colony per
season. We do not move them for
pollination. Varroa mite and nosema
treatments are performed to entire apiaries, only if the level of infection
mites is greater than a predetermined level, called the Economic Threshold
Level (ETL).
Our goal
is to treat for mites and nosema only when needed. In time, we have been able to skip the mite treatment in the
spring, only treating in the fall in September. We hope to be able to select for nosema resistance in the future,
using the same approach: treating once a year and breeding from the queens
whose colonies keep lower level of nosema throughout the season.
Apiaries in
different locations may receive different level of rainfall, or they may be
surrounded by different field crops, thus affecting honey production between
apiaries. Additionally, they may be
affected by different level of mite infestations, thus affecting overall colony
production. By keeping entire apiary
together and treated as one group, the colonies located in each apiary receive
the same comparative treatment.
Therefore, we can compare the level of performance of each pure Russian
colony with its corresponding apiary average, to evaluate how they are
doing.
Selection Process
Each pure Russian
colony is first evaluated and scored (1 is lowest & 7 is highest) for the
following basic traits : overwintering
cluster and feed stores, queen fecundity, disinclination to swarming, queen
supersedure, gentleness, quietness on the comb, brood viability, cleanliness,
and brood diseases. Colonies
exhibiting unwanted behaviour i.e. scoring a low score (1 to 4) <5 are
disqualified from the program, thus narrowing the pre-selection of breeder
queens. Any colonies scoring low
on any trait is disqualified, even if other trait scores are high. We maintain a minimum requirements on all
traits – minimum 5. This is the
pre-selection.
See the Basic Traits Scoring Charts
Next comes a
battery of tests with quantitative measures to finalize the selection. These tests are: honey production (lbs),
hygienic behaviour, varroa population at the end of the season, resistance to
HTM - Honey Bee Tracheal Mites (this test has been suspended for lack of
mite-infested colonies in the province), and Nosema spore count. Successful queens are then selected
according to their overall performance and test results, and classified as
queen mothers OR drone mothers.
At the beginning of
their second season, 1 selected queen from each family is used as queen mother
to raise the next generation of daughter queens. It was determined by researchers around the world that certain
traits were better transmitted from the mother’s side or drone’s side. So we
focused our selection on such traits, pertaining to the mother or drone
side.
Therefore, we
decided that queen mothers should be primarily selected using the best scoring
queens in the hygienic test, 24-hour mite drop test, and honey production
test, while keeping in mind the other basic traits. Queen mothers are used when they reach their
2nd season, and sometimes in their 3rd season if they
prove to be still productive & strong colonies in the spring.
Drone mothers are needed
in larger numbers than queen mothers, so the selection process is somewhat
broader. Traits such as gentleness,
and disinclination to swarming are known to be better transmitted from the
drones’ side. Therefore, we favor those
traits as our primary tool to select drone colonies; while keeping in mind
other important traits like brood viability, hygienic behaviour & varroa
count. Only the best colonies are used
to produce drones, including the queen mothers. To maintain & ensure a wide gene pool, it is necessary to use
drone mothers belonging to both blocks every year. So we decided to use 1-year old queens if necessary to raise
drones if they exhibit the primary traits we are looking for: gentleness,
disinclination to swarming and brood viability, even though they have not
gone through the battery of quantitative tests described previously. Drone
mothers are used in their 1st and 2nd season. Three (3)
year old queens tend to be less productive, and are not good drone producers,
so we do not use them for this purpose.
Record Keeping
We use Excel and
Access software to keep records and analyze data. We label each colony with a number and a unique ID label
identifies the queen in the colony.
Government Inspection
We are inspected
regularly by Provincial Bee Inspectors for Brood Diseases, and composite
samples of bees are sent to the Bee Lab for Tracheal Mites survey. We have detected rare occurrences of HTM
(Honey Bee Tracheal Mites) in our bees.
As of 2002 we have found varroa mites resistant to Fluvalinate (Apistan)
in our operation.
Page updated December 22, 2009