Moving forward, queen quality and genetics will be more important than ever before. At Bee Scientifics, we operate a focussed selective breeding program, not a genetic improvement program. Although the intrinsic goals may be the same: to produce top quality queens that yield high performing colonies, the semantics illuminate differences in philosophy.
Beekeeping is as much of an art as it is a science and approaching bee genetics as something that needs to be "improved" fails to honour the marvellously complex and perfect creatures that they are. We approach bees with reverence. We believe that by paying careful attention to the traits and behaviours that help bees help themselves (and beekeepers), we can become an instrument of bee health and help build positive relationships between bees and their keepers.
Queen quality doesn't start with grafted larvae, in fact grafting is almost the culmination of the journey of a well-bred, quality queen! By time the grafting takes place, most of the hard work must have already been done.
Choosing breeder queens and drone mothers takes years. The selection requires assessing the performance of the queen and drone mothers’ and grandmother as well as their open mated and artificially inseminated sisters and daughters. It is this consistency over generations that enables us to build confidence in the stock.
The next area to focus on is nutrition. This means that the bees that fed the bees that raise the queens and drones were fat and happy and this nutrition is consistent over the several months before the drone rearing and grafting occurs. Without a history of adequate nutrition in the cell building and drone mother apiaries, even the best genetics can fail to perform. Queens can be mated successfully in a wide range of nucleus colonies, from two frame mini nucs that are common on mating stations in Europe, to 10 frame production colonies. By the time of the mating, the hard work has been done and the hive she leaves and comes back to isn’t the most important part. As long as the selected genetics and background nutrition for queens, drones, and workers are there, and the weather cooperates, the result should be good.
Breeding is a long game. Queen rearing is a 10 year apprenticeship. The hardest part of beekeeping and bee breeding is to stop trying to invent short cuts. To get out of our heads and let go of the need to control and push and “improve” the bees. Over the past 20 years, the most important lessons I have learned is to follow the bees.
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