I thought there was a time when Beekeeping Clubs were responsible for the genetics in their specific areas. Most of the old material was to prevent any inbreeding within the clubs beekeeping area. This sounds like what the local clubs were doing at one time or some may still be monitoring genetics to prevent their members from inadvertently inbreeding within the club. Excellent idea to bring more on board with new genetics. I am on the genetic route as well.
The best hive or two in the best yard doesn't seem like a bad criteria. the best honey producer in the face of bad management, or other adverse conditions, seems like a pretty good criteria to me.
YES! UBO and Harbo assay are the way to approach this, good talk! I hope others will try your approach. I, myself have defensive bees, you are dealing with a stinking insect! BUT! If they run me down the street, that queen is toast!
Great video! I have a question. I’m just getting started and learning. I have 6 hives I inherited 2 hives and I caught 4 swarms last year. My question is how do I know what kinda bees do I have. Italians or what. Thanks again and keep up the good videos
Interesting maybe didn't understand completely but sounds like your primary selection is UBO score. I understand that but are you concerned at all about overselection to the point the colonies pull too much larva and are then unable to build up? I understand that honey production is variable based on location, but when selecting queens from a specific yard why not test your best producers relative to that specific yard and ultimately breed from your highest UBO scorers that also produced well within their own area?
Our criteria….1) Queen must overwinter. 2) must come out of winter swinging. 3)must not swarm despite swarm prevention efforts. 4) high UBeeO score. 5) breeder must remain untreated and score a 3 or 4 on Harbo Assay. Each of these selection criteria in that order show more and more filtering out of potential colonies to test. The study done in the late 90s where they pulled too much larva was based on one criteria only. SMR trait only. With ours, build up and rebound is key
How many genes are involved in VSH? When selecting for a trait like honey production you have to eliminate the location variable by selecting from a single environment only. I suspect your going to find location and year effects are going to cause gxe issues in your vsh trait also. I.e. when you take one of Weaver's queens out of TX they are no longer mite tolerant. Same for any number of other mite resistant stock.
While I can not deny or confirm your suspicions with any certainty, Cory Stevens, Randy Oliver, Troy Hall, and Joe Latshaw have all had a great deal of success with their genetics elsewhere.
do you think that with ubo queens in a colony with high mite load. that she could lay a higher resistant daughter egg from her spermatheca to resist mites and become more hygienic. kind of a confusing question. thanks for videos
We run Italians. VSH is a trait found in all races of bees. Identifying those breeders in mass is everyone’s goal (I think) now that UBeeO is available to the market
I’m doing UBEEO in a couple weeks on my current stock. I like Carnis. Do you know any Carni producers that are focused on VSH/UBEEO? If my results aren’t great, I’d like to get some hygienic carnis.
