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Author Topic: Genetic diversity  (Read 1796 times)

Offline Orlando

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Genetic diversity
« on: March 22, 2013, 10:09:29 am »
Hello,

In my research I have read about the importance of diversifying the genetics in your apiary.

How does one go about ensuring this? Is it something along the lines of ensuring various queen lines so new virgin queens that you raise open mate with various drones?

Any best practices?

Thanks
Orlando

Offline Finski

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Re: Genetic diversity
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2013, 12:14:45 pm »

I have had about 20 hives all my live. I have seen sveral times what inbreeding makes in small yard.

It revieles out when you buy every year 2-3 new queen and comapre them to your yard hives.

how it happens:

- you have a good hive and you take from it 10-15 new queens. Next year half of your drones are brothers.
Next year you still have a good hive, and the queen is sister of half yard drones. If you are lucky, next year your all hives are inbreed.


What then...
One year I bought 3 queens 300 km away. It revieled that those 3 colonies were after winter same size as in autumn. Other 15 colonies had suffered from nosema and many very badly.
So new queens revieled that my apiary was not tolerant to nosema.  and I had made lots of work to get a good bee stock with crossings.

- During last 3 years I have found that my best huge hives have got blood from Carniolans. That waked me up that it is not good thing to take new queens from one best hive.

Now I take queens from several good hives and kick out only queens which are angry, not good laying and so on.
Even if I buy every year new queens, and I rear new queens, hybrid vigour tells that pure best is not allways best.


One year I bought an old queen from professional beekeeper and I told that I need a queen where I can get new queens.
I reared 10 queens. Next spring that mother queen hive was so sick by nosema, that it stopped laying even if it had 4 frames of bees after winter.

So by accident I had reared to half of my apiary nosema sensitive queens.

.I have many more stories, but that is life.
.
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Online BeeMaster2

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Re: Genetic diversity
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2013, 12:35:37 pm »
Finski,
How close is you nearest fellow bee yard? Do you have the only bees within 3 miles of you causing you bees to inbreed? Here I have at least 6 or more bee yards that my queens will mate with.

Orlando,
Check your area to see if there are numerous bee yards around you. The queens fly a lot farther the the drones do so that the number on related males that can mate with her is minimized.

Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline gov1623

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Re: Genetic diversity
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2013, 01:16:12 pm »
I don't think ill ever have to worry about genetic diversity here in the south because my area is just full of ferall hives. All my hives are from ferral swarms and all doing verry well. I read that quenns can fly for miles and miles to mate with drones so if your area has any ferral hives and other beekeepers, i dont think diversity should be a problem. But im no expert just my opinion.
Who Dat!!!

Offline Finski

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Re: Genetic diversity
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2013, 01:26:15 pm »
Finski,
How close is you nearest fellow bee yard? Do you have the only bees within 3 miles of you causing you bees to inbreed? Here I have at least 6 or more bee yards that my queens will mate with.



the distance to fellow is 0,6 km

But when I have mating nucs in remote yards, there are somewhere hives, which I do not know where. I get there Carniolan blood to my Italian queens.
I believe that bee colonies live in empty farm houses.

..
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Offline 10framer

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Re: Genetic diversity
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2013, 09:29:54 pm »
I don't think ill ever have to worry about genetic diversity here in the south because my area is just full of ferall hives. All my hives are from ferral swarms and all doing verry well. I read that quenns can fly for miles and miles to mate with drones so if your area has any ferral hives and other beekeepers, i dont think diversity should be a problem. But im no expert just my opinion.

down there you probably have to worry more about africanized genes.

Offline gov1623

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Re: Genetic diversity
« Reply #6 on: March 23, 2013, 12:19:00 am »
down there you probably have to worry more about africanized genes.
[/quote]


Never worried much about that yet. Most swarm i catch are very gentle.
Who Dat!!!

Online Michael Bush

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Re: Genetic diversity
« Reply #7 on: March 26, 2013, 10:12:31 am »
Luckily diversity is built into bee biology.  Unfortunately, the queen rearing techniques we use are counter to it.  If you graft a lot of queens from the same mother, you get full sister queens.  But if you do walk away splits on the hives you can maintain a line for each colony.
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My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
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