#studying for a final and learned queen bees get fed a special jelly that does sciency cell stuff and then they turn into a queen

[thinkin-bout-milgram]

[bakersbees]

Queen Breeding 101

by Melanie Kirby

Throughout this year, we’ll cover the basics of queen honey bee breeding and rearing (propagation), and also continue discussions on what is realistic and pertinent for promoting and nurturing healthy stock lines for all experience levels. As we flip back and forth between the past and the future of bee breeding over the next few months, we’ll share what bee breeding is, and how beekeepers, land stewards and communities can do to participate in the process. As with any endeavor, reviewing the past in preparation for the future is essential as we can only figure out where to go from where we’ve been.

For this fourth installment, I will share the third and final part of an article I wrote back in 2011 for The American Bee Journal on establishing a survivor bee breeding program in today’s circumstances. If KB readers have bee breeding programs they participate in and would like to share information – please email your story to survivorqueenbees@gmail.com.

Ensuring quality forage and timely production schedules are essential if we truly hope to establish a turnaround for our American bees. The immune-competence of all the bees thusly depends on rigorous selection practices and respectful rearing protocol. Extended time given to developing and maturing queens will ultimately lead to enhanced immune-competence all around. This is also affected by the queen’s promiscuity and fecundity (or her ability to mate with multiple drones with varied genetics and her ability to reproduce). The queen’s sex life does indeed hold the key to honeybee survival.

Using a larger mating nucleus colony AND waiting an extended period before harvesting a reared queen are essential for quality control. The whole production process rests not only on the cell builders and what they are feeding the developing queen larvae, but also on the mating nucleus set up and timing. Having larger mating nuclei, the size of the colonies can grow and become self-supporting. This allows the bees- or family of bees, with sister and sub-sister families, the opportunity to weave their immune-competence and to nurture a maturing queen properly. Smaller nucs require the routine addition of bulk bees from various sources (shaken from support colonies or bought and borrowed from other beekeepers). This is a stressful addition - random bees from other colonies thrown into a confined space. Could this affect the morale of the hive? It sure will affect the epigenetics and immune-competence that is shared. Waiting an extended period of time to harvest a mated reared queen can truly discern whether the queen mated properly and can actually lay fertilized worker eggs, as well as her laying posture- or how she lays (which can include demonstration of altered allele alignment as reflected in spotty brood laying). Domestic research and complementary research from abroad indicate that the longer a queen is allowed to mature in her mating nuc before harvest and transplantation, the more attractive she is to the new colony and her chance of acceptance greater (meaning, less chance of supercedure). In conclusion to this section, the establishment of long lived queens relies on marking and tracking. And sharing their quality genetics is dependent upon respectful rearing protocol which includes extended time in a larger mating nucleus. This has been working for us for 11 years, five years for my partner as a hobbyist turned professional and six years as a serious combined effort of two aspiring bee breeders specializing in survivor stock small-scale “commercial” production. While we are still very much students to it all, what I have learned is to take control of my stock for the betterment of the bees I am stewarding. Importation of bees from out of the area, varied agricultural practices, the manifestation of pest and pathogen issues, along with pesticide and GMO concerns, mean our bees have to be adaptive. We have always looked for bees that work well where we are and for what we are doing. Our locations are diverse: from the moist woodsy Lake Superior coast of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan which experiences super short but intense summer seasons and long, long winters to the diverse and adverse conditions of the Land of Enchantment’s riparian deserts rising to alpine tundra. New Mexico is sincerely a land of extremes. The longer I keep bees throughout the state, the more I am astounded at the variety of colony development and production. It is a hit and miss area. Without moisture, our nectar flows are nonexistent and bees can have a very hard time finding forage without flying long distances. If we get rain at the right time, nectar flows can be astounding. But there is no guarantee.

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is also extreme: extreme winter temperatures that last for more than half a year with nectar available only a few months (if the sun comes out and warms it up enough!). It should be noted that our northern NM home farm at 8300 feet actually has a shorter growing season than the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (by one day! according to the Farmer’s Almanac). In our circumstance, we need naturally hardy bees. After purchasing bees and queens from others and monitoring them for minimum two years, we have been able to select long-lived queens that can survive in both environments. We have been able to cross our survivors with each other in the various locations and work with what we have, both in bees and with Mother Nature. We hope that our selection and rearing process allows others to achieve the same regionally- fortified survivor genetic pool upon which to build their apiaries.

We are excited to find that while our long-lived survivor queens work very well for us, both in New Mexico and Michigan, they are also working for others in very different landscapes. Through transregional collaborations, we are witnessing them working for others. These diverse locations (and their commonalities and distinctions) are indeed relevant case studies that continue to be investigated. How and why is it that this is working?

Back in 2006, we received a summer call from John and Melissa Davis in Porterville, California. At that time, they were managing over 600 hives and were looking for some quality stock. They decided to try our survivor cross stocks and we sent them hundreds of both our VSH Italian X and NWC X marked survivor queens over a period of 5 years.

Our small operation can only accommodate so many orders. And since we cannot begin rearing early season queens due to our high altitude elevation and volatile springs in New Mexico, we offered to go to them in the spring of 2010 to assist them with developing and implementing their own early season survivor queen rearing program.

We reviewed many of their hives and found numerous marked queens that they received from us that were two, three and even four years old! The Davis hives are located near the southeastern end of the San Joaquin/Central Valley near almonds, oranges, olives and other fruit orchards. To the east they are lined by the foothills of the Sequoia National Forest. They move their bees several times a year for various pollination contracts (almonds, kiwi, cherries, plums and melons) and have not used miticides since introducing our bees into their stock lines.

They share with us that while the transition to survivor stock management has been difficult, they are pleased with the results and plan to continue with survivor stock in their operation. They also hope to offer some of their out-crossed survivors to area California beekeepers. This is exciting – they have recently enlisted into Her Majesty’s Secret Service! Working together- sharing quality, Mother Nature and beekeeper-tested stock, can only increase the efficacy of survivor stock breeding and its integration into broader beekeeping environments.

So what is the “secret”?! It doesn’t have to be a secret. It is not a new and novel idea. It has existed since before man- only the strong survive. The “secret” is basing selection on endurance and resilience; a.k.a. longevity. LONGEVITY is THE UMBRELLA TRAIT necessary for sustainable selection of naturally durable and functional bees. Long-lived queens have established their overall lifetime merit and serve as carriers of positive genetic traits (those which have imparted long life, i.e. pest/pathogen resistance, hygiene, gentleness and productivity - season to season).

Longevity through diverse and adverse conditions parents a myriad of positive survivor traits that truly determine overall health and immuno-competence performance from season to season. The term "survivor" may, to some, connote "site-specific" beekeeping. However, in our experience of cross stocking survivor bees in Michigan, New Mexico, California (and with the many other reports in additional regions), including commercial and small scale case studies, Survivor Queen production based on longevity (reared under respectful conditions), and its dissemination over multiple environments shows promise and hope for trans-regional survivor stock selection and its benefit to area beekeepers and bees. Are you ready to enlist in Her Majesty’s Secret Service?!

2017 Update: Additional efforts to exchange resilient stock lines and to collaborate with beekeepers and researchers across the nation has magnified. There are individual and collective endeavors in virtually every state to develop acclimatized genetics and local production efforts. The more stewards that participate, the better for our bees, their keepers, and our communities. Check out the ABRC proceedings link to see the full poster abstract of the 17 year trans-regional survivor stock case study. A spring queen breeding course is also offered in California – see upcoming event listing.

Queen Bee Promiscuity Boosts Hive Health; Seeley and Tarpy North Carolina State University http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061211124247.htm

Sex Life May Hold Key To Honeybee Survival http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090914111305.htm

Genetic Diversity In Honeybee Colonies Boost ; Heather Mattila , Thomas Seeley, Cornell University Productivity http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070719185521.htm

4For Honey Bee Queens, Multiple Mating Makes Her Attractive To Workers; Tarpy, Grozinger, Richard http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008183309.htm

Melanie Kirby is a longevity based bee breeder at 8300’ in the southern Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico: www.ziaqueenbees.com. Along with partner Mark Spitzig, their small operation offers Enchanted Empress Breeder Companions for interested queen rearers and breeders. As dedicated honeybee stewards knowing that their efforts are but a drop in a very large bucket, they look to share and swap quality stock. For more info email: ziaqueenbees@hotmail.com