Selection of breeder queens and mating

• Selection of the desired phenotype (e.g. strong brood pattern, high honey yield, etc.)
• Removal of undesired phenotype (e.g. aggressive and defensive behaviour)
• Selected mating for maternal and paternal lineages (Mating Apiary, artificial insemination)

Breeders will have different objectives regarding the selection criteria for breeder queens used. The following are some critical selection criteria and traits breeders tend to select from, either focusing on a single trait or combining traits subject to varying priorities.

The results must be captured and verified once the breeding criteria and objectives have been defined and used for selective breeding and mating. This is a complex undertaking, and it is important to note that the phenotype (VSH) might not represent desired traits. It may take an entire seasonal cycle to establish whether the chosen combination of maternal and paternal lineages (e.g., swarming tendency and honey production) met the objectives, usually called colony performance testing.

One way of verifying the selection is to utilise the Breeder’s Equation (R = h² * S), a fundamental concept in quantitative genetics and selective breeding. It is important to note that we are dealing with quantitative traits that show continuous variation across the population regarding honey bees. These traits are typically controlled by multiple genes known as polygenes and environmental factors. Here is a short breakdown:

R = Response to selection (the change in the mean value of a trait in the offspring generation)
h² = Heritability (the proportion of phenotypic variation that is due to genetic variation)
S = Selection differential (the difference between the mean trait value of selected parents and the mean of the entire parental population)

The equation tells us that the change we can expect in a trait (R) depends on:

1. How heritable the trait is (h²) – this ranges from 0 to 1, where 1 means the trait is completely determined by genes
2. How strong our selection is (S) – this reflects how different our chosen breeding individuals are from the population average

Let’s apply the Breeder’s Equation to honey bee breeding, say for a trait like honey production, and calculate the expected increase in honey production for a colony:

• h² (heritability) for honey production in bees is typically around 0.3 (meaning 30% of the variation is genetic)
• If S (selection differential) = 20 kg (meaning we select queen mothers from colonies that produce 20 kg more honey than the apiary average)

Using R = h² * S: R = 0.3 × 20 kg = 6 kg

By selecting queens from high-producing colonies, we can expect the daughter colonies to produce about 6 kg more honey on average than the previous generation.

However, we need to consider that there are lots of variables – Queen: lays eggs, controls workers with pheromones;  Worker: finds nectar, works hard, tongue length; Environment: weather, flowers,beekeeper. Hence, it is difficult to determine the colony’s true breeding value (TBV), but it’s possible to calculate the statistically estimated breeding value (EBV) instead.