Defense behavior progress in 14th generation of Iranian honey bee (Apis mellifera meda) breeding project colonies

عنوان دوره: دومین کنگره بین المللی حشره شناسی ایران
نویسندگان
چکیده
Bred queens with desirable behavioral traits are important factors of beekeeping success. In honey bee breeding project, defense behavior was evaluated during 1999-2016. Data were obtained on 500-700 Iranian native population of honeybee colonies (honeybee breeding project in central region of Iran) subject to 14 successive generations of selection. The best colonies consisted of 40 drone producer and 100 mother colonies were selected in the end of years for establishing the next generation. Queen rearing was done in the southern provinces of Iran during the winter and early spring of next years and the established colonies were evaluated during the spring and summer in the same colonies and same environmental conditions. Defense behavior was evaluated through counting the number of stings on the black leather ball that moved in front of hive entrances for one minute. Defense behavior was evaluated twice per year (spring and summer) during the last fourteen generations.
The number of stings in honey bee colonies during the last years have been fluctuating, with a decreasing trend. The genetic and phenotypic trends of defense behavior in the honeybee colonies during 1999-2016 were desirable. The current results indicated that there is significant progress in defense trait, which confirm previous findings. The results showed the Heritability of defense behavior as 0.40. Phenotypic and genetic correlations between honey production with defense behavior were -0.19 and 0.42, respectively. Phenotypic and genetic correlations between swarming and defense behavior were -0.49 and -0.69, respectively.
In this study was evaluated the performance of the bred queens in Iranian honey bee breeding program, and bred queen was compared with control queens kept in private apiaries. The mother queens were reproduced by beekeepers in south of Iranto evaluate and compare these queens with queens reproduced in private apiaries across the country. To evaluate the queens, specific questionnaires were designed based on Likerd scale and completed by beekeepers under supervision of provincial experts.
The results indicated that the bred queens had better performance in terms of defensive behavior compared with queens kept in private apiaries.In the other words, the bred colonies significantly different from control colonies (P<0.05).
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