Washington State University, Honey Bee Health program has just released a video to help beekeepers improve their stock and overcome some of the obstacles they may face in their breeding efforts. The selection and breeding of honey bees is perhaps the best long term and sustainable solution to the current issues facing beekeepers. Honey bee breeding poses unique challenges in that selection is at the colony and population level. This video presents a review of the complexities and basic selection methods. One of the most successful bee breeding programs, the Page-Laidlaw Closed Population Breeding Program, is described. Beekeepers can implement this program in working toward establishing and maintaining honey bee stocks that are productive, express increased resistance to pests and pathogens, and well adapted to their environment. This video gives an overview of honey bee breeding and selection that will help both the commercial bee breeder and beekeeping collectives trying to develop locally adapted bees.
See: https://vimeo.com/380776410
Cobey, S., T. Lawrence, and S.Sheppard. 2019. Video: Selection Methods for Honey Bee Breeding. Washington State University Extension. Produced by Washington State University College of Agriculture, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences. https://vimeo.com/380776410.
