Adam,
I agree there is demand for inseminated breeder queens. However, I do not
agree that VSH is a productive part of that demand. Deknow's original point
was that a lot of people use the term VSH, but how many are actually
selecting for it. My contention is there are a lot of queens sold as "VSH"
that do not express the behavioral characteristic at a beneficial level. If
the stock was expressing VSH at a beneficial level, beekeepers would see
just how energetically expensive and detrimental the trait is to colony
survival. This is why I suggested the "VSH breeder queens" and the
performance of their daughters are confounded by heterosis expressed in
subsequent generations, with no apparent benefit or expression of VSH.
Please correct me if you disagree, but I believe you as well as Tom and
Suki were constantly making outcrosses to maintain the vitality of the
lines.
Hi Joe,
There's enough of a demand for VSH and VSH type inseminated breeder queens
to keep people busy during the season...
Scepticism is healthy, certainly.
And yes, as we all know from reading the material here on beesource,
there's a very good reason to be sceptical when claims are made without
real-world proof. However, what's been done with the VSH program has been working for many
and with the Pol-line research and offerings to the public, VSH seems to be
helping in commercially tested scenarios. Here's a quote from Dr. Bob Danka
from the USDA Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Laboratory:
"
An offshoot of the main VSH research is the development of the "Pol-line"
population. This effort began in 2008 when we selected some outcrossed VSH
colonies at the end of a test we ran in cooperation with a large beekeeping
operation whose focus is on crop pollination. The Pol-line population has
been augmented with more colonies each subsequent year, and all colonies
have been combined in annual propagations. Last year we propagated 32 queen
lines. The colonies that get added generally are chosen because they
survived with large bee populations and low varroa populations after being
used for migratory pollination and/or honey production. We have been
fortunate to be able to increase the level of selection during the past two
years by testing more bees that are managed in three, large-scale,
commercial migratory beekeeping operations. We are trying to create bees
that function well in such operations while retaining significant
expression of VSH. We distributed some of this breeding material through
Glenn Apiaries while we continue to work on developing the population."
(full thread on USDA stock strains is here:
http://vshbreeders.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=153)
As with this program's breeding design, we're selecting for hardiness and
productivity with the ability to perform without any chemical treatments.
We use some foundation stock from the USDA, stock from other beekeepers that
manage their bees without treatment, stock from successful commercial
beekeepers who watch their treatments...you know the drill. We are not
solely crossing high VSH strains with other strains, but keeping a more
heterogeneous population with our suite of good economic traits as our base selector and
survivability as the main selection criterion over that. Some make it, some do not.
We'll be measuring VSH levels using the tests mentioned earlier in the
thread, this season and I am extremely interested to see how the VSH levels
correlate with the overall population's success.
To answer your question, Joe, we do make outcrosses sometimes, but we're
more often following a more gradual mating design where we try to cross the
whole desirable population to candidates, some of which are certainly
different and would exhibit localized hybrid-vigor, but mainly to desirable
members within the group. We test/vet new stock first and determine if it
is desirable before we make any crosses that would be considered
"outcrosses".
My understanding of the development of the "Pol-line" was that daughter
queens from a single VSH queen were free flight mated in a larger
commercial operation that I have worked with and supplied stock to for many
years. The free flight mated queens were then tracked through the operation
and the best later became the foundation for semen supplied to Tom and
Suki. Again, I think this was an outcross attempting to increase vigor and
mask the detrimental effects observed when a high frequency of VSH is
observed in a population.
This was the initial description--there have been several years of selection
within the three cooperators' operations and at the USDA Lab at Baton Rouge.
The offering of the initial germplasm was made, and the results were
varied. As the program has grown, the results have become more uniform and
positive.
What I found interesting about the Pol-line data I saw at Baton Rouge was
that although the Pol-line strains were less high in VSH expression compared to pure
VSH expressing stock, they performed well over-Winter and showed very good mite resistance,
while being more productive then the pure VSH colonies. There is enough of
something there
to impart resistance.
I think it is important that beekeepers know what they are actually buying.
It takes many years to establish and test lines. Simply making a cross and
putting a label on it does not constitute a breeding program. Again, I
think this is Deknow's actual point.
Sure, I agree. I don't think anyone involved with VSH breeding is doing
what Deknow's actual point was addressing. Scepticism is healthy! Results
obtained through empirical application support and verify concepts and
ideas. VSH in bee breeding will be tested in the years to come and
hopefully, it will pass the test!
Adam Finkelstein
www.vpqueenbees.com