If this sounds interesting, please email me directly or, I welcome any comments or suggestions.
To be honest, Canada would be a much more rigorous trial, but logistically a bit more difficult with import regulations.
Hello Mr. Latshaw,
I agree with the rigorous trial part.
With all due respect to your plan, I am a bit confused and I don't quite follow what you intend to do.
Are you trying to get northern genetics into your gene pool?
It almost seems as if this is your goal, because the daughters from your II Queens would be open mating with northern drones, and then if you get the selected daughters back and raise queens from them, the offspring would have genetic influence from the northern drones.
There is a problem, in that there is no control over the drones. Are they going to be drones from hives that made it through the winter indoors or outdoors, drones from local queens, or are they going to be drones from package or Australian queens in the neighbor’s yard. If you cannot guarantee that the drones are going to be from the hives that made it through the winter successfully, then you might be bringing back negative traits.
OR, are you just trying to select for winter hardy traits?
In that case, the daughters from your II Queens would still be mating with a local drone population that is in many areas, not from a consistent source. As such, the above problems would still manifest themselves.
Unless of course, you don’t see the above as problems.
Nonetheless, if you are looking for winter hardy genetics, there is always the option of collecting the semen from drones originating in winter hardy hives, and then inseminating breeder queens. Problem with collecting “northern semen” is if you want to maintain a purely Karnica line.
The other options and the one that I think would work best in both maintaining purity of your line, and also offering winter hardy selection, would be for you yourself actually raising and open mating / inseminating the 50 - 100 queens, and then sending them out to wherever you choose to evaluate them. That person could keep them through the summer, and one winter, and evaluate them in the spring, providing that the queens are sent in time. After the spring evaluation, the best queens could be sent back to you, for further procreation and they would still be your own queens and from your own genetics.
For our own operation, I believe that a queen introduced after the end of June, cannot be authentically evaluated that fall, nor in the spring for wintering capabilities. In my opinion, queens introduced after the beginning of July are simply put into the hives too late to get through a honey flow and prepare for winter with their own offspring. Therefore, the evaluation would lack validity since the evaluation would come from the work of bees that are not offspring of the queen you are trying to evaluate.
Also, if I were in your shoes, and trying to select for wintering capabilities, I would ensure that I’m sending my queens out to reputable beekeepers, who know what they are doing, and who’s operating procedures would enable your queens to receive the best evaluation possible. Ensuring an authentic evaluation can be achieved by limiting all other negative influences (disease, parasites, etc.) that would otherwise cause bee mortality during the winter and as such, skew the results of the evaluation.
There are more factors than just surviving the winter that would need to be evaluated, including feed requirements both with what is fed in the fall, and what is left in the spring, also, both spring and fall hive strengths, and spring brood build up. In my opinion, these are all factors that need to be considered under the broad heading of wintering capability. Due to the work involved in evaluating 50 – 100 hives, you might want to provide some form of additional incentive for the person that’s going to be doing it.
Well, you welcomed comments and suggestions, and there she is,
JH
