For obvious reasons, when selecting which colonies you wish to graft from, you should always select from your "best" colonies. But "best" is really a subjective analysis, and open to a wide range of potential definitions. More often than not, you are selecting for a number of different qualities, such as honey production, spring buildup, gentleness, hygienic behavior, long lifespan, pollen foraging, low propolis, low swarm tendencies, ect.
But what is the order in which you should be selecting for? Is any one quality more difficult than others to select for?
Lets start off by putting this into an example. Lets say, for the sake of argument, that there are only three qualities that the bees have: honey production, spring buildup, and gentleness. Lets also say that it's our desire to max out all three of these qualities into one strain. Lets also say that I only have three hives (we will ignore the inbreeding implications that this makes, it's just for the sake of argument): one is high in honey production, but low in the other two categories (i.e. slow to buildup, and very aggressive); one is high in spring buildup only; and the last is very gentle, but not very productive (i.e. slow to buildup and low honey production). Which one of the three would you select from first? Or does it not matter that much? Or is it a rather subjective analysis, looking at which of the three qualities is MOST important to the individual?
The way you go about it could matter. For example, if gentleness is the easiest to select for, and spring build up is the hardest to select for, you would obviously want to select for spring build up first. Then breed out multiple queens, of which you select the best honey production from (assuming that all of the offspring would still score high in spring buildup). Then breed out multiple sets of those queens until you can finally select for high gentleness. If you went about it the opposite way (selecting for gentleness first, then selecting for honey production, ect.) it could take substantially longer to get the end result, if at all.
Personally, at the moment I have two sets of queen cells sitting in the finisher: 5 cells are from a MH hive that seems to have an above average (although not all together too high) hygienic behavior, moderate to slightly above average honey production and slightly below spring buildup, while being VERY gentle to work with. The other 7 cells are from a VSH hive that seems to have very high hygienic behavior, very high spring buildup, but is VERY aggressive to work with. I'm wondering if it's better off to start with one set, or the other, or just both and see what I get.
article source: beesource.com
But what is the order in which you should be selecting for? Is any one quality more difficult than others to select for?
Lets start off by putting this into an example. Lets say, for the sake of argument, that there are only three qualities that the bees have: honey production, spring buildup, and gentleness. Lets also say that it's our desire to max out all three of these qualities into one strain. Lets also say that I only have three hives (we will ignore the inbreeding implications that this makes, it's just for the sake of argument): one is high in honey production, but low in the other two categories (i.e. slow to buildup, and very aggressive); one is high in spring buildup only; and the last is very gentle, but not very productive (i.e. slow to buildup and low honey production). Which one of the three would you select from first? Or does it not matter that much? Or is it a rather subjective analysis, looking at which of the three qualities is MOST important to the individual?
The way you go about it could matter. For example, if gentleness is the easiest to select for, and spring build up is the hardest to select for, you would obviously want to select for spring build up first. Then breed out multiple queens, of which you select the best honey production from (assuming that all of the offspring would still score high in spring buildup). Then breed out multiple sets of those queens until you can finally select for high gentleness. If you went about it the opposite way (selecting for gentleness first, then selecting for honey production, ect.) it could take substantially longer to get the end result, if at all.
Personally, at the moment I have two sets of queen cells sitting in the finisher: 5 cells are from a MH hive that seems to have an above average (although not all together too high) hygienic behavior, moderate to slightly above average honey production and slightly below spring buildup, while being VERY gentle to work with. The other 7 cells are from a VSH hive that seems to have very high hygienic behavior, very high spring buildup, but is VERY aggressive to work with. I'm wondering if it's better off to start with one set, or the other, or just both and see what I get.
article source: beesource.com
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