Project Number: 0500-00044-026-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Oct 01, 2007
End Date: Sep 30, 2012

Objective:
The primary objective is to demonstrate that mite-resistant honey bee stocks (Russian bees and varroa sensitive hygiene bees) reduce beekeeping management costs and increase colony survivorship. This objective builds on earlier results of the value of resistant bees by now focusing on bees used in migratory pollination of almonds and other crops. Additional objectives will be to improve management of resistant stocks to enhance profitability in pollination beekeeping, and to investigate molecular aspects of mite resistance and stress associated with moving bees.

Approach:
Resistant stocks will be established in commercial operations of cooperating beekeepers and monitored through annual cycles of movement to crops, and to sites of honey production and overwintering. Infestations of varroa and tracheal mites will be monitored in these colonies as they remain untreated with miticides. Colonies of unselected stock will be included and treated as is usual for the commercial management. Management variations such as feeding regimes and hive conformation will be tested and implemented to increase bee populations in advance of crop pollination, especially early season almond pollination. These treatments will be modified as information develops in other segments of the Areawide Program. Once factors that regulate migratory stress, early season development or mite resistance are identified, molecular analyses using gene expression will be initiated to identify candidate genes that ultimately will support marker-assisted selection for desirable traits.