National Honey Bee Breeding Strategy 2024-2029
In all livestock industries, genetic selection has been used to increase animal productivity and, by extension, enterprise profitability. The Australian honey bee industry is no...
HONEY BEE & POLLINATION
Fact sheet: Artificial insemination of honey bee queens – how many mates is enough?
4 pages
Published: 5 Dec 2018
Author(s): Ben Oldroyd, Nadine Chapman
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In this study we examined whether colonies headed by queens inseminated with the semen of 16 males outperformed colonies headed by queens inseminated with the semen of 8 males. The study found genetic diversity reduces the likelihood of brood inviability, colony failure and disease incidence, while increasing colony size and amount of honey produced.
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