Honey Bee Genetic Improvement Program (Plan Bee)

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The Plan Bee project has made significant progress towards the development of a national honey bee genetic improvement program, with the majority of deliverables successfully completed. This is despite a number of challenging external factors, including the impacts of drought, flood and fire, COVID, Varroa mite detection and the difficulty in accessing genotyping services.

Trait definition and development were guided by beekeeper and queen breeder survey results, which confirmed honey production, temperament, brood pattern and pest and disease resistance traits were most highly valued. Nationally representative consultation was conducted through surveys, interviews and workshops and culminated in the development of the Plan Bee Breeding Manual, Australia’s reference text for standardised phenotypic assessment and data management, pedigree recording and sampling methods for genotyping.

Plan Bee team members collected phenotypic data with queen breeders according to standardised methods outlined in the Plan Bee Breeding Manual, which was subsequently submitted to the national database developed and managed by the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (AGBU), located at the University of New England. Approximately 5,500 colonies are present in this database, with frames of bees, aggression score, chalkbrood and brood pattern score, along with European foulbrood score having the highest number of records by trait.