A new book on honey bee breeding from Bee Guards WP2 Breeding kitchen!

Pim Brascamp, Aleksandar Uzunov, Piter Bijma and Manuel Du composed “The Genetics of Selection in Honeybees”, a new cost-free eBook published by Wageningen University. The book aims to help breeders and bee experts understand subtle elements of honey bee selection, which previously needed to be addressed. The current version is 44 pages of condensed material in four chapters: Breeding Goal, Quantitative Genetics, Breeding Value Estimation, and Selection. It is available in chapter or whole pdf book mode.

Download here. Or have a look for more downloads on our downloadpage.

Authors consider this material as work in progress and appreciate and welcome comments and suggestions for improvement.

Alert from the BeeGuards team: New Invasive Honey Bee Mite Found in Georgia, Spreading West!



The BeeGuards members: Aleksandar Uzunov, Cecilia Costa and Giovanni Cilia are an important part of the author team on this breaking new article. You need to read.

First to confirm findings of the harmful Tropilaelaps mercedesae mite in Western Georgia (Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region). Infested honey bee colonies (of the Caucasian honey bee, Apis mellifera caucasica) across three beekeeping sites showed high levels of infestation. Tropilaelaps are spreading and create increasing concern for beekeepers. In these colonies, T. mercedesae was found alongside another harmful mite, Varroa destructor, both showing high reproductive success. This discovery raises alarms for beekeeping in Georgia and Europe, and immediate steps are needed to monitor and control its spread to protect bees and agriculture.

Download on: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385048575_First_Report_on_Tropilaelaps_mercedesae_Presence_in_Georgia_The_Mite_is_Heading_Westward

New method for Tropilaelaps mercedesae detection!

In this video (https://tropilaelaps.info/media/video-gallery/) you can follow the instructions on how to apply the new method under field or lab conditions. The video is based on the experience and results available in the preprint article:

Uzunov, Janashia, Chen, Costa, Kovacic A scientific note on “Rapid brood decapping” – a method for assessment of honey bee (Apis mellifera) brood infestation with Tropilaelaps mercedesae.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.09.616962v1.article-metrics

BeeGuards in China!

Strong contribution from WP2 Breeding experts at the International Apicultural Asia Regional Symposium in Beijing. Chao Chen and Alex Uzunov organized a satellite breeding conference with contributions from Australia, North America, Asia and Europe. Cecilia Costa, Jesus Yaniz and Marin Kovacic presented different aspects and perspectives on honey bee breeding, alongside other experts from Australia, Canada, China, Germany.

The 2024 International Apicultural Asia Regional Symposium is set to convene at the Miyun Youth Palace and Rui Haimu Resort in Beijing, China from 2rd- 4th September, 2024, drawing honey enthusiasts, beekeepers, researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders from across Asia and beyond. This symposium is envisioned as a pivotal event poised to elevate the apicultural industry to new heights, fostering a sustainable and dynamic economy centered around beekeeping activities.

Study of the honeybee holobiont

Read the poster of Melanie Parejo, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) et al. Presented on Applied Hologenetic Conference 2024 in Copenhagen. Focus was on BEEGUARDS WP4: Study of the honeybee holobiont to unravel management and environment-driven changes in colony resilience. Simply understand what we do in our project. Read more about the conference on: www.appliedhologenomicsconference.eu

You can download the poster on our download page.

Video of Apis florea in Europe detected by BeeGuards members!

The BeeGuards experts Aleksandar Uzunov, Cecilia Costa and David Mifsud, together with Thomas Galea from Malta and molecular specialists Giovanni Cilia and Chao Chen, reported the finding of a fully developed colony of the Dwarf honey bee (Apis florea ) in Malta. This is the first in Europe and highlights that the spread of A. florea is a concrete risk for European beekeeping. In the case of Malta, it is even more dangerous since it may affect the already vulnerable small population of the endemic subspecies Apis mellifera ruttneri . Here is the link from the Open Access article https://www.researchgate.net/…/383272422_Apis_florea_in….

This finding is important for BeeGuards, as one of its objectives is the development of guidelines for prevention and preparedness for the spread of exotic parasites.

What is a Multiactor Forum (MAF)?

What is a Multiactor Forum (MAF)? Good question! Listen to Raffaele explaining how you can bee involved, even become asked about your option! How you can influence such a big project. Our MAF group is with around 250 stakeholders. Feel free to join, sign up on this mail: maf@beeguards.eu

Listen to our podcast: https://beeguards.podbean.com

Queen Ringing – An Alternative Method for Inducing Brood Interruption

Queen caging is a crucial part of the BeeGuards project. Here are some nice articles already done by several team members of BeeGuards.
Climate changes results in shorter and shorter winters and brood breaks seems to disappear more or less in many countries. This means varroa and virus not in control! Many inventions have been developed to create brood breaks. Queen caging has become popular. But read and see her. The RINGING of a queen.
Have look on these nice publications on comparing caging and ringing. All done by BeeGuards members.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0005772X.2023.2263285
Read more about ringing in this publication!
Queen Ringing – An Alternative Method for Inducing Brood Interruption. https://doi.org/10.1080/0005772X.2023.2263285
and enjoy this how to video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBAxwKE8NQo

Mating station open for the public in Bologna – BeeGuards dissemination.

One of the BeeGuards mating stations is placed in the Botanical Garden of Bologna. A very exciting place in regard to mating honey bee queens. The city center offers an extremely low commercial honey bee density and was thus found suitable for controlled mating necessary to implement the work program of WP2.

The Botanical Garden and Herbarium of the University of Bologna are open to the public and regularly host school children as well as university students.

And being in a public place, it is important to be open minded and share your project and knowledge. Visitors are curious and want to know what is going on in the garden.

Therefore, very nice information posters have been produced. Here presented by Cecilia Costa, BeeGuards coordinator, standing proudly next to the overview poster.

Another poster explains the honey bee mating biology and the importance of the bee queen.

On one of our pictures, you can see the mating nucs, where the virgin queens are hosted and mated.

Our project has public awareness, and already the first interview with the Botanical Garden’s Professor Marta Galloni has taken place.

We have a very nice setup in the heart of Bologna with access to the public. Nice job by CREA and BeeSources.

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