Honeybee Genetics

The honeybee problem is being worked on from a number of fronts including the preservation of the species. Steve Sheppard with Washington State University talks about their efforts to preserve genetic materials for future generations.

SHEPPARD: More recently in the last couple of years we have developed cryo-preservation techniques which allow us to freeze the semen much like we do with cattle and sheep and other agricultural animals where we can actually freeze the semen; basically store it more or less indefinitely for a very long time and then bring it out of liquid nitrogen and use it for the insemination.

Sheppard explains efforts to build a gene bank for honeybees to help build populations domestically and worldwide.

SHEPPARD: The long term goal is to develop and make available a genetic repository for the honeybee, available for breeding and selective breeding purposes. The real proof is sort of in the pudding of making this material available for queen producers and queen breeders to use. Hand-in-hand with this is actually collaborators within the beekeeping industry; within the queen production industry to incorporate this material. So for example for the past 2 years we received virgin queens from U.S. queen producers that are shipped here to WSU to coincide with our return from these source populations. We inseminate those queens. We get them through quarantine and then we distribute this within the industry.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.