Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
I have always said ... beekeeping is the most enjoyable, fascinating, rewarding, yet frustrating thing I do but I have a dream .....
Everybody wants to save the bees, that's why they started beekeeping, right? Well, I am no different except about 10-11 years ago I took a different approach than most people wanting to save the bees, not really knowing what I was doing at the time (as far as genetics go) .... except research, I know how to research, observe, document, and notice minuscule changes. And this is that story condensed into a youtube length video (with some skipping around and simplified terms like "Eggs" when I meant larva) that kind of explains that approach, it started really by accident (every good story starts this way)... although I have kept this mostly secret because it's not scalable at any commercial level and its not even replicable at a hobbyist or sideliner level (partially because of bee genetics .... there is that word again)......I've pretty much hit a wall I don't know how to get past (and that's coming from someone who never gives up and always thinks outside of the box). The people on my personal Facebook page have heard 'bee genetics genetics genetics' many times over the last idk how many years and I know through hours and hours of research over the last 10 years the basic concepts of how bee genetics work today so maybe what I am trying to do is impossible except "failure is never an option" .... those are words I literally live by (Fact: I literally am alive today after beating cancer because of those very words). Failure is never an option doesn't mean I never fail, it means I am too stupid to stop trying to succeed :) So enjoy and if you have anything to add or suggestions, leave a comment.
Bee genetics in a nutshell (article linked below) This pretty much shows what I am up against and why I am stuck getting to the point I want to get to .... I always shoot for the stars ... the impossible dream .... dream big or stay home .... just don't fail at whatever you chose to do:
"A queen has 16 pairs of chromosomes - one set of the pair is from her mother and one is from her father. When the queen produces eggs, one chromosome of each pair is incorporated into the egg. Which chromosome of each pair is included is random. So, eggs receive half of the queen's chromosomes on average, and are 50% related to the queen.
A drone has 16 chromosomes, and there is only one set of chromosomes. 100% of a drone's chromosomes come from the queen, because he developed from an unfertilized egg. But since the queen has 32 chromosomes each drone is not a copy of the queen and brother drones will not be identical.
The eggs created by the queen are not identical - due to both independent assortment of the chromosomes and recombination - and so there is genetic diversity among the eggs of a single queen.
Each daughter queen that is produced is unique. The new queens must, therefore, be tested for desired traits and cannot automatically be considered desirable even if their mother was exceptional.
An open-mated daughter queen has the sperm from many drones stored in her spermatheca. Therefore, the worker population she creates is highly diverse and may or may not exhibit the desired traits of a breeding program.
The drones from a breeder queen will contain 100% of that queen's genetics. Therefore, rearing drones from these queens is very much encouraged. This is true even if a virgin queen was introduced and allowed to open mate.
Due to the sex determination process in honey bees, inbreeding can result in diploid drones that are not functional and removed by worker bees during development, resulting in a "shot brood." Thus, breeding programs need to avoid mating related males and females."
If you want to read more about honey bee genetics (which is fascinating), check out this article .... https://extension.psu.edu/honey-bee-genetics-basics
Throughout history, bees have been very interesting in every single way (which explains why there are 66 mentions of bees or honey in the bible).
I have always said ... beekeeping is the most enjoyable, fascinating, rewarding, yet frustrating thing I do but I have a dream .....
Everybody wants to save the bees, that's why they started beekeeping, right? Well, I am no different except about 10-11 years ago I took a different approach than most people wanting to save the bees, not really knowing what I was doing at the time (as far as genetics go) .... except research, I know how to research, observe, document, and notice minuscule changes. And this is that story condensed into a youtube length video (with some skipping around and simplified terms like "Eggs" when I meant larva) that kind of explains that approach, it started really by accident (every good story starts this way)... although I have kept this mostly secret because it's not scalable at any commercial level and its not even replicable at a hobbyist or sideliner level (partially because of bee genetics .... there is that word again)......I've pretty much hit a wall I don't know how to get past (and that's coming from someone who never gives up and always thinks outside of the box). The people on my personal Facebook page have heard 'bee genetics genetics genetics' many times over the last idk how many years and I know through hours and hours of research over the last 10 years the basic concepts of how bee genetics work today so maybe what I am trying to do is impossible except "failure is never an option" .... those are words I literally live by (Fact: I literally am alive today after beating cancer because of those very words). Failure is never an option doesn't mean I never fail, it means I am too stupid to stop trying to succeed :) So enjoy and if you have anything to add or suggestions, leave a comment.
Bee genetics in a nutshell (article linked below) This pretty much shows what I am up against and why I am stuck getting to the point I want to get to .... I always shoot for the stars ... the impossible dream .... dream big or stay home .... just don't fail at whatever you chose to do:
"A queen has 16 pairs of chromosomes - one set of the pair is from her mother and one is from her father. When the queen produces eggs, one chromosome of each pair is incorporated into the egg. Which chromosome of each pair is included is random. So, eggs receive half of the queen's chromosomes on average, and are 50% related to the queen.
A drone has 16 chromosomes, and there is only one set of chromosomes. 100% of a drone's chromosomes come from the queen, because he developed from an unfertilized egg. But since the queen has 32 chromosomes each drone is not a copy of the queen and brother drones will not be identical.
The eggs created by the queen are not identical - due to both independent assortment of the chromosomes and recombination - and so there is genetic diversity among the eggs of a single queen.
Each daughter queen that is produced is unique. The new queens must, therefore, be tested for desired traits and cannot automatically be considered desirable even if their mother was exceptional.
An open-mated daughter queen has the sperm from many drones stored in her spermatheca. Therefore, the worker population she creates is highly diverse and may or may not exhibit the desired traits of a breeding program.
The drones from a breeder queen will contain 100% of that queen's genetics. Therefore, rearing drones from these queens is very much encouraged. This is true even if a virgin queen was introduced and allowed to open mate.
Due to the sex determination process in honey bees, inbreeding can result in diploid drones that are not functional and removed by worker bees during development, resulting in a "shot brood." Thus, breeding programs need to avoid mating related males and females."
If you want to read more about honey bee genetics (which is fascinating), check out this article .... https://extension.psu.edu/honey-bee-genetics-basics
Throughout history, bees have been very interesting in every single way (which explains why there are 66 mentions of bees or honey in the bible).
