The Reintroduction of Caucasian Honey Bees to the United States
In the Old World, the honey bee, Apis mellifera, can be classified into over two dozen distinctive “subspecies”. These subspecies are comprised of populations adapted to specific geographic regions and can differ one from another in a number of ways, including morphology and behavior. European colonists imported eight Old World honey bee subspecies into North America between between1620 and 1922 (when further importation of live bees was restricted by the Honey Bee Act).
Apis mellifera ligustica, imported from Italy in 1859, and the descendant “Italian” honey bees gained great acclaim with beekeepers for their golden color and productive and prolific colonies. Another subspecies that was introduced around 1880 and persisted to lesser acclaim was the Caucasian honey bee, Apis mellifera caucasica. This honey bee subspecies is native to the Caucasus mountains of Georgia, Russia, Turkey, and Armenia. Behavioral and apicultural properties of Caucasian honey bees include docility, slow initiation of spring buildup, low swarming tendency, and the extensive use of propolis. Sometimes called the Gray Caucasian bee, this subspecies is well suited to the cold climates characteristic of its mountain homeland and the Pacific Northwest. Its high use of propolis was once considered a negative apicultural trait. However, recent studies indicate that in-hive deposition of propolis may have significant benefits for colony health and there is now a renewed interest in this subspecies for US beekeeping.
Since 2010, Washington State University has been importing germplasm (semen) from populations of A. m. caucasica residing in the Caucasus mountains. The intent of this effort was to develop a breeding program to reintroduce this subspecies to US beekeepers. From initial backcrosses through A. m. carnica maternal lineages using instrumental insemination, we have been releasing this stock through queen producer collaborators who use WSU supplied i.i. breeder queens of A. m. caucasica to produce F1 daughter queens available to beekeepers throughout the US. With the addition of cryogenic tools that allow long-term storage of semen, we have been gathering genetic diversity from regions within the range of the subspecies for inclusion in a germplasm repository both at WSU and at the USDA-NAPGP in Ft. Collins, Colorado.
Steve Sheppard is the Thurber Professor of Apiculture in the Department of Entomology at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. His graduate research at the University of Illinois centered on population genetics and evolution in honey bees. Prior to joining the faculty at WSU, Steve worked as a research scientist for the US Department of Agriculture, conducting research on Africanized honey bees and the genetic processes that accompany insect range expansions.
In addition to ongoing research on genetics and evolution, the WSU Bee Program conducts research on insect introductions, basic mechanisms of genetic differentiation and on honey bee colony health. Steve, his graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and colleagues select and breed honey bees for Pacific Northwest conditions. The Program also provides inseminated breeder queens to queen producers, an effort that has increased genetic variability within these commercial sources of queens. Since 2008, the bee research program at WSU has actively imported germplasm of several honey bee subspecies of apicultural interest. By developing practical cryopreservation methods, WSU was able to establish the world’s first honey bee germplasm repository for the conservation of Old World honey bee germplasm and for the preservation of current top-tier selected bee stocks from US queen producers. The laboratory has a number of projects on honey bee colony health, including the sub-lethal effects of pesticide exposure and the effects of metabolic gases on indoor storage of colonies
In collaboration with mycologists at Fungi Perfecti, the WSU Bee Program is involved in a major research effort to use fungi as a biological control agent for parasitic mites and to use polypore mushroom extracts to improve the health of honey bees. We have partnered with interested commercial beekeepers to conduct large-scale field experiments involving hundreds of honey bee colonies. A recent publication by the Bee team demonstrated that bees fed with mycelial extracts of several polypore mushroom species exhibited a significant reduction in virus titers, compared to control bees fed sugar syrup alone.