Drone genetics.

[Greengage]

No I dont agree, It is trending on all media platforms run by FIBKA and supported by Cork Institute of Technology although there is nothing on their website about it. I will e-mail them to see what is happening there. The project is looking to raise 20K through FIBKA members, that i have a problem with, if it is so worthwhile a project why not stump up the money and get everyone involved, similar to the project on DNA run by NUIG Galway. you can read more about the project on Bee Health here
http://www.irishbeekeeping.ie/index....search-project

Anyway it says Winter losses in the Ireland area are reported as being higher than ever in certain parts with certain parts of Cork and Kerry as being in the region of 50-70%. The mild winter of 2014/15 and the bad summer in 2015 are mainly the cause. where is the proof of this it could have been starvation or beekeepers not treating their bees. maybe for statistics more people in that region submitted data than people on the east coast.

The rain effected the queens mating and lack of pollen and high varroa loads meant that the queens that mated early in the year mated with sterile drones, is there a scientific paper to say drones were sterile?

"Unlike taking a cow to a bull where you have a good idea what the quality of the breed will be if the cow reproduces, the queen in her first twenty one days of life heads off to a drone congregation area and mates on the wing with about twenty different drones." its not that simple and you cannot compare cows to bees .

"The rain and lack of pollen from August until mid-October meant there were very little drones available for the newly emerged queens to mate with and those they did mate with were too closely related to themselves, which means the brood pattern the queens are now producing is unviable and spotty" I still have hives bursting with bees and still bringing in pollen from Ivy.

"Cork Institute of Technology have stepped up to the plate and agreed to set up a research project to run in the newly built CREATE building to sample the Irish stocks , identify the different sex alleles , so that in the future Irish beekeepers can select for sex alleles to improve the genetic viability of their honeybee stocks." says who. Anyway the fact that someone banned me from the page really annnoys me, it has 3k followers and nobody is allowed comment. Looks like to me someone has thought up a question found an answer now need to fill in the middle bits to agree with it.