Apis mellifera L., the European honey bee, is a social insect that is vital to managed pollination services in the United States. Honey bee health and colony survival are challenged by the novel parasite Varroa destructor (Anderson & Trueman 2000). Honey bee queens are naturally polyandrous, mating with an average of 12 males. Hyper-polyandrous queens, created via artificial insemination, have shown increased resistance to Varroa mites. This project combined a hyper-polyandry treatment with a genetic treatment of bees selected for Varroa Sensitive Hygienic (VSH) trait, an additive rare resistance trait. The combination of these two intrinsic forms of resistance resulted in colonies with lower Varroa mite levels and these findings offer support to the rare-allele hypothesis for the evolution of extreme polyandry in honey bees. Additionally, an applied field method was evaluated to simulate the benefits of hyper-polyandry via brood mixing: the manual sharing of immature bees between a set of colonies to increase genetic diversity without artificial insemination. Brood mixing did not have a significant effect on any measure of colony strength and the lack of similar results to relevant tests of hyper-polyandry in the United Kingdom may be due to the homogeneous genetic structure of the United States honey bee population and indicates a lack of heterogeneous genetics when sourcing queen stock from individual honey bee queen breeders.

The Varroa mite has much impact on Apis mellifera. Due to this, breeding honey bees, which are resistant against Varroa, becomes more important. The aim of this study was to determine the genetic basis of Varroa resistance in European honey bee colonies. Two different research strategies were applied: (1) a candidate gene approach, to see whether there are sequence differences in candidate genes between resistant and non-resistant colonies, but also between the different types of resistance; and (2) a genome wide analysis using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) PCR, detect new candidate regions in the genome. This will yield more insight into the genetic background of Varroa resistance in honey bees, which can help to reduce colony losses due to Varroa. Using a RAPD based genome-wide approach, there was found evidence for the involvement of Prohormone-1. A scan for variation in several candidate genes yielded variation in Dop3 that is likely linked to Varroa resistance. Breeding Varroa resistant honey bees is possible. The present study suggests the presence of genetic variation in Dop3 and Prohormone-1, which might be related to Varroa resistance in honey bees. This can contribute towards breeding Varroa resistant honey bees. Nowadays breeding honey bees is focussing on traits like honey production, gentle temper and low swarming tendency. Future research also can focus on correlation of Varroa resistance with these traits. This can prevent beekeepers from breeding Varroa resistant lines without production, gentle temper and/or low swarming tendency. Our study already suggests some genes coding for Varroa resistance that can be used for a first linkage study.

An essential guide to the health care of honey bees Honey Bee Medicine for the Veterinary Practitioner offers an authoritative guide to honey bee health and hive management. Designed for veterinarians and other professionals, the book presents information useful for answering commonly asked questions and for facilitating hive examinations. The book covers a wide range of topics including basic husbandry, equipment and safety, anatomy, genetics, the diagnosis and management of disease. It also includes up to date information on Varroa and other bee pests, introduces honey bee pharmacology and toxicology, and addresses native bee ecology. This new resource: Offers a guide to veterinary care of honey bees Provides information on basic husbandry, examination techniques, nutrition, and more Discusses how to successfully handle questions and 'hive calls' Includes helpful photographs, line drawings, tables, and graphs Written for veterinary practitioners, veterinary students, veterinary technicians, scientists, and apiarists, Honey Bee Medicine for the Veterinary Practitioner is a comprehensive and practical book on honey bee health.

A multi-authored work on the basic biology of Asian honeybees, written by expert specialists in the field, this book highlights phylogeny, classification, mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, biogeography, genetics, physiology, pheromones, nesting, self-assembly processes, swarming, migration and absconding, reproduction, ecology, foraging and flight, dance languages, pollination, diseases/pests, colony defensiveness and natural enemies, honeybee mites, and interspecific interactions. Comprehensively covering the widely dispersed literature published in European as well as Asian-language journals and books, "Honeybees of Asia" provides an essential foundation for future research.

The result is a great increase in multi-disciplinary research and novel avenues incorporating spiders as model organisms.