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Reconsidering the Selection Strategy in a Flemish Honey Bee Breeding Program: Towards Selection by Exclusion
Emma Bossuyt1, Ellen Danneels1, Dirk C de Graaf1,2
1Honeybee Valley, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 287, S33, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Insects
|July 27, 2026
Summary
Honey bee breeding programs using mass selection showed limited success in improving colony resilience and productivity. Offspring often underperformed their highly-ranked mothers, indicating a need for refined breeding strategies.
Area of Science:
- Apiculture and Animal Breeding
- Genetics and Genomics
- Insect Ecology
Background:
- Selective breeding is crucial for enhancing honey bee (Apis mellifera) health and colony performance.
- Mass selection programs commonly rank queens based on traits like resilience, productivity, and behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of a decade-long honey bee mass selection program in Flanders, Belgium.
- To assess cumulative genetic improvement in honey bee colonies over multiple generations.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal data from 2017-2024 were analyzed to track colony performance across years and generations.
- Queens were ranked based on resilience, productivity, and behavioral traits.
- Offspring performance was compared to parental rankings.
Main Results:
- Behavioral traits demonstrated the most significant improvement over time.
- Progress in productivity and resilience traits was limited.
- Offspring of top-ranked queens often underperformed, and sometimes lower-ranked queens produced better offspring for specific traits like Varroa infestation and spring development.
Conclusions:
- The current mass selection strategy did not consistently yield cumulative genetic gains in honey bee colonies.
- Factors like open participation, lack of breeding standardization, and inadequate paternal genetic control may hinder selection efficiency.
- Refining the existing framework or exploring alternative strategies like selection by exclusion is necessary for developing more robust and resilient honey bee populations.
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