BBKA Forum

From the BBKA website :-
"The University of Plymouth in partnership with B4 (a community interest company: Bringing Back Black Bees) and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) have started a 4 year PhD study to investigate suggestions from bee-keepers that different sub-species have a suite of different behaviours and characteristics in comparison to other sub-species, and further that these might be highly regional in their nature.

The project will measure these differences, and match those with genetic signatures to confirm the lineage of bees showing different traits. It also aims to identify the parts of the genome that might be under rapid change in these sub-species.

While some of the trait differences might be well-established in the bee-keeping community, to date published, robust empirical evidence is lacking. The kinds of traits that we’re interested in gathering data on are, for example, drone brood timings, worker brood cycle, and thriftiness. We will investigate these traits using a bee keeping survey.

https://www.bbka.org.uk/news/does-bee-behaviour-relate-to-inheritance

If you are interested in taking part in the survey please email your name to [email protected]

No hidden agenda in the B4 "bring back black bees" then.
Relying on surveys by beekeepers is not a good way of conducting serious research.
Nevertheless some interesting ideas. Some already borne out by studies in Austria showing that drones for Carnica vs Linguista fly at different heights etc etc.
Regional nature...come and meet my local bees vs those from Teesside

I think there is more to it than just a Q&A survey Nigel.

"The survey has been designed in collaboration with bee-keepers and tries to get as much detail as possible whilst at the same time being practical and feasible for bee-keepers to complete. It will require you to measure and record specific parameters throughout the season, some of which you would be completed as part of your usual routine."

I hope that the 'Bring Back Black Bees' involvement does not mean that there is an agenda already although the desire to "go black" might be the reason why funding has been approved and funding into bee research is welcome; Investigation into the genome may be of interest however.
Nigel, you might be able to get your local unproductive stingers assessed for their genetic make-up?

AdamD wrote: ↑

18 Apr 2019, 13:09

Nigel, you might be able to get your local unproductive stingers assessed for their genetic make-up?

Why?

I did find out about being part of a similar sort of survey from U of P about a year or so back. The parameters they wanted to measure were very time consuming; so I declined to take further part. I tried to find the e-mail from them detailing what they wanted but not there. Recall it was an estimate of the % per frame per inspection of pollen/stores/brood/uncapped brood/capped brood/% drone etc. In my case 22 frames per hive to individually assess. It would have taken me longer to count one hive than to inspect 10
I also realised that much of the data provided would be "guesstimates", devaluating the research results by having guessed data inputted.
.I wish them luck, but don't think surveys are the way forward.