Buckfast development and genetics question.

[josethayil]

I did a lot of reading about buckfast development and the bees used in the line for the genetics.

There is monticola (a dark highland bee from central african mountains) and lamarkii (egyptian) genetics included in the buckfast at the later stage for various reasons. Both of these races have a shorter development time (18 days for workers) than the other races (european races) used to create the buckfast.

Usually the bees which has genetics from the Monticola or Lamarkii lines should hatch first before the bees wiith genetics from the european races. Even if they are hybrids, the bees which get half of either monticola or lamarkii linage will hatch faster than the ones with more european linage.

So if the buckfast bee is allowed to raise its own queen and kept in isolated areas the bees should turn into basically either monticola or lamarkii dominant genes because the queens with these genes will hatch first and kill the other queen cells before they hatch. So in a few generations they will move towards being mostly monticola or lamarkii linage with a shorter brood cycle.

Am I right about the above details? Has anyone tried this?

[deknow]

no.  some genetic traits are linked to others, but certainly all of the traits of a specific race afe not linked with all the others.
if you look at a true feral population where they have been building their own comb for many generations, i'm not sure what kind of development time you would see from race to race...cell size seems to have its own impact on development time in workers.
deknow

[josethayil]

Well i am not sure about cell size having an effect on development time on workers. There are africanised bees developing in shorter time in large cell foundations too.

An african line queen will hatch faster than a european line queen if both eggs are laid around the same time. So in a colony where there is some african and european linage of bees, if the hive is about to swarm or supercede the queen cells laid with some african getetic material(either from mother side or father side) will hathc first and kill the other cells. This will increase the african linage in the next generation.

So I think shorter development time is genetics than cell size differences. And the easiest place to ebserve this will be in queens.