Selective Breeding
Breeders of Italian bees, as well as other honey bee races, look for certain beneficial characteristics. Depending on the breeding goal, one or more of the following characteristics may be emphasized:
- Gentleness or excitability
- Resistance to various diseases including tracheal mite and Varroa mite
- Early spring buildup in population
- Wintering ability
- Tendency to limited swarming
- Ability to ripen honey rapidly
- Honeycomb cappings are white
- Minimal use of propolis
- Availability and queen cost
- Color
Source: George Imrie's pink pages
Read more about this topic: Italian Bee
Famous quotes containing the words selective and/or breeding:
“The selective memory isn’t selective enough.”
—Blake Morrison (b. 1950)
“Good breeding ... differs, if at all, from high breeding only as it gracefully remembers the rights of others, rather than gracefully insists on its own rights.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)