WAS MINI-CONFERENCE and
Annual Membership Meeting
December 15, 2021
7:00-9:00 p.m. (Mountain Standard Time)
Please join us for this month’s Zoom webinar
Register here https://www.westernapiculturalsociety.org/events-1
Speaker:
Albert J. Robertson, Meadow Ridge Enterprises LTD.
The Saskatraz Queen Bee and Hybrid Projects – The Search for Better Queens
In collaboration with Saskatchewan and Manitoba queen breeders, Albert initiated the Saskatraz Breeding Program in 2004 to produce productive, gentle honey bees with tolerance to mites and brood diseases. The objective is to improve honey production, wintering ability, mite suppression, and resistance and decrease susceptibility to viruses and nosema. Albert will review the Saskatraz Bee and Hybrid Projects and the techniques used, including natural selection, back cross, recurrent breeding selections, molecular analysis such as micro-and kinome arrays, and virus screening. Many collaborators are unique to this effort, including academic and government researchers, queen breeders, and laboratories in Canada, the United States, Germany, and France. This has resulted in several research publications and the use of modern molecular, morphometric, phenotypic, and whole colony (grooming) assays. Saskatraz queens and Hybrid queens are now available in Canada and the USA. Please go to www.saskatraz.com to find distributors, published papers, and more information about the Saskatraz projects.
