We view our breeder queens as a tool that improves the profitability and efficiency of your operation. Allow me to explain how we select and improve our stock from a genetic standpoint. Once we select the desirable characteristics we then try to promote and enhance them by carefully selecting which queens are to be used as breeders to pass on the desirable characteristics. Instrumental insemination insures the proper fertilization of our queens which allows Ohio Queen Breeders to play an active role in determining which genes are increased in frequency within our population. The purpose of increasing the frequency of desirable genes within our population is to improve the quality of our stock and to create a situation of homozygousity for the desired genes.
Homozygosity refers to the condition where two identical alleles are present at the same locus.
For example, two alleles are responsible for controlling one gene in a diploid organism at a location on the chromosome referred to as the locus. As you can see it is beneficial for the queen to be homozygous for the economically important traits because she can only contribute half of her genetic material to her daughters. If she is homozygous for many of the genes, she will produce relatively consistent offspring. Keep in mind this is a simplification of how genetic inheritance works, but it serves to illustrate the concept of genetic inheritance. Generally, economically important traits such as honey production, temperament and various other traits are referred to as quantitative traits and are influenced by multiple genes.