GUPTA, J.K.SHARMA, RITESH2016-07-232016-07-232010http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/69467ABSTRACT The present studies were carried out for screening out Apis mellifera colonies tolerant to Varroa mites from different apiaries and to evaluate the performance of the selected stock and the colonies raised from it. In the present studies, after screening of honey bee colonies from apiary at Nauni, Solan it was found that the colonies C3, C11, C13 and C14 had lower infestation of mites and were Varroa tolerant. These colonies also removed significantly higher percentage (more than 93.33) of pin killed brood than other colonies and also had higher percentage (58.33) of damaged mites. The maximum type of damage which was found in mites was that of damaged legs (24.71%). The data on screening of colonies from other apiaries revealed that the colony M10 was the best performing colony from migratory group, B9 from colonies at Bhota and Colony K18 was best performing colony from Karnal apiary. Amongst all the colonies at different apiaries the colony K18 was found to have no infestation on adult bees and brood and was, therefore, selected as drone mother colony for mating of second generation queens. The colony C3 from the apiary at Nauni, Solan was selected for raising first generation queens because it was found to be more superior than other selected varroa tolerant colonies. The raised colonies were open mated under Nauni conditions and were further evaluated under Nauni and migratory conditions. The results obtained revealed that daughter colonies were superior than general stock colonies both in terms of colony performance and Varroa tolerance. Post capping duration of the daughter colonies was also found to be shorter (269.78 to 272.89 h) than the general stock colonies (275.22 to 277.78h). Based on the performance of the first generation daughter queens, the colony C3D2 was selected for raising second generation queens. The raised queens were subjected to mating with drones of colony K18 in an isolated mating yard and another set of queens, with drones of unknown parentage under open conditions. It was found that second generation queens irrespective of mating conditions, were equally good in maintaining lower mite infestation, however, the colonies mated under isolation were superior with respect to other parameters related to colony performance.en##Unable to generate tags pdf ritesh sharma.pdfApis mellifera colonies,Varroa mitesThesis