ANALYSIS OF UTILITY AND BIOLOGICAL TRAITS OF SELECTED SUBSPECIES AND LINES OF THE HONEY BEE (APIS MELLIFERA L.) BASED ON FIELD EVALUATION PART 1. ANALYSIS OF TRAITS RELATED TO BEE DEVELOPMENT

The aim of the study was to analyze the utility and biological traits of selected breeds and lines of the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.). A highly significant effect of the year of evaluation, experimental group, breed, and maternal line was found for most of the traits analyzed in the study: swarming tendency, post-wintering condition, colony development (including the number of combs covered with bees and the number of combs with brood), temperament evaluation. The phenotypic trends of most traits showed an upward tendency. This demonstrates both an increase in the value of the evaluated traits over the 10-year study period and the positive effect of the conducted breeding work. A comparison of field evaluations was made between the test group and the control group. The selected breeding material introduced from the Breeding Apiary showed an improvement in traits related to the development of the honey bee’s utility characteristics.