Selection of honey bees in Cuban beekeeping

Cuban beekeeping has developed through a series of selection programs to its current state, characterized by the absence of chemical treatments for honey bee diseases. In 2013, the Cuban Bee Selection, Improvement and Breeding Program was launched to further optimize honey bee colonies. In this study, we analyzed the performance of the initial six generations of selected breeding colonies between 2014 and 2023. The primary colony traits evaluated included honey production (quantified as the total amount of honey produced per colony), hygienic behavior (evaluated with the pin-killed test), and Varroa destructor (Anderson and Trueman) infestation rate in adult bees (evaluated using De Jong’s method). Across six generations, 1,191 breeding colonies were selected, of which 907 were hygienic. Notably, there was a significant increase in hygienic behavior with 8 h of evaluation and a decrease in V. destructor infestation rate from 4.4% in the first to 0.9% in the fifth generation of selection. Honey production fluctuated across generations, with a median of 32 kg/selected colony in 6 months. The impact of the program is discernible in the productivity disparities per commercial colony between provinces without selection (32.5 kg honey/colony) and those with selection (45.9 kg honey/colony). Despite our selection system being based on free mating, the Cuban selection program shows promising results and the capacity to impact honey productivity and bee colonies’ health on a national scale.