Breeding Program

Collecting honey bee semen

The WSU honey bee selection and Breeding Program continues into its second decade. The program provides selected honey bee stocks to beekeepers.

The WSU Breeding Program is focused toward developing honey bee stocks that exhibit a measure of resistance or tolerance to common honey bee pathogens and parasites. A related program coordinated by WSU designed to enhance US honey bee diversity through importation of honey bee semen from Old World sources, evaluation of progeny and release of germplasm to the queen production industry.