"Hygienic behaviour is a colony's ability to detect, uncap, and remove unhealthy or dead brood. This trait is recognized as an important component of honey bee social immunity and is associated with improved brood disease resistance, reduced varroa mite reproduction, and increased colony resilience." |
The Tech Transfer Program (TTP) is pleased to introduce a new suite of Hygienic Behaviour Assessment resources for Alberta beekeepers, along with advance registration for the 2027 season for the recently launched Freeze-Kill Brood (FKB) Assessment Service.
For beekeepers interested in evaluating hygienic behaviour within their own operations, the TTP has developed a new Pin-Kill Brood (PKB) testing program that can be implemented immediately.
The PKB assay is a practical field method that measures a colony’s hygienic response by pin-killing capped pupae and assessing brood removal after 24 hours. The method is inexpensive, scalable, and well suited for commercial operations interested in comparing colonies, selecting breeder queens, or incorporating hygienic behaviour into stock improvement programs.
To support the adoption of hygienic behaviour testing, the TTP has developed two new resources:Together, these resources provide Alberta beekeepers with a standardized approach to measuring hygienic behaviour and generating data that can be incorporated into breeding and management decisions.
The TTP is pleased to once again offer its Freeze-Kill Brood (FKB) Assessment Service for Spring 2027 and is now accepting registrations from commercial beekeepers across Alberta.
The FKB assay uses liquid nitrogen to kill a section of capped brood and measures a colony’s ability to detect and remove the freeze-killed brood. Widely used in research and queen breeding programs, it provides a standardized assessment of hygienic behaviour.
While the Pin-Kill Brood (PKB) assay measures the removal of individually pin-killed brood, the FKB assay evaluates a larger, uniformly treated section of brood. This creates a more standardized test and allows for more reliable comparisons between colonies, making it particularly valuable for queen selection and breeding programs.