All breeding stock is selected and certified
Trade Mark
& Registration
Saskatraz stock is selected + bred in
Saskatchewan for honey production, wintering
ability and resistance to mites and brood
diseases.
Saskatraz stock is available as queen cells,
Saskatraz hybrid production (OHB-USA) and
Saskatraz production and breeder queens (Sask.)
in 2022.
2022 Saskatraz Families:
S14 |
S113 |
SG20 |
S28 |
S136 |
SG34 |
S88 |
SL25 |
SG44 |
S96 |
SY26 |
SG50 |
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Queen cells from tested Saskatraz breeders
($20 CDN). Available for pickup only.
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Saskatraz Breeder Queens available from June
to August
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Breeder queens in 3 hole cages ($300)
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Breeder queens in 3 frame nucs ($450)
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Closed population mated breeder queens
or Instrumentally Inseminated in 3 hole
cages ($500)
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A limited number of 5 frame nucs with
Saskatraz Hybrid queens are available for
early June 2022.
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Saskatraz hybrid production queens are
produced at Olivarez honey Bees Inc. (OHB)
in Northern California (Orland area) from
April 15th to end of August 2022. These
hybrids will produce pure Canadian Saskatraz
drones for stud use.
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Saskatraz production queens produced in
Saskatchewan at Meadow Ridge Enterprise Ltd.
are available from July to August 2022.
Ordering Information
Shipping Information
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Prices do not include shipping
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Shipping is through Air Canada Cargo, UPS,
or Canada Post Priority Mail.
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All
shipments are UNINSURED, however, the
risk is minimal. Replacement is at the
discretion of Meadow Ridge Enterprises Ltd.
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Examine the contents of your shipment immediately upon
delivery.
Please email us anytime at sales@saskatraz.com to
place an order or at a.j.robertson@saskatraz.com if
you have any questions.
Saskatraz Hybrid Queen Update 2020
Certified
Saskatraz hybrid queens are produced in Northern
California (Orland area) exclusively by Olivarez
honey Bees Inc. (www.ohbees.com),
using Saskatraz breeder queens constructed in
Saskatchewan, Canada by Meadow Ridge Enterprises
LTD (Breeder, Albert J. Robertson). Saskatraz
stock is Patented and Trademarked to help
maintain the authenticity of the stock (cf
Trademark and Registration). To be authentic the
sale of Saskatraz queens must be accompanied by
an invoice/certification document from a
licensed queen producer. A detailed review of
the Saskatraz project (established 2005)
including breeding methods, published research
articles, power point presentations and
information on individual breeding families,
including Saskatraz hybrids can be found under
the Saskatraz Project Review 2010, Research,
and Presentation tabs at the top of the
page.
We
initiated Saskatraz hybrid production in 2012 -
2013 in Orland California with David Powell and
Ray Olivarez. We now have Saskatraz breeding
stock in several countries (UAE, Iran, Saudi
Arabia, Afghanistan, Turkey, South Korea, and
Ukraine). So far, we have had good reports on
the crosses made between Saskatraz breeder
queens and indigenous honey bees. Saskatraz
hybrids are being produced in Northern
California using virgin queens from diverse
families of Saskatraz breeder queens and open
mating them with unrelated drone populations in
the Orland area. These queens produce workers
(F1 generation) with diverse genetic
backgrounds, generally resulting in increased
colony vigor. Analyses of Saskatraz hybrid
colonies in Canada is showing fast spring build
up and increases in honey production.
In
the last several years since producing Saskatraz
hybrid queens in California and bringing them
back to Saskatchewan and other Canadian
provinces, we have received favorable reports on
their performance. On occasion, shipping issues
occur causing serious stress on the queens, but
in general, the shipping has been reliable with
few incidents.
Suggestions
have been made that locally raised queens
perform better than queens produced in
California, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii.
Few if any trials have been reported to provide
evidence for these statements. We decided to
assess honey production and varroa population
growth in 5 families of Saskatraz queens. Data
on honey production and varroa mite infestation
for Saskatchewan raised queens and Saskatraz
hybrid queens raised from Saskatraz breeder
queens in Northern California is shown in the
following figure. Total honey production was
similar, but trended higher in S14 and S28
hybrids, but was significantly better in S96 and
SY26 hybrids. In terms of varroa populations,
the Saskatraz hybrid’s tended to show slightly
higher levels after fall treatments than the
Saskatraz families. Wintering ability of
Saskatraz hybrids appears similar and more data
is being collected.

click chart to enlarge
This
figure compares honey production and mite
population growth in 2016 of 5 Saskatraz
families bred in Saskatchewan to progeny
produced in California as Saskatraz hybrids.
Only mite population levels before fall
treatment are comparable since Saskatraz hybrids
were treated in the fall of 2015 and Saskatraz
families produced in Saskatchewan were not. The
green bars show mite population growth after
spring treatment (April 10, 2016) up to August
20, 2016. The orange line represents the mean
honey production in Saskatchewan as reported in
2016.
Use
of Saskatraz hybrid stock in your apiaries
should provide drone populations which will
increase the frequency of alleles for honey
production and varroa tolerance, as well as
other economic traits. This is because drones
from the hybrids carry the genetics of their
mother, the breeder queen.
Summary
of Saskatraz breeder queen traits:
· - Excellent honey production
· - Good wintering ability
· - Selected for increased varroa
tolerance and resistance to brood diseases.
· - Show increased hygienic behavior
The Saskatraz Hybrid Project
Background
A long term objective of the Saskatraz project
is to produce Saskatraz production queens in
adequate numbers, at reasonable prices, for
commercial bee keepers, in the spring of the
year. Our original plan was to export breeder
queens to Chile, and set up a breeding and
commercial queen production operation. In our
original feasibility study an agricultural
company with land and resources was willing to
take on this project in isolated valleys in the
Andes Mountains. We have to date failed to
achieve export status to Chile, but with some of
the recent advances in our work with diagnostic
microarrays and multiplex PCR, we may be able to
achieve export status in the near future.
However, an alternative strategy was initiated
in November 2011. This arose because of requests
by commercial beekeepers, for larger numbers of
Saskatraz production queens, from Saskatraz
breeders.
Saskatraz hybrid production plan
In November 2011 we attended the California
State Beekeepers Association meetings, and met
with two queen producers interested in
multiplying our stock. They are located in
northern California, near Orland. Twelve breeder
queens from 6 of our best families, selected for
honey production, wintering ability, as well as
varroa and tracheal mite tolerance were sent to
a California queen producer collaborator in
September, 2011. Nine of the breeders are
performing well and will serve to initiate the
project.
I will be going to Orland, California on March
14th to
help set up the crosses with virgin queens from
Saskatraz breeders. Prior to shipping the
breeder queens in September of 2011, we tested
the progeny from each breeder for known viruses
and nosema species. This helps to eliminate
possible transmission of pathogens to the
breeder queen progeny. We are pursuing
diagnostic methods to improve this screen, and
will be making this a routine practice with our
breeding stock. We have the option of crossing
our virgins with drones from Carniolan and mixed
Italian stock. The queen producers have been
incorporating VSH breeding stock into their
breeding populations for several years. It will
be interesting to test their drone populations
for viruses, nosema and traits associated with
varroa tolerance. We have identified putative
molecular markers correlated with varroa
tolerance over the last few years and can
currently identify these phenotypes in some of
our breeding families. The hybrids will be
tested in Canada to follow the transmission of
desired traits.
Hybrid Queens
1. What characteristics will these hybrid
queens have?
The virgin queens will be of 100% Canadian,
Saskatraz ancestry, because they are raised from
the larvae of the original breeders. They will
produce 100% Canadian Saskatraz drones, because
the drones are produced by the queens’ germ
cells after meiosis. They are haploid and are
not fertilized by the queen prior to laying like
female workers. All of the drones have Canadian
Saskatraz grandfathers. Remember that drones
have no father just grandfather’s. This makes
the Saskatraz hybrids valuable for any breeding
program, and allows queen breeders to
re-construct near pure Saskatraz family
phenotypes .This can be achieved by backcrossing
Saskatraz virgin queens to apiaries composed of
the hybrid stock.
2. How do we construct near pure Saskatraz
family lines, or colony phenotypes?
Since we will have Saskatraz hybrids available
from this project, for at least 6 different
families (S28, S84, S88, S86, S113, S125) we can
choose which line of drones we wish to use to
cross to the virgins we produce from a Saskatraz
breeder, or any other breeder queen. Queen cells
from selected colony phenotypes can also be
purchased from the Saskatraz breeding program,
and backcrossed to the Saskatraz hybrid colonies
of choice. This should be done in a closed
population mating situation with 36-40 hybrid
colonies per mating apiary. No more than 10 nucs
per apiary should be mated in any 10 day
interval. Replacement nucs produced in this way
should stabilize the traits we have selected for
in the Saskatraz breeding program, and increase
the heritability (gene frequency ) of important
economic traits ,such as honey production and
varroa tolerance. Since all of our breeding
families have a high degree of genetic diversity
built into them, there is little chance of
inbreeding depression.
3. What can we expect from the Saskatraz
hybrid colonies when established?
The hybrid stock will be available from May 1
until July or later. Establishment of the hybrid
queens the first 3 weeks in May in 4 to 5 frame
nucs, with some brood will give you strong
colonies going into the honey flow. Supplying
some drone comb should give you fertile drones
in 5 to 6 weeks. Since the Canadian queens have
mated with California drone populations, they
will be carrying sacs of semen from these
drones. Their female worker bees will be
fertilized with this drone semen so the workers
will be hybrid. Since the California drone
populations are not closely related, or somewhat
divergent from the Saskatraz stock we can expect
some increased vigor in the hybrid worker
population. It will be interesting to follow the
Saskatraz hybrid colony performance. We do not
recommend grafting from any of the hybrid
queens, no matter how good their performance.
The best use of these hybrid colonies for
breeding purposes will be for the production of
drones.
4. Queen Acceptance.
A number of beekeepers purchasing commercial
queens from a number of different sources have
complained about the rate of queen acceptance.
We have used a method developed in association
with instrumental insemination techniques which
gives us consistent and excellent acceptance. We
treat the queens and attendants in the shipping
cages with CO2,
until queen and attendants are just
anesthetised, remove all the workers and leave
the queen in the cage. We try to introduce the
queen to a queen less nuc (48 hours or more old)
with in 3 or four hours .We will provide this
treatment procedure for beekeepers purchasing
stock from the Saskatraz program, since we have
the equipment to provide the service. CO2 treatment
and removing all attendants also helps to remove
any pathogens or parasites
Summary.
We are optimistic about this project and will be
providing Saskatraz hybrid queens for reasonable
prices. We feel this is an economical way to
disseminate the genetics we have developed to
commercial beekeepers. It will also help us to
continue our Saskatraz breeding program, since
all stock sales revenues go towards and are
required for maintaining the breeding program. |