Determination of heterosis in mutual hybrids of caucasian bee (Apis mellifera caucasica) and black sea honey bee genotype breed for different characters

In this study, the hygienic Caucasian bee (K) (Apis mellifera caucasica), which was selected for hygiene behavior until the 5th generation and was inbred to ensure homozygosity, and the Black Sea Honey Bee (KR) genotype, which was also subjected to two generations of selection for hygiene behavior, were examined. It was aimed to determine the heterosis that may occur in physiological and behavioral characteristics such as viability, colony population development, honey yield, wintering ability, flight efficiency, pugnaciousness and hygienic behavior character by crossbreeding between colonies of two lines (K1, K2, KR1, KR2). For this purpose, heterosis, which expresses the deviation of the hybrid individual from the average of the high-yielding parental line, was calculated. According to the findings, the values are heterosis formation was detected between -14.29% (K1XKR1) to 25.00% (K1XKR2, KR2XK1) for viability, -27.77% (K1XKR1) to 31.25% (KR1XK2) for wintering ability, -21.43% (K1XKR1) to 19.12% (K2XKR2) for colony population development, -84.24% (KR2XK1) to 120.64% (K1XKR1) for pugnaciousness, -12.24% (K1XK2) to % 21.55% (KR1XK1) for flight efficiency, - 29.76% (K1XKR1) and 50.52% (KR2XK1) for honey yield, and -14.77% (KR1XK2) and 7.89% (KR2XK1) for hygiene behavior. In the analysis of physiological and behavioral characteristics between hybrid and pure lines, differences between groups were found to be significant (p<0.05), except for flight efficiency and hygienic behavior characters.