Bee Studies
2012, Vol 4, Num, 2 (Pages: 020-024)
Kafkas Arı Irkının Gen Kaynağı Olarak Önemi ve Irkın Özellikleri
Muhsin KARA 1 ,Abdurrahman KARA 1 ,Erdoğan SEZGİN 1
1 Doğu Anadolu Tarımsal Araştırma Enstitüsü Müdürlüğü, Erzurum
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One of the important honey bee gene
resources of Anatolia, one of the gene reource
centers in the World, is the Caucasian Honey
Bee. Mountain type is an important variant
of this bee breed. It is black coloured and
similar to the Carniol bees regarding shape,
size and hair cover. The body is moderate
structured, slim and long as abdomen is thin.
Chitin is dark. Hair cover is black. Hair colour
of worker bees is livid grey as chest hair
colour of drones is black. All abdominal rings
are black coloured. It has the longest tongue
among the all honey bee breeds. Tongue
length varies between 6,7-7,2 mm. Hair
length is short and varies between 0,30-0,40
mm. It is known that homeland of Caucasian
Bee (Apis mellifera Caucasica) is upper
valleys of mid-Caucasia (Georgia, Azerbaijan
and northern Caucasus). Its distribution area
is extended to Kars, Ardahan and Artvin
provinces in north-eastern Anatolia of Turkey.
The area including Posof district of Ardahan
province and its all villages and 6 villages
of Camili basin in Borçka district of Artvin
province is housing different ecotypes of this
breed. So, this area was isolated for gene
conservation of Caucasian Bee by Ministry
of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2000. Insitu
conservation studies for Caucasian Bee
(Apis mellifera Caucasica Garbasthov) have
been continuing under the Indigenous Gene
Resources Conservation Project with a total
of 6960 colonies in on-farm conditions.
Keywords :
Caucasian Bee, in-situ conservation, gene resource