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 Viewed : 1602 - Downloaded : 746 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