Field evaluation of honeybee colonies (Apis mellifera L.) for selecting breeding lines

[Display omitted] •Dead brood removal and royal jelly production varies among colonies.•Non-hygienic colonies are better in comb-building and royal jelly production.•Bee wax on queen cell cups does not correlate with royal jelly secretion.•Production of propolis and wax does not depend on hygiene.•Beekeepers should evaluate each colony for selecting breeding lines. Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) are pollinators with immeasurable benefits, contributing to the human diet and economic sustainability through the production of hive products. Beekeepers are faced with the challenges of selecting desirable colonies for breeding. It is necessary to evaluate individual honeybee colonies to select breeding lines with high productivity. We bred honeybees in controlled mating stations and selected colonies with similar conditions and placed at the experimental apiary and used for this study. We studied the hygienic behavior of colonies using the pin-killed brood assay and evaluated the production of some hive products (royal jelly (RJ), propolis, and wax) without any adaptation of colonies. The percentage of dead brood removal varied significantly while larval acceptance rate was marginally significant between colonies. The weight of propolis, RJ and wax did not show any significant differences between colonies. RJ production differed between hygienic and non-hygienic bee colonies, with higher values recorded in non-hygienic bee colonies compared to hygienic bee colonies (1.61 ± 0.22 g and 0.78 ± 0.07 g, respectively). Non-hygienic colonies showed better performance in selection for comb-building and the production of RJ. The hygienic condition of colonies did not significantly influence the production of propolis and wax. Thus, it is necessary for beekeepers to evaluate individual colonies for selecting breding lines.