author(s)
Rakesh Kumar and Pramod Mall

abstract
This present experiment was carried out in Apiary, Modern Bee Garden Research and Training Centre, Department of Entomology, G.B.P.U A & T, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand during August 2013 to May 2014. This study aimed at determining selection of better performing colonies on the basis of following important criteria viz. bee strength (weight and number of bees in the selected frames), disease incidence, queen performance, brooding pattern (smooth or erratic), and comb area measurement (honey cells, pollen cells, eggs cells, open broods/larvae and sealed broods). This investigation was performed on ten colonies which were selected randomly in the apiary. Maximum bee strength was observed in C₉ colony, where the weight of bees and number of bees were recorded 1.18 kg and 19668 respectively. All the selected colonies were free from disease incidence which indicates that colonies possess disease resistance traits. Excellent queen performance (egg laying pattern and egg laying efficiency) was recorded in colonies C₉, C₅ and C₂. In the case of comb area measurement, maximum area of honey cells (1912.30 cm²), Pollen cells (468.00 cm²), eggs cells (516.00 cm²), open brood/larvae (725.60 cm²) and sealed broods (945.00 cm²) were recorded in colony C₉. The colonies C₉, C₅ and C₃ with all these desirable traits were selected in the breeding yard in apiary for quality queen rearing for stock improvement.