This research was published in the Journal of Apicultural Research and Bee World.
Honey bees are now fighting back aggressively against Varroa mites, thanks to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) efforts to develop bees with a genetic trait that allows them to more easily find the mites and toss them out of the broodnest. The parasitic Varroa mite attacks the honey bee, Apis mellifera L., by feeding on its hemolymph, which is the combination of blood and fluid inside a bee. Colonies can be weakened or killed, depending on the severity of the infestation. Most colonies eventually die from varroa infestation if left untreated. Varroa-sensitive hygiene (VSH) is a genetic trait of the honey bee that allows it to remove mite-infested pupae from the capped brood—developing bees that are sealed inside cells of the comb with a protective layer of wax. The mites are sometimes difficult for the bees to locate, since they attack the bee brood while these developing bees are inside the capped cells.

ARS scientists at the agency’s Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Research Unit in Baton Rouge, La., have developed honey bees with high expression of the VSH trait. Honey bees are naturally hygienic, and they often remove diseased brood from their nests. VSH is a specific form of nest cleaning focused on removing varroa-infested pupae. The VSH honey bees are quite aggressive in their pursuit of the mites. The bees gang up, chew and cut through the cap, lift out the infected brood and their mites, and discard them from the broodnest. This hygiene kills the frail mite offspring, which greatly reduces the lifetime reproductive output of the mother mite. The mother mite may survive the ordeal and try to reproduce in brood again, only to undergo similar treatment.

To test the varroa resistance of VSH bees, the Baton Rouge team conducted field trials using 40 colonies with varying levels of VSH. Mite population growth was significantly lower in VSH and hybrid colonies than in bee colonies without VSH. Hybrid colonies had half the VSH genes normally found in pure VSH bees, but they still retained significant varroa resistance. Simpler ways for bee breeders to measure VSH behavior in colonies were also developed in this study.

Alfredo Flores September 2009 (Source: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/090910.htm)

4.      They Are Not “Killer Bees” And They’re Not So Smart

(From ‘The Beholder’ Montgomeryshire BKA Newsletter Jan. 2010)

Reputable journals, such as the New Scientist, should not use the term “Killer Bees” when writing about the hybrids between the African Honey Bee and the European honey bees (November 18th 2009). The sting is no worse than the European honey bee. However they do display an exaggerated form of “following” behaviour. Let us use the less emotive and correct term “Africanised honeybee”. These Africanised honeybees may be amongst the most feared of all insects - but they ain't too smart.

Since being introduced into Brazil in 1956, Africanised honeybees have spread through Central America to southern USA. UK biologist Margaret Couvillon, of the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects, (LASI) Sussex University, and her colleagues are testing the cognitive abilities of the bees to try to reveal the secret of their success. Increased intelligence had been suggested as one reason for this expansion.. Apparently not. A team led by Margaret Couvillon tested the abilities of the European honeybee and the Africanised honeybee to associate a whiff of jasmine with a sugar reward.

"Surprisingly, we found that fewer Africanized honeybees learn to associate an odour with a reward. Additionally, fewer Africanized honeybees remembered the association a day later," the team write. When researchers gave bees a second whiff, about half of European honeybees stuck out their tongue-like proboscises as soon as the odour wafted by again, anticipating another drop of sugar water. “The bees acted like Pavlov's dogs, drooling at the sound of a bell they associate with food”, Couvillon says. Only about half as many Africanised honeybees picked up the association after a single trial, the researchers found.

Foraging style could explain this difference. European honey bees tend travel vast distances in search of flowery meals and they revisit sites. A keen memory and an ability to learn quickly would benefit this strategy. Africanised bees, on the other hand, don't wander far from their hives and they often visit new flowers, so learning might not be as important, Couvillon's team speculates. "Perhaps learning has a cost," Couvillon says "If it were cost-free, wouldn't we all be getting smarter?"

Arthur Finlay (Courtesy eBEES)

5.     The Buzz On Klinker - Marylands Newby Bee Dog

Sniffing out harmful bacteria in bee colonies is a full time job for Klinker - “our newest employee,” said William Troup, an apiary inspector with the Maryland Department of Agriculture. A black Labrador retriever trained late in 2009, Klinker is part of the department’s strategy to detect diseased bee colonies. Specifically, she’s looking for American foulbrood, the most common and destructive bacterial disease facing Maryland’s honeybees.

Klinker’s normal workday consists of walking along rows of hives. When she smells bacteria, she sits, alerting her handler. Since the 1970s, U.S. beekeepers have reported a shrinking bee population because of bacteria, disease, pesticides and parasites. Some of those factors might also contribute to Colony Collapse Disorder, in which worker bees abandon their hive for no known reason. “If it were not for the honeybees, there would not be enough food on Planet Earth to support life as we know it,” said Jerry Fischer, who is in charge of the state’s Apiary Inspection Program. “Early detection of the disease by Klinker will save Maryland beekeepers substantial monetary loss from eradication of diseased bees and destruction of infected equipment.” A trained hive-sniffing dog such as Klinker can inspect 100 honeybee colonies in about 45 minutes, far more than humans, who inspect fewer than half that number in a day.

Klinker, who is 18 months old, is the fourth bee dog to serve in the department. In the late 1970s, Maryland became the first state to use dogs to detect disease in honeybee colonies, and it is the only state to keep a full-time “bee dog” on its staff.

6.      The Strength Of Bees (Norristown Herald January 1883)

Mons. Pateau has discovered that while a horse can pull only six-sevenths of its weight, a bee can pull twenty times its weight. When some one discovers how to grow bees as large as horses, the latter will have to take a back seat. But it would be fatal to fool around the heels of such a bee. With its javelin it could pin a man against the side of the stable. Perhaps it would be better not to raise bees any larger than the present crop.

7.     Bees At The North Pole (Le Rucher Belge July 1898)

The explorer Ejrind Asrup found many bees in latitude 830 north. He thinks they may be at the North Pole, as the remaining 70 would make no great change in flora. There\s only three months summer; but as the sun doesn’t set in that time its as good as six months here, and plants develop with astonishing rapidity and vigour, and the flora is of extreme richness. We wonder if some enterprising bee-supply dealer won't establish a branch house next door to the North Pole now. Talk about hardy bees why not get a few queens from that semisunless land. They ought to be tough enough to extract sweetness from the "snow-ball " bush!

(The last three items were seen in the Notts BKA Newsletter Feb 2010: Courtesy eBEES)

8.      Honeybees Communicate About Danger

Honeybees warn each other to steer clear of dangerous flowers where they might get killed by lurking predators. Scientists made this discovery by placing dead bees upon flowers and then watching how newly arriving bees reacted to the danger. Not only do the bees avoid the flowers, they then communicate the threat when they return to the hive via their well known waggle dance.

The discovery is published in the journal ‘Animal Behaviour.’ The honeybee waggle dance is a surprisingly sophisticated mode of communication. When foraging bees return to the hive, they waggle their bodies in a complex dance first deciphered by biologists more than 40 years ago. The angle and direction of the forager bees' waggle dance conveys how far and in what direction other more naive bees need to fly to reach flowers that will provide plentiful sources of food. Honeybees are also more likely to waggle and dance when returning from food sources containing high concentrations of sucrose.

Now scientists Kevin Abbott and Reuven Dukas of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada have found that honeybees also use the waggle dance warn other bees to avoid danger. They trained honeybees to visit two artificial flowers containing the same amount and concentration of food. They left one flower untouched, making it a "safe" food source for the bees. On the other flower, they placed the bodies of two dead bees , so they were visible to arriving insects, but would not interfere with their foraging. They then recorded whether and how the bees performed a waggle dance on their return to other members of the hive colony.

On average, bees returning from safe flowers performed 20 to 30 times more waggle runs that bees returning from dangerous flowers. That shows that the bees recognise that certain flowers carry a higher risk of being killed or eaten by predators, such as crab spiders or other spider species that ambush visiting bees. What's more, they factor this risk into their waggle dances, tempering them to steer their colony mates away from flowers that might be dangerous.

(Article taken from Montgomeryshire BKA Newsletter January 2010 Courtesy eBEES)

9.     Events

Cheshire Beekeepers Association

• Spring Convention & AGM Saturday 13th March 2010 at Forest Hills Hotel, Overton Hill, Frodsham, Cheshire WA6 6HH: 10.30 am to 4.30 pm (AGM begins 3.30 pm). Speakers:
• Norman Carreck NDB on Honeybee Research at Sussex University
• Graham Royle NDB on Spring Management
• Convention Ticket £12 to include Refreshments and Buffet Lunch from: Pam Hatton, 2 Hatton Lodge Cottages, Warrington Rd., Hatton, Warrington, Cheshire WA4 5NZ Tel: 01925 263023

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