Research Paper Results
This study shows that under US commercial beekeeping conditions colonies headed by more hygienic queens have significantly less disease and produce more honey.
0 Comments
Hygienic Behaviour: An Alternative to Synthetic Chemicals in the Control of Honey Bee Brood Diseases31/5/2016 Commentary
Beekeepers use various methods to control honey bee brood diseases. These include antibiotics, for example tetracycline in the control of American foulbrood (AFB), and acaricides, such as fluvalinate (the active ingredient in Apistan strips) to control varroa mites. Commentary
If you have a particular problem with your health, your doctor will likely prescribe a specific remedy. For example, if you have a particular infection you will be prescribed a particular chemical against it. But there are also general remedies or defences against infectious diseases. Research Paper Results
Honey bee queens mate naturally in mid air with 10-20 drones. Unless you have an isolated mating apiary on an island or mountain valley it is not possible to fully control the drones available for mating. This study shows that daughter queens reared from breeder colonies with high levels of hygienic behaviour (removal of freeze killed brood, FKB) that were allowed to mate naturally headed colonies with similar high levels of hygienic behaviour. Instrumental insemination gave even higher levels of hygienic behaviour. Research Paper Results
Could hygienic behaviour harm a colony? One possibility is that in addition to removing dead or diseased brood, hygienic workers remove healthy brood by mistake. This study shows that this does not happen. There is no correlation between the removal of freeze killed brood (FKB) from sealed cells (hygienic behaviour) and the removal of healthy brood. |
AuthorAll blogs are written by the LASI Queen Bee team. Enjoy! Archives
June 2017
Categories
All
|