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Placement associated with hives 2
Preparation associated with Mite Donor Colonies. 3
Preparation associated with Mite Receiver Hives 7
Magnetic label data recovery. 9
Layout associated with Donor hives 11
Acknowledgements And an Apology. 12
A learn on Bee Drift and Mite Immigration
Part 2
Beekeeper-funded used analysis – by a beekeeper, for advantageous asset of beekeepers.
Randy Oliver
ScientificBeekeeping.com
First posted in ABJ March 2023
Previous analysis suggests that varroa mites use drifting and robbing bees to obtain held with other hives in area. But there have been however some outstanding questions regarding the information of mite immigration. Desiring additional information, in 2018 we undertook an ambitious research to resolve several.
Back in 2018, beekeepers had been speaking about “mite bombs,” and blaming their particular dilemmas on immigration of mites from highly-infested neighboring colonies beyond their particular control. Final thirty days we evaluated posted researches with regards to this trend. But we should take into account that institutional scientists in many cases are under some pressure to “publish or die.” Within competitive environment, We regrettably see plenty of conclusions becoming attracted from datasets concerning a comparatively few noticeable bees and hives.
Wanting to get a far better comprehension of bee drift and mite immigration in my procedure, I made a decision to operate a larger-scale research, concerning much more colonies, even more noticeable bees, and better distances, being assist respond to here eight concerns:
Questions to resolve
- How much mite immigration really happens in belated summertime and autumn?
- Is mite immigration regular or episodic?
- Does mite immigration correlate with robbing?
- Do all hives endure similarly from mite immigration, or are a few more desirable to drifting bees?
- just what percentage of employees from collapsing colonies move with other hives?
- Do raised varroa/virus amounts boost bee drift from a hive?
- How far do bees from collapsing colonies drift?
- How does the drift of bees to nearby hives contrast to that particular of the much more remote?
Could We perhaps get responses to all the the above mentioned concerns from one industry research? Considering that the devil is definitely in details, in this essay I’ll discuss exactly how we create the analysis.
Materials and practices
At my house in dried out Sierra Foothills [[1]], we set up ten “Donor hives” (containing tagged bees) to intentionally collapse from varroa (unfortunately one collapsed prematurely), and then twenty-four “Receiver hives” at various distances to determine the number of tagged bees drifting into them from the collapsing Donor colonies (Figures 1 & 2).
Placement of the Hives
Fig. 1 The layout of the home yard, showing placement of the collapsing Donor hives, as well as the Receiver Hives from which data for bee drift and mite immigration was taken. We are surrounded by sloping mixed oak/pine forest, with irrigated pasture to the east. My garden and orchard are in the middle of the photo. The brown dry ground is how our non-irrigated land looks during the summer.
Fig. 2 Zooming out, with my home yard indicated by the golden star. We monitored six surrounding apiaries of ours (red crosses) for drifted bees. Each apiary held around 30 colonies, although only three vigorous colonies in each were prepared as “receivers.”
Study design: The above setup allowed us to answer the questions “How far do bees from collapsing colonies drift?” and “How does the drift of bees to nearby hives compare to that of those more distant?”
Preparation of the Mite Donor Colonies
Following a standard practice of using colonies of “black” or “yellow” bees to identify those that drift, in June we prepared two different sets of hives with bees of different colors. We requeened the Donor Hives (intended to collapse) with “yellow” cordovans, and the mite-free Receiver Hives with dark Carniolans (graciously provided by queen producers Frank Pendell and Valeri Severson of Strachan Apiaries respectively).
Over the course of July we fed the colonies to grow them, boosting them if appropriate with combs of high- or low-mite brood. At the end of July we took mite wash counts again — some of the Donors already had counts of 50-100 mites per half cup of bees! So we replaced some brood combs with those from low-mite colonies, and hit them with half a MAQS formic pad, in order to keep them from collapsing before we had the Receiver hives ready.
Tagging the Bees
It became apparent that due to the swapping of combs, that the black/yellow scoring method of bees for parent colony identification wasn’t going to work, so after reviewing various alternative methods for marking bees, I decided to instead modify a clever bee-tagging method developed years ago by the inventive Dr. Norm Gary [[2]], who I’ve recognized for many years, and who was simply pleased to help me to with details. My assistant Brooke Molina and I also invested the second 50 % of July and into August mastering the strategy, finding out ideal anesthetization technique, holders for bees, sort of glue, an such like. (Figure 3).
Fig. 3 We hand-punched over 6000 slim metal disks and Brooke hand-painted all of them with various colors for every single Donor colony, putting all of them on cards covered with dual stick tape. The tagging team after that glued all of them onto about 540 bees per colony during each Donor’s failure. Here’s Alice Dunbar showing exactly how we utilized an item of synthetic with a V-notch (covered more than with masking tape) to slip over a bee’s petiole, and harmlessly hold it however along with its wings off the beaten track. We place a drop of Elmer’s quick-drying glue on stomach, after that utilized forceps to drop and touch a disc to the glue.
Alice’s spouse Brion filmed the woman tagging bees; you can view the lady take action at https://youtu.be/2FEeL-O08qA.
Experimental note: After experimentally verifying Dr. Gary’s ideas for disk width and diameter, we punched 0.09” diameter disks from 0.010” sheet metal. The coated disks weighed not as much as 10 mg — just a portion of the extra weight of lots of nectar. We additionally then followed their recommendation [[3]] that “Label attachment on the abdomen seems preferable to thoracic attachment for several reasons. There is less risk of accidentally fouling the wings with adhesive. Furthermore, labels tend to break free from the abdomen more easily because there are fewer cuticular setae. The abdomen is adapted for carrying nectar or water loads that constitute the heaviest weights transported by bees. Attachment of inflexible metal label to the thorax possibly may affect flight behavior, either by creating a balancing problem or by adversely affecting the scutum’s flexibility.” We were also careful to avoid magnetizing the discs, so as not to affect the bees’ magnetoreception during flight [[4]].
For tagging the bees, we custom-built a chair with a variable table to every of my helpers’ tastes. A number of the taggers only liked sitting external and experiencing the surroundings as they glued on label after label (Figure 4).
Fig. 4 Here’s Brooke sitting alongside a hive, establishing bees. We behaviorally-sorted younger employees to label by dumping shook bees to the black colored containers — the older bees instantly travelled away toward light, whereas younger employees stayed around when you look at the darkness. The tagger shook away as numerous bees while they could process ina moment to the obvious synthetic container, and offered it a go of CO2 (using a bicycle tire filler with a hollow needle) to shortly anesthetize all of them.
It takes some fingers to label 6000 bees, therefore and Brooke while the Dunbars, we had been assisted by Anna Mudd. Some people had been faster at it than the others, therefore I paid my helpers by piece price (Figure 5).
Fig. 5 Anna was indeed grafting queens for people so the lady fine-motor abilities had been well-developed. We clicked this image whenever she noticed that she could earn significantly more each hour tagging bees than she’d available in virtually any earlier task.
As we glued tags on bees, we sat beside the hive, with all the hive address slid partly available, to ensure we’re able to instantly get back each tagged bee back once again to its colony (Figure 6).
Fig. 6 The taggers instantly put the tagged bees on the top taverns associated with hive from where they’d already been taken. The bees rapidly restored from anesthetization, moved down on the combs, and here acted usually.
The Control Group
In purchase to resolve issue “Do raised varroa/virus amounts boost bee drift from a hive?” We had a need to operate tagged mite-free Control colonies evaluate their particular employee drift to that particular from collapsing colonies. We put two addressed mite-free Control hives inside the high-mite Donor number of hives. Spoiler: As you’ll in the course of time see, i will have operate as numerous settings as Donors. (By chance i acquired fortunate. Occasionally that takes place).
Preparation associated with Mite Receiver Hives
Eliminating the Mites
In purchase to quantify the total amount of mite immigration to the Receiver hives, we copied the methodology of Sakofski [[5]], Greatti [[6]], and Frey [[7]], in which they used high-efficacy synthetic miticides to eliminate the mite population in receiver colonies. This allows the creation of virtually mite-free colonies (exhibiting daily mite drops and mite washes of zero). Continual treatment with slow-release miticide strips then causes any incoming mites (carried by bees) to drop within a day onto a stickyboard, providing a count for mite immigration.
Since we hadn’t used any synthetic miticides for over 15 years (and rotate a quarter of our brood combs each year), our mites exhibit no resistance to experimentally-applied amitraz or fluvalinate, so we applied those two active ingredients (Figure 7).
Fig. 7 We started the colonies in April 2018, treating them with oxalic acid, then in June with formic acid, followed by a combination of Apistan plus Apivar strips.
The prepared Receiver hives in the home yard thus were mite-free, continually treated, with stickyboards, scales, and magnetic entrance traps (Figures 8 & 9). We didn’t place stickyboards or scales on the outyard Receiver hives.
Fig. 8 A Receiver hive ready to go! I designed the entrance traps so when a drifted tagged bee entered the hive, its steel tag would snap onto the magnet very firmly. I set the entrance height so that the stuck bee could still grab the bottom board with its feet and pull itself free of the color-coded tag — leaving a clear record of the bee’s entry that we could then later record without having to be there to observe the actual event.
Magnetic Tag Recovery
After consultation with Norm Gary, I designed and fabricated magnetic tag retrieval entrance traps, improved by using super-strong neodymium magnets not available when he invented the method [[8]] — they worked great! A magnetic pitfall put in the entry of each and every Receiver hive eliminates and keeps the label of every drifted bee that tries to enter it, permitting united states going away every day or two and rapidly eliminate and capture any tags from drifted bees at each and every colony entry. The sweetness, for my reasons, of employing Dr. Gary’s ferrous tagging strategy is the fact that it not merely registers the entry of a drifted bee, but additionally its house colony.
Practical application: Although state-of-the art types of monitoring bees with RFID tags or movie recording tend to be wonderful, Norm’s tried-and-true “old school” strategy works well and it is really foolproof, because it gathers tough proof by means of coated disks that may be restored in the investigator’s convenience, in place of by near a hive (or a video clip) in search of coming back bees, or starting the hive and seeking noticeable bees on combs. I’m astonished more scientists don’t put it to use!
The Stickyboards
We put in rear-access stickyboards under screened base panels in most the Receiver hives in the house garden (Figure 9). We recorded the sheer number of fallen mites about every 3rd time.
Study design: The stickyboard matters associated with Receiver hives may help united states to resolve here three concerns:
How much mite immigration happens in belated summertime and autumn?
Is mite immigration regular or episodic?
Do all hives endure similarly from mite immigration, or are a few more desirable to drifting bees?
Fig. 9 we make durable stickyboards off FRP (fiber-reinforced synthetic) wall surface paneling, and this can be made use of and used again for decades. After counting and tracking the sheer number of mites, we scrape from the glue, mites, and hive rubbish with two shots of a sheetrock blade. We after that re-roll on a mineral oil/ vaseline blend with a small-diameter paint roller, and reinsert the stickyboard.
The Hive machines
In purchase to trace whether a Donor colony had been robbed, or a Receiver colony ended up being robbing various other hives, we place Broodminder electric machines under the Donor and Receiver hives in the house garden. Because of deep Morris of Broodminder for cutting me personally a deal on machines, and their assistance with setup and information handling. I came across the Broodminder machines to operate perfectly for my reasons. We verified that putting one scale underneath the forward end associated with bottom board precisely reflected complete hive fat modification.
Study design: to answer fully the question of whether mite immigration correlates with robbing (in our foothill environment), we deliberately performed this research during our late-season nectar dearth (whenever no fat gain will be happening). A robbing colony would display fat gain, whereas a colony becoming robbed would show a weight reduction. The stickyboards will allow united states to ascertain exactly how many mites were certainly getting trips to the hive on any time. We’re able to after that search for correlations.
Layout associated with Donor hives
Figure 10 reveals the design associated with donor and close Receiver hives.
Fig. 10 The view searching south from my straight back porch. The lengthy arrow things to the closest apiary a half mile away. We’re in Northern Ca, therefore the necessity solar energy panels and cannabis yard have been in the back ground. The down arrow things towards the house, with additional Receiver hives some 500 legs away.
OK, I’ve shown exactly how we create a research to try to get responses to all the eight our initial concerns. I’ll carry on with this conclusions the following month.
Acknowledgements And an Apology
we significantly appreciate the assistance from my team — Brooke Molina, Anna Mudd, and Brion and Alice Dunbar, without whoever assistance i possibly could not have taken this research down. In addition a shout off to Dr. Norman Gary, whoever impressive human anatomy of studies have already been instrumental to mine.
we once again thank Valerie Severson and Frank Pendell for queens, and deep Morris for assistance with the Broodminder machines.
Last although not the very least we thank those beekeepers whoever contributions help me to protect the expenses of my used studies. Nevertheless, excuse me for waiting such a long time to create my outcomes, but during the time of this task I became chastised by a university laboratory frontrunner who was simply upset that we held obtaining the join their studies. Therefore off courtesy I’ve delayed providing my conclusions until they published theirs.
Citations and records
[1] GPS coordinates 39.17702, -120.99153, 2880 ft level, yellowish pine/black pine woodlands.
[2] Gary, N (1971) Magnetic retrieval of ferrous labels in a capture-recapture system for honey bees along with other bugs. J. Econ. Ent. 64: 961-965.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Liang, CH, et al (2016) Magnetic sensing through stomach associated with honey-bee. Sci. Rep. 6: 23657.
[5] Sakofski, F., Koeniger, N., & Fuchs, S. (1990). Seasonality of honey-bee colony intrusion by Varroa jacobsoni Oud. Apidologie, 21(6), 547-550.
[6] Greatti, M, N Milani & F Nazzi (1992) Reinfestation of an acaricide-treated apiary by Varroa jacobsoni Oud. Experimental & Used Acarology 16(4): 279-286.
[7] Frey, E., H Schnell & P Rosenkranz (2011) intrusion of Varroa destructor mites into mite-free honey-bee colonies underneath the managed circumstances of a military instruction location. Journal of Apicultural Analysis 50(2): 138-144.
[8] Magnetic dimensions 3 x 6 x 60 mm, occur range in a groove.
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