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Bees 6 > Bee behaviour module 6 > Flashcards

Bee behaviour module 6 Flashcards

1
Q

1 Define Polyethism

A

Functional specialization by caste (morphology) or by age in an insect colony leading to division of labour

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2
Q
  1. List the conditions that
    cause variations in polethestic duties
A
  • Shortage of pollen / stores
  • Nosema
  • Supercedure/swarming
  • Genetic variation
  • Cold / wet weather / winter
  • Disturbance – eg hive manipulation
  • Memory palace: Pole, silk flower, hawk, lamp, window, boards
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3
Q
  1. List glandular development by age and production
A
  • 3 - hypophayngeal gland - brood food clear
  • 3 - mandibular gland - brood food white + 10HDA
  • 9 - wax gland - wax flakes (mainly 12-18)
  • 9 - hypopharyngeal gland - sucrase and glucose oxidase
  • 12 = max; 20 stops - sting gland - venom - Phospholipase A + others
  • 12+ mandibular gland - 2-heptanone
  • 14-21 days = at max - sting scent gland - isopentyl acetate among others
  • Nasonov increases with age; 28 = max; geraniol and nerol, e-citral etc
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4
Q
  1. List worker duties between her emergence in April

until her death

A
  • 1-3 days cleans cell + hive - excreta, larval moults, polish cells, debris, necrophrosis
  • 3-6 feeds older larva
  • 6-9 feeds younger larva
  • 1-10 Tends queen (Seeley)
  • 9-12 cap brood cells
  • 10-18 days:
    • receives nectar ripens nectar into honey,
    • packs pollew
    • makes wax, builds comb,
    • ventilates, evaporates, controls temperature
  • 18-21 days guard duty/defence
  • 3-6 weeks foraging nectar, pollen, water and propolis until death
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5
Q
  1. List worker duties between her emergence in OCTOBER

until her death

A
  • No income / forage
  • Drastically less brood to feed and almost no hive duties
  • External temp low, metabolic rate low, so food consumption low
  • Focus is on heat conservation in cluster at 20-30C
  • Keeping the colony warm, either through creating a denser cluster and/or shivering her dorsoventral muscles to generate metabolic heat
  • Around Jan/Feb, as the queen starts laying again, raises temp 33-36C.
  • Gradually pick up her duties, limited by the weather & availability of forage
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6
Q
  1. Orientation - describe the theory behind

‘move a colony less than 3 feet or more than 3 miles’

A
  • Young bees take orientation flights noting local landmarks - bushes
  • Successive flights get longer (half a mile)
  • By foraging age, it knows local half mile really well
  • Foraging bees will follow old routes home automatically
  • Move hive -3’ / cut long grass / move landmarks: homecoming bees disorientated for a few hours until they adjust
  • Move 3’+ and they return to old site and ‘wait’ for hive to appear
  • Move -3 miles, forager may come across old flight paths and revert
  • Move 3+ miles, = unlikely to cross old paths so reversion less likely
  • Memory lost after about 2 weeks
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7
Q

2 Describe colony mating behaviour 1

A
  • Workers bees do not mate
  • Only queens and drones, and they do so on the wing
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8
Q

2 Drone mating - maturation

A
  • Emerges after 24 days
  • from colonies with 6000+ bees in April
  • 14 days to mature while sperm finishes migrating to seminal vesicles
  • Congregate on edges of frames feeding on honey
  • Orientation flights followed by flights to DCA during warmest part of day
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9
Q

2 Drone mating

1 attraction

A
  • Attracted to Q by
    • Pher: Mandib (9-ODA) - upwind at 6m, downwide 30-100m
    • Pher: Renner Baumann - 30cm
    • Sight: sees open bursa copulatrix at 1m (8l ommatidia cf W5k/Q4k)
  • Comet of D forms with strongest getting to her first
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10
Q

2 Drone mating - 2 act

A
  • Clasps Q from behind with all legs
  • Bends abdomen, everts his endophallus into bursa copulatrix with violent contraction
  • Q cannot release it.
  • Becomes ‘paralysed’, loses hold and swings backwards
  • Carried along by the queen as semen is ejaculated into the median and lateral oviducts
  • Endophallus ruptures as D falls away, drops to the ground and dies
  • The bulb remains in bursa copulatrix - emits UV light - attracts more D
  • Mucus from the drone’s mucus glands coagulates and forms a seal “mating sign”
  • Next drone removes mating sign
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11
Q

02 mating

How many drones does a queen typically mate with

A
  • 12-15
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12
Q

2 Q mating - 0 maturation

A
  • Emerges after 16 days and eliminates rivals in cells/fights
  • 1-4 remains in col feeding herself honey - no RJ and no court
  • Exoskeleton hardens; weather permitting takes orientation flights
  • Exocrine glands develop esp mandibular: 9-ODA for D attraction
    • at 5 days, enough to attract D. Increases over 10 days
  • After 5 days she is ready to take mating flights to DCA
  • Workers ignore her at first
  • When mature, ++ aggresive as she ages without mating (stale prevention)
  • After 21 she cannot mate -> drone layer
  • If due to inbreeding she produces diploid males, workers eat eggs - mechanism designed to limit drone numbers.
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13
Q

2 Q mating - 1 act

A
  • Mating flights av 30 minutes. Yate: 20 April, 12 June.
  • Between 12-4pm ideally at 20C +.
  • Av 2-3km to DCA. At DCA attracts a comet of D.
  • Q cannot release D once copulation starts.
  • Mated on wing by several D, each removing the mating sign of the last
  • Returns to the hive where workers remove last mating sign
  • 2-3 mating flights (13-20D) until her spermatheca is full of sperm.
  • Forces the sperm from lateral and median oviducts to her vagina
  • 5.5-6m sperm enters spermatheca via spermathecal duct: chemotaxis migration - rest lost but all drones represented
  • Workers attend her, feed her royal jelly and form a court
  • 3-4 days later: eggs, maybe haphazardly before settling into gd pattern
  • She never leaves the hive again, except to swarm.
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14
Q
  1. Drone - Describe a DCA 10
A
  1. Airspace 15-25m above ground where D congregate and fly around indep of Q(s)
  2. 100m from apiary
  3. Open/hilly ground sheltered from wind if poss
  4. Magnetic attraction? - magnetite in trophocytes in gut
  5. Mandib gland attracts D and Q
  6. Diameter 30-100m
  7. Attracts 12 to 10k drones
  8. from 5-6km radius (av 1km)
  9. Minimises inbreeding
  10. Mating height 10-40m av (can be less) inversely propotional to wind speed
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15
Q

03 Egg laying - 2 rate

What drives the egg laying rate?

A
  • Rate of egg-laying driven by how much Queen is fed
  • Thus an artificial flow (feeding mimics a nectar flow) can accelerate egg laying in spring
    • Swarm prep - feeding drops off to prepare the queen for flying
    • Nectar flow end
    • Dearth – eg June gap, August gap
    • Winter as nest temperature falls below 33-36C to 20-30C
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16
Q

03 egg laying - 3 brood pattern

Describe a good brood pattern

A
  • Roughly spherical nest to make it easiler to keep warm in cluster
  • Densely clustered concentric circles
  • Placed in groups at the centre of the frame, but not nec of brood box
  • Frames on edges of next tend to have less brood than central frames
  • One egg per cell, placed upright and centred at the bottom of a cell
  • Drone brood grouped on bottoms/sides of worker brood
  • Some empty cells possibly to facilitate warming
  • W shape of empty cells over wires
  • Uses front legs to assess whether a cell sis W/D. Amputated leg tips -> haphazard laying
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17
Q

3 Egg laying - Describe a typical season’s laying pattern

A
  • Jan/Feb egg laying, but may be earlier if the weather warm
  • April: av 360 eggs/day as weather warms, pollen + nectar flow in
  • April/colony 6000+ bees, lays D drone (unfert) eggs back/side of nest
  • May, av 700 eggs/day as forage flows in quantity
  • Won’t reach 1000-1500/day in nectar flow until yr 2.
  • June gap - may slow down. Some strains continue in dearth (Mediterranean)
  • Autumn, younger queen may continue laying later into year than older queens, maintaining egg laying after a nectar flow has ended
  • Ivy forage Sep-Oct stimulates egg laying, dep on weather and forage
  • Late autumn egg laying drops right back
  • November/December, likely to be off-lay in colder areas of the UK
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18
Q

3 egg laying - 4

Why is a good brood pattern essential?

A
  • In cold, the cluster can maintain the temperatures in the brood nest
    • can’t if brood is spread out all over the place
  • More efficient for nurse bees to work areas of brood of the same age
  • Workers store pollen in an arc around the brood nest so nurse bees don’t have far to go to reprovision, with honey above the nest area
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19
Q
  1. Egg laying - why does a queen inspect cells before laying?
A
  • To see if it is clean enough – she is very picky
  • To see if it already contains an egg/larva
  • To check the width – worker /drone cell
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20
Q
  1. Season var -

What is the impact of a swarm in Jun on honey harvest

A
  1. Depends on strain of bee, forage and weather
  2. The harvest will be impacted adversely because, effectively, at least a month of foraging has been lost.
  3. 60% of bees will have ghone with the old queen
  4. Of those that remain, some will have to come off foraging duties and revert to being nurse bees
  5. Meanwhile the queen will only start laying, at best, 20 days after emerging.
    1. Q=8 days to emerge, 4 days to mature, 4 days to mate (assuming perfect weather), 4 days to start laying, 21 days for new bees to start emerging.
  6. However, it is likely that the bees will be able to store enough to survive the winter as they have the whole of July with the blackberries to feed on.
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21
Q
  1. Seasonal var - what is the impact of month bees swarm
A
  • A swarm in may is worth a load of hay.
    • All ok for remaining bees
    • but may lack drones to mate new Q so Q may fail next spring from lack of sperm
  • A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon
    • Temperatures more stable and drones mature.
    • Plus plenty fo time for new hive to establish create stores for winter.
  • A swarm in June is not worth a fly
    • Too late in the year that the swarm lay down enough honey for winter.
  • A swarm in August is worth a bale of sawdust
  • A swarm in September is a swarm to remember
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22
Q
  1. Seasonal var
A
  • Title: Av pop cycle over a typical year dep strain, forage, climate, weather
  • Lowest adult point end Feb as winter bees die off
  • Brood = adults twice that year
  • Brood > adults Feb-April - critical period: brood risks being chilled as not enough adults to incubate
  • Adults peak in June three weeks after brood peaks (when main flow has started and max foraging force req)
  • Pop decreases rapidly as forager bees die off then slows w winter bees
  • Pop max 40k-60k dep on fecunidity and strain of Q
  • Pop builds in spring with flow (little stored)
  • At max pop, they store large amounts for winter in a short time (less brood to care for)
  • Reduced pop allows adequate reserves for winter
  • Allow for local variations eg peaky graph
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23
Q
  1. Seasonal var pop 2
A
  • The graph represents the amount of brood in a colony that issues a prime swarm at the end of May.
  • x axis is the months of the year Jan to Dec
  • Y axis is the amount of brood in 10,000 gradients.
  • A Queen started to lay.
  • B prime swarm issued.
  • D New queen started to lay.
  • F queen stopped laying.
  • Shaded area. The bees emerging in this area will be winter bees
  • Examining the colony at this point one should see:
    • No eggs or larvae but some brood.
    • Several swarm queen cells on the bottom and side edges of the comb.
    • Plenty of workers going about their business foraging and bringing in nectar.
  • If the colony is inspected at point C: there may be a virgin queen in the colony and she may be on a mating flight. Opening up the colony may disrupt her return to the colony.
  • The risked is reduced by having patience. Wait until you see pollen being taken into the colony, a sure sign that the queen has started to lay.
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24
Q
  1. Seasonal var pop 3
A
  • I= first QC sealed and issue of the swarm
  • 2= new queen hatches
  • 3= new queen starts laying
  • X= months from Man
  • Y=000s of bees
  • Pink= adult bees
  • Blue= brood
  • Dotted= how adult population would grown without a swarm
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25
Q

05 colony defence mechanisms

Describe the many ways a colony defends itself from ‘attack’ - 10

A
  1. Choice of nest - well hidden @3m above ground, 15cm2 entrance, 40l
  2. Whole foraging force can defend, as well as bees 12 days+
  3. Stings are ultimate defence because they die
  4. Disease minimised by bees dying away from colony + necrophoresis
  5. High brood temp minimises viruses and bacteria
  6. Defectation outside hiave or stored in winter
  7. Propolise varnishs cells and embalms critters
  8. Poisoned bees quickly evicted so stores uncontaminated and toxic pollen not used for brood.
  9. Hygenic bees romove diseased brood fast
    1. AFB - resistant bees remove affected brood early to minimise infection and may feed larva antibiotic brood food
  10. Some strains groom themselves better than others - removing varroa
    1. Use of bee gyms may help

*

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26
Q

05 Queen substance

Whta messages does it convey

A
  • FRANCO
  • F Forging stim
  • R Retinue stabilised
  • A attracts workers
  • N nasonov stim
  • C QCell building inhib (9HDA)
  • Ovary deve inhib
  • 9ODA attracts drones and swam to queen
  • 9HDA keeps swarm and colony stable
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27
Q
  1. Describe typical foraging behaviour
A
  • Forage in daylight, good weather, windspeed 15mph
  • Min temp 13˚C;
  • Max temp 43˚C - then forage for water
  • Flying 6-10’ above ground at max
  • Forage up to 2.5 km from hive
  • Pollen collection stim by brood pheramone
  • In hot weather foragers can’t unload nectar to some say they change to water until they can’t unload that.
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28
Q
  1. Worker policing define
A
  • The phenomenon in Queen Right colony where workers eat eggs laid by other worker bees and show aggression towards the laying workers
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29
Q
  1. Worker policing - 4 benefits

What are the benefits of worker policing (12)

A
  • Perpetuation of the Queen’s unique genes and characteristics
  • Alignment of genetic interests so a totally cooperative group
  • Reduces reproduction by nest mates with developed ovaries so that
  • almost all bees reared are the offspring of the queen
  • Worker eggs in worker cells produce useless, stunted drones use resources that cd have been used for the Queen’s offspring so energy not wasted raising them
  • R Workers are more Related to the queen’s sons than the worker’s sons
  • So policing helps rear more closely related drones, who will be stunted and ara a waste of colony resources
  • O Allows unbroken concentric circles of QE, so feeding more efficient
  • E Nothing is wasted because worker police Eat the eggs
  • Aggression acts as a deterrent to other potential LW
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30
Q
  1. Worker policing

Describe behaviour preventing laying workers and how it works 3

A
  • Queen substance transmitted around the hive from court to workers via trophillaxis and presence of brood pheromones lead to WP worker policing,
  • which involves workers eating any eggs laid by laying workers, usually within 2 hours,
  • and showing aggression to laying workers
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31
Q
  1. Worker policing - under what circs would eggs be allowed to develop?
A
  • No queen for 21 days, so no queen pheromones
  • No brood, so no brood pheromones
  • Unable to produce a queen cell
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32
Q

6 Communic -

what is the behaviour of behaviour of a forager on the forage? 5

A
  1. On encountering the forage, she will reference her entry spot to the area.
  2. She may have to learn how to get pollen (bit4 anthers) and reach nectary (eg field bean)
  3. She will crawl or fly from flower to flower collecting pollen and/or nectar
  4. She will stay constant to the species of flower she has been given
  5. She will return to this spot to start her return journey when she has finished foraging
  6. She will account for the movement of the sun while she does this
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33
Q

06 sensors and stimuli x 11

A
  1. S Trichodea - touch
  2. S Basoconica - Taste
  3. S placodea - smell
  4. S Coeloconica CO2, RH, T
  5. S Campanifomia - Stress/Strain
  6. S Scolopophera - vibration
  7. Trophocytes in abdo - magnetic charge
  8. Hairs behind head - vertical
  9. Hairs in Petiole - gravity
  10. Compound eyes and ocelli - sight
  11. Also Atmospheric pressure (Q&D for mating height)
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34
Q
  1. Communic - List pheramones and their messages
A
  • Fertile Q - Queen substance( mandibular, Koschanvikov, Renner Bauman, Arnhart and Dufour)
    • Inhibit QC and LW
    • Stim comb building, cell cleaning, brood rearing, forage and storage
    • Attacts court and feeding
  • Immature Q
    • Inhibit LW
    • Attract drones
  • Workers
    • Guiding - Nasonov attracts,
    • Guarding - alarm pher 2-heptanont and isopentyl acetate
  • Pher in comb
    • Attracts scouts in seach of new nest
  • Worker brood
    • Stim pollen foraging
    • inhibt LW ovary development
    • at +6000 encourages drone production
    • Feed me right stufgf
    • id mother and caste/sex
    • Drone Brood
      • Kairomone for varroa
  • Drone
    • Attracts Q&D to DCA
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35
Q
  1. Communic - Buzz Run
A
  • warns bees about to swarm to warm up their flight muscles
  • bees can’t fly if muscles are under 35˚C
  • in preparation immediately before ]leaving the have (or a bivouac site).
  • Involves running through a small group of lethargic bees buzzing her wings, dashing over immobile bees, bulldozing between bees, turning this way and that.
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36
Q
  1. Communic - Key communication methods
A
  1. Eyes - sight dark
  2. Touch - antennal contact
  3. Taste scent and touch: Trophillaxis
  4. Scent: floral+ pheromones
  5. Vibration
  6. Dances
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37
Q
  1. Communic - Dance names and their meaning 8
A
  1. Waggle dance - precise directions to food source 100m+ away
  2. Round dance - food source somewhere nearby within 25m - seeley says adaptation of waggle.
  3. Sickle dance 25-100m
  4. Dorsoventral abdominal vibrating dance - DVAV - go down to dance floor and observe dances
  5. Tremble dance - go and unload foragers
  6. Piping dance - warm up your fligh muscles
  7. Buzz run dance - prepare to leave nest/bivouac
  8. Grooming dance - stamps feed and sways from side to side: groom me please.
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38
Q
  1. Communic - DVAV
A
  • In the hive not on the dance floor
  • info: nectar flow: umemp foragers: go to the dance floor to observe dances.
  • The dancer approaches a bee from the front
  • Mounts on its shoulders waggling its abdomen up and down.
  • The other bee stands still until released.
  • The DVAV dance is also performed around a queen just before the bees start to prepare for swarming and the queen lays in queen cups – link not proven. (Yate 145)
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39
Q
  1. Communic - Foraging and dancing

What is the connection between foraging and dancing (6)

A
  1. Back at the hive, a nectar source is advertised to unemployed foragers
  2. On the dance floor using the round and the waggle dance.
  3. The waggle dance gives precise directions based on a bearing on the sun’s cucrrent position
  4. Samples by trophilliaxis and antennal touch during this convey scent and taste of teh forrage.
  5. When HB are slow to unload - 40secs+ foragers dance a tremble dance away from dance floor to recuit unemployed nectar processors
  6. When HB fast to unload - less than 20secs, foragers dance a DVAV away from dance floor to send processors down to dance floor
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40
Q
  1. Communic - grooming dance
A
  • stamping feet and swaying from side to side
  • elicits a grooming response.
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41
Q
  1. Communic - What are the key pheromones names for Q D B
A
  • Queen
    • Mandibular
      • 9ODA - attacts drones and later workers
      • 9 HDA - attracts bees
    • Renner Baumann QS and drones
    • Arnhart - footprint
    • Dufort - Eggs?
    • Koschevnikov -QS
  • Drone
    • Mandibular - attaches Q & D to DCA
  • Brood
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42
Q
  1. Communic - name worker pheromones
A
  • Nazonov - come in, geraniol
  • Arnhart - I was here
  • Alarm scent
    • 2 heptanone - in foragers
    • Isopentyl acetate from 12 days
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43
Q
  1. Communic -

how does a forager recognise food source following a dance? 4

A
  • The forager will fly out on the bearing given by the dancer
  • She will recognise the scent of the pollen, nectar and flower from anntennal contact during tophillaxis when she she begged a sample on the dance floor
  • She will recognise the taste of the nectar from the sample received by trophillaxis on the dance floor
  • She will recognise the forage from the scent of the pollen, nectar and flower, as transmitted by the dancer during trophillaxis on the dance floor
    *
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44
Q

Communic - round dance

A
  • Forage within 100m of hive
  • On the dance floor.
  • Looped circle one way and then the other.
  • Share samples by Trophillaxis
  • Discover its source by themselves.
  • Danger of robbing - eg wet supers.
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45
Q
  1. Communic - Tremble dance
A
  • In the hive away from the dance floor
  • if unloading takes more than 40 seconds
  • recruits nectar processors
  • The dancer walks SLOWLY about on 4 legs,
  • forelegs, also trembling, raised as if begging
  • while its body trembles left and right, back and forth, side to side
  • PIVOTING FROM HEAD

(WOTH 165)

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46
Q
  1. Communic - trophillaxis define
A
  • The exchange of nectar or honey from one bee to another with antennal contact
  • Note young bees obtain all food from trophillaxis from older bees
  • Mainly older bees and foragers who offer
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47
Q
  1. Communic -

how does trophillaxis increase water collection in dearth

A
  • The optimal sugar:water concentration in the honey sac is 50:50 ad bees strive to maintain tbhis through out their lives.
  • Nectar = 30-90% water, usually meets the bees’ water requirements.
  • In a dearth, bees eat honey stores = 20% water.
  • Nurse bees produce brood food, which is 70-80% water.
  • Nurse bees feed on honey, which may normally be diluted with nectar.
  • As bees share this by trophillaxis, the sugar concentration of the honey sac will rise above 50%.
  • Water foragers are motivated to forage for water, recruiting more water foragers with dances.
  • With no nectar income, nurse bees will take large quantities of water from water receivers by trophillaxis.
  • The faster receivers unload water foragers, the faster foragers return for more water.
  • Unloading <60secs = get more; >60secs slow down >180 secs stop
    *
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48
Q
  1. Communic - Waggle dance
A
  • Directions >100m from hive
  • Dance floor if unloading less that 20 secs
  • figure 8, waggling its abdomen size to side and buzz wings
  • as travels the straight line of the 8
  • then circles alternately left and right to repeat this step
  • The angle to vertical (sun’s current position), gives the bearing to take from the sun on leaving hive.
  • Trichodea gravity sensors between head and thorax
  • The length of the waggle, and pips indicate distance to the forage
  • Inter-ommatidial hairs on compound eyes - wind speed and distance
  • Samples by trophillaxis
  • Account for time
  • Better ->longer dance -> more foragers
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49
Q
  1. Communic -

what is behaviour of nectar scout after she has collected some nectar

  • exclude behaviour at hive
A
  1. At the flower the bee swallows nectar down to honey sack
  2. Adding sucrase from her hypophryngel glands as she does so
  3. This starts the breakdown of sucose to glucose and fructose
  4. She may eat some nectar to fuel her continued flight
  5. Crawls/flies from flower to flower of the same species collecting nectar
  6. Stays constant to this species,collect more nectar to ascertain forage quantity
  7. This affects the duration of her dance back at the hive.
    1. Excellent sources merit longer dances to recruit more foragers
  8. When she has a full load, about 35-45mg dep on distance, she flies back to her entry point at the forage
  9. She navigates home using landmarks
  10. Trophocytes in the bee’s abdomen contain molecules that help the bee to work out magnetic orientation
  11. She will also use orientation of the sun, UV and polirasied light to help naviation
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50
Q

7 Orientation

A worker honeybee has been given the direction and distance to a new forage source by observing a dancing bee. List the navigational methods used for determining direction and distance during the first flight of a new recruit to find the new forage source. (You do not need to describe the any dances) 8

A
  1. The sensilla seta on the bee’s compound eyes allow it to estimate distance
  2. Distance was conveyed by clicks inaudible the human ear during the dances, and the number of waggle sections per 15 seconds
  3. The direction to the forage corresponds to the angle between the vertical point on the comb (which represents the sun’s current position) and the waggling part of the dance.
  4. Hairs between head and thorax allow it to sense gravity and hence the vertical.
  5. If the waggle was at 45˚ to the vertical, the bee exits the hive and flies along a bearing of 45˚ to the sun’s current position.
  6. The bee can detect UV and polarised light coming from different directions and determine the precise angle between them.
  7. As it approaches the forage, it will hone in on scent and taste of the flowers/pollen and nectar as well as any arnhart pheromones that remain from trips made by other bees, including the scout.
  8. The bee can allow for the sun’s movement (15˚/hour) of the sun automatically
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51
Q

7 Orientation

On arrival at the flowers, what additional cues confirm to the bee that this is the correct forage source? 3

A
  1. During the dance the bee will have been given samples of the taste and smell of the forage by trophillaxis
  2. She compares this with the taste and the scents she has been given by the dancer.
  3. She will also be able to scent the arnhart pheromone remaining on the flowers visited by the dancing bee. This remains for 4 hours at 23˚C.
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52
Q

7 Orientation

Describe the mechanisms by which a foraging honey bee finds her way back to the colony entrance and how this is affected by experience. 30

A
  1. Bee orientate and navigate based on a combination of
  2. Visual signals –
    1. sun direction
    2. sun polarisation and UV
    3. landmarks
  3. the earth’s magnetic fields
  4. smell
  5. taste
  6. The first time a bee returns from forage, she will have experienced the flight out to it, so already she has experience.
  7. She also has powerful experience of the hive’s locality, thanks to her early orientation flights, which grew progressively wider as she matured towards becoming a forager
  8. Landmarks are her principal guide after she has first found the forage. These include physical objects bushes, trees, roads, as well as colour and patterns and nectary guides
  9. For example, if a bee is lifted from a forage source, placed in a dark container and moved to another spot where the hive was still visible but not the forage, and then released, after a moment of disorientated the bee will devise a new flight path back to the hive based on landmarks. (gould ) (Yate 6.21.3 )
  10. Note that bees become disoriented if landmarks change – each cutting long grass around a hive will cause bees to be disoriented for several hours.
  11. At the forage, the bee always arrives and departs from the same entry point to the forage
  12. During her foraging trip on the crop, she somehow orientates and manages to compute, thanks to the sun’s UV and polarisation, where her entry point is at all times
  13. allowing for the movement of the sun by 15˚ per hour.
  14. She retains the memory of the forage, flight paths and hive location – this lasts for two weeks.
  15. She will fly on the reciprocal and original bearing, while accounting for the movement of the sun
  16. Scents and tastes along the way, including pheromones and hive and colony scents will guide her
  17. She follows magnetic clues thanks to magnetite in trophocytes in her abdomen
  18. She may account for the direction of the wind and the outward and reciprocal bearing on this (it won’t change much during one short foraging trip).
  19. She assesses distance using the sensilla seta on her compound eyes.
  20. She assesses wind direction using the organ of Johnson in her antennae
  21. As she gets nearer the hive (half a mile), these landmarks will become very familiar from her initial orientation flights as a house bee and she will ‘fly on automatic pilot’
  22. The automatic pilot aspect is so strong that, if the hive is moved more than 3’ and less than 3 miles, she will not be able to find it.
  23. This is because she will automatically revert to old flight paths
  24. Some say the bees will follow an odour plume out and back (Yate 6.21.1). This theory has not been proven. Obviously this will also depend on the direction of the wind.
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53
Q

07 Orientation

What other aids may she use on her return to the hive and on subsequent flights to the same forage source? 6

A
  1. The memory of its location and how to get there and back
  2. The reciprocal and original bearing, while accounting for the movement of the sun
  3. Scents and tastes along the way, including pheromones and hibe and colon scents
  4. Magnetic clues thanks to magnetite in trophocytes in her abdomen
  5. Landmarks including colour and patterns and nectary guides
  6. Sensilla on her eyes to assess distance
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54
Q
  1. Orientation

Briefly describe the behaviour of honeybees in relation to recognising the location of their hive. 4

A
  1. Young bees go on orientation flights to learn the colour and shape and orientation of their hive in relation to immediate surroundings
  2. And the precise position of the hive in relation to nearby landmarks - everything within ½ mile by the time they start foraging
  3. They recognise the nasonov pheromone at the hive entrance, and the hive and colony odour
  4. They will recognise the position of the hive in relation to UV and polarised light - older, more experienced foragers can find their way home if moved from one location to another inside a dark container.
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55
Q

08 Guard

During a moderate nectar flow, how would a guard bee react to a fully laden worker drifting into the wrong hive? 2

A
  • There are no guards during a high nectar flow.
  • In a moderate nectar flow, it is likely give it a desultory challenge, scented with its antenna for 1-3 seconds. The incoming bee may simply get past the guards by acting confidently.
  • Or it may act submissively, curling its abdo and legs in and offering a bribe.
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56
Q

08 Guard

Recognise a robber bee? 2

A
  1. Robbers have a characteristic zigzag flight as they approach the hive, because they are
    1. not familiar with the hive/entrance,
    2. weighing up the colony’s defenses
    3. alerting other robbers to the location of the colony being robbed
  2. Habitual robbers become smooth, shiny and black, possibly as a result of the occupational hazards of fighting other bees (Winston 115-116)
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57
Q

08 guard

What is hive odour and what factors affect it? 3

A
  1. All honey bees have an odour which is colony specific.
  2. This seems to come from the unique mix of nectars that are in the individual hive and are absorbed by the waxy surface of the bee
  3. and from the common crop contents of all the inhabitants of the colony brought about by trophillaxis
  4. as well as various in the mix of pheramones.
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58
Q

08 guard

Seasonal impact on guarding 4

A
  1. Colonies are more defensive during late summer and early autumn when they have large stores
  2. In the early part of the year they are more relaxed about strange bees and even beekeepers.
  3. Small colonies are less likely to attack than large ones.
  4. In winter bees in the centre of the cluter are warm and need very little time to warm up their flight muscles to fly to the attack - eg when the beekeeper does an oxalic acid treatment
  5. Some bees are genetically predispossed to be more defensive than others
    1. Eg African Bees
    2. Eg second generations of imported queens
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59
Q

08 guard

How do you recognise a guard bee?

A

It’s stance

  1. Standing on back and middle legs
  2. Front legs raised
  3. Antennae facing forward
  4. Wings spread
  5. Mandibles open

Pre-stinging behaviours include threat postures, buzzing, burrowing into predator, biting, pulling hairs

60
Q

08 defence

Stimuli for stinging 6

A
  1. Rapid movement
  2. Vibration
  3. Dark colours
  4. Animal scent
  5. Beekeeper’s perfume, perspiration
  6. Bees sense CO2 for location best place to sting
61
Q

08 guard

Recognise a bee behaving submissively

A
  1. The bee flies in straight and alights on the landing board
  2. After being challenged, it may curl up legs, curl in abdomen
  3. She may offer food
  4. She may syrop tongue (pull tongue trhough front feet)
  5. Guards will usually removed such a bee without harming her
62
Q

08 guarding

describe guard behaviour at entrance in dearth (ignore stance)

A
  1. Guards challenge every bee entering the site for 1-3 seconds by antennal contact
  2. If it is a bee drifting in, it is likely to have flown in on a direct path, have a load of forage and to blithely ‘stroll’ in with confidence.
  3. If challenged, they are likely to offer the guard food and beg their way in.
  4. If it is an intruder intent on robbing, it is likely to have had a zigziag flight path in
  5. This alerts the guards who may maul it, clamping on a leg wing, they might bit or pull hairs,
  6. This will mark the intruder with 2-heptanone – and attract other bees from the hive to maul it and try to drive it off
  7. The bee will curl her abdomen’s under enabling her to sting the intruder. Extruding sting releases sting scent from their sting scent gland.
  8. Isolentyl acetate inhibits foraging and recruits more guards from the foragers.
  9. Another sting scent pheramone - z-11-eicosen-1-ol boosts the effect of IA prolongs its effectiveness and attracts defenders to the area of the intruder.
  10. IA elicits stinging in the same spot.
  11. Bees as young as 12 days after emerging can be recruited to guard duty as thier sting gland has matured.
63
Q

08 Guard

how do bees defence against other pests trying to enter the hive

A
  1. Acarine. Bees have no defense against acarine, which live in the trachea of affected bees, who develop K wing, and tremble on grass stalks outside the hive.
  2. Varroa. Bees have no defense against varroa and tend to coexist with them, although some strains on honey bee groom themselves free of varroa better than others.
  3. A bad infestation will result in bald brood, reduced longevity, increased susceptibility to disease (eg deformed wing virus) and problems with orientation. In very bad cases, bees may abscond.
  4. Wax moth. Bees tend to coexist with wax moth, although they will sometimes remove the larva.
  5. Wasps and European hornets are hard to sting has they have a hard exoskeleton, so attacks are met with grappling and workers gang up and drive them off. Wasp attacks may be met by shimmering behaviour where workers shake violently from side to side, which often dissuades the attackers.
  6. Asian Hornet. European bees have not yet adapted to the Asian Hornet and have no defenses.
  7. Ants. Workers at the entrances turn their backs on ants and fan their wings and kick their rear legs which usually prevents ants from entering the nest.
  8. Small hive beetle. Bees have no defense against SHB because they have very hard exoskeletons and tend to scurry very fast. They will try to confine them to the edges of frames, although the SHB has adaptive behavior and ‘begs’ for food. The bees end up feeding them by trophillaxis. When the colony is disturbed (eg during a manipulation), the beetles will escape confinement and lay hundred of eggs in cells. In a strong colony, bees will try to remove the larva.
  9. Mice. Bees tend to coexist with mice, although the cluster will move away from the mouse nest. If it is early enough in the year to start again, bees may abscond.
64
Q

08 Guard

What would the colony reaction be to an attack by wasps? 5

A
  1. Wasps hover near nest attacking adults and removing thorax and carrying it back to their nest.
  2. Wasps sometimes gain entry and eat brood.
  3. They have a characteristic zigzag flight as they approach the hive
  4. Workers will shimmer in the entrance to try to put the off - (shake violently from side to side)
  5. Guards immediately grapple wasps that land and workers gang up to maul and bite them and try to drive them off, curling their abdoment round to sting them.
  6. marking them with 2-heptanone, so that if they escape into the hive they will be challenged by other workers.
  7. Extruding the sting releases the sting scent pheromone isopentyl acetate which recuits more defenders
65
Q

09 nectar and water collection

How do honeybees mark a water source? 1

A

With the nasonov pheromone, although the arnhart pheromone will also linger for 4 hours at 23˚C

66
Q

09 Nectar and water collection - nectar to honey

Discuss the process of nectar collection and how it is converted into honey and stored within the nest. (description of bee dances is not required). 22

A
  1. The bee arrives at a flower as a result of scouting/following ‘directions’ given in a waggle dance
  2. In the dance, the bee will have been given samples of the nectar by trophillaxis
  3. At the same time she will have picked up the scent of the pollen, flower, and nectar from the antennal contact during trophillaxis
  4. She will navigate to the flower and be attracted by the scents she recognises, including arnhart pheromone which will linger on flowers for 4 hours at 23˚C; 4 days at 5˚C
  5. Nectary guides and the scent of nectar will guide her to the nectaries, although she may have to learn out to reach these eg by nibbling a hole in the side of the field bean flower
  6. She will extend her proboscis and suck up the nectar though its food canal.
  7. As this passes over her hypopharyngeal plate, she adds sucrase from her hypopharyngeal glands
  8. This start to hydrolyse sucrose to fructose and glucose.
  9. C24H22O11 +H2O + sucrase ¾> C6H12O6 + C6H12O6
  10. She also adds glucose oxidase with converts glucose to gluconic acid and the antibacterial hydrogen peroxide, which will later help preserve the nectar when it has been converted to honey.
  11. She navigates back to the hive by returning to the forage entry point, taking a reciprocal bearing from the sun that she came out on, allowing for the passage of time.
  12. She will also navigate by landmarks and familiar odours – eg other flower scents in the area, as well as colony and hive scent and nasonov pheromones from the hive entrance.
  13. Back at the hive, she unloads to a nectar receiver at the edge of the brood nest, who moves away from the brood nest to start the process of converting the nectar to honey
  14. The house bee first ripens the honey: this involves regurgitating a droplet of nectar onto the end of her proboscis and swallowing it down about 100 times over 20 minutes.
  15. She made add additional sucrase during this process.
  16. This reduces the water content of the nectar by about 15%
  17. She then spreads the nectar out in cells to evaporate further.
  18. Other house bees fan the honey – replacing moist air inside the hive with dry air from outside the hive
  19. This reduces the water content to about 20%
  20. The house bees then pack the honey into cells and seal them with wax leaving a miniscule air gap.
67
Q

09 Nectar collection

Nectar collection - what is involved 8

A
  • A bee either discovers a patch or her own, or has followed the directions given in a waggle dance to find it.
  • During the dance, she will have received samples of the nectar by trophillaxis giving her the taste and smell of the nectar. Antennal contact during trophillaxis will have transmitted the scent of the pollen and flower.
  • The bee arrive at the foraging patch and marks her entrance – she will arrive and leave from the same point every time
  • Bee lands and uses nectary guides and nectar scent to find the flower’s nectaries
  • She may have to learn how to reach nectaries - eg at field bean, will learn to copy bumble bee behaviour to access nectary from side or back by nibbling at the flower
  • She will suck up the honey using her proboscis into her honeysac
  • While collecting nectar at the flower, she adds sucrase from her hypopharyngeal glands. This mixture is swallowed to honey sac.
  • Sucrase hydrolyses the sucrose (disaccharide) into glucose and fructose (monosaccharaides) which can be absorbed through the bee’s gut
    C12H22011 +H2O C6H1206 + C6H1206
68
Q

09 Water and nectar

Whe is water collection noticeable

A
  1. Late winter, early spring to disolve/dilute stores
  2. Spring when nurses are feeding brood and relying on Honey stores for food
  3. Hot weather when cooling required
69
Q

09 water and nectar collection

Give a description of the bee behaviour involved in nectar collection

A
  1. A bee either discovers a patch or her own, or has followed the directions given in a waggle dance to find it.
  2. During the dance, she will have received samples of the nectar by trophillaxis giving her the taste and smell of the nectar. Antennal contact during trophillaxis will have transmitted the scent of the pollen and flower.
  3. The bee arrive at the foraging patch and marks her entrance – she will arrive and leave from the same point every time
  4. Bee lands and uses nectary guides and nectar scent to find the flower’s nectaries
  5. She may have to learn how to reach nectaries - eg at field bean, will learn to copy bumble bee behaviour to access nectary from side or back by nibbling at the flower
  6. She will extend her proboscis and suck up the honey through the food canal into her honeysac
  7. As this flows over her hypopharyngeal plate, sucrase is added from her hypopharyngeal glands.
  8. Sucrase hydrolyses the sucrose (disaccharide) into glucose and fructose (monosaccharaides) which can be absorbed through the bee’s gut
    C12H22011 +H2O C6H1206 + C6H1206
  9. She navigates back to the hive using a reciprocal bearing on the sun from her journey out, landmarks and scents
  10. At the hive she will unload the nectar to a nectar receiver on the edge of the brood nest
  11. She will unload the pollen into a cell on the outside of the brood nest.
70
Q

09 Water and Nectar collection

Honeydew 6

A
  1. Honeydew from plants/hemiptera
  2. Trees inc PLACEBOS HC
    1. Prunus Lime Ash Chestnut Elm Beech Oak Sycamore Hawthorn Conifer
  3. Hemiptera feed on phloem and excrete Honey Dew
  4. If it dries, it is called manna
  5. Attacts bees when not other forage available
  6. If dry, they wet it with saliva
71
Q

09 Nectar and water collection

How is water used in the colony? 5

A
  1. To dissolve granulated honey
  2. To dissolved honey stores
  3. To cool through evaporation
  4. To hydrate themselves - they have liquid faeces
  5. To hydrate nurse bees who produce brood food which is 70-80% water
72
Q

09 water and nectar collection

How is water collected and transported back to the hive? 10

A
  1. Collection varies according to demand - it is not stored in the hive
  2. Site often marked with nasonov
  3. They take up water in about 1 minute (av load 25mg)
  4. 67% of field trips completed in 3 minutes; 90% in 10 minutes, water usually close by
  5. Average 100 trips a day
  6. They may collect water from a nearby puddle/pond
  7. On cool/wet days, they may also sip water from dewy grass stems outside hive
  8. They suck up water using their proboscis
  9. They swallow this to their honey sac in which they transport it back to the hive.
  10. Unloading <60secs -> more water; >60+ secs slow down; >180+ secs stop collection
73
Q

09 Water and nectar collection

Describe water collection in terms of preferred sites and regularity of visits. 4

A
  1. 67% of field trips completed in 3 minutes; 90% in 10 minutes, so water is usually close by
  2. They may collect water from a nearby puddle/pond
  3. On cool/wet days, they may also sip water from dewy grass stems outside hive
  4. Nasonov marking
74
Q

10 Nectar and water collection

Describe the interrelationship between nectar, honey and water in the colony in summer and winter

A
  1. Bees can only metabolise a sugars when the sugar:water ratio in their honey stomach is 50:50
  2. They will strive to maintain this concentration throughout their lives
  3. During summer, the nectar flow (usually 30-90% water)
  4. This usually satisfies the bee’s requirement for water
  5. In winter, or dearth, there is no nectar flow, so bees rely on honey stores, which are around 20% water.
  6. Therefore, foragers must collect water in order to metabolise honey.
75
Q

11 Hydrolysis - define

A
  1. Breaking down a compound with water to make other compounds
  2. C12H22011 +H2O C6H1206 + 6H1206
  3. Sucrose + Water + sucrase = Glucose and frucose
76
Q

11 nectar processing

What does nectar contain?

A
  • 20-90% water, rest sugar S/F/G
    • Primrose 5% sugar
    • OSR 50% sugar
    • Horsechestnut 70% sugar
  • MOLEPAVA
    • Mineral ash
    • Organic acides
    • Lipis
    • Enzymes
    • Proteins
    • Amino Acides
    • Vitamins
    • Aromatic compounds
77
Q
  1. Ripening - define
A
  1. Ripeing is the manipulation
  2. by the house bee
  3. whereby she swallows and regurgitates nectar + sucrase mixure
  4. 100 times
  5. over 20 minutes
  6. to reduce the water content by 15%
78
Q
  1. Why does a bee make honey 6
A
  1. Honey represents the colony’s stores for dearth, times of bad weather and winter
  2. Nectar contains 20-70% water plus various combinations of fructose, sucrose and glucose, among other things including amino acids, organic acids and aromatic compounds.
  3. If stored in this form, is would ferment/grow mould
  4. So bees convert it into honey, which has 20% water content or less
  5. Glucose oxidase is added from hypophryngeal glands
  6. Converts glucose to gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. HP is antibacterial another layer of preservation
79
Q
  1. Arriving at the flower to sucking up nectar 5
A
  1. The bee lands and uses nectary guides and nectar scent to find the flower’s nectaries
  2. (This scent was transmitted from the dancer to the prospective forage during trophillaxis during the waggle tail dance)
  3. She might have to learn how to reach the nectaries
  4. eg at field bean, will learn to copy bumble bee behaviour to access nectary from side or back by nibbling at the flower
  5. She will suck up the honey using her proboscis into her honeysac
  6. Passes over HPG adds sucrase
80
Q

11

How do honey bees convert nectar into honey?

Include a brief description of the physical chemical changes from the flower to the capped cell

A
  1. While collecting nectar at the flower, the bee adds sucrase from its hypopharyngeal glands
  2. This mixture is swallowed to the bee’s honey sac.
  3. Sucrase hydrolyses the S (disaccharide) into G+F (monosaccharides) which can be absorbed through the bee’s gut
    C12H22011 +H2O C6H1206 + 6H1206
    OR starts breakdown of S with H2O to G&F (HYDROLYSIS)
  4. The forager transfers its load to house bees usually on the edge of the brood nest
  5. House bees moves away from the broodnest,
  6. They manipulate the nectar (called RIPENING), swallowing an regurgitating it back down to their honey sacs about 100 times over about 20 minutes
  7. Adding more sucrose from its hypopharyngeal glands
  8. This ripening reduced water content of the nectar by about 15%.
  9. The house bee spreads the ripened nectar to dry on the surface of empty cells.
  10. Fanning by other house bees removes the moist air from the hive and replaces it with dry air from outside reducing the water content to 18-20%.
  11. The honey is moved and partially filled cells are filled and capped with wax seal;
  12. Glucose oxidase, also added from the bee’s hypopharyngeal glands, converts glucose into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. (the HP is antibacterial)
81
Q

11 Honey processing

Name three enzumds added to nectar

A
  1. Sucrase
  2. Gucose oxidase
  3. Diastase
82
Q

12 pollen - bee bread

Why is pollen turned into bee bread and how is this achieved? 6

A
  1. It would otherwise grown mould
  2. Pollen is ‘glued’ to forager leg when front legs are wetted with nectar as it grooms the pollen into its corbiculae at the flower
  3. As house bees pack pollen collected and dropped off in cells by foragers
  4. They mix it with more honey or nectar
  5. which includes enzymes and bacteria
  6. These inhibit germination and growth of moulds
  7. And give rise to lactic acid fermenation
  8. which improves the quality oof the bee bread.
  9. Although only 50% of nutritional value of fresh pollen
  10. Stored combes with pollen attracts pollen mite
83
Q

12 pollen

What makes bees good pollinators?

]

A

Faithful hairy survivalists mark nonstop daylight waggledances

  1. Faithful to one type of flower per visit
  2. Hairy – bees covered in 3million hairs – many plumose – gap between hairs is 45μm = width of dandelion pollen grain (BBKA NEWS 10/17), which sweep up 15000 pollen grains/flower
    1. Pollination incidental to collection.
  3. Can be moved en masse to pollinate crops
  4. Survive en masse over winter and emerge in spring in large numbers to collect pollen
  5. Mark forage with arnhart – so a beacon for new foragers – lingers 4 hours at 23˚C and 4 days at 5˚C
  6. Nonstop foraging in daylight except in bad/cold weather
  7. Forage in daylight so spraying possible at night
  8. Waggle dances communicate sources to other bees
  9. Sun: Are able to use the sun, UV and oplarised light to navigate to source
84
Q

12 Pollen - ways it is collected 2

A
  1. May bite filaments to dislodge pollen from ripe anthers
  2. In trying to reach nectaries at the back of the flower the bee will brush against ripe anthers
85
Q

12 Describe Pollen collection in detail 20

A
  1. Coolection stim by QS and BP
  2. Two types of bee collect pollen:
    1. as a by-product of nectar collecting
    2. purposely collecting pollen.
  3. Approximately 20% of foraging bees purposely collect pollen (approximately 1/3 of workers are foragers, 2/3 of a colony are house bees).
  4. Arriving at the flower, by-producters get covered in pollen
  5. Purposefiul collecters may bite filaments of the stamen to dislodge pollen from the ripe anthers.
  6. Pollen landd on her body and catches in her plumose hairs
  7. She flies/walks from flower to flower of the same species, incidentally cross pollinating from the pollen on her body as she goes
  8. As she leaves a flower, she will groom the pollen into her corbiculae on her hind legs.
  9. She moistens her legs with a bit of nectar, and then grooms the pollen from her head and first thoracic segment
  10. The middle legs collect the pollen from the first legs and the rest of the thorax, particularly the ventral side
  11. The hind legs collect the pollen from the middle legs and clean the abdomen.
  12. When enough pollen is collected on the surfaces of her basitarsi, she will rake the pollen into the auricle on the opposite leg where it is held in place by the hairs of the rastellum
  13. The retaining hairs of the auricle stop it falling out.
  14. The teeth on the auricle grip it.
  15. She then closes the tarsus against the tibia
  16. This squeezes the pollen up and outwards in a pasty blob on to the concave external surface of her tibia where the pollen is held in place by the hairs on the corbiculae.
  17. Repeated several times over 3-18 minutes to build up a load of up to 40mg/leg.
  18. A full load is approx 100 flowers
  19. She will unload the pollen into a cell on the edge of the brood nest
  20. Each journey takes 3-20 minutes in daylight hours in reasonable weather - low wind, temperatures above 13˚C
86
Q

12 Pollen external causes of regulation

What factors OUTSIDE the hive regulate the amount of pollen collected? 2

A
  1. changes in number of pollen foragers
  2. per capita collection rate
87
Q

12 Pollen feedback mechanism - in brief

Outline the feedback mechanism involved. 6

A
  1. Inhibitory cue from the protein-rich secretion from hypopharyngeal glands which is fed to foragers by trophilliaxis
  2. The larger the P. reserves, the greater P. consumption by nurse bees
  3. the more protein is fed to foragers by trophillaxis
  4. the more foragers are inhibited from further P. collection.
  5. If the nurses need to feed more larvae, there is less for foragers
  6. who are hungry for protein and increase the number of foragers and the per capita rate of collection
  7. The researve act as a buffer - rate of collecion is more variable that demand.
  8. So the increased demand is responded to before the reserves in the nest fall too far
88
Q

12 Pollen internal causes of regulation

What factors within the hive regulate the amount of pollen collected? 2

A
  1. Amount of reserves
  2. Demand for pollen from nurses
89
Q

12 Pollen

Two pheramones that stimulate pollen collection 2

A
  1. Queen substance
  2. Brood pheramone from open brood
90
Q

12 pollen reserves - detail

Describe how a honeybee colony regulates its pollen reserves?

A

Seeley (WOTH)

  1. Pollen supply varies more day-to-day than demand -> buffer required of about kg -> colony myst regulate supplies
  2. Adjusts collecting rate in relation to reserve thro
    1. changes in number of pollen foragers
    2. per capita collection rate
  3. Foragers fed no sensory feedback on quantity of stores
  4. Feedback is indirect and involves non-foragers
  5. Critial bees in this are the nurse bees, who are principle pollen users
  6. They provide excitory feedback when there is little pollen in the hive
    1. Perhaps by preparing cells for pollen storage so unloading is quicker
  7. Only evidence at present is inhibitory feedback from nurses when there is abundant pollen in the hive
  8. Evidence suggests it is inhibitory cue from the protein-rich secretion from HG which is fed to foragers
  9. Study required to assess key assumptions
    1. That the amount of secretion varies in relation to size of reserve
    2. That the amount received influences foragers collecting activity
91
Q

12 Pollen

Describe unloading2

A
  • She grasps cell edge with front legs,
  • arches abdo so hind legs dangle over cell
  • Middle legs push off load into cell
92
Q

12 Pollen uses x 10

A
  1. Protein
  2. Nurse bees +P = BF + RJ d
    1. BF&RJ are a proteinous-rich fluid that enables brood/queen cells to grown and develop
    2. The more the Q is fed RJ, the more eggs she lays per day
  3. Nurse bees feed P to older worker larvae
  4. Capping brood
  5. Reactivate or de-atrophy HPG when more nurses needed (eg after a swarm)
  6. Gland development
  7. Metabolic ‘Repairs’ eg to forager muscles
  8. Stored - About 1kg is, pickled with honey to make bee bread to
  9. Winter bees - to enlarge their HPG + fat bodies -> longevity
  10. Lack of pollen -> stress, which can trigger chalk brood.
93
Q

12 Pollen

variations in who collect N and P

Collection duration

No. trips/day

A
  • 60% of foragers collect nectar
  • 25% collect Pollen
  • 17% collect both
  • Pollen is quicker (10 mins) CF nectar (30-80 mins)
  • So will travel longer distances for P
  • 10-15 trips/day
94
Q

13 propolis

sources

A
  1. resinous substance obtained by HB from trees and wounds in woody plants.
  2. CHAPP
  3. Cherry,
  4. Horse chestnut,
  5. Alder,
  6. Poplar
  7. Pines
95
Q

13 Propolis

How is propolis unloaded?

A
  1. Unloaded by a house bee
  2. At the point of use
  3. Takes about an hour to bite and pull off small pieces and
  4. fix in place with mandibles
96
Q

13 propolis

How is propolis unloaded by honeybees? 3

A
  1. Unloaded by a house bee
  2. At the point of use
  3. Takes about an hour to bite and pull off small pieces and pressed into place that need plugging
97
Q

13 Propolis

In what ways is propolis used by the honeybee colony?

A
  1. eCAVES
  2. Embalm
  3. Cracks - filled to keep out wind and rain.
  4. Antibacterial - preserves brood food and minimises infect
  5. Varnish cells
  6. Entrance narrowed
  7. Smooth rough surfaces
98
Q
  1. Propolis

Define and properties

A
  • resinous substance obtained by HB from trees and wounds in woody plants.
  • Antibacterial properties.
  • Waterproof: disolves in meths, alcohol and ether
  • Cold: hard and brittle when cold
  • Warm: v sticky when warm - only collected in warm
  • Orange to dark brown
  • Chractristic smell: clean antiseptic
99
Q
  1. propolis

How is propolis collected by honeybees? 2

A
  1. In WARM weather, bite of small pieces and kneed with mandibles till pliable
  2. Pass it to their forelegs
  3. Transfer to corbiculae on same side by middle legs and patted into position with middle leg
100
Q
  1. Propolis

How is propolis collected by honeybees? 5

A
  1. In WARM weather
  2. bite off small pieces
  3. kneed with mandibles till pliable
  4. Transfer to corbiculae on same side by middle legs
  5. patted into position with middle leg
101
Q
  1. propolis

In what ways is propolis used by the honeybee colony? 4

A

​eCAVES

  1. Embalm
  2. Cracks - filled to keep out wind and rain.
  3. Antibacterial - preserves brood food and minimises infect
  4. Varnish cells
  5. Entrance narrowed
  6. Smooth rough surfaces
102
Q
  1. Propolis

uses by man

A
  • Cosmetics
  • Health food
  • Tincture
  • Varnish
  • Wound dressing
103
Q

14 Swarm + supersedure

how a beekeeper can tell the difference between them.

A
  1. Some say there tend to be fewer queen cells in a superceding colony, but with a medium number of QCs it is impossible to tell.
  2. It is almost impossible to tell if a colony is superceding, swarming or even plans to destroy the cells and do neither.
  3. A bee keeper can assess the amount of space remaining (if little, a swarm trigger) – colonies with a large amount of space are more likely to be superceding.
  4. The age of the queen (old queens are a swarm trigger), unless she is in a captured swarm, in which case she is likely to be superceded because she was old when she swarmed and, having established the swarm, the bees may not consider her good enough to get through the winter.
  5. Prior to a swarm, bees will be quiescent at the bottom of the combs and may have hypertrophied wax glands
  6. Prior to a swarm, there will be a huge number of capped brood and very few eggs
104
Q

14 Swarm colonisation

From departure to the arriving at the new site

A
  1. The queen’s mandibular gland (9-oxydec 2 enoic acid) attacts the bees in the swarm and holds it together,
  2. while workers fan their nasonov glands to call in stragglers.
  3. Scouts continue their search for a new site and dance locations of possible sites on the surface of the swarm using the waggle tail dance,
  4. which gives a precise angle to the vertical (representing the sun in it’s current position) to fly out on, and the length of the waggle and pips and squeaks indicate how far away it is.
  5. Scouts inspect the site inside and out taking about an hour for a good site, carefully walking the interior space and even flying it.
  6. They are looking for a site off the ground, about 20-80 litrs in size (European bees), with a small, south-facing entrance of about 15cm2 at least 300 m from the old colony.
  7. When the scouts reach a quorum on a site, they stop doing waggle dances and start doing buzz run dances to get the bees to swarm up their flight muscles in preparation for lift off from the bivouac site.
  8. They take off in a cloud of beeing hanging over the bivouac site for about 30 seconds then move off slowing in diretion of the new site.
  9. The scouts set off in a direct line to the new site, the Queens (9ODA) attracting the swarm bees.The first 30m fly at about 1km/hour and then gradually accelerate so that by 150m they have reached their top speed of 8kn/hour
  10. Only 5% of the bees kn ow the destination. However, ignorant bees align to bees that seem to have purposeful flight.
  11. The scouts ‘guide’ the swarm by Streaking through the colony from behind in the direction of the new site and then allowing the swarm to fly past it, and repeating this process until the reach the site.
  12. At 90m before the site, they rapidly slow sown and swarm about 5m from goal
  13. Over next 2-3 mins scouts appear at the entrance fanning nasonov
  14. Within three minutes, bees are enering the next. When they reach the site, the queen will enter the site and the bees will follow in after her.
  15. Workers will collect on the outside and fan their nasonov glands to call in the stragglers
105
Q

14 swarming

What happens in the mother colony after the swarm has issued. 16

A
  1. 40% of adult workers remain
  2. Colony contains unsealed and sealed QCs + worker brood + stores
  3. Workers continue to forage or may revert to feed brood. They will do this by consuming pollen to reactivate their hypopharyngeal glands.
  4. Workers continue to seal QCs and rear worker brood so colony rebounds quickly
  5. Worker brood is high during this period (42%) with most lost at egg and young larval stage - not enough adults to incubate/feed them.
  6. Queen emerges
  7. This usually supresses the emergnce of other queens, probably by DVAV on mature QCs
  8. Emerged Q announces presence with pheramones and piping (pressing thorax against come and vibrating wing muscles)
  9. While VQ pipes, rest of workers freeze in place
  10. When there is a piping Q, workers will not chew away wax from capped ends of QCs preventing them emerging
  11. Sometimes two queens emerge at once and may tolerate each other for a few hours/days before fighting.
  12. Emerged Q’s attempt to kill sealed queends by cutting holes in cells and stinging occupants.
  13. Workers ignore Q and she matures and feeds herself - no RJ/Court
  14. Casts may emerge with virgin queens - some can contain up to three queens
  15. Workers do not gorge fully and casts contain fewer younger bees issues in casts
  16. No of casts correlated with amount of brood and numbe of adults int he colony at the time of swarming.
  17. Colonies produce more casts in good years and areas with longer growing seasons.
106
Q

14 Swarming behaviour.

overview of behaviour 6

A
  1. Starve queen so she can fly
  2. Departing bees gorge and festoon at the bottom of lower combs
  3. Leave after hour’s pipiing and then buzz run dance.
  4. 60% leave; 40% remain with brood and stores
  5. Castes with virgin queens may emerge 8 days later
  6. Weather may delay departure for weather
107
Q

14 Swarming

Dances involved in swarming 4

A
  1. Piping dance - warm up flight muscles 1 hour in advance
  2. Buzz Run prepare to depart imminently
  3. DVAV on queen to keep her moving
  4. Waggle dance to indicate possible nest sites
108
Q

14 swarming

Describe swarm preparations

laying eggs to departing 22

And when might a beekeeper step in

A
  1. Prep starts 2-4 weeeks before the first swram issues
  2. Bees make cups; many are torn down. Number increases prior to queen rearing
  3. QR starts when Q lays in cups, tho bees sometimes remove eggs/larva
  4. The eggs hatch and the larva are fed royal jelly and long peanut-shpped cells build around them.
  5. The beekeeper can do an artificial swarm at this point.
  6. Around 15-25 is typical for a swarm
  7. Q PUPAE inhibit more QC production
  8. Timing - ideally in time of adult pop growth and plenth of brood to compensate for loss of swramer - QR starts when worker brood at it s peak
    1. QC destruction may ensure that colonies don’t swarm untilthere are sufficient adults and brood to populate 2 colonies.
  9. The queen is feed more frequently and lays more eggs until the week before swarming.
  10. Then the workers feed her less so she lays fewer eggs and her bdoment slijms down so she can fly
  11. Workers jostle, shake, push and bit queen to keep her moving and slim her further
  12. Queen examines QC frequently
  13. Receivers are reluctant to accept loads from foragers
  14. Scouts stop looking for new forage and start looking for a new home.
  15. ALL Bees start gorging on honey about 10 days before swarming to ensure they have enough reserves which the swarm finally issues - all bees carry around 36mg of honey on honey stomach CF 10mg in non swarming colonies.
  16. Their wax glands may become hypertrophied
  17. They become v quiet prior to swarming and festoon onthe bottom of combs
  18. Capping the first queen cell is the trigger to depart
  19. The scouts dance the buzz run dance – running at and over lethargic groups of bees and queen buzzing their wings. This is the signal for the swarmers to warm up their flight muscles.
  20. Queen is also bitten and chased
  21. A torrent of workers pours out, hopefully with queen and takes to the air.
  22. they settles nearby to check the queen is with them, if not, the return and start the issuing process again.
109
Q

What component of QS attracts bees to the cluster

What component of QS stablises the swarm

A
  • 9ODA
  • 9HDA
110
Q

14 swarming

What triggers swarming 6

When might a Beekeeper take action? 3

A
  1. Lack of space to build more comb + reduced QS
  2. 9ODA and 9HDA and Arnhart together inhibit queen rearing
  3. The queen might be old. Level of QS production halves every year
  4. Lots of workers - more workers req more QS
    1. Naturally swarming/superceding Queens produce less QS
  5. Immature queen PUPAE inhibit further queen rearing
  6. Overcrowding may prevent Q from moving along the bottom of combs and depositing Arnhart
  7. Beekeeper can identify that there is a likelihood of the hive becoming congested and add supers accordingly.
  8. If sees quiescent bees can do artifical swarm.
  9. If sees QCs can do artifical swarm
111
Q

14 swarming

triggers short

Describe the conditions and time of year that are most likely to lead to swarming 5

A
  1. Spring and early summer
  2. As colony builds up rapidly with congestion in the hive
  3. An old queen with reduced queen substance
  4. No space to build new comb
  5. Genetic predisposition to swarm (eg Carnolian bees if overcrowded)
112
Q

15 supercedure advantages

How can supercedure be of advantage to a honeybee colony? 3

A
  1. Sick or damaged queen is replaced with minimal impact on the colony
  2. The colony retains all the bees
  3. Stores are not depleted, especially late in the year
113
Q

15 supercedure definition and types 3

A
  1. Requeening of a honey bee colony a daughter queen without the colony swarming and without human intervention
  2. Perfect: old queen present in the colony until the new one is mated and starts laying
  3. Imperfect: old Q disposed of before new one emerges
114
Q

15 Supersedure

triggers short 5

Describe the conditions and time of year that are most likely to lead to supersedure

A

SPEND

  1. Low levels of queen substance
  2. Physical injury
  3. Not enough eggs being laid for seasonal build up
  4. Nosema
  5. Too many drones in the hive
  6. Tends to be later in the season – bees will want to replace a queen the fear will not get them through the winter.
115
Q

16 choosing a nest site

How do bee prepare a new nest site 5

A
  1. As soon as bee arrive they will remove any loose particles from the top down, cleaning the new nest site
  2. They will seal unnecessary openings with propolis
  3. Some bees will arrive with hypertrophied wax glands.
  4. Others bees will hang in festoons for 24 hours while they metabolise the sugars they have brought with them,
  5. Raising the temperature to 35˚C at which point bees can produce wax in quantity
  6. They then build comb.
116
Q

16 new home assess

How do scout bees determine the internal capacity of a possible new home? 3

A
  1. They walk and fly around it to gauge the volume, as well as inspect it from outside
  2. They will inspect the volume during around 25 journeys around the inside measuring capacity by walking -principle means
  3. Also sight. They need illunmination of 0.5 lux to do this.
117
Q

16 new home

Briefly list the factors that would encourage a swarm to occupy a cavity. 7

A
  1. European honey bees prefer big sites (20-80litres)
  2. (African bees prefer small sites (10litres)
  3. A small entrance around 15cm2
  4. At the bottom of the cavity
  5. 3m meters above ground level
  6. South facing
  7. At least 300m from old colony
  8. Ideally with comb from previous occupation
  9. Ideally dry
118
Q
  1. new home

How might the swarm utilise propolis to overcome deficiencies in the cavity? 3

A
  1. Narrow the entrance
  2. Fill in extra holes to stop draughts
  3. Fill extra holes to stop water ingress
  4. Line the cavity and smooth rough patches
119
Q

17 comb building

​​What would this comb look like? 12

A
  1. Regular back-to-back array of hexagonal cells arranged in parallel series, each comb a precise distance from its neighbours
  2. Comb is build vertically from top of the cavity – bees sense gravity (hairs)
  3. Comb shape tends to be in a catenary curve (the shape of bees festooning)
  4. Hexagonal shape - may be the result of visco-elastic flow (Karihaloo 2013) or bees may construct hexagonal cells
  5. Cells are set at 13˚ angle above the horizontal to stop honey/nectar poring out
  6. Cells are build on two sides of the septum, off-set by 50% for greater rigidity
  7. The brood cells are 11mm deep
  8. Honey cells can be up to 16mm deep
  9. Worker cells are 5 per inch
  10. Drone cells are unusually at the sides or bottom and 4 per inch
  11. Queen cells are elongaged conical cells hanging from comb edges
  12. Two bee spaces between combs (12mm) to facilitate back to back working – the spacing between combs is around 35mm.
  13. Left to their own devices, bees build comb to suit the shape and fill dimensions of the cavity, filling it
  14. Several bees contribute to once cells and severl cells under construction simult. A bee may smooth wax or add to it
  15. Cell wals 0.073mm ish
  16. Ikg wax requires 8kg honey and supports 22kg honey
  17. Workers use antennae to determin thickness and smoothness of cells walls. Control of cell diameter not know - workers with both antennae removed can sell build perfect cells
  18. Some species may try to orientate their combs in a NE-SW direction (about 50˚)
120
Q

17 comb building

List the factors that initiate 5

and inhibit comb building 2

A
  1. During a big nectar flow
  2. When combs are virtually full (only 20% of cells empty. WOTH 191)
  3. It is dark
  4. Brood is expanding
  5. The queen is present
  6. Not involved in swarm preparation
  7. Not preparing for winter.
121
Q

17 comb building

Describe how bees construct new comb. 10

A
  1. Bees must have had a pollen rich diet at some point in order to produce wax
  2. Made from wax produced by four pairs of wax glands on the underside of the abdomen of middle aged bees (around 16-18 days old)
  3. The bees gorge on honey (8:1 honey: wax), festoon while metabolizing the sugars and raise the temperature to 35˚C, at which temperature the wax will be more pliable
  4. They remove the wax scales from the wax pockets with their middle leg and pass it to their mandibles with their front legs (workers with damaged legs cannot build or manipulate wax.)
  5. The scale is chewed with the mandibles with secretions from the mandibular glands.
  6. The scale is then deposited on the upper inside surface of the cavity to form a small ridge 2-4mm high
  7. The comb is drawn down vertically - the bee has sensilla trichodea that sense gravity between the head and thorax and in the petiole.
  8. Depressions are moulded into the sides and extra wax is deposited to form the cell walls, which are drawn at an angle of 13˚ from the horizontal to prevent honey dripping out
  9. The bees may form a grid of hexagonal cells. Or they may make circular cells and the visco elastic flow of wax as it cools pulls it into a naturally occuring hexagonal shape. (Karihaloo 2013)
  10. They don’t appear to need their antennae to build cells - workers with amputated antenna can still build perfect cells accroding to Winston.
  11. The bees drawm out cells on both sies of the septum, with the cells on one side offset by 50% from the other for extra strength
  12. The shape of the comb is due to the shape of bees handing in festoons to forma catenary curve
  13. They start in different places and join up individual pieces as they come together, which accounts for thicker walls in some places.
122
Q

17 comb building

How do honeybees use wax comb? 6

A
  1. To raise brood
  2. To store pollen around the brood
  3. To store honey above the brood
  4. To hang nectar in while they reduce the water content
  5. They may keep some empty cells in brood to facilitate warming – bees crawl inside
  6. To create a space for living - evern foragers may spend up to 70% of their time hanging about idly on comb.
  7. They build larger cells to the side/bottom of the comb for drones
  8. They build peanut shaped cells when queen rearing
123
Q

18 summer winter

  1. Describe the behaviour of an individual bee in a winter cluster. 4
A
  1. In the outer shell where she will have her head into the cluster and her wings spread or in the inner festoon with the queen
  2. She may crawl into empty cell to make colony denser - hypoxia 15% oxygen and 6% CO2 so ends up in suspended animation with v low metab
  3. In cluster, as the temperatures drops she will move closer to her fellow workers to contract cluster and reduce surface:volume ratio
  4. At ambient 0 and -5˚C she will shiver her dorsoventral muscles to generate metabolic heat
  5. From time to time, on warmer days, the cluster will loosen so that bees can move through the hive and feed
  6. From time to time on warmer days, she will go out on flights to void her rectum
124
Q

18 summer winter

How does normal colony regulate temperature in the brood area as the ambient temperature rises from 18˚C to over 36˚C. 8

A
  1. The brood needs to be kept at a temperature of 30-35˚C – temperatures above 36˚C are harmful to brood

As internal temperature of the hive rises the bees have several escalating options:

  1. Dehydrating nectar has a cooling effect on the hive.
  2. Adults in the hive will disperse
  3. Older workers (strong wing muscles) line up in chains facing the same way to ventilate the hive - fanning at the entrance and inside the hive to circulate the air.
  4. One set of workers at the entrance will face inwards, fanning hot air out; another faces the other way on the other side to fan cooler air into the hive.
  5. Water collection goes up as bees use water to cool the hive – water receivers ‘paint’ the water in puddles on capped cells or hang droplets in cells
  6. Bees may tongue-lash over brood cells - repeated extend and contract their proboscis, pressing a droplet of water from their mouths into a thin film which can evaporate quickly
  7. Bees will evacuate the hive cluster in a ‘beard’ outside the hive to reduce heat generated by their metabolism and by providing more room for ventilation and water evaporation.
125
Q

18 summer winter

How can a beekeeper help regulate high temperatures?

A
  1. Providing sufficient space for bees to disperse in summer, or removing supers in winter so that they have a smaller space to keep warm in winter

In summer

  1. Providing shade at noon or in the afternoon
  2. Ensuring the crown board feed holes are open the roof ventilators are clear
  3. Insulating the hive (to keep it cooler in summer and warmer in winter)
  4. Trimming undergrowth to ensure good air flow around hive
  5. Staggering supers and off-setting crown boards and roofs and raising the roof to facilitate air currents through the hive in extreme hea
126
Q

18 summer winter

What is the composition of a stable winter cluster? 13

A
  1. The cluster starts for form below the stores at ambient 18˚C
  2. Round ball run through with combs with top in contact with stores.
  3. The outer shell is 1-3” deep - workers have their heads in and on the outside have their wings spread
  4. Below an ambient temperature of 14˚C, the cluster has an a compact outer shell of quiet bees and an inner core of bees more loosely festooned around queen
  5. with channels for ventilation
  6. Some bees enter empty cells.
  7. Bees in centr may suffer for hypoxia as cluster contracts, entering state of suspended animation from v low O2 (15%) and v high CO2 (6%) greatly reducing metabolic rate, so saving energy.
  8. Core temperature 20-30˚C
  9. 33-35˚C when queen is laying
  10. The cluster contracts to conserve heat.
  11. At 0˚C (Davies) to -5˚C (Winston) cluster stops contracting and the bees will generate metabolic heat by shiver their dorsoventral muscles.
  12. The minimum temperature within the cluster is 13˚C which maintains the temperature of the outer shell at 8˚C
  13. At 7.2˚C bees on the outside will fall off
127
Q

18 winter summer

How do bees prep for winter 12

A
  1. During summer: forage and collect harvest (1)
  2. Store food (2)
    1. Dehydrate nectar
    2. Ripen honey
    3. Seal with wax
  3. Hoof out drones in Sept/Oct (1) to save stores
  4. Dramatic reduction in population as queen goes off lay (1)
  5. Autumn: gorge on pollen and and build up: (3)
    1. Hypopharnygeal glands
    2. Fat bodies
  6. Propilise gaps in hive (1)
  7. Poikilothermic – so take up temperature of surroundings (1)
  8. Create homeostasis to keep nest temperature constant regardless of external conditions. (2)
    1. Start to cluster at 18C below food store
    2. NB Below cluster temperature of 8C bees cannot cling to cluster.
  9. Outer shell is 1-3” deep (1)
  10. Inner core is a festoon with queen at the centre – 20C (1)
  11. Bees move slowly over frame consuming stores (1)
  12. So shiver using indirect flight muscles (1)
128
Q

19 Drone layers

What are the causes of drone laying queen?

A
  • Shortage of sperm - due to inadequate mating
  • Shortage of sperm - due to age
  • Disabilty - physically unable to fertilise eggs
  • Genetic fault
129
Q

What are the signs of drone laying queen?

A
  • Queen present
  • Worker cells with drone cappings
  • Stunted drones
  • Good brood pattern
  • During the season, Q produces small areas of drone brood with patches of drones
  • As season progresses, beekeeper sees an increase in drone brood with SOME worker brood
130
Q

Describe treatment of a drone laying queen

A
  • Remove drone layer and requeen
  • Remove drone layer and unite.
131
Q

19 Laying workers

What are the causes of a laying worker? 4

A
  • Queenless 21 days +
  • No QS - so ovaries develop
  • No brood pheramones - so ovaries develop
  • No fertilised eggs to raise an emergency Q
132
Q

19 Describe signs of a laying worker

A
  • Drones in worker cells
  • Stunted drones
  • Scattered laying pattern
  • Workers lay more than one egg in a cell
  • Colony endeavours to charge Q cells
  • Sometimes parthenogenic female eggs are produced, but in European bees these never develop into queens
  • Once workers have begun laying eggs, colonies become more aggressive and there is fighting between workers
133
Q

What is the treatment for a laying worker

A
  • Old bees so not much use to anyone
  • Requeening hard as usually kill new Q
  • If united, will kill Q in united colony
  • Smoke, immediately shake out hive at bottom of the garden and allow to find own new homes.
134
Q

19 Laying worker

The sequence of events in a colony of a European strain of honeybee when a colony becomes queenless the beekeeper does not intervene. 9+1

A
  1. Bees know they are queenless within 10 hours.
  2. With no queen and eventually no brood pheromones to inhibit their development, both ovaries and mandibular glands of workers enlarge
  3. Around 23-30 days after the queen has been lost, workers begin laying eggs.
  4. Workers lay multiple unfertilised eggs haphazardly all over the place, producing only drones which are stunted because they are laid on worker cells, which are too small from proper development.
  5. Sometimes parthenogenic female eggs are produced, but in European bees these never develop into queens
  6. Once workers have begun laying eggs, colonies become more aggressive and there is fighting between workers
  7. Sometimes one laying worker will develop a higher level of queenliness and be treated as a queen – a false queen – who is attended by a retinue of workers who will groom her and lick her
  8. This may be because her Dufour glance is producing more queen-like secretions.
  9. Because there is no queen substance, workers stop foraging properly, and because there is almost no brood to feed, workers’ hypopharyngeal glands plump up, so they have greater longevity, although they will probably not survive the winter.
  10. A colony with laying workers will generally not accept a new queen, and will kill an incumbent queen if united. The colony is therefore doomed.
  11. In A. m. capensis, parthenogenic eggs can be raised into queens.
  12. Ultimately colonies die.
135
Q

19 Laying workers

The circumstances and likely causes that can lead to a colony becoming hopelessly queenless. 4

A
  1. A swarm has taken place, the new queen has emerged and fails to get mated within 20 days because of poor weather
  2. The beekeeper is too assiduous in removing queen cells when doing an artificial swarm, possibly leaving non-viable queen cells and no eggs/2-day larva to raise an emergency queen.
  3. After requeening when the colony rejects the new queen
  4. If a colony becomes queenless, it may produce laying workers while the keeper is waiting for a new queen to arrive and reject the new queen.
  5. Disease (eg Nosema) with Black Queen Cell Virus subsequently affecting the queen cells.
136
Q

20 disease behaviour

Sacbrood

A
  1. No outward symptoms in adult bees
  2. Symptoms in brood – can’t shed last skin during pupation
  3. Hygienic behaviour -> leads to removal of infected larva
  4. Nurse bees become infected by ingesting virus during removal or by feeding on contaminated food sources
  5. Virus is then spread to larvae during nursing
  6. Infected adults do not nurse larva for long
  7. Become foragers earlier but rarely collect pollen, which they would contaminate
137
Q

20 disease behaviour

CBPV

A
  • KITESH
  • K wings so can’t fly and crawl on grass stalks
  • Isolation of infected bees
  • Trembling
  • Ejected on return by guards
  • Smoking doesn’t send them down
  • Hairless and shiny
138
Q

20 disease behaviour

nosema and its impact on behaviour and function of bees 11

A
  1. No apparent symptoms but longevity halves in spring and summer bees
  2. Affected bees can’t absorb protein
  3. Hypopharangeal glands do not develop fully so they are unable to feed brood
  4. So becomes a guard or forager earlier than normal
  5. Internally, epithelial cells producing enzymes of ventriculus affected or may cease
  6. In winter there is less protein stored in fat bodies so longevity affected
  7. In winter, rectal contents may increase due to increase in water
  8. This may be voided in the hive dring winter/bad weather - dysentery - which can fouls hive and cause further contamination through the colony as the bees clean the hive.
  9. May infect queen (unusual), who stops laying
  10. May cause supercedure
  11. Queen pupa may suffer from Black Queen Virus so colony can become queenless
  12. Can lead to reduction of adult bees until point of colony collapse
139
Q

20 Disease behaviour

Chalk brood

A
  • No symptoms
  • Hygienic behaviour - uncap and clean out affected brood
  • May abscond in bad infestation - don’t see them for dust
140
Q

20 disease behaviour

General diseases - give over view

A
  • Pathogens affect
    • Life cycle
    • Reduce numbers
    • Strength
    • Longevity
  • E Sometimes sick bees ejected or refused reentry
  • L Lack of fit young bees reduces abilty to forage
  • S Queen may be superceded (nosema)
  • A Colonies may abscond (chalk brood sac brood)
  • May prevent proper colony build up in spring (nosema)
141
Q

20 disease behaviour

Mice 3

A
  • Problem in autumn winter because they enter an occupied hive and make a nest
  • Rest of the year they would be stung - vibration and scent
  • Bees Co-exist because bees remina in their cluster but cluster will move away from mouse nest
  • May abscond
142
Q

20 disease behaviour

AFB

A
  • Some straings exhibit behaviour resistance. Workers from disease resistant lines:
    • remove dead larvaue and pupae more quickly than susceptible lines so reduce source of infection
    • may feed larvae an antibiotic (unidentified) which reduces effect of AFB OR
    • may remove spours from infected honey taken into crop by the action of the proventriculus straining out the spores
143
Q

20 Pest behaviour

Acarine

A
  • No defensive mechanism
  • Affected bees
    • tremble
    • K wing
    • Crawl on stalks
144
Q

20 Pest behaviour

What are the 14 general pests?

A
  1. Acarine no defence
  2. Varroa - no defence - grooming
  3. Tropilalapse - notifiable - no defence
  4. small hive beetle - notifiable - no defence
  5. Asian Hornet - notifiable - no defence
  6. Wasps defensive behaviour at entrance and inside hive
  7. hornets - defensive behaviour at entrance and inside hive
  8. Ants - turn back and kick up hind legs
  9. Wax moth - sting and coexist
  10. Mice - sting and coexist
  11. Woodpeckers no defence in winter
  12. Badgers make bees defensive
  13. Cattle can cause defensive behaviour - fence off
  14. Vandals - sting
145
Q

20 Pest behaviour

Moths

A
  • Not a predetor but a parasite
  • Co-exist although they may treat incoming moths as introducers and maul and sting it
  • May cause bald brood, destroy comb and brood
  • Bees will remove larva
  • Reduce life span of bees
  • Moth faeces affects pupation and results in bees with v short bodies
146
Q

20 Pest behaviour

Varroa

A
  • No defensive mechanisms
  • Some strains groom themselves better than others
  • V coexisting in pupating cells - drone=kairomone
  • Bad infestation:
    • B bald brood
    • A Absconding
    • D DWV Deformed wing virus
    • W Weaker, defored adults
    • O orientation impacted
147
Q

20 Pest behaviour

Small hive beetle

A
  • Few defences so SHB can reproduce easily
  • Strong colonies can remove larva
  • Cannot expel adults (exoskelton too hard and beetles scurry about)
  • Confine adults to edges of frames
  • However, they feed SHB in response to begging behaviour

Bees 6 (1 decks)

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