Honey hygiene Flashcards
What does eusocial mean?
- Not just a cooperation between individuals but in bee society they depend on the cooperation
- The different casts each have a role to fulfill to ensure colony survives
What does a bee colony comprise of?
- Queen
- Drones
- Workers
What forms honey combs?
The honey bees scrape off wax from their wax gland
How long do adult bees from different casts take to emerge from their cell?
- Workers= 21 days
- Queen= 16 days
- Drones= 24 days
Which cells are flat and which are domed?
- Drones= domed
- Workers= flat
What is nectar?
- Mainly made of sucrose
- Invertase converts sucrose to glucose and fructose
- Nectar regurgitated into storage cells
Where is pollen collected?
Into baskets and packed down into cell by worker bees
What does pasteurising the honey do?
Removes some of the yeast contamination
Describe the composition of honey
-20% or less water (more causes fermentation problems)
- 80% sugar
1% potent antimicrobials
What restricts microbial growth in honey?
Low water content
What is meant by migratory beekeeping?
The beekeeper takes their hives to a certain location e.g. up to the moors if they want specialty honey such as heather honey
Discuss honey and botulism
- Viable spore of Clostridium botulinum found in honey, can cause infant botulism
- Immature gut flora can’t compete so shouldn’t be fed to those under 1 year.
List the NFD of bees
- European Foul Brood (Present in UK)
- American Foul Brood (Present in UK)
- Tropilaelaps
- Small hive beetle
Describe European foul brood
- Melisocossus plutonius
- SHOTGUN pattern
- Dead larvae brown/ tan colour with a melted appearance
- Shook swarm technique- shake bees into a new colony then burn the comb.
- In severe cases colony must be destroyed
Describe American foul brood
- Paenibacillus larvae
- Spore forming gram neg
- Brood dies after being capped
- Ropiness test diagnosis: take a stick and draw a string from infected cell
- Destroy colony and burn equipment (if you don’t then bees from other colonies attracted to the smell of the honey from the infected colony and then become infected with spores and take it home with them)
