About 8-9 years ago, I spent a lot of time watching an observation hive
that had brood comb built against the glass so you could see inside the
cell. The bees were 3 generations from a Russian hybrid queen (the 2nd
or third year) mated here in my mongrel survivor yard including
commercial Italian, Russian and hygienic selected stocks and ferals. I
observed a number of behaviors that appeared to be hygienic (tho it took
conversations with Jamie Ellis and Jennifer Berry to figure some out).
Cells with varroa got extra attention with workers reach in and working
the sides and the mites were harassed tho often moved out of reach and
weren't grabbed. Some ended up spun into the cocoon. Cappings were
built largely of wax collected from adjacent cell tops. Several times
most of the cap was later removed leaving a neat oval window; I always
saw mites in those cells, and in at least one case the workers reached
in around the cocoon and caught the mite. Sometimes cells were
recapped, sometimes not. All hatched apparently healthy brood (Did I
mention 'a lot of time?"). Jennifer Berry felt this was a hygienic
behavior and was later including bald brood in her analyses.
Another observation was extensive grooming of each other, including a
behavior soliciting the attention that reminded me of fish cleaning
stations (angled posture, wings extended, crouched position). The
mystery was that varroa mites were usually ignored and the cleaning
concentrated on the wing bases. When I asked Jamie Ellis (then at UGA)
about that, he speculated that they were working the front spiracles
where tracheal mites enter and hypothesized that this might help explain
Russian resistance to tracheal mites.
These days I don't have that kind of time, but should I live so long as
to retire I'm going back to brood watching. I believe good old natural
history run through scientific minds is forever indispensable to
progress on understanding whole critters.
Carolyn in SC
On 8/1/2013 6:24 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Today I checked, for the second time, on a swarm that I hived a couple
> of weeks ago. This time, much of the brood is sealed. The unsealed
> larvae look healthy but there are lots of unsealed pupae at the red
> eyed stage. They are scattered and not in lines as is sometimes seen
> if wax moths are at work. I haven't seen this pattern before though
> and my assumption is that maybe the workers are uncapping because they
> detect mites, but I could be wildly wrong! I don't know everything!
> Is it an example of hygienic behaviour?
>
> Anyway, the weather forecast being promising for tomorrow, I intend to
> give them a dose of formic acid unless, when turning on the computer
> in the morning, I get howls of protest and good advice from you lot!
>
> Chris
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