>
> >I don't see it as difficult at all to construct a sterile
> environment in which to keep a tiny colony of a hundred
> bees or so and a queen.  Do you see a major hurdles?
> If so, what would they be?


I'm with Jim on this.  5th instar bee larvae defecate, leaving the pupa with
a virtually sterile gut.  The surfaces of newly-moulted pupae could be
sterilized (this is a fairly common lab procedure).  Then they could be
incubated in a sterile chamber, and given only sterile food upon emergence.

My guess is that sterile bees may well thrive.
However, such sterile bees would also not be challenged by pathogens,
either.

As Dean points out, there is plenty of data to support the notion that
certain microorganisms can be quite beneficial to bees.  As Ari and Pete
indicate, in the balance, the benefit gained by treatment for the pathogens
may outweigh any detrimental effects of killing the beneficials.

As Jim points out, beneficials would likely be rapidly reincoculated (even
if they were, however unlikely, completely extirpated within the colony).

Work by Dr Jay Evans, however, showed that there is a clear colony-to-colony
and yard-to-yard differences in colony flora.  So there is apparently no
single perfect microorganism profile for a colony.

Perhaps the more important question is, how can we encourage beneficial
flora, at the expense of pathogens?

Randy Oliver

****************************************************
* General Information About BEE-L is available at: *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm   *
****************************************************