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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Jose Villa <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 27 May 2018 09:51:20 -0600
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This thread has gotten a bit off-topic, but following with the 
discussion of uncapping, recapping, hygienic behavior and resistance. 
 All of the above are components of hygienic responses to varroa, but 
they occur through time, at different intensities, likely by different 
specialists within a colony.  Therefore what one sees at any instant 
looking at comb is a snapshot of the balance at that moment of a number 
of activities:

1) Bees tend to uncap cells with problems, varroa or otherwise, and 
even unselected bees will do so to an extent.  Uncapping increases with 
infestation so just seeing it there could simply mean that infestation 
is high in a non resistant colony.

2) Selected bees will explore more efficiently cells with problems, so 
more uncapping is likely to be seen in resistant colonies at a given 
level of infestation.  However, some bees will recap previously 
uncapped cells.  In some extreme cases most cells are recapped.  So a 
highly resistant colony could also show few signs of uncapping if cells 
are quickly recapped.  Or if removers of infested cells are efficient 
uncapped cells may be missed in one quick observation.

3) The evidence for uncapping and recapping, while the internal 
contents of a cell are untouched, does not point to the 
process significantly affecting mite reproduction.  The primary impact 
on mite population growth comes from outright uncapping and removing of 
pupae and in the process all developing offspring mites die prior to 
completing their development.  This is how some colonies achieve that 
ideal (and idealistic??) negative population mite growth (or decreasing 
levels of mites): the equivalent of a treatment in a genetic package 
that some are very skeptical about the possibility of widespread 
implementation.

 

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