Regarding altruistic self-removal of health-compromised honey bee workers
from their colony

I was recently weeding my way through my grape vines, which are adjacent to
my backyard colonies, when I observed a bee walking across the wood mulch.
At first glance she appeared to be like so many other bees I see resting
from a long flight and on her way home. As I often do, I picked her up to
observe her thinking she would sit a moment then fly off. However, she fell
off my finger onto the mulch. I tried a couple more times to pick her up
with the same result. At this point I got more curious and got down on my
knees to take a closer look. And there was the evidence, she was walking
unsteadily, directly away from the colonies, tattered wings, with one dark
mite on the front of her thorax and a cream-colored mite between her wings.
I reached down with my finger to poke her and watched as the dark older
mite jumped off her and completely disappeared into the mulch! The
cream-colored mite clung on as she kept going. This was a first for me!
Altruistic self-removal of health-compromised honey bee workers is alive
and well at my place!
Scott Ball, Livermore, CA

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