From: randy oliver <[log in to unmask]>
>My original point was that there is speculation that the bacteria that bees add to nectar may specifically inhibit the yeasts that would cause uncured honey to ferment.
ok, i was confused and thought you were referring to ripe honey....this makes much more sense.
i came across this link:
http://www.apimondia.org/2009/bee-health/Lactic%20acid%20bacteria,%20can%20honey%20bees%20survive%20without%20them%20-%20OLOFSSON%20Tobias%20C.pdf
...which is missing a lot of details (makes more sense if you've read some of their research before).
this one is good (just the abstract here, i don't think there is a free copy of the full article online):
http://www.springerlink.com/content/r0l717g634346760/
this research shows bacteria in the honey stomach (previous work with older technology seemed to show the honey stomach to be sterile), novel species that may not exist anywhere else on the planet. there are also indications in this research that feeding with sugar syrup can devastate these cultures (at least temporarily...i don't think they have yet done long term studies on this, but i may be wrong).
if we assume that such microbial cultures are important for the bees nutrition, immune system, honey production, etc (i think this is a fairly safe assumption based on what we know), then the issues involved in studying them become a bit problematic.
1. would microbes that evolved to culture in a dark beehive be at all resistant to UV radiation that is encountered in a typical hive inspection? perhaps the warre folks are not simply preserving "nest scent" and heat with their methods, but by not exposing brood comb to sunlight ever, the microbial cultures are better able to function.
2. if we can assume that sugar/hfcs and/or pollen substitutes will affect the microbial culture (never mind miticides "hard" and "soft", antibiotics, etc), then what is it we should be studying? there has been a huge surge of interest in the microbial culture of the honeybee colony in the past couple of years, and there are proposals to start using modern technology to start assaying the microbes that exist in the hive (as opposed to culturing techniques that were available the last time this work was getting attention by martha gilliam).
in this regard, i have a real concern. if this kind of work is to be done, those doing such research must find a way to look at bees that are not treated, not fed, and have long term survival. to do otherwise would be like studying the microflora of the human gut and only using test subjects who were on antibiotics...you end up with useful data about the test subjects, but not about healthy humans living on a natural diet.
what is the microbial culture of a healthy honeybee colony? i don't know for certain, but i'm willing to bet it looks a lot different from that of a colony that is fed sugar/hfcs, fumidil, and the soft miticide of your choice (acid, oil, or sugar dusting). i suppose the question is, what should we be trying to learn about such microbial cultures?
deknow
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