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Fri, 16 Dec 1994 11:49:00 -0700 |
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Jean-Pierre:
I had some interesting discussion with Marla Spivak on her work with
assessing hygienic behavior. She is still searching for a better way of
measuring, but I think she prefers the "replace chunk of brood with
freeze-killed capped brood" test.
The pin-kill method has the problem of starting the uncapping process,
so is not as much of a challenge to the bees (less hygienic bees will
still score high). Use of a larger "spear" would increase this problem.
I have noticed the great range in behavior of bees toward cleaning up
the paper absorbent (napkins) that have been used to apply formic acid.
Some colonies leave the paper nearly intact for 3 weeks. Others remove
all sign of it within a few days. Although this is a nice observation
that might be made of a lot of colonies quickly, the behavior is not as
specific as brood removal, as one might want.
Marla said that her line of extreme hygienic bees also remove any
foreign substances (queen marks, paint on tacks in frames) from a hive.
Re chalk brood and hygienic behavior: there may be a different
mechanisms involved, but hygienic behavior would tend to remove the
source of chalkbrood reinfection, so would not necessarily result in a
continuing incidence of emptied brood cells. I mentioned some
observations like this: the flush of removed larvae in a hygienic colony
resulted only after innoculation.
Hope to see you in Edmonton
Kerry Clark, Apiculture Specialist
B.C. Ministry of Agriculture
1201 103 Ave
Dawson Creek B.C.
V1G 4J2 CANADA Tel (604) 784-2225 fax (604) 784-2299
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