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From:
Barry Sergeant <[log in to unmask]>
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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 14 Jul 2001 08:12:40 -0400
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Hi All

This is on scutellata cell size, et al. In the 1983 edition of “Beekeeping
in South Africa,” Anderson, Buys & Johannsmeier stated that
adansonii (now scutellata) built worker cells of 4.84mm; capensis
were given as 4.86mm.

I have given the current natural scut worker cell size as ranging
massively from 4.3mm to 4.7mm. And perhaps some speculation as
to the reasons for this natural downsize retooling is appropriate. In the
past two months, I have trapped hundreds of “wild” scuts in a
commercial forest. I chose an area sterilised from other beekeepers
to minimise capensis problems. Bee trapping in South Africa is our
version of the package bee industry in other countries - but that you
don’t pay (directly) for the bees!

One has to assume, or even agree, that a swarm has to be quite
healthy to occupy a trap box, draw comb, etc. I recently examined all
the swarms in detail and discovered no capensis worker laying
activity, but certainly saw dark bees. The capensis laying workers are
sitting latent in these healthy colonies. But I think the point to be made
is that these wild scuts propagate many, many generations in a single
year.

The wild scuts that succumb to varroa (or capensis, or whatever)
simply cannot swarm. The implication must be that the captured
swarms - which all carry varroa - are coping with the mite. The
conclusion may be that downsized wild scuts are varroa resistant. The
colonies I examined were healthy in every other respect - great
expanses of beautiful new white wax, solid nice coloured brood, zero
brood diseases, piles of stored pollen and honey stores you can
hardly cope with if your primary activity is queen breeding.

If you refer to the diseases and pests the scut has dealt with
historically, perhaps it has already made heavy inroads into coping
with varroa. Just to mention a few - EB, chalkbrood, nosema,
sacbrood, stone brood, dysentery, amoeba, septicaemia, bee
tachinid, conopid fly, banded bee pirate, yellow bee pirate, braula,
dead head’s moth, bee scorpion, various hive beetles, various wax
moths, ants, termites,  not to even mention mammals. Is it any wonder
wild scuts are so bad tempered?

As to Bob’s question on the large hive beetle, cetoniidae, these are
rarely in evidence. And quite often, when you do find them, the bees
have sealed them into a propolis mummy. The small hive beetle -
aethina tumida - is far more common, but limited to one or two
individuals per wild swarm.

In general terms, one of the attributes of the scut is its advanced
hygiene - which is totally separate from the cell size issue. For
example, small hive beetles will be relentlessly hounded around a
nest; their eggs and larvae are persistently destroyed. Take the
example of where hive hygiene breaks down following capensis
worker activity. In summer, especially, a big hive with lots of honey
stores that has fallen to capensis a few weeks before turns into a
seething cauldron of beetle and moth larvae. The affected combs are
powerfully disgusting and stink to high heaven; your stomach turns
and you better have not had a night out.

The scut’s hygiene history, along with the evident shrinking natural cell
size, may pose some answers as to how this race of bee is adapting
to varroa.

As to development time, I have no figures on the current scut worker.
But queen grafts (of pedigreed larvae) emerge almost exactly 10 days
later. With 12 hour old larvae, this suggests  a queen development
cycle of less than 14 days. In 1983, said authors stated 18-20 days for
a scut worker and 19-20 for capensis, vs. 20-21 for “European.”

As to John Sewell’s fascination with the possibility of a docile African
bee, this has been done! Just from fresh memory, I recently
introduced a “left over” pedigreed virgin to a wild colony here at my
home base, experimenting with those little plastic cells you dip in hot
wax and drill out a 2.5mm hole (on Dave Cushman’s kind advice).

I checked the bees out a few hours later. The queen had been eaten
out of the cell and accepted and the colony was totally docile. So there
you have it: this virgin’s scent was sufficient to calm an established
colony of wild bees. Imagine how calm they will be when the queen
has mated and starts laying! And the final stage, when all the bees in
the hive are her progeny. I was thinking of posting some photographs
on the Internet, but bee pictures just never seem to work. You’ll just
have to visit.

Barry Sergeant
Kyalami
South Africa

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