>
> > What a fantastic paper! It certainly broadened my understanding of what
> seems to be happening in the bees gut.


I'm in agreement, Peter!  So much so that I proposed a collaboration with
another microbiologist.  I've been collecting samples of bee guts (sterile
technique) this week from two different groups of colonies--the two most
productive, and two least productive in each yard.


We wish to see whether there is a correlation with certain species or
strains of gut microbiota and productivity of colonies.  If so, then
someone may be able to develop an inoculum to feed to queens or packages to
prime their guts with an optimum biota, which may have been compromised
over the years from our use of antibiotics, and bottlenecking due to
centralized breeding programs.

This research is currently unfunded, and will likely be funded partly or
wholly from the donations to my website.  Feel free to donate--the cost of
the project is about $10,000.


Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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