In our November meeting Dave Sutton reminded us of the range of minor diseases and conditions that we might come across in working with our colonies. He differentiated these from problems caused by pests & parasites, which might be in the hive (e.g. varroa, wax-moths, braula) or might attack colonies from outside (wasps, mice & rats woodpeckers, badgers etc.). His focus on this occasion was rather on diseases affecting the brood (i.e. eggs/larvae/pupae) as well as those affecting the adult bees.

Dave began by reviewing the symptoms of the two Foul Broods (EFB/AFB) and then covered the most common minor brood conditions (chalk brood, sacbrood and stonebrood). He also referred to more abnormal brood conditions (bald brood, chilled brood) and the problems caused by laying workers or drone-laying queens.

Next we learned about nosema (common symptom - dysentry; treatment - Fumidol B) and acarine (common symptom - K-wing virus; treatment - try Apiguard). Other viruses covered included Deformed Wing Virus, Sac Brood Virus, Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus, Acute Paralysis Virus and Kashmir Virus.

By this time our collective heads were beginning to droop but Dave gave us heart by observing that a healthy colony will cope with most of these dangers naturally. We can best help by good husbandry. This should involve regular inspections of the brood comb (shaking all the bees off and checking the comb itself thoroughly for anything abnormal). Combine this with making sure that the bees have fresh comb to replace any that has been well used. If in doubt, and there is a good nectar flow on, be prepared to undertake a ‘Bailey’* comb change or use the ‘shook swarm’ method of giving the bees a fresh start. (*see item 2 in the Newsletter for June 2008)

4.      Euro MPs call for Action over Bee Decline

Immediate action is required to tackle the drastic decline in bee colonies throughout Europe, members of the EU parliament have declared. The decline in the number of bees poses a threat not just to honey production, but to the pollination of plants and hence to food production across Europe, they say. The European Parliament has now adopted a resolution pressing the Commission to invest in research to find the causes of the decline and to aid the creation of uncultivated ecological recovery zones for bees. The MEPs are also calling for:

• research to establish whether there is a link between the use of pesticides, such as thiamethoxam, imidacloprid, clothianidin and fipronil, and bee mortality.
  
  
• analysis of imported honey to detect the presence of American foulbrood bacteria, which is known to effect honeybees.
  
  
• a financial aid mechanism for beekeepers in difficulty, and "immediate support" from Member States for the beekeeping sector.

5.      Honeybees on ‘Coke’

They are highly social .... and intensely house-proud and now it emerges that bees resemble human beings in one more, previously overlooked, respect: they behave just like us under the influence of cocaine. Australian researchers found that bees that had been given a dose of cocaine threw themselves into unusually energetic dance routines, felt compelled to "talk" to their nest mates - and even went "cold turkey" when the drugs ran out. The research, carried out at Macquarie University in Sydney, examined the behaviour of the bees after returning from a trip looking for food.

“When foraging honeybees discover a particularly good source of pollen or nectar, they fly back to the hive and perform a symbolic dance for their nest mates,” said Dr Andrew Barron. “This is a specialised form of communication to tell their nest mates about the rewards they have found.” But after dabbing low doses of cocaine on the bees' backs before they went out, the researchers observed that when they returned they were more likely to dance for their nest mates, and performed particularly vigorous routines explaining where the food was located. The dance language gave Barron and his colleagues an indication of what was going on in the bees' brains. Rather like a cokehead in a crowded nightclub, cocaine made the bees much more enthusiastic communicators. This was not simply because they were generally more energetic: the extra enthusiasm was in order to communicate with nest mates.

Next, Barron's team investigated whether the bees suffered withdrawal symptoms when the drug was removed. This involved giving the bees a cocaine diet for a week, then testing their ability to learn how to distinguish between two different smells. "The poor little buggers had to drink cocaine for a week. Then we just stopped it dead and we gave them a learning test," said Barron. "Their performance absolutely crashed."

The finding, reported in the Journal of Experimental Biology, is the first time scientists have shown that bees are affected by cocaine in a similar way to humans. ‘Addiction is much more complex in humans than in honeybees,’ said Barron, but he believes bees can provide a tool for looking at some aspects of the phenomenon, such as which genes are activated when the bee's brain goes cold turkey.
(Reported by James Randerson in The Guardian, 23rd December 2008)

6.      Honeybees Learn to Count

An Australian researcher and his Swedish colleague say they have proved that honeybees are more intelligent than previously thought. Professor Mandyam Srinivasan from Queensland University and Dr Marie Dacke trained honey bees to count by placing food at different markers. Professor Srinivasan says he has also found bees can learn colours and smells and be trained to fly through complicated mazes.

“The more we look at these creatures that have a brain the size of a sesame seed, the more astonished we are,” he said. “They really have a lot of the capacities that we so-called higher human beings possess.”

The scientists also say they have proved honeybees can count to four. They put five markers inside a tunnel and placed nectar at one of them. When honeybees were put in the tunnel they flew to the marker with the food.

Professor Srinivasan says when the experiment was repeated without nectar the bees still flew to the marker that had contained the food. “We find that if you train them to the third stripe, they will look subsequently in the third stripe,” he said.

‘If you train them to the fourth stripe, they will look in the fourth stripe and so on. But their ability to count seems to go only up to four. They can’t count beyond four.”
(Seen in the Scottish Beekeeper [January 2009] courtesy BEES)

7.      Beekeeper's Smoker Causes Hive of Activity

A pile of rubbish deliberately lit is believed to be the cause of a fire that threatened dozens of homes in Christchurch's Heathcote Valley on Waitangi Day. An earlier fire raging through farmland in the Cashmere Valley was ruled out as suspicious yesterday after an elderly beekeeper confessed to accidentally starting the fire while tending to hives.

Christchurch Fire Service deputy chief fire officer Dave Burford said the beekeeper, in his early 80s, approached firefighters while they were battling the blaze and said his passive smoker apparatus - - used to calm bees while their hives were examined -- sparked the fire. The man had to walk out 500m from where the fire started, but a neighbour further up the hill had already alerted the Fire Service.

"I think he was a bit stressed, the poor guy. It took about an hour to get under control. We were lucky it didn't spread into any paddocks. The fire started in a farm storage pit containing tyres which gave off thick black smoke and attracted attention”, he said. Tyres give off huge volumes of smoke and people didn't know what it was. We got sick of rubberneckers -- thousands appeared. We closed the roads off to prevent people coming in, we could not believe how many people wandered up." While the fire threatened one house and some barns, no lives were at risk and fire- fighters managed to contain the blaze. The beekeeper would face no action because the fire was ruled accidental.
(From The Press, Christchurch NZ & spotted by Ray Green)