Has anyone worked on breeding bees with enhanced sense of smell?

[Fusion_power]

I've read numerous times that some bees have significantly enhanced sense of smell, presumably as a result of changes in receptors on their antennae. Brother Adam mentions this in describing A.M. Lamarckii and attributes it to beekeeping methods that put large numbers of colonies in very close proximity such as the mud tube hives traditionally used in Egypt.

Has anyone done research on antennae structure or has anyone deliberately tried to enhance sense of smell in bees by breeding?

 

[Finman]

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Beebreeders use 5-6 criteria in selective breeding, and antenna structures has not been in them, so far.
.

Tendency of foraging pollen is sometimes as criteria ...
Price of collected pollen is nowadays high. IT affects colony build up too.

 

[For want of a better word]

British Forensic Scientists have been using bees to sniff out drugs and other aromatic chemicals (reported some years ago on BBC Television*)

* another British invention

Yeghes da

 

[foghornleghorn]

Selecting for higher yields would select for it

 

[B+.]

Selecting for higher yields would select for it

Not necessarily. Higher yielding colonies may be robbing other colonies rather than foraging for it themselves.

 

[foghornleghorn]

Not necessarily. Higher yielding colonies may be robbing other colonies rather than foraging for it themselves.

Is sense of smell independent of their desire to rob?

 

[Finman]

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The whole idea has been taken from imagination. Honeybees have same ability to smell food

 

[B+.]

Is sense of smell independent of their desire to rob?

Some colonies are more persistent / successful robbers than others and this should be discouraged since those that rob may provide false data on their own foraging and that of other colonies in the apiary.
I don't believe that their sense of smell is any different to other colonies but robbing may be an indication of aggression too.

 

[B+.]

has anyone deliberately tried to enhance sense of smell in bees by breeding?

I'm not sure how you could measure this directly

 

[Finman]

Good yield comes from mass blooming. Bees orientate with vision from flower to flower.

When you look, how bees work on rape flower, some bees go the flower via side, and some via the centre. They do not need scent when they have found the flower sea.

But it is known and you may see, that the last visitor has left the scent into flower, because bees do not land onto just harvested flower. And sometimes the flower has 5 bees foraging at same time.

Best what you can do to increase your yields is to move the hives to good pastures

 

[foghornleghorn]

Some colonies are more persistent / successful robbers than others and this should be discouraged since those that rob may provide false data on their own foraging and that of other colonies in the apiary.
I don't believe that their sense of smell is any different to other colonies but robbing may be an indication of aggression too.

Always assumed that the ones first to start robbing sniffed it out first, is there any way you can allow for robbing in your testing?

 

[B+.]

Always assumed that the ones first to start robbing sniffed it out first, is there any way you can allow for robbing in your testing?

The way that BeeBreed handles honey yield is to take three readings:

i) Up to 15th June is considered as the Spring harvest
ii) Up to 10th August is considered as the summer harvest
iii) After 10th August is considered as late harvest.

If robbing has started, you should already have removed the crop and reduced the entrance so the colony can defend itself.
I would say that robbing is, perhaps, more of a management issue (i.e. colonies that are too weak to defend themselves should probably be taken to a separate apiary where they can be reinforced and / or fed so they can build up without being overwhelmed).
If you feed all colonies in an apiary at the same time, they should be too occupied taking down the syrup to bother trying to rob each other.

 

[Fusion_power]

They do not need scent when they have found the flower sea.

I expect that the honeybee's sense of smell is more than adequate to find flowers. There is no benefit I can see to foraging from breeding for enhanced sense of smell. This does not mean it wouldn't help, just that I can't see a benefit.

There is at least one problem, bees with enhanced sense of smell are very difficult to requeen.

I think it might help with general disease and pest resistance. I am having difficulty getting my mite resistant bees to accept new queens. They also absolutely refuse to accept a marked queen until the mark has been scrubbed off.

I'm not saying that my bees have an enhanced sense of smell, but their behavior has me wondering. There is a certain logic that suggests bees that can detect and remove varroa might in part be because they are better equipped to smell them.

 

[B+.]

There is at least one problem, bees with enhanced sense of smell are very difficult to requeen.

How do you know they have an enhanced sense of smell? How would you even begin to measure it?

 

[Fusion_power]

These are items I've read that are associated with enhanced sense of smell. There may be a way to leverage some of these to set up a test.

1. Much less drifting between colonies
2. Have to be hopelessly queenless before they will accept a new queen
3. Do not tolerate foreign substances in the hive such as markings on the queen or perhaps a pest like hive beetles
4. May be associated with VSH behavior
5. There may be physical changes to antennae structure that could be seen under a microscope.


What I have seen in my bees is that they rarely drift even when set up side by side, are difficult to requeen, are very aggressive toward hive beetles, and are highly mite tolerant with relatively large amounts of VSH behavior. There is a good bit of variation from one colony to the next which indicates quite a bit of genetic control of these behaviors.

I wish yesterday that I had taken video of one of my colonies that had a few hive beetles drop to the bottom board when I opened them up. A worker bee grabbed a beetle, spun rapidly on the bottom board, and attempted to curl around and sting the beetle. The beetle ran out the entrance and flew away. The worker bee's actions were incredibly fast and violent. It was very similar to the behavior of a guard bee when a wasp lands at the entrance, just more intense.

 

[REDWOOD]

Some colonies this time of year are bringing in white pollen and some bringing in yellow pollen, the more prolific colonies are on the white pollen I can't put my finger on it but probably genetics.

 

[Finman]

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Fusion, have you already started the breeding project ?
.

 

[Fusion_power]

Fusion, have you already started the breeding project ?

I have a microscope so I can look for physical differences, but there is a problem, I don't have any mite susceptible bees to compare with. Maybe when some of these Buckfast bees hatch I can use them for the purpose.

I have some indicators that might be useful in selection such as bee behavior toward hive beetles.

I am in this for the long term and will still be working on these bees until I can no longer manage bees.

Here is a video worth watching https://vimeo.com/179703681

 

[Finman]

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So you are going to select smell sensitive bees with microscope?

.

 

[Hivemaker.]

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So you are going to select smell sensitive bees with microscope?

...or this...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMGbf6pGOUg

...very similar to how the police have trained ducks to find drugs.