LASI hygienic queens....open for business

[Erichalfbee]

Mmmm indeed

 

[madasafish]

From the LASI website

Research at LASI has shown that hygienic colonies do not sting more or show reduced calmness during hive inspections, and that hygienic workers do not mistakenly remove healthy brood, meaning that hygienic behaviour is not costly to the colony. We have also shown that open mated queens reared from highly hygienic colonies give rise to highly hygienic colonies. To have highly hygienic colonies, it is not necessary to mate queens via instrumental insemination, making things much simpler for beekeepers and queen rearers. Our research, for example, shows that queen rearers in Britain could supply open-mated hygienic queens bred from locally-adapted bees.

So that's the problem solved then... no problems with 2nd generation queens unlike F1 queens...

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[B+.]

From the LASI website

Research at LASI has shown that hygienic colonies do not sting more or show reduced calmness during hive inspections, and that hygienic workers do not mistakenly remove healthy brood, meaning that hygienic behaviour is not costly to the colony. We have also shown that open mated queens reared from highly hygienic colonies give rise to highly hygienic colonies. To have highly hygienic colonies, it is not necessary to mate queens via instrumental insemination, making things much simpler for beekeepers and queen rearers. Our research, for example, shows that queen rearers in Britain could supply open-mated hygienic queens bred from locally-adapted bees.

This suggests that it is a maternally selected trait and is 100% heritable. I don't think so.

 

[Binge]

This suggests that it is a maternally selected trait and is 100% heritable. I don't think so.

Indeed!
Not sure why we're importing queens with magical properties!
What about Amm instead?

 

[B+.]

Indeed!
Not sure why we're importing queens with magical properties!
What about Amm instead?

Not all imported queens are the same. The ones I use are island mated or instrumentally inseminated using a closed population of carnica (www.beebreed.eu).

 

[mbc]

To be fair "shown that" is a bit like "can sometimes" so not trying to state an absolute, the bit of wording I'd take issue with is the "meaning that", which is conjecture, and flies in the face of what we already know, bees being hygienic is costly to the colony, I suppose "costly to the colony" is subjective anyway, so they're hedging their bets all the way.
FWIW I'm impressed that they've got to the point of offering these queens to the public at a reasonable price, and will be getting a few virgins to see if they're compatible with my stock.

 

[bjosephd]

How is bees being hygienic costly to the colony?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

How is bees being hygienic costly to the colony?

have you seen the cost of cleaning materials nowadays?

 

[madasafish]

How is bees being hygienic costly to the colony?

They may clear cells of viable brood/eggs.

 

[bjosephd]

They may clear cells of viable brood/eggs.

Ah I see…. they potentially throw the babies out with the bath water.

 

[REDWOOD]

Who is going to take the plunge and perhaps ruin a good stock of bees in their apiary. Varroa treatments works at the moment and judging by the amount of varroa drop people are reporting, it is down to a low, as far as I am concerned I will keep vaping

 

[mbc]

How is bees being hygienic costly to the colony?

Mun, it's biology, everything has a cost, yin and yang and all that. Specifically, to score highly on these freeze killed brood assays, bees need a lot of young workers diverted to that task, somethings got to give, probably feeding young or foraging in this case imho.

 

[B+.]

Who is going to take the plunge and perhaps ruin a good stock of bees in their apiary.

I would if that were the price of progress but, to be honest, my bees perform pretty well. If you mean, for an unknown LASI queen...no thanks

 

[birdsandbees]

I have been watching and reading with interest about these wonder bees and was quite interested but as the bees I already have are hygienic if by that it means removal of dead, dying or defective bees and brood from the hive?
I regularly watch the morning ritual especially the morning following inspection when they bring out the dead or damaged, and the occasional with DWV that gets dumped outside.

I just thought it was normal Bee haviour?

 

[B+.]

I just thought it was normal Bee haviour?

Are they detecting dead larvae/pupae in the cell?

 

[charlievictorbravo]

I have been watching and reading with interest about these wonder bees and was quite interested but as the bees I already have are hygienic if by that it means removal of dead, dying or defective bees and brood from the hive?
I regularly watch the morning ritual especially the morning following inspection when they bring out the dead or damaged, and the occasional with DWV that gets dumped outside.

I just thought it was normal Bee haviour?

The test for true hygienic behaviour is to pour liguid nitrogen onto a defined area on a brood comb (in a circular mould) and then return two days later and count what % of the dead brood have been removed from comb that had been frozen. It's not the sort of thing an amateur can easily do - would Boots sell liquid nitrogen?

What you may have witnessed is bee cleanliness behaviour where the undertaker bees remove dead bees from the hive (and generally carry them away from the hive). Fascinating to watch but not necessarily an indicator of true hygienic behaviour.

There is also another trait that is described as hygienic behaviour, where the bees chew phoretic mites off themselves or other bees. Ron Hoskins of Swindon has bees that chew 85% of the mites that drop naturally.

CVB

 

[birdsandbees]

I don't plan on tipping anything on them, just perhaps misunderstanding that hygienic clearly means something other than uncapping and ejecting brood with DWV or that may have died or are dying or removing dead or dying bees or debris which my bees do?
So to qualify as 'hygienic' it only means chewing mites or removing freeze killed brood not actually keeping their hive clear of the above.

Yes B+ I suppose they are, I've seen brood still in cell form (if you know what I mean) being carried out and ditched.

Still the blackbirds don't mind picking up the ejected Larva in the mornings

 

[REDWOOD]

If bees need the space for the colony to expand or store food bees will soon clean the frames and kick out the dead brood


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gilberdyke John]

The test for true hygienic behaviour is to pour liguid nitrogen onto a defined area on a brood comb (in a circular mould) and then return two days later and count what % of the dead brood have been removed from comb that had been frozen. It's not the sort of thing an amateur can easily do - would Boots sell liquid nitrogen?
CVB

Alternatively there is the pin test although some say the results are skewed by the tiny hole in the capping made by the pin..

 

[Oscarmonster]

Or you can do it this way


http://www.coloss.org/beebook/I/queen-rearing/3/3/4/1