"Survivor bees" found in Blenheim Forest

[jenkinsbrynmair]

And your scientific expertise, by your own admission, is nil. Therefore, by your own line of logic (which you are applying to him), your views on science should be considered invalid.

Conversely, if, as suggested by many of your posts on this forum, you expect us to genuinely consider whether your views on something outside your area of expertise (science, by your own admission) have merit, I suggest you desist from the absolute hypocrisy of your double standards.

it's how trolls operate

 

[Erichalfbee]

I’m adding this thread to the last one on Blenheim bees
I might as well as it’s gone the same way

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Anywho! Just before this gets moderated.

Isn't the distance queens and drones travel to DCAs more likely to mix 'foreign' genetics into a population than swarms searching for nest sites?

 

[JamezF]

Isn't the distance queens and drones travel to DCAs more likely to mix 'foreign' genetics into a population than swarms searching for nest sites?

Presumably the latter has an influence on the former. Unless of course they'd have to cross a humid valley.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

considering that drones have been found in hives tens of miles from their original colony..................

 

[Erichalfbee]

Last chance.
Or thread gets locked again

 

[Erichalfbee]

considering that drones have been found in hives tens of miles from their original colony..................

Yes they hive hop.

 

[JamezF]

Yes they hive hop.

On the basis of no evidence whatsoever I rather like the idea that bee colonies might receive "foreign" drones positively and look after them well because it may expand the gene pool when they need their own virgin queens to get mated.

James

 

[Beesnaturally]

Last chance.
Or thread gets locked again

To whom is this addressed Dani?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I often find marked drones in my colonies. I don’t mark mine but I know people who do.

 

[Erichalfbee]

To whom is this addressed Dani?

Everybody

 

[Beesnaturally]

Only in his is final sentence does he get onto the subject of varroa-tolerance; I suspect that this is the teaser for a future blog posting.

Possibly. We'll have to wait and see (and hope somebody brings it to our attention).

That is: if we are interested.

The thing I'm interested in is an explanation for my own experience. As I've said before: I follow John Kefuss' guidance: "it doesn't matter that you know _how_ it works. It matters that you know _that_ it works. I've done it: so I know it has worked for me, marvellously and in gold-plated form.

David Evans as a virologist will be very familiar with the mechanisms by which viruses adapt to circumvent obstacles. He will I expect be familar with the mechanisms by which populations adapt to tolerate viruses. I would expect him to know both that it reliably happens, and a good deal about why that is so.

What I hope is that we can have a discussion about the ways _all_ populations adapt to life forms that predate on them. In particular the way honeybees given the opportunity adapt to the presence of varroa, as many scientific studies by dedicated researchers have shown they do.

And as simple Darwinism predicts they would.

I know not everyone finds this proposition easy. But I doubt a virologist will find it hard.

What I'm really interested in is his views on the constraints that might prevent that scientifically anticipated result. (We can gain a view from Seeley et al here: Wild/Feral Survivor-Thrivers: Naturally Selected Resistant Bees. )

I won't pick at what I think was a rushed paper intended for a pretty scientifically illiterate audience any more. Lets get on with the interesting stuff: how do we help it happen, how do we stop it happening.

And how do we help those beekeepers who struggle with the notion but want to help with the project of freeing wild bees from the pain of endless fatal ongoing varroa infection.

 

[JamezF]

I often find marked drones in my colonies. I don’t mark mine but I know people who do.

Other than ones where people have been practising before attempting to mark the queen, you mean?

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

Other than ones where people have been practising before attempting to mark the queen, you mean?

James

I meant It’s common practice in training apiaries.

 

[JamezF]

Yes. It’s common practice in training apiaries.

I didn't know that. I was aware that drones are often used as practice before attempting to mark the queen, but not that they were marked specifically because they were drones. Then again, I've spent very little time at our local BKA apiary on the grounds that I usually already have something else on.

James

 

[JamezF]

What I hope is that we can have a discussion about the ways _all_ populations adapt to life forms that predate on them.

All?

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

I didn't know that. I was aware that drones are often used as practice before attempting to mark the queen, but not that they were marked specifically because they were drones. Then again, I've spent very little time at our local BKA apiary on the grounds that I usually already have something else on.

James

No I haven’t been clear. Just for practice as you say.

 

[JamezF]

No I haven’t been clear. Just for practice as you say.

Ah, right I'm reminded of what I think was another David Evans post where he talks about exactly this, the trainee then going on to mark the queen in the same colour as all the drones they've been practising on

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

also if a beekeeper regularly uses an observation hive for talks or shows/market stalls they may well mark drones, and even workers so that the great unwashed can spot the difference easily.
In some honey shows there are classes for observation hives and some entry rules stipulate the marking of the different castes
And of course, there have been scientific studies made on drone movements where they were marked, sometimes even using numbered/coloured disks. Seeley used marked disks a lot to aid his studies - as have others

 

[JamezF]

also if a beekeeper regularly uses an observation hive for talks or shows/market stalls they may well mark drones, and even workers so that the great unwashed can spot the difference easily.
In some honey shows there are classes for observation hives and some entry rules stipulate the marking of the different castes

Something else I was unaware of. I was aware of the tracking of drones using radio transmitters. Go (as the Leftpondians say) figure.

James