What defines a healthy colony

[Wilco]

Hi all,

Just wondered if people could post what criteria they use to determine whether a colony is healthy?

Background - trying to come up with a relatively objective metric for colony health as part of my PhD student's work into honey microbiome.

Also - does anyone have an exhaustive list of hive monitoring tech?

TIA

 

[drex]

But what do you mean by healthy? All colonies have endemic pests and parasites.
The question may be in the answer

 

[Wilco]

But what do you mean by healthy? All colonies have endemic pests and parasites.
The question may be in the answer

That's rather the point I'm trying to answer- what metrics do people on here use to decide whether a colony is, in their opinion, healthy.

 

[Anduril]

Brood pattern, variety of pollen, propolis and honey arch. Brood pattern would also be the shape of the cappings.

 

[fian]

That's rather the point I'm trying to answer- what metrics do people on here use to decide whether a colony is, in their opinion, healthy.

Since beekeepers are not veterinarians but rather livestock farmers, I believe that healthy is not the appropriate concept. We should talk about natural viability since if we detect a disease (EFB, APVB, Nosemosis, etc.) we resort to following the health prescription prescribed by a veterinarian. Let's say we have three types of actions:
-Ordinary linked to reviews to verify that viability.
-Ordinary linked to prolonging viability.
-Extraordinary linked to prolonging viability but under veterinary prescription.
For your question, would we be talking about the first point?

 

[Murox]

I think the signs vary during the year. For example mid winter a happy hum and occasional flyers would make me happy. In may I would expect a very different picture. Temperament tells quite a lot as does development of the hive as detailed above

 

[Macbear]

In my record spreadsheet I have a column for "health". Murox's first sentence is spot on. I also agree with Drex, Anduril and Fian. Health is a combination of many things - as with ourselves. All the metrics needs to be positive for a healthy colony for me.
Looking from the other end of the telescope can also be an approach. Identifying negatives and transposing those into positives helps me. I commend:
How to conduct a Postmortem on a dead hive https://www.nationalbeeunit.com/ass...ow_to_Conduct_a_Postmortem_on_a_Dead_Hive.pdf

 

[drex]

One of my first lectures at Med school was " when are you ill" I.e. not healthy. After much discussion the main answer was , " when you decide you are" .
So many different parameters to consider, so subjective. I fear the answer may be the same for a colony of bees.

 

[Jimmy]

Also transferring across from human health, there's the concept of good health being more than the absence of physical disease.
Are the following healthy? Drone laying queen, wax moth or mice in residence, no stores, no pollen?
I think colony viability (over what time frame?) is also part of what I want to see in a 'healthy' colony.

 

[Mint Bee]

Interesting, are you looking at the diversity or totality of the biome?
As with other responses, I think there are so many environmental factors involved in 'health', that I have a nasty feeling some form of composite measurement might need to be considered.

 

[Wilco]

Interesting, are you looking at the diversity or totality of the biome?
As with other responses, I think there are so many environmental factors involved in 'health', that I have a nasty feeling some form of composite measurement might need to be considered.

We're initially seeing what we find in terms of microbes in honey full stop- it's one part of the hive which seems relatively untested. Thus far we know various spore forming species including lactobacilli seem to be present (so potential probiotic effect) and when we've got more data we hope to see how the microbiome of the honey correlates with time of year, sugar feeding and with various pathogens in the hive although this is proving challenging (e.g. getting samples from foulbrood infected hives requires us to get there alongside the bee inspectors yet for GDPR reasons (if I've understood correctly) they can't tell us they have a case/suspected case so we need to work on a plan for that).

However, we need to come up with some form of metric for a healthy hive, hence asking for people's views on which parameters they use so we can then pick various criteria from them... Various comments made about it being nebulous are obvious but we still need to come up with a metric... Hence hoping that asking lots of beekeepers would generate lots and lots of different suggestions!

 

[Erichalfbee]

A strong population with a healthy brood pattern and a queen laying well in what I call a concentric pattern, newly emerged cells being laid up. ( as an aside....it's easy to source a frame of emerging brood if I can see this)
Adequately stocked with honey stores and pollen or bee bread
Daily orientation flights with lots of bees
Low varroa level

 

[Curly green finger's]

Also transferring across from human health, there's the concept of good health being more than the absence of physical disease.
Are the following healthy? Drone laying queen, wax moth or mice in residence, no stores, no pollen?
I think colony viability (over what time frame?) is also part of what I want to see in a 'healthy' colony.

True - good breeding stock should really be assessed for a whole season or two even before being used