#supercedure

[gimpinald]

We found a supercedure cell today! They're found when a hive wants to requeen. This particular hive was vandalized and had its original queen cut out and stolen from the hive. #bees #beekeeping #supercedure #queenbee (at Kortright Centre for Conservation)

[beekahuna]

Cryptic “royal” subfamilies in honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies

During emergency queen rearing, worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) select several otherwise worker-destined larvae to instead rear as candidates to replace their dead or failing queen. This choice is crucial as the queen is the sole reproductive in the colony and her quality is essential to its success. Because honey bee queens mate with and store sperm from multiple drones, emergency queen selection presents workers with an opportunity to increase fitness by selecting full- (0.75 relatedness), rather than half- (0.25 relatedness), sisters as new queen candidates. Through patriline analysis of colonies along with large numbers of emergency queens reared by each we affirm the purported “royal” patriline theory that, instead of competing nepotistically, workers exhibit bias towards selecting individuals from particular “royal” subfamilies during emergency queen rearing events, Further, we show that these “royal” patrilines are cryptic in honey bee colonies; occurring in such low frequency in the overall colony population that they are frequently undetected in traditional tests of queen mating number and colony composition. The identification of these cryptic “royal” subfamilies reveals that honey bee queens, already considered “hyperpolyandrous,” are mating with even more males than has been previously recognized. These results alter our understanding of reproductive behavior in honey bees, raising questions about the evolutionary implications of this phenomenon.

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

Hive inspections 6/11

GF: Hive 1: strong population, harvestable frames in the top box. It took me a while to find eggs, although I did find some, but the frames that the queen has laid on are laid well and consistently. She must have just slowed down with the with the warmer weather we’ve been having. Second box in from the top seems crowded, but the third box, which is to say the second one from the bottom, has plenty of room. I did not look at the bottom-most box because it’s demos today, but I do not see any great cause for alarm. 2 and 3 are also looking healthy, some harvestable honey but not a lot. Disappointed. Hive 4 seems to have lost their queen. I didn’t look at every frame but I got all the way into the bottom box a little bit and found no eggs, only capped brood. I should go buy one at Bailey Bee Supply this week, if they have them in stock. NTS: Also investigate purple eyed larva uncapped and just sitting there. Hive number five, the Swarm that I fucked up last time, has absconded, alas.

Oh yeah, in hive 2 I saw the queen, and went to show her to the people watching real quick, and then - another queen! Right there by her! Bending to STING HER! So cool to see, but I had to put the frame back asap for fear of damaging them. Supercedure can be a violent business.

P: Hive 2/3, as expected, is dead and has gotten slimy and gross and wax moth mess up in there, so I exposed it to the Sun and birds. Hive 1 is doing well, has harvestable honey. Definitely come back for that this week. I didn’t see eggs, but I was in the shade and much of the comb was dark. I did see larvae of different stages, so I felt good about it, closed it up, moved on. Hive 4 is also doing well. I actually really like what they’re doing: very compactly doing their brood in two boxes, and above that honey. I gave them a fourth box for more honey. I may end up combining that back down to three when I harvest, but I’m not sure. I should definitely bring another box to give hive 1 when I come back for the honey.

[talkingwithbees]

Swarm Control Made Very Easy - Apparently

Swarm Control Made Very Easy – Apparently

Swarm Control Made Very Easy – Apparently Dr Roman Linhart, the inventor of the Thermosolar Hive describes a method of swarm control on his website that I had never heard of before.  I’m going to try it next year.  Worst case: I lose some swarms.  Best case: I’ll only lose a swarm 1 in 25 years (based on having 4 hives and his method being 99% effective, as he claims). Again – I would really…

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