Honey Bees 101 .Hive Structure and Hygiene .Honey Bee Nutrition .Varroa destructor Mite, Parasites and Pathogens Dr. Don R Molnar Oklahoma Department of Agricultural, Food and Forestry PREP -- Portland Oregon May 4, 2015 Honey Bees 101 Hive Structure and Hygiene Bee Hives . A Bee Hive is where the bees live. It may be in a regular hive. Bee can also live in trees, in the wall of buildings, in the attic of house, seldom are they in the open. Unless it is an Africanized honey bee. Prefer nest sites about 10 gallons and dry. Wall of House Tree Cabinet Water Meter Tire in a Barn Unused Grill Ancient Hives . Bee Skep Ancient Hives . Bee logs Langstroth Hive .The most common hive, used by 75% of beekeepers .Developed by L. L. Langstroth in the USA in 1851. Who discovered that honeybees always allow a 3/8 “ space between combs (bee-space) .Most important thing it has moveable frames A frame is part of a hive where the bees build honey comb. 8 to 10 frames per hive box. Honey comb is where honey is stored and brood is reared. Usually 9 or 10 frames per hive brood body or honey super Frame Parts of Langstroth Hive Parts of Langstroth Hive . BOTTOM BOARD. It supports the hive at ground level. It must be strong because the hive weight may exceed 300 pounds . THE HIVE BODY AND SUPERS. Hive bodies and supers are four- sided boxes with standardized inside dimensions. Deep and medium hive bodies are provided to serve as the brood chamber, the part of the hive where the queen lays eggs and the bees care for the larvae Parts of Langstroth Hive . FRAMES. Frames are removable wood or plastic structures where the comb is hold. Today the 10 frame hive body is considered standard. Plastic frames are an all in one unit that already have the foundation as part of the frame. QUEEN EXCLUDERS. The queen excluder is a mesh grid, usually made of wire or plastic, sized such that worker bees can pass through but queens generally can not. INNER COVER AND OUTER COVER. The inner cover provides a dead air space for insulation against heat and cold. It prevents the bees from gluing the top cover to the top bars of the super under it. Honey Bee Hygiene . Bee Housecleaning . Certain waste material accumulates in a normal colony. Adult bees and immature forms may die. Wax scales, cappings from the cells of emerging bees, particles of pollen, and crystallized bits of honey drop to the floor of the hive. Intruders, such as wax moths, bees from other colonies, and predators, are killed and fall to the floor. Worker bees remove this debris from the hive. The cleaning behavior of some strains of bees, associated with removal of larvae and pupae that have died of American foulbrood, is genetically controlled by two genes. Healthy colonies are also a recipe for reducing the disease incidence. Nectar flows, for instance, stimulate hygienic behavior in the brood nest so dead and dying adults and brood are removed more swiftly than if there was no fresh nectar stimulus. Honey Bee Hygiene --- Beekeeper .Apiary hygiene is key to prevent the spread of pests and diseases. Dirty bee suits and tools risks the spread of infection between each colony and apiary and leaving exposed wax, honey or feed will also increase risks. Sources Of Infection .Infected combs, brood combs .Super combs .Honey (e.g. in exposed combs or drums) .Beekeeping equipment .Beekeepers (e.g. dirty bee suits) Honey Bee Hygiene And the means of spread as: .Transfer of combs between colonies .Robbing .Drifting .Swarming .The beekeeper through management practices .Purchase of infected stocks of bees Beekeeper Hygiene .Clean Beekeeping Tools (For Every Hive) .Clean & Disinfect Brood Boxes And Frames If dies. .Cleaning Beekeeping Clothes (Frequently) .Clean Gloves –difficult- may need replacing .Replace Old Combs (At Least Every 3 Years) .Reduce Drifting Between Hives (When Setting Up Apiary) Old brood combs can carry disease and super comb also carries disease though not to the same degree. Bee Hygienic Behavior and Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) . Hygienic Bees are bees that can detect many problems that affect brood (American foulbrood, varroa, chalkbrood, etc.), even if the brood is capped, and remove the affected brood. Because varroa mites go into cells immediately prior to the cell being capped, hygienic bees are given little time to 'find' varroa before the cell is capped. As a result, hygienic bees have a refined ability to detect varroa in capped cells, remove the capping, and abort the brood. Often, this behavior can lead to the death of the mite, thus lowering varroa populations. It is interesting to note, a heightened form of hygienic behavior called 'varroa sensitive hygiene' (VSH) has been found in some bees. VSH bees are able to detect varroa in capped cells and remove only those varroa that are reproducing. Hygienic Bees . Minnesota Hygienic Bee--Minnesota Hygienic Italian Bees. This strain of Italian bees were developed from the research by Dr. Marla Spivak at the University of Minnesota. These bees are bred to have a high degree of hygienic behavior, known to be effective against diseases of the brood such as American foulbrood and chalkbrood. Russian Bee - Russian bees are a European subspecies of honey bee introduced into eastern Russia 100+ years ago. Because varroa mites are native to the area, Russian bees have developed a general resistance or tolerance to the mite. Russian bee queens were introduced into the U.S. in 1997 through a USDA program and are gaining popularity among beekeepers. Bee Nutrition .Carbohydrates .Nectar .Protein .Pollen .Royal Jelly .Pollen subistutes .Others .Sterols and Lipids .Vitamins .Minerals .Water .Carbohydrates Like other animals, honey bees need carbohydrates as an energy source. All carbohydrates are first converted to glucose, which enters the Krebs cycle and produces ATP, the fuel in nearly all cells, and carbon dioxide and water as by-products. Aside from being used as an energy source, glucose can also be converted to body fats and stored. .Nectar--Nectar is the main source of carbohydrates in the natural diet of honey bees. Sugar concentration in nectar can vary widely, from 5% to 75%, although most nectars are in the range of 25% to 40%. A honey bee uses her proboscis to suck up nectar from flowers and stores the liquid in her honey crop. .. The crop is a specialized part of the digestive system, and has a structure between it and the midgut, where digestion takes place. This structure, the proventriculus, can let some nectar in when the forager needs energy on its way home, remove pollen inside the nectar, and serve as a one-way valve to prevent backflow from the midgut. This ensures that no contamination of nectar or honey can take place Conversion of Nectar into Honey .Receiver bees deposit nectar into cells and dry the nectar either on their mouthparts, by forming a large drop between the proboscis and the mandibles, or by fanning over the cells. The moisture has to be reduced to 17%-18% before bees consider the honey “ripe” and then seal the cells. Conversion of Nectar into Honey . Foragers add enzymes (invertase , glucose oxidase) to nectar during foraging, so some digestion is already occurring before nectar is brought back to the hive. Invertase converts sucrose into two six-carbon sugars, glucose and fructose. A small amount of the glucose is attacked by the second enzyme, glucose oxidase, and gets converted into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. Gluconic acid makes honey acidic, and hydrogen peroxide has germ-killing properties, both contributing to honey’s unfriendly disposition to bacteria, mold, and fungi. Adult bees can utilize glucose, fructose, sucrose, trehalose, maltose, and melezitose, but bees are unable to digest rhaminose, xylose, arabinose, galactose, mannose, lactose, raffinose, melibiose or stachyose. Most of these sugars are also toxic to honey bees. About 40% of sugars found in soybeans are toxic to bees, and therefore care should be taken when using soybeans as a pollen substitute. Toxic Nectar . Other plants are toxic to bees due to the presence of alkanoids in nectar. These include: azalea (Rhododendron molle), azure (Aconitum carmichaeli), black hellebore (Veratrum nigrum), California buckeye (Aesculus californica), Chinese alangium (Alangium chinense), Chinese bittersweet (Celastrus angulatus), jimson weed (Datura stramonium), plume poppy (Macleaya cordata), happy tree (Camptotheca acuminate), Summer Titi (Cyrilla racemiflora), tea (Camella sinensis) and oil-tea (C. olelfera). Nectar from these plants is usually toxic to both adult bees and brood, and the majority of them also toxic to humans. Some honeys are not toxic to bees, but to humans. A good example is honey from tutu (Coriaria arborea), which has caused fatalities in New Zealand. Protein . Pollen provides bees with protein, minerals, lipids, and vitamins (Herbert and Shimanuki, 1978). All animals need essential amino acids, which must be obtained externally and cannot be synthesized by animals. Honey bees also need the same 10 amino acids (see section 2.5) as other animals (e.g., humans). These amino acids are obtained from pollen only, because honey bees do not have any other sources of protein. More recently certain levels of fat, vitamins and minerals have all been implicated as being necessary to satisfy honey bee nutritional demands Protein . The protein requirements for honey bees have been calculated by a number of researchers with honey bee-collected pollen between 20–25% crude protein being considered the minimum level. Even better pollens with crude protein percentages (CP%) in the upper 20s and lower 30s guard against any imbalance in the amino acids of the pollen or shortage of pollen.