http://www.nyrorganic.com/us/little-book-of-bees/index.html#/24/

Why Do Promiscuous Queens Produce Healthier Honey Bee Colonies?

Study Reveals Surprising Clues

WELLESLEY, Mass. — A new study out of Wellesley College sheds light on the link between genetic diversity and healthier bee colonies—by revealing the makeup of the microscopic life found inside the guts, on the bodies, and in the food of these insects. For the first time, scientists discovered that genetically diverse populations of worker bees, a result of the highly promiscuous mating behavior of queens, benefited from diverse symbiotic microbial communities, reduced loads of bacteria from pathogenic groups, and more bacteria related to helpful probiotic species—famous for their use by humans to ferment food. The novel study provides the first major insight into how honey bee colony health could be improved by diversity.

The dramatic disappearance of honey bee colonies in recent years has led to growing interest in studying unknown aspects of this important pollinator, in an effort to understand what might be done to help save them. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is responsible in part for the loss of 30% or more of the U.S. honey bee population in every year since 2007. The continued loss of honey bees, which pollinate more than 400 crops worldwide, contribute to about a third of our diet, and add an estimated $15 billion in value to the country’s food supplies—could have devastating effects.

While the causes of the deadly disorder remain a mystery, researchers like Heather Mattila, a leading honey bee ecologist at Wellesley College, have long observed that a high level of genetic diversity within a colony—which occurs when a queen bee mates with multiple males—improves the colony’s overall health and productivity, though how colony members produce this effect was largely unknown.

Led by Mattila and Irene L.G. Newton, a microbiologist at Indiana University, the research team compared two groups of honey bee colonies. The first group consisted of genetically diverse populations, produced by promiscuous queen bees that had been inseminated by different mixes of 15 male bees. The second group of colonies was genetically uniform, comprised of offspring from queens mated with a single male each. Using 16S rRNA pyrosequencing, an advanced molecular technique that had never before been used to study active bacteria in honey bees, the scientists were able to identify and compare bacteria across the colonies. The results were astonishing.

The researchers found that diverse honey bee colonies showed a significantly greater variety of active bacterial species with 1,105 species, while only 781 species were found in uniform worker populations. Furthermore, active bacteria from genetically uniform colonies consisted of 127% more potential pathogens, while diverse colonies had 40% more potentially beneficial bacteria.

The team made another surprising discovery: four bacteria known to aid in food processing in other animals dominated bacterial communities in colonies, many of which had never been reported in honey bee colonies. Researchers identified Succinivibrionaceae, a group of fermenters in animals like cows; Oenococcus, which are used by humans to ferment wine; Paralactobacillus, used to ferment food; and Bifidobacterium, which is found in yogurt.

“We’ve never known how healthier bees are generated by genetic diversity, but this study provides strong clues,” said Mattila. “Our findings suggest that genetically diverse honey bees have the advantage of broader microbial communities, which may be key to improving colony health and nutrition—and to understanding factors that can mitigate honey bee decline.”

Newton explained the role these microbes may play, “We found that genetically diverse colonies have a more diverse, healthful, active bacterial community. Conversely, genetically uniform colonies had a higher activity of potential plant and animal pathogens in their digestive tracts.”

The discoveries are important because honey bees, like humans and other animals, depend on the helpful communities of bacteria that live within their guts. In honey bees, active bacteria serve a critical function – they aid in the transformation of pollen collected by worker bees into “bee bread,” a nutritious food that can be stored for long periods in colonies and provides honey bees with most of their essential nutrients. Most researchers believe that poor nutrition has hindered the ability of colonies to defend themselves against health problems, such as CCD.

Mattila, who has been investigating the benefits of genetic diversity in honey bees for seven years, was thrilled by these findings, which were made possible by incorporating Newton’s microbial expertise into the study. “It is our first insight into a means by which colony health could be improved by diversity.” She added, “It shows one of the many ways that the function of a honey bee colony is enhanced when a queen mates promiscuously, which is an unusual behavior for social insects. Most bees, ants, and wasp queens mate singly and produce colonies of closely related, single family workers. Honey bee queens are different in this regard, and this behavior has resulted in extremely productive colonies that dominate their landscape.”

Mattila’s earlier research had found that genetically diverse honey bee colonies are more productive, in part because their members forage at higher rates and more often use sophisticated communication methods, including waggle dancing, to direct nest mates to food. Maintaining diversity in honey bee populations is a challenge for commercial beekeepers, who have been selecting genetic lines for decades in an effort to promote desirable traits in bees—a practice that necessarily whittles down diversity.

Mattila shares her research with beekeeping groups, who she says are “intensely interested” and supportive of her research. She frequently speaks at national beekeeper association meetings and gives public lectures for people who simply want to know how they can help honey bees.

“I recommend that people advocate for bees and consider planting gardens that are friendly to pollinators. Bees should be promoted and not exterminated. I also encourage people to support local beekeepers by buying honey directly from them, which gives them more profit, and thus more flexibility to use techniques that are in the bees’ best interest, even if the methods are more intensive or costly.”

Is there hope yet for the plight of the honey bee? Mattila thinks so. “There is a large community of bee researchers in the United States and around the world, and we are doing everything we can to maximize the health of our most important pollinator.”

April 12, 2012

Doug Morris, Club President, called the meeting to order.

Old Business:

Extractor Committee: Rusty Foltz reported on club extractor storage set up.  He sent out a calendar to the extraction team for sign up with extractions starting in June through September.  His goal is to have the extraction team members sign up for the weekends that they will be available to assist members with extraction.  Rusty is drafting a book of extraction procedures to make the process easy for everyone.

Mentoring Committee:  The Mentoring Committee met at Tom Miller’s shop to assist new students build woodenware.  The students’ input has been helpful.

Bee Classes:  Field day for new students is scheduled for Saturday, April 14 at John Lewis’s.  Bring your bee equipment and bring a dish for lunch.

Bee Packages:  The 80 bee packages were delivered to John Lewis’s.  Club members purchased all packages.

New Business:

Sky Meadows:  Earth Day is April 27, 2012. Doug and Ramona Morris will be doing bee demonstrations from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Melissa Sylvan, landscape presenter, has volunteered to do some landscaping at Sky Meadows to promote bee pollination and provide a source of food for the Park’s four colonies.

Blandy Farm Event:  Mother’s Day Weekend at Blandy.  Club members can sell honey, wax products and bee related items.  Club members can attend just to answer questions for the public and to promote bees.

BONS Elections:  Doug Koch has agreed to be the nominating committee.  Elections will be held at the next club meeting.  A door prize will be given at the meeting.

At the June 14^th club meeting, Karla Eisen will make a presentation on the Prince William club’s project that compared the survivability of Packaged Bees vs. Nucs and how they developed a subsequent queen-rearing program

School Program:  Mike Rininger has made arrangements for bee club members to talk about beekeeping on April 25 & April 26 from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in 15 minute segments to 3^rd grade students from a group of North Fauquier county schools.  Contact Doug or Mike for more information.

Extraction Committee:  Rusty Foltz make presentations on extraction equipment at all the bee classes. Rusty put out for discussion that a suggestion was made that the club buys a refractometer to test for water content in frames with uncapped honey.  Rusty will come with a proposal next week.

Queen Rearing Class:  Class is scheduled for April 21 at 10 a.m. until we are done. Pat and Jim Haskell will be the instructors.  This class is being offered for free.  Attendees are asked to bring protective gear and food.

Club Program:  The program presenter was Frank Linton, Master Beekeeper EAS.   Dr. Linton has an observation hive that he has been monitoring for seven years.  He studies bee activity with a wireless sensor network to determine colony health.  Mr. Linton’s email: frank.linton@post.harvard.edu

The meeting was adjourned.

Minutes Respectively Submitted by:

Brenda Brown, BONS Club Secretary

Just in case anyone missed the Haskell event and/or was wondering how things were done in West Virginia here is the information.  If you have questions, please contact Charles Walter, the instructor, at cwalter@prontotek.com

West Virginia Eastern Panhandle Beekeepers Association     

Summer Nucs – A Sustainable Approach to Beekeeping

The Eastern Panhandle Beekeepers Association is holding a hands-on workshop  on creating nucs for the purpose of over-wintering for use the following year.  Locally raised and bred queens from Charles & Maxine Walter of Walter’s Wholesome Goods will be utilized to head the newly made colonies.

Participants will learn the fundamentals of making their own summer nucs as well as receive instruction on preparing the new colonies for winter survival. Several techniques for raising your own replacement queen honey bees will be demonstrated, and participants will have the opportunity to graft as well.

Each registered Participant will leave the workshop with two locally mated queens, and two complete nuc boxes (without frames) so they can make up their own nucs in their own apiary. This requires that the participants have at least one strong healthy queen-right colony in their own yard.

This workshop is not designed for first year beekeepers. 2+ years of beekeeping experience is recommended.

The purpose of this workshop is to continue educating our membership in methods of sustainable apiary management, as facilitated by wintering nucleus colonies, and basic techniques in queen rearing.

Cost will be $110.00 which includes two locally mated queens, two complete nuc hive bodies with lid, inner cover, and bottom board to contain the nucs.

Participation is limited to 20 people. Please use the form to register.

Registration Form

How to Make Summer Nucs workshop

May 27, 2012, 10:00am – 1:00pm

Name: ____________________________________________________________

Address: __________________________________________________________

Phone: e-mail: _____________________________________________________

Number of Participants: ______________________________________________

Cost: $110.00 per participant

Total: _____________________________________________________________

Name(s) of additional attendees________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Please make check payable to: Eastern Panhandle Beekeepers Association and mail it along with your registration to:

WVEPBA

Attention: Treasurer

P. O. Box 457

Kearneysville, WV 25430

The workshop will take place at the home apiary of Charles & Maxine Walter, located at:

3466 Scrabble Rd

Shepherdstown, WV 25443

From 10:00am to 1:00pm

Bio for Charles Walter

My name is Charles Walter, and I am the Vice President and lifetime member of the West Virginia Eastern Panhandle Beekeepers Association. To answer your questions, I will be instructing the workshop. I’ve been keeping bees on and off since I was 12 years of age. In this area alone I’ve kept bees since 2000, and currently I am running anywhere between 110 and 200 colonies if I include the nucs, with apiaries throughout Virginia, Maryland, and of course West Virginia.  All of this while holding down a full time job.  Our primarily focus is honey production, second by our micro scale queen rearing and nuc operation.  I am a lifetime member of the West Virginia State Beekeepers Association, also a member in good standing of The West Virginia Queen Producers Cooperative, The Russian Honey Bee Breeders Association, American Beekeeping Federation, and too many more to mention.

In June, we have Karla Eisen scheduled to talk about the Prince William Club’s project on comparing the survivability of packaged colonies versus nucs, and then how the club went about organizing members to participate in queen rearing.  This will be a great follow-up to our own queen-rearing class organized by John Lewis this month (April 21) and, hopefully provide us with club mentors specialized in queen rearing.