Hygienic Behaviour Workshop : 13
LABORATORY OF APICULTURE AND SOCIAL INSECTS, UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
Hygienic Behaviour Workshop
Alex Ellis, Deputy Editor A
ll sorts of evaluative criteria are used by beekeepers when breeding bees.
Research undertaken by Professor Francis Ratnieks, Hasan Al Toufailia and others at the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI), University of Sussex (see Bee Craft, 98(6), pp 7–9 and 98(7), pp 26–27), has focused on breeding for hygienic behaviour. This year, hygienic queens have been made available for sale to beekeepers through a University of Sussex enterprise project (
www.lasiqueenbees.com). LASI is running a series of practical workshops for beekeepers, sponsored by the Eva Crane Trust, on hygienic behaviour and other avenues of research carried out under the umbrella of ‘The Sussex Plan’. Being interested in the concept of hygienic behaviour, I signed up to attend one of the workshops, which ran in early July. It was well attended, primarily by small-scale beekeepers located in the south-east of England.
Introduction A presentation screen showing images
from a camera trained on an observation hive kept the attention of attendees prior to an introductory lecture by Professor Ratnieks. He outlined the aims of LASI (research, scientist training, community outreach activities and conservation) and contextualised the workshop within the Sussex Plan.
Hygienic behaviour was defined as ‘removal of dead, dying and diseased brood September 2016 Vol 98 No 9
Hasan Al Toufailia demonstrating how to graft larvae in order to raise queens from selected stocks
from sealed cells by worker bees’. This is considered a broad-spectrum mechanism for control of disease. Apparently, all colonies are hygienic with regards to unsealed brood, but there is great variation with regards to hygienic behaviour and sealed brood. The trait is not unique to bees in the UK. Marla Spivak in the USA has carried out research into its effects on disease and colony performance. This showed a 35% greater honey crop from hygienic colonies, probably as a result of control of chalkbrood. Professor Ratnieks went on to discuss
the results of LASI research on hygienic behaviour, which is well documented (see under References in Bee Craft, 98(7), p 27).
Workshop Activities Following the introduction, participants
were split into three smaller groups for practical demonstrations of grafting, led by Hasan Al Toufailia, approaches to queen mating, led by Norman Carreck, and testing for hygienic behaviour using liquid nitrogen to freeze-kill sealed brood, led by Luciano Scandian.
After the workshops, Dr Karin Alton hosted tea, cakes and informal discussion before a final session on health and safety when working with liquid nitrogen. All in all, an enjoyable and informative opportunity, and a chance to see the facilities and meet the staff at LASI first hand.
Apimondia Gold Medal for Popular Beekeeping Journals, 2007, 2013 and 2015
www.bee-craft.com
Karin Alton, Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects
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