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Author Topic: Tampa Bay bee conference, effects of feeding bees  (Read 2756 times)

Offline BeeMaster2

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Tampa Bay bee conference, effects of feeding bees
« on: November 06, 2012, 01:05:58 pm »
At the Bee conference in Tampa, FL this past week, Dr Diana Sammataro gave 3 different talks on mites. One of her studies is on: what effect does what we feed our bees have on the mites in the hive. She isolated the study into 3 groups. The first group was allowed to feed in the wild, the second were fed pollen that was collected and sold to beeks and the third were fed pollen substitutes. To control the bee’s source of food, she had the second 2 groups of hives in tents. She found it is hard to keeps them alive for any great length of time in tents. All three groups had the queens in laying cages (square cage over the comb) to control the day the eggs were laid and only in the control area. On the 8th day (they day before they are capped) they were placed in hives that were heavy in mites. Each mite hive had 1 frame from each group. After they were capped the frames were removed and just before the bees hatched they were opened and the mites were counted. She just recently got the results from her first try. The natural fed bees had an average of about 43 mites on the worker brood, the pollen had an average of around 53 mites on worker brood (no drones allowed in the test cases) but the pollen substitute averaged around 273 mites on the worker brood.
 As you can imagine, this was a total surprise. She showed pictures of the results. The bees from the substitute were covered with mites. She did note that these same bees were on average heaver that the other bees.
Diana is still working on this to determine what is happening with this situation.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
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Offline Larry Bees

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Re: Tampa Bay bee conference, effects of feeding bees
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2012, 04:37:23 pm »
Very interesting!!!  Thanks, Larry

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Offline AllenF

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Re: Tampa Bay bee conference, effects of feeding bees
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2012, 06:14:06 pm »
Is this study published anywhere?

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Tampa Bay bee conference, effects of feeding bees
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2012, 11:35:19 pm »

Jim
« Last Edit: November 07, 2012, 12:01:31 am by sawdstmakr »
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Tampa Bay bee conference, effects of feeding bees
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2012, 11:59:30 pm »
Is this study published anywhere?

Here is the only thing that I could find. She will have to repeat the study to verify the results.
See the last sentence.

Diana Sammataro, co-author of the Beekeeper’s Handbook (4th ed. 2011), began keeping bees in 1972 in Litchfield, CT, setting up a colony in her maternal grandfather’s old bee hive equipment. From then on, she decided that her B.S. in Landscape Architecture (Un. of Michigan, Ann Arbor), would not be a career, but that honey bees would. After a year of independent studies on floral pollination (Michigan State Un. Bee Lab, East Lansing), she earned an M.S. in Urban Forestry (Un. Michigan, Ann Arbor). In 1978 she joined Peace Corps and taught beekeeping in the Philippines for 3 years. On returning, she worked at the USDA Bee Lab in Madison, WI under Dr. Eric Erickson, studying the effects of plant breeding and flower attraction of bees in sunflower lines. When the lab closed, she eventually went to work at the A.I. Root Company as Bee Supply Sales Manager in Medina OH. In 1991 she was accepted at the Rothenbuhler Honey Bee Lab at The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) to study for a Ph.D. under Drs. Brian Smith and Glen Needham. In 1995, she worked as a post-doctoral assistant at the Ohio State University Ag. Research Center in Wooster OH, with Dr. James Tew and in 1998 at the Penn State University Bee lab, (State College, PA) with Maryann Frazier and Dr. Nancy Ostiguy. Early in 2002, she was invited to join the USDA-ARS Carl Hayden Honey Bee Research Center in Tucson AZ. Her current position is a Research Entomologist with Dr. G. DeGrandi-Hoffman and staff. Her current work at the lab includes research on bee nutrition problems, Varroa, proteomics of bees and mites, and pollination problems.
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline 2Sox

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Re: Tampa Bay bee conference, effects of feeding bees
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2012, 11:26:35 am »
Jim,

What hypothesis about these results arose from this experiment?
"Good will is the desire to have something else stronger and more beautiful for this desire makes oneself stronger and more beautiful." - Eli Siegel, American educator, poet, founder of Aesthetic Realism

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Tampa Bay bee conference, effects of feeding bees
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2012, 12:09:42 pm »
Jim,

What hypothesis about these results arose from this experiment?

Keep in mind, Diana just got the results. This was totally unexpected. After repeating the test, she is planning to determine what it is that is causing this. She suspects it has something to do with the odor they give off before capping or it has to do with the way they are developing. It is still to early to tell.
I know I will not use a pollen substitute. I threw the quart jar that I had away yesterday.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline 2Sox

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Re: Tampa Bay bee conference, effects of feeding bees
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2012, 12:20:24 pm »
I'd wait and see what this is all about...before I throw my pollen patties away. 
"Good will is the desire to have something else stronger and more beautiful for this desire makes oneself stronger and more beautiful." - Eli Siegel, American educator, poet, founder of Aesthetic Realism

Offline Lburou

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Hold your horses, this isn't a over yet!
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2012, 01:11:59 pm »
The study needs to be peer reviewed, and repeated to validly apply to your decision making process.

What was in the pollen substitute pattiy used.  It is an unscientific leap to assume that one pollen patty is the equal of all others in this research.  In short, scientifically speaking, it is unwise to generalize these preliminary findings to all pollen patties fed in tents.  

Also, I wonder about the design of the study....If the drone brood had been included, I wonder about the bigger picture.  :)
« Last Edit: November 07, 2012, 02:31:58 pm by Lburou »

 

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