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Offline AdmiralD

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Question regarding the queen and mites
« on: June 25, 2005, 03:36:10 pm »
I am pondering the problem of mites and small cell foundation and the queen.

It occurs to me that if a hive is small cell/natural cell foundation, and the hive has mites, doesn't this cause the queen to lay more eggs to make up for the mite infested eggs? Those eggs are tossed out to get rid o fthe mites. Seems to me that the queen would be required to lay more eggs to make up for these infestations of mites on the eggs....

Wouldn't it?

Offline Jerrymac

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Question regarding the queen and mites
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2005, 03:48:05 pm »
The mites like the larger cells and will go for the drone cells first. If they don't find larger cells to invade they may not get into the small cell before it is capped. So the amount of infested worker cells probably won't be that big of a deal.

Also if the queen has the space and the need to lay eggs she is probably going full bore and have no time, nor the ability, to lay "extra" eggs.
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Offline Jerrymac

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Question regarding the queen and mites
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2005, 03:50:23 pm »
Oh and the mites don't get on the eggs. They invade the cell at a certain point before it is capped.
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Offline Joseph Clemens

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Varroa and honeybee eggs
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2005, 05:58:21 pm »
I've never heard of Varroa affecting honeybee eggs. I've only heard of the females slipping into brood cells just prior to their being capped. Then the mite female attempts to raise her own brood inside the sealed cell with the young honeybee as food source for her and her young. For the mite brood to reach a certain degree of maturity whereby it can survive once the honeybee opens its cell and emerges. If the mite young haven't reached a viable age they will possibly expire and that mite females attempts to reproduce at that time will have been thwarted.

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Offline AdmiralD

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Question regarding the queen and mites
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2005, 06:36:01 pm »
Regarding my mistatement over bee 'eggs', let me restate this a bit more accurately...

Hive hygene what it is, the bee larva are tossed out when the mites are discovered in the cell. Whether this is due to the larva being dead with the mite attached or whether the discovery of a non-perfect bee causes the larva to be tossed, I don't know. But if there is a loss of larva of 200 per day [a 10% loss], doesn't that cause the queen to produce more eggs in order to maintain the hive at 2000 bees/ day ?

Or is it just that I am an American  and thinking like a factory worker where if we loose X number of products, we have to make it up to keep afloat.... :?

Offline Jerrymac

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Question regarding the queen and mites
« Reply #5 on: June 25, 2005, 08:15:33 pm »
The queen can only lay so many eggs per day. If the workers were going behind her and tossing out the eggs as she laid them, she could still only lay the same amount.

I never worked in a factory :D
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Online Michael Bush

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Question regarding the queen and mites
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2005, 11:34:28 pm »
>It occurs to me that if a hive is small cell/natural cell foundation, and the hive has mites, doesn't this cause the queen to lay more eggs to make up for the mite infested eggs?

I don't understand the connection you see between small cell and the queen laying more eggs.  The queen lays what the workers will take care of and sometimes she lays more and they just eat them.  This is what happens regarless of cell size.

>Those eggs are tossed out to get rid o fthe mites.

The only young gotten rid of to get rid of mites are purple eyed pupae (later stage of pupae).  The small cell bees seem to chew these out more, but there aren't a lot of mites in my small cell, so I've seen it the most during regression.

>Seems to me that the queen would be required to lay more eggs to make up for these infestations of mites on the eggs....

The controling factor is usually how much brood the hive can care for and how much room they give the queen to lay by either opening up cells (moving honey) or filling them with nectar to stop her from laying in them.
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