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Author Topic: Deformed wings  (Read 2791 times)

Offline rayb

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Deformed wings
« on: September 10, 2007, 11:05:28 am »
Last year we had a lot of bees with deformed wings with many of them just walking away from the hive. This year we have been doing powdered sugar treatments every 7-10 days for the last month and our natural mite drop is around 10 mites/day. We see "some" bees with deformed wings, maybe one or two here and there.

My question is: If we see some deformed wings but seem to have reasonably low mite drops, is there a problem? Can you have DWV with low mite counts? Are a few deformed wings "acceptable or normal" ?

Thanks, Ray

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Deformed wings
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2007, 10:40:05 pm »
>Are a few deformed wings "acceptable or normal" ?

IMO yes.  A few are acceptable.  But you also have to differentiate deformed wings from frayed wings.  Young fuzzy bees with crumpled wings from old shiny bees with frayed wings.
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
-------------------
"Everything works if you let it."--James "Big Boy" Medlin

Offline rayb

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Re: Deformed wings
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2007, 06:55:26 am »
Thank you Michael, I'll take a closer look. I believe they are new bees.

Ray

Offline abejaruco

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Re: Deformed wings
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2007, 06:56:15 pm »
I have DWV. I have observed that bees with DWV symptom, young bees, can´t sting, while the old bees with frayed wings show the sting. Not sure if I´m right.


Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Deformed wings
« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2007, 10:29:16 pm »
Young bees usually can't sting and DVW bees usually don't live long.  I don't know if it's an absolute rule but it's a reasonable assumption.
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
-------------------
"Everything works if you let it."--James "Big Boy" Medlin

 

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