CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF APICUIJTUR,ISTS

Minutes and Proceedings

Annual Meeting

Winnipeg, Manitoba

196 1

Confidential - not for publication

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TABJ.JE OF CONTENTS

General Discussion ---~------------~--------~~----~-~-~-----~

Resolutions-~------------------~---~~--~--~-~~--~-~-------.~~-

Rotb 8.1nsted - Bee Department -._... _QCl_...,,__ ... ~ ..... _ .... __... _tlIIt

1\1e101l1 Equipment 8· rflanagement Ideas (Spe PE~~-Jearch) -'.------------ ­

Bee Diseases (See Research)~-----------~-----~~-~-------~~---,

Bee Poisoning ----~-------------------~~~-~~~~~-----~---~----

Pollination (See Research) ----------~--------~~~-~~---------

Extension --~-----~--~-.--~-~--~-~---~-------~~-~---~--~------

Administration ------~-~~---------~-~~~~~~---~-,--------------

Nosenla Symposium (See also Roth.amsted) ~----.-,.,,--,.,--_... _--------- ­

Report of International Beekeeping Congress - }1adrid ~----

Congress for the Study of Social Irlsects ...----- ­

Bee Research Association --------~----~~-~~~----

Reports from Research Stations -~~-----~-----~-~~------------

O.A~C~ ----~----~--~----~--------~-~~-~----~-------

Brandon -------------------~--------------~--------

Beaverlodge -------------------------.------------- ­

Apiculture Section - Ottawa ------------~----------

Nel~ Brunswick v.Jintering Experiment --~--------------

Page 1 - 3

Page 4 .. 6

Page 7 - 11

Page 12 - 15

Page 1.5 - 19

Page 19 - 20

Pap.-e 20 - 27

Page 28

Page 28

Pag's ?9 ... 41

Page 42

Page 44 - 50

Page bLt - 1.17

Page 47 - 49

Page 49 - SO

Page SO Page 53 - 5S

(See also sections on Bee Diseases, Pollination and Newo Equipment & Management Ideas)

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CANADIAIJ ASSOCIATION OF APICUI/rlJRISTS Annual Meetin~ 1961

December, 1, 2, 3 Winnipeg, l'ITanitoba

[ ~j1embers present: EoAc Karmo, Tru.ro, l\!oS~; 'Oro ~T oC(J;1 o L'Arrivee, Br2.ndon,

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-11ano; Ro Bra:::seur, }1ontreal, Queo; Sc>E. Bland, Repina, Sasko; Po\~. Burke, Guelp'h, Onto; Dr. SeC o Jay, \~rJinnipeg,

Mano; Do Smith, ldinnipep-, I'1ano; Dr. p(l Furgala, Ottawa" Ont.; Dr. ToAo Gochnauer, Ott~'wa, Onto; GoF. Townsend, Guelph, Onto; DoRo Robertson., \.i~innlpeg, Mano; J e1tJ. Edmunds, Edmonton, Al ta.o; D~M(I JV1CC1J.tcheon, Regina, Sask.; and Jo Corner, Vernon, BoCo

Guests: John Geir"er, Bran,don,;·r·tano; 1.1 0 'rlesle:T, Kemptvi.l1e, Onto; Re ~1cKay, Otta,v-Ja, Onto'; }Jo I,arocqlJe, Girou~X\Til1e, Altao; Po Pawlo1,vski, Edmonton, PO-Ita.,,; Co Ciphery, Sanf'lJdo, Altao; and E"K fJ Burnett, P<olan.d, ·M.~n~

[ December 1: - Board Room, Norqlla~T Bllildi.ng.

1he chairman, Jo Corner, called the meetinp to ordero

[ The minutes of the 1960 mpeting were read by the Secretary, DoMo ~McCutcheono

[ 110ved by r1cCutcheon, seconded b:y' Brasseur, th.a.t the minutes of the 1960 meeting be adopted as read. CARR.IEDo

[ The election of officers W?S held with the following being elected:

J oW 0 Edm11nds, Cha.irman[ D~M9 McCutcheon, Secretary

[ The chairm.an appointed. the following committees:

Resolutions - P~Wo Burke & Be Furgala Publicity ... DoRo Robertson g. J 0 CorrLer

Dro 8oCo Jay presented a paper on the bee researcY': beinp: conducted at Rothamsted E~~erimental Station.

[.1! Vic Mesley' was asked to make a.vailable for pu.blication d_TI

the report, a diagra.m of his bee yard layou,ts, accompanied by a report on the advantag0s j observations etco of this planou Discussion on the advisability of Council and/or the Apicul­turists conducting a symposium on accounting procedures, in.. come tax exemptions, limited companies and their effect~ on

C o accounting procedures and income tax and including a wide

range of subjects which affect the business managemen.t of a beekeeping enterprize. Experts would be asked to present papers and the proceedings woul,-~ be published in manual formo

A nosema symposium was conducted by Dr. ToA. Gochnauer.

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Papers by Dr. ~1o\T 0 Smith j EoAo Karma, Dr~ JoCoMo L~Arrivee were presentedo

Board Room, Manitoba Honey Co-opo

Dr6 B. Furgala and

c JoWo Edmunds chaired a general session. which included reports

[ from the provinces on bee diseases, extension, administration~

bee poisoning j pollination and new mana.gement and equipment ideaso

c Discussion on patents ~ concluded that it is generally not worthwhile to obtain a patent on ,f!.eneral. bee equi.pment (exceptions would be pracesses i etco eogo Dyee process and Royal Jelly use in cancer control) 0 It is better to put 011t

a publication on a nelf\j idea in orner to prevent the equip'-"' ment manufact11rers froPl pat(.?'nting the ideao

Profo GoFo Townsend outlined the course chanres at the Apiculture Department OoAoCo There is no option at presento There are four basic courses given by the Apiculture Depto A person taking all four would have full apicultural training the same as gra.duateso Now Cln Arts or any student can take any or all of these basic parts of the course. See Page 66

The Secretary was instructed· to again list druf! feedin.p.- re-­commendations indi.catinr dates and amounts to feed 0 It was stressed tha.t sulfa ShOl11d only be lisen for early spring and late fall feedingso

A committee wa~ appointed to study the use of cyanogas and develop new ideas for killinr coloniese

[ ex> Jo Corner, Do Robertson~ Dro JoCoM. L'Arrivee

December 3: - Board Room, NorqlJay Buildirlgo

[ :prof 0 OoF 0 Townsend j Dro ToA~ Gochnauer and Dro tJ oC oMo LIArriyee presented reports on research at their institutionso

c Profo Townsend was asked to prepare a report for publication on "the effect of stings" and ftaction to take in case of a reactiontlo

o Profo Townsend was also asked to provide information on the names of research workers in North America alonf! with their current projectso Townsend indicated that North American COmrrJ.ittee of the Bee Research Association has such a ltstingo

c ~he Secretary was instructed to forward a copy of the report to Dro Fo Todd, now head of UoSoDoAo Bee Research o

Discussion re: uGanadian Bee tTournalt1 The Secretary was inc&>0

structed to write to the editor, K. Madge, providing himc with a list of people who could be expected to w~ite articles

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[ for the journal and point out where re1ations C0111d be irn­proved between himself and contributors.

J o1N 0 Edmunds indicated that he woulrl attempt to draw up a simple constituti.on for discussion at the 1962 meeting.

Discu.ssion of 1962 program - it was agreed that a symposium on Honey Technology woul~ be beneficial. DoRo Robertson was

[ appointed to chair this symposium. It was suggested that one-half day be spent on this symposium~

L Discussion of Fumidil B recormnendations .- SRcretary was asked to contact Dro Gochnauer regarding:

(a) possibility of Ib ftJerinp dosage of FU.midil B to 40 mogr o

for package colonieso

[ (b) possibility of' u.sinp Fumidil B as a dust in con.1unctio·n

with icin[ sugaro

(c) possibility of secu.rin.g unp11rified Fumidile

[ J oW 0 Edmunds agreRd to prepare a calen.dar H\~}-Iat ~le are to don during the yea.r~ Eog e when to collect information and what to collecto

[ J e Comer is appointed ~3ecretary beginninr tJune 30, 19620

J" Corner was appoi:nted to draft recomrn..enrlation.s for pre..... sentation to Councilo In addition to the resolutions per~

taining to Council, it was felt that Council needed a proper .. agenda. and that the meetings ShOl1ld be better organized 0

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r RESOL1JTIONS

c' lG Moved by Vo Mesley, seconded by Dro ToAo Gochnauer:

WHEREAS there are differences of opinion between beekeepers in Canada and the package bee producers on the affect of very low levels of nasemar infection in the Southern States on the package bee industry in Canada

[ THEREFORE be it resolved that the Canadian Bepkeepers' Council look into and promote the organization of an international co-operative group to study this matter. CARRIED.

[ 2. }1oved by Dr. Bo Furgala, seconded by· Dr. tJ.ColJL. L~Arrivee:

vrrIEREAS the need of a scientific journal for apicultural research is, evident and

[ WHEREAS this would be resol,Ted in the near· future by reorganizing the 'IBee \Norld tt

C THEREFORE be it resolved th,at Prof 0 Go "F'. Towllsend be com..mended for his participation and hard work in makin.g t'his :iourna.l a reality. CARRIED.

,[ 30 Moved by J ~ Corner~ seconded by S/)'Eo Blarld~

THAT the Secretary of the Canadian Association of Apiculturists' atte~pt

[ to arrange with the Seed Growers Association to have a representative from the Seed Growers address our Association on Seed Growers Act and Re~

gulations at next yearWs meetingo CARRIED.

[ hI) ~1oved by D~R.o Robertson, seconded by J 0 Corner:

; Wl·jEREAS tb.e CoAoAI) meetings are usually placed betwpen a provincial associ=[ ation meeting and the Canadian Beekeepers' COD.neil meeting and J

U IJ\lHEREAS the meeting of the Association of Apiculturists is becoming inc:;D creasingly more valuable to the members and should be conducted in a business like manner

THEREFORE be it resolved tha.t this Association attempt to begin meetingsu on a Monday morning and that we rec0mmend to the Canadian Beekeepers' Council that they begin their meetings in mid-week. CARRIED.

50 ~oved by Profo G&Fe Townsend, seconded by SoE. Bland:

~1EREAS there appears to be a growing list of research workers in Apic­ulture in North America and o WFEREAS it appears a considerable number of members of the Professional

1 Association of Apiculturists are not familia.r with the names and location .i.' of these researchers or with the nature of the research beinp carried outtU

by these research workers

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THEREFORE be it resolved that we appoint a committee to prepare a list r of the researchers in North America, their location and their general field of research, this list to be published in the proceedings of this organization. CARRIED.

6. Moved by JoW. Edmunds, seconded by J& Corner:

WHER.EAS the general purpose of tile Professional A9sociation of Apicul­turists is to assist in any way possible the solving of problems of the beekeeping industry in Canada and

W11EREAS it is considered essential to carry out this purpose as effect~[ ively and completely as possible, it is essential to accumulate as rnany ideas, theories and facts as possible and

[ WHEREAS there are some graduates in the field of apiculture who may not know wh.en or where our conference is being held or may not realize they are welcome to attend our conference

[ TIIEREFORE be it resolved our SecretaF"r collect and prepare a list of graduates in Apiculture and be it

' FURTHER RESOLVED these individuals recejve an invitation to attend ourrJ conference at least sixty (60) days prior to our conference a.nd be it

[ FURT1IER RESOLVED that they be requ.ested to present any ideas, theories, facts or problems they may have.., CARR.lED.

[ 7$ Moved by DoMe McCutcheon, seconded by Jo Corner:

WHEREAS there is a great deal of work in preparing for the GoA.A. and C~BoCe meetings and

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L 1rIHER.EAS many delegates h.a.ve to prepare for and attend provincial meetings previous to the na.tional meetings and are away from th.e office for a ··long period and

WHEREAS it would be desirable to h.old these national meetings at a time separate from the provincial meetings

I ( f} I ~ j THEREFORE be it resolved that we recommend that the Canadian Beekeepers'

Council and Canadian Association of Apiculturists' meetings be held in

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80 Moved by J.Wo Edmunds, seconded by Prof. GeFo Townsend: ..Ii u} ~IEREAS there appears to be no written constitution of this organization1

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o WHEREAS it may be desirable to have such.

o THEREFORE be it resolved that this organization appoint a committee to draw up a constituion to be presented for consideration at our next annual meetingo CARRIED.

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90 Moved by J oWo Edmunds, seconded by Bo Furgala:

WHEREAS there appears to be a need for questionnaires to beekeepers ' from time to time to obtain desirable information and

WHEREAS it would appear desirable to send out as few questionnaires as possible and

WHEREAS it appears questionnaires are sometimes incomplete or ambigu~us

THEREFORE be it resolved that we appoint a clearing committee for all questionnaires and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED that at least one member of this committee be a member involved in research o DEFEATED 0

COURSE CHANCES IN APICULTUR.E DEPT ()

The Apiculture Department is now offering only two courseso These are electives under th.e Zoology-Entomology Optiono Apiculture 301 described in the Calendar is a 2-0, 2-0 seminar course given over a two-year period j as describedo

Apiculture hal is availa.ble in either Th.ird or Fourth Year as a 2-09 2~O course, given throughout the year, and relates to the behaviour and social life of honeybeeso

Other electives will be chosen for those wishing to specialize in bee~

keeping according to their desires, but the main outline of courses will be that desribed on page 41 of the Calendar, and the main change will be that the student graduating will graduate from the Entomology and Zoology Option j

specializing in Apiculture as far as electives are concernedo

During the Seminar cou.rse (301) given over the two-year period we will co~er all ph.ases 0f beekeeping but will slant it particularly towards the de­sires of the student 0 This gives us much more leeway than we had before in planninp the programo It also makes it possible for students in other Options to elect from one or more of the Apiculture electiveso

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THE BEE DEPARTMENT OF ROTHM1STED EXPERIMENTAL STATION

(This is a summary of a talk given to the Canadian Association of Apiculturists by Co Jay)

[ A~ Rothamsted Experimental Station

RoEoS o is a government Agricultural Research Centre which is located 25 milesr: north of London at Rarpenden, Hertfordshireo Lt has several departments, (eogo Physics, Chemistry, Pedology, Soil Microbi.ology, Botany, Biochemistry, Plant Pathology, Nematology, Insecticides 'and Fungicides j EntomologY!i Bees~

Statistics, Field Experiments Station) with a combined staff of about ~

I~ The first experimental work at RoEoS~ began soon after John Bennet Lawes (the pioneer of English Agricultural Science) began. managing his farm at Rotham­

L sted in 18340 Following his work with the production and use af super-phos­phate, he established a fertilizer fa.ctory .- the begin.ninf of th.e fertilizer industryo In 1843 Lawes, and a chemist'tJoseph IIenry Gilbert, began field ex~ periments, and chemi.cal analyses, invo11lin.g crop rotations and fertili zers 0( ~ Later they conducted experiments in animal feedingo -­

From th.is early beginning RoEoSo has expanded its work u.ntil today it has an[ international reputation for its excellent research in many bra.nches of agriculture 0

[ Bo The Bee Department at RoEoSo

The Bee Department began in 1921 as the Bee Section of the Departmen.t of En... tomology but in 1944 it became a separate departmento Originally the Bee De~[

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partment did both. research and extension work but in 1946 a separate Bee Ad... visary Unit was formed under Mr. Po Milne to look after the extension worko

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[ In 1939 j Dro CoGo Butler was appointed head of the Bee Section (as it wast then called) a position he still holrls o From an or~ginal staff of three the depart­ment has increased to eighteen; four Scientific O!~ficersj four Experimental Officers, six Scientific Assistants, a secretary, and an apiary staff of 3-18 altogethero .

,[ c~ The Bee Advisory Unit

The BoAoUo is part of the National Agricultural Advisory Service (NoAoAoSo), under the Ministry of Agriculture, and is chiefly concerned with advising (and answering questions relating to bees from) commerical beekeepers and fruit

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I"i and seed growers 0 The B0 AolJ 0 also plays an important part in the Bee Diseases Advisory Committee which was set up in 1941 to advise the Minist~ of Ag~c­ul~ure on the prevention and spread of pests and diseases of baeso

. . The BoAoUe also examines suspect combs for disease and issues instructions based on its findingse Finally, it prepares leaflets, lectures, and demon­

U strations concerned with beekeeping and related problems for loan to various Beekeeping Associationso

U DOt R.esearch of the Bee Department

Because the work of the Bee Department covers a wide range of subjects, I_'··! j

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have chosen to discuss a few projects that might be of special interest tor this groupo For quick reference, other lines of research by various members of the Bee Department can be found in the annual reportso

[: Although not a rigid classification, th.e department can be subdivided int·o four main sections, each section is under the direction of a Scientific Officer: (1) Dro ButlerUs section is concerned with the internal organization of the colony; (2) Dro Free is concerned with the beh,aviour of bees in the field!';[' (3) Dro Bailey is concerned with diseases, and (4) Drc Simpson is concerned with swarmingo

L (1) Dro Butler

Dro Butler¥s work is concerned with what he calls "queen substancetYo

[ It is well known that the presence of a mated, laying queen in a colony normal~

ly inhibits at least two thinp's~ (1) the development of thA workers Y ovaries 9 and (2) queen productiono Dro Butler set out to discover how beps of a colony[ recognize the presence or absence of their queeno

[ He suggested that the queen normally produces a substance (ttqueen substancen ) and as long as th.e workers obtain enough of this substance th.ey do not rear additional queenso In subsequent experiments he obtained much circumstantial evidence which supported this theoryo He later showed that fYqueen substance JY

is present allover the queen Y s body and that it is' licked from her body by[ a few bee's and then shared in regurgitated food with all other members of the colonyo When alcohol extracts of whole queens were fed to queenless bees~

their ovaries did not develop, and they did not rear queenso Later it was[ shown that Uq'Q.eep substance ft is produced in the mandibular glandso

Dro Callow and Miss Johnston of the Medical Research. Council identified and later synthesized "queen substance rt

() It is now produced in quantity as[ "9-0-2" (9ccoxodec CIC> 2 - enoic - acid)o

[, In recent work j Dro Butler has shown that 9~O~2 alone does not completely inhibit workers from rearing queens but when combined with the scent of the queen j complete inh.ibition of queen rearing is accomplished 0

[;, (2) Dro FreeI ,: (a) Drifting:

it [,1"i l j Dro Free found that the amount of drifting under apiary conditions varies

greatly in different circumstances j and when colonies are arranged in regularI rows in open sites, up to 60% of the bees may drift from some colonieso Drifting is always greater from colonies in the centre of the rows than fromI (I

U " ~j colonies situated at either end; thus end colonies always gain. in numbers

of bees o He also found that more worker bees and drones from queenright col~

onies drift to queenless colonies than to ,queenright colonies and that drones expelled from queenrigh,t colonies d'b not drift to que'enless colonieso 1 _~. ,,"" ~ LU.f"t"'1 ....,.... ,.' ." ..... : I.:) -.'-:~. c.t. ~ ~,- _,'1 ­,,'1

U He suggests that drifiting can be decreased by arranging hives irregularlyj facing them in different directions j putting boards painted yellow j blue j

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9 or white just above, or preferably below, hive entrances and by using hive stands of various heightso

(b) Pollination (Orch~rds):

Dro Free!s recent pollination studies can be divided into four parts:

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1) he has observed th~ ways in which honey bees visit fruit flowers in order to discover on which type of flower visit, pollination could occur, so that attempts to increase such beneficial visits could be rnade 9

L 2) he has studied the foraging areas of individual beAs in. orchards and has

shown that the size of their foraging areas may have an important effect on fruit production j

r he has tried various ways of increasing the proportion of a colonyv s population visiting fruit flowers j and he has studied the foraging areas of colonies in order to find how they should be distributed in orchards to give an even distribution of bees on the treeso

[ His main conclusions are summarized below:

10 Pollen -. gatherers are in general more valuable pollinators than nectar gatherers, particu.larly for some fru.i t varieties Th.e number of pollen0[ gath.erers may pr obably be increased by feeding their colonies with sugar syrup 0

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[ 20 Bees tend to visit ,only two adjacent trees per trip and to change to a tree or part of a tree which is nearest to ttle one they have been working~

This behaviour is reflected in fruit set and future recommendations on orchard planning should take this into accounto

[ 30 The proportion of a colonyu s foragers visiting a crop may be increased by

not moving it to the crop until after flowering has beguno

40 The restricted foraging areas of colonies, particularly in relatively poor foraging weather indicate that colonies should be distributed in small

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(3) Dro Bailex

[ I propose to discuss some of Dro Baileyu s work on Nosema diseaseo

Bailey began his work by trying to find out how the disease perpetuates itself

U within the colony from year to year and why the annual rise in the number of

L infected bees in early summer is followed by a rapid decline in the late summer and autunmo It was well known that the primary reason for the rise in infection was due to the fact that the confined bees often defecate wi.thin the hive during the la~e winter thus soiling the combs with faeces containing the spores of the parasiteo When brood-rearing starts again, these combs are cleaned by the bees (which eat some of the dried faeces) who subsequently show

1.J 1 a rising level of infection which is correlated with the rapid growth of the

brood-nest in spring and early summer~

U Bailey considered that one of the keys to the problem concerned the reasons for the decline of infection and he suggested that diseased bees normally

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defecate outside their hives during the flying season and so cease to trans. ­mit the disease to young bees - the disease disappearing as the old bees die during the seasono It was apparent that a source of infection must remain in summer because the disease usually persists at a low level in the winter and recurs during the following springe He concluded that combs contaminated during their winter seemed likely places for tr~ces of ·inf,ection to survive the summer, with the combs outside the brood-neat the most likely9 because the combs in the brood-nest are cleaned and used repeatedl~ during the sum~ mero The outer combs tend to be used in the late &~~er or autumn when the bees fill them with honey or syrupG This hypothe5f~;~:···+that the combs were the chief reservoirs of the disease during the summer, "<;~f:a:s confirmed by experi­ments in which colonies were transferred~ onto foundation, or onto non-con~

taminated combs, during the early summer when the disease was at its peak~

[ Because it is too expensive to transfer diseasep colonies onto foundation, he developed a method of sterilizing old infected combs with acetic acid · fumes 0 Diseased colonies are transferred onto sterilized combs as early in the flying season as possibleo The disease will then die out as the infected bees die providing these colonies have not bp8n~moved to new sites for about

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eight weeks after treatmento The sterilized combs may be used right after.J

fumigation with no ill effects to the bees or poisoning of th.e pollen and honey which might have been present during fumigationo

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[ He recommends that fumagillin be fed the' following autumn because it then n cures l1 any infected bees present and prevents the spread of infection in th.e winter cluster and the further contamination of' the combsG

(4) Dro Simpson

[ During the past few years Dro Simpson has been stu.dying the very difficult problem of swarming by experiments and observat1ons, and by analysing the records made by commercial beekeepers durinf th,eir routine inspection of col­

[ onies throughout the swarming seasonG

The beekeepers' records showed that the proportion of queenright colonies which produced queen cells (and were possibly preparinr to swarm) varied greatly[ from year to year, and he calcu.lated that in a pormal year 10 - 40% of the colonies would have swarmed even if they had been. given plenty of space, and otherwise left aloneo This fact j coupled with his experimental evidence,

r[ suggests that overcrowding is not the only factor which causes colonies to ..1

u swarrno He also found that his experimental evidence did not support GerstungWs Brood Food Theo~o There is not enough data as yet to say whether or not the removal of queen cells tends to inhibit the actual emergence of swarmso

Dr o Simpson has suggested that the queen-rearing which accompanies swarm pre­parations may also involve insufficiency or ineffectiveness of queen sub­stanceG Beekeepers' records showed that colonies whose queens were replaced before the end of June by new queens reared in the current season, were milch less likely to produce queen cells during the rest of the season than colonies not so requeenedo Perhaps, he suggested, young queens produce more queen substance than old ones and therefore are better able to oa.tisfy their colony~s

queen substance requirementso

Under certain experimental conditions, individuals intermediate between workers

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and queens can be produced. Therefore, he suggested, it is probable that under ordinary conditions of queen rearing, some queens may be produced which

c [ are lacking in some of the normal characteristics of queens and consequently

produce low amounts of queen substance. The output of queen substance may vary with the strain of bee and thus account for the fact that some strains swarm more than otherso

All th.ings considered, Dro Simpson has cbnclude~ that the capacity of quees ' to produce queen substance varies with trieir age, genetical characteristics j[ and conditions under which they were reared, and that the tendency of their

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colonies to swa.rm is determined accordinglyo H'owever, what causes a colony

L to swarm r~ther than merely to supersede remains a mysteryo

(NOTE: The information in this talk. has been obtained from research papers

[ by members of the Bee Department and from various notes kindly loaned to me by Dro JoBo Free)

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[ THE E·FFECT OF STINGS ON H1J}1PJJS

The effect of stings on humans is rather difficult to answer and we are[ presently working on some of the problemso All we can suggest at the present

is that if a person does show a sensitivity towards bep stings that he im­mediately arrange with his doctor to have an a11ergy test and that he undergo a series of treatmentso More details can be obtained if his doctor contacts[ Dro Ro Bladek 9 School of Hygiene 9 Department of Microbiology, University of Toronto~ Toronto 9 Ontarioo He is making a specialty of this fieldo Usually the series of treatments which Dro Bladek recommends will prevent a serious reaction in the futureo

Until such time as these treatments have been taken, or even if they have been taken and the person is not sure that they have built up sufficient immunity9 then they should carry a kit with th.em which includes a hypodermic syringe, adrenaline and other materials~ upon the recommendation of their own medica.l doctoro They should not he without these at any time,and should imPledia.tely take action if they are stung 0 If this kit is n.ot available, and if a person is stung and shows a violent reaction, there is little that can be done except to try to get them to a doctor or hospital as rapidly as pos­sible to have them treated with adrenalineo

n'Ampinsu .., Adrenaline Tartarateo Syringe and adrenaline capsule are enclosed in a plastic container 9 (five containers in a box) 0 lJnit of syringe andu adrenalin are disposed of after use o

WIsupreul fl ' - ... may be used instead of adrenalin - can only be obtained on pre­u scription from a. doctoro If doctor is being called after Isupreul used 9 the doctor must know that it has been used so be can act accordinglyo

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NEW EQUIPMENT AND MANAGEMENT IDEAS

ALBERTA

~e~t~r_f£r_R~d!a~ ~x!r~c~oE ~ The radial extractor acts like a squirrel~ cage fan drawing air in the centre and blowing it out the periphery of the extractoro

a::> A five inch hole was cut in the cover of the side of the extrpctor not used for loading o

= A 15,000 BoToUo gas burner was placed over the holeo Eitn,er th-e h.oney gate or th.e lid must be open.ed sufficiently to pive good air circulationo

Results ... Temp of honey in the comb .54 degrees Fo " tf

~ Temp of extracting- room 60 n= Temp at top of extractor => 100 n

ttTemp at gate of extr'actor A8 tf

1t 11 CID Temp of honey c6ming out gate ... 86

A manifold steam coil was also tried and while not as effective as the open burner j it did help considerablyo The combs were extracted more completely and were very dryo

Bee Hat for those who wear glasses ~ Remove crown of standard sun ~elmet

and rivet In'->its-:place'-'a=*screen nose bag u.sed for horseso The hot moist air goes out the topo

A Super Lifter for Inspecting Brood Cb.arabers All supers above the brood chamb~rs--are-lrftedup-by a Jack-...,.-aIl-.4ack

c:z

- and roJled out of the ~7ay on tracks built into the m0chineo GLEANINGS will be carrying a write up on thlso

10 High frequency heating unit = combs pass through unit on endless conveyero Temperature i$ increased by SO degrees in thirty secondso See December 1961 issue of CANADIAN BEE JOURNALo

20 Power uncapper and automatic feed to uncapper o

30 After colonies are killed, bees are removed by a specially desivned unit in three secondso

~r~c~i~a! ~e~k~eE.i~g_C£n~u! t~n~s _i~_A!b~r~a_~

Mechanical - WoHo McEwen, RoRo 1 9 Ardrossan - J. Rolleman j Edmonton ~ Jo Marcy, Brooks

Management - WoHo McEwen 9 RoRo 1 9 Ardrossan - CoJo Read, Box 11, Red Deer CD CoD 0 Cipheny j San.gudo

Honey ~ W.Ho McEwen j RoRo 1, Ardrossan

~-~.__._-------'"--------=-­

[

[ 13

New Equipment and Management Ideas continued

r r Bookeeping - CoJo Read j Box 11, Red Deer

Taxation - CoJo Read, Box 11, Red Deer

Package Bee Hauling - Jo Smith, Beaverlodgeo

[

[

ONTARIO

Hive Lifters aID This and oth.er gadgets used by Dyment Brothers are wri tten up~in January 1962 issue of AMER,leAN B?l~: tJOUF1TAL (>

[ ~aE.e~e~d_- Five acres were tried, of two vari.etieso There 1rJ,'lS little significance in honey productiono See also January 1962 issue of CAN=­ADIAN BEE JOURNALo

[ NOVA SCOTIA

~m~ll £aE.a~i~y __ (2j20£ :.18.L02.0_c~o __F~olD~h~m~d~f!,eE.s_- Can be used for[ l01f11ering the moisture content of honey prior to extractinp Extremely'·0

simple to operateo Will draw off upwards to R couple gallons of water every 24 hourso

[

[ Super Lifter ..., A lever arrangement to lift a stock of supers for insert<= rng a bee escape boardo Re...designed by Al Flem.ing after Philip Bishop~s original 0 Very easy on operatorqs back 9 also reasonably fasto

Management - Are we making full use of the potential of the queens inpaCkage bee colonies? Trials in Nova Scotia over the last eight years

[

[ increasingly support the view that in 10ealities with late midsummer and fall honey flows, small starting units will enhance profit with package bee colonieso The early installed I! Ib unit is gradually becoming a standard with many producers in Nova Scotia a.nd several have been highly satisfied with the one Ib starting unitso The yields indicate such colonies capable of building up into strong colonies and producin? good crops:[ '

I :;

j ' LoAo Parker: - 20 - 1 Ib packages averaged over ISO Ibs honeyo Woolaver & Specht~ 339 Ib bees in 260 colonies averaged 130 Ib honey/

colony or 106 Ib honey per pound of beeso~ fi .J HoH 0 Foote ~ 210 Ib bees in 160 colonies ave.raged 98 Ib/c.olony or 75 lb

honey!' Ib bees Ro Kittilsen .- 18 Ib bees produ.ced 100 Ib honey per pound of beesoIU

0

The provincial average was 86 Ib o

With the small starting units the queens seem to last longer than in

U large units and the management is greatly simplified due to the negli=­gible amount of swarmingo The let-alone management principle can be followed without undue risk o

I',iIti

j;

Probably the proper yardstick for increasing profits with package beesI is the return per pound of bees rather than the return per colonyo

I ~

{lJ

I

r [ 14

[: New Equipment and Management Ideas continued

The following table is illustrative of the cost of different size packa~es ~

delivered:

[ 3 lb with queen $ 6065 or it takes 49 Ibs honey at 13t¢ to cover cost n ft t1 ft ti f1 n2 Ib with queen 50 00 37 It n n n nI! Ib with. queen 3090 29 n

rt n Tf1 Ib a)* with queen 3008 It 23 n rr"r " n tt n rt H n Hb)* with queen 2098 22 .,

a) 2 lb package with 2 queens di\Tided into 2 unitsr b) 3 lb package with 3 queAns di\Tidied in.to 3 units ~*" ~t

~

[ }1PJ1ITOBA

[ Cyanogas Pads or Discs - Were discovered 0 They are about 3t inches in diameter~a!id-are-usedby professional furnigatorso Tl'!ey were ql1ite eff8ct. ­ive in killing colonies j but very expensiveo

SASKATCHE1J'lAN

[ !e!!!P£r.§:.~ ~uE.eE. ~t~r!g~ - Plans for a cheap, easy to construct, expand.., ablA super storage have been drawn The need for such a storage was brought about by the lack of storage for equipment that is quarantined 0 -'

o

r~.,i New Plant of Saskatchewan Honey Producers Co-op (SA~CO) ~ The plant has been-enlarged and modernized: --Ne'-J-eqilipment-includes: - can clpaner, liql:l.id line capper and labeller, stainless steel holdi!1f' tanks and[ coolers, equipment to utilize U.S f.!al baTrels and an electric lift tru.ck o :'

£a~g~r~ £f_U~i!:.g_Cla!:o£a~ - Users shou.ld wear respiratorso Are the res...

L

[ pirators which are available satisfactory? If they are not completely capable of protecting the wearer, a false sense of security could lead the user of cyanogas to become careless with more resultant danger th.an if the respirator were not usedo

Use of E~hrocin Stearate - As a colony stimulant has been suggested b'yAbbott Labs:- -This material was tried on a trial basis on twelve[ colonies in 19610 110 mgms were fed to each colony twice - mixed with lC1ng sugaro No brood measurements were taken but at the end of a poor season the bolonies fed were generally in better shape than the checks Q

If anyone is interested, I have a copy of the information from AbbottWs, u and a sample of the materialo The information which they have comes from Dro Willie of Switzerland6

U ~i~t~r~n~ £a~e~ - The corrugated cardboard wintering case has been used successfully in southern Saskatchewan for two years. The cases are paint­ed black o Ea.se of packing is brought about by using a slab of styro­foam for top insulation or shavings or other insulating material in alJ 2t1

plastic envelopeo Easier packing is also evident with the removal of the prot~lding portion of the bottom board.

L ~i!l!o~ ge~J3£t~o~ ~o!r~ - For comb honey productiono This bottom board

C _______ ... _. .. ,...._ __.,... ~__..._ ... __ .__...... ___...___ - ­-~_._...-.. ~ '9_~ ~ --~-----~-.--~----~---__.--_~....___r -- - ~-- - -~_ ....... -- ~--- - ---- .... ---- ~ ~ - --- -- -~- .,..-- -----~~- ,.... ~

[

[ New Equipment and Management Ideas continued

[ ais 2ft deep below the brood chamber and includes false slatted bottom for clustering space~ This works well with one brood chamber. Wintered colonies are best for comb honey production and a Itt slab of styrofoam

[ insulation under the bottom is usedo

Growth Control in front of Hives - Calmix TAD - (6.9% Radapon, 9027% 2Ql1Un) applied at-l-lb!Ioo sq-feeto Industrial price 32¢/ lb. This pro­[ duct was used and appeared to have inhibitory effect on the growth of grass and weedso Application was made too late in the season o Earlier application before heavy growth takes place would be more satisfactoryo[ This could be of value' in permanent locations.

Truckers Association Insurance Scheme - Some package bee truckers have[ fornied-an association for the purposes of insu.ring themselves against

losses which cannot be covered by regular cargo insuranceo Truckers pay into t:he fund lO¢ per two-lb package carried until the fund is bu,ilt upo There is a dedu.ctable clause to prevent the problem of administeraKl[ ing a multitude of small claims~

[ BEE DISEASES

BRITISH COLUMBIA

[ The incidence of American Foulbrood has bpen, somewhat higher this year" A very short honeyflow in the Southern half of the province resulted in an unusually heavy degree of robbing by powerful colonieso There is[ no doubt that an increase in the percentage of infected colonies resulted., One other contributing factor was likely caused by overwintered colonies dipping into reserve stores which had not been used by the colony for one

[ or two seasons o 1Nh.atever the reason., this disease was more prevalent this season o

European Foulbrood has been kept well in hand with only a few cases show~

c [ ingo Sacbrood was no worse than usual except in the Thompson Valley

area and in particular the area from Spences Bridge to Ashcrofto Colonies in the Thompson Valley generally appear to harbour a higher degree of what appears to be Sacbrood infectiono Nosema disease was evident in

U the lower mainland area and to some degree throughout the remainder of the southern half of the province. This disease wa.s more prevalent dur­ing early spring an.d cleaned up nicely as the warm weather approached 0

IU Number of Beekeepers 2,000 Number of Colonies 21,000 AoFoB. Colonies affected ­ 181 EoFoB o Colonies affected - S3

I 0.1 Wintering conditions were ideal during the 1959-60 winter months o Es­I i timated winter loss from all causes was 3%0 Preventive feeding of

Terramycin (TM25) in the spring and sodium sulphathiazole in the fallI... fl.,.r is an established practice in British Colurr~iaoIUI I. I, [-1,' ~ ;t J t

[

[ 16

Bee Diseases continued OOGO$

[' NOVA SCOTIA

~oro~o - Previous to 1960, there had been no authentic reports of[ EoFoBo in the Maritimes; definitely none were re!~:ristered in Nova Scotia between 1948-1960 when apiary inspection was conducted by the reportero

First cases 'bf EoF oB~ were found in severa.l apiaries of a large scale beekeeper; the affected colonies were moved to an isolated hospital yard and were treated with Terramycino

In 1961 the same operator again experienced some EoF.B. Furthermore, sixteen new instances cropped up during the summer in different parts of the provinceo In some cases, the disease could have originated from th.e last year t s source, also througll imported honey; however, there were cases where no possible contaimination· from outside could be thou.ght of (no new bees nor ~8ed equipment procured, neighbors used no outside honeY9 etco)o In most cases, only one colony in the apiary was affected j and mostly the disease showed up in colonies where the queen was not performing well (scatter brood, attempts to supersede)o

The causative organisums: Streptococcus pluton could be found after con~

siderable searchingo Bac~alvei type very common o The dead la~Tae in no cases gave off the sour smell which often is typical in Europe in Bac=

[ alvei infested colonies~ No pure cultures were attempted to produce~

The disease responded to Terramycin treatments reasonably well, although some persistent cases were observedo Probably the treatments were not[ started early enougho In some instances the surviving populations were too small to clean up cells of the outskirts of the shrunken brood areao

[ Re: the sources of infestation - After weighing all the evidence, the prelirn-i.nary conclusion is that in some cases at le ast the disease could

[-. not have any outside origin and hence it must be termed an environmental

diseaseo The last two summers have been quite different from the usual j

..J having been extremely dryo Whether this falling out of the pattern can be held responsible,. only the future years will clarify~

[1 J A6F o B& - We in Nova Scotia consider relatively easily controllable both

with-sulpha and antibioticso To prove this point, the following demon~ stration was staged:f1

lJ

U Old stored away, dry, combs with AoFoBo scales (and worked over by the larvae of the larder beetle - Dermostes lardarius) were immersed in sulpha~ medicated weak sugar syrup, so that each cell upon giving the combs to bees, contained medicated syrup 0 Two packapes of bees were installed on ttl.ese combso Additional second brood chambers, containing similarly treated combs were added as needed During the honey flow, disease-free supers were added but no further medicine was given o Results: no traceo o

of AoFoBo through the seasono

Sacbrood - There was the usual sprinkling through the summer but it ap~

I'U parently-w'causes no serious damage 0

Ii

[1'i .J

[

r 17

Bee Diseases continued 00000

[ ~e~ ~a!a!y~i~ - Mild, rather less than in most years o

[ ONTARIO

Number of colonies inspected 44,177

[.' Number of colonies diseased (AoFoBo only recorded) 702 Percentage of colonies diseased 1 0 6

c=­

• .1 Percentage of all colonies diseased based on above 702 0 0 5

For 1961 we had 2,731 beekeepers operating 120,865 colonies in 5,315C apiaries.,

[ SASKATCIIE1~TAN

£o~p~r!n~ ~u!f~ ~n£ !e!r~lc~n - Generally speaking we in Saskatchewan feel that drugs and antibiotics fed in SUFar syrup provide the best means of contrO--lling bee diseaseso Vfuen sulfa is used, this fact can hardlyC be debatedo However, when TM25 is used with syrup, the story may be dif­ferent o Where sulfa is used three - four times during May and June, the disease is kept under control over the rest of the seasono However j whereC TM25 is used in syrup, American Foulbrood control is not as effective and considerable disease is found in the fallo

[ !M~5_i~ §.Y!:UE. ~ When TM25 is mixed in syrup - how is its stability af­fected as compared to using it mixed with icing sugar? (Has ~ life of thirty days when mixed in syrup). \f\Then terramycin and syrup is placed in a boardman feeder outside the hive the mixture turns dark browno[ Does the sun have this effect or is this normal"? (Sun causes faster breakdown) 0

,[ TM25 in Icing Sugar ~ Terramycin TM25 mixed with icing sugar and spread on-the-top~ars tAkes on moisture and becomes hard and granular 0 Bees remove chunks of this material and carry it out of the hiveo How effect~

[ ive is TM25 when it becomes hard and granular?

Terramix - 25 - Terramix 25 is available in Saskatchewan at a very attract~ Iva prIceo- The terramycin itself is soluble but the carrier is not o

u u There is more than the usual amount of wastageo Should dosages be in~

creased slightly? How effective is Terramix 25 compared to TM250 (All terramycin is a soluble hydrochloride salt - only the carrier is insolu~

able) 0

Two forms of Sulfa - In Saskatchewan sulf a is usually available in cry~

stalline-form only-- a powder would be of more useo Is sulfa generallyo available in powder form? (yes) 0

£o~p~t~b!.l!..tl £f_V~r!o!!sY!'u~s - What is the compatability of variouso drugs and antibiotics in syrup? Sulfa and streptomycin o

10 Sulfa and fumidil Bo (Fumidil won't inactivate sulfa, but

sulfa might inactivate fumidil) Terramycin and fumidil Bo

Streptomycin and fumidil Bo

o

[

[

['

r [

=<'t

[

j

[ '

•.,k

c c [

[

c c u D U u

lu IU

18

Bee Diseases continued 00000

I ask this question since there appears to be some confusion in this areao I submit information received from G.F e Otto, Abbott Laboratories regarding the use of fumidil B and sulfa in the same syrupo

Physically, Fumidil B and sodium sUlfath.iaz,ole are not incompatableo Nevertheless j we cannot recommend their joint feeding because of the probability of adverse chemica.l effect o

The optimim pH for fumagillin activity is at pH 60S with an excellent range around this from around 602 - 609, or even 7$0. The activity in th.e gut of the honey bee at pH 608 would be essentially optimum. Our package carries buffer to produce approximately pH 60S - 6060

In more acid media, below pH 600 and certainly down as low as pH 400, furnarillin will be precipitated. If there has not been excessive ex~

posure to light, heat or oxygen, it may be restored to full activity by buffer to around pH 6050

Unfortunately, there is no safety range as you FO into the alkaline sideo Alkaline hydrolysis takes place with increasing rapidity as one moves up from pH 700, and at pH 90 0 the process is completed very quicklyo 'Th.is is an irreversible chemical process so that, in the alkaline range, there is no opportunity to restore activity by bringing it back to the optimum pH.

Sulfathiazole in water will produce an alkaline solutiono Accordinglyj one of two things will happen.

a) If your water is a.lready in the vicinity of pH-6 or -7 so that there is sufficient buffer to offset the alkaline effect of the sulfathia= zole, then the latter will be forced out of solution and, at best j

will appear as a suspension with unequal distribution o

b) If, on the other hand, your water is hig~hly alkaline, so that the buffer in the Fumidil B is consumed in bringing it down to pH-7, or lower, then the additional effect of the alkaline sulfathiazole may be sufficient to render the fumagillin inactiveo

Thus j the mixture of the two in the same solution will reduce the activity from optimum of one or the other of these two medications o

It is these several considerations that have led us to put such a large amount of buffer in our formulationo The amount of buffer is actually far in excess of what woul.d be required in most of the naturally occurring waters to bring the pH to around 6a5o The excess permits a comfortable margin of safety, but, of course, the buffer is not inexhaustibleo

~u~!rr £f_I~sEe£t~o~s_~ Beekeepers - Colonies - Colonies Inspected - Colonies AoFoB. - Fall Inspections 8D Cornbs AoF oB o

2,000 .36,800 10,033

157 5,130 supers

700 III

('

r 19

Bee Diseases continued &000.

{' ONTARIO

European Foulbrood persistently showed up in some experimental colonies

[' all though the season, and streptomycin or terra~ycin medication had to be given several times to keep the disease under control. Both syrup and dust applications gave good resultso

r. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FEEDING DRUGS

L TERRAMYCIN (TM25) for A.FoB. and EeFo?o control

Prevention of Diseases:

{' First treatment ... within 1st week after package installed or overwintered

L colony is unpackedo

- spring package or small colony - ~ tspe per colonyo - full size colony - 1 tsp. per colonyo

Second treatment - 2 to 3 weeks 1atero

[ - small colony - ~ tspo per colonyo - large colony - 1 tspe per colonyo

Third treatment - when second supAr added or in first part of tJuneoL - all colonies - 1 tsp. per colonye

~o!:t!.ol £f_D!.s~a~e - 1 tspo TM25 to all colonies at two week intervals[' until honey flowo

SlJLFA DR.UGS

r L For AoFoBo prevention and controlo Recommended only for early sprinp fepd­

ing of packages or overwintered colonies or in fall feeding of overwintered colonies 0

e.P!iE.g~F~e~i!2.g - i tspo per colony in syru.p, divi,ded into two doses~

L ra!l_F~e£.i!!g - 3/4 tspo per colony in syrup.

STREPTOMYCIN for EoFoBo controlo

L One tspo to 5~6 colonies (in sugar syrup)o

,[ FU}lIDIL B recommendation-see Nosema Symposiumo

BEE POISONING

,L NOVA SCOTIA

l-l Guthion caused severe poisoning in a few casesj, o

_.J.

Sevin - is our main concern presently because it is being used in chmical

t

c [ 20

Bee Poisoning continued[

oooeo

thinning sprays, also in corn (corn is a good pollen source). Consistent efforts are needed to educate growers on the proper use of insecticides o

Biological control is the best solution but has to be supplemented oc­r casionally by applications of sublethal doses of insecticides to maintain the biotic equilibrium.

r: SASKA'rCHEWAN

10 There was little difficulty with bee poisoning in. 19610

[-; 20 Endrin is being stocked by the Saskatchewan Department of Agriculture __.J for insect control on rapeseed crops.

30 A sticker was prepared, printed and attached to Endrin canso This warned growers of the danger of Endrin to bees.[; 40 Some preliminary work was done on confining bees during insecticides applicationo Spring steel wires were used to form a support for sacking over the hive entrance. The sacking would have to be kept moisto This method appeared to be satisfactory, however, the coloniesC were only three supers high with a fair population. The weather was very hot (95°+) but no h.oney flowo

C POLLINATION

[ BRITISH COLUMBIA

[ It was decided to use three colonies of honeybees each equipped with one of Reed's automatic pollen inserts. These colonies were placed at

c each end of a two acre block of old red delicious apple trees which had not been producing to capacityo

Hand collected pollen was usedo This pollen was purchased from the firm of Mina Firman, Chelan, Washington, and was shipped to Vernon via aToC combination of bus and postal deliveryo

fl. As the viability and germinability of this pollen is of first importance 9U samples were taken before and at the end of use in the insertso These samples were transported in cold storage to Summerland and were germinated in the laboratory under directions of Dr. K Lapins in charge of fruit breeding at the Summerland Research. stationo Results of these tests areo o

shown belowo

o Germinability of samples used for bee inserts:

1 0 May 12 Sample 1: 2604% 19% sugar solution gave best results;o Sample 2: 2804% 005% agar with 15% sugar solution gave best

results; Sample 3: 26 0 0% 19% sugar solution used.u

o

[

r Pollination continued r 20 May 17

Sample 1: 5.3% 19% sugar solution used; Sample 2: 2102% 19% sugar solution used;[ Sample 3: 20 0 8% 19% sugar solution used.

Foreign particles (different pollen grains?) were[ These were especially prevalent in Sample 1 0

[ 30 May 19

Sample 4:' in 19% sugar solution in 15% sugar in 005% agar.

found presento

NoB. No Lycopodium was used with this pollen. Pollen was kept under[ refrigeration when not in use and was taken to and from the inserts in a

[ As a check up to 100, fruit was

small cold storage cabineto

one branch was selected on each side of the treeo Blossoms more or les s, were count-ed and the limb tagged 0 After set,

counted. Unfortunately, analysis of the reSl1lts has not yet

[ been completed.

Four of Reed t s Automatic Inserts it-lere used 0 These consist of a box attachment 3tn x 4tn x 13 314 ft in. lengtho At one end a clock mechani.sm

[

[ is housed which turns a splined shaft attached to the hand wheel o This shaft is centred at the bottom of a small balsa wood hopper and as the shaft roates it drops a small supply of pollen onto the floor board and in the pathway of outgoing worker beeso

Below are some observations made on this mechanical insert o

[ a) Although the incoming entrance at one end of the hive entrance can be increased or reduced, this insert should not be used on real power~

ful and populous colonieso There is too much confusion of bee traffic o

IUi,C b) Field bees should use the insert entrance for a few hours during

late afternoon or evening before the hopper is loaded with polleno Pollen is expensive and waste can resu.lt from immediate applicationo

c) The balsa hopper sides are meant to slide free in the end grooveso If they do not move freely pollen will build up between the bottom

1!U of the hopper sides and will jam the spline shaft and prevent rotation

and free delivery of the polleno

d) The sliding cover on top of the insert will warp easil:7 if it become s 1'.11U dampo This jams the cover and is then nearly impossible to slide

openo This also forces the cover into a concave shape which results in the hopper sides being forced down against the shaftoo

NOVA SCOTIA

10 ~eE.0!.t_o!?: f.0!l!n!t.!.o!:. ~e~e!r.£h_i!2 !!o!a_S~o~i~ =. 19£1_ The apple cross-pollination studies that were started in 1960 were con-I U~;

t ~. .

r r: 22

Pollination continued 00.00

[

r tinued and modifiede Six Red Delicious trees about 15 years old were

-. enclosed in hexagonal screen tents of 1S t diameter before the bloom opened 0 The trees were paired and were treated as follows:

__ i

r I Group:' Honeybees + pollen in po11en inserts.

II Group:' Honeybees + two-bottom boards III Group: Honeybees + pollen provided with A. MacIntosh boughs with bloom

B. Northern Spy boughs with bloomo

r: The two-way bottom board permitted the colony to simultaneously forage both inside and outside the cageo It was presumed that a foraging bee will not shift the fixation area from inside the tent to outside and vice~r: versao If this assumption is correct, then the fruit set of th,is group of trees will indicate the amount of pollen transfer inside the hiveso

[' The flowering boughs in the third group provided pollen from two com­patible sources: MacIntosh pollen for the early part of Delicious bloom, and the Spy for the later part of bloom. Separate limbs were bavged and unbagged at different times to study the effect on set at any given[ time 0

[-.., Results:

. ...f

2 trees with pollen inserts (37.7 fruit per 100 flowering spurs ~ (2504 n ff ft n

[ 2 trees with 2-way bottom boards (7807 fruit per 100 flowering spurs

(48.9 It n n til

[ 2 trees with boquets (limbs bagged to exclude insects for certain periods)

Ao Exposed to bees thr01Jghout the bloom

L (7505 fru,it per 100 flowering spurs (3005 n It n It n'

,[ Bo Exposed to MacIntosh pollen 1 day (109.3 fruit per 100 flo n n n f1( 43 0 0

n n n2 days ( 7207 " If n uo ( 60.8 "

Co Exposed to Spy pollen 1 day ( 52.6 fruit per 100 spurs'-1 ( (3.2) - fruit per 100 spurs0,

more than 1 day (101.5 fruit per 100 spurs ( 26.2 n n n n

U 2 trees open pollinated 8307 fruit per 100 flowering spurs 79.1 n n n rt "

L Hand-pollinated limbs - MacIntosh pollen 32.6 (June 6-36.0 (June 9-29.1)

L

spurs n

n 11

[

r 23

Pollination continued o •• eo

[ Hand-pollinated limbs - Spy pollen L2.6 (June.6 - 73.5 (June·,9 - 11.6

r Conclusion:

10 Indications of pollen transfer within the hive; in. any case there isr clear-cut evidence that pollen can enter the hive on the coats of bees and leave aga.in on either the same or on other bees and effect fruit seto

[ 2~ Red Delicious may be pollinated satisfactorily by both Spy and Mac­Intosh.

[ 30 Red Delicious is receptive over a fairly long period of timeo In a commercial orchard this means the entire period durin~ which bees work the blossomso

C !n£r~a§.i~g_tb:.e_P~lli!2:a~i2.n_E!f.!.c!.e£cl2.f_tb.e_H£n!y£e~ .!?h!.o~gb. Q.o!o~y_ Rotation - EoA. Karmo

C All our tree and small fruit crops are insect pollinated and will not set fruit without adequate pollen transfer. Th.e bloom periorl may last several weeks 0 The individual blossoms stay in bloom only a few days, and only

[ during the first part of this period is th.e blossom receptive, i.eo can be fertilized. It is during this period of receptivity that the pollen transfer must take place.

[ Repeated insect visits while the blossom is receptive will improve ferti ­lization and better and larger fruit will develop than in the case of partial fertilization which often results from scant insect visitatione

[j

[ The fertilized blossom withers soon afterwards; the unfertilized flower continues bloom long after the period of receptivity is pasto Pollen transfer after the flower has lost the power of receptivity is of no value 0 Adequate numbers of pollinating insects hence must be presented th~oughout the bloom period to perform this pollen transfer shortly after each individual blossom opens.

:.i., r-,11iLJ, Provide for adequate pollinators

I0 Many insects contribute to pollination but only the honeybee can be ob­11 t tained in any numbers and moved into the crop. The wild insect forceI . fluctuates widely and is unpredictable. Reliance on wild insects hence is risky and may result in inadequate pollination.

r,·'11" U The grower can predetermine the needed pollin.ator deIT.si ty and by using the honeybees he can correct an.y deficiency. He should make ample allov,7ance for unca-operative weather and for probable scarcity of natural pollinatorsGo Colonies on permanent sites

Bee colonies for pollination are either kept on permanent sites in oro near the crop, or are moved in temporarily for the duration of the bloomoI

10i

[

[ 24

Pollination continued

[ While the first practice often is quite satisfactory there is no assurance that such colonies will not neglect th.e crop to work mainly sources other than the designated species or prefer oth.er fields within the flight range. The range of such a colony exceeds a mile which means that the foraging bees will work an area well exceeding 2,000 acres.

Entomophilolis (insect pollinated) plants compete for visitors, offering pollen and nectar in various concentrations and quantities. The most attractive source attracts the most visitors. This competition is keen between plant species (species competition) but also can become severe between. parts of a field and between different fields of the same crop plant (area competition).

[ Semi-stationary colonies

A higher percentage of field bees will forage the designated bloom if the colonies are moved in shortly before or at th~ commencement of thec bloom than on permanent sites. However, less than hoped for resD.lts may accrue, should there exist a considerahle species and area competitiono

c Unfavourable weather will restrict th.e flight of foragers and only ones accustomed to nearby source may venture outo Colonies hence should be placed as near as possible to the bloom o

[

[:Pollination efficiency of the h.oneybee can be improved by following practices that restrict the colony flight range an.d disrupt thA esta.blished forae.­ing pattern.

,.J

Only foraging bee. are pollinators

C At the height of the honey season each colony in an apiAry puts many

L thousands of foragers into th~ field at one timeo If there were no com­munication about crops they would fora.ge as individualso I10neybees can communicate - by dancing - the presence of good sources of food to their hivemateso The field population consists of two groups: scouting

Ie i (searching) and collecting (foraging) beeso Only a few bees act as scouts

in normal circumstances: the rest will be directed to crops b;l the danc­ing imnateso In Lindauer's studies (1952) on the commencement of the for­aging dtlty, only nine out of 159 individu.ally-marked young bees took up th.e foraging without being seen to follow a dancer first.

10 Changing Foraging

The availa.ble bee forage changes from day to day throughout the season oo The basic principle of the foraging behaviour pattern is the continuous exercise of choice in order to utilize the then-available bee forage to the fullest extent. An individual foraging bee in the field works a rather

C restricted area (flfixation area tt ). Among these workers, there is a

continuous gradation between complete satisfaction (as expressed by vigor~ ous dances) and absence of satisfaction (the forager has become unattached

I. n.f to the fixation area because of the crop deterioration)o The dissatisfied,u foragers willingly respond to information on other available sourceso Thus 9i

If

0: ~

[

r 25

Pollination continued .0000

[ a continous change of the foraging area and crop is taking place thr01Jghout the seasono

r Foraging pattern of moved colony

The established foraging pattern will be completely lost by moving the colony to a new location. The field force has to orientate itself to the new surroundings. The flight range durin~ the first day is rather re­stricted and often is less than 300 feet. It may take three or more days before th.e one-mile radius is pierced and a week or longer until a normal range is reachedo

The foragers have lost their previous fixation areaso Hence the extra' field force - both the inexperienced and the long-experienced foragers ~ r.... will start afresh as scouts. These displaced foravers will readily re~

spond to cues brought in by other, successfu.l scouts; for a while the close vicinity of the hive will have a high concentration of foragers[ working all }he available sources. If given a. choice, the forager in the new location will continue on the sa.me crop as before"

[ Gradually, as th.e foraging range expands, the continu.ou.s exercise of choice again becomes pre\Talent: the pop'ulation spreads out to forage thA best food sources within. the rangeo In a large homogenol1s field, bee popu.lation per area unit remains higher within 400 - 600 feet from the hive than farther afieldo

Foraging threshold

The colony field activity is governed by the external and internal con~

ditionso It will not commence below a certain thresholdo This threshold follows a diurnal patt ern and undergoes a consta.nt upward re\rl. sian through.­out the daily period of foraging. Flight activity will increase as con~

ditions improve but will f8st decrease at a sli?ht deterioration of for­aging conditions; the field activity for the day often will stop long be~[ fore conditions on the downwa.rd curve have reached the sta ge which :had initiatpd the flights in the morningo The colony need at a given time is the over-ru,ling factor determining the level of th.e threshold and the type of food to be gatheredo

This threshold can be lowered by mano A practical means of achieving this

ll is by keeping the (moved) colony close in 11ntil th.e late forenoon. Ther.. ._U external conditions improve as the day progresses wh.ile the colony thresh­old of foraging activity is lowered constantlyo When such a conditioned colony is re~eased, the field force is eager to forage the nearest sources

·.~.!,f that it encounters. Application of this practice can be -made especiallyOin orchards which are difficu.l t to pollinate, such as small pear blocks 0

It is important that the day for colony release should provide good flight C onditionse

Rota.ting colonies between fields

U It was shown previously that the foraging range can be restricted temp-

L

[

26[ Pollination continued ­0.0 •• r orarily by moving the colony to a new location. Full use of this can be

made in the pollination practice. Colonies should be moved in when con­siderable "bloom has opened but before these blossoms are past the period

[

[ of receptivity. New colonies may be needed at frequ,ent intervals, or whenever the existing field force is found spread largely outside the de­signated areao Several growers a couple miles distant can co-operate by exchanginr their colonies or rotating them from the field A to B to C (and, if wanted, back to A, a week or ten days later).

[ _..--<--------------I I

'? on [

CO ~OO"~~

;-,._J

DD

1 ~~~~ ~ 00[ fD--~\ 00

a a ,

.~._---._--_-.... ~ 00C (-:-- ~ Cl 1../

aD ....... --................. ~.,~-~---

"-. A -----­---~

Rotating colonies between fields Rotatinv colonies within a very large (dist~nce: It mile or more). fieldo Advisahle when area competi­Advisable when. area competition tion is se"vere o

is considerableo

Rotating colonies within a field

The colony rotation. can also be undertaken on short moves, such as within a large fieldo Here, however, a strict adherence to one principle should be followed: the moved-in colony must be placed on or near the stand of the moved-out colonyo Otherwise, some of the field bees will become losto

Colonies rotated a short distance (but not less than 1/5 milA) should be moved every two or three days~ A large ma40rity of the field force will reorientate after each move and will have a ra.ther restricted flight rangeo The field will thus show a high. be.e concentration in the vicinity of the hiveso Upon colony release at the new location, a small percentage of the field bees will show up at the previous place (bees return after com~ pletion of the foraging trip to the original home stand)o They will enter the new hive at the old stand and be accepted. Failure to s et up another colony at the old stand forces the stray bees to search, in ever­widening circles, for the lost home: most of these bees (about 60-RO%) will ultimately find their home in the new place.

u The colony rotation should be carried out when th.e bees are not flying 0

The execution of the above described methods ental.ls labor and other eXGID

c

[

[

u o u

Ie to~

27

Pollination continued 000$0

pense. Hence these costs should be waged against the probable returns (improved efficiency of given colonies)o In fields with much outside competition this intensive type of colony deployment likely will show better profit than the same amount of money spent on additional. station~

ary colonies for pollination. The reverse may be tr1J.e in field s where area competition is negligibleo

Results indicate the foraging activity of a colony can be confined to a restricted area by moving in a colony from "beyond the flip-"ht range and simultaneously delaying the release of such colony until the flirht con­ditions have reached or even passed the optimum level for the day.

The imprisoned colonies upon release, eagerly take up foraginp- activi.ty (both nectar and pollen gathering) even under conditions when the check colonies were rapidly decreasing their flight activitYo The foragers confined their activity in several cases to within 100 fto for the first two hours after release in an orchard.

Bees from colonies released as late as 5 o'clock in May commenced for­aging in large numbers wh.ile the check colonies practically h.ad stopped flights for the day.

The probable merits of this lowerinp- of the threshold of flight a.ctivity for accomplishing pollination in difficu,lt (r,.ard to pollinate) caSAS war­rant furth.er studies e

SASKATCHEWAN

10 We have planned for 1962 pollination trials on Rambler alfalfa using honey beeso Forty acres of Rambler alfalfa is located on the Regina plainso Normally there should be little competition from other nectar plantso The summer climate is mid continental - sunny, hot, dry and breezy, which should contribute to easier trippingo We plan. to supply approximately 120 colonies when the field is in full bloomo

20 Alkali bee larvae were brought to the Regina area in the spring of 1961 from Central Washington by SoEo Bland and G.Fo Barrett, Entomolo?,isto The larvae were placed in a prepared soil bedo The weather was suffici ­ently hot to bring the soil temperature to a point near that required for the emergence of adultso Any adults wh~ch emerged failed to nAst in the prepared bedo It was hoped that a sufficient number would nest to deter­mine whether or not they would overwinter in Saskatchewan. If so it wa.s felt that they could be established in beds and be used for alfalfa pol­lination.

[

[ 28

EXTENSION

[ SASKATCHEWAN

c Since people take little notice of recommendations some other method of getting them to accept information must be devisedo

Feature stories in Bee magazines or Farm papers which. describe some successful operation are possibly more acceptable~ Such articles would embody the accepted recommendations 0

Demonstrational tests are a good method of extendin? information o

Here the selection of the right co-operator is importanto

[ The value of group discussions at meetings cannot be over emphasized o

Idea of an organized tour in which participants calIon apiaries of those taking the touro This could be done in late Mayor early

[ June, and would be a way of proving to some that their colonies are weako It would give opportunity to point out good practices, etc~

[ ADMINISTRATION

SASKATCHE1AlAN[ 1 0 Our Apiary Fieldman's Manual has been improvedo A few copies are

available 0

[ 20 Note that we are calling our inspectors Hfieldmenu now 0

30 In order to facilitate saving of time in the field and assist in our[ office recording procedures, the names, locations, etc of beekeepers in a given municipality are listed on a formo The inspector need only indicate after the name, the number of colonies inspected and

[ date, etco The number assigned the beekeeper on the form corresponds to a number on the map which indicates the beekeepers locationo

Ie 40 To assist the fieldman in covering all the pertinent points when h.e is discussing the disease situation with the owner of a diseased apiary, forms are provided which contain several questions o These

II [t

j

, questions are answered wh.ile he is talking to the beekeepero ThisI assures that all points have been discussed and it gives the office

a picture of the situation with regard to the apiary in questiono

~ Jil U'.J

o o o

[

29

NOSEMA SYMPOSIUM

r December 1, 1961, Winnipeg, Man.

Chairman - Dr. T.A. Gochnauer

Nosema is the most difficult bee disease to control of those present in North America. These difficulties are evident both in research work and in the practical control of the disease. Th.e development of infection within a colony is sometimes uncertain and often dependent on weather conditions. The beekeeper will usually notice only the most serious cases of infection. In these se~ious cases, the symptoms may include excessive winter losses, dysentery, severe spring dwindling in wintered and packaged colonies and queen supersedure in package beps.

[

[ Reviewing briefly the course of infection within the individual bee; Nosema Apis, the cause of nosema disease, is a microscopic parasite of the adult bee. The spore, when swallowed by the bee, germinates rapidly in the gut and penetrates the cells lining th.e f!-ut. Here it multiplies in about six to seven days forming a large number of new spores which are shed into the gut and voided with the faeces. Noseqa Apis forms a spore during its resting stageo These spores are less resistant than those of Bacillus IJarvae (AeF.Bo),

!'•.[ however, they can remain infective under cool storage for months or even years. Revell (1960) found that water suspensions of spores were still in­fective after seven years of storage in the refrigeratoro Nosema Apis is very

[

[ distantly related to Endamoeba Histolytica, the cau.se of amoebic dysentery in hU.mans o Many of the drugs used in attempts to control nosema were chosen because of their activity against the human parasiteo Of these drugs only fumagillin has been found effective.

Harder and Kundert (1951) and Hammer and Karma (1947) found th.at even a slight nosema infection could reduce the nectar gathering of colonies signifi ­(' cantlyo One approach in an effort to control the disease was to decontaminate

..J

the combs smeared with faeces by fu.migating with glacial acetic acido A.nother approach wa.s to prevent the growth of the nosema orpanism with an antibiotic. o The use of fumag~llin was expected to bring about increases in yields of field colonies by suppressing the chronic causes of nosema infectiono However,

0full;T documented reports of such increases in yields were not obtained Theu question natura.lly arose - why not? One answer was that th~ field tests were not done with full laboratory support. That is, in many instances the fumagillin fed may not have had any disease to combato Any increases in yield under these circumstances could hardly be expected. Another possibility sugges·ts itself ­

U lJ many drugs or antibiotics are toxic when fed at certain levels. Unless there

is a disease to be controlled, a reduction in yield may actually follow the drug treatment. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that ch.ecks be made of disease levels before and after treatment. Lastly, as in other diseases it can be predicted that preventative treatment would be found superior to attempts to cure full blown infectionso

There is a distinct need for more fundamental studies on the nature of the nosema organism; its growth and development; and its response to treatment

[,

[ 30

Nosema Symposim continued

r measures 0 To a large extent, research work in North America has been limited to trials of various agents in efforts to obtain a quick practical control.

[' Nosema disease is a case where lack of knowledge of its fundamental ....1 aspects has lead to serious problems in field control of the disease. Although

the antibiotic fumagillin has been on the market for a number of years, its ­sales have been limited Th.is lack of general acceptance by the beekeeper0r r~sults from some of the following factors:

' 10 Convincing published data on increases in honey yields following the use[ of fumagillin are scarce indeed • • j

2. Early variations in dosage recommendations have resulted in a wait-and-see

[ attitude by the beekeepers.

[ 3. Extension workers have been hesita.nt to recommend the drug bec,8use they

h.ave not been given data on which to base solid recommendations.

At the Apiculture Section, Ottawa, we decided to re-evaluate the nosema­fumidtl situation.. In order thHt various treatments could be realistically[ compared a simple quantitative research method to measure infection was neededo We found that individual inoculation of test bees with known spore dosages markedly reduced variation in the development of nosema in these test bees This method also enabled us to make quantitative counts of spores produced in[

o

test beeso Such spore counts which reached into the lOts of millions per un­treated bee could now be used in comparing treatments. Such counts have more meaning to beekeepers than simple readings of li.ght, medium, and heavy in­[ fections.

By using these techniques we were able to show that as few as 1,000[ spores fed to a bee lead to the death of that bee almost as quickly as when

100,000 spores were fedo The significance of the term "light ft as applied to an infected bee becomes questionable in terms of these results.

[ Further testing using these methods were made on the effectiveness of fumidil E. Bees inoculated individually with spore suspensions and fed various

} , levels of drug were completely protected by levels of 50 - 100 mg actual ~'. L~ fumagillin per gallon of syrup. Fumagillin levels as low as 16 - 20 mg act­

ivity significantly depressed nosema build up in test bees~

1[1 The next question that arose was - if th.e antibiotic is active at such f f

~ '. low levels, should it not be quite active in the colony when fed at levels

of 100 - 200 mg per gallon of syrup? Spectra ph.otometric studies by the late ii., U-1l" GoHo Austin had suggested a half life for fumagillin of about thirty-six dayso

Thus 100 mg activity per gallon should fall to 50 mg activity in thirty-sixt j days; 25 mg activity in seventy-two da.ys; and 1205 mg activity in 144 days. Syrup was prepared with 50, 100 and 200 mg fumagillin activity respectively

II.. U-.,lr and fed to colonies in the fall of 1960. Surplus syrup was h.arvested fromI ~

Ie these colonies the following spring. This syrup was fed to inoculated caged beeso Nosema buildup was reduced by 20, 60 and 300 fold respectively compared with that of appropriate controls. Thus it seems the antiboitic or some active breakdown product remained active for many months in the syrup stored by the

r bees. The longer bees have access to treated syrup, the greater suppression

! fj-~Ii !

[

r 31

~Nosema Symposium continued

r of infection.

The effects of inoculating queens with known spore levels were also fol~

r [ lowed. Queens were inoculated and introduced to nuclei. The queens were re~

moved and examined when dead; when superseded; or when preparations for super~

sedure were initiated. Less than 1,000 spores were found to be an infective dose 0 Th.e levels of spore buildup in the queens required to bring about super­sedure varied. Some queens were superseded at low levels while others supported high levels of spores, before supersedure was begun. It seems possible that some queens have the ability to tolerate higher levels of infection then do

[

[ others o In general, however, the larger the dose of spores fed, the greater the proportion of queens superseded 0 Certainly the level of inoculum required to produce infection and generate supersedure was less than tha.t reported by Eckert and co-workers (unpUblished data)o Perhaps environmental differences or other factors play a role in the relation of infection to supersedure of queens This point deserves further exploration.0

[ The effects of inoculation on worker bees, which were marked and intro­ducen to nuclei,were drastic. Losses of marked bees due to unknown causes were high. Few marked inoculated bees were lost by drifting. Most simply[ disappearedo In any event the recovery of the inocu-lated bees wa.s far less than that from our brood rearing experiments.

[ Studies were carried out on the effect of type of storage on infecti\Tity of spores. Spores were stored at both room temperatures and at refrirerator temperatures in water suspension and as a. dry filmo All spore crops were viable for at least six months under all four conditions Q Spores kept in water[ at room temperature for two years, howe"ver, lost their infectivitYQ Further study is planned for this problemo

[ In summary,work on nosema is a continuing concern, in research at the Ap­iculture Section. Severe outbreaks of disease· may occur with relative in­frequency but cause severe losses when they do occuro Since the infection level varies from place to place and from year to year, we 'must determine

u whetherpreventive measures will pay their way over th.e long run. Research on this aspect will continueo These studies involve problems in timing and application of fumagillin for best results o They also require screening of other antiamoebic compounds from other sources for potential anti-nosema activitYo The list of inactive compounds is long.

Nosema and its Control - Dro JoCoMo 1'Arrivee

Prior to 1950, the only means for combattinp Nosema Apis, a parasite of honey bees, was by rigid cleanliness, good management and other preventative measures. The only treatment available for a colony showing signs of winter dysentery and/or ttspring dwindling", was to kill remaining bees and to clean, or scorch, the equipment o Good management which was of value to offset the ravages of Nosema disease, consisted of maintaining colony strength, dailyu exchange of water supplied in tubs or troughs, elimination of stagnant water sources, a sunny and sheltered location for the apiary and top ventilation for winteringo In effect, these measures reduced possible further contam­ination, provided optimum development for strong colonies and rendered the en­vironment for Nosema Apis most unfavourable. However, in spite of such manag­

c c

[

c 32'

Nosema Symposium continued

[ erial procedures, research. workers and beekeepers expected seasonal fluctuations in the degree of infection in an apiary. From a low level of infection in the late summer or fall, the disease appeared to increase gradually during the

D winter season to a peak during late spring. This was particularly eviden.t when.. j ~ the bees were confined to their colonies during extended periods of cool, wet weather. With the advent of good flying weather, and, as the summer season

[: progressed, old, infected bees died off. This reduced the percentage of bees harbouring Nosema spores. Farrar (1942) has observed that in normal colonies, bees infected with Nosema could be found durinr every month of the year. In some years, predisposing factors favour a general outbreak or epidemic of theC disease. The main source of such outbreaks is believed to be packaged bees imported from the southern States. A survey of fifty packages of bees received at the Experimental Farm, Brandon, during 1961, showed that twenty-seven were

L

[ infected with Nosema on arrival. In a shipment of queens received from another source, only four queens out of ten were disease-free, one was heavily infect­ed and the remaining five were lightly infected. The situation was much m9re serious in the case of their attendants. Microscopic examination of tbese

C bees revealed that in all ten cages, the attendants were infected. In five of these mailing cages, the attendants had an average infection of over 10 million spores, in which case, the prognosis was extremely poor.

The possibility of Nosema. contamination from the combs and hive equ.ip­ment is not to be overlooked. There has been a report that spores of Nosema

[ have been found in stored pollen and it is quite conceivable under these cir ­cumstances, that spores of Nosema Apis in stored pollen or honey might be viable and car~ the infection next spring. 1Nhite in 1919 concluded that Nosema Apis spores resisted outdoor temperatu.res for abou.t two months only.[ In dead bees, it Geases to be virulent in about six weeks at outdoor temper­ature and four months in a refrigerator. Further studies are required in order to determine the prevalence of Nosema spores in bee equipment stored[ indoors, and outdoors, during the winter season. It would be particularly useful to learn the relationship between the degree of infection of a colony during the fall, prior to killing of the bees, and the potentiality of re­infection from the same equipment when the colony is re-established the fol­C lowing spring.

U Bailey (19S5~) has shown that spores of Nosema Apis are present on brood combs contaminated with faeces and that these spores can carry the infection in the colony in spite of the fact that the bees clean and use these combs during the summer. He states that only a few bees may contact the infection in the fall from such hidden sources, and when these bees join the winteru cluster, the next disease outbreak occurs in that colony. Bailey (1957) show­ed by a large number of experiments that combs are a reservoir of infection. He, therefore, recommends tha.t diseased colonies be transferred to disinfectedu combs. To kill the parasite present on combs, Bailey (1955a, 1957) recommends the fumigation of,combs with glacial acetic acid for seven days, to be followed by an adequate period of aeration. A small experiment was carried out at theu Experimental Farm, Brandon, during 1961 to evaluate the effectiveness of comb sterilization. Six commercial packages of bees were installed in non-treated equipment for comparison with six packages of bees obtained from supposedly disease-free overwintered colonies, which were installed in sterilized hiveo equipment whose brood combs had been fumigated with acetic acid. Samples of

[

r 33

Nosema Symposium continued

[ twenty five bees from each colony were collected at bi-monthly intervals for Nosema spore determinations. The results obtained are presented in Table 1 0

This table also p·rovides information as to honey yield obtained from each colo'nyr in this experiment. There appears to be no correlation between level of in­fection and honey'yields, possibly because the colonies in this test were not heavily infected with Nosema disease. From this table, however, it may ber: observed that under commercial operations, the degree of infection in colonies

r is much higher th~ when supposedly disease-free bees are hived on fumigated combs. The lower honey yield obtained in the latter group may have been due to residual effects of acetic acid fumes in the combs. This study is to be continued next year.

With the advent of the drug fumagillin as an effective chemotherapeutic rr: against Nosema Apis, (Katznelson & Jamieson, 1952), it is now possible to control or contain this disease. Fumagillin, unfortunately, does not appear to kill the Nosema Apis spores. Rather, according to Gontarski (1956), it killsr the larval or vegetative stages of the organismo Therefore, the feeding of Fumadil B in syrup does not cure old, infected bees but it appears to prevent further development or germination of spores in younr bees that may have in­gested lJosema spo·res.. In order to test the hypothesis that spores of lJosema[ Apis may be present in bee equipment and the probable control by fumagillin of this disease in infected bees, the following experiment was carried out at the Experimental Farm, Brandon, during 19610 Twelve diseased colonies were[ divided into two· groups, both of which averaged about the same level of in­fectiono One of these groups was kept as a check while the other group re­ t

[ ceived two treatments of fumagillin in syrup. The dosage rate was one teaspoon­ful of fumadil B powder in a gallon of ,0% syrup fed on May 12 and May 30, 19610

L At the same time, twelve disease-free colonies were installed. One group of six colonies received the drug fumagillin, whereas the other six colonies were not treated o ' To assess the colony response to these treatments, samples of bees were collected at more or less bi-monthly intervals starting twelve days following treatment. These bee samples consisted of twenty five bee . abdomens macerated in a given volume of water, filtered, and finally the spores

[ were counted under a microscope by means of a hemocytometer. The results ob- i'

tained are shown in table 2, for all four groups.

L Data obtained for May 24 surprisingly revealed that supposedly nosema-free bees hived on non-sterilized equipment, developed a slight infection in three colonies of both groups. Apparently this infection was either present but un­detected in pre-treatment bee samples, or, that it was present in the equip- .u ment, or, finally, that diseased bees drifted into these colonies. Bailey (1955b) claims that controlling Nosema with fumagillin is not possible as long as infected combs remain in the hive. He maintains that comb replacement is just as important as feeding the drug. The results obtained in the two ex­o periments carried out at the Experimental Farm appear to confirm Bailey's hypothesis 0

[j From table 2, it is also interesting to note the effectiveness of the drug fumagillin on infected beeso When treated, the average Nosema infection for this group was only 0.32 million spores as compared to 2.02 million spores forc the untreated group. By June 22, the treated group was considered free of the disease, whereas, in the non-treated group, an increase in the level of in­fection was taking placeo

[

[

u 34

[ TABLE 1

o NOSEMA CONTROL BY COMB ,~JMIGATION

u Commercial

c Colo Nosema Spores in Millions floney Noo May 23 June B June 20 Yield

50 0.0 S045 0.0 22'6 Ibs o

c 54 2 001 1.30 0.05 336

60 0.0 0 0 0 OjlO 270

[ 68 0 068 40.20 0 0 70 261

l 73 0 0 0 3065 0 0 0 210 [ j

83 0 0 12 2 0 58 OoQ 248

C

'C C

Fumigated

Colo Nosema Spores in Millions Honey Noo May 23 June 8 June 20 Yield

U 52 0 0 0

!

0.,0 Ibs oGoa 284

58 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 251u u

64 0 0 0 3.20 0 0 0 2144

71 DoG 0 0 0 0 0 0 146

77 OoQ 0 08 OoQ 1190

u 86 GoO 0 0 0 Q.O 297

u U D

n ~ 35

TABLE 2 NOSEMA CONTROL WI TH FUMAGILLIN TREATMENTS[ APPLIES ON MAY 12 AND MAY 30, 1961

Infected and Treated

D Colo Nosema Spores in Millions No. May 9 May 24 June 7 June 22

U 154 3.2 002 0.0 0.0 160 3.5 0.8 0.6 G.O 170 10.0 0.2 0.3 O.Q

~ 178 1 0 5 0.7 Q.Q OoQC C

188 404 0 0 0 0.0 Q.O 191 h.3 000 G.O QoO Average:' 4.48 0 0 32 0.15 QoQ

Infected ., Check (no treatment)

C 1,1 2.5 0.5 0.0 2098 152 1102 606 000 1060 156 302 3 0 0 G.O OoQ

C 1.59 105 O~3 0.1 0 018 180 400 1 0 7 0.6 1025 193 4.4 QoO 0 0 0 0 0 65

[ Average: 4048 2002 0 0 12 1.11

Non-Infected but TreatedC 0

153 QoO OoQ 0 0 0 QoO 161 Q.O 0.1 0 0 5 0.0 164 000 102 0.0 QoO 167 000 002 O.Q OoG 171 0.0 0.0 OoQ 0 0 0

1 176 0 0 0 0.0 QoO 0 0 0 iU

Average: QoO 0025 0008 QoO

U Non-Infected - Check (No Treatment)

U 157 O~O 1 0 2 0.0 OoQ

162 QoO 001 0 0 0 OoQ

U 166 OoQ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0 168 0 0 0 OoQ Oo~ 0.0 174 0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0.0 177 0 0 0 102 0 0 0 2070

Average: OoQ 0 0 42 000 0045 U

0 0

[

[ Nosema Symposium continued .0 ••••

[ It is quite likely that the exceptionally dry and warm climate experienced during 1961 in southwestern Manitoba did not favour the maximum expression of the disease. However, we believe that these results are representative and

[ indicative.

[ In summary, it may be stated that Nosema disease is probably initiated

by the importation into Canada of diseased packages of bees and queens in mailing cages, from overwintered colonies and, very possibly, from stored bee equipment containing honey and pollen. Nurse bees accompanying queens in mailing cages sho~ld be destroyed on arrival. All weak overwintered colonies,[ or colonies showing signs of dysentery, should be destroyed at first exam­ination in the spring.

~'

Complete control of Nosema disease appears to be a definite possibility ---'r by transferring diseased bees to fumigated combs and sterilized hive equipment,

and by feeding such colonies two or more treatments of fumagillin in syrupo

[

[ Literature cited ­

[-" Bailey, L. (1955a) The epidemiology and control of Nosema disease of the

_J honeybee. Annuals of Applied Biology L3(3): 379-3890

Bailey, L. (1955b) Results of field trials at Rothamsted of control[ methods for Nosema disease. Bee World. 36(7): 121-125.

Bailey,Lo (1957) Comb f~gation for Nosema disea.se. American Bee [ Journal 97(1): 24-26.

[ Farrar, CoL. (1942) Nosema disease contributes to winter losses and queen

supersedure. Gleanings in Bee Culture Nov 1942 t P. 660-661, 701.

L Gontarski, H. (1956) Wie wirkt Nosemack. Sudwestdtsch Imker 8(8):

238-2410

Katznelson H. and Jamief1-on, C.A. (1952) Control of Nosema disease of honeybees with f~agillino Science 115 (2977): 70-71.

C White, G.Fo (1919) Nosema Disease. U.S.D.A. bulletin # 780.

Nosema Disease in Nova Scotia .-,~ ... -_ ... _-_ .... ----~-o

It can be found in practically eve~ apiaryo In a few instances it has been found together with the amoeba disease. o

c The peak of infestation occurs usually in May but may extend into June

in wet spr1ngso Occasionally severe spring dwindling occurs although usually it follows a milder course and retards the spring build-up.

[1

t r 37

Nosema Symposium continued

r In economical importance, nosema in Nova Scotia can be rated equal to all the brood diseases combined and is probably higher. The damage is already done when the outward symptoms of nosema (crawlers, imbalance brood: bees)[ become apparent o The nosema problem ~pears to be aCLentuated by the Maritime climate 0 High humidity prevails from October th.rough June. The colony itself as well as the individuals will have a hard time to maintain the proper waterr balance during the winter and early springo Research should be done to clarify

L the question how effectively the nosema infested bees can uphold the water balance, ioeo can the rectal glands remove the excess water or is this im­paired, causing dysentery?

At any event, the excess moisture within the hive in late winter-early spring appears to be more detrimental to the health of a colony (nosema in­r festation) than any other factor o

L Heavy packing - insufficient ventilation - nosema can wipe out whole apiarieso A partial remedy is in winterinf of colonies in multiple colony units wrapped in waterproof paper.

Wintering site - in sunny well drained slopes wintering is easy; in damp site~[ wintering without fumidil B is riskyo

Pollen supply in March - May (overwintered colonies)o The winter brood rearing often depletes the stored pollen long before the new pollen becomes availableor Nurse bees are forced to draw protein from their own bodies - both the nurse ': bees and the brood will suffero Small skimpy brood patches show larvae in dry cellsG The high larval disappearnace caused by under nourish,ment due to nosema[ shows up as spotty brood (later on, same queen may show solid brood pattern)o

Nosema is less of a problem with package bees o It is probably because of

L the following two factors:

[ 10 The nosema curve has reached the low ebb at the time when the bees are

gassed off (very little infestation material on combs), hence such equip­ment in the ~pring is almost free from nosema o

'~ 20 Package bees although not free from nosema, are relatively freeo Further­[ more - they are mostly of nurse bee ageo Pollen supply can be kept ade­

"_._~

quateo

Queen supersedure - More pronounced in package bee colonies. The diseased overwintered colonies often become hopelessly queenless (it is known that a nosema diseased queen may become sterile before dying - hence the colony may not proceed with supersedure cells until it is too late - no more fertilized eggs laid)o

Fumagillin: to use or not to use?

It may not be necessary every year - provides insurance - in dry ~ites we can get by without fumagillin o 70 mg in the fall, half of that in spring ­probably with packages the 3S mg divided into two parts - we have got very good results with 20 mg per l~# and 1# packages, fed twice.

[

r: Nosema Symposium continued r Sterlizing combs - Might be of questionable value with packages. For permanent colonies it should be considered a must.

[ Keeping colonies nosema free?

[ Probably we can render colonies nosema free within one or two years. It

is known that nosema affects bumble bees, butterflies, flies. Hence, th.e pro­bability of keeping bees free of nosema is doubtful.

Approach under Nova Scotia conditions:[: 10 Nosema is the most serious bee disease, found everywhere.

[

[ 20 Plan operation so as to start co1onies on sterile equipment during the period of low nosema incidenceo If forced to start bee colonies early (packages), then arrest the low incidence of nosema in adult bees by feeding twice, small amounts (20 mg) fumidil.

30 Be particular in choosing the apiary sites.

[ 40 Cull heavily in the fall and sterilize vacant brood combs and bottom boards.

[ A practical field test using fumidil B was conductedo One hundred eighty

colonies were used in three locations. Ninety colonies in all were used as[ checks 0

Thirty colonies in each location were fed two 50 mg doses of fumidil B

U

[ in ~ gallon syrup on hivinf and two to three weeks later. Checks were fed! gallon syrup each time. A total of nine queens were lost in fumidil fed colonies and five queens in check colonies. There was little perceptible difference in amount of brood or in honey productiono

The nosema level was lowo(see below) , tt ['

I j Provincial Apiarists in the western provinces have been actively co-op­

erating with Dro Eckert in studies being carried on by the University of Cali ­

IU forniao The studies are concerned with the extent of nosema in package ship-; ping yards in California and in the development of infection in packages,

IU once installed in western Canadao

British Columbia - J~ Corner followed the course of infection in eight coloniesoi Under conditions in 1961 there was no marked build-up in these co10nies o

Samples of thirty bees were taken from each colony and rated. At the end of

1° the season (August) there was no infection remaining in these colonies.

I Ci Alberta - J oWo Edmunds arranged to have samples of bees from ten beekeepers returned to California for sarnplingo The results, while not yet published,

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39

Nosema Symposium continued

[ indicate that during 1961 California shipping yards were low in nosema~ No build-up in infection occurred in the colonies after hiving.

C Saskatchewan - DoM. McCutcheon - Samples of thirty bees were taken from eight colonies on April 21 (hiving) and at }1ay 12th. Samples were sent to Dr. Eckert for diagnosis o

[~ ~pril 21st samples - No spores found. May 12th samples - No spores found in six,

1 - Slight build-up of spores in two. [

.J

At the end of season (August) several queens were collected before col­" onies killed. No nosema wa.s present in queens at that time.

<If. Nosema Disease - Dr. MoVo Smith

Nosema built up to a high level of infection in colonies held in an[ insulated building over winter. This was in spite of fumidil B treatment in medicated syrup in the fall. Dust application of fumidil B in icing sugar (1 to 6), at a dosage of 32 mg fumagillin activity per nucleus, and double

[ this amount for each single brood chamber colony, was carried out on February lst o This appeared to effectively reduce the infection until springe

[ Outside wintered colonies checked for nosema did not seem to show any build-up of infectien comparable to those inside the building o

Inhibiting Ihfluence of Antibiotics - T~Ao Gochnauer,[ - - - - -- .... - - - - - ..... - - - - ­~

The result of the Saskatchewan field test in use of fumidil B is typical of what might be -expected in a situation where nosema levels are low or nil.' An antibiotic may; in the absence of an infection, have some toxic or growthI,_J inhibiting influence on the test animalo Growth promotion effects are most prominent when test colonies suffer from some disea.se controllable by drug therapyo Terramycin is a case in point. It can, in colonies free from foul­[ brood, reduce package colony development to a considerable extento Conversely when brood diseases such as EoFoB~ are present, terramycin may be essential for colony development.

U Following the nosema symposium, Dro ToA. Gochnauer was questioned on the following points:

o 1. The possibility of lowering the dosage of fumidil B to 40 mg for package colonieso

U The possibility of using fumidil B as a dust in conjunction with icing sugaro

IU The possibility of securing unpurified fumagillino

o Dro Gochnauer! s answers to the a.bove are included in tn.s following ex­

cerpt from his letter:

A. "Some of our studies in sto Paul does suggest tha.t the package user can get by with 40 mgm. Some unpublished stuff in the-files here

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Nosema Symposium continued

r [

by Rolf Boch fur~her indicates that about 33 mgm gives the best brood pro­duction in inoculated colonies, while 0 fumagillin is best in disease free colonies - this ties in with your Saska.tchewan report of this last year.

Apparently fumagillin does have some toxicity for healthy colonies and this is reflected in yields. when no disease is present; on the other h.and,[ when the packages are contaminated, better colony build-up could be expected with, perhaps, 30 - 40 mgm of fumagillino

[' With respect to fumidil as a dust, my experience has not been too favor­_J ableo However, you will note that no dust trials directly on packages were

made 0 Here, if the colonies are dusted at installation before brood is present, one might have less harmful effecto Rolf has another paper on toxicity of[ fumagillin for caged beeso Newly emerged bees given syrup wi tho varying levels of drug were adversely affected o Longevity was inversely proportional to amount of drug fed o Part of the reduction was due to the phosphate buffer usedo[ However, this was criticized because the pa.ckage colonies contained older bees, and it was stated by others that older bees were not so affectedo

[ From all this, I would sugf!est that, wi-tho reasonable co-operation from beekeepers j you set up trials with about hO mgm activity in dust put on at hiving, and compare development with colonies given the powdered (icing) sugar aloneo I would also suggest that you get some samples of bees from the[ test colonies at hiving to check for initial noserna levelso Possibly, if time allows j another sample from the same colonies could be gotten at twenty days time j just before brood emergence o

[

[ I would also suggest that 40 mgm in syrup be fed colonies in the trials

as a further check o I do think that before general recommendations are made, some local field studies on new proposals be madeo In this way we can save ourselves some grief if the thing backfires~

It would seem to me that the Lo mgm level would have this advantage foro package users: it would be less expensive, and thus more acceptable, it would run less risk of harmful effects on packages; it should give some leeway in control of infectiono It may be that under heavy initial infection, 40 mgm won't control the development of diseaseo However, if we keep all theseo possibilities in mind, I feel that we can come up with the best possible method as we go alongo

u I have written to Abbotts concerning the crude fumagillin, as well as some fumagillin by-productso To date there has been no response from Otto, so I will try Howard Cmejla, who used to be in charge of the fumidil project

U thereo If anything comes out of all this, I will let you knowo"

In a later letter Dro Gochnauer provides the following information: DroFoLang­ridge reports in the Australian Bee Journal, (Oct &Nov 761), on using fumidilD B and icing sugaro He used 150 mg fumagillin as fumidil B and, in combin­ation with other treatments, fed it to colonies with known infection levelso The fumagillin was fed both wet, as three doses of 50 mg in two quarts syrup over three weeks and dry, as three treatments of 50 mg each in 25 go icing sugar and got as food reduction in fnfection with the dryas with the weto

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Nosema Symposium continued

He was using wintered colonies, and if you can draw a parallel, it might be possible to get by with 40 - 50 mg dry in icing sugar for packagese tt

~e.£o~~n£a~i~n~foE. Ee~d~n£ E~i~il ~

Dosages ... small colony (packa.ge) - full size colony (overwin- fall feeding

tered) 40 mg per colony.

100 mg per colony. 100 mg per colony.

A 9! gr. bottle of fumidil B will feed 240 colonies at 40 mg per colonye

\ Fumidil may be fed in syrup or by dustingo In dusting, mix fU.midil B and icing sugar at rate of 1:6.

Fumidil B - J.W. Edmunds

I h.ave found one pound of fU.midil B contains thirty-six tablespoons (kitchen measuring spoon). So tha.t one tablespoon (n.ot packed down) Sh.01Jld treat about seven colonies. (We also found th.at kitchen measu.ring spoons vary as much as two grams per tablespoon.) This cannot be explained by difference in UoS. vs. British as one tablespoon marked U.So Sta.ndard wa.s one of the larger spoons I used, other four not marked.

I would sug?est Abbotts be requested to include in each bottle a measuring spoon holding approximately fifteen gra.ms of fumidil Eo This seemed to be nearest the average of five spoons checked.

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r 42

r XVIII INTERNATIONAL BEEKEEPING CONGRESS MADRID - 1961

IV CONGRESS FOR THE STUDY OF SOCIAL INSECTS PAVIA - 1961c

Prof. G.F. Townsend, Head, Apiculture Dept. Ontario Agricultural Colleger There was a very good representation at the two meetings - possibly the

best I have seen. To have the opportunity to discuss problems with this '-1 large group of research workers was well worth the trip. Among those attend­

[ ing the Social Insects meeting were Dr. C.E. Atwood from Toronto and Dr.--'

Brian Hocking from AlbertaJ Doctors W.V. Harris, P.E. Howse, M.V. Brian and DoB. Carlisle from England;' Professor J .B.S. Haldane from India; Doctors[' CoD. Michener, ToE. Snyder and A.C. Cole from the United StatesJ Dr. Fo Lukoschus from Germany; and Dr. M. Luscher from Switzerland.. These are all outstanding men in their fields.

[ -

Since the papers presented at this Congress were very closely connected with our research program, the contacts made and th.e information given in the

1 papers will be of continuing value to us. r.j

The meeting of the Beekeeping Congress in Madrid was of an altogether different nature to those in the past. Elaborate arrangements were made for

[

[ simultaneous translation and for accommodation, but the Spanish people organ­izing the meeting did not seem to realize the importance of the speakers, with the result that eyen the speakers themselves could not find out when they, were on the progr~. This is the first time I have seen anything quite so disorganized, and I could only suggest it was caused by the nature of the---"

Spanish people themselves.

[ In spite of this, the meeting was highly successful, as almost every country was represented by one or more delegates, including India, Brazil, U.SoSoR., Egypt, South Africa, Tanganyika, two from Australia, etc.

[ The following accomplishments made it well worth attending the meetingst

lj 10 Eu~u!.e_I~p~ris_of 9.u!e~s.}.!r!n~e2.

Since the honeybee is native to Europe, we must go there for new blood in our breeding program. One of the strains of particular interest is the Caucasian, found only in Russia. Arrangements were made with Mr. Glushkov,D the Director of Researoh in Apicult~re for Russia, to send Cauoasian queens to Dr. F. Ruttner, of Graz, ,Austria. Dr. Ruttner has offered the services of his laboratory in order to arrange for the transfer of these strains toD Canada. Arrangements were also made to bring back to England for transfer here some very good strains from Turkey, to be introduced into our breeding line.

U These arrangements would be very difficult to complete without personal

contact 0

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-2 0 £o~t!.n~a!:.c~ ~f_AEi~u!t~r~l_A!:s~r~c~s r As a Director of the Bee Research Association (a world organization with headquarters in England), and as Chairman of the American Branch, I was able to attend meetings of the Council both in Madrid and Londono r

This Organization is now partially financed by the Commonwealth Agricul­tural Bureauo The following has been accomplished:r: (i) Every three months a journal will be issued consisting of abstracts

of scientific research in apiculture from some eighty countrieso

[ (1i) Every three months a journal of apicultural research will be pub­lished with suitable editorial board and reviewers to publish scientific papers on research in apiculturso

[

[ (iii) Every three months a journal will be published to carry abstracts

of practical beekeepinp, review articles and papers relating to practical beekeepingo

Sufficient funds are available to carry th.ese publications on a 40 page per month j ournalo The service will be' expanded as further moneys become [ available 0

Other Contacts[

A number of other contacts or arrangements were made which should be of value to our beekeeping industry in years to cameo For example, Germany is the largest importer of honey in Europe, but they have some very peculiar[ standards to meeto Many of these problems were clarified, and it will be much easier··to check samples of honey prior to export to Germany in the futureo

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RESEARCH REPORT

[ ONTARIO AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

C 1 0 MANAGEMENT (WINTERING) - M.V. Smith

On November 22, 1960, 136 nuclei (68 double units) and 72 single story colonies were moved into a darkened insulated building to be held under sirnu~

r~ lated cellar conditions over winter. The controls were set to maintain the~ J

temperature as follows:

[[: Fan ~ using outside air to cool the building - was set to come on at 39°Fo

_i

If outside air temperature rose above 4ho Fo the circulating fan would shut

off and the cooler came on.'

_J Cooler - Space Air Conditioner - was set to hold at 46 to 47°F.

[ Heater ~ Set to cut on and off at 30°F.

In practice it was found that the heater was not required. With tris number of units in a building only 15' x 6' sufficient heat was given off[ that the inside temperature seldom fell below freezinr even in sub-zero temperature It was also found that the air conditioner did not have the0

[ capacity to hold the temperature down during mild spells, and the circulating fan did not provide sufficient air circulation to keep th.e building well ventilated 0 A larger fan was therefore installed, and it was planned to rely on controlled ventilation to maintain the proper environmento Once outside temperature in the spring became high enough that ventilation would not keep[ the bees quiet, they were moved outside.

Actual wintering was good o Only five nuclei and three singles were dead[ when the units were placed outside on March 27th. Average food consumption

per nucleus was 707 Ib and per single unit was 18 lb. However, due to very cool weather during April and May the nuclei dwindled badly and only ninety nuclei actually built upo There were twenty six queens salvaged from nuclei[ too weak to survive. All the single units survived, although they required some nursing alongo

D

u On May 1st, twenty two nuclei and twenty two singles were set up in an outyard for comparisono Both groups built up into good two-brood chamber oolonies j and some produced a little surpluso Both groups were comparable in strength at the end of the season.

20 QUEEN REARING AND .STOCK IMPROVEMENT - M.V0 8mith

o (a) Pelee Island

In conjunction with the U.So Department of Agriculture Division of Bee10 Culture Investigations, four lines of hybrid stock were again mated on Pelee Island.. All grafting, culling, marking and shipping of the virgins was carried out at Guelph. A total of 440 mated hybrid queens of the combinations design­ated as ZoX, Z.DY, Zo6 and 6.x were shipped from the Island for test purposes.o These were all mated to the Ml drone line.

r [ 45

Research Report continued

L [ Approximately sixty Ml drone moth,ers were produced and mated at Guelph

and shipped to Pelee for requeening. There was some concern over the fact that this year's Ml queens performed rather poorly in the colonies on the Island, and the supersedure rate was high. Over the past few years this has been an excellent line.

r In June 1961 a stock importation project was carried out on a co-oper­

ative basis between the Department of Apiculture at Guelph and the DoS. De­r: partment of Agriculture Division of Bee Research Investigationso A portable battery-operated incubator, with a controlled temperature of 95 Fo, was used to carry honey bee eggs, larvae and pupae from Rothamsted Experimental Station

[ near London, England, to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Bee Culture Lab­"

_.1 oratory at Baton Rouge, Louisianao Here instrumental inseminations were made to establish the new stocks 0

U

[ A total of 200 queen pupae, 100 drone pupae, 120 larvae and 100 eggs were transportedo Survival of all stages was excellento Two lines, one of Caucasian origin and the other a combination of Greek, Carniolan and Enrlish bee blood from Brother Adam were imported~

[ Stock of these two imp~'rted lines is presently being maintained at Baton

Rouge, LOl1isiana, at Madison, Wisconsin, and at Guelpho Some sixty two queens of these lines were outcrossed on Pelee to the Ml drone line for comparison

[with the other hybrid lines, and twelve queens of the Brother Adam line were

"''' pure-mated on East Sister Island, a small deserted island eight miles west ,,,i

of Peleeo This stock will be further evaluated next seasono

This was the first official stock importation on this scale to be carried[ out in nearly forty years o It serves to show that the importation of im­

mature stages is practical and provides protection from Acarine diseaseo

L Before this importation could be attempted at least three summerts of test shipping were carried out as well as a thorough study of Acarine disease transmissiono

i,f", f1, 30 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HONEYBEE

(a) Laboratory Rearing and Larval Nutrition of Honeybee Larvae (MoVoI'i u[,,:

~tn!.t~)!. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ ii

,J;

I Studies are continuing on this phase - particularly on the effect of the ether-soluble components of royal jelly on larval growth and developmento. ! [,

~ i

I Ie Studies on certain high molecular weight water-soluble organic acids

found in royal jelly have been continued. These acids are found in both royal jelly and worker jelly, but in high concentration in the formero

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The acids have now been fourrl to:

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Research Report continued

[' r: (i) Change the pattern of respirato~ gas exchange in larvae cultured on

royal jelly durinf the early larval stages in the direction of the pattern typical of the worker.

(ii) Change the tissue composition of larvae when added to royal jelly. Young queen larvae are normally high in lipid and low in protein; the

[ reverse is true of worker larvae. Addition of the acids to the queen larval diet alters the larval protein-lipid ratio in the direction of the worker larva.

'fe,

[ (iii) Reduce growth. drastically when added to either royal or worker diet..' at concentrations of the order of 10 mg per gram of jelly.

C On the basis of this evidence, it is thought that the acids may playa significant role in female dimorphism and caste determination. Work on puri­fication and identification of the acids is progressingo

C 40 ROYAL JELLY - GoFo Townsend

(Studies on the in vitro Antitumor Activity of the Esters of Acids closely[ related to lO-flydroxy-2-decenoic Acid from Royal Jelly Against Tra.ns­plantable Mouse Leukemia)

('

[ Previous studies b.ave shown that whole royal tj elly, a fr~ction from royal jelly (lO-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid), and certain closely related dicarboxylic acids, some of which are also found in royal jelly, will inhibit the develop­ment of transplantable AKR leukemia when the pH is below .5060

The ester of lO-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid from royal jelly was found to be just as effective against AKR leukemic cells as the acid itself, with the added[

,

advantage that it could be used at neutralityo .......

L Through the testing of a series of mono- and di- carboxylic acids, as

well as other closely related compounds, the activity has been shown to be associated mainly with 9- and lO-carbon straight chain monocarboxylic acids eith.e r saturated or unsaturated Slight variations in the structure either reduce or destroy the activitYoC

0

50 POLLINATION AND BLOSSOM BLAST CONTROL - MoV. Smith

C Experimental work was again carried out in the Collj,npwood area to de­termine whether it was practical to use honey bees to distribute streptomycin~

U for blossom blast control o This bacterial disease had seriously infected the pear orchard in which we were workingo

The experiment was set up to have the bees distribute pollen from pollen inserts fitted to their hive entrances during the period of peak bloomo Be­c fore and after this period, streptomycin was distributed by the beeso A newly moved group of hives was used for each distribution. During the 1961 sea.son streptomycin, pollen and streptomycin were each distrthl1teo for twoe days respectivelyo This completely covered the blooming periodo

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Research Report continu.ed

r It was estimated by later disease surveys that 75 to 80 per cent control of the disease was obtained within an area 4 to 5 trees distant from the beeso Beyond this, control dropped off quickly, and on the lower half of the orhcard[ where no bees were located there was no disease control. This was borne out by adding a fluorescent tracer to the streptomycin and checking the orchard at night with an ultra-violet light. Effective distribution by 'the bees wa.sc only obtained for a distance of five trees from the n.ive locatiops.

For comparison, one section of the orchard was given two applications of streptomycin as a sprayo This gave good commercial control (98 per cent ef~c fective) 0

Since they distribute streptomycin directly to the blossoms, honey bees

[

(: require much less of this antibiotic than is used in a spray applicatioTIo However, unless a more unif9Tm distribution of the material can be obtained ­possibly by spacing the colonies no further than ten trees apart - bees cannot be expected to give as complete a protection as sprayso Other problems include the fact that early and late opening blossoms are not as attractive to honey beps, and the toxic effect of streptomycin on polleno Th.ese warrant further

r1 studyo

L 60 NOSEMA DISEASE

[ See symposium reporto

70 RESEARCH FACILITIES

(' Research facilities at the Apiculture Department will be improved with th.e conversion of the large upstairs lecture room into additional laboratory spaceo A library and a combined museum and small classroom are to be includedo Con­

C struction work is presently underwayo

[ BRANDON EXPERIMENTAL FARM Dro JoCoMo L'Arrivee

l() BEE BEI-iAVIOURIrI Studies on pollen collecting behaviour of honeybee colonies were continued

during 19610 As in the previous year, two meth.ods were used for measu.ring this behaviour pattern in beeso The older method consisted of measuring the amountI[~ of pollen stored in pollen-free combs after a definite period of timeQ The newer method consisted of capturing foraging bees at colony entrance by means

I" (v,; of a special trap and determining the percentage of pollen carriers. Results i j from both of these methods are still to be compi1edo i

10 Last year's results indicated that the more highly inbred stock tended

to have a more uniform ranking for pollen gathering behaviour, regardless of

Ie the method employedo Also, the more inbred stock had a lower valueo These results were not entirely unexpected. Greater uniformity is usually anti ­cipated because of stock homogeneity in inbred lines just as general loss of vigour or stamina is also expectedo This loss of vigour was quickly re­

!i established when two inbred lines were crossed as evidenced by the high rank­

ing obtained by a hybrid tested during 19610

10 !

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[ 48

Research Report continued 0000410 r 20 QUEEN REARING AND STOCK IMPROVEMENT

The production of queens at the Experimental Farm, Brandon is still[ limited to the Hasting strain of Caucasian bees. However, it is hoped that through the co-operation of Dro M.V. Smith of GoA.C., Guelph, a pure Caucasian stock imported from the U.S.S.R. may be incorporated into our breeding forr 19620

L During 1961, only thirty-one queens were artificially inseminated success­

fully while thirty other queens were naturally mated at an isolated apiary in Riding Mountain National Parko These queens are being overwintered and will be characterized for various behaviou.ral trAits during 1962.

f. 3 0 CONTROLLED CELLAR WINTERING

[ Thirty-three colonies were Jrepared for cellar wintering in the fall of

1960 0 These colonies received one gallon of fumagillin treated syrup in late September and were placed in the bee cellar on November 2, 1960 0 The temp~

erature controls were set at La F Q and the relative hU.midity wa.s kept at 50%0 On April 11, 1961, after 160 days of storage, thirty-three colonies were re­[ moved from the cellar and all were in excellent conditiono Samples of bees collected for Nosema determinations were all negativeo

[ During the fall 1961, a new high capacity air conditioner was installed in the bee cellaro Based on our previous year's experiences, the controls were again set for a temperature of 40 F and a relative humidity of 50%0

L o

40 OUTSIDE \NINTERING

During the 1960-61 winter season, eight colonies were wintered outside'· in a shaded area provided by a bush and eight other colonies were placed in aI-' sunny positiono Both groups of colonies were judged to be uniform in strength,

-., .feed, type of insulation and both groups received similar amount of wind shelter o

[ One colony in each group perished during the winter seasono Colonies in the ,~ shaded area were much weaker and had considerable Nosema infection as compared

to colonies in the sunny area which were all strong and showed little or not

L Nosema spores wh,en examinedo This experiment tends to confirm the beneficial effects of a sunny exposure for successful wintering of colonieso See attached table 0

Another experiment is underway this year in order to determine w~hether

', L IJ or not the beneficial effect of a sunny exposure is due to heat or warming

effect or to flight stimulatlon of the bees during mild winter spellso Eight colonies were wrapped in white plastic covered fibreglass and eight colonies were wrapped in bla9k plastic covered fibreglasso All other factors were similar between colonies in each group.

I Our most successful and efficient colony pack is the 2" fibreglass home ...' insulation encased in polyethyleneo This plastic case consists of a new nylon­

reinforced black/white ttGriffolyn Rip Stoptt which is sealed with a pressure sensitive plastic tape. Once the pack is prepared, it can be applied in aboutl

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J three minutes per colonyo

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60 NOSEMA STUDIES

C See report of symposium on nosema disease&

U BEAVERLODGE EXPERIMENTAL FARM Po Pankiw

The following is an outline of research carried out during the past year~U As our data has not been processed as yet, I will just outline the research projects which we are conducting in 19610

l~ BEHAVIOUR

fJ Effect of reduction of daylength on egg-laying of queen and colony build­

up of package bee colonieso

20 WINTERING

U Experiments are being conducted in temperatu~e and hu.midity controlled

1° chambers 0

30 POLLINATION

(i) Varietal preference of honey bees on various nectar and pollen pro~

101t \ i

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Research Report continued

[ ducing seed cropso

(ii) Morphological and physiological varia.tions- in alfalfa as affecting[ seed setting by honey bees.

[ APICULTURE SECTION Ottawa

[ 10 HONEY BEE BEHAVIOUR

Comparative tests were conducted on the foraging preferences of caged

10_-· honeybees Preliminary evidence shows that bees may prefer nectar with certain

ratios of simple sugarso Once these ratios are known the information can be --~ applied to plant breeding prog~ams to obtain better bee visitationo

[ 20 EFFECT OF ADDITIVES ON CONSUMPTION OF SUGAR SYRUP

r The effect of additives on consumption of sugar syrup was studiedo The

addition of small amounts of maltose stimulated consumption while tartaric acid strongly suppressed feedingo It was also found that under some conditions, maltose retarded the crystalization of non-heated honey syrupso

[ 30 DISTRIBUTION OF NURSE BEES

[ A study of the distribution of nurse bees of known age on brood of known

age showed that the younger nurse bees tended to frequent the brood frames con­

L taining younger broodo The constitution of the brood food may be relatAd to the age of the nurse bees o The behavioral pattern of the nurse bees may be involved in the nutritional development of the larval beeo

40 BEE DISEASE

[ Studies made in Minnesota and transferred to Ottawa indicate no e,ridence

C of resistance to terramycin in colonies which responded poorly to treatment for AFB disease o Testing for resistance to drugs will be carried on in order that recommendations can be shifted should resistance ~pearo

50 STRAI:NS OF BACILLUS LARVAE

u Different strains of Bacillus Larvae from AFB can now be identified on the basis of their susceptibility to viruseso

60 BACILLUS LARVAE TOXINu (j

Studies on the Bacillus Larvae toxin which can kill honeybee larvae and adults without the presence of the bacillus itself were carried forward and new methods developed for separating the active compoundso If it can be shown that this toxin is responsible for death. of larvae in actual infection, new methods of control based on destruction of the toxin may be possibleoc

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~~~@&~WINDBR[A ~ ~t~ 1 APtARY LAYOUT - V. MESlEY. \ ~~

fl;j IS' NOTE W J-E ~' .. ~(.r..., Except for north hives, all hives fHce outward. ~i§J~ Fourth, grouping of ten can be placed at east or west of yard and , ' '.

~" truck backed out after completion of work. . . ~~ ~ Additional hives may be placed as illustrated by dotted hives (X). S .

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1) Truck is never in the way of bees flight. 2) Operator need never be more than six good paces from truck. 3) Truck need be posi.tioned only twice to work four groups of ten hives. 4) Operator works behind all hives with the exception of the north pair.5) If method of numbering is memorized, records are easily kept. 6) Drifting of bees is kept at a minimum. 7) Supers being added or removed can be stacked in the centre of each circle.

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I()~ET OUTLET )lEAR Diagram provided by Prof. G.F. Townsend,S?119M AT KIlTER • Apiculture Department,

Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, Ontario

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53

EXPERIMENT r Overwintering of Honeybees DoFo Pinnock

Apiculture Fieldmanu N.B o Department of Agriculture Fredericton, NoBo

[ Method

[j A Potentiometer was set up in the basement of a home approxim.ately 100

feet from the colonieso Wires were extended from basement to colonies usin.g thermo-couples inserted in the upper entrances of colonies to give recorded

0temperatures These recordings were made on each hive each minute automati­callyo

[ Colonies were packed in two pack system except No~ 10 which was a single

colony packo

[ Variations of Insulation

U Nco 1 - 2 inch insul bats packed in two colony pack with tarred felt out­side wrap over and undero

Noo 4 - insul board for insulation made like a box paper wrap over and

L under, packed two colonieso

~Noo 7 3 insul bats, same system as NOe 1, double colony packoC8>

fll_J Noo 10 tarred felt wrap single colony, no insulation other tha.n papero QD

Noo 1, 4, 7 - were colonies that were one of a pair packer togethero

U General Observation

All colonies on test were fed sugar syrup medicated with. Fumidil. Band

U U Sulphathiazole in prescribed dosages in October 1960, and weighed approximately

the same when packed for winter (100 Ibs)o This included the hive, bees and stores and a11 colonies were packed in double brood chambers 0

Temperature Checks

The temperature was recorded from January 17th to April Isto During this

o u time j very few days were favourable for bee flight and temperatures were as

low as -350 and there were periods of five or six days when the temperature did not exceed -50 0 Outside temperatures were recorded on potentiometero

Colony Temperature

u Colony Noo 1 and Noo 7 followed the same general patterno Temperature varied ,rsry little in spite of low temperatures, and wind cond,itions Colony0

Noo 7 was a few degrees warmer for most of the period, although they were not always consistent as occasionally colony Noo 1 would record the highest temp­u eratureo The tempera.ture in these two colonies varied between 70°_ROo al-

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Experiment - continued r though, any variation was slow and would take place over a period of twelve to twenty-four hours. This change in temperature showed no relationship to 0utside temperature changeso

[ Colony No o 4, insulated with sheets of insul board around the colony,

showed more variations in temperature than Colony No. 1 and 7, and followed a pattern of gradually cooling off in a period of three or four hours and then regaining its temperature in a relatively snort period of an average of about 60 minutes This followed the outside temperature, but was not always con,­sistent or

0

Colony Noo 10, paper wrap only, was most sensitive to changes in outside temperature~ and although they were able to retain their general temperature

[ within a 10 range, there was a continual fluxuation. The pattern followed was continually cooling off and then a raise in temperature to bring tb.em back to normal in sub-zer,o weath,ero This would ha~pen in a. period of one hour taking approximately 3/4 of an hour to cool off and 4 hour to come back to normal[ temperatures This varied with the outside temperatureo On sunny days, the0

temperature was inclined to go up, an,d this 'Was not the case with Noo 1 and No o 7, and to a much lesser degree with Noo 40[ The Intangibles

f."" The colonies were not weighed but their weight wa.s estimated in the fall.l. ~ as being equa.l by liftingo Colony strength wa.s estimated by the number of

[ bees on frames and the strongest colonies were estimated at 60,0000 The colonies from which temperatures were recorded were estimated at 40,000 0

Results-' These colonies were unpacked on April 21st and 22nd and the results are

.Jr as follows~

[: 2ft c::IIIIIIO ~ ""_Noo 1 .. Insulation Bats

L T he colony had five frames of stores left and was one of the two strong­

est colonies when unpackedo There were two full frames of brood in all stages of development; queen laying in a good solid pattern; very little mould on bottom board; and few dead beeso

Brood in two frames in all stages of development; quite large area of mould in bottom brood chamber; found a number of drone cells capped in worker cells and a few drones already hatched; appeared that queen started laying drone eggs when she first started laying, but changed to worker eggs; three frames of stores lefto

One frame of brood hive very damp and much mould present; not populous; not many dead bees; signs of dysentery; probably Nosema. As there were not many bees dead or alive would assume that these were lost in early flight,

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Experiment - continued

[ especially if Nosema is prpsento Plenty of stores left, approximately six frames 0 Indicates too much insulationo

[ Eggs plentiful in two frames; colony quite popu.lolis althoug-h not as strong

as Noo 1; bees appear healthy and hive dry; only mould evident was on groundr sheet; .about one quart of dead bees on bottom board; bottom brood cha.mber full of storeso

[ Management

As colonies were unpacked, they recAived a clean painted bottom board

[ placed directly in front of colony on hive sta.ndo The top brood chamber,

[ which in all cases contained the brood, was moved onto the new bottom board and the upper brood chamber which contained the stores was placed on topo Bottom entran.ces were reduced to one inch and small top entrances ""7ere left open o

Temperatures ranged between 500 _60° and bees were bringing in polleno Upon investigation,

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[ l'~EMBERS OF CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF APIC1JLTURISTS

ALBERTAn r

Edmunds, JoW., Supervisor of Apiculture Apiculture Branch Topping, Ro, Chief Apiary Inspector - Dept. of Agriculture

Brock Building 10177 - l04th Street Edmonton, Altao

[ BRITISH COLUVlBIA

Corner, Jo, Provincial Apiarist - Apiculture Branch[ Dept. o~ Agriculture

Court House Vern.on, B.C.

L

[ Oldershaw, DoH., Apiary Inspector - Dept. of Agriculture 406 - 6th Street New Westminster, B.C.

MANITOBA

[ L'Arrivee, Dr. J.CoMo, Apiculturist - Research Branch

[ Geiger, Jo Dept. of Agriculture

Experimental "Farm ~Brandon, Man.

Robertson, DroR., Provincial Apiarist Extension SeMTice & Entomologist - Depto of Agriculture &[ Conservation

Smith, D., Ass't Apiarist and 717 Norquay Building Entomologis·t Winnipeg, Mano

C Jay, Dro S. Cameron, Ass't Professor - Department of Entomology University of Manitoba

:Winnipeg, Man.Gu NEW BRUNSWIC.K

Pinnock j DoFo, Apiculture Fieldman ~ Horticultural Brancho Dept 0 of Agriculture Fredericton, N.Bo

u NOVA SCOTIA

Karma, EoAo, Apiarist - Dept. of Agricu,lture & Marketing

U Nova Scotia Agricu.ltural College Truro, N.S.

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57

ONTARIO

Armstrong, FoRo, Supervisor, Honey & Maple Products

Gochnauer, Dr. ToA., Head Boch, Dro R., Apiculturist Furgala., Dr. Bo, Apiculturist

Townsend, Professor G.Fo, Provincial Apiarist &Head of Dept.

Burke, P.W., Ass't Provincial Apiarist Shuel, Dr~ R: Smith, Dro M.V.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Burns, "\r.J 0 Ao

MacLean, Do, Provincial Apiarist

QUEBEC

Plourde, HoJo, Provincial Apiarist

Brasseur, Ro , Assistant Provincial Apiarist

SASKATCHEVVAN

}~cCutcheon; - DoM., Pro1Tincial Apiarist Bland, So~o, Assistant Provincial

Apiarist

Pankiw, Po, Apiculturist

- Fruit &Vegetable Division Production &Marketing Branch Dept. of Agriculture-Ottawa, Onto

Apiculture Section - Entomology Research Institute

Research Branch Dept. of Agriculture Central Experimental Farm atta1JlJa, Ont.

- Apiculture Department Ontario Agricultu,ral College Guelph., Onto

- Research Branch Depto of Agriculture Experimental Farm Charlottetown, PoEoI o

- Depto of AgriclJlture Box 2000 Charlottetown, P.E.I.

- Bee Division Dept. of Agriculture Quebec, Queo

Dept. of Agriculture Room 221 306 Craig Street E. MC3ntreal, Que.

- Plan~ Industry Branch Apiary Division Dept of Agriculture0

Administration Building R·egina, Sa'sk.

- Research Branch Can. Dept. of Agriculture Research Station University S~b P.O. Saskatoon, Sasko

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SUPPLEMENT TO NOSEMA SYMPOSIUM

(The following information was received too late for inclusion in Report of Nosema Symposium)

Observations on the Incidence and Treatment of Nosema - Dr. M.V. Smith, O.A.C.

Conditions of stress and changes in normal nutrition in honey bees are pointed out by Doull (18th. Int. Beek. Congr.) to be contributing factors to th.e development and spread of Nosema infections. This is borne out by our own. observations.

Wintering imposes limitations and stresses on the honeybee colony. Long confinement, lack of fresh pollen, and accumulation of waste materials of digestion all are contributinr factors. As the winter advances, we have found bees to be more susceptible to Nosema.

This was first indicated in lonf8vity tests we conducted some years ago. Bees from the winter cluster were caged in December. After several months confinement the incidence of Nosema rose sharply. Bees caged in February or March had a much decreased life expectancy largely due to Nosema. Tests were also run to determine the feasibility of wintering queens in large numbers in an incubator. From February on the attendant bees died off so rapidly with Nosema that they had to be replaced every ten days to two weeks. This was be­fore the advent of fumagillin •

For the past four years we have been running tests on the wintering of nuclei and single brood charrber colonies in buildings where they are protected from temperature extremes. The first two years the bees were in a bee house, each one with an outside entrance through the wall. The past two years they have been confined in a closed insulated building with a certain degree of temperature control. In each case Nos,ema infection has built up much more rapidly in the bees wintered in this manner than it h.as in outside colonies. Treatment with Fumidil B medicated syrup in the fall has failed to eliminate this Nosema build-up.

Last winter regular samplings of dead bees showed an alarming increase in Nosema infection in seventy single brood chamber colonies and luO nuclei held in our wintering tests. In an effort to save the bees, Fumidil B was applied in dust form with a stirrup dust pump applicator. One treatment on Februa~

1st was effective in lowering the infection from then until spring. We were so pleased with the results of this treatment that we have swung over to dust treatment on all applications of Fumidil B and are planning on dusting the bees this year when they go into the wintering chamber, and again as necessary during their confinement.

The medicated dust was prepared by thoroughly mixing five parts of icing sugar with one part of Fumidil B. Each nucleus received approximately ten grams of tb.e mixture - containing 32 mg. of fumagillin activity (3 strokes of the dust gun), while each single colony was given twice this dosage. The dust was blown in violently at the entrance. An examination of several units after treatment showed that the combs and bees were well oovered ai~h dust. Ap­parently, the antibiotic remains in a more stable f~rm as a dry dust, and the bees are exposed to it over a longer period as they clean up the combs or pick it up from the interior surfaces of the hive.

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[ Nosema Symposium supplement continued •••••

Each unit was given one pint of medicated syrup (44 g. Fumidil B in 17 ?allons syrup) on each of two feedings prior to confinement. The syrup was[ poured over the tops of the frames. The be 0 s were placed in the building in mid-November. Little evidence of distress was noted until mid-Jan.uary. Composite samples of dead bees were swept up regularly from the floor and checke[' for Nosema.- The usual method was to check ten composite samples of ten bees

_J each. The trend in Nosema infection both before and after treatment is in­dicated below:

r Date

Oct 28 & Nov 1r [

Jan 16

Jan 26

Feb 1

[ Feb 8

Feb 20[

[ Feb 27

March 6

March 13

[ March 17

March 20[

March 27

[ March 27 & 28

%Nosema Infection Remarks

40%

Fumidil B syrup fed to all uni

100%

Fumidil dust applied.

70%

20%

20%

10%

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20%

Ten outside hives checked, no Nosema.

20%

Bees moved outside.

Fairly regular Nosema sampling was carried out durin~ the winter of 1958­59 on nuclei wintered in a bee house ~ith outside entrances. These units were

lJ treated with Fumidil B medicated syrup in the fall only. A comparison of the Nosema trend with that observed last winter following the additional dust treat, ment may be of interest. Samples of 100 bees each. were examined individually at two-week intervals from Janua~ 14th to March 18th. The percentage infectio: on consecutive examinations was recorded as follows: 42, 10, 23, 62, 65, and, 72%. This shows a definite increase in infection towards spring.

U Full strength colonies wintered outside were also checked in March; Nosema infection was found to be 10, 21, and 26% in three yards sampled. A test was also carried out this same season with 32 nuclei wintered outside. All of these had died by March. Sa.mples of dead bees from each of these unitsU were checked and 50% were found to be infected with Nosema.

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Discussion:

r It appears quite definite that the wIntering of bees in protected buildings increased their incidence of Nosema. Would the same hold true in regular cellar wintering? This may have been due to the reduced strength of the units: most

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[ were nuclei or single brood chamber colonies. This is sug?ested by the fact that outside wintered nuclei - all of which succumbed - showed the highest infection of any outside units which were sampled. Another possibility is that the increased activity among the building-wintered bees, due to their moder­ated environmental temperature, created more of an unnatural or stress condition which predisposed the bees to a Nosema build-up. But whatever the cause, Fumidil B dust appeared to exert an eftective control on the Nosema infectiono

[ 1) A survey of Nosema infection of overwintered colonies conducted in two

"' different years indicated that considerably less infection was encountered in outside-wintered colonies than in colonies placed in a wintering chambero Infection increased towards spring•

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2) Fumidil B fed in syrup in the fall' did not control the infection in build­ing-wintered units, but a dust application applied in mid-winter reduced

[' infection and kept it under control for a two-month period (until spring).

Nosema Control by Comb Fumigation - Dr'. J.C .M. L 'Arrivee

[' Six packages of bees, obtained from Nosema-free over-wintered colonies,

were installed into sterilized hive equipment whose brood combs had been fum­igated with acetic acid. Six similar colonies were prepared but in non-ster­

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[ ilized and non-fumigated equipment. Samples of twenty-five bees from each colony were collected at bi-month.ly intervals for Nosema spore determination. Combined microscopic examination of bee samples from the non-sterilized group revealed that by early June one colony became heavily infected, four colonies moderately infected and one colony was Nosema-free.

f~·' In the sterilized and fumigated group, two colonies became lightly in­

-'l.1 fected and the remaining four colonies were disease-free. By June 20, 1961,

all colonies in this group were Nosema-free.

t It, therefore, appears that comb fumigation with acetic acid for six days •.J and sterilization of hive equipment with a blow torch were effective in con­

trolling Nosema disease that may have peen present in this equipment.

[ Nosema Disease of Queens - Dr. J.C.M. 1'Arrivee

A preliminary study was carried out in 1961 to determine the prevalence[ of Nosema apis spores in queens received in mailing cages from a southern shipper.

[ Ten queens and their attendants were analysed on arrival for presence of Nosema spores. Four queens were disease-free whereas, five queens were lightly infected and one was heavily infeoted.

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Nosema Symposium Supplement continued .....[

r The situation was much more serious in the case of the attendants. Combinec

samples revealed that in one cage the attendants were lightly infected; at ­tendants in another cage were moderately infected; attendants in three cages were heavily infected; and the attendants in the remaining five cages were very heavily infected, (over ten million spores).

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_J 'These results, although on a small sample sca.le, indicate that all at ­tendants in queen mailing cages should be destroyed instead of being freed When the queen is being introduced to "a colony. Furthermore, the results citedr above indicate that a number of queens (10% in this case) can be expected to be heavily infected with Nosema and, therefore, subject to early supersedure.

[ Possible Nosema Contamination by Used Bee Cages - Dr. J.C.M. L'Arrivee

Each year, many beekeepers truck in their own bees and they often use their

[ old shipping cages for which they receive a 25¢ discount. The possibility of bee contamination by Nosema disease from these used bee cages, was raised by D.R. Robertson, Manitoba Provincial Apiarist. He obtained one dozen used bee cages from a beekeeper who trucks in his bees and who has experienced consider~

able Nosema disease. These cages were brought to the Experimental Farm, Brando! for testing. Six of these cages were fumigated with acetic acid for six days . and aerated for one week. About two pounds of bees were shaken from disease­

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'[ free colonies into these fumigated cages as well as into the six remaining non­•

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I treated cages. Each overwintered colony provided a package of bees for each group of cages. These packages of bees were fed sugar syrup while stored in a bee cellar for four days. This approximated the length of time for travel from sou-tbernU .S.A. These twelve packages of bees were then installed in sterlized bee equipment containing combs wh.ich had been fumigated with acetic acid for six days and aerated for two w,eeks. All twelve colonies developed[ normally and yielded similar amounts of honey.

At monthly intervals during the summer months, a sample of twenty five bees[ was collected from each colony for Nosema spores determination. Colony samples

collected on June 8, 1961 from the unsterilized group were: one disease-free, three lightly infected and two moderately infected. Samples from the fumigated group yielded two lightly infected and four colonies disease-free •

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C J.W. Edmunds, Alberta, sampled scrapings from used package cases. Microscopic

L examination ,of some of these scrapings~ showed the presence of nosema sporeso The possibility of transmission of the disease to bees transported in these soiled packages should be considered.

U Summa!y of Discussions:

C More work definitely is needed on this disease to show more clearly the

relation of loss of nectar and pollinating activity at various levels of in­fection; to show the effect of infection on the physiology of the bee; to improve methods of detection of latent disease. One of the problems that con­

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Nosema Symposium. Supplement continued

fronts research a~d extension workers alike is that of applyinr more sensitive methods of detection of disease in package bees from the south. Microscopic examination is tedious, and at best allows for only a partial sampling of the numbers of incoming bees. More sampling, probably in the package producing areas, and in the northern areas as well, needs to be done.

More work is also needed on th.e effect of climate and other factors on the course of serious outbreaks. Doull has postulated that some series of stresses causes the infected gut tissues to produce great numbers of spores and thus to cause severe outbreaks. 1Nhat these stresses may be and how they work to bring about high spore production is at present not clearly determined.

Bailey feels that confinement of bees during adverse weather causes in­creased soiling of combs, with resulting spread of infection within the hive; when better weather allows flight, th.e infected bees void their faeces, and the spores contained therein, outside the hive. If the combs are cleaned by beps or disinfected by fumigation at the point of low infection, the cycle is pre­sumably broken and disease levels are ,apt to be reduced in the succeeding winter. How effective this treatment might be in combs used for package bees, in which new, and possibly infected bees are introduced annually, is a matter o f guesswork.

Disinfection of hive material by gamma radiation has been suggested as a possibility. Katznelson (Can. J. Microbial.; in press) has estimated that radiation of combs and other material sufficient to control American Foulbrood disease would effectively kill any nosema spores present. The value of this procedure is largely dependent on technology and economics. A facility large enough to hold hive materials would have to have heavy shielding and would have to be located on a fixed position. If enough other agricultural or medi­cal materials could be processed to make th.e use of such a facility, economical sterilization might be possible for bee equipment.

In the meantime, the search for new, effective and cheap drugs for im­mediate control progresses. New methods for application of the presently avail· able drugs, fumagillin, are being developed. A conference, including both Canadian and U.S. apicultural workers, has been called for the end of February, in Madison, Wisconsin, to consider these problems; to make plans for further research; and to make any changes in recommendations that seem called for, based on present knowledge.

SUPPLEMENT TO RESEARCH REPORT

Honeybee Behavior Studies at Apiculture Section:

A. A comparison wps made between foraging preferences of honeybees contained in cared units with large feedin~ dishes available offering a choice of sugars in various mixtures and the feeding behavior of marked free flying bees given a choic~ of two containers on a rotating platform to avoid conditioning bees to a given location. Similar results were obtained with both methods. Certain mixtures of simple sugars were preferred by foragers over other mixtures. In addition, maltose, at high levels, depressed feeding response. Samples of natu:

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Research Report Supplement continued ..... nectars were taken by micropipet from .flowers in the same area. for examination of natura.lly occurring sugar r,atios. There is some evidence to sh.ow that bees, other factors equal, prefer nectars with. certain ratios of simple sugars. Once these ratios are known, the knowledge can be applied to plant breeding programs to obtain better bee visitation~'

B. The effect of additives on consumption by cared bees of diluted honey and of sugar syrup was studied. The background of this trial was early lit ­erature recommending tartaric acid to be a~ded to sugar syrup to prevent cry­stallization of the syrup in wi~tering colonies. It was found early in the investigation that tartaric acid strongly suppressed feeding by the caged bees. Effects of other additives were studied. It was found th.at addition of small amounts of maltose stimulated syrup or honey consumption by test bees in con­trast to syrups offered without ma.ltose. Th.os observation coincides with other observations that bee-preferred nectar crops carry a certain percentage of this sugar•

It was also found, that under some conditions, maltose retarded the cry­stallization of unheated honey syrups~

c. A second study was made of the distribution of nurse bees of known age on brood of known age. Bees were marked on emergence from brood combs, and introduced to the test colonies at two day intervals. When the introductions were completed, marked brood frames containing brood of known age, were taken from nurse colonies and added to the test colonies. Queen larvae were grafted in frames and these also added. The next day, the combs were removed individu­al~y, bees gassed, and all adult beRs collected. A count of marked bees was made for each brood frame. In addition, total counts and counts of drones were obtained for each frame~· The data, when examined, showed that the younger aged nurse bees (less than ten days of age) tended to frequent the brood frames cont~ining younger brood. Drones were found near, but not in, the brood areao This work applies to a better knowledge of distribution of work in the hives, particularly as it concerns the feeding of the orood, and colony developmento The evidence shows clearly that the nurse bees are not randomly distributed through the hive, but have, apparently, definite duties to perform with a given age. Studies elsewhere on brood food given larvae of different ages show de­finite differences in protein content as well as other propertieso The con­stitution of the brood food may be related to the age of the nurse bee under normaL conditions. The nutrition of the larval bee is receiving more and more attention, and these studies point to a behavioral pattern of the nurse bee as being involved in this nutritional development.

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