From: "deelusbybeekeeper" <deelusbybeekeeper@excelonline.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2001 08:01:46 -0700
To: <BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: Hygienic behavior

Hi all.

> > prick the larvae with a pin to leave a hole the size of a
> > varroa mite.

Reply,

I too with Dave would like to know the reasoning here.

To me this is unnatural and disruptive to a colony and can only serve to
stimulate cleaning by destruction of damaged combs and larvae that have been physically killed. It is also quite a different scenario from what the
varroa in the cell picture is.

We need bees to learn to identify LIVE larvae and to SAVE them and not wait
until they are dead and/or decaying and mutilated with a pin.

Now tell me how to stimulate without pricking and mutilating to initiate
cleaning behaviour (without freezing also) so the bees chew the problem out
and I will listen.

Sure bees can smell decayed matter I believe. Sure bees can see destroyed
caps and pricked caps I believe. But reproduction in a cell with brood does
not kill at low levels, nor mutate and yet the bees can learn to chew out
and solve the problem. We are seeing that.

But this pin sticking seems to only get rid of dead stuff and damaged stuff
and not help the bees keep their brood alive that is viable helping to solve
the varroa reproducing problem. But I could be wrong. Keying to dead is much different than keying to alive.

Now just what do you think the keys are, to the bees wanting to chew out the
varroa, recycling the protein where they cannot save the pupae, and where
they can save the pupae doing so realistically.

Just what are the natural triggers for chewing off the caps to the purple
eye stage? Cries for help, vibration? smell? and all under unmutilated caps.
What is the trigger for chewing?

Regards,

Dee A. Lusby