SC Experiment Take 2

[wayacoyote]

Ok, so someone wants to do an experiment. If I know beeks, there's more out there who would like to make some comparisons (myself and even my girlfriend's father included). My setback has been in determining the method of measure... do I measure varroa infestation, and if so with what method (24 hr might fall, alcohol, removing drone/worker larvae, etc...) Or am I simply looking for survivership regardless of infestation (which I'm reading some are in high-infestation areas with very long-term survivals)?

Waya

[PA Pete]

IMHO some measure of mite load is interesting and should be done, but since long term survival is our goal, that's the measure I'd be most interested in seeing smile.gif

[Kieck]

Right now, the plan for this study includes mite counts (to make some estimates of population levels), survival, and honey production.

Survival, I think, is the goal of using small cell, but why not check mite counts while doing it? Do small cell colonies have significantly fewer mites than large cell colonies? Or, can they survive despite having equal or higher numbers of mites?

[naturebee]

Kieck,

Here's some notes from a small cell test that was done. Maybe you can glean some info on what to test and how your test should be done:

The Test:

* 40 colonies were tested in the same apiary.
* 20 with cells 5.5mm measured in the broodnest.
known as "Big cell group".
* 20 with cells 4.9mm measured in the broodnest.
known as "Small cell group".
* All queens in the test apiary were sisters
and mated in the same apiary.
* when small cell colonies were given new foundation,
the large cell colonies where given the same.

Results:

* Throughout the season in 2004 the mite population was significantly lower in the small cell group.

------>
* Big cell group: The natural mite downfall average peaked at 7 mites per day, decreased and then increased again.

* Small cell group: The natural mite downfall average in the small cell group peaked with 2 mites per day and then decreased steadily.

------>
* Large cell group: An alcohol wash in Autumn during broodless period revealed 29% mites per 100 bees, the range was 3-64%.

* Small cell group: An alcohol wash in Autumn during broodless period revealed 14% mites per 100 bees, the range was 3-26%.

------>
* Large cell group: The 3% colony in this group gave a very small crop and was also weaker in strength.

* Small cell group: The 3% colony in in this group gave an average crop.

------>
* Small cell group: Averaged about one box stronger at peak strength in the middle of summer than the large cell group.

------>
* Large cell group: Average honey crop was 79.2 lbs. range 17.6 - 125.4 lbs.

* Small cell group: Average honey crop was 98.1 lbs. range 50.7 - 136.6 lbs. 24% bigger than the large cell group.

----->
* An interesting observation was that the honey from each colony harvested the small cell group was more even, besides the top colony and had few at the bottom. The colonies with top crop were similar in both groups.

----->
* Both groups were affected by chalkbrood. But
anecdotal observation indicated that the large cell group was more affected.

----->
* There was no observation that small cell size had any negative effect on the performance of the bee colony.

[ September 13, 2006, 05:36 PM: Message edited by: Pcolar ]

[Kieck]

Interesting stuff, Joe! Thanks for posting it!

Any chance that you have a citation for this material (Name, date published, title of paper, title of journal in which it was published, volume of the journal in which it was published, page numbers on which it appeared)? Even part of the citation would be helpful.

Just based on the numbers you posted, the sample size isn't large enough for the differences between the averages to exceed the variation. In other words, based on this study, the two groups may not differ significantly. The difference might be real, and you and I might think we see something there, but, statistically, a fair chance probably exists that the difference isn't "real."

Strange that one of the colonies (a "big cell" colony) with one of the lowest mite populations produced little honey. That COULD indicate that mites play less of a role in limiting production than other factors.

[naturebee]

--Any chance that you have a citation for this material--(Kieck)

It was published in Bee Culture, not sure what month.

I made it into a PDF but I lost all my files one day. I will ask a friend of mine if he still has the Pdf and get it emailed to you.

[wayacoyote]

Joe posted this on Sept 6, 2005 (seems like that was just a year ago smile.gif )

http://www.beesource.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=13;t=000234

"Commercial Beekeeping in Norway", by Hans-Otto Johnsen, Bee Culture, September 2005.

Waya