UMD Bee Lab
  • UMD Bee Lab
    • Home
    • Donate
    • Lab Personnel
    • Graduate Students
  • Research
    • Publications
    • National Honey Bee Disease Survey
    • US Bee Data
    • Campus Bee Survey
  • Extension
    • Apiary Weekly >
      • Last Week in the Apiary
      • Things In Bloom
      • Get Notifications
    • Updates / Blog
    • Honey Shop
    • FAQ / Links
    • PollinaTerps
  • Services
    • Diagnostic Services
  • Contact
    • Request Speaker
    • Lab Opportunities
    • Contact Form
    • Swarm Removal

Eggs on the Wall - Laying workers or new queen?

12/2/2024

0 Comments

 
By: Eric Malcolm
Bees on comb
Five (5) supersedure cells located on the center of a frame of brood comb. All queen cells have emerged or been evacuated recently. All show signs of being chewed on the emerging end, with one showing exposed cocoon at the head in tact with a hole in the side of the cell. (Photo: Eric Malcolm, October 11, 2024, Glenn Dale, MD)
In my years as a beekeeper, I’ve learned two important lessons. First, beekeeping keeps us humble— often what we “know” comes with exceptions. Second, if we take the time to observe our bees, they can offer us new insights, presenting us with unexpected challenges and enlightening experiences. There is always more to learn when keeping bees. 

Recently, while conducting the last full inspection of the season on one of our colonies in early November, I encountered a situation that seemed fairly familiar. Based on my records, this colony had gone through a queen event in October, having several supersedure cells emerge, suggesting that their old queen had failed and was in the process of being replaced. 
​

When a colony goes queenless late in the season (October) in Maryland, it can be unlikely that a newly raised virgin queen will successfully mate, especially given the unpredictable Maryland weather and often too few drones in surrounding colonies. However, with drones still relatively abundant in surrounding hives and favorable weather with no chance of rain, I decided to let the colony try to sort itself out rather than combine it with a stronger hive. There was still time and the population was about 13 deep frames of bees, so they were plenty strong.

​The next visit showed most colonies in the yard as being broodless, which was typical for this time of year, with no visible signs of queens, but felt they were queen right based on their temperament and behavior.
Picture
Close up of cells in the brood area showing three honey bee eggs laid near the mouth of the cell, each affixed to the cell wall. (Photo: Eric Malcolm, November 11, 2024, Glenn Dale, MD)
When I revisited the hive a few weeks later, in early November, I instantly noticed some red flags. There were eggs laid on the walls of cells, multiple eggs per cell, irritable bees, and no capped brood—typical signs of a colony with laying workers. The laying worker situation occurs when a colony has been queenless for too long (around three weeks), and at least one or several of the workers' ovaries start functioning in the absence of queen or brood pheromones. Laying workers are a last-ditch effort for a queenless colony to pass on their genetics, since they can only lay unfertilized (drone) eggs.

Picture
A close up look inside open cells in the brood area showing more than 10 cells with 1-2 larvae sitting on beds of royal jelly. In surrounding cells, eggs are seen ranging from 1-2 per cell, all affixed off-center on the cell floor or on the cell walls. (Photo: Eric Malcolm, November 11, 2024, Glenn Dale, MD)
As I continued inspecting the frames, additional signs of laying workers seemed glaring—off-center and multiple eggs or larvae in a single cell. There was also evidence of trying to raise a new queen with young larvae on beds of royal jelly. But then, something unexpected happened.
Picture
A medium frame taken from the brood area, partially covered with bees showing a single capped queen cell in the center of the frame and two capped drone cells located several cells apart, mid-frame. (Photo: Eric Malcolm, November 11, 2024, Glenn Dale, MD)
As I flipped a frame, I spotted a single capped supersedure cell. This threw me off a bit; I had assumed the colony had been queenless for too long and laying workers had already developed by this point (primarily because of the eggs on the cell walls). It only takes 16 days for a queen to develop so, in an instance, the story changed. This new information suggested there would not have been enough time for laying workers, it seemed the new queen that emerged in October had mated and was laying but they were still superseding. While I have observed new queens laying multiple eggs per cell and in peculiar places, I had never seen or heard of a newly mated queen laying on cell walls, so I was skeptical and very confused. 

​After some light investigation, I learned this situation is not completely unheard of; a newly mated queen laying eggs in all sorts of places while she is getting the hang of laying, including cell walls. It was suggested that it will usually clear up in a week or two.
Picture
A close up picture of a frame with capped honey, showing the queen bee (top right) and several worker bees. The queen appears slightly shiny and her wings are slightly tattered. (Photo: Eric Malcolm, November 11, 2024, Glenn Dale, MD)
Then I saw her: the colony still had their recently mated queen. She was walking on the frame near the supersedure cell, looking a little worse for wear with ever-so-slightly crinkled and tattered wings, she also looked a little shiny — a sign of viral infection or the cell being disturbed during her development. Her appearance, in addition to the supersedure cell, and indications that the colony was actively attempting to rear a new replacement queen suggested that she may not be healthy enough to overwinter or maintain the colony through the winter months.

I was pretty certain mid-November was too late for a virgin queen to mate successfully in Maryland, so I didn’t want to leave things to chance and have the colony go queenless. I decided to pinch the weak queen. A beekeeper’s paradox, killing the single most essential organism that keeps the colony alive in hopes of saving them, a decision that makes a lot of us beekeepers cringe. Now my choices were to combine or requeen.
​

Fortunately, I had recently combined another colony with a good queen but slightly too few frames of bees, so I had that extra queen in my pocket. I left the pinched queen in the hive so the bees would know she was dead and in hopes of them spreading the word to their sisters. About 40 minutes later, I introduced the new queen to the colony, using a small cage with a wax film over the escape hole. The next day, when I returned to check on her, the bees had already accepted her, and the new queen was interacting with the colony without issue.
​

This experience reinforced a lesson: no matter how much we think we know about bees and beekeeping, there are always opportunities for us to continue learning as long as we stay humble, remain open to being taught, and of course by closely observing our bees during inspections. 

As the season winds down, be sure to check on your bees and keep them well fed over the colder months. If they start feeling light or are pressing up against the inner cover, keep some sugar, fondant, or candy boards handy so you can keep them fed in a pinch. 

Enjoy the calm moments of winter. Spring is coming!
0 Comments

A Mid-Treatment Pivot

9/19/2024

 
By: Eric Malcolm
Outdoors with foliage in background. Two people are wearing beekeeping protective clothing, one in a veiled hat, both wearing respirators. The man on the left holds his purple nitrile gloved hand up in a thumbs up.
Eric and Kensie wearing full face respirators prior to an application of Oxalic acid treatment on the UMD colonies. (Photo: Eric Malcolm, September 4, 2024, Glenn Dale, MD)
We are attempting to manage Varroa using only non-synthetic chemicals. With Maryland's 2024 summer temperatures being so high, we decided to use ApiGuard (thymol) for our post-honey harvest mite treatment. The initial application of ApiGuard consisted of one 25 gram dose, per the application instructions for high temperatures. To be safe, we did a mid-treatment alcohol wash and found the yard average was nearly unchanged at around 8%.
We're not sure why the first dose of the ApiGuard treatment did not seem to work but we are very glad we checked mid-way as our need for quick mite reduction was urgent. There are a lot of colonies nearby, so it's always possible reinfestation occurred, but most of our splits and late spring nucs had significantly lower mite loads. A few of our overwintered colonies seem to have gathered mites like they were nectar in just a few short months. (One was twenty percent!)
We decided to change treatments and have just wrapped up our third round of Oxalic Acid vaporization (OAV), which were applied 5 days apart, in hopes of more quickly reducing mite loads. Stay turned and we will provide an update on what the mite loads look like once post-treatment inspections have been completed and lab results are in!

Role of Chitin in honey bee Anatomy

8/13/2024

0 Comments

 
By Harriet Harris
Lab classroom, two men in foreground sitting at lab bench, more people behind them. A projector screen is down in front of a wall, a man with a dark shirt points to one of the terms displayed,
When it comes to honey bees, there is an alluring complexity to their structure and function as organisms that are often overlooked, instead, the focus lies on their crucial role in the ecosystem and global economy. However, this last week, I had the pleasure of attending an anatomy and dissection lecture by Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp and Dr. Anthony Nearman, where the complexity of these insects was brought to life. The marvels of how these insects achieve so much were explained thoroughly, with students dissecting honey bees for a truly hands-on experience by the end of class.

While many things amazed me during this lecture, one theme remained true: chitin and its role as a vital component that not only shapes the adaptability of honey bees but also plays a significant role in the evolutionary development of numerous organisms. And because I found this fascinating, I’d like to pass on what I learned: what chitin is, its evolutionary importance, and the role it plays for our dearly beloved honey bees.

Chitin is an aminopolysaccharide polymer, and the most abundant one occurring in nature at that.[1] In simple terms, chitin gives strength to the exoskeletons of various organisms like insects, fungi, and crustaceans.[1] Nearly 85% of animal species are arthropods, which means 85% of animal species are composed of chitin![2]
Hands are using pins to hold something in small dish under a light system that is part of a microscope.
However, insects and eukaryotic organisms (organisms with cells that contain a nucleus) have not always roamed this earth. Around 520 to 535 million years ago, marine picocyanobacteria appeared in the ocean.[3] These picocyanobacteria acquired a trait that allowed them to utilize chitin, which gave them the ability to attach to chitin particles and create their mat-based existence in the water column.[3] These mats, also known as stromatolites, were able to photosynthesize, thus pumping waterways with oxygen.[4] Stromatolites expanded into the ocean, essentially creating underwater forests before trees ever existed.[3] Once oxygen was saturated in the waters it was then released into the air, allowing for life to flourish and evolve.[4] These mats are commonly regarded as the first form of life on earth.[4] What once began as planktonic life evolved into more complex living organisms and genomic streamlining, which resulted in the evolutionary boom responsible for life as we know it today.[3] So while many may think of insects and fungi as gross, we owe our existence to one of their major components – chitin.

When it comes to honey bees, chitin is responsible for a myriad of things. Chitin acts as a means of protection. The chitinous cuticle in both the exoskeleton’s outer layers, but also the inner layers of the honey bees, acts as a barrier to disease and deters consumption from pests like mites. This is why the Varroa mite is a major concern, as it has figured out a way to break the bees’ exoskeleton to feed, resulting in the feeding of the fat body, but also creating a passageway for secondary diseases.

A new and surprising fact for me was that when bees go through molting, they not only shed their outer layer of exoskeleton but must rip out their internal organs as well. I could not help but think of this one quote from Cynthia Occelli, “For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.” I think there is a lesson here for all of us, that growth can be painful and hard, and at times feel like you’re being ripped apart. But sometimes that is a temporary necessity. I find that once again, honey bees have bestowed a beautiful life lesson for me through simply being.

This is not where chitin’s usefulness ends though. I also learned that chitin waterproofs the bees’ bodies preventing dehydration, and also allows for flight. Honey bees use a method of flying called indirect flight, meaning their wings fuse with the use of hooks called the hamuli and the muscles attached to the thoracic wall contract horizontally and vertically to drive the wings in flight. These muscles are attached to chitin and rely on it for stability and strength. Bees are avid communicators. They dance and waggle to communicate with one another, but also use hairs, also known as setae, that cover their body to perceive the world around them. These setae are composed of you guessed it, chitin. The setae allow for proprioception, meaning a sense of position, movement, and force.
People sitting at lab benches with microscopes. In the foreground a man is standing and interacting with a seated woman. In the background a woman is looking in a microscope and two men are looking at an image displayed by the projector.
The importance of chitin, as explored through the lens of honey bee anatomy and dissection under the guidance of Dr. vanEngelsdorp and Dr. Nearman, acts as a foundational evolutionary development. Its presence in bees not only provides structural integrity and protection but has assisted in the adaptation and evolution of these insects to thrive for millions of years. From the indispensable role it plays in survival and efficiency to the complex role it plays in communication; chitin is an indispensable component to the long-term survival of not only honey bees but all life on earth. All of this information was incredibly exciting for me as a beekeeper. So often I look at bees and focus on the future: how do we keep them healthy, what is our honey flow going to look like, will they make it through the winter? This constant barrage of questions, anxieties, and forward-thinking often leaves little room for thinking of the past. Through taking the time to understand the significance of chitin, both past and present, I gained a deeper insight into the processes that shaped life as we know it and am reminded of the delicate balance within all ecosystems that allows us and other organisms to continue to thrive and endure over time.
 
Works Cited
  1. Elieh-Ali-Komi, D., and M. R. Hamblin. 2016. Chitin and Chitosan: Production and Application of Versatile Biomedical Nanomaterials. International journal of advanced research 4:411–427.
  2. Phylum Arthropoda. (n.d.). Manoa Hawaii. https://manoa.hawaii.edu/exploringourfluidearth/biological/invertebrates/phylum-arthropoda
  3. Capovilla, G., R. Braakman, G. P. Fournier, T. Hackl, J. Schwartzman, X. Lu, A. Yelton, K. Longnecker, M. C. K. Soule, E. Thomas, G. Swarr, A. Mongera, J. G. Payette, K. G. Castro, J. R. Waldbauer, E. B. Kujawinski, O. X. Cordero, and S. W. Chisholm. 2023. Chitin utilization by marine picocyanobacteria and the evolution of a planktonic lifestyle. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 120:e2213271120.
  4. Awramik, S. M. 1992. The oldest records of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis Research 33:75–89.
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Archives

    December 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    February 2021
    May 2020
    June 2018
    May 2018
    June 2017
    May 2017
    October 2016
    May 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    April 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    December 2013

    RSS Feed