Platform for beekeeping practice and know-how

Good beekeeping practice: At the end of July, the beekeeper removes the honey harvested from the super and prepares the colony for winter (feeding and treatments). The previously large colony that occupied both the brood chamber and the super suddenly becomes cramped once the super is removed, and the old forager bees will disappear in the weeks that follow. A simple method makes it possible to give these bees a second life by creating summer nuclei.

by SEAN BAILLY

Aurore Avarguès-Weber from the University of Toulouse and colleagues from Melbourne, Australia, under the direction of Adrian Dyer, have continued to explore the mathematical abilities of bees. They have now shown that bees are capable of addition
and subtraction.

Young bees aged 12–19 days (wax-producing bees)* produce small wax scales using their wax glands, which are located in the last four abdominal segments. The process of wax production is complex.

Insects are not insensitive automatons: bees, wasps, flies, or ants display remarkable cognitive and emotional capacities under laboratory conditions.

Recent experiments suggest that bumblebees may experience optimism, joy, and possibly even pain. These findings raise important ethical questions concerning the treatment of insects in laboratory settings, their breeding, and the use of pesticides.

Laurel is a shrub with aromatic leaves, typical of Mediterranean regions. There are several varieties that adapt well to our climate and flower at different times of the year. It is mainly found in gardens, where it forms attractive hedges thanks to its dense green foliage.

In 2019, it came as a surprise to learn that the Varroa mite does not feed on the bees’ haemolymph but pierces their cuticle in order to ingest the so-called fat body (► see article).

Research is progressing very rapidly, and today it is known that the saliva of the adult Varroa mite allows it to keep the opening it has pierced through the membrane of the nymph or the imago wide open, in order to liquefy and then suck up the fat body. A salivary enzyme (chitinase) appears to reduce the bee’s immune defences and to play an important role in the survival of the Varroa mite … it is therefore natural to envisage blocking this enzyme as a future strategy in the fight against this deadly parasite …

Reconnaître les maladies des abeilles et connaître les méthodes de lutte et de prévention effi caces sont des conditions sine qua non pour garantir la santé des abeilles et pour une bonne pratique apicole. Les maladies se propagent non seulement très rapidement à l’intérieur des ruches en raison des contacts physiques entre ouvrières et de la trophallaxie (échange de nourriture entre abeilles), mais aussi entre les ruches. Les abeilles pouvant voler sur de grandes distances, piller les colonies voisines ou y dériver, le risque qu’un grand nombre de colonies et de ruchers soit touché par une maladie ou une épizootie est important. Si l’on ajoute à cela le déplacement des ruches par l’apiculteur et la haute densité de ruchers en Suisse, la prévention des épizooties et des maladies est encore plus importante chez l’abeille que chez les autres animaux de rente qui peuvent être mis en quarantaine plus facilement.

The Asian hornet is poorly named, since the vast majority of hornets (including our European hornet) originate from Asia. Scientists are more precise and refer to it as Vespa velutina nigrithorax. This Latin designation could be translated as “large wasp, covered with numerous short, silky hairs, with a black thorax”. It belongs to the hymenopteran insects (bearing 4 membranous wings that couple in flight via a series of small hamuli) Apocrita (with a narrow wasp waist). Its portrait is clearly less poetic...

There are several circumstances in which this beekeeping operation is required; however, the most serious case, which calls for the greatest precautions, is American foulbrood. The content of this information sheet therefore focuses on this specific disease.

The major concern of beekeepers at present, in our regions, is the approach of a disease coming from the East […] [known as] varroosis. […] It is a parasite that feeds on the blood of bees, which die from exhaustion. First detected in Siberia, the disease is spreading across the whole of Eurasia; it appeared in Russia, then in Eastern European countries, and has reached the Federal Republic of Germany. France and Switzerland are currently spared. Bees are not imported from countries affected by the scourge, which makes it possible to delay (or even halt?) the advance of the disease.

L’impartial, 23 March 1983.

Winter is receding; nights can still be cold, while days are warm, and a single night of frost can destroy all the blossoms of fruit trees. The warmth of the day and the length of sunshine should not lead to excessive optimism, as several consecutive days of rain can ruin flowering. Caution is therefore required: this is the month when colonies expand rapidly and the main work begins—spring inspection, stimulating comb building, monitoring swarming, and preparing queen rearing.