What is VSH in beekeeping?
The USDA-ARS Baton Rouge Bee Lab has bred bees that hygienically remove mite-infested pupae from capped worker brood. This ability is called varroa sensitive hygiene, and bees expressing high levels of this behavior are called VSH bees.
Are VSH bees aggressive?
The VSH honey bees are quite aggressive in their pursuit of the mites. The bees gang up, chew and cut through the cap, lift out the infected brood and their mites, and discard them from the broodnest. Mite population growth was significantly lower in VSH and hybrid colonies than in bee colonies without VSH.
What is VSH Italian bee?
VSH (Varroa Sensitive Hygiene) is a trait in honeybees that enables a colony to survive without mite controls. This means that varroa sensitive hygiene queens that are naturally mated to unselected drones will still produce the VSH trait in their offspring.
What are hygienic bees?
By analyzing their behavior, researchers discovered that some bees are capable of detecting the parasite in the cells where it is present. These bees—called hygienic—open the contaminated cells to clean them, sacrificing the developing pupae but controlling the spread of the parasite and preserving the colony.
What are Minnesota hygienic bees?
Minnesota Hygienic Italian Bees. This strain of Italian bees were developed from the research by Dr. Marla Spivak at the University of Minnesota. These bees are bred to have a high degree of hygienic behavior, known to be effective against diseases of the brood such as American foulbrood and chalkbrood.
What is a Buckfast queen?
Buckfast queens are a cross of many species of bees into a stable race developed by “Brother Adam”. He was in charge of beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey, where the bees are still bred today. Buckfast bees are popular among beekeepers and are available from bee breeders from Europe and the UK.
What are Pol line bees?
History and Background of the Pol-line. The Pol-line breeding program was used by the USDA to move VSH traits from the lab into bees that commercial beekeepers would want to use. We tested outcrosses of VSH bees in a large, commercial, migratory beekeeping operation that does much crop pollination.
Are honey bees parasites?
Varroa destructor (Varroa mite) is an external parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on the honey bees Apis cerana and Apis mellifera. The disease caused by the mites is called varroosis….Varroa destructor.
| Varroa mite | |
|---|---|
| Species: | V. destructor |
| Binomial name | |
| Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman, 2000 |
What is a Saskatraz bee?
Saskatraz bees are a bee variety that has been bred to have some really amazing and beneficial traits: They are great honey producers. They resist varroa and tracheal mites. They have a resistance to fungal and viral problems that many beekeepers have experienced in their hives.
Are Buckfast bees good?
The Buckfast bee is popular among beekeepers and is available from bee breeders in Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, France and other places. The Buckfast bees’ qualities are very favourable, sometimes referred to as the beekeepers bee. They are non-aggressive and highly productive.
Why do monks make Buckfast?
The Benedictine monks at Buckfast Abbey first made the tonic wine in the 1890s. It was originally sold in small quantities as a medicine using the slogan “Three small glasses a day, for good health and lively blood”. In 1927, the Abbey lost its licence to sell wine.
What is Varroa Sensitive Hygiene ( VSH ) in bees?
Recently it has been better defined as “varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH).” This is a form of behavior where adult bees remove pupae that have reproductive mites but do not disturb pupae that have mites that produce no progeny. Recent research done under real world beekeeping conditions with Alabama beekeepers clearly show the value of VSH bees.
What makes a VSH bee sensitive to mites?
Recent studies by Dr. Spivak and Dr. Harbo have shown that the VSH trait might be best described as a “varroa sensitive hygienic behavior”. VSH bees remove mites that have started to reproduce. The reproduction of mites triggers their removal by the bees.
Which is better VSH bees or other bees?
Recent research done under real world beekeeping conditions with Alabama beekeepers clearly show the value of VSH bees. The resistance to Varroa mites was significantly better than all other bees in the study without sacrificing honey production. These bees have proven their value to American beekeepers.
Where did the VSH honey bees come from?
VSH bees were originally selected from diverse domestic honeybee colonies in Louisiana and Michigan that showed some degree of mite resistance . They are all American bees. What’s special about these bees?