Читать книгу Honey Bee Medicine for the Veterinary Practitioner - Группа авторов - Страница 36

Bait hives are a ready method for beekeepers to incorporate wild honey bees and their genes into their apiaries (Figure 1.8). A queen honey bee of local origin is well suited to an ecoregion or ecotype and has genes that provide a good fit with the local floral diversity, regional environmental conditions (including extremes of temperature, humidity, drought, etc.), and agents of disease.

A wonderful example of the adaptation of honey bees to their locale is the ecotype of A. mellifera that lives in the Landes heathlands of southwestern France (Louveaux 1973). The Landes bees have evolved to have a brood cycle with an unusual, second peak of brood production in August, just in time for the bloom of ling heather (Calluna vulgaris) in the Landes landscape. It is interesting to note that when Louveaux moved Paris honey bees to Landes, the Paris bees kept ahead (in colony weight gain, pollen collection, and brood production) of the Landes bees until the middle of July. Up to that point, the Landes bees had trailed behind the Paris bees because the Paris bees had reared more brood in May and June. In August, however, all the colonies of the Landes bees had a second burst of young bees emerging shortly before the heather bloom and by the end of summer these colonies had collected an astonishing 14 kg more honey than the colonies of Paris bees (Louveaux 1973).

Figure 1.8 Bait hives are small nest boxes that are filled with empty comb and sometimes lures or attractants (lemon grass oil or Nasanov pheromone). During the swarm season (May to June in the northeastern United States), scout bees search out and select bait hives during house hunting behaviors. Wild honey bees are well adapted to Varroa and often fare much better than managed bees. Therefore, bait hives are a simple means for the acquisition of locally adapted honey bee stock when they are used in places where there are few beekeepers.