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  • From: Marty Hanks <marty AT justbeenc.com>
  • To: NaturalBeesinNC AT yahoogroups.com, Orange County Bees <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] Fwd from Ross Conrad: Pavlov Bees?
  • Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2012 09:32:10 -0400

Hey Folks,
 
I just wanted to share the responce to my question about "Pavlov Bees".
 
He is the author of Natural Beekeeeping.
 
cheers,
marty

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ross Conrad <dancingbeegardens AT hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 5:56 PM
Subject: RE: Pavlov Bees?
To: marty AT justbeenc.com


Dear Marty,

It is widely held that hygienic behavior is a trait controlled by genetics...could bees still learn to do this, perhaps though to my knowledge no-one has tried to date, however given that the life-span of the worker bee is so short and that the period in their development where they are geared to working within the hive and being involved in hygienic behavior is 1- 2 weeks at most, training bees to be hygienic would likely have to be an ongoing effort during the spring and summer (the time when mites are most virulent) should it prove even possible.  That said, if someone could train bees to be hygienic then the winter bees would be the ones to work on...but then there is the cold weather that may get in the way.  I like your out of the box thinking though....let me know how your experiments work out should you try to pursue this.

Bees be with you,
Ross Conrad
Dancing Bee Gardens
PO Box 443
Middlebury, VT 05753
www.dancingbeegardens.com
Please Consider Your Impact On The Environment Before Printing This EMail
       
“The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labors,
but because she labors for others”
-Saint John Chrysostom

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Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 08:54:59 -0400
Subject: Pavlov Bees?
From: marty AT justbeenc.com
To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org; NaturalBeesinNC AT yahoogroups.com; dancingbeegardens AT hotmail.com


Hello everyone...Hey again Mr.Conrad,
 
I wanted to share an idea-thought i had yesterday while at Leslie's helping her get set up for her bee package today. I am hoping for some feedback or ideas or links to support this idea.
 
While talking w/ her about how to use Drone frames for varroa control I had a thought about if using drone frames as a regular maintenance aspect of your hive management.... could you actually "teach" the girls to be more hygienic? Now I know that is what "hygienic bees" are supposed to be doing...but what about all the other thousands of colonies that do not have that trait yet. We hope to get there by breeding and sharing good queens, but still knowing that bees have a short life cycle could we not influence the overall colonies behavior by having them "trained" to be more hygienic?  *(the use of "trained or "teach" is just used as a general term to quickly describe my point...i have no disillusionment of circus bees  )*
 
My thought followed this same line....as i have trained my chickens to come when i call or shake a cup of feed...they run across the yard super quick. I started that when they were chicks. We know Pavlov theory works in other animals and most of the time in humans .
 
If Pavlov's "trained response" theory holds true...and we value and recognize our bees as the intelligent species they are.....maybe his theory is onto something ...could we not rotate drawn DRONE comb in and out of a hive, freeze it, scrape just the cappings and make them pull the larvae and varroa out over and over. Over a series of cycles, yes years, could this not help to create faster hygienic traits in our bees all over the world??
 
This could be out ther already...just came to me last night. So any help would be great!
 
THOUGHTS?? 
 
Marty Hanks
Just Bee, Apiaries




--
Marty Hanks
Just Bee, Apiaries
 
 Home of the Orange County Honey Project.
"Created by Artisans....Bottled by Humans"



  • [ocba] Fwd from Ross Conrad: Pavlov Bees?, Marty Hanks, 03/22/2012

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