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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>, Lewis Cauble <lewis.cauble AT ncagr.gov>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Small, ghostly bees
  • Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2017 09:00:07 -0500

John,

The article <here> talks briefly about the VSH "strain"; a little more info from the USDA ARS is <here> and <here>. Jeff Harris, one of the developers of the VSH "strain", spoke at the NCSBA  Spring Meeting in New Bern last year.

FYI, VSH is not derived from Russians. Both VSH and Russians were developed at the USDA Bee Research Lab in Baton Rouge but there wasn't overlap of the two programs. In fact the objective of the Russian program was to produce pure Russian stock. Russians have characteristics that tend to help a bit against Varroa mites but VSH isn't necessarily one of them. If I'm not mistaken, the VSH program, previously called SMR, predates the Russian program by several years.

Randall


On 2/20/2017 8:08 AM, John Rintoul wrote:
3E83C137-B8A8-4438-973D-A5A1A6C88567 AT icloud.com" type="cite">
Randall,
These bees are several generations removed from packages that Bailey's Bee Supply donated in 2015 to populate OCBA's demonstration hives. They've requeened themselves a least 3 times that I am aware of. So their genetic heritage is mixed, but probably mostly Italian.

My personal bees have always been VSH. I installed a new queen installed last year. I assume all VSH queens have predominantly Russian genetics. It is my understanding that the original VSH stock that USDA used to develop VSH queens was Russian. 

The listserv consensus seems to be that the pale, ghost bees in OCBA's hives are simply newly hatched. That's comforting. My personal bees are darker when they hatch. As are the adults. It seems that there is a comparative educational advantage to keeping more than one variety of bees. And an educational advantage to having a active listserv.

John 

On Feb 19, 2017, at 4:30 PM, Randall Austin <s.randall.austin AT gmail.com> wrote:

John,

Do you have Cordovan genetics in your colonies?

Randall


On 2/19/2017 11:31 AM, Todd Walker wrote:
It is just that their hair hasn’t darkened or worn off.

From: John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
Date: Sunday, February 19, 2017 at 11:03 AM
To: Walter Starks <walterstarks AT icloud.com>
Cc: Michael Todd Walker <mtwalker AT imageray.net>, Lewis Cauble <lewis.cauble AT ncagr.gov>, Randall Austin <s.randall.austin AT gmail.com>, Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [ocba] Small, ghostly bees

They seemed too small and they had funny eyes. But maybe it’s just been too long since I’ve seen new bees.


On Feb 19, 2017, at 10:58 AM, Walter Starks <walterstarks AT icloud.com> wrote:

Me too. What sort of deformity are you seeing?

______

Walter


You never can tell with bees. ~ Winnie-the-Pooh

On Feb 19, 2017, at 10:52 AM, Todd Walker <mtwalker AT imageray.net> wrote:

They look like young, newly emerged bees to me.

From: ocba <ocba-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org> on behalf of John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
Date: Sunday, February 19, 2017 at 10:47 AM
To: Lewis Cauble <lewis.cauble AT ncagr.gov>, Randall Austin <s.randall.austin AT gmail.com>
Cc: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [ocba] Small, ghostly bees

Lewis and Randall,

I inspected the 2 OCBA demonstration hives at Carrboro High School yesterday. Varroa counts were 0 and 2. These hives were treated twice last fall. First with thymol (Apiguard). But a post treatment varroa test indicated that the varroa count was still too high so I retreated with formic (MAQS). 

In the hive with 0 varroa I found several small, deformed, ghost bees (see below). Clearly there is something going on. I suspect that these ghost bees didn’t overwinter. Last fall’s varroa treatments knocked down the varroa numbers, but some deforming disease appears to have survived the winter.

I would welcome comments from OCBA’s Master Beekeepers and varroa experts on what might be going on and a best guess as to the prognosis for this hive. Brood pattern and quantity was good. Bee coverage was good, so I am cautiously optimistic. But if there is something that I need to do to eliminate being overrun by ghost bees, let me know.

Thanks.


John Rintoul
(919) 414-4071 (M)

No trees or bees were killed in the distribution of this message, but countless electrons were seriously inconvenienced.

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