Honey Bee Temperament by: Mark Headings
Differences in temperament between honey bee colonies must certainly have been observed and experienced by most beekeepers. When working with my own colonies, it does not take long for me to discover which have a stronger aversion to my presence. From the human standpoint, one of the negative aspects of honey bees is getting stung. It is probably a greater concern for the general public and new beekeepers than for those of us more experienced in the craft. I recall an old-time beekeeper once telling me that he occasionally spoke to school children about honey bees. One of the frequently asked questions was, 'Do you get stung?' His reply would be, 'Well, when you go swimming, do you get wet?' Of course, to the experienced beekeeper, getting some stings is not of great concern as long as the number does not exceed his or her own acceptable threshold. I have been keeping bees for nearly 18 years and can attest that there is a limit to the number of stings that I am prepared to tolerate without uttering some choice verbal comments and making rapid, drastic changes in my behavior.
When I first considered becoming a beekeeper, I decided I would begin in a big way. Therefore, rather than start with one or two colonies, I began with 15. I purchased 15 three-pound packages of bees with beautiful, golden, hybrid queens. They were placed in new equipment on undrawn foundation. All 15 of these hives were lined up in a straight row, and all painted a beautiful white color. The colonies all flourished, and for a new beekeeper, they seemed reasonably docile. I had heard that when this strain of hybrid queen was superseded, the new queen could be more aggressive. I later learned that was an understatement. By about the second or third year, I noticed that one colony on one end of the row had become very aggressive. For a new beekeeper, this was my version of a 'killer bee' colony. I believed the original queen had been superseded although I cannot recall verifying that. The original queens were painted so it would have been easy to confirm. I wore a veil zipped to my bee suit along with gloves. In spite of being well-protected and using smoke when opening up the hive, the bees from that colony would stream out and attack me as if I were the single worst enemy they had ever encountered. I would soon discover bees inside my suit and veil and marvel at how they got in. The wonder would soon turn to panic once I realized I had become a living pincushion. With the veil and suit tightly zipped together, it was not easy to run and quickly shed that cocoon.
One Spring day, I decided to split that colony, and not once, but twice. In so doing, I thought I could really weaken the colony. At that stage, it had reached a point of revenge more than anything else. I was once again severely punished by the bees in the process of splitting the colony. Once the job was finished, I had this sense of having gained the upper hand and having conquered the 'beast.' What I discovered later was that the bees had the last laugh.
At that time, my children had some pet chickens in an outdoor pen 100 feet or more from this 'killer bee' colony. What I did not realize when splitting that colony was that I was not the only recipient of their aggression. They also flew to the pen and began to vent their anger on those helpless chickens. It was later that evening when I asked my daughter to go with me to help catch the chickens and put them in cages that I realized what had happened.
Upon approaching the pen, I could see that some type of catastrophe had occurred. A couple of the chickens were dead, a couple more had their heads hanging down, and several others were still running around. Upon inspecting the chickens more closely, I noticed that the heads of those affected were covered with bee stings. There were also soft-shelled eggs which had been aborted lying on the ground. We caught the ones that had been severely attacked, but were still alive, and began removing the stings from their heads, one by one, with a forceps. I estimated 30 stings per head. We then gave the chickens an oral dose of Benadryl and placed them in cages. They survived and began laying eggs again within a week or two.
I realized that I could have changed the temperament of that colony when I first discovered it by killing the old queen and installing a new one. However, beekeepers are human, and I had put off doing what I knew should have been done. The genetics of the queen is key to the disposition of the entire colony.
The Africanized honey bee Apis mellifera adonsinii is well-noted for its aggressive behavior. Guzman and Page reported that hybrid workers (Africanized and European descent) were as strongly defensive as 'pure' Africanized colonies. It would appear that the strong defensive behavior of Africanized bees is genetically dominant. An investigation by Villa demonstrated that bees from Africanized colonies stung twice as fast and left eight times more stings than those from European colonies. A study of the guarding behavior of bees from colonies exhibiting high and low defensive responses led Breed and Rogers to conclude that guarding behavior is at least partially controlled by genetics. Needless to say, factors other than genetics may also sporadically affect aggressiveness, such as environmental conditions and the availability of floral food sources. As a casual observation during my beekeeping years, I would say that the more aggressive colonies I have encountered have also tended to be good honey producers.
Requeening colonies every year with young queens from known genetic stock is a good practice to follow in order to alter the overall temperament of your bees. It's also good for your chickens.
Mark Headings
References
Breed, M.D. & K.B. Rogers. 1991. The Behavioral Genetics of Colony Defense in Honeybees Genetic Variability for Guarding Behavior. Behavior Genetics 21 (3): 295-304.
Guzman, Novoa E. & R.E. Page Jr. 1994. Genetic Dominance and Worker Interactions Affect Honeybee Colony Defense. Behavioral Ecology 5 (1): 91-97.
Taber, Steve. 1987. Honey Bee Temper. Gleanings in Bee Culture 115 (3): 167-168.
Villa J.D. 1988. Defensive Behavior of Africanized and European Honeybees at Two Elevations in Colombia. Journal of Apicultural Research 27 (3): 141-145.
Mark Headings is an associate professor at the OH State Univ. Agricultural Technical Institute, Wooster, OH.
Return
|
