1. Miscellaneous standard methods for Apis mellifera research
- Author
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Geoffrey R. Williams, Eva Forsgren, Josef P Magyar, James D. Ellis, Ursula Strauss, David R. Tarpy, Asli Özkýrým, Vincent Dietemann, Galen P. Dively, Jerzy Wilde, Gina Tanner, Christian Walter Werner Pirk, Robyn Rose, Jozef J. M. van der Steen, Fani Hatjina, Robert Brodschneider, Fuliang Hu, Angela Köhler, Annette Bruun Jensen, Ingemar Fries, Hannelie Human, Rodolfo Jaffé, Huoqing Zheng, Anthony D. Vaudo, and Fleming Vejsnæs
- Subjects
Beekeeping ,COLOSS BEEBOOK ,natural conditions ,immobilising bees ,hive weight ,Zoology ,developmental stages ,Biology ,carbon-dioxide ,greatheadii var. davyana ,colony density ,Honey Bees ,nosema-ceranae ,marking and clipping queens ,Memory formation ,bee weight ,microinjection ,dead bee traps ,low-temperature narcosis ,varroa-jacobsoni oud ,killing bees ,haemocytometer ,Ecology ,digital recognition ,fungi ,Entomology & Disease Management ,honey-bee workers ,Honey bee ,Standard methods ,Individual level ,biology.organism_classification ,Nosema ceranae ,Brood ,collecting pollen and nectar ,storing bees ,drone congregation ,Insect Science ,nutritional content ,behavior and behavior mechanisms ,Environmental Technology ,Milieutechnologie - Abstract
A variety of methods are used in honey bee research and differ depending on the level at which the research is conducted. On an individual level, the handling of individual honey bees, including the queen, larvae and pupae are required. There are different methods for the immobilising, killing and storing as well as determining individual weight of bees. The precise timing of developmental stages is also an important aspect of sampling individuals for experiments. In order to investigate and manipulate functional processes in honey bees, e. g. memory formation and retrieval and gene expression, microinjection is often used. A method that is used by both researchers and beekeepers is the marking of queens that serves not only to help to locate her during her life, but also enables the dating of queens. Creating multiple queen colonies allows the beekeeper to maintain spare queens, increase brood production or ask questions related to reproduction. On colony level, very useful techniques are the measurement of intra hive mortality using dead bee traps, weighing of full hives, collecting pollen and nectar, and digital monitoring of brood development via location recognition. At the population level, estimation of population density is essential to evaluate the health status and using beelines help to locate wild colonies. These methods, described in this paper, are especially valuable when investigating the effects of pesticide applications, environmental pollution and diseases on colony survival.
- Published
- 2013
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