Butler, C. G.

English

Rothamsted Repository

Bee Department (1948)Rothamsted Report for 1947 pp 1Thank you for using eradoc, a platform to publish electronic copies of the Rothamsted Documents. Your requesteddocument has been scanned from original documents. If you find this document is not readible, or you suspect thereare some problems, please let us know and we will correct that.Rothamsted Report for 1947Full Table of ContentBee DepartmentC. G. ButlerBee Department, C. G. Butler (1948) Rothamsted Report For 1947, pp 60 - 62 - DOI:https://doi.org/10.23637/ERADOC-1-89- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.60BEE DEPARTMENTBy C. G. ButrnOn tst October, 19,16, the advisory work and disease diagnosis,including the examination of sample brood combs submitted underthe Foul Brood Disease of Bees Order, that has in the past beencarried out by members of the Bee Research Department, was takenover by the National Agricultural Advisory Service o{ the Ministryof Agriculture and Fisheries. This advisory work is now beingcontinued and extended by the N.A.A.S. bee-keeping officers underthe supervision of Mr. P. S. Milne, who had previously been lookingafter {his part of the Bee Department's work. This bee-keepingunit of the N-A.A.S. is at present sited at Rothamsted alongside tieBee Department the members of which, having been released fromadvisory work, are now able to devote all their energies to research.This, then, is the first report of the Bee Deprrtment in recentyears tr which no mention is made of advisory work carried out bymembers of the Department. The resignation ol Mr. Milne fromthe Rotharnsted staff and the transference o{ the advisory work tothe N.A.A.S., together with the removal o{ the Bee Department toRothamsted Lodge, have necessitated a thorough reorganisation.As a result it has been possible, almost for the first time, to Plan anumber of long term researches in the knowledge that the adventof an unexpected amount of advisory work will not in future beIikely to u'pset the protrarnme and"necessitate abandonment ofwork that has been commenced.PoLLEN coEEcnNc BEEAl.rouR oF EoNEYBEESDuring the summer of 1947 C. R. Ribbands made observationson the behaviour of honeybees when collecting pollen and, to alesser extent, nectar, in a specially planted garden of Shfuley Poppies,Eschscholtzias and Nasturtiums, from all three of which the beescollected pollen only, and Limnanthes and Nemophila, whichyielded both nectar and pollen. The bees were anaesthetised andmarked in such a way that individuals could readily be recognisedand their movements recorded from day to day,It was concluded that foraging honeybees exhibit a pattem oftrial and error learning of considerable complexity. They comparethe ease of obtaining a load from the flowers which they haPPen tobe working with their memory of tle ease with which they haveobtained loads from the same and other sources in the past, andcontinually choose the best of those altemative crops with whichthey become acquainted.A paper describing this work in full has been prepared forpublication (135).TEE EFFECT oF ANAESIIIETICS UPON FoRAGING BEEAYIOURIn an investigation of methods of anaesthetising and markingb€€s C. R. Ribbands has found that chloroform is a very satisfactoryanaesthetic for bees and does not a.fiect either their memory orbehaviour. Ilowever, pollen collectiog bees that are anaesthetisedwith either carbon dioxide or nitrogen usually cease to collect pollenand harvest only nectar. If b€€s that have been collecting from aplant which yields both nectar and pollen are anaesthetised withBee Department (1948)Rothamsted Report for 1947 pp 26lcarbon dioxide or nitrogen they frequently return on recgvery t9the same Dlant. but henceforth collect nectar only from it' It lshoned to siutlv the efiects of these anaesthetics in detail dffirg 194tt'Tde results tirat have so far been obtained sqgest that carbondioxide oroduces a phvsiologicat change in the bee (possibly assueeeste& bv V. B. li'idslesworth by reducing the rate of oxidationotiiid metitolites) whiih is equivalent to ageing. This.hypothesisis compatible wit6 O. Mackensen's discovery that if viryin orinsemiriated queen bees are anaesthetised with carbon dioxide it."a"""t tt" p"tiod ttt"t elapses prior to the commencement ofoviposition.PoLLEN TRAPPINGThe studv of the floral sources from which bees obtain theiroollen has bten continued bv J. SimPson. In addition to dailyto ections of pollen. bv means of a pollen trap, from a colony atRothamsted, iveekly collections weri made by means.of similartraDs at a number oi outside centres. The work of identffication ofthe^ pollens collected is not yet comPlete but the results that havebeen obtained so far show several interesting features.At Rothamsted bv far the greatest yields of pollen were obtainedfrom charlock and red cloverl Betw&n 27th ll{ay and 26th June80 oer cent. of the oollen came from charlock, while from lst to lTthAu'eust oracticallv^nothing but red clover pollen was collected' In.on"tr".d to this siarcely a-ny potlen was collected from white clover.i """ ti-" durins tgi7. iiese features were also shown, thoughto a iesser degree,"in the data obtained from other southern areasr"h"re trappinlg was carried out' On the other hand in a trap inYorkshire^ i ionsiderable amount of white clover pollen wasobtained, but little red clover pollen.Considerable quantities of pollen were also obtained in someareas from unexpicted sources.- In June large quantities of SrassDollen were obtaihed in Essex, while in Loodon at about the samefume orivet and chestnut were important sources of pollen'Oiantities of mixed loaals conaaining pollen and fungal sporesweri collected on several occasions, which suggests that fungus wasattacking the flowers {rom which the pollen was gathered'TEE possIBLE EARMFUL EFrEcr oF vARlous ITERBICTDES oNIIONEYBEESExDeriments desimed to discover any possibte effect of therecentlv develooed ielective herbicides on pollinating insects'oarticdlarlv on ihe honevbee, were commenced by G' D' Gtynneiot". in IiIav. 1947. li preliminary laboratory exPeriments thei*o "hormoie tv'pe" herbicides, M.C.P.A' (Lmethyl-4-cl orophel.r-oxvacetic acral -aird D.C.P.A. (2:4 Di<hloro-phenoxy--ac'e-tic acid)were not found to act as contact poisons to the honeybee but theycan act as stomach poisons. Dilitro-ortho-cresol and its sodiumsalt were found to be highly toxic to the honeybee h1!'1'tont""tand stomach poisons. DNOC and especialty sodium dinitro-ortho-cresvlate hav6 been found to be repellent to the foraging houeybee'In dlasshouse experiments a I per-cent. solution of sodium dinitro-ortto-cresvlate ias found to & sufrciently repe[ent to Prevent ahungry b& from feeding uPon sugar synrp to which it had beenadded.Bee Department (1948)Rothamsted Report for 1947 pp 382Preliminary freld experiments have indicated that ooisonine ofbees may be - anticipatid if the DNOC compoutrds ir" "*li t.destroy charlock whilst it is actually in flower.-SutpsoNeuroB TREATMENT FoR AuERTCAN Four, BnoooWork on the use of sulphonamides for the treatment of coloniesinfected with American Foul Brood has been continued bv p- S-Milne. It would seem that tbes€ drugs are unlikely to proie to beof such value in cases of this disease as had been h6ped:Anurr ser DTsEASESA study is being made on the distribution o{ Nosema andAmoeba diseases. There is evidence that the incidence of Nosemidisease has increased considerably. A further ""*eu of in"distribution of Acarine disease is a6o being made.BEE BREEDINGThanks to the discovery by Laidlaw of a new valve in theitalia of the queen honeybee and modiEcation by Mackensen andgeni  --and v cLu"r"" ""JRoberts of lVatson's,technique of instrumental irisemination, it iinow possible -to produce inieminated queens wtrictr are as saiis-factory in their behaviour as naturally mated ones. This techniouehas been studied in deta"il at Rothanrsted during I94Z and is nbwbeing applied successfully. The way now appe;rs to be omn tomake a determined attempt to breed improvid strains of bies fort such purposes as the production of honey from various croDs. thepollination of specific seed crops such as red clover, wax prodirction,etc- It is intended to expa.od ihis work as quicklv ina as;.i;ir.i;as possible. Artificial insemination of queen beis will undoubtecll'vprove to be a most useful tool in the soiution of many problems iibee research.Tre rnrrcts oF wEATHER coNDITIoNS upoN HoNEyBEE AcrlvtryA study has now been made of the data obtained from thecolonies of bees tbat have been kept on balances durine the la_sitwenty years. This material is now-being prepared for puilication,Otrrpn srunrrsObservations have also been made on the methods of conmunic-tion practised by honeybees, home-finding and orientation, coionybalance, etc.Bee Department (1948)Rothamsted Report for 1947 pp 4

Report of the Bee Department 1947

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Report of the Bee Department 1947

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