Module 6 - a few one-point questions

[Mellifera Crofter]

I have a few one-point questions from previous papers that I can't find answers to. They are:

- Name one disadvantage of supersedure.

The examiner did not say from whose point of view - the bees' or the beekeeper's. From the bees' point of view I can't think of any. They have a laying queen although she may be failing, they don't have to face the risks of having to find a new home, and if the new queen doesn't mate successfully - it doesn't really matter. From my point of view, I'm not sure what the bees' intentions are: supersedure or swarming, so I worry - and I don't think that's the answer.

- A queen assesses whether a cell is suitable for a drone or a worker egg using her: ocelli; anterior metatarsals; tibial spurs; proboscis.

She can't see in the dark and she doesn't use her legs (I think that's what the two middle terms are about), so that leaves the proboscis - but does she really use her tongue for that? If it wasn't a pick-the-right-answer question, I probably would have guessed her antennae.

- In a brood nest at its peak size, what are the proportion of eggs to larvae to sealed brood?

and

- What electrical phenomenon affects honey bee dances?

Can anybody help with these, please?
Kitta

[gavin]

Goodness, they're hard. Bear in mind I haven't read any of the coursework, so this is in no way any kind of informed answer .....

1. Disadvantage of supersedure? Maybe it often happens at a time of year with fewer drones around? Or, as you said, the risk of inappropriate off-season swarming?

2. She measures with her legs, but I don't know which of the two middle options is right.

3. Well, the times in the various stages are: 3:6:12 days, so 1:2:4 in a colony at full pelt.

4. Not a scooby.

G.

[Easy beesy]

Can't help with first one but for measuring I would guess at anterior metatarsals - just because they are on the feet rather than legs.

Electrical phenomenon could be magnetic north.

Brood ratio is 1:2:4. (From hooper)

Cx

[Mellifera Crofter]

Thanks Gavin and Easy Beesy. So, I was completely wrong about the way a queen inspects an empty cell. I thought I've seen queens tucking their heads into cells! Thanks for explaining the reason for the ratio - that helps.
Yes, I suppose magnetic north ...
Thanks,
Kitta

[thada1]

wow - that's spooky. I'm practising mod6 papers this morning as well, and have had to resort to google to get answers to exactly the same questions!

I think the electrical phenomenon *could* be weather. Here's a link to to a BeeWorld article in 1976 that explores the effect of electrical charge. It doesn't actually say that the dances are affected, but it certainly seems reasonable that the crackly atmosphere just before a storm might, and bees definitely are sensitive to the weather.

[Black Comb]

I'm not doing Mod 6 but the electrical phenomenon might be a thunderstorm. I.e. an electric storm as they are often called.
It's well known they are bad tempered when thunder's about.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Thanks, Thada and Black Comb. I'll read the paper asap. I did wonder about thunder and lightning but decided against it because I thought it's not foraging weather, and therefore they won't be dancing - or maybe that's the effect: they stopped dancing!
Kitta

[Neils]

Hard to argue against that and I'm scratching my head to think of any other reason why you might view supersedure to be a disadvantage. Ultimately the bees are of the opinion that the queen is deficient and are replacing her; yet in comparison to swarming or emergency replacement it's a fairly benign process so outside of Jon's reasoning I'm struggling to think of any other reason why it might be considered disadvantageous.

[Jon]

In my experience classic supersedure where both queens are present until the newcomer starts to lay is quite rare.
A lot of the time the old queen seems to disappear just after the virgin emerges or before she is even out of the cell.
When this happens in October, the colony is usually writing itself a suicide note.
Some years I get queens mated in October but this year the last ones got mated around 8-10 September.

In spite of what some say, they do try and supersede queens which have not a lot wrong with them. I have removed supersedure cells and had the original queen continue to lay well for another 18 months.

'The bees know best' ?
Not always.

[Neils]

'The bees know best' ?
Not always.

Natural selection, ignoring beekeeper intervention, at its purest. And with beekeeper intervention possible candidacy for the Darwin awards.

If it's a steady-state peak size, then 1:2:4 as Gavin suggested.

Concur. Have a spreadsheet, plus graph that lets you play around with egg laying in a colony. 1:2:4 is very much an 'ideal' and will get you a tick on a one point question.