Bee Vectoring with the Protectabee™

Bee Vectoring with the Protectabee™
By: Erica Shelley , Tasmin Brown, Aparna Karthikeyan, Nicole Gauvreau, and Peter Kevan

They are saying that necessity is the mom of invention. Within the pursuit of creating new know-how that might allow bees to hold doubtlessly helpful fungal powders into their hives, we created a completely new product that addresses a number of issues in trendy beekeeping.

The unique purpose of the joint analysis undertaking between Finest for Bees and Dr. Peter Kevan’s staff on the College of Guelph was to reveal that bees might carry powders right into a beehive. Apivectoring, also referred to as bee vectoring, was pioneered by Dr. Kevan and associates 20 years in the past. Pest and disease-fighting fungal powders coat honey bees or bumblebees as they exit the hive. The bees then ship the fungus to the focused crops’ flowers throughout common pollination visits. Bee vectoring is now being carried out efficiently to fight pests and illnesses of a number of kinds of crops.

Determine 1
Bee vectoring (inspensing) illustration with the Protectabee outlines a bee getting back from forage, strolling by way of powder, and spreading powder all through the hive.
Illusration by Cara Ward

Honey bees additionally battle with many pests and illnesses of their very own, together with Varroa mites, foulbrood illnesses, and small hive beetle. Dr. Kevan acknowledged the potential of bee vectoring to fight threats inside the hive. The method of transferring powders into the colony, which his staff coined inspensing (Fig. 1) (whereas outspensing refers to vectoring to crops), is difficult as bees are very environment friendly at cleansing out overseas supplies. Making a system that might outsmart the bees and successfully transfer powders inside the hive proved difficult.

At first of 2020, Dr. Kevan enlisted the companies of a personal analysis firm, Finest for Bees, to supervise analysis and growth of the “inspenser.” Preliminary trials with a ramp-based prototype utilized in prior research had been lower than passable.

Because the two-year funded undertaking relied on a profitable system, Dr. Erica Shelley, founder and CEO of Finest for Bees, acknowledged that a completely new system was required. Borrowing from old-time bee escape boards utilizing cones to direct bees away from honey supers, she realized that incorporating a separate entrance and exit on the entrance of the hive could possibly be devised. Nevertheless, the bees might simply bypass the powder by strolling above it contained in the system. After engineering many prototypes, she found a design that solved the issue and christened it the Protectabee.

The analysis staff then got down to decide if the Protectabee would allow the bees to unfold the powder all through the hive effectively. Bee transport of the powder was tracked through microscopic fluorescent beads in a provider powder. In six hours or much less, the bees emptied the powder from the drawer (Fig. 2). Utilizing microscopy and UV gentle, the researchers decided {that a} minimal of 80% of the comb contained fluorescent powder (Fig. 3a).

Determine 2
Earlier than: 45ml of provider powder + fungi (B. bassiana) added to drawer. After: 6 hours after including the drawer to a beehive. Rice is used as a desiccant to maintain powder dry.

Determine 3a
Share of comb samples with fluorescence twenty-four hours after including fluorescent microbeads and provider powder to Protectabee drawer.

With proof of idea and a functioning system, the researchers set their websites onto vectoring antibiotics and fungi.

Antibiotics are used prophylactically to push back American and European foulbrood earlier than potential an infection. Ontario’s really useful Spring software is to sprinkle the antibiotic/powdered sugar mixture on prime of the brood frames thrice, two weeks aside, at the least 4 weeks earlier than the principle honey stream. This timing will be difficult for beekeepers who reside in chilly or moist climates, to not point out labor-intensive.

As one of many wettest summers on report in Ontario, making use of antibiotics contained in the hives was a relentless battle. Nevertheless, a bonus of the Protectabee is that the drawer will be pre-loaded earlier than arriving on the apiary and easily slid into the system’s entrance with out being impacted by opposed climate.

The analysis staff decided that the Protectabee delivers dosages of antibiotics that correspond to concentrations of typical functions (Fig. 3b). These findings are thrilling because the Protectabee affords a completely new and straightforward strategy to administer antibiotics effectively right into a hive.

Determine 3b
Share of comb samples with oxytetracycline twenty-four hours after including Oxytet and provider powder to Protectabee drawer.

The largest menace to bees in lots of elements of the world is the Varroa destructor mite. The mite feeds on younger larvae, transmitting illnesses that weaken the hive. Overtreatment has led to widespread resistance to traditional miticides. Growing a simple and efficient mite management is without doubt one of the larger targets of the Protectabee undertaking. Attainable candidates for mite management embody fungi that act as parasites of bugs. Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium brunneum are two soil fungi that may infect Varroa mites.

Botanigard, a commercially accessible organic insecticide permitted for bee vectoring in greenhouses in Canada, makes use of B. bassiana to guard strawberries in opposition to thrips, a problematic insect. Might the Protectabee successfully distribute Botanigard all through a beehive, and wouldn’t it lower Varroa mites? Certainly, the fungus was efficiently disseminated to about 50% of larvae utilizing a single software of Botanigard with the Protectabee. Sadly, though mite drop elevated instantly after software, Botanigard didn’t scale back Varroa mites long run when utilized as a single dose (Fig. 4). These findings are usually not stunning as the nice and cozy and humid setting inside a beehive isn’t optimum for B. bassiana development.

Determine 4
Common mite counts had been decided earlier than therapy utilizing an alcohol wash (zero weeks) and at two weeks and 4 weeks post-treatment of Botanigard (B. bassiana) or no therapy (management).

Figuring out a technique for efficiently introducing fungi into beehives utilizing bee vectoring holds promise for the long run. Researchers at Washington State College just lately recognized a variant of Metarhizium that successfully controls Varroa mites and is healthier suited to environmental situations inside a hive (1). As soon as the Metarhizium pressure has acquired approval, the fungi might fight mites using the Protectabee and provider powder as a supply system. This mix could possibly be a simple and efficient methodology to enhance honey bee well being.

Bee vectoring affords an progressive methodology to introduce well being enhancing powders into beehives with the extra advantages of decreased labor and heavy lifting, the power to use remedies in opposed climate situations, and decreased hive disruption.

To study extra about Protectabee and ongoing analysis, go to our web site at bestforbees.com. The Protectabee might be launching on Indiegogo in February 2022.

References
1. Han, J.O., Naeger, N.L., Hopkins, B.Okay. et al. Directed evolution of Metarhizium fungus improves its biocontrol efficacy in opposition to Varroa mites in honey bee colonies. Sci Rep 11, 10582 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89811-2