A successful method of mass marking honey bees,<i>Apis mellifera</i>, at the hive entrance for field experiments

Howpage, Daya; Spooner-Hart, Robert; Sheehy, J E

doi:10.1080/00218839.1998.11100960

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…This method for mass-marking bees enables far more bees to be marked than in previous experiments; potentially thousands of workers, and is analogous to the powder dye techniques described for honeybees by Dhaliwal and Sharma (1973) and Howpage et al (1998). However, it is limited to a colony-or day-specific colour and it is inappropriate for experiments where individual bees need to be identified, for example using paint marks or coloured/numbered plastic tags (e.g.…”

Section: Dye Dispensersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The dye dispenser module was housed in an identical drilled plastic box, and was adapted from designs used for marking honeybees with similar dye powder (Boylan-Pett et al, 1991;Howpage et al, 1998). An open-topped Perspex ® chamber, with muslin stretched across its base, was placed in the plastic box and supported so that there was a 6 mm gap beneath it, allowing just enough space for bees to crawl underneath.…”

Section: Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To examine further the relationship between bumblebee nesting sites and forage use, a method for marking larger numbers of foragers is required; hence our design of a powder dye dispenser to mark bumblebees as they leave the colony without disturbing them. Powder dye dispensers have been used on honeybee colonies (Howpage et al, 1998) but to our knowledge, no design has been reported for use on bumblebee colonies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A modular system for trapping and mass-marking bumblebees: applications for studying food choice and foraging range

et al. 2006

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-Two new techniques for the study of bumblebee behavioural ecology are described. Interchangeable nest entrance modules allow (i) unimpeded bee traffic, (ii) trapping of incoming foragers for counting and removal of pollen loads; or (iii) colour marking of bees leaving the colony using dye powder. The forager traps captured all returning foragers while in place and 35% of them were carrying pollen loads. During the four week experiment, the percentage of mixed pollen loads decreased and the proportion of pollen loads from mass-flowering resources increased. The dye dispensers automatically marked 86% of foragers as they left the colony (approximately 28 bees per hour), and 37% of returning bees were marked. Different colours were used for bees in each colony, which could then be observed in the field.Bombus / pollen collection / mark-reobservation / foraging patterns / mass marking / experimental device

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Section: Dye Dispensersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A modular system for trapping and mass-marking bumblebees: applications for studying food choice and foraging range

et al. 2006

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“…Such a high pollen : ovule ratio in kiwifruit (2 x 10 3 : 1) is characteristic of wind pollinated plants (Faegri & van der Pijl 1979). Special structural features in the kiwifruit pistil seem to be adaptations to overcome poor pollination and over pollination in some stigmatic arms resulting from insect and wind vectors (Howpage et al 1998a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of honey bee (Apis mellifera) on kiwifruit pollination and fruit quality under Australian conditions

Howpage¹,

Spooner-Hart

Vithanage

2001

New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science

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The influence of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) pollination of kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa (A.Chev.) C.F. Liang et A.R. Ferguson) under different pollination regimes (viz. honey bee supplementation, honey bee saturation in a cage with a single male cultivar, and honey bee exclusion) was investigated under Australian conditions during 1993/94 and 1995/96 seasons. Vines that had no access to honey bees had significantly (P 0.01) lower fruit set (24%) compared to honey bee supplementation (91%) and bee saturation (89%). The mean yield (kg/vine) and the mean number of fruit/ vine in bee-supplemented and bee-saturated treatments did not differ significantly, although vines that were excluded from honey bees produced significantly (P 0.01) lower yields. However, individual fruit weight in the bee-saturated treatments was affected. There were significantly more small fruit in bee-saturated vines than in vines that were supplementary pollinated by honey bees. Bee activity as assessed by the number of bee visits on flowers (bees/vine per min) was significantly higher on male vines than female vines during the first 2 weeks of the flowering period. Honey bees were the main contributor to pollination and fruit set, although low numbers of other potential insect pollinators such as ladybird beetles and hover flies were also observed. The mean seed numbers in comparable fruit from higher weight groupings (i.e., 70-89, 90-109, and 110 g) in bee-supplemented and bee-saturated vines did not differ significantly, suggesting adequate pollination and fertilisation of ovules in these two treatments. Vines that were caged with a single male cultivar produced fruit with significantly higher (P 0.01) total soluble solids concentration than did those that were honey bee supplemented. Possible reasons for the reduced mean fruit weight under honey bee saturation are discussed.

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“…Simultaneously mass marking honey bees at different locations and then monitoring their dispersal is problematic. Many devices have been developed over the past half-century for marking bees ( Smith and Townsend 1951 ; Dhaliwal and Sharma 1972 ; Howpage et al 1998 ; Martin et al 2006 ). Generally, these devices facilitated the self-marking of bees with a single type of mark as they exited the hive.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Method for Distinctly Marking Honey Bees,Apis mellifera, Originating from Multiple Apiary Locations

Hagler¹,

Mueller²,

Teuber³

et al. 2011

Journal of Insect Science

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Inexpensive and non-intrusive marking methods are essential to track natural behavior of insects for biological experiments. An inexpensive, easy to construct, and easy to install bee marking device is described in this paper. The device is mounted at the entrance of a standard honey bee Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) hive and is fitted with a removable tube that dispenses a powdered marker. Marking devices were installed on 80 honey bee colonies distributed in nine separate apiaries. Each device held a tube containing one of five colored fluorescent powders, or a combination of a fluorescent powder (either green or magenta) plus one of two protein powders, resulting in nine unique marks. The powdered protein markers included egg albumin from dry chicken egg whites and casein from dry powdered milk. The efficacy of the marking procedure for each of the unique markers was assessed on honey bees exiting each apiary. Each bee was examined, first by visual inspection for the presence of colored fluorescent powder and then by egg albumin and milk casein specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Data indicated that all five of the colored fluorescent powders and both of the protein powders were effective honey bee markers. However, the fluorescent powders consistently yielded more reliable marks than the protein powders. In general, there was less than a 1% chance of obtaining a false positive colored or protein-marked bee, but the chance of obtaining a false negative marked bee was higher for “protein-marked” bees.

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A successful method of mass marking honey bees,Apis mellifera, at the hive entrance for field experiments

Cited by 7 publications

References 11 publications

A modular system for trapping and mass-marking bumblebees: applications for studying food choice and foraging range

A modular system for trapping and mass-marking bumblebees: applications for studying food choice and foraging range

Influence of honey bee (Apis mellifera) on kiwifruit pollination and fruit quality under Australian conditions

A Method for Distinctly Marking Honey Bees,Apis mellifera, Originating from Multiple Apiary Locations

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