| Title: | Treatment with synthetic brood pheromone (SuperBoost) enhances honey production and improves overwintering survival of package honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) colonies |
| Author(s): | Lait CG; Borden JH; Kovacs E; Moeri OE; Campbell M; Machial CM; |
| Address: | "Contech Enterprises Inc., 7572 Progress Way, Delta, BC V4G 1E9, Canada" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0022-0493 (Print) 0022-0493 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "We evaluated a year-long treatment regime testing synthetic, 10-component, honey bee, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae), brood pheromone (SuperBoost; Contech Enterprises Inc., Delta, BC, Canada) on the productivity and vigor of package bee colonies in the lower Fraser Valley of British Columbia, Canada. Fifty-eight newlyestablished 1.3-kg (3-lb) colonies treated three times with SuperBoost at 5-wk intervals starting 30 April 2009 were compared with 52 untreated control colonies. Treated colonies produced 84.3% more honey than untreated control colonies. By 8 September 2009, SuperBoost-treated colonies had 35.4% more adults than untreated colonies. By 28 September, net survival of treated and control colonies was 72.4 and 67.3%, respectively. On 5 October, treated and control colonies were divided into two additional groups, making up four cohorts: SuperBoost-treated colonies treated again during fall and spring build-up feeding with pollen substitute diet (BeePro, Mann Lake Ltd., Hackensack, MN; TIT); controls that remained untreated throughout the year (CCC); colonies treated with SuperBoost in spring-summer 2009 but not treated thereafter (TCC); and original control colonies treated with SuperBoost during the fall and spring build-up feeding periods (CTT). There was no difference among cohorts in consumption of BeePro during fall feeding, but TTT colonies (including daughter colonies split off from parent colonies) consumed 50.8% more diet than CCC colonies during spring build-up feeding. By 21 April, the normalized percentages of the original number of colonies remaining (dead colonies partially offset by splits) were as follows: CCC, 31.4%; CTT, 43.8%; TCC, 53.59%; and TTT, 80.0%. The net benefit of placing 100 newly established package bee colonies on a year-long six-treatment regime with SuperBoost would be US$6,202 (US$62.02 per colony). We conclude that treatment with SuperBoost enhanced the productivity and survival of package bee colonies and hypothesize that similar results could be achieved with established colonies" |
| Keywords: | Animals Beekeeping/economics/*methods Bees/growth & development/*physiology *Honey Oregon Pheromones/*pharmacology Population Dynamics Seasons; |
| Notes: | "MedlineLait, Cameron G Borden, John H Kovacs, Ervin Moeri, Onour E Campbell, Michael Machial, Cristina M eng Evaluation Study Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2012/05/23 J Econ Entomol. 2012 Apr; 105(2):304-12. doi: 10.1603/ec11285" |
