Review: Strange and Calderone. (2009). Journal of Economic Entomology, 102: 485-492

Written: August 6, 2009

Posted: 08/06/09

Word count: 741

Question: Do different package suppliers provide the same thing?

Answer: Yes, but buyer still beware…

There are three main ways that one can start a colony from scratch. First, you can buy an established colony from another beekeeper. Usually in the form of a five-frame nucleus colony (‘nuc’), such an approach really enables the bees to hit the ground running—they already have a healthy population of not only adults but brood, the wax comb is already constructed, and presumably they already have honey and pollen food stores. It is not uncommon for nucs purchased in the early spring to become strong enough to yield a decent honey crop that same year. The downside to such an approach, however, is that they cost more than their alternatives and you want to be sure to purchase from a reputable beekeeper (lest you may not only inherit their bees, but their disease problems as well!).

Second, and at the other end of the spectrum, you can be opportunistic and capture a wayward swarm of bees. While in transit to a new home, a swarm cluster can often land on a tree branch that is easily accessible for beekeepers to simply shaking into some empty equipment. Once they are introduced, they almost always move right in. While free bees in the trees is very cost effective for the beekeeper, there are some downsides: you can’t predict when or where you might be able to get your hands on a swarm, and having no brood or food stores, it will take additional time for the colony to start growing again.

The intermediate approach, and one that has been common apicultural practice for decades, is to purchase a so-called ‘package’ of bees. Typically consisting of three pounds of adult workers (approximately 9,000 bees) and a caged queen, packaged bees mimic a swarm in some ways (i.e., they need some time to build up) but they have some of the benefits of an established colony (i.e., they can be purchased on the beekeepers time schedule and they are of known genetic stock). As such, their cost is usually intermediate as well, and most beekeepers start their very first hives this way.

Many large-scale commercial operations sell packaged bees in the spring. Each has subtle differences among them (e.g., genetic stock, packaging, type of queen cage, etc…), but overall they are similar in the key aspects of having the critical worker population and a mated queen. That said, it is unclear if variation in package quality has any bearing on the success of the resultant colony. It is this question that Jamie Strange and Nick Calderone at Cornell University recently addressed.

Their experimental design was fairly straight forward: they ordered eight packages from each of four different commercial sources and established them into standard equipment following normal protocols. They then measured the packages and the colonies over the course of a season to see how well they performed. They measured all sorts of factors in the packages, including the levels of varroa and tracheal mites, nosema spores, and adult populations. Similarly, they measured the colonies for parasite levels, supersedure rates of the queens, hygienic behavior, and weight gain.

The researchers found that there were no major differences among the different package sources, even though there were significant differences in various measures across the 48 packages tested. Moreover, there were few effects of package conditions on the final condition of the colony. For example, packages that had nosema were no different in their weight gains as those that did not have any nosema. Thus they conclude that most packages are comparable to one another.

That said, it is important to realize that when purchasing a package, just like in purchasing a five-frame nuc, the beekeeper must recognize that the bees are still coming from another beekeeper and therefore may be carrying more than just stomachs full of honey. Packages can harbor nosema, varroa mites, or even AFB spores that you don’t necessarily want to introduce into your operation. Thus as in all transactions of live bees, you need to be fairly vigilant about what you’re buying and take action where necessary.

Reference

Strange, J. P. and N. W. Calderone. (2009). Evaluation of apicultural characteristics of first-year colonies initiated from packaged honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Journal of Economic Entomology, 102: 485-492.