Measuring The Impact Of The Queen

摘要

For philosophers and poets, the public and pundits, and beekeepers and breeders, the queen of a honey bee hive remains the most visible - and perceived to be the most important - member. Described in royal terms, she was originally mistaken to be maleby the (extremely) late Aristotle1. But the notion of rulership has persisted from its archaic roots to modern beekeeping and industry. Perhaps this notion is increasingly a nominal one, however, as we learn that while she may be (mostly) the sole reproductive, the queen is rarely the one in charge.Throughout my time in the NC State Apiculture Program, I've worked with the Honey Bee Queen & Disease Clinic - an extension effort housed within the program designed first and foremost to allow beekeepers and breeders to obtain detailed information abouttheir queens and colonies that is difficult or impossible to measure outside of a research laboratory. This clinic spun out of early efforts to quantify causes of colony failure in the wake of the 2008 "Colony Collapse Disorder" crisis and was founded from a history of work by David Tarpy and colleagues into causes and mechanisms of queen failure and replacement through supersedure. When surveying beekeepers, one of the major self-identified causes of colony failure is a "poor queen," "queen failure,"or "loss of queen."2,3 This places the responsibility on the most visible member of the colony, but not necessarily fairly. Surely, the queen has a massive impact on the growth and health of the colony. Her presence dictates the ability for new female workers to be produced. Beyond that, researchsuggests that queen size has marked effects on colony growth parameters and honey productivity4-6, queens that have mated with more partners are more likely to survive a year7, and that queens with less viable sperm are more likely to be found in colonies that are observing symptoms of collapse8. However, it is clear that not all colony problems may be laid at the "feet" of the queen. Brood pattern is a colony trait classically ascribed to the queen, but it has been shown to instead be an emergent property of the workers 9 rather than the queen per se. This points to a clear need to separate the perception of queen problems from the reality, so that management may be directed in the most productive manner.