2 MILLION BLOSSOMS
A resin forager (left) and pollen forager (right)
plexed us: If we challenged them with the fungal pathogen usual. If we challenged them with the bacterial pathogen (American foulbrood), they did not collect more resin than usual; nor did they collect different resins according to what health challenge they received. How perplexing that they self-medicated when sick with chalkbrood, but not when sick with American foulbrood, even though we found that propolis does help lower infection levels in both cases. How fascinating that they collected the same resin no matter what illness they had, although chemists know that different resins have different antimicrobial properties. It is important to me that beekeepers around the globe
mune function, and using more colonies over the course of two years. In these follow-up experiments she stapled com- mercially-produced propolis traps – plastic grids with 4mm with fresh, local propolis. She found the same results: the propolis was doing the work of antimicrobial and antibacte- rial defense for the bees, allowing them to rest their immune systems and use their energy for the function of other vital systems. Mike and Renata also ran a series of experiments to test if the propolis was also therapeutic to bees; that is, would expo- had? Again, they set up colonies with and without propolis envelopes, but this time they challenged colonies with either a fungal pathogen called chalkbrood, or a bacterial patho- gen called American foulbrood. They found that exposure to propolis within the bee boxes helped lower the disease load. Propolis did not cure either disease, but the level of envelope. Next, we wanted to know this: do bees collect more resin when they “know” they are sick? In other words, do bees self-medicate? Mike, Renata and many others in the lab worked on an-
swering this question for four years. Much of our time was spent counting resin foragers returning to hives before and after we made a colony sick. The results fascinated and per-
Young twig of Populus canadensis, the Chinese poplar, a common source of resin in China
A new PhD student, Maggie Shanahan is collaborating with Mike Simone-Finstrom and other beekeepers to test out new bee box designs with very rough interiors – mimicking the inside of tree cavities – so that the bees will create that prop- olis envelop in modern hives. We are also beginning to breed a line of honey bees that collects large amounts of propolis (we know resin collection is a genetic trait), while displaying other traits that help their social immunity, like hygienic be- havior (the ability to detect and weed out sick or parasitized brood).
been full of surprises so far, and some of the most exciting work at my lab right now is the continued research on prop- olis. Our experiments always consider the way bees do things we can help them do it. Though in the United States honey bees are mostly “kept” and not wild, if we are very diligent, we can still support their natural ways of living —their natu- ral ways of staying healthy. While our lab develops modern boxes that more closely
The honey bee organism lives in this small cavity, but that is only a fraction of its domain. Honey bees move for miles over the landscape looking for food, water, and medicine. Everyone can work on making that larger domain look more - ers, free of pesticides. Plant a poplar, balsam, or cottonwood, too; it will serve as the pharmacy for your local honey bees.
References
Bankova V, Popova M, Trusheva B. 2018. The phytochemistry of the hon- eybee. Phytochemistry
. 155:
1-11.Bankov
a propolis envelope to honey bee, Apis mellifera L., immunity and health. Doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. Pro- Quest/UMI 3734812.
a natural propolis envelope to honey bee immunity and colony health. J. Exp
. Biol. 218: 3689-3699. doi:10.1242/jeb.127324 88
Published in Bankova et al. Beebook. Page 5
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