# mites feed on vitellogenin



## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

Interesting thanks for sharing,

Maybe that's why there is increased winter survival in bees that are given vitamins.


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## Redhawk (Jun 7, 2016)

Hard to believe that after all the research done on not only bees but multitudes of organisms that they wouldn't have pinned down the mites food source as a priority before moving deeper into the research. If his theory holds true, then we are haven't gotten far at all with understanding the mite. Makes one glad to be going tf, just letting the bees solve their problems.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Nice one SP


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## costigaj (Oct 28, 2015)

I learned something new today. Thanks.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

more on vitellogenin:

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/fat-bees-part-1/


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## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

squarepeg said:


> more on vitellogenin:
> 
> http://scientificbeekeeping.com/fat-bees-part-1/


Read this many times, and every time I read it learn something new.


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Helps to understand/explain why bees on a good honeyflow can withstand high varroa loads.

Jean-Marc


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/understanding-colony-buildup-and-decline-part-9a/

in this article which was written some 9 years after the 'fat bees' article referenced above, randy discusses more about vitellogenin and the role it is believed to play with respect to allowing the overwintering (diutinus) bees being able to live much longer than bees reared during spring and summer.

if mites at their peak population do indeed deplete vitellogenin from the bees reared late in the season, 

thereby removing from them the very thing which may allow that generation of workers to live for months instead of weeks,

then that might explain the rapid depopulation seen (and sometimes interpreted as absconding) in the fall, and by a mechanism independent of brood disease via vectored viruses.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

could this be one of the reasons that Bees that seem to shut down during dearths do better with higher mite loads? If they aren't burning through their stores and shorting their larva to try to make it last then there would be a greater percentage of " fat bees" All the bees are typically fat bees from what i've observed in a colonies that only lays during a flow.


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## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

FlowerPlanter said:


> Interesting thanks for sharing,
> 
> Maybe that's why there is increased winter survival in bees that are given vitamins.


Extra vegetable oil in your mountain camp?


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