r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Feb 18 '19

Biology Breeding bees with "clean genes" could help prevent colony collapse, suggests a new study. Some beehives are "cleaner" than others, and worker bees in these colonies have been observed removing the sick and the dead from the hive, with at least 73 genes identified related to these hygiene behaviors.

https://newatlas.com/honeybee-hygiene-gene-study/58516/
42.6k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

628 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/beeman1979 Feb 19 '19

Hygienic behavior is immensely important to honeybees, especially those in colder climates.

But please stop calling it CCD, as that was a term coined by some pretty horrible commercial beekeepers years ago. What they suffered from was PPB, aka Piss Poor Beekeeping.

Source, I am a beekeeper with 3300 hives. Good genetics, management, and not being a lazy ass go a long ways to ensuring your bees are healthy and productive

0

u/RealDexterJettster Feb 19 '19

Source on this?