1. Package bees are capable of transmitting both American Foulbrood and European foulbrood. (True/False)


2. Skunks may seriously deplete colony populations since they may feed for hours in front of colonies and return nightly to feast at an apiary. (True/False)


3. Strong overwintered colonies are superior to packages for early spring pollination (True/False)


4. When an individual purchases a 3 lb. package of bees with a queen the package is made up with mated queen and her offspring. (True/False)

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Quiz Answers:

1. True Studies have shown that package bees can serve as temporary disease reservoirs for both American and European foulbrood when shaken from diseased colonies.


2. True Skunks acquire a strong appetite for honey bees and return nightly to feed at an apiary. The typical feeding pattern for the skunk is to scratch at the entrance of the bee colony and to eat adult bees that respond to the disturbance. Hives being visited tend to become extremely aggressive, weak, and are difficult for the beekeeper to manipulate without incurring numerous stings. The cure is a board with many nails driven in it placed pointy end up on the ground in front of the hive.


3. True Strong overwintered colonies are considered superior to newly installed package bees for early season pollination. The stronger the colony the larger the number of bees available to go to the field, where as with a package, most of the bees are needed to maintain the brood nest temperature and care for the young, thus limiting foraging activity.


4. False A three pound package of bees consists of approximately 10,500 workers and a mated queen caged separately. Normally the workers are not related to the queen. On the day the packages are to be made up, work crews move to the apiaries where they shake bees into funnels to fill the packages. Packages often contain bees from two or more colonies. A second crew goes to the queen mating yard where they begin caging queens from the mating nucs. These caged queens are added to the packages back at the warehouse and the packages are shipped the same day.