Brood Hygiene
Lexikon
Brood hygiene refers to a colony's ability to detect, uncap and remove damaged, diseased or dead brood.
Brood hygiene refers to a colony's ability to detect, uncap and remove damaged, diseased or dead brood. It is an important part of natural disease defense and works against chalkbrood, foulbrood and the reproduction of the varroa mite.
It is measured with the pin test. A set number of capped brood cells is pierced with a fine needle, killing the larva. After a set period, it is counted how many of these cells the colony has uncapped and removed. The result is a percentage.
In addition, further traits based on the same behavior are recorded in varroa-tolerance breeding. The SMR trait concerns suppressed mite reproduction, and recapping concerns bees opening capped cells and resealing them. Both have been tracked as separate breeding values in BeeBreed for several years.
The heritability of the removal rate is well documented in the German tolerance-breeding population and falls in a range that makes breeding progress possible. For the individual beekeeper, it is important to note: brood hygiene does not replace varroa treatment, it only reduces the pressure.