Veterinary medicine for all

Veterinary medicine for all

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"Healing Animals, Humans and Environment in natural and holistic way"

Photos from Agriculture LIFE Media's post 12/02/2025
The queen is unmarked, but still pretty obvious because her workers are giving her away in this clip. 

We mark queens with a small dob of paint, these days from a paint pen. Non-beeks assume that this is to help finding her, and it might help the novice, but like most long timers I spot queens about as quickly either marked or unmarked - ones instincts are just honed to all sorts of clues. 

These clues included knowing where in the comb she will most likely be about her business, how the bees behave differently as you get closer to her working through the comb, knowing the kind of places she hides if she is alarmed, and - as in this clip - the attendant bees highlighting her with this circling behaviour. 

A relaxed queen that you've not alarmed is much more likely to be easy to spot. If you do alarm her she starts to run around to hide from you and things become much trickier. She will even hide under the workers making the paint mark useless for locating her no matter how garish the colour you pick. 

This all give more reasons if you needed them to work smooth and gentle: everything, including finding your queen, is easier if the whole hive is relaxed. I am both pretty much immune to bee stings now and also work in high quality bee suits, the aggression of the bees toward me isn't an issue if provoked, it is factors like this just making every job slower if you trigger their defensive instincts that makes me prize hives with a good temperament. 

Aside from the queen running away a defensive hive will also run around everywhere making it much harder to look into the comb to assess diseases in the larva, and also cover all the contact areas where the hive goes back together and so get squashed - emiting pheromones as they die further provoking the hive and it my experience meaning the hive will be more alert to interference for a few weeks after a bad day. In the most extreme cases I've experienced angry bees cover the mesh hood in front of my face making it completely impossible to see. 

Specific to queens, being more inclined to be relaxed tends to track with the rest of the hive's genetic temperament, but also veteran queens tend to be more relaxed than their younger counterparts. Queens live up to 3 years typically, and a first year queen of any temperament tends to be easily startled while a third year queen quite often comes up on the lifted comb with an attitude of "oh, you again" toward the beekeeper and she'll carry on about her business laying eggs on the comb. 

The queen only lays eggs and does no other job. Once laid she's off to the next cell and the egg is someone elses problem - that someone else being a worker in the nurse-bee role. Where she lays eggs is at the direction of these nurse bees: when a nurse bee is ready to look after another egg and then larvae she will find a clean cell in the brood area and scent mark it with Yet Another Pheromone (tm). In the video you can see the queen wandering around sniffing the comb - she is sniffing for cells with this pheromone and when she finds one she will back herself in and lay an egg. In the height of the beekeeping season she could lay more than 2000 eggs a day, dependant on how many nurse bees are available and how much nutrition the colony is able to bring in for the larva. Nutrition, particularly pollen, can often be the limiting factor on a colony's growth in the earliest parts of the spring. 

I mentioned about marking. If it's not for spotting, why do it? The other day I posted about hives with two queens, and marking can really help with detecting that. It also helps detect if the bees have replaced their queen without you noticing - if your records say the queen is marked and you are looking at an unmarked queen, you need to investigate further. We also colour code the mark by year to be able to immediately identify the age of the queen to help us inform choices with swarm control: an older queen will be more inclined to swarm and so a hive with an older queen will need to be prioritized in your inspection schedule. 

This queen appears unmarked. In busy years I can get slack. I typically put off marking as a job for late June and early July when the other jobs get a little easier. That this queen seems so relaxed indicates she's likely older and is unlikely to have excaped my attention for a whole year or more. The workers sometimes also nibble off the paint and I've been squinting at the thorax of the queen in this video not entirely sure I can't see a crescent of red paint residue left on this queen of the last edge of the paint spot left unnibbled by the workers. 12/02/2025

The queen is unmarked, but still pretty obvious because her workers are giving her away in this clip. We mark queens with a small dob of paint, these days from a paint pen. Non-beeks assume that this is to help finding her, and it might help the novice, but like most long timers I spot queens about as quickly either marked or unmarked - ones instincts are just honed to all sorts of clues. These clues included knowing where in the comb she will most likely be about her business, how the bees behave differently as you get closer to her working through the comb, knowing the kind of places she hides if she is alarmed, and - as in this clip - the attendant bees highlighting her with this circling behaviour. A relaxed queen that you've not alarmed is much more likely to be easy to spot. If you do alarm her she starts to run around to hide from you and things become much trickier. She will even hide under the workers making the paint mark useless for locating her no matter how garish the colour you pick. This all give more reasons if you needed them to work smooth and gentle: everything, including finding your queen, is easier if the whole hive is relaxed. I am both pretty much immune to bee stings now and also work in high quality bee suits, the aggression of the bees toward me isn't an issue if provoked, it is factors like this just making every job slower if you trigger their defensive instincts that makes me prize hives with a good temperament. Aside from the queen running away a defensive hive will also run around everywhere making it much harder to look into the comb to assess diseases in the larva, and also cover all the contact areas where the hive goes back together and so get squashed - emiting pheromones as they die further provoking the hive and it my experience meaning the hive will be more alert to interference for a few weeks after a bad day. In the most extreme cases I've experienced angry bees cover the mesh hood in front of my face making it completely impossible to see. Specific to queens, being more inclined to be relaxed tends to track with the rest of the hive's genetic temperament, but also veteran queens tend to be more relaxed than their younger counterparts. Queens live up to 3 years typically, and a first year queen of any temperament tends to be easily startled while a third year queen quite often comes up on the lifted comb with an attitude of "oh, you again" toward the beekeeper and she'll carry on about her business laying eggs on the comb. The queen only lays eggs and does no other job. Once laid she's off to the next cell and the egg is someone elses problem - that someone else being a worker in the nurse-bee role. Where she lays eggs is at the direction of these nurse bees: when a nurse bee is ready to look after another egg and then larvae she will find a clean cell in the brood area and scent mark it with Yet Another Pheromone (tm). In the video you can see the queen wandering around sniffing the comb - she is sniffing for cells with this pheromone and when she finds one she will back herself in and lay an egg. In the height of the beekeeping season she could lay more than 2000 eggs a day, dependant on how many nurse bees are available and how much nutrition the colony is able to bring in for the larva. Nutrition, particularly pollen, can often be the limiting factor on a colony's growth in the earliest parts of the spring. I mentioned about marking. If it's not for spotting, why do it? The other day I posted about hives with two queens, and marking can really help with detecting that. It also helps detect if the bees have replaced their queen without you noticing - if your records say the queen is marked and you are looking at an unmarked queen, you need to investigate further. We also colour code the mark by year to be able to immediately identify the age of the queen to help us inform choices with swarm control: an older queen will be more inclined to swarm and so a hive with an older queen will need to be prioritized in your inspection schedule. This queen appears unmarked. In busy years I can get slack. I typically put off marking as a job for late June and early July when the other jobs get a little easier. That this queen seems so relaxed indicates she's likely older and is unlikely to have excaped my attention for a whole year or more. The workers sometimes also nibble off the paint and I've been squinting at the thorax of the queen in this video not entirely sure I can't see a crescent of red paint residue left on this queen of the last edge of the paint spot left unnibbled by the workers.

Photos from Africa is Home tourism center's post 12/02/2025
Photos from Vets India's post 12/02/2025
12/02/2025

? 3/4 of the world’s crops that produce fruits & seeds for human consumption depend, at least in part, on pollinators!

From bees to butterflies, flies to moths, pollinators come in all shapes & sizes 👉 http://fao.org/pollination

Photos from Abiy Ahmed Ali's post 12/02/2025
Photos from Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research - EIAR's post 12/02/2025
12/02/2025

ተስፋ ሰጭ የትብብር ስራ ለእንስሳት በሽታ ምርመራና ምርምር
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ኢትዮጵያ ሰፊና አይነተ ብዙ የእንስሳት ሃብት እንዲሁም ምቹ ስነ-ምህዳር ያላት አገር ስትሆን ከዘርፉ ተገቢውን ጥቅም ለማግኘት ሰፊ ስራዎችን እየሰራች ትገኛለች፡፡ አገሪቱ ካላት አይነተ ብዙ እንስሳት መካከል በተለይም በአርብቶና ከፊል አርብቶ አደሩ አካባቢ የግመል ሃብት ተጠቃሽ ነው፡፡

ይህን ትልቅ ሃብት በተገቢው መንገድ ለመጠቀም የእንስሳት ጤና አገልግሎት ዋነኛው ነው፡፡ ለዚህ ደግሞ ግመሎችን የሚያጠቃውን ያልታወቀ የግመሎች በሽታን በዘላቂነት መፍታት እንዲቻል በትብብር መስራት ያስፈልጋል፡፡ ያልታወቀ የግመል በሽታ በተለያዩ ግመል አርብ ክልሎች ግመሎችን ስገል የቆዬ ስሆን ችግሩ የኢትዮጵያ ብቻ ሳይሆነ የምስራቅ አፍርካም ችግር ነው፡፡

ይህን ችግር ለመቅረፍ የግብርና ሚኒስቴር በጠየቀው ትብብርና ድጋፍ መሰረት የዓለም አቀፍ የእንስሳት ጤና ድርጅት (WOAH) ለግመል በሽታ የትብብር ማዕከል የሆነው የአቡዳቢ ግብርናና ምግብ ደህንነት ባለስልጣን (ADFSA) የበሽታውን ናሙና ለመውሰድ ባለፈው ሀምሌ ወር 2016 ዓ.ም ወደ ኢትዮጵያ መጥተዉ ነበር፡፡

ለተጨማሪ መረጃ ሊንኩን ይጫኑ ፦ https://www.moa.gov.et/ተስፋ-ሰጭ-የትብብር-ስራ-ለእንስሳት-በሽታ/
#ከማምረትበላይ

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ስለግብርና ወቅታዊ መረጃዎችን ለማግኘት፦
ድረ-ገጽ፦ www.moa.gov.et
ፌስቡክ፦ https://www.facebook.com/MoAEthiopia
ዩቲዩብ፦ https://www.youtube.com/
ቴሌግራም፦ https://t.me/MoAEthiopianews
ቲዊተር፦ https://x.com/MoA_Ethiopia

Photos from Veterinary world's post 12/02/2025
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