The Honey Bee Research Center collaborates with the Ontario Beekeepers Association in different research projects. Here, we are testing the hygienic behavior, which is an inherited behavior related to the social immunity of bees. With this behavior, adult bees remove brood (larvae or pupae) that is killed or affected by different pathogens. To test this behavior, we freeze circular or square areas of comb, by using liquid nitrogen, to count the number of cells that were cleaned by hygienic bees.
