So, i made a little Experiment

While you guys were busy celebrating the newest zombie apocalypse, i did a thing.
I´m not sure if its called "gain of function", but i did my best try on it.

As you all know, if you have bees you get the varroa for free.
And as an electrician i know that there are no practical ways to measure pheromones or taste, and with no enclosed controlled space availible i had to do it this way.

So basically my crime is, i mixed so called natural aroma with the royal yelly
which is present in the queen rearing process, i smeared the whole cell with this chemical compound, it really smelled like strawberry, even after she hatched.
I must assume that i was sucessfull in altering the pheromanal communication inside the hive, i took a wiff of her butt but she still smells like a normal queen bee, exchanging mouthal liquid with her is something i refrain from doing as it wouldn´t be very practical to do so. Every queen has her own pheromones and something determines what type of pheromone that is, i would assume it is the birthing chambers variable taste of royal yelly due to differing contents of varying pollen.

The queen still posseses her normal behaivor to eradicate any competition, further research would be required to find out if you can introduce additional strawberry-queens into the cluster without triggering a swarming behaivor.
But the maingoal of this first experiment was to see what happens when you introduce a different smell to the cells, in an additional test i want to expand the application of aroma to all broodcells to study if the smell prevents varroa mites from locating them.
Another outcome could have been the complete rejection to build a cell on it.
The current use of formic acid and oxcalic acid may be working on a smell-basis too, but i havent found any evidence of how those chemicals affect the mites, it is assumed i assume that those either shrivel the tongue or prevent the mite from breathing. No pictures can be found to accomodate the literature.
The difference to my attempt would be to remove the foodsource of the mites by "cloaking" the smell of the brood.

Anyway, the queen layed their first eggs and is hatching the brood successfully, i don´t know if i accidently created a more sexual attractive female. Basically she is out there in nature now.

Maybe i should change my forum title from Captain to Dr. Lachdanan now.

This is an test thread as i want to share this information about this purposefully mistake in queenrearing with the other prominent experimental beeyard-keepers which wont be happy about my unnatural ways.
Anything in particular i would need to explain to encourage others to experiment on their lifestock ?
I know its not ethical.

Interesting.

I think your approach would only work temporary as the bees secrete a substance that attacts the varroa mites.

In order to see any longterm changes you have to genetically engineer the bees to some extent or trying to cross-breed them so they secrete other "smells".

Lets be more specific about next years planned one:
Step 1: Mix Pollenpatties with aroma (there are 50different flavours)
Step 2: Feed the pollenpatties, nursebees will collect and reallocate it.
Step 3: The aroma should be in the broodcells, a minute amount most likely.

I first need to find out where i can purchase pollen, then learn how to mix it into a mush, find out the correct temperature when to mix in the aroma.
I have no expierience with pollenpatties, we´re not a area where the bees don´t find some.
Temporary based on outgas-duration and consumption-rate of said patty.
Most likely i could install pollentraps to keep the nursebees fixed on the *good stuff*.

With the assumed outgasing and the assumption that nursebees also dry down the nectar, i cannot outrule any crosscontamination with the honey, but this will be one of the results i have to check carefully.
Another one would be if the aroma sticks to the wax, or evaporates in the smelter.

The correct dosage most likely will be needed to be found out by trial.
I intent to start with 10milliliters per 10kg patty or smth like that.
This is the part where i expect to etch off the tongues of the bees by accident.
Still the aroma used in vaping is now a common article availible on the market, unlike genetics, and labeled food-grade and commonly used in human products like yoghurt.

We have no hivebeetles in the region, so i can´t test the effect on them.
I assume a pollenpatty last one to two months till its consumed completely.

This is highly interesting, good work!

It seems like the next step might be transgenic bees which will carry the mite-defying scent masking capacity with them to new colonies whose tenders may not have access to your feed supplies.

Idk if it will end up becoming a business idea but if you do some prudent poking around the University level agriculture and entomology research publications, you may find a set of genomics and delivery methods to meet your needs.

That might lead you to a way you can non-invasively test for levels of pheromones and odorants in-colony, e.g. HPLC or monoclonal antibody-based adsorption indicators.