How do I digest bees like an owl?

[lovecrawlies]

Further to my earlier thread, 'unidentified owl pellet contents', my neighbour has now kindly given me some dead bees to compare with the pellet contents. To make the comparison easier to interpret I really need to take the bees apart, and obviously the very best comparison would be if I could dismantle the bees in the same way as an owl's digestive system. Are there any standard methods for simulating digestion, or any informed guesses? I've got quite a lot of dead bees, so a few failures would be OK!

Thanks in hope!

[Remou]

According to this Owls - Google Books, the pellet never gets as far as the stomach, so I guess a quick whirr in a pestle and mortar and then a rinse with water to get rid of the soft stuff might work.

[triops]

Owls have a very efficient digestive system. Prey is digested in the stomach and indigestible material is prevented from entering the intestine. The pellet, after all the nutrition is extracted, is almost dry, odourless, and covered in a fine mucus coating. To clean your bee specimens as well as the owl, one technique used by microscopists is to cook insects in 10% potassium hydroxide. Look up maceration techniques.

[lovecrawlies]

Thank you Triops, I'll see if I can assemble the wherewithal to try that.

[~T~]

Originally Posted by lovecrawlies

Further to my earlier thread, 'unidentified owl pellet contents', my neighbour has now kindly given me some dead bees to compare with the pellet contents. To make the comparison easier to interpret I really need to take the bees apart, and obviously the very best comparison would be if I could dismantle the bees in the same way as an owl's digestive system. Are there any standard methods for simulating digestion, or any informed guesses? I've got quite a lot of dead bees, so a few failures would be OK!

Thanks in hope!

You must be a riot at parties. "So do you want to see my dead bees?"

[lovecrawlies]

Ah, yes. Actually I did mention my quest for dead bees to my neighbour as I poured his drink at our Christmas party.... !

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by lovecrawlies

Thank you Triops, I'll see if I can assemble the wherewithal to try that.

Be careful with potassium (and sodium) hydroxide. Even in quite dilute form it's damaging to the eyes.

Jim

[thunder]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

Be careful with potassium (and sodium) hydroxide. Even in quite dilute form it's damaging to the eyes.

Jim

And to any other human tissue. And, if I recall my school chemistry correctly, don't, don't, don't use an aluminium saucepan.

Maybe a quick chat with your local secondary school biology and chemistry departments would encourage them to set up a little project for you that would help the children and give you the results you need in safety.

henrya

[thunder]

Originally Posted by ~T~

You must be a riot at parties. "So do you want to see my dead bees?"

That's a line I'd listen to any day

henrya

[lovecrawlies]

Thank you all very much for the safety advice, it's well received. I'll be careful!

I'll also post here to let you know how I get on.

I'm planning to try the potassium hydroxide method (really, really carefully), soaking in a biological washing powder solution, and decomposing with water strained off after shaking with soil, all suggested by various sources. Apparently it's hive-cleaning time, so I can be recklessly profligate with bee corpses and have reasonable hopes of begging some more if I run out.

Once again, thank you for the very helpful advice so far!