Dear Subscribers,
I’m back in the honey bee business with another partner. We are “experimenting” with some “additional beekeeping strategies,” which include ideas from two beekeeping traditions becoming more prominent in this country. The first is the top-bar design and the second is that associated the horizontal (or long) hive often used in Europe, perhaps best represented in the United States by Dr. Leo Sharaskin, who has transferred this tradition in beekeeping to the Missouri Ozark mountains with success. The book, Keeping Bees With a Smile, has resulted in some glowing reviews. Dr. Tom Seeley of Honey Bee Democracy fame states: “Beginner-friendly and complete with fascinating photographs, it is a special book, and one that I expect will ‘shake up’ the thinking of the independent-minded beekeepers in North America and Europe.”
Today we traveled to High Springs, Florida for “nucleus day,” and procured three units to begin this adventure. My partner is an ex-boat-builder and can construct anything made out of wood, a perfect skill for anyone wanting to explore possibilities of making an alternative bee hive to the Langstroth archetype, now in almost universal use across the country as well as most other places in the world where commercial beekeeping is found. We discovered the hard way that bringing alternative equipment to a place where the model is to transfer honey bees on Langstroth or standard frames to like equipment can result in serious headaches. Fortunately, we were successful in finally returning home with three lives colonies. One thing we will be doing is journaling our experiences in this relatively “new” kind of beekeeping for us over time.
I was able to talk to several folks as they picked up their nuclei. One thing that stuck out was the fact that increasingly tons of sugar are being fed to honey bees across the land in an effort to keep colonies in good enough shape to produce honey and /or rent for pollination. For better or for worse, this brings into sharp focus the idea that beekeeping is in fact becoming much like other kinds of commercial agriculture. What once was a “wild insect” is now more and more a “domesticated species.” The business model of many beekeepers has also changed to reflect an increase in demand for colonies by various constituents; they are now creating colonies to sell in various formats, rather than managing them for either honey production or commercial pollination. I note that in many economic analyses of the health of apiculture, only commercial honey production and pollination are considered. Businesses involved in large-scale syrup purchases and/or offering nuclei and queen honey bees would be worth adding to the mix.
My discussion concerning neonicotinoids in last month’s newsletter provided a recent update of the continuing discussion of this class of pesticides. I have followed this up with a more in-depth treatment via the Patreon Beekeeping Digest. The digest now sports 13 patrons, each pledging $1 per posting. Thanks for the support!
Killer bees are calming down it seems. About time. Of course it depends on where you are and specific conditions when working honey bees. However, southern Mexico and Puerto Rico are examples where the problems caused by the so-called “Africanized honey bee” appear to be in decline. According to one release: “There’s a combination of natural and artificial selection, on both humans and bees, going on in Tabasco. Many beekeepers accustomed to gentle bees abandoned the business upon the African bees’ arrival. A new generation took over, with different expectations about stinging behavior.
“A recent genomic study in Puerto Rico found the Africanized bees that arrived there in 1994 have retained resistance to Varroa while evolving calmer behavior in very few generations. The bees exhibit mostly Africanized DNA, but have genetic differences reflecting their gentler European ancestry. A co-author of that study, entomologist Gene Robinson of the University of Illinois, said the Puerto Rican bees are ‘way over on the gentle side of the bee-aggression spectrum,’ and far gentler than those in Mexico. ‘Genome sequencing has enabled these Puerto Rican Africanized bees to be genetically distinguished both from other Africanized bees and from other European bees,’ said Robinson.
According to the reporter, “These findings bode well for the future of beekeeping across the southern United States, where African bees are well established and the need for their crop-pollinating and honey-making services is strong. We may end up with a manageable honeybee that is resistant to mites. My new bee suit? It’s still in its plastic bag.” Perhaps, but I’d keep it handy just in case. The history of this honey bee is full of surprises.
I missed World Apitherapy Day on March 30. Fortunately, blogger Ron Miksha didn’t; it’s his birthday as well, along with a guy named Philipp Terc, considered by some to be the “father” of apitherapy. Ron’s post concerning the subject, however, has caveats about actually delivering this therapy. He concludes, “I don’t want this blog posting to be an anti-apitherapy diatribe. I think that there’s a lot of evidence that bee sting therapy can help some people some of the time. I’ve met people who claim that they are alive and active today because of bee stings. But I still refuse to get involved in administering the treatments myself – I’m not a trained first responder. If something goes very badly wrong, the patient needs to be in the hands of someone with proper emergency experience.” Amen! In another context it’s worth looking and how honey is doing as an apitherapy treatment for injured turtles.
A colleague passed me a copy of the March 2018 Scientific American article entitled: “Building a Backup Bee.” Every once in a while somebody comes up with this idea. The most promising at the moment, as noted in the article is the Blue Orchard Bee (BOB). And a noted scientist, Dr. Gordon Wardell, on the Board of Directors for Project Apis m has been “beavering” on this for a while for The Wonderful Company to bring this bee to market. The article concluded that a “tipping point” might be close at hand. However, on the heels of this optimism the Wonderful Company abruptly pulled its support and an 8-year research project was shut down.
Fortunately, the article concludes, “Wonderful’s bees will not die with the project. Jim Watts of Watts Solitary Bees has purchased them. The research will not be shelved, either. Wonderful Orchards allowed a variety of U.S. Department of Agriculture and university scientists to conduct their own BOB research there. Bill Kemp, who recently retired from the USDA and had worked with the BOBs for years, wrote in an e-mail that Wonderful’s massive project showed “it was possible to mass produce Osmia lignaria at a scale thought previously unimaginable.”
“What may happen to the BOB industry, now that such a big player has pulled out? The consensus among the scientists and industry workers contacted for this article is that the pursuit of BOBs as a viable alternative pollinator will continue. Even though the million-female goal had not been reached, ‘the proof of concept is there,’ says Theresa Pitts-Singer, who works at the USDA Bee Biology and Systematics Laboratory and has studied BOBs for years.
“Watts notes, ‘I think Wonderful has figured it out. Five years ago it was complicated, but they’ve shown the path.’ Pitts-Singer says Wonderful’s withdrawal ‘might negatively impact confidence in the supply of these bees, but the fact that it can happen is now known.’ She adds, interest in the bees is strong and says, ‘the industry has moved forward enough—both in in-orchard propagation and other attempts at mass production—that [progress] will continue, but the pace might be a little slower.’ One reason for this is significant warning by an ex-federal bee researcher that those reliant on honey bees might be “one poor weather event or high-winter bee loss away from a ‘pollination disaster.’”
Fran Bach is stepping down from here duties at the WAS. But fortunately it looks like she will continue publishing “Items of Interest to Beekeepers” for the foreseeable future. Below are three published recently:
NEW EDITORS AT WASBA & WAS JOURNAL
IBRA AND NORTHERN BEE BOOKS (UK) NEED EDITORS/COMPILERS/AUTHORS FOR NEW BOOKS
NEW APP LISTENS TO THE PROBLEMS OF BEES
CHANGE IN WEBINAR ACCESS
ADVANCES IN VARROA RESEARCH
THE 2017-2018 COLONY LOSS AND MANAGEMENT SURVEY – NOW LIVE!
ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE
BEE JOBS
RESEARCHERS CREATE MICROPARTICLES THAT COULD HELP SAVE HONEY BEES
AID FOR LIVESTOCK, HONEY BEE, FARM-FISH LOSSES
NEXT GEN BEEKEEPER: KATRINA KLETT
NATALIE FAYE’S BEE GIRL SHORT FILM AT THE ASHLAND INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL
SISKIYOU SEEDS FOR BEES
The April 2018 postings for the Bee-L Discussion digest include 21 for “sugar syrup”;
106 for “locally adapted bees” ; and 21 messages for “moving bees.
Two podcasts at Kiwimana are recommended to get an idea of how beekeepers are coping with environmental effects of various human activities. Les Crowder of Texas and Tom Theobold from Colorado both have these concerns, although being different kinds of beekeepers.
Bee Culture’s Kim and Jim podcasts are taking off. Listen to how the Honey Bee Health Coalition is helping beekeepers confront the Varroa mite.
As always, check the latest extension efforts at the Bee Health Extension site. See the discussion on Citizen Science Read how this area continues to develop. This becomes an important area as the current political situation seems to be at best neglecting science if not attempting to dismantle it, as reported by Scientific American.
Sixty five units of Storey’s Guide to Keeping Honey Bees were sold on Amazon.com March 19 through April 15, 2018. San Antonio, TX and Atlanta, GA led the way.
