Dear Subscribers:
It looks like I injured my rotator cuff muscle(s) in my bike accident last month. It appears to be healing well, which is fortunate, but taking longer than I’d like. I am back to being able to ride the bike again, but can’t throw a softball yet.
We continue to have off and on again rains; they often come in intense storms, complete with lightening on occasion. I’m taking to calling these outbursts “baby hurricanes,” because they originate over land. They “grow up” when gaining strength over water. The rain gauge showed 4 inches during the last outburst over a two-day period. Heat indices (“feels like”) continue around 105 degrees F. and have somewhat ameliorated, but are inching up again. A tropical system hit Central Florida and then ran up the eastern coast. We are cocking our eye to the tropics as the hurricane season is maturing from now through October.
Biggest news is the continued development of the bee health guru smartphone project. The Kickstarter campaign was successful, with 653 backers pledging
$28,286 to help bring the project to life. The developers are going ahead full steam. You can see the comments and updates on the project by visiting the site. Over time, this will be converted to the official website. Most recently those that missed the Kickstarter campaign can now become involved via a Paypal button on the home page in a few different ways. As I become more involved in this program, it could impact my activities significantly. I am scheduled to present an abstract on the effort at the appropriate session at Apimondia Montreal. P.19.505: The “P” is for poster, 19 is the session and 505 is the unique identifier. See it here. Come by and see me if you get a chance.
It’s getting to be crunch time to attend Apimondia 46. The developers are pulling out all the stops, posting the program and other goodies as they become available on the website. The keynote speakers have been announced: Rufus Isaacs, Gene Robinson, Peter Rosenkrantz, and Tom Seeley of Honey Bee Democracy and Darwinian Beekeeping fame. A plethora of workshops, round table discussions and exhibits are planned.
The Australian Bee Scientifics crowd made it to Hawaii. You may remember this initiative, funding Jody Gerdts to make an extended tour from “Down Under” to visit the United States to learn how to breed Varroa-tolerant bees from some of the most successful projects in the world. This work is supported by the International Specialised Skills Institute Agribusiness fellowship, the Victorian Honey Bee Compensation and Industry and Bee Build (pollen substitute developer).
Ms. Gerdts reports: “The HUB breeding program is working on developing a commercially viable bee that can handle the rigours of production beekeeping and keep mite levels manageable. The set up is impressive with bees filing the air and feral chickens scurrying through the apiary. The breeding program consists of around 700 colonies and is connected to the honey production side of the business that runs 3-4000 colonies in each of two locations: Hawaii and Louisiana.
“Queen lines are maintained and through Instrumental Insemination (II) or Artificial Insemination (AI)-same thing. The drone stock is sourced from open mated queens that prove to have naturally low mite levels in real-life field conditions.
“What struck me by this operation is the vast amount of work it takes to develop a selective breeding program that has an end goal of producing a commercially viable product. It is possible to be hyper vigilant and focuses on a single trait- in this case Varroa tolerance- but in the process lose honey production, or disease resistance .
“Breeding a bee that stands up to the rigours of our beekeeping industry AND can keep mite levels low is extremely challenging. The key asset that the HUB has going for it is it’s data management system and the insane amount of organizing and fore-thought that goes into each cross, each breeder selection, each pedigree. This collaborative approach seems to give this program exceptional power.
“The challenges here lie in our perceived need for fast results. Breeding animals as complex as honey bees is a very slow process- the long game. This process is tedious, time consuming, requires extraordinary organisation, demands a unique combination of practical beekeeping and laboratory skills, and is just plain hard. Our expectations may squelch the ember before the flame.
“The HUB project has been building for only 5 years and has made some great progress toward breeding commercially viable Varroa tolerant lines of bees. These bees are a cross of various carniolian and Italian stocks and are unevenly banded and are not uniformly coloured. In Australia, I realise this would be hard to take.
“We want, on top of honey production, nice temperament, disease resistance, Varroa tolerance…..we want our bees to be either yellow or black. We want even bands, we want sisters to look uniform- at least from our breeding lines. It may be attainable to maintain racially driven breeding lines once Varroa comes, it may not. Colour might have to go…maybe.
“I will have a few more conversations with Danielle Downey from Pam , BartJan Fernhout from Arista, Bob Danka from the USDA, and David Thomas from the Hawaiian Honey Company and work out the finer details of the program and work to develop a grander understanding of this type of breeding structure. In the mean time, just know that in Hawaii, there is a group of people that are working extremely hard to understand how commercial beekeepers can hop off the chemical bandwagon by breeding bees that can handle the mighty Varroa mite.”
During the current presidential administration, one can see the influence of lawyers in our present society. Practically every issue must be examined by a lengthy list of judges and juries, who are listening primarily to lawyers. The evening television programs seem to be filled with ads from local, and sometimes not so local, lawyers searching for clients as well. Some of these appeals are downright problematic in terms of the science. Many lawyers and jurors have no scientific background.
A recent post by the Risk Monger looks at this situation in some detail. The gist seems to be that many scientists cannot get their socially-important points across without help from lawyers. The classic example is the tobacco situation, where for years scientists and health officials simply could not get their voices heard, and so turned to lawyers to finally get redress. Unfortunately, the only thing they were able to receive in return was cash.
This has, however, unleashed a business model that for some is quite lucrative, according to the Risk Monger, concluding: “From the tobacco debacle, these regulatory scientists discovered that changing corporate (and public) behaviour was far more efficient if you sued the hell out a company until they either abandoned a substance or went out of business.”
Referred to as “Tort-Torts” by the Risk Monger, “…these folks don’t act as scientists. They may have a long CV, an academic career, a list of publications. To outsiders they look like scientists, but when their opportunism comes in, when petty egos are revealed, when the words they speak have been coached by lawyers or NGO communications consultants, when politics and personal reputation lead their decision process … they are scientists merely in the letters after their name. Having left the lab, these tort-torts spend most of their time managing other people’s money, showing up in courts and writing political pieces. Much of the science they are associated with is funding-related and is more of a human resource management process than one of research and discovery.”
The Risk Monger looks at the root of this in a recent presentation on what he calls the “poison of precaution.” Some may remember the “precautionary principle.” This is a complex subject, which in the end ensures that making policy again comes down to the law. The Risk Monger says in many areas we have gone too far in regulating science and technology, and this has affected a long list of issues in medicine, agriculture, and other areas. It boils down to “innovate or take precaution” (develop new technology or pull back and let nature take its course).
He concludes: “To this day, both approaches have defined environmental debates. There is no doubt which side I fall on. The Green Revolution in agriculture led to global economic expansions as abundance led to generations of risk-takers being able to leave the land and develop other opportunities for wealth generation. Environmentalists argue that the agri-technologies have led to deeper problems from saturated soil and poisoned water tables to serious human health issues to climate calamity. Social justice theorists are proposing agro-ecology as a response in pulling back from seven decades of agricultural development.
“So which approach is right? Clearly we should be doing both. When a technology is not working, we should pull back and try to develop and utilize more innovative, more sustainable processes. In industry, this is a key element of product stewardship: continuous improvement. Farmers are developing better soil and crop management techniques with conservation agriculture practices. Utilities are finding more sustainable energy generating practices that are reducing emissions. Healthcare providers are improving the quality and success rates for a wide range of disease treatments.
“But environmentalists in groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth see innovation and stewardship as corporate subterfuge and insist on getting humans out of the way. This entails the pullback from any environmentally damaging practices: in agriculture, only promote practices that protect soil (except no-till and cover crops with glyphosate), demand only non-carbon-emitting energy sources (except nuclear). (Anti-vaxxers also promote this rejection of technology, but they are hardly acting in a precautionary manner.) As precaution (expressed as a pulling back from technology and innovation) gets more widely used in policy and personal decision-making by increasingly risk-averse populations, a dangerous anti-science mindset is cementing itself into our problem-based policy approaches.”
Several posts by contributor Ron Miksha are instructive. Every beekeeper should be sad that Peter Fonda (hollywood’s beekeeper; son of a real actor beekeeper) has died; a guy was arrested for bringing in honey from Jamaica and spent 82 days in jail due to an administrative error; another “sacred myth” bites the dust concerning honey bees a vegetarians (they aren’t), and National Honey Bee Day is celebrated on the heels of World Honey Bee Day.
Rosanna Mattingly, Editor, Western Apicultural Society Journal has published her latest items of interest for beekeepers listed here:
Surprise: Bees Need Meat
Omnivory in Bees: Elevated Trophic Positions among All Major Bee Families
EPA sued for allowing use of pesticide harmful to bees
EPA Inspector General Report Finds the Agency Falling Short
Scientists Use Honey And Wild Salmon To Trace Industrial Metals In The Environment
High-tech pollination program begins work in sunflower fields
Sentinel Apiary Monthly Memo: August Issue
Alternatives to Chlorpyrifos Work Group announced
New Guide Helps You Choose Best Plants for Attracting Pollinators
The Biggest Threats to Bees in America
NEW FILM DEMONSTRATES INNOVATIVE POLLINATOR PROTECTION STRATEGY
7 compact plants perfect for small pollinator gardens
Characterization of the olfactory system of the giant honey bee, Apis dorsata
Half a billion dead honey bees in Brazil show what happens when you roll back pesticide regulations
Roadsides Are Refuges for Declining Pollinators
Would Humans Starve Without Bees?
BHSU named a Bee Campus USA
Success raising honey bees in Southeast Alaska
5 tips for mitigating the honey bee crisis—and urban bee keeping is not the answer
FROM CATCH THE BUZZ
FROM ABJ EXTRA
FROM POLLINATOR-L
EVENT
At the above site, one can see more posts from Bee Culture’s “CATCH THE BUZZ,” “American Bee Journal “ EXTRAS, and the Pollinator-L discussion list.
A recent press release says that while the Trump Administration had made some progress that President Obama couldn’t with neonicotinoids (Obama’s ban on them on wildlife refuges only hardly addressed the larger problem) “it’s still one step forward, two steps back” with Trump and honey bees.
“In early July, the Department of Agriculture announced it was suspending its collection of data regarding honey bee colonies, a critical report that allowed the USDA, beekeepers, and scientists to compare quarterly losses, additions, and movements and to analyze the data on a state-by-state basis. Without that data, we don’t know if bees are dying off or rebounding.
“Then, weeks later, the Environmental Protection Agency rescinded a ban on bee-killing Sulfoxaflor saying it has a lower environmental impact because it disappears from the environment faster than neonicotinoids. Never mind that it still spends time in the environment and still has an impact.
“The indifference and laissez-faire attitudes expressed by Trump — and Obama before him — to the plight of bees is a national security issue. Without bees we would suffer significant losses in food supply and we’d have to get many fruits and vegetables from other countries.”
Trump may have no “plan B” for honey bees and pollinators, but Obama in fact did, and as far as I know, his White House Pollinator Task Force is still in play. That is until the current administration chases away all the professional scientists and experts in the field, which looks more and more like a deliberate plan of action.
George Imrie’s so-called “Pink Pages” are now available via the following site, which has recently been updated. “George W. Imirie Jr. was a lifelong beekeeper and founder of the Montgomery County (MD) Beekeepers Association. Over a decade or more, George wrote and published detailed articles about beekeeping which he titled ‘Pink Pages.’ These articles contain broad and deep wisdom about bees and beekeeping, along with George’s rather strong opinions and spicy rhetoric. I believe this is the most complete archive of Pink Pages on the internet. Material was sourced from original Pink Pages scans, George’s Pink Pages website, and elsewhere on the internet. In addition to the articles, I have compiled multiple indexes facilitating easy access to George’s wealth of beekeeping knowledge. I hope you enjoy this archive.” There’s about a decade’s worth of work there, from 2005 to 2015.
As usual check out the nuggets of information in the August 2019 Bee-L discussions. Several posts look at Darwinian Beekeeping. Again, see comments about the Trump administration cutting funding for USDA honey bee “survey” data collection.
As always, consult the latest extension efforts at the Bee Health Extension site. Check out the article on the Varroa mites’ deadly associates. Finally, you can see over a thirty-year history of the mite on the Patreon.com page.
Sixty units of Storey’s Guide to Keeping Honey Bees, second edition were sold on Amazon.com July 22 through August 18, 2019. Detroit led the way in sales.
From the editorial endorsements:
“A well-balanced and extremely thorough guide for new beekeepers.” — Hilary Kearney, Girl Next Door Honey
Malcolm T. Sanford
https://beekeep.info
https://patreon.com/beeactor
