An early season’s greetings from Gainesville in North Central Florida. We are getting hit with a cold spell, which for us isn’t much when compared to the rest of country. But the bees have still gone to ground here with a potential light frost in the morning. On December 23, I will be winging my way to Los Angeles hooking up with relatives and acquaintances that I haven’t seen in a while. Hurricane season is now past and we are entering our traditional dry time.
I thought I would report on our new cohousing complex here, the first of its kind in the Sunshine State . We are “sold out” in the sense that all twenty five lots have been spoken for and we are approximately 85 percent built. Progress has been slower that we first reckoned with in building the place, but continues to move along. You can see some of the construction on our facebook page. We are part of a nationwide movement that originally started in Norway, but has now moved to the other side of the pond (USA) . A big challenge for our community is governance. We are in the process known as sociocracy, sometimes called “dynamic governance.” which is being promoted throughout the cohousing community and is somewhat reminiscent of honey bee democracy. Due to the construction process with big trucks moving in and out, we have yet to install any honey bees on the property, but residents seem interested and in due time we will get a hive or two into operation.
A lot has been going on since I returned from Apimondia 46 in Montreal, followed by the 150th Anniversary of the A.I. Root Company in Medina, OH. Reports on both of these remarkable events are now making their way into the beekeeping publications.
The effect on honey bees from neonicotinoids is more nuanced according to a recent release, which looks a two of these substances that are still allowed in Europe: “Neonicotinoids are broadly used to protect crops from creepy crawlies that can annihilate them. A portion of these harvests profit by fertilization, however pesticide treatment can uncover honey bees and other helpful creepy crawlies to deposits in dust and nectar. The introduction can murder honey bees or weaken them for model, by reducing their scavenging abilities contributing to decreases in honey bee populaces. This result prompted the boycott of three high-chance neonicotinoid bug sprays in Europe. Maj Rundlöf and Ola Lundin needed to know whether honey bees and the blooming crops they use for nourishment would be in an ideal situation with or without the utilization of one of the less-hurtful neonicotinoids.
“In a field study, the specialists found that applying the neonicotinoid thiacloprid on red clover had no detectable negative impacts on honey bees. The thiacloprid treatment viably controlled nuisances and expanded honey bee crop appearance. Be that as it may, if this neonicotinoid weren’t accessible, ranchers may supplant red clover with other nonflowering yields less delicate to bug pervasions, the scientists contemplated.
“So the group additionally analyzed honey bee execution in scenes lacking red clover. They found that honey bee states close thiacloprid-treated red clover fields became heavier (with more hatchlings, honey bees and nourishment stores in them) contrasted with settlements in scenes without red clover. As per the analysts, the examination shows that certain neonicotinoid bug sprays still allowed in the European Union may profit honey bees by exhibiting an okay to the honey bees while ensuring blossoming crops as a significant nourishment source.
The scientists conclude that neonicotinoid bug sprays ought not be considered as a homogeneous gathering when appraising their effects. It is possible to see more history of these controversial substances via a post dated April 2, 2018 on this Patreon platform.
For a good many beekeepers, especially beginners, sampling for Varroa mites is a “bridge too far,” and so they often put it off until it’s too late. Contributor Rusty Burlew has developed a blog post looking at the importance of what she calls treatment by “date” versus “data.” This looks at whether mites should be treated based on the calendar rather than looking (sampling) for their occurrence.
She concludes for the former, that it sounds reasonableL “A more sensible benchmark. The events—especially attaining bees, harvest, and winter wrap-up—will vary depending on your location. That variation, by itself, will customize the schedule for individual beekeepers in different climates and conditions.” She then states: “Although I still strongly recommend data-based decisions, I can see both protocols as viable and doable for beginners. Technically, it should control most of the mites most of the time in most locations. For a new beekeeper who is stuck, intimidated by testing, or unsure about treating, this is likely a good place to start.”
An interesting twist on sampling for Varroa is found in a Bee-L post on December7, 2019: “I was taught by Randy (Contributor Randy Oliver) at a NYBEEWELLNESS workshop) to just shake the frame into a dishpan, the flyers fly away and the nurse bee’s stay; you scoop them right out and into your shaker. You can also observe if you inadvertently shook the queen in.”
Unfortunately, treating by “date” flies in the face of most pest control procedures, which emphasize treating must be done by the “data.” This is standard in a strategy called, “integrated pest management,” of simply IPM that has taken the pest control industry by storm and is based on treating only when “economic thresholds” (i.e. data) are reached.
Historically, treating by calendar could and has led to worse conditions. This is certainly the case for antibiotics in both humans and honey bees, where it now is apparent that treating “just in case” on a regular basis is a prescription for developing resistance in the organism one wishes to control.
The Bee Demonstration Integration Project Is a case in point on best management practices and integrated pest management. It brings together beekeepers and producers to show how a suite of best practices can be implemented together in agricultural landscapes to support honey bee health. The multi-year project includes establishing pollinator forage, monitoring and treating Varroa mites, following pollinator protection plans, and utilizing best practices for crop pesticides. The project pilot is being carried out in North Dakota
It had to happen sooner or later. An Israeli company is in the process of developing robotic pollination according to an American Bee Journal Extra. “Edete Precision Technologies for Agriculture has successfully completed field trials in almond orchards in Israel using its unique mechanical pollen harvesting and pollination system. The field trials are crucial for advancing the company’s planned entry into the huge almond market in California. The trials resulted in a substantially increased yield in Israel. Additionally, Edete has recently tested its technology in Australia and proved its ability to produce high-quality viable pollen. Larger commercial scale testing of Edete’s new system will continue in Israel and Australia.
“The company plans to begin a pilot program using the technology in 2022 in California, the world’s largest almond growing region. We are initially focusing our efforts on almonds, but our game-changing technology has huge potential for a wide range of other crops as well,’ said Eylam Ran, CEO and co-founder at Edete. The list of additional crops is long and includes apples, cherries, pears, blueberries, plums, cotton, rapeseed, and sunflowers, to name a few.
Edete’s system is based on the mechanical collection of flowers and extracting pure pollen out of them. The company’s proprietary method enables the maintaining of good germinability rates of pollen stored for over one year. The pollen is applied on the trees using the company’s unique robotic pollination system which utilizes a combination of technologies to disperse an optimal dosage of pollen on the target flowers to achieve effective pollination. The application units can work during day or night and independent of ambient temperature.”
The National Honey Board reports USDA approval of a “commercial item description for honey.” A press release reports that: “After three years of research and input from more than 200 stakeholders, the USDA released its approved Honey Commercial Item Description (CID) on October 23, 2019. This CID (A-A-20380) covers honey, packed in commercially acceptable containers, suitable for use and under inspection or surveillance by federal, state, local governments, and other interested parties. Guidelines include:
Type(s), source(s), floral source(s), preparation(s), color(s), grade(s), and agricultural practice(s) of the honey desired
Analytical and authenticity tests to be performed
When analytical requirements are different than specified
When compliance with analytical requirements must be verified
When emerging analytical methods for economic adulteration are to be performed
When analytical testing for residues are to be performed
Manufacturer’s/distributor’s certification or USDA certification
The CID is an important step in the industry’s continued efforts for purity and quality of the honey sold in the U.S. For more information on the CID for honey, visit this site..
The Board also reports that due to industry questions around the updated added sugar labeling requirements, it met with the FDA to get additional insight about updates for honey and other single-ingredient sweeteners. The National Board will provide additional information regarding labeling requirements in future newsletters as it becomes available. For more information about the current guidance, please visit this site.
It also reports that honey consumption is on the rise, confirming that “foodservice is sweet on honey,” reporting a 19% increase in honey menu mentions since 2010. “The highest growth was seen in fine dining (25%) and quick-service restaurants (24%). Fast-casual menus currently feature the most honey items, at an average of almost five per menu. Appetizers, sides, beverages and desserts have all experienced double-digit growth over the past four years, as more food and beverage professionals recognize honey’s versatility across the menu.” .
In the same release, the National Honey Board announces the annual meetings of the two national apicultural associations in JANUARY 2020: “The American Beekeeping Federation is hosting its 2020 Vision of the Future Conference and Tradeshow on January 8-11, 2020 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel in Schaumburg, Illinois. The conference will include 80 distinguished speakers and 20 interactive workshops focused on the latest beekeeping innovations. To register, visit this site.
The American Honey & Pollinator Summit and Trade Show, which is organized by the American Honey Producers Association will take place January 7-12, 2020 at the Hyatt Regency in Sacramento, California. The summit focuses on new research and topics of importance within the beekeeping and pollinator industries such as legislative changes, honey trade and adulteration issues, and honey market reports. To register, visit this site.
Contributor Al Summers sent me a reference to an article in Forbes Magazine concerning one writer’s analysis of how climate change has become apocalyptic. Al concludes this is worth a read within the context of “human psychology.”
It seems that a major contributor to how the situation is evolving is the way the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC treats climate change. The report concludes: “…an enormously consequential change in approach occurred from the fourth IPCC assessment report in 2007 to the its fifth in 2013. The IPCC abandoned its earlier acknowledgement of fundamental uncertainties and ignorance about the future and instead fully endorsed the notion of choosing a ‘business as usual’ scenario for the future.”
The “business as usual” scenario adopted by the fifth IPCC assessment was unfortunately associated with one of its most extreme scenarios of the future. The bottom line at this point, according to the author (Roger Pielke), is to understand that a fateful decision by the IPCC to selectively anoint an extreme scenario from among a huge range of possible futures has helped to create the climate apocalypse, a scary but imaginary future.”
My conclusion from the above, and presumably from Al’s comment on why “this is worth a read,” is that it feeds into the 800-pound-gorilla that’s always in the room. Humans love a good story and the more scary the better.
If you don’t like the climate change story above, it is possible to find a similar one almost everywhere else. Talk to somebody who knows little about honey bees, for example, and you’re likely to hear about what is being characterized as the “beepocalypse,” endorsed by non other than Albert Einstein .
A Bee Culture Catch the Buzz reports the following: “An Arizona man’s emotional support animal is creating quite a buzz. Prescott Valley, Ariz., resident David Keller thinks the application process to register an emotional support animal is too easy — so he tried registering a swarm of bees as his service pet. It worked.
“’A lot of people thought it was hilarious and a lot of people were getting upset,’ Keller tells CBS affiliate WTRF-TV. He recently went on a website called USAServiceDogRegistration.com and successfully uploaded a random photo of a beehive as a service animal ‘to bring awareness to the issue that anyone could do this,’ he explains.
“Keller was inspired to go through with the registration after seeing a service dog that was visibly untrained. The website he used to register his swarm is one of many that make the application process for emotional pets too easy, experts say.”
Actually this may not be too far fetched. There’s more evidence all the time that non-human creatures, including insects may have something called conscioiusness. See the recent paper entitled “Expanding Consciouness,” (L. Chittka and Catherine Wilson, American Scientist, volume 107) . The fact that honey bee have “emotions” or “feelings” is also being explored Zbignew Lipiński, Essence and Mechanism of Nest Abandonment by Honeybee Swarms.
The marijuana industry just got another shot in arm. It seems that the hemp plant is good for most bees, including honey bees: A release concludes: “Although hemp does not have the characteristic vivid colors, enticing aromas and other alluring features that tempt insects and other pollinators, it nevertheless produces large amounts of pollen at a time of the year when there’s typically a shortage—meaning hemp can be an important and plentiful source of food and nectar for bees when they need it.
“’The authors noted that bee populations—wild and domesticated alike—have taken a hit in recent years due to ‘large scale, intensified agriculture.’ According to the study, ‘landscape simplification,’ or the replacement of native plants with cash crops, ‘negatively impacted’ the total number of bees near hemp, but did not affect the number of species found. This research suggests that hemp, especially tall plants, could be crucial to stemming declining bee populations.”
It seems that there’s a lot on information that can be extracted from honey bee activity, according to a Science News release: ” ‘Bees are like miniature scientists that fly and sample a wide variety of environmental conditions’, says cell biologist Lance Liotta at George Mason University.
“‘As bees digest pollen, soil and water, bits of proteins from other organisms, including fungi, bacteria and viruses also end up in the insects’ stomachs. Honey, therefore, contains a record of virtually everything the bee came in contact with, as well as proteins from the bees themselves.
Dr. Liotta mentors Ms. Rocio Comero, who has come up with a method to pull peptides — bits of proteins — out of honey using nanoparticles — a feat no other researcher has previously managed. Once extracted from the honey, the peptides are analyzed by mass spectrometry to determine the order of amino acids that make up each fragment of protein. Those peptides are then compared with a database of proteins to determine which organisms produced them. So far the research remains unpublished, so stay tuned for future results.
This focus above is reminiscent of Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk’s work at the University of Montana collecting and analyzing honey bees for what these “flying dust mops” can tell him about air pollution. Recently his team received an award for Outstanding Non-Credit Program at the SUPER 2019: UPCEA Central & West Regional Conference. UPCEA (University Professional and Continuing Education Association) for an online beekeeping course that is unique in training students not only in beekeeping, but in the scientific method.
Contributor Ron Miksha looks at the concept of National I Love Honey Day on December 18. He concludes, “Go out and buy some honey. Then eat it.” While you’re at his blog, take a look at Ron’s recent posts celebrating his attendance at Apimondia 46. There’s a lot to like there.
Sixty four units of Storey’s Guide to Keeping Honey Bees, second edition were sold on Amazon.com November 11 through December 8, 2019. Detroit, MI and Tacoma WA led the way in sales.
From the editorial endorsements:
“In this well-written guide, Dr. Sanford utilizes his years of experience to give straightforward, practical advice for the beginning beekeeper.” — Randy Oliver, ScientificBeekeeping.com
Signing off with a Christmas gift to all, recorded in 2012 prior to my oral surgery. Unsatisfied with all the messages of good will and expectations for the season, check out the Risk Monger’s post on “why we must ban Christmas.” Happy New Year 2020, a leap year begins a brand new decade!
Malcolm T. Sanford
https://beekeep.info
https://patreon.com/beeactor
