Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Eugene Makovec
Advertising Manager -
Marta Menn
Publishing Department -
Dianne Behnke & Susan Nichols
info@americanbeejournal.com
www.americanbeejournal.com CONTENTS
Volume 159 No. 2 February 2019
DEPARTMENTS
From the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
ARTICLESS
Letters to the Editor . . . . . . . . . . 135
• Beekeeping Basics: The Winter Check
News and Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Tina Sebestyen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Classified • Gregor Mendel the Beekeeper
Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Norman L. Carreck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Advertising • Treatment-free Beekeeping: A Practical Hands-On Approach — Part 2
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Terry Combs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
It’s been over a decade since Col- glyphosate), seizing on every new can sometimes be dangerous places
ony Collapse Disorder first made “study” — the more sensational the for honey bees, so can the local golf
headlines. The resulting flood of me- better — and rushing to press with- course, or even your suburban back-
dia coverage has produced both good out taking time to read findings or vet yard. So a little perspective is in or-
and bad results. sources. der, especially when beekeepers have
One tangible (and ongoing) benefit Worse yet, journalists sometimes their own pests with which to con-
is that honey bees and beekeepers are manage to contact those who should tend.
now appreciated like never before. know, only to ignore their opinions David Arnal writes in these pages
It used to be you’d get funny looks because they don’t match the precon- of a West Nile-driven increase in
from people if you told them you ceived narrative. Randy Oliver cites mosquito-spraying in South Carolina,
were a beekeeper. Now it’s more like, one such instance in “The Pesticide and describes how beekeepers there
“That’s so cool ― tell me more!” Situation, Part 2” in this issue. are working with local authorities to
And I love how our demograph- For my part, I got a call in 2007 protect their colonies.
ics have changed. When I attended from a local television reporter after Terry Combs wraps up a three-part
my first club meeting in the mid-90s, a German study purported to pin the series on how he avoids having to put
it was mostly a bunch of old guys in blame for CCD on cell tower radia- miticides in his own beehives.
overalls. There were three women in tion. I briefly described the study and And Ali McAfee takes a look at a
the room, and two were just there told him it had already largely been new “vaccine” in development for
with their spouses. Until fairly re- debunked. He thanked me, hung up American foulbrood. It’s waaay early
cently, “Women’s Auxiliary” groups and found a more cooperative bee- to get excited, but if it works it could
were pretty common in many organi- keeper in time to make the evening make that long-time scourge of bee-
zations. These days I look around at news. (“Tonight at 6 — could your keeping a little less scary.
our local clubs and see a cross-section cell phone be killing the bees?”) Winter has been mild in the early-
of society: artists, realtors, printers, Of course, agricultural chemicals going in Illinois and Missouri. That
bankers, engineers, you name it. And catch the most flak. Pesticides have keeps our fuel costs low, but it can
women ― at least a third at meetings, long been a problem for beekeepers, be the opposite for the bees, who eat
and about half in beginners’ work- but the issue has not always been more when they’re active. Wherever
shops. straightforward, nor the solutions you are, it’s not too late to check your
I’m proud to say that I was a bee- simple. And some of today’s social colony’s food supply; Tina Sebestyen
keeper before beekeeping was cool. media commentators make my TV has some tips inside on topping them
That isn’t to imply that I somehow reporter look like Edward R. Murrow. off if needed.
became cool along the way, but I still This is just one reason it’s more Winter is also the time to catch up
don’t look good in overalls. (Give me important than ever for beekeepers on your reading. So when your local
a few more years.) to get good information from good weather does turn nasty, take advan-
Here’s another thing that’s changed: sources. Last month we ran several tage of the downtime to curl up by
I’ve done a lot of community outreach articles on beekeeping and pesticides, the fire with your ABJ, order some
events (garden shows, craft fairs and and more follow in this issue. While equipment and the latest gadgets,
the like), and it used to be the most cotton fields and almond orchards and dream of spring.
common question we got was, “Do
you ever get stung?” Now it’s more
like, “What’s going on with the bees?
Are they going extinct? Is our food
supply in danger?” This is often fol-
lowed by a declaration of who exactly
they feel is to blame.
In that sense, our modern, 24-hour
news cycle has not been helpful.
Where CCD is concerned, some in
the media have swerved blindly from
culprit to culprit (neonicotinoids,
GMOs, cellphone towers and now
SUE HUBBELL were able to present the key prepara- honey. My biggest problem was find-
tions for winter. I found it very help- ing enough money to purchase more
When I first kept bees, about 30 ful and I am happy to say that I did boxes for all the bees. This is the defi-
years ago, the bee inspector of my everything on the list starting in July nition of the “good old days”. Now I
county loaned me a paperback copy like you have outlined. measure success by one metric: Did
of Sue’s “A Book of Bees and How to The August article “Fishing for I keep my bees alive? The answer is
Keep Them.” Later a friend gave me Honey Bees,” by Jennifer Standley, no, with 2017 and 2018 showing my
a hardback copy of the first edition of helped me to understand why some highest losses. It’s bad enough to lose
the book which I have treasured. Her of my swarm catcher hives work great a colony (that was packed with bees,
ability to write so beautifully of her and others do not. Jennifer’s clear di- had monitored mite loads, and was
thoughts, situations and life in gener- rection on box size, entrance size, en- treated as needed to maintain low
al was truly inspirational. Thank you trance direction, height off the ground mite counts), but when it is a hive of
for the article (December 2018). and location in the shade all matched one of the young beekeepers that I
I meant to write sooner as I think my successful bait hives and now I mentor (and I am supposed to know
the improved content, readability and know why they worked. Going for- what I am doing) it is heartbreaking.
style of ABJ has made it much easier ward I will be locating all my swarm I look to the ABJ as one of my sources
to understand. I now read almost catchers higher and in the shade. for help. Keep up the good work, I am
cover to cover whereas I used to just I really enjoyed Jerry Borger ’s counting on you.
skim. I could not let the Sue Hubbell “Hobbyist Queens – Using a Double
article pass without comment. Screen Board,” also in the September Sincerely,
Looking forward to a new year issue, outlining how to raise a few David
with lots of good ABJ reading. queens from a favorite colony with- North Carolina
out grafting during the prime time
Judy Pendergast for queen development. His one page RESPONSE FROM THE EDITOR:
Rocky River, OH summary of the procedure was excel-
lent and I will put it to the test this Dear David,
coming spring, with one of my long- As you likely know by now, Kirsten
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! lived colonies headed by a local queen recently stepped down as Editor to
that shows the best resistance to mites pursue other interests. She made a
Dear Kirsten, in my apiaries. positive mark on this magazine, and
Last December I renewed my My favorite article was in the April we will continue some of her innova-
subscription, after an absence of 35 issue by Caroline Abbott entitled “A tions, as well as the sort of how-to ar-
years, to the American Bee Journal. I Turn in Approach – The Long Lang ticles that you and other readers have
am so glad I renewed. I really enjoy Hive.” I found Caroline’s experiences long found useful.
the overall organization of the jour- with this hive very inspirational. With I also appreciate your suggestions,
nal from your opening letter, letters to this hive I can avoid lifting full deeps and have already addressed the read-
the editor, events around the country, that are stacked three or four high and ability of “Rock Star” Randy’s graphs
“The Classroom,” many interesting work with a colony at waist level. Sign and illustrations.
articles and yes, even the advertise- me up! Caroline kindly answered my It’s good to have you back! I sin-
ments. I read the magazine cover-to- email and shared the plans for the cerely hope we can continue to earn
cover as soon as it arrives. hive. Building one of these hives is on your trust.
I understand that you became the my list for this winter. Eugene
editor just last year. I wanted to send Suggestions: Make Randy (rock
along my thanks and appreciation star) Oliver ’s illustrations larger;
for a great journal. A strong and in- sometimes they are hard to see. Do an UPDATE ON CAMP FIRE
formative ABJ is more important now article on Vavaldi boards. (I am trying SURVIVAL HIVE
than ever as we fight to keep our bees them this winter.)
alive. There were a few articles that Compared to the challenges we Last month we heard from Erin Dick-
were particularly helpful to me. face today, keeping bees 51 years ago erson, who fled California’s horrific Camp
The first was your own article in when I became a beekeeper was easy. Fire with her family on November 8. The
the September issue, “Beekeeping All my colonies always survived the conflagration took her house, her car and
Basics: Are You Ready for Winter?” winter, purchased queens lasted even her place of employment, but some-
In just two well-written pages you three years, and my bees made lots of how her lone beehive survived, and she
sPring confErEncE This two weekend course is designed for those who
march 15- 16, 2019 want to learn about honey bees and beekeeping: begin-
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summEr mEEting
Q
ble bees are generalists and forage on some pollinator friendly forage in
FLOWERS....WE a succession of blooming plants that suburbia. I am not saying that some-
NEED MORE provide nectar and pollen. Solitary body should dig up their whole lawn,
bees are most times not generalists but how about those areas next to the
Hi Jerry, but have developed a relationship driveway or walkway, or that place in
I was listening to a podcast today, with certain plant flower species and the corner of the backyard, to plant
found at: those species only. If there is a lack something else except useless grass?
https://www.sciencefriday.com/seg- of (the key word is “lack” of) a large It would be an amazing resource for
ments/looking-beyond-honeybees/ variety of many kinds of flowering bees, butterflies, birds and on and on.
As I venture into the world of plants, and all of the resource collec- Plant it and they will come.
queen rearing in my relatively remote tion is focused on a few species, then We do need to not point fingers at
piece of land in Southeastern Ontario, there is a general competition for sur- each other, but see where gaps are in
I’ve been doing some thinking about vival and somebody is going to win meeting and sustaining a healthy en-
some of Tom Seeley’s research that and somebody isn’t for resource col- vironment with opportunities to fill
has been published in ABJ on the feral lection and acquisition. And this com- those gaps together, not behind the
colonies in upstate New York. petition could be between and among walls or gates of closed communities.
Compounded with a query at a re- honey bees and bumble bees and oth- Below are a few links to interest-
cent presentation that I did at a local li- er pollinating bees. It all depends on ing information about your insightful
brary where a lady asked me the ques- the location and what is the mix and questions:
tion, “Do honey bees ever harm native density of ALL kinds of pollinators in http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/
pollinators?” I’m wondering about the area. postdetail.cfm?postnum=11627
the carrying capacity of a given area There is data available that is show- http://news.cornell.edu/sto-
and, as the vice president of my lo- ing that climate change is having an ries/2011/10/native-bees-are-better-
cal guild, what is my responsibility in effect on some of these plant/bee pollinators-honeybees
pushing the local city council to allow relationships. Remember that for https://resonatingbodies.files.word-
urban beekeeping vs. discouraging specialist pollinators who have this press.com/2010/02/beeshabitatco-
individuals from becoming beekeep- specific plant flower relationship that evolution.pdf
ers and instead being bee stewards by the plant has to grow and flower at a
creating pollinator gardens? prescribed time because the bee polli-
Q
I’d like to know your thoughts and nator has to emerge from her nesting
hole, tube, or tunnel in the ground at
whether you are aware of any current
studies on the effects of managed bees the same time the plant is blooming. CEDAR HIVE...?
on native bees, or the carrying capac- If this coordination doesn’t happen
ity of a given urban/rural space. the plant doesn’t get pollinated and Hello, I am wondering if you think
can’t produce seeds and reproduce that cedar wood would help detract
Thanks, and the bee doesn’t have access to the wax moths. The reason I ask is be-
Harley flower nectar and pollen to supply cause I am a wood worker and know
A
her small nest with this fundamen- that if you build a chest out of cedar
tal food source so she can reproduce. then moths don’t like to eat holes in
They are distinctly tied together. blankets that you put in your chest.
In some places in North America, So I was wondering if you made a
Carrying capacity for these pollina- spring is advancing sooner on the bottom board or lid or even just put a
tors is all connected to “food”, i.e., flo- calendar, sometimes by a few weeks thin layer of cedar on the inner sides
ral resources. Honey bees and bum- already. The result of warming tem- of the boxes if you think that it would
A
It did not act on the vegetative/grow-
ing stage of Nosema itself. Sales were
Q
not that great and so the product was
No. :)
dropped. Others are trying to bring it
back but there were two patent hold- WAX MOTHS
Many things old are new again. Recy- ers so some negotiations have to be
cled ideas. Not that it isn’t a good ques- made. I am a rescuer beekeeper in a re-
tion but a couple things are going on. Healthy honey bees have robust mote, high desert town, so far re-
Honey bees don’t like these kinds gut/intestine bacteria, yeast, even moved from any commercial honey
of unfamiliar odors and cover the virus populations that together are bee operations that we do not yet have
source with propolis to contain called a microbiome, which helps the varroa mites. We do, however, have
them. If you built a cedar hive the bee digest beebread and contributes moths this year, lots of moths! Moths
bees would coat the interior with to the overall health of the individual and their brood have destroyed sev-
propolis to cover up the smell. bee. When this balance of organisms eral of my active hives (the bees ab-
Honey bees do this also to stabilize in the microbiome is changed — or sconded), and eaten through plastic
their environment with these tree thrown off by exposure to varro- garbage bags containing brood boxes
gums, saps, and resins we call propolis. acides in the colony, poor nutrition, and supers in storage in my garage,
But if you want to do it because it is antibiotics, toxins brought in from the rendering honeycomb to dust! What
fun and would look cool from the environment, etc. — this allows other can I do to keep moths out of active
outside, do it. Beekeeping should organisms that are not helpful to gain hives, and away from stored hives?
be fun as long as you are manag- a foothold and dominate the gut. Like
ing appropriately on the inside with Nosema apis or cerana or both. Thanks,
this partnership with these insects. Kind of like you or me when we eat Tom Geiger
The bees will help you on the inside something that causes diarrhea, or
part as they look for colony hive sta- take antibiotics that kill the bad bac-
A
bility, but wax moth repellency isn’t teria but also the good bacteria and
part of it. cause diarrhea because our microbi-
ome is off balance. Many times fer-
Q
mented foods, foods that use bacte-
NO FUMIDIL-B... ria to partially digest and change it If you are a honey bee swarm col-
NOW WHAT? for preservation (like yogurt, kefir, lector in Page, Arizona, that means
kombucha or other fermented prod- you are an Africanized honey bee
First, thanks for all your help in the ucts) rebalance our microbiome as (AHB) expert. Africanized bees, be-
past and all the information you pro- they make their way to and through cause they abscond so much and
vide monthly. It’s a great service. our gut. And you may have heard swarm so much, will certainly have
I wanted to get your opinion on about people who this doesn’t work fewer varroa than the genetically Eu-
the ads I see now that Fumagilin-B is for and they have a ‘fecal transplant’ ropean stock that most of us main-
no longer available, suggesting that to reintroduce the correct organisms tain, but they will still have varroa.
you use as a replacement Super DFM into the intestine. Your AHB absconding problem
Honey Bee. There are several of these The products above are like yogurt may be from varroa or the varroa/
products available, another being Pro or kefir or kombucha for honey bees. virus complex or one of the other
DFM Honey Bee. I have tried to get But one of the biggest problems we 4 P’s of beekeeping - Parasites, Patho-
some information on its ingredients have had in the beekeeping industry gens, Pesticides and Poor nutrition.
and how it will help treat for Nosema is the overuse and arbitrary use of an- Wax moths in an active honey bee
which is what Fumagilin-B was used tibiotics because of the thought that colony are ‘secondary’ predators. If
for, however so far I have not found bad looking bees need antibiotics. the colony is strong enough with suf-
any clear details. Couldn’t be further from the truth. ficient population for a bee to cover
Please provide me with any details “Anti” means “against”, and “biotic” each square inch of comb, these ‘sec-
and opinions you may have or can means “life”. Antibiotic = against life. ondary’ predators cannot enter with-
find. Many times antibiotics are needed out being recognized as intruders - let
Thanks for the information and if there is an accurate diagnosis of a alone lay eggs without those eggs or
your time. bacterial disease, but most beekeep- early larvae being removed by the
ers don’t know how to do this so they colony police force. What you have
Ron prophylactically treat and can cause to figure out is whether your African-
Scottsville, Va. worse problems. ized bees swarmed or absconded and
Soooo, if you want to use the prod- the population dropped precipitous-
A
ucts above you have to look long-term ly, which left more unused comb than
and quit using antibiotics and use the the bees could protect. If there are still
products according to label directions bees in the colony, then you need to
consistently for best results. Because take boxes off and crowd the remain-
Thank you for the compliment. these products contain certain bacte- ing bees into one box or so and get
Hi Jerry,
CELLS OUT
skins as food. The organisms would
eat the many larval skins, which are
a reservoir for many chemicals, bac-
teria and fungal organisms which
as the wax moth cannot tolerate freez- Thanks for your fun and education- can hurt a colony. It was a great idea
ing temperatures. If you don’t have al column! but there were few sales to sustain
freezer capacity then you will have I read in an old magazine that peo- it, mostly because nobody wanted
to resort to wax moth crystals where ple could buy something that could to remove frames, spray them and
the active ingredient is paradichloro- clean the cells and remove old pupa let the organisms do their job eating
benzene. NOTHING else, or you will cases. Is that true? Isn’t that what the the old comb larval skins, and so it
ruin your comb and kill bees. Follow nurse bees are supposed to do? Does was taken off the market. I have no
label directions perfectly. it allow them to do other work in the idea if it impacted AFB spore count,
hive? but one would have to think so, as
the cell debris they created as they
Q
Did it work? If so, what happened
UPPER to it? I have never seen anything like ate it would have been cleaned out
by the bees after the organisms did
VENTILATION that. Can it help remove AFB (Ameri-
can foulbrood) spores? their job.
Thanks for your advice!! :) You are the first to ask about this
What is your feeling on putting in 30 years. So you know now why it
ventilation tops on beehives during Clive Baldwin was taken off the market.
the winter months? Do you think it is
really worth it? I mean, there isn’t one
in a hollowed out tree, and they seem
to do fine
Hope you are doing well. A Q FREE FORM COMB
Mark Wow, you must be as old as I am. Hello Mr. Hayes, Teacher of all
Great question. Things Bees,
As a quick aside, the many larval I was told today by a beekeeper
A
skins that are shed during a honey bee that all of his colonies have founda-
larval development are layered on tion-less combs because they “typi-
top of one another. And as you can cally result in smaller sized cells
visualize in a brood area, those same which helps control the mite popula-
But, the assumption is that the cells are used time after time and that tion.” Not one to argue, I only stated
beehive in the hollow tree was in is why comb darkens and becomes that small celled foundation has not
the same configuration as the one a reservoir waste area. This is where been found to control mites; however,
that Langstroth and others designed wax moths came in for wild honey I have also seen that foundation-less
with the entrance at the bottom and a bee health. combs often result in more cells that
front porch and confined space with Honey bees living in a hollow tree are larger in size in the spring, result-
a solid top. someplace generally only maintained ing in more drones in the spring than
Truth is, before varroa, when there a colony there for a few years before colonies starting with the standard
were more feral colonies, it was found they swarmed or died and left the foundation.
that when given a choice bees select- empty colony with all the old brood Can you shed some light on this
ed a cavity with an upper entrance. comb sitting there. Wax moths would subject? The ONLY advantage I see
Think hollow vertical space with move in and eat the old dark comb, as in not letting bees start on foundation
brood chamber below and no bottom the larval skins were their nutrition. is that they should not have much
entrance, so temperature and humid- Wax moths would ‘destroy’ the old chemical residue in the cells if they
ity could be consistent and excess hu- dark comb and basically sanitize the build it all themselves (depending
mid air could rise like warm air in a tree cavity so another colony could on what products are in their flying
chimney and be vented out. move in and not be exposed to the range), but it takes a lot more work
And yes, honey bees are survivors reservoir of disease. for the bees to build from scratch and
and can live in many different cav- We beekeepers want to keep all the the frames tend to be more irregular
ity configurations. I have seen them comb, old and new, as a resource so and fragile when moving frames or
in mailboxes, old gas tanks, and the the colony doesn’t have to use energy tilting them to look in cells.
trunk of an old Buick. Kind of like making new comb all the time. So
people; we can live in all sorts of unless you remove a couple frames Bee Inspector
cavities from igloos to caves, tents to of old dark comb a year and replace Somewhere in Ohio
penthouse apartments. But we need with new foundation and have new
ventilation and air flow too, so hu- fresh comb built, your hives don’t get
A
midity doesn’t build up and give us this ‘sanitizing’ process.
moldy walls. Yes, long, long ago on a planet far,
In a perfect world, I would far away there was a product, a bio-
close down the bottom entrance to logical product nonetheless, that the
an inch or so and create an upper en- beekeeper could spray on old dark Here is the answer.
trance above the brood chamber, in combs and the fungus/mold in the In particular, I like the one below
winter and the rest of the year too. mixture would use the shed larval that starts with Ellis :)
Q
the past; there’s no stupidity to it. In a Ideal Hives“.
climate where bees could forage year- ......genetics alone is not going to BEE-GYM ...
round, a gene directing a second fall solve the problem completely, I feel. Really??
swarming season could confer advan- There is breeding work being done
tages to the species. As far as arthro- selecting for Varroa-Sensitive Hy- I bought a thing called the Bee-
pods and intelligence are concerned, gienic (VSH) behavior. The USDA Gym just for fun at the vendor sec-
I agree with J. Henri Fabre, Norman lab in Baton Rouge worked hard to tion at the recent AHPA Conference
Gary and his chapter in The Hive and get the Russian bees precisely be- in Phoenix. It is a yellow plastic thing
the Honey Bee, 2015, pg. 276-277, In- cause there was the expectation that with wires on it that are supposed to
fluence Of Learning On Bee Activities: they would have gone through selec- help bees groom themselves and get
“Bees learn quickly and can remem- tion for resistance to varroa. I have varroa off. I thought it was a waste
ber some experiences for the remain- not used Russian bees, but quite of money and time but I have spent
der of their lives. However, this does a few people do. But what Marla money on goofier things for my back-
not mean that they are clever, smart, Spivak tells me regarding the VSH- yard colonies. AHPA meeting was
or intelligent.” Borror and DeLong trait bees that she has promoted, is great. Since I live in the area and our
in their book An Introduction to the that these bees offer some control of weather is always warm I put it in a
Study of Insects, 3rd Edition, page 53: the mites, but you still need other colony. I have a sticky board on the
“It is unsafe to assume that a mental controls as well. bottom board. Look at the photo I sent
process such as liking or disliking I cannot say for sure whether the you. It is incredible. Look at the kind
something has anything to do with an bees that are living in the Arnot For- of square outline in the center with
insect’s response. The nerve pathways est would show resistance to the var- all the VARROA making the outline.
involved in insect behavior are largely roa mite without all of the features I had no idea it would actually work
hereditary; hence the responses are of their lifestyle - it may not be just this well. What do you think?
largely automatic and not learned.” those genetics that are helping them.
A whole host of other entomologists Their persistence may be due to Charles K.,
agree. E.O. Wilson, in The Insect Soci- their genetics in combination with Phoenix, AZ
eties (1971 Harvard University Press, how they live in small nests, have
p. 219), comes closest to attributing the freedom to swarm, etc. So I can
intelligence to insects: “Experiments see a lot of reasons why people want
on the learning performance of hon- to find the magic-bullet treatment.
eybees and ants have already revealed Here’s the chemical to use - be it ox-
many kinds of constraints which, by alic acid or thymol or formic acid.
themselves, must hold the potential Honey bee colonies surviving with-
intelligence of these insects far below out varroa controls in the Arnot Forest
that of mammals.” Most of E.O.’s ref- are doing so because they are isolated
erences to insects involve robotic and from other honey bee colonies and the
A
instinctual actions. dispersal ‘Varroa Bomb’ events are re-
I’ve kept this discourse short as I duced. They maintain much smaller
currently have a full plate. I do whole- colonies which mean less brood which
heartedly agree with you in the last means less varroa reproduction. And
paragraph and give my version of the they swarm freely, breaking the varroa
sentiment: We as beekeepers need to reproduction cycle. I have bought goofy stuff on a whim
be better educated, cooperate with All of the above are totally oppo- as I got caught up in the excitement of
and assist our bees in what they seek site of the beekeeping model that has a meeting too. Most of the time they
to accomplish. One of the things bees proven most effective and valuable are a waste of money because they
are trying to accomplish is a natural for pollination and honey produc- don’t work but make me curious and
host-parasite relationship with var- tion. We manage colonies in apiaries loose with my CC while they sell this
roa. Our cooperation and assistance or yards with many other colonies. stuff and check their emails while on
would help bring this about. We encourage large colonies, as more the beach in Jamaica.
I’m not a believer. bees collect more nectar and pollen You are not the first one to share
than small colonies, and we try to re- pictures like that with me. I have
Terry strict swarming as it is a loss of bees. scratched my head and let it go but
A
When isolated colonies are put into yours was the tipping point to have
our standard equipment in an apiary my comment. If you go to the Euro-
with other colonies, these varroa re- pean company Vita and their website
sistant traits disappear. They are af- www.vita-europe.com and click on
Hello Terry, fected and die at the same rate as the Bee-Gym there is a lot of information
Thank you for sharing your ‘other’ managed colonies. and a video of the bees grooming
thoughts and opinion. I think you All that to say managed honey bees themselves (maybe) on it.
may agree that Dr. Tom Seeley is the are pets or livestock, as they need Are the bees grooming themselves
go-to expert for research into varroa educated attention and management and using this as a tool? Or are they
impacts on isolated honey bee colo- if we beekeepers are to be responsible looking at this device as a piece of de-
nies in the Arnot Forest. for our honey bees’ health and wel- bris in the colony and trying to figure
by TINA SEBESTYEN
An out-yard that can only be reached by snowshoe when checking on winter feed. 8000’ in Colorado
I
get a flu shot every year. Actually, creatures — humans, dogs, or chick- birds. For example, hens donate their
I’ve had a swath of vaccines, from ens. However, it works somewhat dif- own antibodies to their eggs. This an-
influenza to rabies (the latter came ferently in insects,” Freitak explains. tibody sharing gives the chicks some
in handy when I was trapping small It depends on a specific protein, vi- protection against pathogens early in
carnivores in Kenya). The immune tellogenin, that floats around in the life and tides them over until they can
system is amazing, isn’t it? Delivered blood, instead of T- and B-cells. But start producing antibodies for them-
by the prick of a needle, harmless there’s an added twist: The acquired selves. Transgenerational immune
fragments of pathogens give us mem- immunity not only acts within the in- priming happens in people, too: As
orized immunity against real diseas- dividual bee exposed to the pathogen developing fetuses, we shared our
es, so we don’t have to worry about — it is also passed down to the next mother’s blood supply and are there-
dying from rabies if we get nipped generation. fore born primed with the same an-
by a frothing jackal. What if we could tibodies that circulated in her. But if
also vaccinate our bees, to prevent Like Mother, Like Daughter bees don’t produce antibodies, how
diseases like American foulbrood? Salmela and Freitak were not the can they prime their babies’ immune
For a long time, it didn’t look like ones who discovered this immune systems?
such a feat would be possible. The pathway, but they did figure out Enter: vitellogenin. Vitellogenin is a
bees’ immune system is just so differ- how it worked. It was Ben Sadd — yolk protein produced in egg-laying
ent than ours. They don’t have B-cells who now runs a lab at Illinois State animals, including fish, birds, frogs,
like we do, which give us that memo- University — who provided some of snakes, and bees, among others. Its
rized immune response. They don’t the first uncontested evidence of the regular role is to provide nutrients
have T-cells, which hunt down and phenomenon over a decade ago in to developing embryos. But in honey
kill infected cells. They don’t have an- bumble bees.2 He and his colleagues bees (and other social insects), this
tibodies, which glob on to pathogens injected Bombus terrestris queens with protein is central to nearly all aspects
and stop them in their tracks. In fact, either heat-killed bacteria or saline of life, including reproduction, lon-
bees don’t have a conventional adap- solution, and then measured immune gevity, the nurse-to-forager transi-
tive immune system (also known as stimulation in their daughters. Sur- tion, and now, immune priming.
the “acquired immune system”) at all prisingly, daughters from bacteria- In their 2015 paper in PLOS Patho-
— a system that is necessary for vac- injected queens had a heightened gens,1 Freitak and Salmela elegantly
cines to work. immune state compared to daughters showed that in queen honey bees,
But in a series of discoveries, re- of queens injected with saline alone, vitellogenin binds to bacterial frag-
searchers have shown that it’s not that despite not receiving the bacterial in- ments and transports them into eggs,
bees don’t have an adaptive immune jection themselves. It was clear that thereby presenting these fragments
system, it’s that we just didn’t recog- the queen’s own immune stimula- to the naïve future embryo. “The
nize it. Now, Dalial Freitak and Heli tion was being passed on to her na- next generation will develop its own
Salmela — researchers at the Univer- ïve daughters — a process which immunity as a response to that ex-
sity of Helsinki, Finland — have fig- researchers call “transgenerational posure,” says Freitak. Just like how
ured out how to capitalize on this sys- immune priming”. immunizing vaccines spare us from
tem to immunize queens, which can Transgenerational immune prim- the actual disease, these fragments
then give rise to immunized colonies. ing is nothing new; we have known are harmless to the bee embryos, but
“Insects have both innate and adap- about it for over a hundred years,3 be- are still enough to stimulate their
tive immunity just like other living ginning with work on mammals and immune system. Furthermore, the
by NORMAN L CARRECK1,2
Email: norman.carreck@btinternet.com
G
regor Mendel (1822-1884) (Fig- tance of characteristics in peas and de Vries in the Netherlands. They rep-
ure 1) is celebrated throughout other plants were carried out in the licated his results, giving birth to the
the world as “the father of ge- Abbey garden. In 1865, he published field of modern genetics.
netics” for his pioneering studies on Versuche uber Pflanzen-hybriden [Ex- In his 1965 article celebrating the
inheritance, but I wonder how many periments on Plant Hybridization] in centenary of the publication of Men-
people know that he was also a bee- the Annals of the Natural History Soci- del’s paper, Vecerek stated, “In the
keeper who carried out research on ety of Brno. Unfortunately, the paper last war, during the battle of Brno in
bees? On a recent visit to the Czech made little or no impact. He was ap- April 1945, many of Mendel’s docu-
Republic to speak to beekeepers in- pointed Abbott in 1868 and, from that ments were destroyed, and only
volved in the COLOSS colony loss time on, had little time to carry out the first page of his manuscript Ver-
monitoring program, I was privileged further experiments on genetics. suche uber Pflanzenhybriden was ever
to visit the Mendel Museum (Figure Mendel was aware of Charles Dar- found.” Fortunately, this was not the
2) at the Augustinian Abbey at Brno, win’s On the Origin of Species (1859) case. After a convoluted history, Men-
including Mendel’s bee house which and his heavily annotated copy sur- del’s original manuscript was redis-
is still in use today. vives. Mendel actually visited Lon- covered. It was recently purchased
Johann Mendel was born in the don in 1862, but he was too modest to by Masaryk University, and is now
small village of Heinzendorf (now visit Darwin. Although Darwin lived on public display in the Mendel Mu-
Hynčice) in Silesia, then part of the until 1882, sadly he was entirely un- seum (Figure 4).
German Empire but now in the Czech aware of Mendel’s work. It could have Mendel’s family probably kept
Republic. His family were of modest been forgotten forever, but it was re- bees, but he would have maintained
means, but he was soon recognized discovered in 1900 by three scientists, his interest when he joined the Abbey.
as a very bright child, and after at- all working independently: Corens in Certainly, he actively kept bees by
tending school nearby he studied at Germany; Tschermak in Austria and 1855, and at one time, he had 50 colo-
the Philosophical Institute at Olmütz nies. He applied his scientific train-
(now Olomouc) for three years. In ing to beekeeping, saying, “It is im-
1843, he entered the Augustinian Ab- portant for every beekeeper to carry
bey at Brünn (now Brno) as a nov- out experiments, since this is the only
ice, where he was given the name of way to achieve successful results.”
Gregor and was ordained priest in Mendel kept several types of bee
1847. The Abbey sent him to the Uni- for comparison, including the black
versity of Vienna in Austria between bee Apis mellifera mellifera and the
1851-1853 where he studied math- Carniolan bee A.m. carnica, both of
ematics to become a teacher, but he which were in use locally at the time.
failed to achieve his professorship. He also obtained the Italian bee A.m.
Between 1854 and 1864, his ground- ligustica, the Cyprian bee A.m. cyprica,
breaking experiments on the inheri- the Egyptian bee A.m. lamarki, and
even tried stingless bees (Trigona lin-
1
eata). It is thought that he tried breed-
Carreck Consultancy Ltd., 9, Warren ing experiments, analogous to his
Drive, Southwater, West Sussex, RH13
9GL, UK
work on peas, but his notes do not
2
Laboratory of Apiculture and Social In- survive.
sects, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brigh- However, fortunately Mendel
ton, East Sussex, BN1 9QG, UK Fig. 1 Gregor Mendel wrote reports for the local Moravian
Fig. 5 Mendel’s bee house. It has space for 15 hives together Fig. 6 In the library of the Abbey. L to R: Ivan Černý (Czeck Bee-
with a storage room and office. L to R: Ivan Černý, Prof. Vladi- keepers Union), author, Flemming Vejsnæs (Danish Beekeep-
mir Ptáček (formerly of Masaryk University, Brno), Flemming ers Association), Dr Jiří Danihlík (Palacký University, Olomouc).
Vejsnæs, author.
Fig. 7 A selection of different hives with bees adjacent to the Fig. 8 Inside the bee house Prof. Ptáček demonstrates a maga-
bee house. zine hive of the kind in use in Mendel’s time.
E
valuation and Selection. Thor- what they may have to offer. If they able, pest and disease resistant and
oughly examine your records meet my selection criteria, I will raise productive line of bees.
and analyze the results. Those daughter queens and evaluate those. Colony Evaluations: New queens
colonies (queens) showing movement Exceptional feral colonies are good should not be evaluated until the
toward your goals become candi- (Drone Mother Colonies (DMCs) and population has turned over. The first
dates for further selection. Any show- possible sources of new lines. year they should be evaluated as a
ing no improvement or the wrong Records are essential. They will nuc colony, then transferred into full-
movement are not used for selection. also aid in avoiding the use of the size equipment and allowed to de-
Those queens are either replaced or same breeder queen or dmcs year af- velop. I don’t overwinter nucs. I want
the queen eliminated, and the bees ter year if you have a large operation; them built-up to full-sized colonies
combined with another colony. Look thus helping to prevent inbreeding. If before winter and accomplish this
at the big picture during the evalu- the beekeeper conducts tests, such as by starting nucs in the spring. This
ation/selection process; don’t focus for hygienic behavior or mite levels, 2-step evaluation in nucs and full-size
entirely on any one characteristic/ records should be kept for this also. colonies allows for queen evaluation
trait/behavior. You may find some Record-keeping is best done while first and then colony considerations
interesting and thoughtful decisions the info is still fresh in one’s mind— such as mite resistance, production,
will have to be made. that’s why I take my Yardbook to the wintering, spring-build-up and other
A Continuous Process of Refine- apiary. The field inspection sheets are general full-sized colony characteris-
ment: Ultimately, you keep selecting, transferred into a computer program tics in the next step. Dead-outs elimi-
narrowing those originally selected and on to permanent record sheets. nate themselves (Autopsy and try to
down to the very best for further The decisions regarding future breed- determine why they died).
propagation. For my operation I se- ing plans can then be tailored to the Evaluation in the nucleus: After
lect the very best two or three colo- individual’s wants and needs. the population turnover in the nuc;
nies. Those ruled out for breeding, yet Records can be as simple as written evaluation of the queen can begin.
showing good traits and some pro- notes or put into computer programs The queen’s brood pattern, build-up,
gression, can become production col- or one of the software programs avail- and egg laying rate are the first con-
onies, or sources of additional brood/ able for beekeepers. Good record- siderations. The colony can also be
bees for other colonies or splits. They keeping and evaluations are the most evaluated for defensiveness, behav-
can also be requeened with my se- important considerations in stock se- ior on the comb, housekeeping, use
lected breeder queen’s daughters and lection and subsequent decisions. If of propolis, mite load and hygienic
also evaluated. I would replace any you use a computer, remember they traits even at this stage. Behavior in
queens that aren’t progressing. are subject to crashes, etc. Back them a nuc may differ somewhat from be-
Recordkeeping will be necessary in up or print them out. havior in a full-sized hive.
order to evaluate colonies and make We can do more than just select our Evaluation in the full-sized hive:
selection decisions for future breeders. “best colonies” based solely on what All the observations made in the nuc
Untested feral survivors are due to we see and remember. By keeping should be redone once the colony be-
non-directed, natural selection (Moth- accurate records, making controlled comes a full-sized hive. A full-sized
hive should also be evaluated for full- be crossed with drones from the next The same must apply to bees, ex-
colony issues and characteristics such highest pollen collector. cept it’s even more so that an inferior
as wintering, spring build-up, produc- Culling and Further Propagation: queen is eliminated. A queen ruled
tion, and disease and pest problems. This is a critical step in breeding. Infe- out from the breeding program due to
Large colonies provide for more ex- rior stock must be culled. Those colo- no improvement or negative charac-
pressions of each sub-family within nies/queens showing no progress or teristics cannot be given away or sold
the hive. When recording data; make it negative progression are culled from to someone else, as she will continue
as easy as possible on yourself. Instead the process. This is where the lessons to produce drones that may come
of using a scale hive, one can count the I learned in breeding quality fish re- back to haunt me or my customer.
number of frames of honey produced. ally come into play. If I were to allow The queens not meeting my selection
Count frames of bees instead of every just 1 inferior male guppy having an criteria are destroyed; usually by a
bee in the hive. Use percentage esti- off color, improper tail angle, curved head pinch or dropped into a jar of
mates for things such as brood, pollen, spine or any other problem to reach iso alcohol. (Fish are captive within
nectar, honey or empty cells. A simple maturity and mate with my females, I aquaria, bees are free to move about
scale of 1 to 5 can be used for many could lose or be set back several years and affect other bees)
subjective observations. on my goal of a show-quality guppy. Usually, I can simply kill and re-
Selection of high and low lines for For that reason, rigorous and timely place a queen, but there are times
a specific trait: As an example; pol- culling of any fish not in line with my that it may become necessary to cull a
len collection. You can select for high goals is a necessity. Something as se- whole colony. Trying to keep a badly
or low pollen collection by measur- rious as a curved spine must be de- diseased or pest-ridden colony alive
ing total pollen collected in a pollen stroyed. Off-color fish or a delta tail is, in my opinion, a serious mistake,
trap during a certain or specified time with an improper angle could be giv- especially one that shows persis-
period. In selecting for high pollen en to someone wanting fish for their tent/repetitive issues with diseases/
collection; daughters from the high- home aquarium, but have no place in pests. Keeping a queen that is not in
est pollen-collecting colony would a serious breeding program. line with your goals is also a serious
1 = least desirable trait / behavior; do not keep! CULL. There are numerous statistical correlations between the egg
5 = average; don’t bee stuck here! No consideration for laying rate and nectar & pollen collection. The brood may
breeding. also be estimated in 10ths of a frame (.9 = 90%) Use 3400
10 = most desirable trait / behavior; this is the goal!-With cells per frame side. Whether by measurement or estimate;
due consideration; is a colony w/out any propolis a good this gives a good idea of the upcoming workforce. 4-6 weeks
thing? Is a colony that gathers copious amounts of pollen before a known honey flow, measuring the sealed brood will
ideal? Is foraging in a thunder/rain storm deserving of 10? tell how many foragers will be available for the crop.
mistake. You may think this cruel or using human emotion or think your pile and quickly removed the frames,
unwarranted, but if you remove our logic should dictate bee behavior, you shook bees into the fire and cut the
species from the equation, this is ex- need to read Norman Gary’s chapter comb with bees and brood out over
actly what the selective force that has in The Hive and The Honey Bee: Ac- the fire also. Caution: wax can cre-
sustained bees for millions of years tivities and Behavior of Honey Bees, ate an intense fire, so as we say in
engages in. Natural selection does especially the section titled Problems the mines; safety first. The third col-
not engage in any sorrow, moralizing, in Understanding Bee Behavior. (The ony was overrun by SHB after being
cruelty or any other emotion connect- bees live in a completely different blown over in a severe storm. The
ed to the human race. It is a test of fit- world than we do.) boxes were placed into a double layer
ness. Only those capable of surviving I’ve had 4 instances where I’ve had of black plastic and into direct sun for
make it to the next year. The purpose to kill entire colonies. First, in 1977, two days. Clean out and burn comb
of natural selection is to ensure that I had a colony diagnosed with AFB. immediately if you do this (Dead
only the strong, healthy, and produc- The colony was destroyed by putting bees/beetles/brood will rot quickly
tive forms of life pass on their benefi- potassium cyanide on cardboard (a and beetle-fermented honey does no
cial genetics in order to keep a spe- chemical used for insect killing jars, one any good). Last fall I had to kill
cies alive and prospering. Those that but I don’t think the public has access a colony from a swarm caught else-
don’t are thrown into the trash pile. to cyanide anymore), putting it into where that was severely infected with
It may be a hard pill to swallow, the hive entrance and sealing up the CBPV. Although the woodenware
but if you truly want to help bees, hive. This was then placed into a pre- might have been salvageable, it was
you’re going to have to adopt na- dug hole and burned and buried ac- fairly old and the bees had gone cra-
ture’s hard stance against the weak, cording to my state regulations. The zy propolizing the interior so it was
deformed, and inferior and cull those second was in 2004 when a colony sealed and set on top of a burn pile
that don’t have what’s needed to re- from a source outside my apiaries and torched. My inspector informed
main healthy, prosper and carry on became so mite infested that I didn’t me there was an outbreak of CBPV
the species. Bees are not, nor should consider it worth saving. The colony the previous year in the area I caught
they be, regarded as pets and I don’t was shut up one evening and a brush this swarm. Deprived of food, bees
want to see a day when they are total- pile fire started the next morning. I could also be frozen in a deep freezer.
ly dependent on us. When you start hand-trucked the colony to the burn Some also seal the colony and spray in
by WILLIAM BLOMSTEDT
The bees in their fall pasture, a national wetlands
B
eehives are awkward pieces and walk away – no back-breaking ing a frame so that, when parked, one
of furniture. Even at one story, labor required. row of hives would be able to extend
each is a little too wide and of- I still mainly use Langstroth hives, rearward and all entrances could face
ten too heavy for a single person to but I wanted to have a similar system the same direction. Instead I erred on
easily pick up. Add to this a few mov- as I drove them around the country the side of simplicity and something
ing parts – the bottom, top and feeder, to catch different honey flows. At that I could easily make myself: two
all of which may or may not be stuck the end of 2016 I knew that this was rows of hives facing opposite direc-
on with propolis – as well as living in- my next step in beekeeping and I tions, separated by an aisle.
sects churning inside, and moving a began the process – searching for a One of the first debates I had to
hive alone becomes a daunting prop- trailer, designing a frame, installing a overcome was whether I wanted the
osition. The chances of injuring one’s hitch, finding locations – all of which hives to sit flush next to each other or
back or one’s bees are uncomfortably dragged through the winter. Slove- stand separately. The benefits of the
significant. nia’s first main honey flow in April former were that an extra hive would
How does a beekeeper move hives – black locust on the coast – crept up be able to fit on each row and a single
if he doesn’t have anyone on the pay- quite fast. By that time I had found strap might be enough to hold all of
roll? Some pieces of heavy machinery, the location, installed the hitch and them down. The downside was the
like a boom loader or forklift, work bought the trailer, but its bed was still difficulty in working in puzzle-tight
for larger operations, while a hobby- bare. I thought about asking a friend spaces – I could envision a frustrat-
ist might use a smaller contraption to help me load and unload hives the ing future when trying to slip a heavy
like a hive trolley. As I was mulling old-fashioned way, but then I would super into a slot with only 1/16 inch
this challenge over at the start of my need to recruit him again (or some- of space on each side. But after in-
solo small-scale beekeeping career, one else) for the next move. If it takes cluding telescoping lids in the design,
another idea kept burning in my gul- a good friend to help you move to a each hive body sat around 3” apart,
let: what if I didn’t have to pick up new home – loading and unloading and I was still able to comfortably fit
the hives at all? What if moving the benign cardboard boxes and furniture two rows of five hives.
hives was as easy as starting the car – then it takes a very good friend to To keep the hives situated, I de-
and driving away? don a suit and stack living beehives at cided to build a wooden frame for the
My idea did not stem from nothing: an ungodly hour. Instead I parked the bottoms while a strap would hold the
I live in Slovenia and many Slovene trailer on a vacant piece of land and rest down tightly. With 2x4s of treat-
beekeepers have trucks or trailers decided to have one more stationary ed pine, I cut four pieces nearly the
with hives built into them. Slovenia’s season. A year’s delay in advancing length of the trailer and bolted them
national hive, known as the AŽ, was a complicated beekeeping plan is not far enough apart so that the front
specifically created for migratory bee- always a bad thing. and back corners of each hive would
keeping – it opens from the back, so I had purchased a trailer meant for stand on them. Next, I crafted 20 U-
the hives can be stacked directly next hauling an ATV or motorbike: 8’ by shaped pieces which would screw
to and atop each other, while inside 4’5’’1 with a 4’’ rim encircling the bed. to the 2x4s and hold the bottoms in
it incorporates a metal spacer to keep I mulled over a few different plans on place. Using two empty hives to help
the frames from clattering. When how to transform this trailer into a measure, I leap-frogged up and down
reaching a new destination, the Slo- rolling bee yard. The most complicat- the two rows fastening the wooden
vene beekeeper can jack up the trailer ed one involved a metalsmith weld- frame in place.
ing it up, take off a wheel. Someone and then onto the highway. I arrived (and to those interested in trying this
could certainly bring their own spare at their new location after an hour of themselves).
trailer wheel and drive away with smooth driving and five minutes of
all my hard work, but it would take an extremely bumpy field (the latter 1. The center aisle is too small: I did
some planning and effort. The 2nd bit making me thankful for my exces- not fully consider the space be-
was a hitch lock, preventing anyone sive strapping). After attaching the tween the two rows of bees when
from attaching the trailer to their legs and jacking it off the ground, all I designing the plan, and now I real-
towbar. Though with enough time had to do was flip down the entrances ize ~16 inches is not very big. My
and planning, both deterrents could and walk away. size 13 feet are unable to fit between
be thwarted, the idea was to deeply My first year at migratory beekeep- the two rows, and I am instead
tip the balance on the amount of ef- ing is another story in itself, fraught forced to stand at a strange angle
fort required to get them vs worth of with last-minute location problems while working with the bees.
goods (and hold faith in the kindness and with strange weather patterns 2. There are too many straps. Though
of people). that left many of the old-time bee- I only move the hives a hand-
With the trailer ready, I waited for keepers here scratching their heads. ful of times during the year, put-
the landscape to wake up. Two weeks The trailer itself, however, I would ting ten straps over ten hives is a
before the black locust bloom normal- call a mild success. I transported bees pain, as well as tying up the extra
ly began, I traveled to my bee location around the country and captured strap length. I could try to use less
at sundown and closed the entrances multiple honey flows – black lo- straps, but I still believe that secu-
of each hive. Then I tightened a strap cust, basswood, chestnut – and then rity trumps haste. I don’t want to
around each (another solo bee-mov- moved it into a national wetlands get to my new location with defen-
ing technique), wrestled them onto for the bees to stock up on golden- sive, confused bees pouring out of
the trailer, and cranked them down. rod in the autumn. Looking back on a jumbled hive, or have one hive
Driving away, I kept one eye fixed on its functionality after the first year, I missing off the back.
the rearview mirror as I started down have a few comments and critiques 3. Weight limits. This is not something
the winding roads, into the flatlands I would like to offer to my past self I had a problem with, but when
The trailer as I purchased it Building the frame: how to space the u-shaped pieces so the
hives could fit
BEE EXCELLENT
Phone (218) 776-3593
Fax (218) 776-3502
E-mail bexcel@gvtel.com
Global inquiries welcome.
Strapped down, still in one piece after my first move
by DAVID E. ARNAL
B
“ eehives could increase West our rebuttal or budge on his article. Beekeepers here, like most bee-
Nile virus risk,” read the front At that point we asked him to connect keepers, regard mosquito control
page above-the-fold headline us to the editor. The editor proved to as the enemy of the honey bee. This
of the local Island Packet newspaper be just as much of a dead end – no re- adversarial relationship is nothing
on August 10, 2017. The story began tractions, no follow-up story, and no new or unique. However, Mr. Hunt
with the false assertion, “If you have letters to the editor. When I shared was instrumental in setting up “No-
beehives in your backyard, you may that the previous editor would never Spray” zones around bee yards in
be at a higher risk of contracting West have run a story without substanti- Beaufort County. Upon request of the
Nile virus from a mosquito bite.” I ated facts, he hung up on us. How beekeeper, his team takes GPS read-
quickly read the article and then re- frustrating it is to deal with dishon- ings of each apiary location. When
read it to discover that the reporter est, unprincipled people who have a aerial spraying for mosquitoes is be-
never backed up his sensational story big “megaphone.” ing performed, a ½ mile radius ‘No-
with any facts. Without any scientific Mr. Hunt, an entomologist by train- Spray” exclusion zone is enforced by
basis for his claims, I realized that I ing, had clearly explained that the the pilot, who turns off the pesticide
was dealing with Fake News! Only vector species of mosquito for West applicators upon entering the 1 mile
this time it was hitting close to home. Nile Virus was an “urban” mosquito diameter exclusion zone and does
As the President of the Beaufort- (Culex pipens complex), and the area not turn the equipment back on un-
Jasper Beekeepers Association on Hil- identified in the article was very, very til leaving it. Similarly, ground based
ton Head Island, South Carolina, I im- rural. Without a vector for WNV, there spray trucks have a smaller ‘No-
mediately notified our members and cannot be an outbreak of WNV. Duh! Spray” exclusion zone around identi-
our State Association. Next, I called No matter, we were up against sen- fied bee yards.
our State Bee Inspector, Brad Cavin, sationalism that is often used to sell This solution worked very well un-
to inform him about the article and newspapers today. Gregg began up- til what Mr. Hunt describes as an “in-
garner any information that he could dating me on the current status of the vasion of commercial beehives” oc-
share. But my next phone call to recent West Nile Virus outbreak in our curred in the rural, northern portion
Gregg Hunt, the Director of Beaufort area. But what he said next stunned of the county in 2016. Commercial
County Mosquito Control, proved to me - if there was a Zika virus outbreak, beekeepers from Georgia and Florida
be the most significant. “Hi Gregg, mosquito control spraying will prob- put the word out that our area pro-
this is David Arnal. Have you seen ably take place during daylight hours duces a large crop of saw palmetto /
the outrageous article that the Island since the vector mosquito species (Ae- Chinese tallow honey from mid-May
Packet ran today?” Mr. Hunt stated des albopictus) is active mainly during through June and has easy access
that he had seen the article and sug- broad daylight. He would need to from Interstate 95. Mr. Hunt and the
gested that we meet that afternoon. I double his staff and end the county’s Mosquito Control pilots were the first
agreed. When I arrived at his office, I policy of “No-Spray” zones around to report this “invasion” as they spot-
could see that he was in full damage beehives. This set of facts troubled me. ted large numbers of bee hives from
control mode like me. How was I able to engage my lo- the ground and air, respectively, that
After briefly reviewing the article cal mosquito control office with one had not been previously identified.
together, we decided to call the news- phone call and get an immediate Of course they shut off their pesticide
paper reporter. Upon reaching him, meeting? Simple, our local beekeep- applicators upon spotting these bee
we discussed his uncorroborated ers association had already devel- hives to be compliant with the EPA
claims and outright falsehoods. More oped a good relationship with Mr. pesticide label requirements. It was
importantly, we asked why he did Hunt and his staff over the past sev- estimated that at least 3,500 hives
not interview either one of us before eral years. We have hosted him as were present.
he published the article. The reporter the guest speaker at our monthly bee- Rural homeowners in the north-
steadfastly refused to acknowledge keepers meeting on several occasions. ern part of the county began calling
Spray” zones may directly protect our made of exterior grade plywood. Al- parallel-style in the 10-frame version
colonies from pesticide exposure, our ternatively, you can use #8 screen (see Photo 3), because the bees seem
field bees are out working flowers wire instead of plywood on the bot- to do better with it (i.e. the brood pat-
during applications of various mos- tom to make a screened version. tern extends all the way down to the
quito control products, such as those On my 10-Frame High Bottoms the slatted rack) and they tend to draw
containing the active ingredients of slatted rack is its own component that less comb down from the rack.
Sumithrin and Prallethrin from the is added on top of the High Bottom With the 10-Frame version the
air and Permethrin from the ground. (red layer in Photo 1). This compo- Langstroth hive bodies are placed on
Additionally our bees are collecting nent type of slatted rack has slats that top of the slatted rack. The 8-Frame
water from sources that may have run parallel to the frames in the hive version (with the inset slatted rack)
been exposed to these insecticides. (see Photo 3). Slats that run parallel to allows the beekeeper to place hive
One of the best methods that I have the frames are designed to accommo- bodies directly onto the High Bot-
developed to deal with these mosqui- date mite testing with sticky boards tom. Foragers typically fly directly
to control issues is to construct what by allowing mite drop through the through the opening to and from
I call “High Bottom” hives (see Pho- spaces between slats that align with the slatted rack with either version.
tos 1 & 2). The goal of this beekeep- the spaces between the frames above. However, bees loaded with pollen of-
ing tool is to prevent the colony from An alternative method for incor- tentimes land on the bottom board or
bearding on the outside of the hive, porating a slatted rack is used on side walls. In the event that the bees
to avoid poisoning from pesticide the 8-Frame version (see Photo 1). are clustered below, the foragers often
drift. The bees cluster during the heat A traditional slatted rack (with slats land right onto the cluster.
of summer under the slatted rack in- perpendicular to the frames above) The prototype for the High Bottom
stead of on the outside of the bee hive. is dropped down into a longitudinal was based on several distinct ideas:
It has proven to be successful after rabbet that I cut along both sides of C.C. Miller’s bottom board design;
almost eight years of use. It is com- the medium super, eliminating an Comb honey production methods of
prised of a medium super with one additional piece of equipment (see the Killion family in Illinois; and Ger-
of the short sides cut away to provide Photo 4). I prefer this traditional, per- man beekeeping equipment. I will
the entrance and a solid bottom board pendicular-style of slatted rack to the be discussing these influences and
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act requires that a pesticide will
generally not cause any unreasonable risk to man or the environment — taking into
account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of that
pesticide. The two italicized caveats are what allow each stakeholder to have a different
perspective on pesticide use.
T
he Pesticide Situation is a of the various stakeholders — I’m The media loved “the sky is falling”
contentious topic among bee- happy to receive emails for sugges- story — and it was even better that the
keepers. There are those who tions as to things that I may have death of our bees was apparently due
divide everyone else into either of missed. to some mysterious unknown culprit
two groups — those who agree with (Fig. 1). Pesticides and the evil chemi-
them, or those who are complete mo- the stakehoLDers cal companies were obvious suspects,
rons. I, on the other hand, have found The majority of my readers will be just begging for a lynching.
that I learn little in an echo chamber. beekeepers; and we of course have
Indeed, in order to truly understand a pretty one-sided view about pesti-
an issue, one should be able to argue cides. But we beekeepers constitute
either side’s perspective with equal less than a tenth of a percent of the
facility. Thus, I go out of my way population, and until recent years
to understand the viewpoint of the were generally regarded as weirdos
“other side”. who for some reason kept stinging
But rather than simply accepting insects in boxes.
others’ opinions, I then check out the But everything changed when
supporting evidence and scientific in- colonies suddenly, and inexplicably,
terpretation. To that end, in trying to started dying in the early 2000’s. The
understand The Pesticide Situation, I key word was “inexplicably”, since
not only read widely, but also talk to this caught the media’s (and thus the
growers, beekeepers, and ecotoxicol- public’s) attention.
ogists. I thank the many beekeepers
who’ve endured my grillings about Practical application: although
their pesticide issues, and especially those colony losses were painful to
appreciate my conversations with us, it was our good fortune that the
those who are both commercial bee- sting-ey honey bee was suddenly
keepers and farmers — who thus see turned into a beloved poster child
the issue from both sides. The end re- for a public coming to terms with
sult is that when I was asked to write the fact that human actions appeared Fig. 1 Fear sells. In preparation for the
an article on pesticides and bees, I to be possibly threatening that now above issue, the Science Editor of Time
soon realized that I couldn’t begin to cute and fuzzy little critter with im- phoned and interviewed me for an hour.
objectively cover the subject in a sin- minent extinction. Keep in mind that I carefully explained the reality that hon-
gle installment — thus you’re reading if it weren’t for the demands of the al- ey bees were in no danger of going ex-
tinct, and that the number of hives had
what’s turned into a series. mond industry in California for this
actually been increasing for a few years.
So let’s continue by seeing whether non-native invasive insect, our plight
But that didn’t stop the magazine from
I can fairly represent the viewpoints might have remained invisible. printing this cover.
Pest controL aDVisers Fig. 3 The top 5 insecticides applied in California, as far as acres treated.8 Note the
Many, if not most, growers de- trend toward using inert oils (pink). Of interest is the increased use of abamectin
pend upon advice by a PCA. Un- (red) — a “natural” and organically-certified insecticide, but still highly toxic to bees
fortunately, even in pesticide-strict (although its residues are short-lived). Also highly toxic to bees are the pyrethroids
California, one can obtain a license lambda-cyhalothrin (green line; with a half-life on plants of 5 days) and the neonic
imidacloprid (olive line; with an extended half-life on the surface of plants, as well
to be a Pest Control Adviser without
as systemic absorption). Finally, the lepidoptera-specific methoxyfenozide (blue) ap-
any educational requirements in biology,
pears to be pretty safe for bees.
chemistry, entomology, or integrated
pest management10, so long as they
can score 70% in limited testing.11
As pointed out to me recently, PCAs
may “just follow the label,” and in
almonds, may ignore the published
Best Management Practices regard-
ing pesticide applications put out by
the Almond Board--thus resulting in
unwarranted applications of insect
growth regulators (IGRs), pollinator-
hazardous “tank mixes,” or the day-
time spraying of fungicides onto or-
chards in full bloom.
If a PCA is indeed practicing Inte-
grated Pest Management, then they
will sample and monitor any pest
population to determine whether
it is approaching the “economic in-
jury level.” At the point where the
pest density exceeds the “economic Fig. 4 This chart is from Steve Savage’s Applied Mythology website9, which I highly
threshold” (alternatively termed the recommend for anyone wanting to get an informed view from a knowledgeable sci-
“action threshold”), control measures entist with a practical perspective on sustainable agriculture. Steve and I are both
are implemented—one option being “deeply concerned about the increasingly anti-science environment in which we live
the application of a pesticide. today”. Check him out for his entertaining and objectively informative blogs.
In California, when agricultural growers want to apply pesticides to their crops, they are required to first obtain
a recommendation from a licensed Pest Control Adviser (“PCA”). Imagine you are a grower and in need of such
a recommendation. A PCA visits your property to determine what type of chemical you need and how much of it
is required to keep your precious crops protected from pests that could destroy your profit. The PCA tells you that
he just so happens to sell the exact pesticide that he has recommended for your crop. This is a common scenario
experienced by farmers, considering that nearly ninety percent of all PCAs are employed by agricultural chemical
distributors and sell the very products they recommend to farmers…This presents an extraordinary conflict of in-
terest: PCAs employed by pesticide distributors provide pest control advice that is biased toward the profit of their
employers and also aimed at earning a commission.
Quoted from the San Joaquin Agricultural Law Review.12
Practical application: any PCA is Back in 2004, in response to the first of hives.15 The almond growers now
going to err on the side of caution major short supply of bees for almond know the value of pollinators—that
(or perhaps extreme caution) so that pollination, the offered rental price is, up ‘til petal fall. After that we gotta
they don’t wind up getting blamed more than tripled. This resulted in a find somewhere else where our colo-
for any minor decrease in yield. The watershed change for the bee indus- nies can safely forage. That often in-
net effect is that PCAs who also get try—almond pollination was now as volves other agricultural landscapes
commissions from pesticide sales important to the industry as was hon- — and therein lies the rub:
may tend to advise very conserva- ey production. And although some
tive (and pesticide-heavy) risk man- emphatically blamed the neonics for Practical application: we must
agement rather than a demonstrated the elevated colony losses during the keep in mind that our major crops,
need for treatment (or alternative CCD epidemic, colony numbers have as far as acreage planted—corn and
management strategies). On the oth- rebounded, despite a quadrupling of other grains, potatoes, soybeans,
er hand, when bee scientist Dr. Gor- the amount of neonics applied each and forage crops—aren’t dependent
don Wardell was with Paramount year.13 As pointed out by a thorough upon insect pollination, so those
Farms, he advised them that in their analysis by Ferrier, et al:14 growers have little reason to care
environment, there was no need to about protecting pollinators on their
spray fungicides at all. “High prices are the solution to fields, other than just doing us bee-
their own problem.” keepers a favor. And if they feel that
Along that line, the need for pol- beekeepers are causing them prob-
linators does give us one ace in the Those sky-high payments offered lems, they’re likely to respond by
hole. … by almond growers for pollination simply kicking us off their land.
Pollination services (one intersec- services became the new lifeblood of
tion of agriculture and beneficial our industry, with “innovative” bee- The good news is that there’s a new
insects): keepers ramping up their numbers buzzword in agriculture: “ecosystem
services,” which includes not only
the pollination performed by native
insects, but also the pest control bene-
fits derived from parasites, predatory
insects, and birds.16, 17, 18 This is a good
thing for us beekeepers, since what’s
good for native pollinators and “ben-
eficials” is also good for honey bees.
In order to realize the full benefits of
ecosystem services, landowners need
to manage diverse habitats at the eco-
system scale, and think twice about
any unintended effects from pesticide
applications.
enDnotes
1. 2018 Insect Control Recommenda-
tions for Field Crops https://extension.
tennessee.edu/publications/
Documents/PB1768.pdf
2. Bruins, M (2017) The impact of the ban
on neonicotinoids. https://european-seed.
com/2017/12/impact-ban-neonicotinoids/
3. Kathage, J, et al (2018) The impact of
restrictions on neonicotinoid and fipro-
nil insecticides on pest management in
maize, oilseed rape and sunflower in
eight European Union regions. Pest Man-
ag Sci. 74(1): 88–99.
4. These neurotoxins are termed acetocholines-
terase (ACHE) inhibitors.
5. Pretty much anything that you can’t get at a
nursery, hardware, or garden store.
6. https://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/pur/
pur16rep/chmrpt16.pdf
7. I was running a farm store when chlordane’s
registration was revoked. Although we hadn’t
been selling it, our pesticide salesman urged
us to stock up. He waxed poetic about how he
sprayed his entire property with it each year,
and never, ever saw any bugs.
8. Source https://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/
pur/pur16rep/16sum.htm#trends
9. http://appliedmythology.blogspot.
com/2015/09/a-closer-look-at-organic-
pesticides-in.html
10. https://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/license/
min_qual_pca.pdf
11. I haven’t attempted to take the test, but the
test that I’m required to take every two years
in order to maintain my Private Applicator
Certificate is not challenging.
12. As far as I can tell, CCD was the result of a
perfect storm of the failure of varroa control
products, the evolution of viruses, the inva-
sion of Nosema ceranae, changes in forage op-
portunities, beekeepers’ failure to manage the
mite, coupled with unrealistic expectations
for what it takes to supply strong colonies for
almond pollination.
13. Ferrier, RM, et al (2018) Economic effects
and responses to changes in honey bee
C
uba is a country that we know research center of Cuban beekeeping. lishing a handbook on good beekeep-
little about, simply because The staff is multidisciplinary, consist- ing practices. These have included
most of us have never been ing of biologists, chemists, veterinar- api-therapeutic and food supplement
there. As a result of the Cuban Missile ians, agronomy engineers, zootech- hive products, beauty products with
Crisis in 1961, Cuba has been closed nical (insect husbandry) engineers, the trademark APIQUEEN, and the
to travel for Americans. Beginning microbiologists, biochemists, cyber- production of a delicious honey mead
with the People’s Revolution and neticists, and pharmacologists. It is that the group was able to sample.
the overthrow of the dictator Fulgen- a one-of-a-kind institution in Latin The Genetics Lab studies molecu-
cio Batista, Cuba under Fidel Castro America. The staff includes 37 uni- lar and parasitological tests of select-
aligned itself with the Soviet Union, versity professionals, 36 technicians, ed strains. The Honey Flora Lab does
and the United States was seen as an and 15 service personnel. Men and research on the potential of honey
adversary. women are equally represented on flora and pollination. The Physics-
Cuba has recently been opened to the staff. Chemical Lab tests bee product com-
travel by Americans as long as they The Research Institute claims a position, does quality checks and sets
are on a government approved edu- stellar record of success in achiev- bee product standards. The Chroma-
cational tour. When the opportunity ing disease- and pest-resistant bees, tography Lab studies and certifies the
came along for beekeepers to visit initiating a geographical information composition and quality of Cuban
Cuba and to study their unique meth- system for beekeeping, maintaining hive products. The Microbiology Lab
od of beekeeping, thirty Americans work sheets for yearly honey produc- conducts research on antibiotic activ-
signed on and enjoyed nine days of tion plans and cost control, and pub- ity of bee products, sanitary quality,
education in November of 2018. They
learned about the industry from the
perspective of a country that has been
relatively isolated from us by busi-
ness and culture rather than by dis-
tance. Although Havana is only 105
miles away from Key West, Florida,
their beekeeping practices and honey
production are radically different.
The Beekeeping Research Institute
near Havana was the first stop for the
group, providing technical expertise
on beekeeping in the country. Their
goal is “To create, anticipate, adapt,
and transfer scientific-technical
knowledge to improve beekeeping
development, both in process and in
productivity.” The chief executive,
Mr. Pérez Piñeiro Adolfo, met with
the group and provided the back-
ground information. The Research
Center known as CIAPI consists of
a conference center, local apiary lab,
and packing plant. It was founded
in 1982 as the scientific and technical
L
ocation, location, location. Any what was good habitat for bees in tionships between land-use, wild bee
real estate agent will tell you North Dakota. The authors sampled, abundance/diversity, and honey bee
it’s critical. But does the same counted and identified 13,426(!) wild productivity/survival.
rule apply to bees? In other words, if bees, representing 149 species from So, what did they find? Was good
you could construct the optimal real 18 locations over the course of 3 habitat for honey bees the same as
estate for bees, what would it look years. They also monitored honey bee good habitat for wild, native bees?
like? Lots of wooded areas? Flow- colonies from 6 apiaries, measuring To a large degree, yes. The authors
ering crops? And what bees are we honey production and proportion of found that wild bee abundance and
talking about, exactly? The western colonies surviving each year. Finally, diversity were positively associated
honey bee (Apis mellifera) forages at they used data gathered by the U.S. with honey production by honey bees.
a larger radius, collects more nectar, Geological Survey — essentially a In other words, if an apiary was good
and is active for a longer portion of handmade version of Google Maps at producing honey, it also had a more
the year than the other ~4,000 spe- — to determine the exact composition abundant and diverse wild bee com-
cies of bees in North America. Does of different types of land-use (i.e., dif- munity nearby. This supports the no-
that mean its ideal habitat is different ferent habitat for bees) around each tion that good habitat for honey bees is
from other bees? This is the topic for of the sample locations. Then, once also good habitat for wild, native bees.
our fifteenth “Notes from the Lab,” they had all of these data in hand, What made some locations better
where we highlight “Wild, native they looked to see if there were rela- than others? This is what we all want
bees and managed honey bees ben-
efit from similar agricultural land
uses,” written by Elaine Evans and
colleagues and published in the jour-
nal Agriculture, Ecosystems and En-
vironment [268:162-170 (2018)].
In case you didn’t know, North
Dakota is essentially Mecca for bees.
It’s the top honey producing state in
the U.S., with nearly a half million
colonies producing over 17 million
kilograms of honey/year, valued at
~$70 million annually. In addition,
North Dakota is home to >300 species
of wild bees. However, for the past
10 years, there’s been a dramatic in-
crease in land used for corn and soy
production in the state. This has led to
concern about loss of bee forage and
potential impact on pollinators and
honey production.
To address these concerns, Evans
and colleagues set out to understand Mellisodes tray
reference:
Evans, E., M. Smart, D. Cariveau and M.
Spivak. 2018. Wild, native bees and man-
aged honey bees benefit from similar agri-
cultural land uses. Agriculture, Ecosystems
and Environment 268:162-170. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.agee.2018.09.014
Nomada_aquilarium Photo by Wayne Boo, USGS Scott McArt, an As-
sistant Professor of
types containing good bee forage are be the nation’s top honey producer. Pollinator Health,
good for both honey bees and wild, But perhaps the most important infer- helps run the Dyce
Lab for Honey Bee
native bees. And it’s also useful to ence that Evans and colleagues’ study Studies at Cornell
know that the conversion of land to makes concerns the amount of good bee University in Ithaca,
corn and soy production results in habitat that can make a difference. Bee- New York. He is par-
less abundant and diverse communi- forage crops (mostly sunflower, canola ticularly interested in
ties of bees. Clearly, the past decade of and alfalfa) comprised as little as 1% scientific research that can inform manage-
increased land used for corn and soy of the landscape in their study, but of- ment decisions by beekeepers, growers and
production could be having an over- ten had a positive impact on bees. This the public.
all negative impact on pollinators in suggests that shifting some corn/soy Email: shm33@cornell.edu
North Dakota. This is a risky situa- production into sunflower, canola or al- Lab website: blogs.cornell.edu/mcartlab
tion in a state with historically high falfa production could have major ben- Pollinator Network: pollinator.cals.cornell.edu
bee diversity, which also happens to efits for bees. Furthermore, conserving Facebook: facebook.com/dycelab
Phone 707-449-0440
Fax 707-449-8127
P.O. Box 1672
Vacaville, CA 95696
www.honeybeegenetics.com
ProceDures for use in a • Resources – Bee supply compa- ing appropriate agencies. Informa-
bee eMergency nies or other suppliers can supply tion should be solicited to outline the
There is the potential for many equipment ahead of time. scope of the response location of the
people and entities to participate in • Public relations – Downplay the incident, bees in a building or area,
a bee emergency. Keep in mind that danger and minimize sensational- vehicle and approximate number of
these incidents may not last very ism; municipal spokesperson can hives involved, injuries, conditions,
long. Our intention should be to help to put a positive spin on clean and any other pertinent information.
minimize panic, and concentrate on up efforts. Each dispatch center should have a
the positive aspects of any response. list of local beekeepers who may be
The following is a list of potential DisPatcher available, as well as a potential list of
responders. Information regarding a bee emer- beekeeping resources such as trucks,
gency normally reaches the local dis- trailers, skidsteers and beekeeping
• Dispatcher – Normally first contact patcher first via phone. This could equipment.
in an incident; dispatchers should be a municipal, county or state pa- Small swarms of honey bees are nor-
solicit appropriate information, be trol dispatch center. The dispatchers mally referred to local beekeepers to
able to offer solutions for minor in- should have a pop-up screen for bee take care of, and this is an agreement
cidents, and to dispatch appropriate emergencies to assist in dispatch- between the caller and the beekeeper.
responders and resources if needed.
• Law Enforcement – Their role is
normally to evaluate the situation,
and establish a control perimeter
and containment area
• Fire Departments – Evaluate the
situation, rescue any victims if pos-
sible, and utilize firefighting foam
to kill honey bees if warranted.
• Municipal Department of Public
Works (DPW) – Clean up results of
incident.
• Local Beekeepers – state or lo-
cal beekeeping associations may
be able to provide volunteers and
resources to clean up bees and
equipment, to deal with individual
swarms or honey bees in buildings
or other situations.
• Commercial vs. hobbyist – Larger
beekeeping operations may have
resources to assist. Local hobby
beekeepers may be available to Fire departments often have been trained to deal with stinging insect emergencies
assist. and may also carry specialized equipment such as protective bee suits or veils.
Law enforceMent
Law enforcement is normally the
first responder on site of an incident.
The intention is to check out the com-
plaint, and identify the issues and
priorities. Based on this, site decisions
will be made, and further resources
allocated. Depending on the situation,
hot and cold zones may be set up,
similar to a hazmat incident. The hot
zone depends on the situation, with a
small incident utilizing 50 feet, and a
large truck accident utilizing a radius
of 50 yards. All unauthorized persons
should be kept out of the hot zone.
The intention is to protect bystanders
from stings.
Small-scale beehive incidents are
normally on private property, or a
swarm may be anywhere on public
property. These are normally handled
by a local beekeeper. Vehicle loads
of beehives involved in accidents, or
overturned, are more intensive and
may call for a group of local beekeep-
ers with equipment, or fire depart-
ments with firefighting foam. Law
enforcement will normally have com-
mand of the situation.
In a bee hauler truck accident, a hot
zone should be developed, to keep
unauthorized personnel away. This is
intended to minimize honey bee con-
tact with bystanders and responders.
In setting up a hot zone, base deci-
sions on road and traffic conditions,
scope of the accident, and wind and
weather conditions. An arbitrary pe-
rimeter might be 50 yards around the
accident site, although honey bees
may not respect this. Honey bees
are more active in hot weather, and
are more lethargic under 45 degrees.
Following an accident involving
These three bee spill photos are courtesy of Matt Winstead of Midwest Bee Removal. overturned beehives, and in the eve-
He helped clean up this mess last year at Interstate 35 and 435 in Kansas City. ning, honey bees will start to clump
L
ast month we discussed some of the myths in farm- takes out so many nutrients for the soil that either (A) noth-
ing, pertaining in particular to land use. This section ing will grow without adding chemicals; or (B) they have
will cover many misconceptions about what we are to rotate to allow the soil to rest. That theory is not even
actually doing to the soil and why. In this discussion I will remotely close. The fields we grow corn and beans in are
also be pointing out some of the issues with organics and fertile fields even after the row crops; in fact, weeds are the
how they fit in. My goal is not to bash organics in any way, number one problem in farming. You leave that field after
but to make you aware of the issues and shortcomings and corn and the next season it is a mess. Weed seeds you never
why organic farming has all but vanished. Don’t forget that imagined abound in that dirt and will pop up so fast it is
what is considered “new organic” farming was actually the scary. Did you know the real reason for the current rotation
only way we farmed up until the last 50 years or so. is actually for weed control? The reality for farming is the
While modern agriculture uses a lot of synthetic fertiliz- rotation of beans and corn so that you can get maximum use
ers, there are very good reasons for it. Organic has its bene- from herbicides. (I will detail spraying issues next month.)
fits but its downsides are also huge. We as beekeepers need There are really four types of herbicides: broadleaf weed
to understand the full picture. While at times “all natural” killers, grass killers, ones that kill everything (otherwise
sounds great, we as adults have to understand how that known as sterilizers), and ones that simply slow seed ger-
may affect overall food safety and land use. While it may mination to allow crops to canopy and shade out weeds.
seem to be a bit far from the beehive, I promise you, in the Beans are broadleaf plants, so you can plant them and spray
big picture it is very, very important for us to understand with a grass killer; corn is actually a grass so you can use
at least the basics. As beekeepers we hold a unique posi- a broadleaf weed killer on it without damaging the corn.
tion in being able to bridge the gap between consumers, By rotating from year to year, you can get maximum weed
environmental activists, and the real world of agriculture. control. Try to run two years in a row with corn, and grasses
As beekeepers most of us interface with farmers at many will take over your fields. The same with beans; two years
points. Ask yourself seriously, what kind of men and wom- in a row and broadleaf weeds will choke down your yields.
en are they? The answer is always the same: outstanding So the rotation is mainly for weed control, not soil health.
people with a passion and drive to protect the land and Yes, corn does like a lot of nitrogen; in the past the normal
produce as much as they can. The kind of people, who rotation was corn, beans, then hay for two or more seasons,
usually point to a corner of their farm and say, put your as the alfalfa pulls nitrogen from the air. In the last year the
hives there, with nothing expected in return but a $5.00 green hay got plowed into the dirt to add vegetative matter
bottle of honey and a thank you. The same people who to the soil. Remember the cattle I mentioned everyone had
pull you out when you are stuck in the mud and loan you in part one? They also created a huge use for that hay.
a tractor when you need to load hives. As you read this, Those disappearing cattle and the added ability to easily
do not forget these are the people we are talking about. use anhydrous ammonia has changed that need to grow
It is easy to say it is everyone else, or the ”big agriculture as much alfalfa in many areas.We need to understand that
corporations”, but that is simply not the case. We should many of those that raised cattle did so because they had
also realize that, just like in beekeeping, some of them do the hay and corn already on the farm. It made sense to just
not have all the facts and make some missteps, but the vast use the feed; since everyone had hay, it had zero resale val-
majority of them know far more about what is going on in ue. Cattle on the other hand would sell. Part of the change
their fields than we do in our hives. on farms is based on the ability to no longer need to plant
alfalfa. While it seems quaint for small farms that raise ev-
steriLe grounD erything, it is not an efficient model to try to do it all.
A common one I hear is that the farmers are “stripping One thing to consider in that great rotation we used to
the land,”; somehow many have gotten the notion that corn do (alfalfa, corn and beans) is that the plant that was the
references
1 https://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/timeless/
yieldtrends.html
2 http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/365348/datafeature2_fig01_1_.gif
3 https://www.wsj.com/articles/henry-i-miller-organic-farming-is-
not-sustainable-1400194137 Original article behind paywall, sum-
marized here by Meridian Institute: In this opinion piece, Henry I.
Green pollen: A honey bee with green Ceanothus pollen. Leafcutter on thistle: This leafcutting bee, Megachile (Saya-
pis), collected purplish-blue pollen from a thistle.
The apiary on Appledore Island, which offered a perfect isolated setting for researching swarms’
house-hunting behavior. Photo by Tom Seeley.
attention to DetaiL
Tom: Correct. Answering questions
about bee behavior does not always
require super sophisticated tools. But
it does require somebody who likes
to observe the bees carefully, perhaps
with an observation hive, and who is
willing to work through the various
possibilities about what is going on to
find out which one is the reality. Plus
you need to be very patient — some
experiments, for example, require
that you label the individual bees so
you know the age of the bee you are
looking at. It takes weeks of work to
set up such experiments. But in the
end it can all be for naught if you
don’t pay attention to detail.
Let me tell you this story. In the
1990s and 2000s, I did a lot of work
on Appledore Island off the coast of
Maine. It has no indigenous honeybee
The behavior of a tremble dancer. Graph by Tom Seeley. population, and it’s far enough from
Fig. 3 The shipping cage lying on its side Fig. 4 The feeder can removed, and the cage reclosed. The thin cover is very light-
with the hive below (see the top bars and weight. The bees are eager to leave. They can squeeze under the cover and escape.
comb). After some brief prying, the feed- Weigh the cover down with the feeder can, holes up to prevent dripping syrup. On the
er can slid out easily. The feeder cans do cover, the staple prongs point up so it fits flush on the cage. The strip attaching to the
not leak while briefly on their sides. queen cage is to the right (arrow), under the state inspection label.
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Sanders Honey
Queens
For Sale
Josh Sanders
7288 Perdie Lee Rd
Nicholls GA 31554
912-399-8480