commentary

AND YET ANOTHER ATTACKER to our BEES

2012-01-05T16:49:00.000-08:00

Parasite Drives Honey Bees to Doomed Zombie Flight?

by Steve Williams
January 4, 2012
10:00 am

Parasitic flies that take over the bodies of honeybees may at last provide another clue into why honey bee colonies have been collapsing at an alarming rate.

Since 2007 hives across the US have been deserted by bees who have gone missing without an apparent cause, decimating colonies across the country. A combination of factors had been blamed for the decline in numbers, ranging from parasitic mites to the effects of pesticides.

However, new findings published in Plos One show a more gruesome threat to bee numbers: the discovery that honey bees may be falling prey to a paristic fly that causes the bees to fly around in the night before killing them, with the offspring of the fly eventually emerging from the remains of the honey bee.

From New Scientist:

John Hafernik of San Francisco State University in California and colleagues discovered that hosting Apocephalus borealis, a parasitic fly found throughout North America, makes bees fly around in a disoriented way at night, when they normally roost in the hive, before killing them.

Although unlikely to be the sole cause of colony collapse disorder, Hafernik thinks the parasitic fly discovery may help explain why bees quit their hives. “They seem to leave their hives in the middle of the night on what we call the ‘flight of the living dead’,” he says.

More from the study’s abstract:

Honey bee colonies are subject to numerous pathogens and parasites. Interaction among multiple pathogens and parasites is the proposed cause for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a syndrome characterized by worker bees abandoning their hive. Here we provide the first documentation that the phorid fly Apocephalus borealis, previously known to parasitize bumble bees, also infects and eventually kills honey bees and may pose an emerging threat to North American apiculture. Parasitized honey bees show hive abandonment behavior, leaving their hives at night and dying shortly thereafter. On average, seven days later up to 13 phorid larvae emerge from each dead bee and pupate away from the bee.

The parasitic flies have now been found at 77% of sites in the San Francisco Bay area and their presence has been detected in hives in South Dakota and California’s Central Valley.

The team will now investigate if the so-called “zombie” flights the bees have been forced to undertake are because the parasite affects the bee’s “clock” genes that govern when the bees are active. An alternative theory is that the bees may be ejected from the colony by other bees in order to save the hive from further infection.

As mentioned above, the parasite is unlikely to be the sole cause of declining honey bee numbers but this new finding may provide a clue that can eventually lead scientists to a solution on how to help honey bee populations recover.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/parasite-drives-honey-bees-to-doomed-zombie-flight.html#ixzz1idPvuIVm

THANNKSGIVING and THE BEEKEEPER

2011-11-24T07:56:00.000-08:00

It’s Thanksgiving! Why Do You Need To Thank A Beekeeper?
Posted by June Stoyer on November 22nd, 2011

THE ORGANIC VIEW - www.theorganicview.com

The Pilgrims Weren’t The Only Ones Traveling To The New World!
Thanksgiving is a special celebration in America in which family and friends gather to enjoy a cornucopia of scrumptious foods. While most people typically give thanks for their friends, family, healthy and good fortune, not many really think about the importance of the honeybee in this celebration. Just like the Pilgrims, the honeybees were also natives of Europe.

What Foods Would YOU Miss If Bees Didn’t Exist?

Did you know that honeybees are also responsible for pollinating ¾ of all of our agricultural crops? When you look around the table this Thanksgiving, think about how many foods such as plums, raspberries, almonds, cherries, apples and pumpkins (favorites, especially for traditional pies).
Thanksgiving cornucopia thanks to bees

How many foods would NOT be available if there were no bees?

Then think about how some of the foods which are consumed by turkeys have been pollinated by bees. Without the honeybee, Thanksgiving would not be the feast that it is. Unfortunately, the honeybee population continues to rapidly decline with the increased number of genetically modified crops combined with systemic pesticides. Thankfully, there are many leaders, educators and activists who are working together to raise awareness and help educate the public about the importance of honeybees in our lives.

TRUE OR NOT TRUE

2011-11-16T08:07:00.000-08:00

this is a query brought to us and the response is made by ERIC MUSSEN of UC DAVIS

QUERY:
I would like to ask you if the statements made in this article about honey and HFCS are true or not: http://www.vegsource.com/talk/awakening/messages/18304.html.

ANSWER: There is enough woefully inaccurate information in this material, written 12 years ago, to demonstrate a person who needs to be informed of the truth. Beekeepers in the United States do not feed crystallized high fructose corn HFCS) syrup to honey bees with the goal of having the bees manipulate the syrup as they do nectar, then sell the product as honey. Honey bees are not “force fed.” That suggests putting tubes through their mouthparts and injecting syrup. They take HFCS, willingly, from feeders, but only as a syrup, not as crystals.

The next inaccurate statement is that the bees somehow “enzymatically flavor it.” The enzymes introduced into sugar syrups by honey bees reduce sucrose to fructose and glucose and may change some of the sugar to hydrogen peroxide. The flavor of honey comes from the nectar and the flowers from which the nectar is obtained, not from anything introduced by the bees.

Many honeys crystallize, naturally – some, like cotton, canola, and sunflower, very quickly (days), and a few like tupelo and California sage that stay liquid for years. Often the reason a honey granulates quickly is because the glucose to fructose ratio is HIGHER than in the average honeys.

Fructose is metabolized in the livers of mammals and can be converted into fat and triglycerides. There is no indication that such a biochemical transformation occurs in a honey bee. The amount of fructose in HFCS fed to honey bees basically mimics the amount found in table sugar or honey. If sucrose or honey were to be named the same way that HFCS is named, they would be called “Type 50.” That means that 50 percent of the sugar in the syrup is glucose and 50 percent is fructose. Honey breaks down pretty much the same, except the fructose concentration often is a bit higher than the glucose. So, chemically, there is extremely little difference between the HFCSs and honey or table sugar.

Beekeepers tend to purchase and feed Type 42 (42% fructose and 58% glucose) and type 55 (55% fructose and 45% glucose) as well as 50/50 blends of HFCS and sucrose syrup, to their colonies, if the bees need to be stimulated to rear brood or if the bees did not store enough honey to get through the winter. Feeding bees costs a lot of money and beekeepers do not feed any more than they have to.

An analysis of honey and HFCS by HPLC (high pressure liquid chromatography) reveals very similar output data, since the sugars are the same. If the USDA allows “almost 40% fructose by weight” in honey (I guess this is what Carol means), then what do we do about other honeys that are high in fructose? In Dr. Eva Crane’s comprehensive textbook, “HONEY,” the range of fructose in natural honeys is 27.2 to 44.3%. Glucose varies from 22.0 to 40.7%. So, the chemistry of honey and HFCS is extremely similar.

Whether or not HFCS somehow might be related to the ability of the bees to fend off mite infestations has not been studied or determined, to my knowledge.
Remember, too, that this material was posted at a website directed toward vegans. Generally, vegans will not use honey since they feel that we are “using” bees for our purposes to obtain it and that is not an acceptable practice.

Drowning Government in Antibiotic Tainted Chinese Honey

2011-11-15T15:11:00.000-08:00

Search
« Jets, Pats & Other Pro Trash Bibi, Albright (and Warrick) on Iran Nuke Report: “But Wait, There’s More!” »
Drowning Government in Antibiotic Tainted Chinese Honey
Posted on November 14, 2011 by emptywheel

Marion Nestle describes that the USDA is cutting back on basic research.

This decision, Neuman reports, “reflects a cold-blooded assessment of the economic usefulness”—translation: lack of political clout in the affected industry—of the 500 or so reports issued by the National Agriculture Statistics Service each year.

I was struck, in particular, by this report on the cutting block.

Annual Bee and Honey Report – Eliminate

Which I believe is this report:

This file contains the annual report of the number of colonies producing honey, yield per colony, honey production, average price, price by color class and value; honey stocks by state and U.S.

Why, at a time when people are struggling to understand colony collapse, would the government eliminate a report on how many colonies are producing honey? This is like eliminating a report on how many canaries die in coal mines just to make sure people don’t become worried about imminent explosions.

There’s another reason they might not want anyone tracking honey: because people are just copping onto the way producers hide the source of honey. (h/t RC)

I’ve been meaning to link to this story since it came out: it shows how producers are ultra filtering honey to hide that it comes from China–which also serves to hide possible illegal antibiotics.

More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn’t exactly what the bees produce, according to testing done exclusively for Food Safety News.
The results show that the pollen frequently has been filtered out of products labeled “honey.”

The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world’s food safety agencies.

[snip]

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says that any product that’s been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn’t honey. However, the FDA isn’t checking honey sold here to see if it contains pollen.
Ultra filtering is a high-tech procedure where honey is heated, sometimes watered down and then forced at high pressure through extremely small filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof sign identifying the source of the honey. It is a spin-off of a technique refined by the Chinese, who have illegally dumped tons of their honey – some containing illegal antibiotics – on the U.S. market for years.

A honey industry spokesperson suggests you can assume honey that has been ultra filtered is

Removal of all pollen from honey “makes no sense” and is completely contrary to marketing the highest quality product possible, Mark Jensen, president of the American Honey Producers Association, told Food Safety News.

“I don’t know of any U.S. producer that would want to do that. Elimination of all pollen can only be achieved by ultra-filtering and this filtration process does nothing but cost money and diminish the quality of the honey,” Jensen said.

“In my judgment, it is pretty safe to assume that any ultra-filtered honey on store shelves is Chinese honey and it’s even safer to assume that it entered the country uninspected and in violation of federal law,” he added.

Richard Adee, whose 80,000 hives in multiple states produce 7 million pounds of honey each year, told Food Safety News that “honey has been valued by millions for centuries for its flavor and nutritional value and that is precisely what is completely removed by the ultra-filtration process.”

Incidentally, there’s a pretty dramatic difference in what kind of honey you get based on where you buy it:

76 percent of samples bought at groceries had all the pollen removed, These were stores like TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and King Soopers.
100 percent of the honey sampled from drugstores like Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy had no pollen.
77 percent of the honey sampled from big box stores like Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Target and H-E-B had the pollen filtered out.
100 percent of the honey packaged in the small individual service portions from Smucker, McDonald’s and KFC had the pollen removed.
Bryant found that every one of the samples Food Safety News bought at farmers markets, co-ops and “natural” stores like PCC and Trader Joe’s had the full, anticipated, amount of pollen.

Support your local farmer’s market. They still care about birds–canaries in coal mines–and the bees.

TESTS SHOW MOST STORE BOUGHT HONEY ISN'T HONEY -

2011-11-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

FOOD SAFETY NEWS -
www.Foodsafetynews.com

Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn't Honey
Ultra-filtering Removes Pollen, Hides Honey Origins
by Andrew Schneider | Nov 07, 2011

More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn't exactly what the bees produce, according to testing done exclusively for Food Safety News.

The results show that the pollen frequently has been filtered out of products labeled "honey."
The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world's food safety agencies.

The food safety divisions of the World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of others also have ruled that without pollen there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources.

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says that any product that's been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn't honey. However, the FDA isn't checking honey sold here to see if it contains pollen.

Ultra filtering is a high-tech procedure where honey is heated, sometimes watered down and then forced at high pressure through extremely small filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof sign identifying the source of the honey. It is a spin-off of a technique refined by the Chinese, who have illegally dumped tons of their honey - some containing illegal antibiotics - on the U.S. market for years.

Food Safety News decided to test honey sold in various outlets after its earlier investigation found U.S. groceries flooded with Indian honey banned in Europe as unsafe because of contamination with antibiotics, heavy metal and a total lack of pollen which prevented tracking its origin.

Food Safety News purchased more than 60 jars, jugs and plastic bears of honey in 10 states and the District of Columbia.

The contents were analyzed for pollen by Vaughn Bryant, a professor at Texas A&M University and one of the nation's premier melissopalynologists, or investigators of pollen in honey.

Bryant, who is director of the Palynology Research Laboratory, found that among the containers of honey provided by Food Safety News:

• 76 percent of samples bought at groceries had all the pollen removed, These were stores like TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and King Soopers.

• 100 percent of the honey sampled from drugstores like Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy had no pollen.

• 77 percent of the honey sampled from big box stores like Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart, Target and H-E-B had the pollen filtered out.

• 100 percent of the honey packaged in the small individual service portions from Smucker, McDonald's and KFC had the pollen removed.

• Bryant found that every one of the samples Food Safety News bought at farmers markets, co-ops and "natural" stores like PCC and Trader Joe's had the full, anticipated, amount of pollen.

And if you have to buy at major grocery chains, the analysis found that your odds are somewhat better of getting honey that wasn't ultra-filtered if you buy brands labeled as organic. Out of seven samples tested, five (71 percent) were heavy with pollen. All of the organic honey was produced in Brazil, according to the labels.

The National Honey Board, a federal research and promotion organization under USDA oversight, says the bulk of foreign honey (at least 60 percent or more) is sold to the food industry for use in baked goods, beverages, sauces and processed foods. Food Safety News did not examine these products for this story.

Some U.S. honey packers didn't want to talk about how they process their merchandise.

One who did was Bob Olney, of Honey Tree Inc., in Michigan, who sells its Winnie the Pooh honey in Walmart stores. Bryant's analysis of the contents of the container made in Winnie's image found that the pollen had been removed.

Olney says that his honey came from suppliers in Montana, North Dakota and Alberta. "It was filtered in processing because North American shoppers want their honey crystal clear," he said.

The packers of Silverbow Honey added: "The grocery stores want processed honey as it lasts longer on the shelves."

However, most beekeepers say traditional filtering used by most will catch bee parts, wax, debris from the hives and other visible contaminants but will leave the pollen in place.

Ernie Groeb, the president and CEO of Groeb Farms Inc., which calls itself "the world's largest packer of honey," says he makes no specific requirement to the pollen content of the 85 million pounds of honey his company buys.

Groeb sells retail under the Miller's brand and says he buys 100 percent pure honey, but does not "specify nor do we require that the pollen be left in or be removed."

He says that there are many different filtering methods used by beekeepers and honey packers.

"We buy basically what's considered raw honey. We trust good suppliers. That's what we rely on," said Groeb, whose headquarters is in Onstead, Mich.

Why Remove the Pollen?

Removal of all pollen from honey "makes no sense" and is completely contrary to marketing the highest quality product possible, Mark Jensen, president of the American Honey Producers Association, told Food Safety News.

"I don't know of any U.S. producer that would want to do that. Elimination of all pollen can only be achieved by ultra-filtering and this filtration process does nothing but cost money and diminish the quality of the honey," Jensen said.

"In my judgment, it is pretty safe to assume that any ultra-filtered honey on store shelves is Chinese honey and it's even safer to assume that it entered the country uninspected and in violation of federal law," he added.

Richard Adee, whose 80,000 hives in multiple states produce 7 million pounds of honey each year, told Food Safety News that "honey has been valued by millions for centuries for its flavor and nutritional value and that is precisely what is completely removed by the ultra-filtration process."

"There is only one reason to ultra-filter honey and there's nothing good about it," he says.

"It's no secret to anyone in the business that the only reason all the pollen is filtered out is to hide where it initially came from and the fact is that in almost all cases, that is China," Adee added.

The Sioux Honey Association, who says it's America's largest supplier, declined repeated requests for comments on ultra-filtration, what Sue Bee does with its foreign honey and whether it's ultra-filtered when they buy it. The co-op markets retail under Sue Bee, Clover Maid, Aunt Sue, Natural Pure and many store brands.

Eric Wenger, director of quality services for Golden Heritage Foods, the nation's third largest packer, said his company takes every precaution not to buy laundered Chinese honey.

"We are well aware of the tricks being used by some brokers to sell honey that originated in China and laundering it in a second country by filtering out the pollen and other adulterants," said Wenger, whose firm markets 55 million pounds of honey annually under its Busy Bee brand, store brands, club stores and food service.

"The brokers know that if there's an absence of all pollen in the raw honey we won't buy it, we won't touch it, because without pollen we have no way to verify its origin."

He said his company uses "extreme care" including pollen analysis when purchasing foreign honey, especially from countries like India, Vietnam and others that have or have had "business arrangements" with Chinese honey producers.

Golden Heritage, Wenger said, then carefully removes all pollen from the raw honey when it's processed to extend shelf life, but says, "as we see it, that is not ultra-filtration.

"There is a significant difference between filtration, which is a standard industry practice intended to create a shelf-stable honey, and ultra-filtration, which is a deceptive, illegal, unethical practice."

Some of the foreign and state standards that are being instituted can be read to mean different things, Wenger said "but the confusion can be eliminated and we can all be held to the same appropriate standards for quality if FDA finally establishes the standards we've all wanted for so long."

Groeb says he has urged FDA to take action as he also "totally supports a standard of Identity for honey. It will help everyone have common ground as to what pure honey truly is!"

What's Wrong With Chinese Honey?

Chinese honey has long had a poor reputation in the U.S., where - in 2001 - the Federal Trade Commission imposed stiff import tariffs or taxes to stop the Chinese from flooding the marketplace with dirt-cheap, heavily subsidized honey, which was forcing American beekeepers out of business.

To avoid the dumping tariffs, the Chinese quickly began transshipping honey to several other countries, then laundering it by switching the color of the shipping drums, the documents and labels to indicate a bogus but tariff-free country of origin for the honey.

Most U.S. honey buyers knew about the Chinese actions because of the sudden availability of lower cost honey, and little was said.

The FDA -- either because of lack of interest or resources -- devoted little effort to inspecting imported honey. Nevertheless, the agency had occasionally either been told of, or had stumbled upon, Chinese honey contaminated with chloramphenicol and other illegal animal antibiotics which are dangerous, even fatal, to a very small percentage of the population.

Mostly, the adulteration went undetected. Sometimes FDA caught it.

In one instance 10 years ago, contaminated Chinese honey was shipped to Canada and then on to a warehouse in Houston where it was sold to jelly maker J.M. Smuckers and the national baker Sara Lee.

By the time the FDA said it realized the Chinese honey was tainted, Smuckers had sold 12,040 cases of individually packed honey to Ritz-Carlton Hotels and Sara Lee said it may have been used in a half-million loaves of bread that were on store shelves.

Eventually, some honey packers became worried about what they were pumping into the plastic bears and jars they were selling. They began using in-house or private labs to test for honey diluted with inexpensive high fructose corn syrup or 13 other illegal sweeteners or for the presence of illegal antibiotics. But even the most sophisticated of these tests would not pinpoint the geographic source of the honey.
Food scientists and honey specialists say pollen is the only foolproof fingerprint to a honey's source.

Federal investigators working on criminal indictments and a very few conscientious packers were willing to pay stiff fees to have the pollen in their honey analyzed for country of origin. That complex, multi-step analysis is done by fewer than five commercial laboratories in the world.

But, Customs and Justice Department investigators told Food Safety News that whenever U.S. food safety or criminal experts verify a method to identify potentially illegal honey - such as analyzing the pollen - the laundering operators find a way to thwart it, such as ultra-filtration.

The U.S. imported 208 million pounds of honey over the past 18 months. Almost 60 percent came from Asian countries - traditional laundering points for Chinese honey. This included 45 million pounds from India alone.

And websites still openly offer brokers who will illegally transship honey and scores of other tariff-protected goods from China to the U.S.

FDA's Lack of Action

The Food and Drug Administration weighed into the filtration issue years ago.

"The FDA has sent a letter to industry stating that the FDA does not consider 'ultra-filtered' honey to be honey," agency press officer Tamara Ward told Food Safety News.

She went on to explain: "We have not halted any importation of honey because we have yet to detect 'ultra-filtered' honey. If we do detect 'ultra-filtered' honey we will refuse entry."

Many in the honey industry and some in FDA's import office say they doubt that FDA checks more than 5 percent of all foreign honey shipments.

For three months, the FDA promised Food Safety News to make its "honey expert" available to explain what that statement meant. It never happened. Further, the federal food safety authorities refused offers to examine Bryant's analysis and explain what it plans to do about the selling of honey it says is adulterated because of the removal of pollen, a key ingredient.

Major food safety standard-setting organizations such as the United Nations' Codex Alimentarius, the European Union and the European Food Safety Authority say the intentional removal of pollen is dangerous because it eliminates the ability of consumers and law enforcement to determine the actual origin of the honey.

"The removal of pollen will make the determination of botanical and geographic origin of honey impossible and circumvents the ability to trace and identify the actual source of the honey," says the European Union Directive on Honey.

The Codex commission's Standard for Honey, which sets principles for the international trade in food, has ruled that "No pollen or constituent particular to honey may be removed except where this is unavoidable in the removal of foreign matter. . ." It even suggested what size mesh to use (not smaller than 0.2mm or 200 micron) to filter out unwanted debris -- bits of wax and wood from the frames, and parts of bees -- but retain 95 percent of all the pollen.

Food Safety News asked Bryant to analyze foreign honey packaged in Italy, Hungary, Greece, Tasmania and New Zealand to try to get a feeling for whether the Codex standards for pollen were being heeded overseas. The samples from every country but Greece were loaded with various types and amounts of pollen. Honey from Greece had none.

You'll Never Know

In many cases, consumers would have an easier time deciphering state secrets than pinning down where the honey they're buying in groceries actually came from.

The majority of the honey that Bryant's analysis found to have no pollen was packaged as store brands by outside companies but carried a label unique to the food chain. For example, Giant Eagle has a ValuTime label on some of its honey. In Target it's called Market Pantry, Naturally Preferred and others. Walmart uses Great Value and Safeway just says Safeway. Wegmans also uses its own name.

Who actually bottled these store brands is often a mystery.

A noteworthy exception is Golden Heritage of Hillsboro, Kan. The company either puts its name or decipherable initials on the back of store brands it fills.

"We're never bashful about discussing the products we put out" said Wenger, the company's quality director. "We want people to know who to contact if they have questions."

The big grocery chains were no help in identifying the sources of the honey they package in their store brands.

For example, when Food Safety News was hunting the source of nine samples that came back as ultra-filtered from QFC, Fred Myer and King Sooper, the various customer service numbers all led to representatives of Kroger, which owns them all. The replies were identical: "We can't release that information. It is proprietary."
One of the customer service representatives said the contact address on two of the honeys being questioned was in Sioux City, Iowa, which is where Sioux Bee's corporate office is located.

Jessica Carlson, a public relations person for Target, waved the proprietary banner and also refused to say whether it was Target management or the honey suppliers that wanted the source of the honey kept from the public.

Similar non-answers came from representatives of Safeway, Walmart and Giant Eagle.

The drugstores weren't any more open with the sources of their house brands of honey. A Rite Aid representative said "if it's not marked made in China, than it's made in the United States." She didn't know who made it but said "I'll ask someone."

Rite Aid, Walgreen and CVS have yet to supply the information.

Only two smaller Pacific Northwest grocery chains - Haggen and Metropolitan Market - both selling honey without pollen, weren't bashful about the source of their honey. Haggen said right off that its brand comes from Golden Heritage. Metropolitan Market said its honey - Western Family - is packed by Bee Maid Honey, a co-op of beekeepers from the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

Pollen? Who Cares?

Why should consumers care if their honey has had its pollen removed?

"Raw honey is thought to have many medicinal properties," says Kathy Egan, dietitian at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. "Stomach ailments, anemia and allergies are just a few of the conditions that may be improved by consumption of unprocessed honey."

But beyond pollen's reported enzymes, antioxidants and well documented anti-allergenic benefits, a growing population of natural food advocates just don't want their honey messed with.

There is enormous variety among honeys. They range in color from glass-clear to a dark mahogany and in consistency from watery to chunky to a crystallized solid. It's the plants and flowers where the bees forage for nectar that will determine the significant difference in the taste, aroma and color of what the bees produce. It is the processing that controls the texture.

Food historians say that in the 1950s the typical grocery might have offered three or four different brands of honey. Today, a fair-sized store will offer 40 to 50 different types, flavors and sources of honey out of the estimated 300 different honeys made in the U.S.. And with the attractiveness of natural food and the locavore movement, honey's popularity is burgeoning. Unfortunately, with it comes the potential for fraud.

Concocting a sweet-tasting syrup out of cane, corn or beet sugar, rice syrup or any of more than a dozen sweetening agents is a great deal easier, quicker and far less expensive than dealing with the natural brew of bees.

However, even the most dedicated beekeeper can unknowingly put incorrect information on a honey jar's label.

Bryant has examined nearly 2,000 samples of honey sent in by beekeepers, honey importers, and ag officials checking commercial brands off store shelves. Types include premium honey such as "buckwheat, tupelo, sage, orange blossom, and sourwood" produced in Florida, North Carolina, California, New York and Virginia and "fireweed" from Alaska.

"Almost all were incorrectly labeled based on their pollen and nectar contents," he said.

Out of the 60 plus samples that Bryant tested for Food Safety News, the absolute most flavorful said "blackberry" on the label. When Bryant concluded his examination of the pollen in this sample he found clover and wildflowers clearly outnumbering a smattering of grains of blackberry pollen.

For the most part we are not talking about intentional fraud here. Contrary to their most fervent wishes, beekeepers can't control where their bees actually forage any more than they can keep the tides from changing. They offer their best guess on the predominant foliage within flying distance of the hives.

"I think we need a truth in labeling law in the U.S. as they have in other countries," Bryant added.

FDA Ignores Pleas

No one can say for sure why the FDA has ignored repeated pleas from Congress, beekeepers and the honey industry to develop a U.S. standard for identification for honey.

Nancy Gentry owns the small Cross Creek Honey Company in Interlachen, Fla., and she isn't worried about the quality of the honey she sells.

"I harvest my own honey. We put the frames in an extractor, spin it out, strain it, and it goes into a jar. It's honey the way bees intended," Gentry said.

But the negative stories on the discovery of tainted and bogus honey raised her fears for the public's perception of honey.

food-safety-news-honey-samples-tested.jpgShe spent months of studying what the rest of the world was doing to protect consumers from tainted honey and questioning beekeepers and industry on what was needed here. Gentry became the leading force in crafting language for Florida to develop the nation's first standard for identification for honey.

In July 2009, Florida adopted the standard and placed its Division of Food Safety in the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in charge of enforcing it. It's since been followed by California, Wisconsin and North Carolina and is somewhere in the state legislative or regulatory maze in Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, New York, Texas, Kansas, Oregon, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia and others.

John Ambrose's battle for a national definition goes back 36 years. He said the issue is of great importance to North Carolina because it has more beekeepers than any other state in the country.

He and others tried to convince FDA that a single national standard for honey to help prevent adulterated honey from being sold was needed. The agency promised him it would be on the books within two years.

"But that never happened," said Ambrose, a professor and entomologist at North Carolina State University and apiculturist, or bee expert. North Carolina followed Florida's lead and passed its own identification standards last year.

Ambrose, who was co-chair of the team that drafted the state beekeeper association's honey standards says the language is very simple, "Our standard says that nothing can be added or removed from the honey. So in other words, if somebody removes the pollen, or adds moisture or corn syrup or table sugar, that's adulteration," Ambrose told Food Safety News.

But still, he says he's asked all the time how to ensure that you're buying quality honey. "The fact is, unless you're buying from a beekeeper, you're at risk," was his uncomfortably blunt reply.

Eric Silva, counsel for the American Honey Producers Association said the standard is a simple but essential tool in ensuring the quality and safety of honey consumed by millions of Americans each year.

"Without it, the FDA and their trade enforcement counterparts are severely limited in their ability to combat the flow of illicit and potentially dangerous honey into this country," Silva told Food Safety News.

It's not just beekeepers, consumers and the industry that FDA officials either ignore or slough off with comments that they're too busy.

New York Sen. Charles Schumer is one of more than 20 U.S. senators and members of Congress of both parties who have asked the FDA repeatedly to create a federal "pure honey" standard, similar to what the rest of the world has established.

They get the same answer that Ambrose got in 1975: "Any day now."

American Bee Association Legislative Committee

2011-07-06T15:46:00.001-07:00

ABF ALERT: Migratory Beekeepers Get New H2A Rules

The Labor Department has issued “special procedures” that allow migratory beekeepers to move their H2A workers from state-to-state without having to register them in each state. The new procedures had been requested by the American Beekeeping Federation (ABF).

“This is great news,” said ABF Past President Zac Browning, who had been working for the change for several years. “The old procedure was a real hassle. This gives us much more flexibility in our operations.”

Under the old procedures, migratory beekeepers had to advertise for domestic workers and certify their need for foreign workers in each state where they needed workers. Now, they can make one certification and provide an itinerary showing where the workers will be used.

Browning and other members of the ABF Legislative Committee had maintained constant pressure on the Department to adopt the new procedures, which are similar to those already in place for other employers, such as custom grain harvesters.

2011-06-08T18:57:00.000-07:00

Once again I must preface this article with a personal comment:

I have been saying this for the last three years - that there is NO one issue but many - the ROOOOOOT cause for almost all of this is the DEMAND for FOOD throughout the world. And as California produces almost 43%of WORLD/PLANET food the need by farmers (all over the world, in Europe, South America, Canada, Russia etc..) to tweek (ie. tomatoes with shrimp DNA to make harder skins better for transport), pesticide etc. in order to MEET THE DEMAND OF FOOD NEEDED.... population GROWTH forcing out natural habitat replacing it with concrete roads and housing (tearing up fertile farm land) , mono cropping causing poor to non existent diet balance and deserts of green fields.... we are POOR Stewards of PLANET EARTH.

Viruses are 'new normal' for honey bees: study
(AFP) – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON — California scientists said Tuesday they have identified four new viruses in healthy honey bee colonies, a finding that could help solve the mystery of mass bee die-offs in some parts of the world.

The previously unknown viruses turned up during a 10-month study of a commercial beekeeping operation that included more than 70,000 hives and 20 colonies that were transported across the United States to pollinate crops.

The colonies appeared healthy and did not see any of the mass deaths that have eradicated as much as 30 percent of the US population of honey bees since 2006.
Understanding the 27 unique honey bee viruses -- including four new ones and others possibly involved in colony collapse -- and how they circulate in healthy populations could offer scientists a baseline for further study.

"You can't begin to understand colony die-off without understanding what normal is," said senior author Joe DeRisi, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco.

Honey bee colony declines in recent years have reached 10 to 30 percent in Europe, 30 percent in the United States, and up to 85 percent in Middle East, according to a UN report on the issue released earlier this year.

Honey bees are critical to global agriculture. They pollinate more than 100 different crops, representing up to $83 billion in crop value world wide each year and roughly one-third of the human diet.

According to co-author Michelle Flenniken of the study published in the online journal PloS One, the patterns of infection show that more than one factor is likely to blame for colony collapse.

"Clearly, there is more than just exposure involved," said Flenniken.
"We noticed that specific viruses dominated in some seasons, but also found that not all of the colonies tested positively for a virus at the same time, even after long-distance transport in close proximity."

The researchers also found six species of bacteria and six fungi, four types of mites and a parasitic fly called a phorid, which had not previously been seen in honey bees outside California.

Among the four newly discovered viruses was one that "turned out to be the primary element of the honey bee biome, or community of bacteria and viruses," said the study, identifying it as a strain of the Lake Sinai virus.

Hundreds of millions of its viral cells were "found in each bee in otherwise healthy colonies at certain times of the year," said the research.
"Here's a virus that's the single most abundant component of the bee biome and no one knew it was there," said DeRisi said.

World health experts believe some combination of parasites, viral and bacterial infections, pesticides, and poor nutrition resulting from the impact of human activities on the environment have all played a role in the bees' decline.

POISONING THE PLANET PART 2

2011-05-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

DRBC MEETING SCHEDULED IN DEPOSIT, NY!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011
3:00-9:00 PM
Deposit High School Auditorium
171 Second Street
Deposit, NY 13754
Public comments accepted to June 1. For details on the proposed docket go to:
http://www.state.nj.us/drbc/newsrel_naturalgas051811.htm

VIDEO:

RURAL IMPACT What to Expect from the Gas Industry and How to Address It is a documentary exploring the impacts of natural gas development
http://shaleshock.org/2008/12/watch-rural-impact/comment-page-1/

PA DAIRY FARMERS & LEASEHOLDERS Tell the truth on the ground of what happens when you sign a lease/Community is waking up, too late. If you are thinking of leasing, you must watch this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_2oU3wIyow

IMPACTS ON COMMUNITIES:
Gas Drilling Turning Quiet Tourist Destination into Industrial Town
http://solveclimate.com/news/20110517/fracking-pennsylvania-natural-gas-drilling-marcellus-shale
READ THIS EMAIL from a woman in PA to get an idea of what would happen in our town
These are the Nitty Gritty details that are ignored at our peril:
http://gdacc.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/first-person-report-from-pa/

Forced Pooling: When Landowners Can’t Say No to Drilling
http://www.propublica.org/article/forced-pooling-when-landowners-cant-say-no-to-drilling

Agreement between the DEP and Chesapeake to address methane seeping into water wells has left some wondering if deal will help fix their tainted water.
http://thedailyreview.com/news/with-agreement-in-place-for-tainted-water-residents-wonder-what-is-the-fix-1.1150511

How Gas Drilling Contaminates Your Food
http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2011/05/18/fracking_food_supply
Assembly Hearing on Health Impacts of Hydrofracking
http://solidshale.wordpress.com/

AUDIO: Deposit/Hancock Farmer

Mark Dunau, farmer from Delaware County, policy chair for Northeast Organic Farmers Association, at Albany Earth Day rally May 2.
OTHER MEETINGS:

Home Rule: Preparing for Natural Gas Drilling in the Marcellus Shale Region

http://www.nytowns.org/core/contentmanager/uploads/marcellus%20agenda.pdf

POISONING THE PLANET

2011-05-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.gasmain.org
The DRBC hearing on June 1 will profoundly affect the outcome of the last 3 years of work to educate people about the hazards of fracking, and to prevent contamination of our water, air, and food sources in New York. What happens in NY will have repercussions across 34 states.

Please send another letter to the DRBC. by clicking on the link below. Please add ONE or two sentences to the given letter. It will help if you specifically tell the DRBC that you want Oquaga Lake to be protected from the danger of a spill caused by waste water trucks that should be prohibited from Oquaga Lake Road. Please tell them to protect the spring fed mountain lakes, such as Oquaga that are part of the "Special Protected Waters" of the Delaware Rive Basin from contamination caused by hydraulic fracking.

Then send this on to as many people as you can.

Please tell the DRBC that this water withdrawal must not be allowed until all the science is in:
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5952/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6715

* Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent * guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 April 2011 17.21 BST * Article history

2011-04-07T16:54:00.000-07:00

Honeybees 'entomb' hives to protect against pesticides, say scientists

By sealing up cells full of contaminated pollen, bees appear to be attempting to protect the rest of the hive -

Honey and bee : Entombed Pollen
'Entombed' pollen is identified as having sunken, wax-covered cells amid 'normal', uncapped cells. Photograph: Journal of Invertebrate Pathology

Honeybees are taking emergency measures to protect their hives from pesticides, in an extraordinary example of the natural world adapting swiftly to our depredations, according to a prominent bee expert.

Scientists have found numerous examples of a new phenomenon – bees "entombing" or sealing up hive cells full of pollen to put them out of use, and protect the rest of the hive from their contents. The pollen stored in the sealed-up cells has been found to contain dramatically higher levels of pesticides and other potentially harmful chemicals than the pollen stored in neighbouring cells, which is used to feed growing young bees.

"This is a novel finding, and very striking. The implication is that the bees are sensing [pesticides] and actually sealing it off. They are recognising that something is wrong with the pollen and encapsulating it," said Jeff Pettis, an entomologist with the US Department of Agriculture. "Bees would not normally seal off pollen."

But the bees' last-ditch efforts to save themselves appear to be unsuccessful – the entombing behaviour is found in many hives that subsequently die off, according to Pettis. "The presence of entombing is the biggest single predictor of colony loss. It's a defence mechanism that has failed." These colonies were likely to already be in trouble, and their death could be attributed to a mix of factors in addition to pesticides, he added.

Bees are also sealing off pollen that contains substances used by beekeepers to control pests such as the varroa mite, another factor in the widespread decline of bee populations. These substances may also be harmful to bees, Pettis said. "Beekeepers - and I am one – need to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask what we are doing," he said. "Certainly [the products] have effects on bees. It's a balancing act – if you do not control the parasite, bees die. If you control the parasite, bees will live but there are side-effects. This has to be managed."

The decline of bee populations has become an increasing concern in recent years. "Colony collapse disorder", the name given to the unexplained death of bee colonies, is affecting hives around the world. Scientists say there are likely to be numerous reasons for the die-off, ranging from agricultural pesticides to bee pests and diseases, pollution, and intensive farming, which reduces bee habitat and replaces multiple food sources with single, less nutritious, sources. Globalisation may also be a factor, as it spreads bee diseases around the world, and some measures taken to halt the deaths – such as massing bees in huge super-hives – can actually contribute to the problem, according to a recent study by the United Nations.

The loss of pollinators could have severe effects on agriculture, scientists have warned.

Pesticides were not likely to be the biggest single cause of bee deaths, Pettis said: "Pesticide is an issue but it is not the driving issue." Some pesticides could be improving life for bees, he noted: for many years, bees were not to be found near cotton plantations because of the many chemicals used, but in the past five years bees have begun to return because the multiple pesticides of old have been replaced with newer so-called systemic pesticides.

Studies he conducted found that bees in areas of intensive agriculture were suffering from poor nutrition compared with bees with a diverse diet, and this then compounded other problems, such as infection with the gut parasite nosema. "It is about the interaction of different factors, and we need to study these interactions more closely," he said.

The entombing phenomenon was first noted in an obscure scientific paper from 2009, but since then scientists have been finding the behaviour more frequently, with the same results.

Bees naturally collect from plants a substance known as propolis, a sort of sticky resin with natural anti-bacterial and anti-fungal qualities. It is used by bees to line the walls of their hives, and to seal off unwanted or dangerous substances – for instance, mice that find their way into hives and die are often found covered in propolis. This is the substance bees are using to entomb the cells.

The bees that entomb cells of pollen are the hives' housekeepers, different from the bees that go out to collect pollen from plants. Pettis said that it seemed pollen-collecting bees could not detect high levels of pesticides, but that the pollen underwent subtle changes when stored. These changes – a lack of microbial activity compared with pollen that has fewer pesticide residues – seemed to be involved in triggering the entombing effect, he explained.

Pettis was speaking in London, where he was visiting British MPs to talk about the decline of bee populations, and meeting European bee scientists.

Honey Laundering and Authenticity

2011-01-26T12:11:00.000-08:00

Jan 19, 2011
By Bradley Kreit in: The Future Now Blog
| Research Manager, Health Horizons Program
Bradley Kreit was born in San Francisco and grew up in Oakland, California. Taken by an urge to explore other parts of the country, he moved to Connecticut for college and moved and traveled ...
food futures, transparency

Honey Laundering and Authenticity

It's hard to find just one or two things to excerpt from Jessica Leeder's great investigation into the large amount of global crime that has grown up around something as simple as honey. It turns out that, in response to U.S. and E.U. trade rules designed to keep antibiotics out of the honey supply, a variety of middlemen have turned up in parts of Asia to conceal the origins of honey--a practice that has been met with equal amount of money spent on tracking down the honey launderers.

Most honey comes from China, where beekeepers are notorious for keeping their bees healthy with antibiotics banned in North America because they seep into honey and contaminate it; packers there learn to mask the acrid notes of poor quality product by mixing in sugar or corn-based syrups to fake good taste.
None of this is on the label. Rarely will a jar of honey say “Made in China.” Instead, Chinese honey sold in North America is more likely to be stamped as Indonesian, Malaysian or Taiwanese, due to a growing multimillion dollar laundering system designed to keep the endless supply of cheap and often contaminated Chinese honey moving into the U.S., where tariffs have been implemented to staunch the flow and protect its own struggling industry.

Much later in her article, Leeder notes that since the honey laundering started in earnest about a decade ago, several countries that produce very little amounts of honey enjoy very large honey exports.

Despite the arrests, the honey industry has been watching suspect import numbers climb.
They are particularly incensed by three countries that, ten years ago, exported zero honey to the U.S., according to Department of Commerce data. India, Malaysia and Indonesia are mysteriously on pace to ship 43 million kilograms of honey into the U.S. by year’s end.
“It is widely known those countries have no productive capacity to justify those quantities,” said Mr. Phipps, the honey markets expert.

The rest of the article, which is well worth reading in full, points out different methods for concealing honey's origins, strategies for combating the fraud, and a sort of legal back and forth that seems out of place for what feels like a pretty ordinary food item.
In reading this, though, I was reminded of signals suggesting that honey may not be the only food subject to similar sorts of fraud attempts. For example, in late 2009, a group of students decided to use DNA analysis to try to verify the origins of their foods--and found that 11 of the 66 foods they tested were mislabeled. Not surprisingly, the mislabeled stuff was expensive--sheep's milk was actually regular old milk, sturgeon caviar was really Mississippi Paddlefish.
And DNA testing--the cost of which keeps dropping--isn't the only tool at a consumer's disposal for testing food origins and chemicals. A group of Canadian chemists have developed a little strip--sort of like a piece of paper for testing p.h. levels--to see if a food item contains pesticides, for example.
As of now, most of these stories about food fraud have received relatively little public attention. But it's interesting to imagine what would happen if stories about honey laundering and the like started gaining traction--and what sorts of reactions it could spur. Certainly, we'd see consumers examining their Florida orange juice, California cheese and so on a lot more closely. And, of course, we'd also see food companies responding by engaging in a lot of desperate marketing to demonstrate the authenticity of their foods. And many more middle men trying to conceal their supply chains.
At some level, I think that scenario is only a matter of when, given that, over time, we really won't need large governments to invest millions of dollars to track down the origins of our foods. With pesticide test strips, cheap DNA sequencing and the like, the scenario above--of increasing fears of food fraud--may only be a matter of when.

IN defense of the AGRICULTURIST

2011-01-09T14:28:00.000-08:00

As a beekeeper the CCD colony collapse issue is rampant - in large part due to insecticides etc. but BUT the REAL issue at large is FOOD DEMAND to MEET the hungry mouths of the WORLD> What really needs to be addressed is HUMAN POPULATION - the GROWTH and Taxation on the planet/world itself. TOOOOOO MANY MOUTHS TO FEED - the demand for food increases daily - farmers have got to resort to tweeking the DNA in plants so that food products will grow faster, longer, more bountiful and the tweeking includes pesticides etc.. genetically engineered etc...

THE GLOBAL ISSUE IS POPULATION GROWTH. The LACK of POPULATION boundries - the earth, planet, globe can only handle so many people - there is ONLY so much food to feed the mouths and bellies - it is the POPULATION EXPLOSION worldwide that is killing everything. POPULATION mean MOUTHS means HUNGRY BELIES means FOOD DEMANDS = we are doing ourselves into extinction.

POPULATION CONTROL is what NEEDS to be ADDRESSED, TALKED ABOUT and ACTION TAKEN> soon there will be no fishes, animals, agricultural products, water, space......

WHERE TO LOOK FOR INFORMATION

2011-01-09T14:11:00.000-08:00

Bees are dying off worldwide and our entire food chain is in peril. Scientists blame toxic pesticides and four European governments have already banned them. If we get the US and the EU to join the ban, other governments across the world could follow, and save bees from extinction.

Silently, billions of bees are dying off and our entire food chain is in danger. Bees don't just make honey, they are a giant, humble workforce, pollinating 90% of the plants we grow.

Multiple scientific studies fault one group of toxic pesticides for their rapid demise, and bee populations have soared in four European countries that have banned these products. But powerful chemical companies are lobbying hard to keep selling this poison. Our best chance to save bees now is to push the US and EU to ban this deadly product -- their action is critical and will have a ripple effect on the rest of the world.

We have no time to lose -- the debate is raging about what to do. This is not just about saving bumble bees, this is about survival. Let’s build a giant global buzz calling for the EU and US to outlaw these killer chemicals and save our bees and our food. Sign the emergency petition now and send it onto to everyone and we’ll deliver it to key decision makers.

Bees are vital to life on earth -- every year pollinating plants and crops with an estimated $40bn value, over one third of the food supply in many countries. Without immediate action to save bees we could end up with no fruit, no vegetables, no nuts, no oils and no cotton.

Recent years have seen a steep and disturbing global decline in bee populations -- some bee species are now extinct and others are at just 4% of their previous numbers. Scientists have been scrambling for answers. Some studies claim the decline may be due to a combination of factors including disease, habitat loss and toxic chemicals. But leading independent research has produced strong evidence blaming neonicotinoid pesticides. This has led to beekeepers and scientists in France, Italy, Slovenia and even Germany, where the main manufacturer Bayer is based, already pushing successfully for bans of one of these bee killers. Meanwhile, Bayer continues to export its poison across the world.

This issue is now coming to the boil as major new studies have confirmed the scale of this problem. If we can get European and US decision-makers to take action, others will follow. It won’t be easy. A leaked document shows that the US Environmental Protection Agency knew about the pesticide’s dangers, but ignored them. The document says Bayer’s "highly toxic" product is a "major risk concern to non target insects (honey bees)".

We need to make our voices heard to counter Bayer’s very strong influence on policy makers and scientists in both the US and the EU where they fund the studies and sit on policy bodies. The real experts -- the beekeepers and farmers -- want these deadly pesticides prohibited until and unless we have solid, independent studies that show they are safe. Let's support them now. Sign the petition below, then forward this email:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/save_the_bees/?vl

We can no longer leave our delicate food chain in the hands of research run by the chemical companies and the regulators that are in their pockets. Banning this pesticide will move us closer to a world safe for ourselves and the other species we care about and depend on.

With hope,

Alex, Alice, Iain, David and all at Avaaz

MORE INFORMATION

Bee decline could be down to chemical cocktail interfering with brains
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/22/chemicals-bees-decline-major-study?INTCMP=SRCH

Bee briefing
http://www.soilassociation.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=RXLEm9WXrHk%3D&tabid=439

$15 Billion Bee Murder Mystery Deepens
http://www.businessinsider.com/colony-collapse-disorder-still-unsolved-lead-researcher-had-connections-to-bayer-2010-10

“Nicotine Bees" Population Restored With Neonicotinoids Ban
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/nicotine-bees-population-restored-with-neonicotinoids-ban.php

EPA memo reveals concern that pesticide causes bee deaths
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?entry_id=79910

Beekeepers want government to pull pesticide
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/beekeepers-want-government-to-pull-pesticide-1107701.html

British Beekeepers' Association to stop endorsing bee-killing pesticides http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/16/beekeepers-end-pesticide-endorsement?INTCMP=SRCH

Pesticide industry involvement in EU risk assessment puts survival of bees at stake
http://www.corporateeurope.org/agribusiness/news/2010/11/16/pesticide-industry-future-bees

--------------

NATURE vs NURTURE - Bees Tell All

2010-11-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

Nature vs nurture: Bees tell all
Wednesday, 03 November 2010
The Australian National University

The study represents a giant step closer to
solving the nature-nurture debate.

The nature-nurture debate is a “giant step” closer to being resolved after scientists studying bees documented how environmental inputs can modify our genetic hardware.

The research team was led by Professor Ryszard Maleszka of The Australian National University’s College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, working with colleagues from the German Cancer Institute in Heidelberg, Germany. Their work has uncovered the extensive molecular differences that occur in the brains of two types of genetically identical, but behaviourally different, female honey bees – worker bees and queen bees. The workers and queens develop along very different paths when put on different diets.

Their work reveals for the first time the intricacies of the environmentally-influenced chemical ‘marking of DNA’ called DNA methylation, which has the capacity to alter gene expression without affecting the genetic code – a process referred to as ‘epigenetic’, or above the genome.

“This marking determines which genes are to be fine-tuned in the brains of workers and queens to produce their extraordinarily different behaviours. This finding is not only crucial, but far reaching, because the enzymes that mark DNA in the bee are also the enzymes that mark DNA in human brains,” said Professor Maleszka.

“In the bees, more than 550 genes are differentially marked between the brain of the queen and the brain of the worker, which contributes to their profound divergence in behaviour. This study provides the first documentation of extensive molecular differences that may allow honey bees to generate different reproductive and behavioural outcomes as a result of differential feeding with royal jelly.”

Professor Maleszka said that the work goes a long way to answering one of life’s biggest questions.

“This study represents a giant step towards answering one of the big questions in the nature-nurture debate, because it shows how the outside world is linked to DNA via diet, and how environmental inputs can transiently modify our genetic hardware,” he said.

“Similar studies are impossible to do on human brains, so the humble honey bees are the pioneers in this fascinating area.”

The researchers’ paper, ‘The Honey Bee Epigenomes: Differential Methylation of Brain DNA in Queens and Workers’ is published in this week’s PLoS Biology.

ANOTHER THOUGHT on CCD and the Plight of the BEE

2010-10-08T07:34:00.000-07:00

Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery
Mike Albans for The New York Times

Members of a joint United States Army-University of Montana research team that located a virus that is possibly collapsing honeybee colonies scanning a healthy hive near Missoula, Mont.
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: October 6, 2010

DENVER — It has been one of the great murder mysteries of the garden: what is killing off the honeybees?
Related

*
Green Blog: Giving the Honeybee Its Due (October 7, 2010)
*
Bees Vanish, and Scientists Race for Reasons (April 24, 2007)

Honeybees inside a healthy hive near Missoua, Mont.

Since 2006, 20 to 40 percent of the bee colonies in the United States alone have suffered “colony collapse.” Suspected culprits ranged from pesticides to genetically modified food.

Now, a unique partnership — of military scientists and entomologists — appears to have achieved a major breakthrough: identifying a new suspect, or two.

A fungus tag-teaming with a virus have apparently interacted to cause the problem, according to a paper by Army scientists in Maryland and bee experts in Montana in the online science journal PLoS One.

Exactly how that combination kills bees remains uncertain, the scientists said — a subject for the next round of research. But there are solid clues: both the virus and the fungus proliferate in cool, damp weather, and both do their dirty work in the bee gut, suggesting that insect nutrition is somehow compromised.

Liaisons between the military and academia are nothing new, of course. World War II, perhaps the most profound example, ended in an atomic strike on Japan in 1945 largely on the shoulders of scientist-soldiers in the Manhattan Project. And a group of scientists led by Jerry Bromenshenk of the University of Montana in Missoula has researched bee-related applications for the military in the past — developing, for example, a way to use honeybees in detecting land mines.

But researchers on both sides say that colony collapse may be the first time that the defense machinery of the post-Sept. 11 Homeland Security Department and academia have teamed up to address a problem that both sides say they might never have solved on their own.

“Together we could look at things nobody else was looking at,” said Colin Henderson, an associate professor at the University of Montana’s College of Technology and a member of Dr. Bromenshenk’s “Bee Alert” team.

Human nature and bee nature were interconnected in how the puzzle pieces came together. Two brothers helped foster communication across disciplines. A chance meeting and a saved business card proved pivotal. Even learning how to mash dead bees for analysis — a skill not taught at West Point — became a factor.

One perverse twist of colony collapse that has compounded the difficulty of solving it is that the bees do not just die — they fly off in every direction from the hive, then die alone and dispersed. That makes large numbers of bee autopsies — and yes, entomologists actually do those — problematic.

Dr. Bromenshenk’s team at the University of Montana and Montana State University in Bozeman, working with the Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center northeast of Baltimore, said in their jointly written paper that the virus-fungus one-two punch was found in every killed colony the group studied. Neither agent alone seems able to devastate; together, the research suggests, they are 100 percent fatal.

“It’s chicken and egg in a sense — we don’t know which came first,” Dr. Bromenshenk said of the virus-fungus combo — nor is it clear, he added, whether one malady weakens the bees enough to be finished off by the second, or whether they somehow compound the other’s destructive power. “They’re co-factors, that’s all we can say at the moment,” he said. “They’re both present in all these collapsed colonies.”

Research at the University of California, San Francisco, had already identified the fungus as part of the problem. And several RNA-based viruses had been detected as well. But the Army/Montana team, using a new software system developed by the military for analyzing proteins, uncovered a new DNA-based virus, and established a linkage to the fungus, called N. ceranae.

“Our mission is to have detection capability to protect the people in the field from anything biological,” said Charles H. Wick, a microbiologist at Edgewood. Bees, Dr. Wick said, proved to be a perfect opportunity to see what the Army’s analytic software tool could do. “We brought it to bear on this bee question, which is how we field-tested it,” he said.

The Army software system — an advance itself in the growing field of protein research, or proteomics — is designed to test and identify biological agents in circumstances where commanders might have no idea what sort of threat they face. The system searches out the unique proteins in a sample, then identifies a virus or other microscopic life form based on the proteins it is known to contain. The power of that idea in military or bee defense is immense, researchers say, in that it allows them to use what they already know to find something they did not even know they were looking for.

But it took a family connection — through David Wick, Charles’s brother — to really connect the dots. When colony collapse became news a few years ago, Mr. Wick, a tech entrepreneur who moved to Montana in the 1990s for the outdoor lifestyle, saw a television interview with Dr. Bromenshenk about bees.

Mr. Wick knew of his brother’s work in Maryland, and remembered meeting Dr. Bromenshenk at a business conference. A retained business card and a telephone call put the Army and the Bee Alert team buzzing around the same blossom.

The first steps were awkward, partly because the Army lab was not used to testing bees, or more specifically, to extracting bee proteins. “I’m guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk,” Charles Wick said. “It was very complicated.”

The process eventually was refined. A mortar and pestle worked better than the desktop, and a coffee grinder worked best of all for making good bee paste.

Scientists in the project emphasize that their conclusions are not the final word. The pattern, they say, seems clear, but more research is needed to determine, for example, how further outbreaks might be prevented, and how much environmental factors like heat, cold or drought might play a role.

They said that combination attacks in nature, like the virus and fungus involved in bee deaths, are quite common, and that one answer in protecting bee colonies might be to focus on the fungus — controllable with antifungal agents — especially when the virus is detected.

Still unsolved is what makes the bees fly off into the wild yonder at the point of death. One theory, Dr. Bromenshenk said, is that the viral-fungal combination disrupts memory or navigating skills and the bees simply get lost. Another possibility, he said, is a kind of insect insanity.

In any event, the university’s bee operation itself proved vulnerable just last year, when nearly every bee disappeared over the course of the winter.

the SECRET to white whipped honey is.....

2010-10-03T11:38:00.001-07:00

that it is WHIPPED - go to DYCE PROCESS at google.com and learn how and why and when.

NEW SPECIES OF BEE....

2010-08-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

A new species of bee was found at the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve -

Mason-bee Cowichnius?

The non-aggressive mud-nest maker is among many of the bee species found at the preserve where native numbers are thriving due to the recovering site's diverse ecology so world Mason Bee expert, Terry Griswold, and Simon Fraser University biologist Elizabeth Elle reported. " The preserve has done a great job of getting rid of invasive species... Helped by a flock of sheep nibbling the preserve's invasive plant and grass shoots, and saving its native wildflowers. Eco-divsity is boosted by bees pollinating and fertizing all plants - including crops. ..Out of every three bites you eat give thanks to a bee." SPOTLIGHT May issue 2010
BC Canada

BEEKEEPERS STUNG BY LIFTED QUARANTINE - BC, Canada

2010-08-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

August 2010 we visited Vancouver Island to meet up with fellow bee keepers - to share ideas and stories on what is happening in the bee community in their part of the world. President of Cowichan Bee Association, George Field and wife, Delphine, were gracious enough to take the time. We met at Shawnigan Steeples Restaurant for dinner and a chat.

From an email: "this is the busy season, many of the
beekeepers are moving, splitting or chasing their bees at this time of year.
Here on the island there is a big controversy at this time over the movement
of bees on and off of Vancouver Island. The change in government policy has
many beekeepers hopping mad.
We had the Cowichan Beekeepers club meeting last Thursday evening and I read
your letter out at the meeting to see of interest, the problem here is that
last fall and through the winter many of the beekeepers of Vancouver Island
had up to 90% bee losses. The old "Colony Collapse" situation is what they
are calling it, many of the commercial beekeepers are now working very hard
to get their number of hives up so as to fulfill some pollination contracts
and get some honey for this year."

The Canadian government has allowed importation of bees from Chili and Argentina but no equipment (wood etc...) as the island has been 'safe' from unregulated importation; but recently all that has changed. The ban was lifted on equipment/bee importation onto the island and apparently the quarantine was not adhered to; one of the large pollinators fulfilled his pollination contracts first then brought the equipment etc for quarantine - by then the 'foreign invader' had infected the entire island hence the 90% loss among the bee keepers. The sanctuary of the island is now breached and has fallen prey, like the rest of the world to the Varroa mite, American/European Foulbrood, honeycomb-eating greater wax moth, small hive beetle...

According to the SPOTLIGHT, Friday May 28,2010 issue the headline reads: Beekeepers stung by lifted quarantine
The article goes on to state ..."The policy change basically lifts a 1987 honeybee importation quarantine. Commercial producer Larry Lindahl (beekeeper for 64 years), a former agricultural inspector with 180 bee colonies is stinging mad about the legislative changes made with little notice to beekeepers.....The quarantine had kept a list of honeybee pests out of Cowichan's 250 registered hives - you can double that figure for non-registered ones... What's the possible justification for a major change to the status quo without involving key stakeholders like island beekeepers? Demanded Annie Roman of the Cowichan Beekeepers Club. Beehaven Farm's Steve Mitchell saw his 20 colonies reduced to one thanks largely to last year's infestation by the Varroa mite. He too wants the quarantine reinstated to keep disease levels low among the island bees....."

China's Honey Trade Buzzing With Corruption

2010-06-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

China's Honey Trade Buzzing With Corruption
By Alexa Olesen, Associated Press Writer

MANUFACTURING.NET - June 30, 2010

BEIJING (AP) -- Businessman Yan Yongxiang was trying to get around stiff U.S. levies on imports of cheap Chinese honey. So he sent 15 shipping containers of cut-rate honey to the Philippines, where it was relabeled and sent on to the United States.

It's called honey-laundering, and the subterfuge let Yan skirt $656,515 in taxes before he was caught in a bust and pleaded guilty. Yan's factory in central China's Henan province even filtered the metals and pollen from the honey so that U.S. tests would not show it came from China, according to the 60-year-old's plea agreement. Now he awaits sentencing in a U.S. jail.

Honey-laundering is just one of many unsavory practices that have besmirched China's vast honey industry and raised complaints from competing American beekeepers. China produces more honey than anywhere else in the world, about 300,000 metric tons (660 million pounds) a year or about 25 percent of the global total. But stocks are tainted with a potentially dangerous antibiotic and cheaper honeys are increasingly getting passed off as more expensive varieties.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seized 64 drums of Chinese honey tainted with chloramphenicol, an antibiotic, at a warehouse in Philadelphia. Last year, the agency said two Chinese honey shipments were found to contain the drug, which is approved for medical use but banned in food products because in rare cases it can cause aplastic anemia, a potentially fatal illness.

Experts say quality problems are hard to avoid in a business dominated by small manufacturers, many of whom are poor and uneducated.

Chinese honey collectors like Min Junguo, 47, spend every spring and summer chasing the flowers, lugging their bees from the chasteberry trees of south China to the yellow acacia blossoms around Beijing. While on the road, Min lives with his wife in a collapsible woodframe hut with a tarp draped over it and sleeps on a board propped up on boxes. He has a fifth-grade education and makes about $4,500 in a good year, though much of that gets spent on sugar to feed his bees in the winter and transportation fees.

Compared to the average rural income, which was just 5,153 yuan (about $760), in 2009, he is doing pretty well.

"I am not getting rich doing this, but it buys my freedom so I can be my own boss," said Min, as he stood in a shady patch of trees and flowers near the Great Wall, surrounded by more than 100 of his bee boxes.

Min denies using antibiotics. But China's supply chain for honey is long and little policed, so that it's hard to tell what corners are cut where. Min sells 5 tons of honey a year to roving middlemen, who batch it with other honey and resell it to factories and exporters.

One of Min's buyers, Wei Nianhai, said Chinese authorities have cracked down on illegal antibiotics like chloramphenicol in recent years, but it's still a hard habit to break for many bee keepers.

"If their bees got sick, the first thing in their mind is saving their bees instead of caring about the quality of honey," said Wei, a honey dealer from Chengde in central China's Henan province. "They can't afford the loss of bees."

He also admitted that he doesn't test the honey he buys for the antibiotic because he doesn't have the time or the equipment -- an indication of the lax enforcement behind China's food safety regulations.

Peter Leedham, managing director of the Suzhou office of the food testing company Eurofins Technology Service, says many Chinese bee keepers are untrained and unknowingly give their bees the medicine.

"A lot of the honey farmers or honey collectors here are small businesses or even families and they do it basically to supplement income," he said. "They often will be told to add this wonderful mixture to whatever they are doing because it will help improve their yields. And they are not told what's in it by the sellers or what it does."

Leedham said his clients, who rely on Eurofins to test samples of Chinese honey to ensure it meets export standards, are increasingly concerned about authenticity or cheaper Chinese honey being passed off as more expensive varieties.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York has called for a federal standard for pure honey similar to guidelines already established for olive oil to help combat fakes or blends. He has also lobbied for tougher measures against customs cheats like Yan and says that between $100-200 million in duties are being lost because of Chinese honey being laundered through India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia and other countries.

Honey fraud and honey-laundering are part of a controversial debate over whether or not the U.S. needs heavy subsidies to protect its homegrown honey industry.

Eric Mussen, an apiculturist or bee expert at the University of California, Davis, said it costs U.S. beekeepers about $1.40 to make a pound of honey, including colony maintenance, transportation to honey production areas, harvesting and packing. Before tariffs, he said, Chinese honey was coming into the U.S. at about 35 cents per pound.

"Obviously, this is not a 'level playing field,'" Mussen wrote in an e-mail response to questions.

Mussen said if the antidumping tariffs were lifted, sales of U.S. honey "would probably drop way off, but not necessarily to zero. Many U.S. beekeepers would go out of business."

Fewer bees also could affect crops like California almonds, which rely on commercial crop pollination services that are carried out by bees, he said.

But Chinese honey makers and the Chinese government say the U.S. duties, which can be nearly double the sale value of the honey, are unfair and discriminatory.

China argues that because the U.S. subsidizes honey farmers, it doesn't need to protect them so vigorously from import competition. Chinese bee keepers this year welcomed a new measure that waived their highway toll fees, and they sometimes get local government support, but are not covered by a federal subsidy program.

Asked by a reporter to comment on honey laundering at a press briefing this month, Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Yao Jian sidestepped the question and expounded on China's frustration with U.S. import duties instead.

"Currently, the U.S. levies $2.63 in antidumping duties for every kilogram of Chinese honey," Yao said. "We hope to resolve this issue as soon as possible, and do away with this discriminatory measure. However, so far the U.S. side has not been very energetic in this regard."

The case of Yan, the seller busted for transshipping honey through the Philippines, so angered American beekeepers that a group of them wrote to Illinois District Court Judge Wayne Andersen in January, arguing he should get "the stiffest sentence that you are able to order."

E-mails seized by customs agents from Yan's buyer, a German company with offices in Chicago, showed staff there referred to him as "famous Mr. Non stop smoker." The buyer, Alfred L. Wolff, Inc., is being investigated for fraud.

Yet to his son, Yan is "a self-made entrepreneur who worked hard all his life," and became an unlucky pawn in an international trade dispute.

"I feel that this case is mainly about a controversy between the two countries and we're caught in the middle," said Yan Chaofeng by telephone from Changge, Henan province where his father's factory is located. "We've hired a lawyer but I'm afraid it won't make any difference, since the (U.S.) government is behind this."

Associated Press researcher Xi Yue contributed to this report.

Malte Baesler's 'take' on CCD - Hamburg

2010-06-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

I. Worldwide Situation
In 2006 beekeepers reported for the first time a weird situation: large
populations of bees had abruptly disappeared. The hives were abandoned
by the worker bees. Since then, every year colony losses above average
are reported from countries all over the world. The term colony collapse
disorder (CCD) was introduced and scientists in many countries are
searching for the cause of this ecological and economical disaster. Till
this day, the reason could not be identified. But it is assumed that CCD
is the symptom of a complex problem due to a harmful environment for
bees caused by agriculture, diseases, and beekeepers.
Agriculture: Since end of World War II a diverse amount of different
pesticides have been developed and applied. Fortunately, some of them
have been prohibited again but, nevertheless, most of the nowadays
permitted pesticides are harmful to bees. Even if chemical companies
attest nontoxic to bees, these tests cannot eliminate risks because they
only determine the lethal dose of toxic for isolated adult bees. These
tests do not analyze the impact on the brood, on fertility, on the
orientation of the bees, and on accumulation in food and wax.
Furthermore, genetically modified crops are cultivated on our fields
that are suspected to be toxic for bees, too. Genetically modified crops
that are resistant to novel classes of highly potent pesticides and
plants that produce toxics by themselves primarily benefit the chemistry
companies.
Moreover, modern agriculture prefers mono cultures. Wild flowers with a
continuously and diverse flow of nectar and pollen are eliminated by
herbicides so that for the bees the environment appears like a desert
with some peaks of nectar and pollen flow, but unbalanced nutrition.
These malnourished bees are prone to parasites and diseases.
Diseases: Several parasites, bacterias, viruses, and fungal pathogens
are suspected to cause CCD or at least stress that contributes to CCD.
The usual suspect is varroa destructor mite, the world's most
destructive honey bee killer, that spread viruses such as deformed wing
virus, acute bee paralysis virus, and Israel acute paralysis virus.
Other scientists have suggested that diseases such as nosema apis and
nosema cerana are contributors to CCD, too.
Beekeepers: The beekeepers might also be a factor of influence of CCD.
Not only the bees carry in pesticides that might accumulate in honey,
pollen and wax, but also the beekeepers do. Medications to fight varroa
mite and other diseases are applied. Furthermore, the colony management
causes stress to bees leading to a weakened immune system. The beekeeper
uses frames with foundation to specify the cell types and cell sizes and
to suppress drone cells. But naturally the bees build different cell
sizes for brood and storage. A natural swarm knows at best which type of
cells are required and does not need any guideline. It is suspected that
during the past century the honeybee was accustomed to larger cell size
(from 4.9 mm to 5.4 mm diameter), supporting varroa mite. The growth of
drones is suppressed by foundations, too. In spring and summer time
drones are an integral part of the colony and are important for the
colony's harmony. Moreover, the beekeeper suppresses an other integral
instinct of the bees: swarming. Swarming is the only natural way of
reproduction. It is important, because both, the swarm and the remaining
colony, have a period with absence of brood and the colony can recover.
During colony management the brood nest is often torn by the beekeeper
and frames are interchanged. This management also causes stress to the
colony. Furthermore, in most regions wrong races of the European
honeybee are kept. Due to extensive queen breeding the bees are selected
for maximum honey production, gentleness, no propolis accumulation, and
a strong swarm sluggishness. As a result, thousands of queens are
daughters of the same mother, the gene pool depletes, and diseases might
spread easily. In addition, propagation of diseases is boosted by
national and international bee transports and package bees.

U. S. Honey Bee Industry Struggles

2010-06-10T12:54:00.000-07:00

U. S. Honey Bee Industry Struggles with 34% Colonies Loss

© 2010 by Linda Moulton Howe of www.earthfiles.com

“The rate of honey bee loss experienced by the industry is unsustainable.”
- Apiary Inspectors of America Survey, Winter 2009-2010

A total 33.8% of U. S. commercial honey bee colonies
were lost in 2009-2010. But some individual beekeepers had to
replace 75% to 100% of their colonies.

Before the fall of 2006 and the first report of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD),
the U. S. commercial honey bee industry generally thrived on California almond
pollination, other orchard crops, vegetables and berries. But in January 2010,
many commercial beekeepers who trucked colonies to California for
almond pollination lost nearly 100 percent of their hives.

Updated: May 5, 2010 Gainesville, Florida - On April 22, 2010, the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and the U. S. Department of Agriculture ARS Honey Bee Lab in Beltsville, Maryland, reported, “Preliminary Results: Honey Bee Colonies Losses in the U. S., Winter 2009-2010.”
[ See More Information below for complete summary report.]

Back in the winter of 2006-2007, Pennsylvania commercial beekeeper Dave Hackenberg reported a 60% loss of his honey bees and he meant gone - no bees at all in most of his colonies. That began the first scientific investigation of what came to be known around the world as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Where did the bees go? Why didn't the bees return to their hives? After five years of serious research, apiary specialists still don't have a final answer to those questions. But the new AIA survey shows that honey bees are under assault from a wide range of problems beyond CCD.

“Responding beekeepers (to the AIA survey) attributed their losses to:

- Starvation 32%
- Weather 29%
- Weak fall colonies 14%
- Varroa and other mites 12%
- Poor queens 10%
- CCD 5%

A total loss of 33.8% of managed honey bee colonies was recorded. This compares to total losses of 29%; 35.8%; and 31.8% recorded respectively in the winter surveys of 2008-2009; 2007-2008; 2006-2007.

All told, the rate of loss experienced by the industry is unsustainable.”

One of the authors of the AIA report is Jerry Hayes, Assistant Chief, Bureau of Plant and Apiary Inspection, Apiary Inspection Section, Division of Plant Industry, Florida Department of Agriculture, Gainesville, Florida, and I talked with him today about the new AIA U. S. commercial honey bee survey for winter 2009 to 2010.

Interview:

Jerry Hayes, Asst. Chief, Bureau of Plant and Apiary Inspection, Apiary Inspection Section, Division of Plant Industry, Florida Dept. of Agriculture, Gainesville, Florida:
“I WAS SURPRISED READING THE HONEY BEE REPORT THAT THE SITUATION STILL SEEMS TO BE AS BAD AS IT IS.

Yes, and we’re surprised, too, and concerned and a little embarrassed as well. We researchers thought we could do better at knowing more answers and improving the honey bee health by now.

When you look at bee losses through the rest of the other eight or nine months (beyond winter 2009-2010), many commercial beekeepers shared with me they have had to replace 75% to 100% of their bees through a whole 12-month cycle. The question is: how long can they do that? We keep saying that this is unsustainable and it is.

And I guess it’s tied to almond pollination that is driving and paying the bills for most commercial beekeepers. If the price of almonds goes down, or California has increased water restrictions that require almond acreage to be taken out of production. And also, there are strains of almonds now being created that are self-fertile, so they don’t require insect pollination – that would dramatically impact at least the commercial part of the beekeeping industry.

Hives of honey bees are loaded on to truck for transport up and down,
and between, American coasts as pollinators for hire.

UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Kim Fondrk in a Dixon, California,
almond orchard in 2010. Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey.

Western honey bee, or European honey bee (Apis mellifera),
gathering pollen from almond flower. On average, 34% of American
honey bees in commercial hives died by spring 2010. Some commercial
beekeepers reported having to replace up to 100% of their
colonies. Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey.

IF I UNDERSTAND CORRECTLY, WE IN THE UNITED STATES ARE DOWN NOW TO ONE MAJOR CROP, ALMONDS IN CALIFORNIA, THAT ARE KEEPING THE COMMERCIAL HONEY BEE INDUSTRY GOING?

Yes, the commercial industry for sure. Honey production is not a moneymaker anymore with all the honey imports from third world countries. The cost to produce honey in Florida, for example, is about $1/pound. But honey is being brought into the United States, and specifically Florida as I know this region, for 50 to 60 cents a pound.

It takes about 1.3 to 1.4 million colonies just to pollinate almonds. If that commercial market perhaps goes away because almond growers are shifting to self-pollinating orchards and to importing pollinators from Australia and Mexico – American beekeeper business will collapse.

Honey Bees Are Starving

ONE OF THE STATISTICS THAT JUMPED OUT AT ME IN YOUR “PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF HONEY BEE COLONIES LOSSES IN THE U. S., WINTER 2009-2010” IS THE PARAGRAPH THAT STATES, “RESPONDING BEEKEEPERS ATTRIBUTED 32% OF THEIR LOSSES TO STARVATION. WHAT DOES THAT 32% STARVATION MEAN?

That means the beekeeper didn’t leave enough resources in the colony so they would have enough food to eat over winter. Or the bees were in a northern winter situation and the bees could not be fed carbohydrates and sugars to keep them alive because perhaps the weather was so cold that the bees ate up their food prematurely. For example, recently the Midwest had a very cold, rainy winter that did not allow bees to store surplus honey for use later on. That is one of the problems.

Beekeepers can certainly purchase sugar syrups to supplement feedings, but a lot of the beekeepers simply did not have money to do that. So, they crossed their fingers and some of them won and some of them lost.

IS STARVATION IN ANY WAY RELATED TO COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER?

No, not really, because when bees die of starvation they die in the hive and that’s where their dead bodies will be. Colony Collapse Disorder is where the bees disappear entirely from the colony.

“Poor Queens”

ANOTHER STATISTIC THAT STUCK OUT IS THAT 10% OF THE BEEKEERS REPORT “POOR QUEENS.” WHAT DOES POOR QUEENS MEAN?

The queen is the only fertile female in the colony of honey bees. She is the mother of everyone. So, when a queen is not fertile enough, not laying enough eggs to keep the colony populations up, then those colonies will get smaller. In winter situations, the bees cannot generate enough heat to stay alive. So, the honey bees will die in a colony just from lack of critical mass needed to produce enough honey.

Poor queens – we’re seeing more and more of this. The queens just aren’t good. So, the question is: Is the queen damaged in some way? Or is it the drone that is not contributing enough sperm that can be used over time by the queen. Both of these weaknesses can be caused by pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals used by beekeepers to control the varroa mites.

Varroa mites are about 1 millimeter long
and suck blood from both adult honey bees and their
developing brood. Image courtesy Univ. of Kentucky.

If you’ll make a fist and put it some place on your body, that’s how large this mite is on a honey bee and sucking the bee’s blood. And then you add in chemicals, herbicides and poor diet and honey bees are going to get sick. It's just like if I fed you a nutritionally incomplete diet of Hershey chocolate bars and then stressed you by loading your hive on a semi-truck and hauling your 3,000 miles and unloading you and putting you in contact with herbicides and pesticides, it would be like my spraying your face with Raid every day. Then if you have a big blood-sucking mite on you, you’re going to get sick!

This is exactly what we are doing with honey bees. But that’s the working business model! We don’t have any replacements right now and we don’t have any pollinators to take the place of honey bees.

121 Different Pesticides
Within 887 Wax and Pollen Samples
Penn State University Research

ONLY A MONTH OR SO AGO, THERE WAS APUBLISHED STUDY OF POLLEN THAT CONFIRMED MANY PESTICIDES.

[ Editor's Note: “High Levels of Miticides and Agrochemicals in North American Apiaries: Implications for Honey Bee Health,” published March 19, 2010, in PLOS One. ]

Certainly honey bees have a weak enzyme system to break down chemicals. They don’t have a liver like we do to break things down. Once their enzymes are used up, they are gone. Are all these things good for honey bees? No, they are not. Contaminated pollen stored in hives can end up causing bees to get sick and die this way:

Honey bees don’t eat pollen. Honey bees collect pollen for protein, vitamins, minerals, lipids, but pollen is the male element of the flower and is protected from the environment by a silica shell around it. Silica is like glass. So, honey bees collect pollen and then add a variety of bacteria and yeast and fungi so t hat when the pollen is packed and stored in hive cells, it goes through a fermentation process that produces ‘bee bread.’ During the fermentation process, pressure builds up in the packed pollen and breaks open the silica shell and releases all the goodies and is preserved with lactic acid.

So, if you have a pollen that has a lot of chemicals and pesticides in it and even fungicides and you goof up the balance of these bacteria and fungi and yeast that the bees add to it to ferment it to make their bee bread and the fermentation process is not complete, then you are interfering with honey bee health by limiting their nutrition.

COULD THAT RELATE TO THE 32% STARVATION STATISTIC IN YOUR HONEY BEE REPORT?

It certainly could. But there are a lot of other things to consider. Honey bees will forage efficiently in about a 2 to 2.5 mile radius of their colony, so they are environmental samplers. They bring a lot of things back to the colonies ranging from golf courses to sprayed lawns and airports and the roadsides. Honey bees are out there trying to gather diverse pollens and nectars to get complete nutrition, kind of like our human food pyramid. As a very small life form, an insect, that has a shallow immune system and shallow ability to break down chemicals, they can go down hill fast when things are out of whack.

IF IT IS NOT ENTIRELY COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER IN THE 2009-2010 SAMPLED PERIOD, YOU STILL ARE REPORTING 33.8% COLONY LOSSES. THAT IS EVEN GREATER THAN THE 31.8% LOSS REPORTED BACK IN FALL 2006 WHEN CCD WAS FIRST DISCOVERED. SO DOESN’T THAT MEAN THE SITUATION IS NOW WORSE?

Yes! The data doesn’t lie. Those are the numbers.

“Unsustainable” U. S. Commercial
Honey Bee Industry

IT SEEMS THAT EVERYTHING IN YOUR HONEY BEE REPORT IMPLIES THAT THE COMMERCIAL BEEKEEPING INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES COULD COME TO AN END – YOUR REPORT SAYS THE ABOVE-30% DIE-OFFS ARE NOT SUSTAINABLE.

That certainly is possible. I don’t know if it will come to an end, but it will certainly shrink. And if somebody else outside the U. S. borders can pollinate faster, better, cheaper, all you have to do is go into the produce section of your grocery store and read the labels about where food is coming from now. If you think the use of chemicals in the U. S. is bad, you ought to go to Guatemala and that will scare you to death!

If it wasn’t for beekeepers being able to take one hive of honey bees and split it and make two hives of honey bees and recoup losses, the U. S. commercial beekeepers would already be out of business.”

SAVE THE BEES! - GREEN PLANET TV

2010-05-29T19:45:00.001-07:00

Save the Bees! Grow Garden Plants Honey Bees Love
Bees and wild pollinators thrive on these garden plants.

Sami Grover

By Sami Grover | Fri May 29, 2009 16:08

bee hive

Chelsea Bay Wills

READ MORE ABOUT:
Animals | Gardening | Honey | Insects

Since the worrying discovery in 2006 of Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious ailment causing entire colonies of honeybees to disappear, there's been a great deal of attention paid to supporting bees and other pollinators. After all, honeybees are responsible for pollinating over 100 commonly eaten fruit and vegetable crops—so we'd do well to be kind to these furry little helpers. Without bees our food system would be in serious trouble. Luckily, apart from taking up beekeeping (which isn't as hard as it sounds either!), one of the best things we can do is also one of the easiest—plant flowers.

The list of flowers that are 'best' for bees varies depending on where you look, and honestly it's probably best not to get too hung up on the 'top' species. After all—bees need variety in their diet as much as we do, and they need to eat throughout the year. So here's a list of plants that my bees seem to like. It's by no means exhaustive, so feel free to add your own in the comments:
Honey Bee Friendly Garden Plants

* Rosemary
* Sage
* Mint
* Chives
* Oregano
* Marjoram
* Lavender
* Bee Balm
* Zinnia
* Sunflower
* Fennel
* Lamb's Ears

THE LAST BEEKEEPER - GREEN PLANET TV

2010-05-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

Meet Fenton Bailey, Producer of The Last Beekeeper

Rachel Cernansky

By Rachel Cernansky | Wed Sep 9, 2009 11:20

Fenton Bailey

Valerie Macon/WireImage/Getty Images

READ MORE ABOUT:
Animals | Endangered Species | Farmers Market | Honey | Insects

I recently had a chance to talk with Fenton Bailey, producer of The Last Beekeeper

The Last Beekeeper considers colony collapse disorder and follows the pilgrimage of the bees and beekeepers to the largest beekeeping event of the year--the mass pollination of California's almonds. Here's what the film's producer had to say about the documentary and the process of making it.

Planet Green: What surprised you the most while working on the film?
Fenton Bailey: What was surprising was just how connected one felt with the bees--because they are just insects, but like the beekeepers, it's amazing how quickly you sort of form this bond with them. You didn't expect that to happen.

They're very complicated creatures. They live in these socialized environments, and they have incredible communication systems, they look after each other. It's kind of breathtaking to see, and especially heartbreaking to see a bee that is sick or disoriented or dying.

PG: How did you get started working on a film about this issue?
FB: Stories started surfacing in the newspaper a few years ago about this massive die-off and I think it lept out at me because it was right around the time of An Inconvenient Truth: a lot of grassroots activity trying to get people more conscious about the planet and here amongst all that going on, was this singular story. And scientists are trying to figure out why the bees are dying, and to me, it was less about figuring out the problem and solving it, than it was about I suppose the poetry of the point we have come to as a society, and the kind of brilliance of our technology-based and consumer-based society.

We all lead aspirational and convenient lives on the one hand, but on the other hand, have all these less identified disadvantages and it felt that all that came together in the story of the bees. As we researched it, that became clearer to me, because there wasn't a single cause that could be solved with a single technological fix. It was an accumulation of problems. The bees are getting sick from multiple stresses placed upon them.

In a way, the problem is the life we make them lead and that was fascinating to me: a metaphor for where we are as a society, and actually the same kind of sickness that's affecting the bees is weirdly affecting us as humans--we are ridiculously stressed out, we are semi-poisoned by the food we eat, we aren't getting enough sleep, we are working too hard. In our drive to succeed, in our drive to compete, in our drive to accumulate, we are leading a life that's slightly out of balance. So it felt a very powerful illustration of something that's fundamentally wrong.

PG: Does that message come across in the film?
FB: World of Wonder is not a company known for its activist film-making. We say here's something that fascinates us, or here's a problem or a situation. So maybe people get that message from it, maybe they don't. I think it's hard to watch the film and not come away feeling a profound connection with the bees. And I think if that's all the film achieves, then it's succeeded beyond my wildest dreams, because that sense of who we are in relation to the world around us is very important, and I think a lack of that connection is still a huge problem.

PG: What can people do to help the bees?
FB: What you can do about it, if you want, is go and get a hive and stick it at the bottom of your garden--it's a bit like keeping a pet. The beekeepers that we met, they care passionately about their bees, they're not just some sort of industrial widget that they keep in boxes that make honey. They really love their bees and have this incredible connection.

It's funny to see a grown man, a tough, hardened grown man cry about his bees. It's very unexpected, and I don't think you need to take up the political cause necessarily, I think it's just incredibly fun to keep bees because they're incredibly rewarding things to keep, in the same way that people find having a dog very sustaining.

What's been very exciting to see is people taking up beekeeping and taking up the cause of the bees and trying to do something with the bees in a sort of grassroots way.

PG: That tough, hardened man you mentioned--what had gotten him so upset?
FB: His hives had just disappeared. He's a beekeeper so he makes his living and supports his wife and his kids from beekeeping, so you go out and look at your hives and 80 percent of them have disappeared, that's like a big oh-shit moment. And on the one hand, he can't put bread on his table, but on the other hand, in fact it's a tragedy--just as if anything you love and care about, if you woke up one morning and it was gone, you would have a huge sense of loss.

PG: The hives disappear that suddenly?
FB: It happens that suddenly, yeah. One minute they're there, and the next minute they're gone. It's the rapture of bees.

PG: What is the human role in the problem?
FB: The plight of the bees is entirely one created by humans, in that bees used to live in trees and they made their own hives and they flew around and it was great for them, they were happy about it. But a couple things have happened, we've basically industrialized bees and a number of pollinations, a number of fruits, like seedless fruits, you don't want bees cross-pollinating, you don't want bees just flying around, you want to control the pollination. Also, instead of just sitting around in their fields (and normally they hibernate during winter), what happens is they get put on the back of trucks, they get driven all over the country, then they get woken up and made to pollinate a whole bunch of almonds, then they get put back in their hives, put back on the truck, driven across country and made to pollinate a whole bunch of blueberries--rather than just being free, trying to fly around, do their thing, eat a bit of this, eat a bit of that, have a healthy mixed, balanced diet, have a bit of a rest. It's just like humans.

More on The Last Beekeeper and Beekeeping:
Meet Jeremy Simmons, Director of The Last Beekeeper
Green Your Yard, Part 2: Rethinking the Backyard
Save the Bees! Grow Garden Plants Honey Bees Love
Blogger Writes About Bee Colony Collapse Disorder in his Backyard

Monday, March 16, 2009 Vancouver Island Quarantine

2010-05-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

Capital Region Beekeepers Association

Representing beekeepers in the Greater Victoria area, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Vancouver Island Quarantine
If you want to start beekeeping on Vancouver Island or the Gulf Islands please remember that there is a quarantine on importing bees and used beekeeping equipment onto the Islands.

This is really, really important.

The Mainland has a number of diseases and pests that do not exist here. Even more importantly, they have some of the same things (varroa mite, for example) but in resistant forms. That is, the mites, the diseases are developing resistance to the treatments that are available. Those things are not resistant on the Island.

The key problems we have keeping bees are the direct result of someone breaking the quarantine. Take varroa as the example again. It arrived in the late 90s and has absolutely wreaked havoc. At a minimum, it has forced most beekeepers to medicate hives with products that cost money and that we have to manage carefully to keep out of the human food supply.

There are 10,000 bee colonies on the Island. Pretty much every one of them needs Apistan treatment and fumigillan, spring and summer. The Apistan alone must total over $120,000 annually. Because someone ignored the quarantine.

Stan Reist, the president of BCHPA, was at our club meeting on Wednesday last. He announced that three packages of bees from New Zealand had been burned in Vancouver that afternoon by the Ministry of Agriculture.

In addition, there is a beeyard on the Island which has stock imported last year from the Interior. Apparently, it was brought here by someone who got bees and used equipment, unaware that it was not safe and not legal. The beeyard is being monitored for European Foulbrood and will likely be destroyed as soon as it is established whether the bees are infected or not. Folks, this is really serious. We REALLY DON'T NEED ANY MORE DISEASES brought to the Island. And it is up to you.

There are good breeders on the Island. There are people who can safely and legally import queens. Buy from them.

The stock we have on the Island is well adapted to life here and they are a well of genetic diversity that we should be striving to maintain.

If you are looking for bees, only obtain them from here!
Posted by Heather and Dan at 9:43 PM
Labels: beekeeping

COULD HEMP HELP SAVE THE BEE

2010-05-20T06:59:00.000-07:00

20MINUTE ONLINE

Hemp as an assistance against bee dying? The substantial bee dying can be prevented by hemp, states the Swiss Association of Hemp Friends. Experts are sceptical -

Hemp makes bees HEALTHY - THE SWISS ASSOCIATION OF HEMP FRIENDS (VSHF) was established in 2009 in east Switzerland. It placed 24 honey bee colonies at Hanffeldern / fed them hemp syrup. The effect of the industrial hemp convinced VSHF board member Peter Brunner completely: Only 10% instead of up to 50% of the hemp bees died in the following winters, because the hemp works like an antibiotic.

The VSHF is convinced that owing to hemp much less bees would die. That hemp can help against the bee dying, Richard Wyss does not exclude this thought from the association German Swiss and Rätoromani bee friends. It is however sceptical. Bee researcher Jean Daniel Charrière of the research institute Agroscope Liebefeld Posieux. “A respectable, scientific proof that hemp helps against the bee dying, is still missing.” Agroscope will continue testing against the Varroa mite - and examine the effects of Hanföl.

20MINUTE EN LIGNE Chanvre comme aide contre la mort d'abeille ? La mort substantielle d'abeille peut être empêchée par le chanvre, énonce l'association suisse des amis de chanvre. Les experts sont sceptiques - Le chanvre rend des abeilles SAINES - L'ASSOCIATION SUISSE DES AMIS de CHANVRE (VSHF) a été établie en 2009 en Suisse est. Elle a placé 24 colonies d'abeille de miel chez Hanffeldern/leur a alimenté le sirop de chanvre. L'effet du chanvre industriel a convaincu le membre du conseil de VSHF Peter Brunner complètement : Seulement 10% au lieu jusqu'à de 50% des abeilles de chanvre est mort en hivers suivants, parce que le chanvre fonctionne comme un antibiotique. Le VSHF est convaincu que dû au chanvre beaucoup moins d'abeilles mourraient. Que le chanvre peut aider contre l'abeille mourant, Richard Wyss n'exclut pas cette pensée des amis d'association de Suisse allemand et de Rätoromani d'abeille. Il est cependant sceptique. Chercheur Jean Daniel Charrière d'abeille de l'institut de recherche Agroscope Liebefeld Posieux. « Une preuve respectable et scientifique que le chanvre aide contre l'abeille mourant, manque toujours. » Agroscope continuera d'examiner contre les acarides de Varroa - et examinera les effets de Hanföl.

French Beekeepers Warn of Losses Because of New Bayer Pesticide

2010-05-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

BusinessWeek Logo
Monday May 17, 2010/

Bloomberg
French Beekeepers Warn of Losses Because of New Bayer Pesticide
February 17, 2010, 1:22 PM EST
More From Businessweek
By Rudy Ruitenberg

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- France’s beekeepers union forecast “massive” losses of bees this spring as the country’s farmers apply Bayer CropScience AG’s insecticide Proteus for the first time after the product received French approval last year.

“We’re very concerned,” said Sophie Dugue, a professional beekeeper and a member of the National Union of French Apiculture, or UNAF, at a press conference in Paris today. “We’ll see massive poisoning starting this spring.”

France is the world’s third-largest market for crop- protection products after the U.S. and Brazil, with a value of 1.9 billion euros ($2.6 billion) in 2008, according to data from Bayer. The country approved Proteus in September.

Dugue said beekeepers are worried because the Bayer insecticide will be sprayed on rapeseed, whose yellow flowers attract bees, while other insecticides with similar chemicals have been used to coat seeds. France is the European Union’s second-biggest producer of the oilseed crop after Germany.

“We’re aware of the concern of the beekeepers,” said Gilles Delanoe, a spokesman for Bayer CropScience in France. “If the product is applied according to the instructions, using good practices, it doesn’t present a risk for the bees.”

Proteus accounts for less than 1 percent of Bayer CropScience’s sales in France, according to Delanoe.

France had about 1.25 million beehives in 2008, about half of them owned by professional beekeepers, and the economic value of bees’ role as pollinators in France is about 2 billion euros, UNAF said in documents handed out at the meeting.

Fighting Insects

Proteus is used to fight a “broad spectrum” of sucking and chewing insects and has been registered in more than 50 countries including the U.S. and Brazil, according to Bayer CropScience’s Web site.

The pesticide combines the ingredients deltamethrin and thiacloprid, a systemic neurotoxin in a chemical class called neonicotinoids that also include the active ingredients of Bayer’s Gaucho and Syngenta AG’s Cruiser insecticides.

“The problem with Proteus is the mix of products,” Henri Clement, the president of UNAF, told reporters. “Beekeepers have every reason to be worried about the approval of this product.”

According to the UNAF, Italy has banned all neonicotinoids dangerous to bees.

Cruiser’s active ingredient thiamethoxam doesn’t pose a risk to foraging bees or the survival of colonies when used according to label instructions, Syngenta spokesman Médard Schoenmaeckers said in an e-mailed comment.

“Syngenta supports thorough research on the causes of bee health problems,” Schoenmaeckers said. It monitors farmers “to ensure the safe use of thiametoxam by growers,” he said.

Health Problems

Bayer’s Gaucho causes health problems to bees despite a French ban on using the pesticide on corn and sunflowers, according to UNAF. Beekeepers are finding bees are poisoned by feeding on sunflowers and cover crops planted following a Gaucho-treated crop such as wheat, UNAF said.

“We need new substances that respond to the needs of farmers so they don’t have harvest losses,” Delanoe said. Bayer works “closely” with beekeepers in Germany and the U.K., “we regret that’s not the case for France,” he said.

--Editors: M. Shankar, Dan Weeks.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stuart Wallace at swallace6@bloomberg.net

2010-05-01T15:34:00.000-07:00

California's Man-Made Drought

By MONICA SHOWALTER Posted 04/28/2010 05:39 PM ET
as seen on: INVESTORS.COM

Along California's Highway 5, which cuts through the Central Valley, an orchard near Fresno lies dead for lack of water. A federal judge's order in COALINGA, Calif. — Would France rip out its storied vineyards? Would Juan Valdez scorch Colombia's coffee crop? Sri Lanka its black pepper harvest? China its tea?

COALINGA, Calif. — Would France rip out its storied vineyards? Would Juan Valdez scorch Colombia's coffee crop? Sri Lanka its black pepper harvest? China its tea?

With global markets won by nations specializing in doing what they do best, and with regional reputations important enough to drive some nations to protectionism, it's almost unthinkable.

But then there's California.

On a springtime drive through the Central Valley, it's hard not to notice how federal and state governments are hell-bent on destroying the state's top export — almonds — and everything else in the nation's most productive farmland.

Instead of pink blossoms and green shoots along Highway 5 in April, vast spans from Bakersfield to Fresno sit bone-dry. Brown grass, dead orchards and lifeless grapevine skeletons stretch for miles for lack of water. For every fallow field, there's a sign that farmers have placed alongside the highway: "No Water = No Food," "No Water = No Jobs," "Congress Created Dust Bowl."

Locals say it's been like this for two years now, as Congress and bureaucrats cite "drought," "global warming" and "endangered species" to deny water to this $37 billion breadbasket through arbitrary "environmental" quotas.

It started with a 2008 federal court order that stopped water flowing from northern tributaries on a supposed need to protect a small fish — the delta smelt — that was getting ground up in the turbines of pump stations that divert the water south. The court knew it was bad law, but Congress refused to exempt the fish from the Endangered Species Act and the diversion didn't help the fish.

After that, the water cutoff was blamed on "drought," though northern reservoirs are currently full. Now the cry is "save the salmon," a reference to water needs of the state's northern fisheries.

Whatever the excuse, 75% of the fresh water that has historically irrigated California is now being washed to the open sea. For farmers in the southwest part of the valley, last year's cutoff amounted to 90%.

"It's pretty hard to keep crops alive at 10%," says Jim Jasper, who runs a 62-year-old almond farm in Newman that employs 170. "That's one irrigation, and trees take 10 to 12 over the growing season from March to October." Almond trees cost $8,000 per acre and take six years to start producing, so farmers reserved their 10% allocation for mature trees first.

The cutoff didn't kill just trees, however. It also devastated the area's economy. Unemployment in some valley towns has shot up to 45%. Mortgage defaults are on the rise, and food lines are lengthening.

The FRANKLIN BUMBLEBEE- extinct?

2010-04-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

An article by Kathy Keatley Garvey of www.CaliforniaFarmer.com/ March 2010

The article deals with the sightings of the imperiled Franklin bumblebee, so aptly names after Henry J. Franklin in 1921, who monographed the bumblebees of North America and South America in 1912-1913. UC DAVIS researcher Robbin Thorp reported he sighted 100 Franklin bumblebees in 1998. "The last time I saw it was in August 2006 at Mount Ashland, when I spotted a single, solitary worker." The Franklin bumblebee is a distinctive black faced insect splashed with yellow marking on its thorax and top of its head. "It has a solid black abdomen and a black inverted U-shaped design on its yellow thorax." Thorp thinks the bumblebee may be extinct and that other bumblebees are at risk of extinction.(entomology.ucdavis.edu/news/webcastlinks.html).

The decline, disappearance and possible demise of the Franklin bumblebee is closely linked to the widespread decline of native North American pollinators -"The loss of a native pollinator could strike a devastating blow to the ecosystem, economy and food supply. One of the main reasons that the Franklin bumblebee is at risk is because it has such a small geographical range. It has the most restricted distribution range of any bumblebee in North America - and possibly of the world. Its range is about 190 miles north to south and 70 miles east to west, in a narrow stretch between southern Oregon and northern California, between the coast and Sierra-Cascade ranges."

It is not just the Franklin bumblebee that is at risk but populations of the Western bumblebee/Bombus occidentalis and two close relatives in the East - the rusty patched bumblebee/Bombus affinis, and the yellow banded bumblebee/Bombus terricola, are rapidly dwindling as well.

Bumblebees commercially reared to pollinate greenhouse tomatoes, peppers and strawberries pollinate 15% of our food crops - valued at $3B. Wildlife, birds, elk, deer, bears etc.. depend on pollination of fruits, nuts, and berries for their survival. "We're disturbing, destroying and altering the habitat where the native pollinators exist." Thorp says.

NEW YORK CITY vs. CALIFORNIA

2010-03-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

Well - New Yorkers have once again shown they are more AWARE and 'in touch' with nature than Californias - yes indeed!!!!

New York City LEGALIZED bee keeping IN the city.... a win/win situation
leaving California once again behind the times. shame on us.....

FIRST ALL AMERICAN HONEY BEE

2010-03-17T22:07:00.000-07:00

SCIENCE NEWS/ August 15th, 2009; Vol.176 #4 /
Fossil shows first all-American honeybee

North America once had its own Apis species instead of today’s imports
By Susan Milius
August 15th, 2009; Vol.176 #4 (p. 13)

A 14-million-year-old fossil from Nevada shows the somewhat jumbled parts of a honeybee, recognizable by its distinctive pattern of wing veins (arrow) and other features shared by modern relatives.M. S. Engel/Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci.

North America did too have a native honeybee.

A roughly 14-million-year-old fossil unearthed in Nevada preserves what’s clearly a member of the honeybee, or Apis, genus, says Michael Engel of the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

The Americas have plenty of other kinds of bees, but all previously known honeybees come from Asia and Europe. Even the Apis mellifera honeybee that has pollinated crops and made honey across the Americas for several centuries arrived with European colonists some 400 years ago.

“This rewrites the history of honeybee evolution,” Engel says, turning over the long-held view of Europe and Asia as the native land of all honeybees.

The newly discovered bee, found squashed and preserved in shale, no longer exists as a living species, Engel says. To a specialist’s eye, it looks closest to another extinct honeybee, A. armbrusteri, known from Germany.

Engel and his colleagues christen the new North American honeybee Apis nearctica in the current, May 7, issue of Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences.

“It is indeed a big find,” says David Grimaldi of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. “Completely unexpected,” he says, considering all of the Eurasian fossils.

Grimaldi now compares the bees with horses. North America once had its own species, but the horses disappeared and Europeans eventually introduced theirs.

Engel says he wasn’t expecting to rewrite the continent’s history when he first heard the California Academy’s Wojciech Pulawski describe some unidentified fossils from west-central Nevada. But when Engel first saw a photo of what Pulawski had led him to believe was an unpromising mess, he says, “I did a double take.”

Engel spotted a definitive pattern in a wing that just buzzes honeybee. At the top of the wing, a vein thickens toward the middle, and veins below trace three characteristic shapes, including a (sort of) horse’s head and a falling-sideways blob.

The bee had come apart, but Engel revels in the honeybee traits he can see. “This thing had hairy eyes,” he says. Barbs on the stinger show up too. This bee probably had to leave its stinger behind at the cost of a fatal rip in its body, just as today’s honeybees do.

Apis nearctica’s honeybee ancestors may have made their way over a land bridge from Asia to traverse this great distance, Engel postulates as he reimagines the old view of honeybees. “I got to overturn some of my own stuff,” he says.

And Humans think they have it bad!

2010-03-03T15:20:00.000-08:00

Pests and parasites

Small hive beetle
Comb slimed by hive beetle larvae. Hives infested at this level will drive out bee colonies.

Aethina tumida is a small, dark-colored beetle that lives in beehives.

Originally from Africa, the first discovery of small hive beetles in the western hemisphere occurred in the US. The first identified specimen was found in St. Lucie, FL in 1998. The earliest specimens confirmed since then were collected from Charleston, SC in 1996. By December 1999, small hive beetle was reported in Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin, and was found in California by 2006.

The life cycle of this beetle includes pupation in the ground outside of the hive. Controls to prevent ants from climbing into the hive are believed to also be effective against the hive beetle. Several beekeepers are experimenting with the use of diatomaceous earth around the hive as a way to disrupt the beetle's lifecycle. The diatoms abrade the insect's surface, causing them to dehydrate and die.

Several pesticides are currently used against the small hive beetle. The chemical is commonly applied inside the corrugations of a piece of cardboard. Standard corrugations are large enough that a small hive beetle will enter the cardboard through the end but small enough that honey bees can not enter (and thus are kept away from the pesticide). Alternative controls (such as cooking-oil-based bottom board traps) are also becoming available. Also available are beetle eaters that go between the frames that uses cooking oil.

*****************

Wax moths
Wax moth (Aphomia sociella) - more often associated with bumble bees (Bombus sp.)
Main article: Waxworm

Galleria mellonella (greater wax moths) will not attack the bees directly, but feed on the wax used by the bees to build their honeycomb. Their full development to adults requires access to used brood comb or brood cell cleanings — these contain protein essential for the larvae's development, in the form of brood coocoons.

The destruction of the comb will spill or contaminate stored honey and may kill bee larvae.

When honey supers are stored for the winter in a mild climate, or in heated storage, the wax moth larvae can destroy portions of the comb, even though they will not fully develop. Damaged comb may be scraped out and will be replaced by the bees. Wax moth larvae and eggs are killed by freezing, so storage in unheated sheds or barns in higher latitudes is the only control necessary.

Because wax moths cannot survive a cold winter, they are usually not a problem for beekeepers in the northern U.S. or Canada, unless they survive winter in heated storage, or are brought from the south by purchase or migration of beekeepers. They thrive and spread most rapidly with temperatures above 30°C (90°F), so some areas with only occasional days that hot, rarely have a problem with wax moths, unless the colony is already weak due to stress from other factors.

Control and Treatment:
A strong hive generally needs no treatment to control wax moths; the bees themselves will kill and clean out the moth larvae and webs. Wax moth larvae may fully develop in cell cleanings when such cleanings accumulate thickly where they are not accessible to the bees.

Wax moth development in comb is generally not a problem with top bar hives as unused combs are usually left in the hive during the winter. Since this type of hive is not used in severe wintering conditions, the bees will be able to patrol and inspect the unused comb.

Wax moths can be controlled in stored comb by application of the aizawai variety of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) spores via spraying. It is a very effective biological control and has an excellent safety record[citation needed].

Wax moths can be controlled chemically with paradichlorobenzene (moth crystals or urinal disks). If chemical methods are used, the combs must be well-aired-out for several days before use. The use of naphthalene (mothballs) is discouraged because it accumulates in the wax, which can kill bees or contaminate honey stores. Control of wax moths by other means includes the freezing of the comb for at least twenty-four hours.

******************

American foulbrood (AFB)
Field test for American Foulbrood

American Foul Brood (AFB), caused by the spore- forming Paenibacillus larvae ssp. larvae (formerly classified as Bacillus larvae), is the most widespread and destructive of the bee brood diseases. Paenibacillus larvae is a rod-shaped bacterium, which is visible only under a high power microscope. Larvae up to 3 days old become infected by ingesting spores that are present in their food. Young larvae less than 24 hours old are most susceptible to infection. Spores germinate in the gut of the larva and the vegetative form of the bacteria begins to grow, taking its nourishment from the larva. Spores will not germinate in larvae over 3 days old. Infected larvae normally die after their cell is sealed. The vegetative form of the bacterium will die but not before it produces many millions of spores. Each dead larva may contain as many as 100 million spores. This disease only affects the bee larvae but is highly infectious and deadly to bee brood. Infected larvae darken and die.

History:

Until 1906 the two foulbrood diseases were not differentiated and the condition was generally referred to as foulbrood. Phillips (1906) used the terms European and American to distinguish the diseases. However the designations did not refer to the geographical distributions but to the areas where they were first investigated scientifically (Shimanuki, 1990). White (1907) demonstrated conclusively that a bacterium that he called Bacillus larvae was the cause of American Foulbrood (AFB) disease by fulfilling Koch's postulates. The geographical origin of AFB is unknown, but it is found almost worldwide (Matheson, 1993,1996)
[edit] Diagnosis

Lab testing is necessary for definitive diagnosis, but a good field test is to touch a dead larva with a toothpick or twig. It will be sticky and "ropey" (drawn out). Foulbrood also has a characteristic odor, and experienced beekeepers with a good sense of smell can often detect the disease upon opening a hive. In the photo at right, some larvae are healthy while others are diseased. Capped cells with decomposing larvae are sunken, as can be seen at lower right. Some caps may be torn, as well. Compare with healthy brood. The most reliable disease diagnosis is done by sending in some possibly affected brood comb to a laboratory specialized in identifying honey bee diseases.

Disease spread:

When cleaning infected cells, bees distribute spores throughout the entire colony. Disease spreads rapidly throughout the hive as the bees, attempting to remove the spore-laden dead larvae, contaminate brood food. Nectar stored in contaminated cells will contain spores and soon the brood chamber becomes filled with contaminated honey. As this honey is moved up into the supers, the entire hive becomes contaminated with spores. When the colony becomes weak from AFB infection, robber bees may enter and take contaminated honey back to their hives thereby spreading the disease to other colonies and apiaries. Beekeepers also may spread disease by moving equipment (frames or supers) from contaminated hives to healthy ones.

American Foul Brood spores are extremely resistant to desiccation and can remain viable for more than 40 years in honey and beekeeping equipment. Therefore honey from an unknown source should never be used as bee feed, and used beekeeping equipment

Treatment:
Hive to be burned completely

AFB spores are present in virtually every hive. Some brood in weakened colonies can become diseased. If the diseased larva dies within the hive, millions of spores are released.

Antibiotics, in non-resistant strains of the pathogen, can prevent the vegetative state of the bacterium forming. Drug treatment to prevent the American foulbrood spores from successfully germinating and proliferating is possible using oxytetracycline hydrochloride (Terramycin).[12] Another drug treatment is tylosin tartrate that was US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved in 2005.

Chemical treatment is sometimes used prophylactically, but this is a source of considerable controversy because certain strains of the bacterium seem to be rapidly developing resistance. In addition, hives that are contaminated with millions of American foulbrood spores have to be prophylactically treated indefinitely. Once the treatment is suspended the American foulbrood spores germinate successfully again leading to a disease outbreak.

Because of the persistence of the spores (which can survive up to 40 years), many State Apiary Inspectors require an AFB diseased hive to be burned completely. A less radical method of containing the spread of disease is burning the frames and comb and thoroughly flame scorching the interior of the hive body, bottom board and covers. Dipping the hive parts in hot paraffin wax or a 3% sodium hypochlorite solution (bleach) also renders the AFB spores innocuous.

*******************

European foulbrood (EFB)

Melissococcus plutonius is a bacterium that infests the mid-gut of an infected bee larva. European foulbrood is less deadly to a colony than American foulbrood. Melissococcus plutonius does not form spores, though it can overwinter on comb. Symptoms include dead and dying larvae which can appear curled upwards, brown or yellow, melted or deflated with tracheal tubes more apparent, and/or dried out and rubbery..

European foulbrood is often considered a "stress" disease - a disease that is dangerous only if the colony is already under stress for other reasons. An otherwise healthy colony can usually survive European foulbrood. An outbreak of the disease may be controlled chemically with oxytetracycline hydrochloride, but honey from treated colonies could have chemical residues from the treatment. The 'Shook Swarm' technique of bee husbandry can also be used to effectively control the disease, the advantage being that chemicals are not used. Prophylactic treatments are not recommended as they lead to resistant bacteria.

***************

Fungal diseases
Chalkbrood

Ascosphaera apis is a fungal disease that infests the gut of the larva. The fungus will compete with the larva for food, ultimately causing it to starve. The fungus will then go on to consume the rest of the larva's body, causing it to appear white and 'chalky'.

Chalkbrood is most commonly visible during wet springs. Hives with Chalkbrood can generally be recovered by increasing the ventilation through the hive and/or by requeening the hive.
[edit] Stonebrood

Stonebrood is a fungal disease caused by Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus niger. It causes mummification of the brood of a honey bee colony. The fungi are common soil inhabitants and are also pathogenic to other insects, birds and mammals. The disease is difficult to identify in the early stages of infection. The spores of the different species have different colours and can also cause respiratory damage to humans and other animals. When a bee larva takes in spores they may hatch in the gut, growing rapidly to form a collarlike ring near the head. After death the larvae turn black and become difficult to crush, hence the name stonebrood. Eventually the fungus erupts from the integument of the larva and forms a false skin. In this stage the larvae are covered with powdery fungal spores. Worker bees clean out the infected brood and the hive may recover depending on factors such as the strength of the colony, the level of infection, and hygienic habits of the strain of bees (there is variation in the trait among different subspecies/races).
Wiki letter w.svg This section requires expansion.

******************

Viral diseases
Acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV) or (APV)

ABPV (TaxID 92444) is considered to be a common infective agent of bees. It belongs to the family Dicistroviridae,[2] as does the Israel acute paralysis virus, Kashmir bee virus, and the Black queen cell virus. It is frequently detected in apparently healthy colonies. Apparently, this virus plays a role in cases of sudden collapse of honey bee colonies infested with the parasitic mite Varroa destructor.
[edit] Israel acute paralysis virus (IAPV)

A related virus described in 2004 is known as the "Israel acute paralysis virus" (TaxID 294365); The virus is named after the place where it was first idenitified - its place of origin is unknown. IAPV[4] has been suggested in September 2007 as a marker associated with Colony Collapse Disorder.
[edit] Kashmir bee virus (KBV)

This is another Dicistroviridae, related to the preceding viruses. Recently discovered, KBV (TaxID 68876) is currently only positively identifiable by a laboratory test. Little is known about it yet.
Wiki letter w.svg This section requires expansion.

*********************

Black Queen Cell Virus (BQCV)

This is another Dicistroviridae, related to the preceding viruses. As its name implies, BQCV (TaxID 92395) causes the queen larva to turn black and die. It is thought to be associated with Nosema.
Wiki letter w.svg This section requires expansion.

********************

Chronic Paralysis Virus [CPV]
Cloudy Wing Virus (CWV)

Deformed Wing Virus (DWV)
Main article: Deformed Wing Virus

As indicated by the name, this virus produces deformed wings. Typically associated with Varroa destructor, it has been suggested as a contributing factor to Colony Collapse Disorder.[23] This deformity can clearly be seen on the honeybee on its wings. As a rsult of deformed wing virus bees are unable to leave the hive and forage for pollen and necture. Eventually resulting in a colony possibly starving to death
[edit] Sacbrood virus (SBV)

Morator aetatulas is the virus that causes sacbrood disease. Affected larvae change from pearly white to gray and finally black. Death occurs when the larvae are upright, just before pupation. Consequently, affected larvae are usually found in capped cells. Head development of diseased larvae is typically retarded. The head region is usually darker than the rest of the body and may lean toward the center of the cell. When affected larvae are carefully removed from their cells, they appear to be a sac filled with water. Typically the scales are brittle but easy to remove. Sacbrood-diseased larvae have no characteristic odor.
[edit] Kakugo virus (KV)

****************

Chilled brood

Chilled brood is not actually a disease but can be caused by a pesticide hit that primarily kills off the adult population, or by a sudden drop in temperature during rapid spring buildup. The brood must be kept warm at all times; nurse bees will cluster over the brood to keep it at the right temperature. When a beekeeper opens the hive (to inspect, remove honey, check the queen, or just to look) and prevents the nurse bees from clustering on the frame for too long, the brood can become chilled, deforming or even killing some of the bees.

To minimize the risk of chilled brood, open the hive on warm days and at the hottest part of the day (this is also the time when the most field bees will be out foraging and the number of bees in the hive will be at its lowest). Learn to inspect your hive as quickly as possible and put frames with brood back where the bees can cluster on it immediately.

Dysentery in Honeybees

2010-03-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Nosema apis is a parasitic Microsporan organism that can cause Nosema disease and dysentery in honeybees. The group Microspora are unicellular and spore-forming in nature. They are not visible with the naked eye; microscopic examination is necessary.
Infection

All adult bee castes can be infected by Nosema disease with serious consequences for the colony. Nosema apis spores are ingested and then germinate very quickly ( Bailey, 1955 ) invading the mid-gut and epithelial cells of the bee. Huge numbers of spores, often more than 30 million, can be found in the mid-gut during a Nosema infection (Bailey and Ball, 1991).
Colony Effects

Although infected bees do not outwardly appear any different from non-infected individuals, Nosema-infected colonies can be recognised by certain traits even before microscopic analysis and confirmation of disease:

The lifespan of infected bees can be greatly reduced and such colonies dwindle in late winter or early spring.

Nosema infection promotes over-accumulation of water in the body of adult bees leading to dysentery. Digestion and production of royal jelly in worker bees can be severely affected. Because of restriction to the hive in winter temperatures, dysenteric bees defecated within the hive, on the combs and hive walls. This is more obvious in spring when liquid faecal spots can be seen on the outside of the hive also from the first cleaning flights.
Although infected bees do not outwardly appear any different from non-infected individuals, Nosema-infected colonies can be recognised by certain traits even before microscopic analysis and confirmation of disease:

When worker bees clean the hive they become infected with spores from this faecal material. Cleaning behaviour and polishing increases rapidly during the spring season and consequently the level of Nosema infection rises sharply during this time.

Nosema infection alters the behaviour of young adult bees so that they cease brood rearing and attending the queen earlier than normal and begin foraging and hive guarding like older bees (Wang and Moeller, 1970). Honey yields can be reduced in Nosema-infected colonies due to such reduction in brood care and provision of new workers for foraging.

The life span and egg production in infected queens is much reduced and supersedure is then common.

Treatment

Good husbandry on the part of the beekeeper will help to prevent the incidence of Nosema within a colony. Damp apiary sites and lack of nutrients together with any other stress factors such as lack of space or infection with other disease can contribute to Nosema proliferation.

The fungal product fumagillin when fed to honeybee colonies suppresses the effects of Nosema apis and can be administered as a prophylactic or as a control treatment.

Nosema disease, an obscure killer

2010-03-03T15:07:00.000-08:00

Diseases and Pests | Beekeeping Information Index
Mid-Atlantic Apiculture
Nosema
(From Fundamentals of Beekeeping)

Nosema disease, an obscure killer, is caused by a spore-forming protozoan (Nosema apis) that invades the digestive tracts of honey bee workers, queens, and drones. Spores of the disease are ingested with food or water by the adult bee. The spores germinate and multiply within the lining of the midgut. Millions of spores are shed into the digestive tract and eliminated in the feces. Damage to the digestive tract may produce dysentery and weaken the bees. As a result, the productive life of the worker is shortened and its ability to produce brood food decreases, thus retarding brood production and colony development. When queens become infected, egg production and life span are reduced, leading to supersedure. Infected workers, unlike healthy workers, may defecate in the hive. Diseased colonies usually have increased winter losses and decreased honey production. The loss of queens in colonies just started from package bees is the most serious effect of the disease.

Even though nosema is a common disease of bees, it generally goes unnoticed in the apiary, since it does not produce signs or symptoms that are easily recognized under field conditions. In fact, the presence of the disease is not usually realized until most of the bees in the colony are infected. The only positive way of identifying the disease is through dissection of adult bees. The hind gut and digestive tract of diseased bees are chalky white or milky white. Healthy bees, on the other hand, have amber or translucent digestive tracts. In addition, individual circular constrictions of a healthy bee's gut are visible, whereas the gut of an infected bee may be swollen and the constrictions not clearly visible. Infection is best detected by the microscopic examination of macerated abdominal tissue for the presence of spores.

Nosema disease is most prevalent in the spring. Severity of infection varies among colonies, geographic regions, and from year to year. In over-wintered colonies, confined infected bees may defecate on the combs and infect healthy bees as they clean the combs in the spring. Food stores and soiled shipping cages are other sources of infection. Spores are spread by infected package bees, splits, and contaminated equipment. Combs from weakened colonies that died during the winter often have nosema-contaminated feces. Installation of packages or divisions on this equipment in the spring hampers colony development and often results in queenlessness.

Queens may become infected from various sources after they emerge from the queen cell or are released in the mating nucleus. When the disease is severe, colony populations may become depleted and eventually dwindle to a handful of bees and a queen. This is often referred to as "spring dwindling." In colonies that are only mildly affected, brood rearing eventually allows the colony to recover.

Colony confinement during winter or inclement weather in the spring encourages disease buildup. Winter cleansing flights enable bees to defecate outside, thus preventing spore contamination within the cluster. Nosema-sick bees often fly from the hive at marginal flight temperatures, probably because they are under stress. Since they are weak, they drop to the snow, become chilled, and are unable to return to the colony. Sick bees are thereby eliminated from the colony. The intensity of infection usually subsides in April as field flights begin and brood emergence accelerates.

Brood emergence, the colony's primary natural defense against nosema, replaces infected bees with young healthy bees. If nosema is already present, any break in the brood rearing cycle will likely increase the incidence of the disease, especially in early spring. Newly hived package bees are very susceptible to nosema. During the first three weeks following installation, when the colony has no emerging young bees, the disease spreads rapidly through the old adult population and to the queen.

The best defense against nosema is to winter only strong colonies with plenty of honey in the proper position and with young vigorous queens. Many different chemicals have been tested for control of the disease but only Fumidil-B® or Nosem-X™ (Fumagillin) have proven effective. Fumagillin is especially effective in suppressing nosema in overwintered colonies and newly established packages. Since Fumagillin does not affect spores of the nosema parasite, treatment with this drug will not completely eliminate the disease from the colony. The infection will continue after all the medicated syrup has been consumed.

For optimal nosema control in overwintered colonies, initial infection levels should be reduced in early winter. In late fall, when brood rearing normally declines, colonies should be fed about 1 gallon of heavy sugar syrup (two parts sugar, one part water) containing Fumagillin. The syrup should be stored where the last brood emerges and used as the colony's first winter feed. This procedure delays the initial buildup of any infection from winter confinement, which keeps the disease from reaching the high levels seen in un protected colonies. Colonies should receive a minimum of 1 gallon of medicated syrup containing 75 to 100 milligrams of Fumagillin (1 1/2 level teaspoons of Fumidil-B or 1 heaping teaspoon Nosem-X per gallon of syrup) in the fall. Packages newly installed in the spring should receive similar treatment. Fumagillin treatments are most effec tive when fed with sugar syrup. Research has shown Fumagillin's effectiveness is limited when fed with powdered sugar, extender patties, candy, or pollen supplements.

CAUTION: No medication should be fed to colonies when there is danger of contaminating the honey crop. Be sure to stop all drug feeding at least four weeks before the onset of the main surplus honey flow.

A personal commentary -

2010-03-03T14:55:00.000-08:00

California Bee Keeping – is a Year Round adventure with nature – a crapshoot / expensive and frustrating, rewarding and enjoyable, hard labourious days and short nights.

The honey flow is NOT year round as many think – the honey ONLY flows IF there has been rain. One may see an abundance of flowers everywhere and think HONEY but without water there is none. RAIN = NECTAR = HONEY. It is that simple. No nectar NO HONEY>

Bee keeping techniques haven’t really changed all that much – the pests, the diseases, the travel, the expenses, and the return on the work – all that has changed. With the oncoming of the Africanized bee and the lack of understanding of the situation – the fear that caused so many ‘city fathers’ to ‘dissuade’ local bee keepers from keeping hives in backyards cut the control factor of marauding bees which could have been eradicated in part by informed bee keepers…. So instead we are inundated with this very territorial creature – one never quite knows when one’s hive has been ‘taken over’ as it were. The once backyard beekeeper without proper clothing no longer exists. Gloves, boots, suits one cannot do without here in California.

And importation issues of bringing in European bees (a milder creature) has stifled the gene pool expansion, which has diminished at an alarming rate here in the United States. Nature seems to be fighting back with the issue of sterility in males – both animal/insect and human with a rise of 18% in humans – something that is already seen in the queen bee who has to be replaced 2 and 3 times a year as she is continually superseded, or killed on sight/site or simply flies away.

The lack of education in schools of basic agriculture has created a widespread ignorance of just how important the bee is to pollination – no bee to pollinate the almond = no almond; strawberries would be white and hard…. (THE SILENCE OF THE BEE – video) ought to be a source of information for both the media and the layman as without the bee man is no long on this planet. Over population has put an impossible increase on food output, causing agriculture to change its focus to meet demand resulting in mono-crops (where once there was diversification ie. cotton, alfalfa etc there is either one or the other or none; hence nothing for the bee to live on - cotton is genetically altered and is deadly to the bee while alfalfa is slowly, though in some parts, all too quickly being replaced by switch grass, originally planted as bio fuel but replaced by corn, another genetic food deadly to bees so switch grass is now fed to cattle - there is no flower it is simply a fast growing grass with health benefit for animals still up for debate. Pesticides whether currently used or not have caused systemic damage to ground and water supply, genetically engineered product, an increase in air and noise pollution, viruses, pests, mites, transportation issues….. An endless array of living in the 21st Century.

Tracheal -- the vampire mite

2010-03-03T14:50:00.000-08:00

OARDC/The Ohio State University

Horticulture and Crop Science

1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH 44691

Controlling Tracheal Mites in the Bee Hive

HYG-2164-97

Dr. James E. Tew

Dr. Diana Sammataro, Post-doctorial Researcher

Mr. David Heilman, University Apiarist

E-mail Tew.1@osu.edu

Tracheal mites (Acarapis woodi) were first reported in the United States from Texas in 1984. By 1992, severe colony losses due to tracheal mites were recorded throughout Ohio. Tracheal mites are microscopic parasites that live in the breathing tubes of adult honey bees where they feed on bee blood. Suffering colonies have dwindling populations, do not cluster well, and often die in the winter, frequently leaving behind large amounts of honey. Infested adults may act irritated or disoriented. Weak adults may be found crawling aimlessly near the entrance of the hive. Unfortunately, tracheal mites cannot be positively identified without dissecting the bees under a microscope. Two materials, vegetable oil patties and menthol, are useful in suppressing tracheal mite populations. Eradicating mite populations is not practical. Since any material only suppresses mite populations temporarily, beekeepers should be prepared to contend with tracheal mite infestations indefinitely.

Vegetable Shortening Patties

Precautions: As a matter of principle, don't have patties, or any other medications on during a nectar flow. Always follow label instructions.

Product: Vegetable Shortening (eg. Crisco™)

Ratio: One part vegetable shortening to 2 parts white granulated sugar. Patty size should be about one-half pound (size of a hamburger).

Exposure Time: Continuous (except during nectar flow). Replace as often as needed. Most effective during spring and autumn.

Location within the colony: On broodnest top bars.

Comments and Suggestions:

Vegetable shortening appears to disrupt the life cycle of the tracheal mite, thus suppressing mite populations.
Vegetable shortening patties are considered to be more effective in controlling mites in Ohio than menthol. However, menthol is still useful.
Vegetable patties with terramycin is useful in controlling American Foulbrood. Refer to the factsheet on American Foulbrood for specific recommendations.

Menthol

Menthol is available in bulk quantities or in 1.8-ounce (50 grams) packets from most major bee suppliers. Treat only over-wintered colonies having no surplus honey intended for human consumption. Colonies should be treated in the fall or early spring when daytime temperatures are expect to be above 60°F but not over 95°F. Treatment must end one month before the first nectar flow to avoid contaminating marketable honey. Use one menthol pact per hive, on top bars in temperatures up to 80°F. Above 80°F, place the packet on the bottom board. Treat for 14 to 28 days with an entrance-reducer on the hive. Replace the menthol as needed during the treatment period.

Precautions: Treatments should not be in colony 4 weeks prior to honey flow. Allow vapors a few minutes to dissipate before working a treated colony. When stored, menthol crystals should be tightly sealed and refrigerated.

Product: Pure Menthol Crystals

Treatment: 1.8 oz (50 grams) packet of menthol crystals in a porous bag, such as a folded paper towel.

Rate: One 1.8 oz packet per average 2-story colony.

Number of Colonies per treatment: One (average 2-story colony).

Location within Colony: Above 8O°F, place crystals on bottom board, Below 8O°F, place crystals on top of frames in top supers.

Treatment Time: Spring preferably or autumn secondly

Treatment Duration: 14-28 days with entrance reduced, replace crystals as needed.

Comments and Suggestions: Menthol vaporization is temperature dependant. At temperatures above 7O°F, vaporization proceeds quickly; below 7O°F, vaporization proceeds more slowly. In essence, menthol treatments could stay on colonies anytime the temperature is high enough and there is no nectar flow in progress; however, this practice may be cost and labor prohibitive.

2010-03-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

Results of Research: Using Essential Oils for Honey Bee Mite Control

West Virginia Unniversity

Extension Service

Jim Amrine, Bob Noel, Harry Mallow, Terry Stasny, Robert Skidmore
(Last Updated: December 30, 1996)

We have found that several essential oils can either kill, or adversely affect varroa mites.

Essential Oils have Two Modes of Action:

1) Toxicity by direct contact:
When varroa mites contact essential oils such as wintergreen, patchouli, tea tree oil, et al., mixed into oil or grease, they are killed on contact--usually within a few minutes.

2) Impaired reproduction via feeding syrups containing essential oils:
When varroa mites feed on larvae that contain essential oils, their reproduction is interrupted. If the oil is strong enough, the females are unable to lay eggs. If the oils are in lower concentration, eggs are layed, but development of immature mites is delayed; young mites do not reach maturity before the bees emerge from the cell; consequently, the immature mites die.

Involvement of Essential Oils in Impaired Reproduction of Varroa Mites: Syrup containing the essential oils is fed at the hive entrance or in the broodnest. Many bees feed on the syrup and pass the essential oils around by trophalaxis (adult bees sharing their food reserves). The syrup and essential oil is ingested by nurse bees and enters the communal food in the crop and passes into the milk glands. When the nurse bees feed larvae, the essential oils are in the bee milk and communal food and are ingested by the larvae. Thus, when female varroa mites feed on treated larvae or larval food at the bottom of the cell, they ingest the essential oils which adversely affect their reproduction. The probable mechanism is interference with enzymes in the complex gestation (especially in the production of nutrients and new proteins) of the oocyte and embryo-larva of the varroa mite. Research needs to be conducted to verify this hypothesis and to verify the presence of the essential oils in bee larvae and ultimately, in the female varroa mites.

Impaired reproduction is not observed when canola oil, mineral oil, or shortening (eg., Crisco, a vegetable lard) containing essential oils are delivered to the hives. The fats and greases do not enter the food chain as readily as syrups, and the amounts of essential oils ending up in larval food or in the larvae themselves are inconsequential. Thus, there is no interruption of the development of mite eggs or of immature varroa mites. The mites that directly contact these materials rapidly die; but others are able to escape the essential oils in grease or canola oil by entering cells of mature larvae that are about to be capped, or by moving onto displaced nurse bees (see below, "Recent Findings") near the top of the colony, where the grease patties and tracking strips are not placed. We found that putting paper towels soaked in canola + essential oils in the tops of colonies from July to September, kills the varroa mites residing on the displaced nurse bees which congregate in the upper supers of large colonies.

Feeding of sugar syrup with essential oils at the entrance, or in the brood nest, places the essential oils into the food chain and prevents oviposition by female mites or retards the development of immature mites in capped larval/pupal cells.

We had several colonies that were treated with tracking strips and grease patties only, and we saw resurgence of varroa mites, especially when bee populations were at their peak, lots of brood was present, and when the bees occupied many supers as well as two brood chambers. However, we also had several colonies that were treated with the tracking strips and grease patties, and were continually fed syrup + essential oils at the entrance; in these colonies very few varroa mites were found. Those few that were found appeared to have come into the colonies on drifting bees.

2010-03-03T14:31:00.000-08:00

VARROA MITES INFESTING HONEY BEE COLONIES

by Ric Bessin, Extension Entomologist
University of Kentucky College of Agriculture

Varroa mites were first reported in Kentucky in the Bluegrass region of the Commonwealth in 1991. They have spread to and become a major pest of honey bees in many states since their introduction into Florida in the mid 1980's.

Varroa mites are external honeybee parasites that attack both the adults and the brood, with a distinct preference for drone brood. They suck the blood from both the adults and the developing brood, weakening and shortening the life span of the ones on which they feed. Emerging brood may be deformed with missing legs or wings. Untreated infestations of varroa mites that are allowed to increase will kill honeybee colonies. Losses due to these parasitic mites are often confused with causes such as winter mortality and queenlessness if the colonies are not examined for mites.

The adult female mites are reddish-brown in color, flattened, oval, and measure about 1 to 1.5 mm across. They have eight legs. They are large enough to be seen with the unaided eye on the thorax, most commonly, and on the bee's abdomen. Their flattened shape allows them to hide between the bee's abdominal segments. This mite is often confused with the bee louse, but the bee louse has only six legs, is more circular in shape, and is slightly larger.

Mites develop on the bee brood. A female mite will enter the brood cell about one day before capping and be sealed in with the larva. Eggs are laid and mite feed and develop on the maturing bee larva. By the time the adult bee emerges from the cell, several of the mites will have reached adulthood, mated, and are ready to begin searching for other bees or larvae to parasitize. There is a preference for drone brood. Inspection of the drone brood in their capped cells will often indicate whether or not a colony is infested. The dark mites are easily seen on the white pupae when the comb is broken or the pupae are pulled from their cells.

Mites spread from colony to colony by drifting workers and drones within an apiary. Honey bees can also acquire these mites when robbing smaller colonies. It is best to isolate captured swarms, package bees, and other new colonies from other colonies and examine them for mites before placing them in an apiary.

Early detection of low levels of mite infestations is key to its successful management. While they can be spotted during colony inspection if present in high numbers, this tends to only identify larger infestations. There is a product available, Apistan, that will kill the mites and cause the mites to drop from the bees. Two strips should be hung in the brood nest area of the colony for approximately 4 weeks. This is to be used with sticky paper and a fine-mesh screen on the bottom board of a colony to capture any mites that may have been present. A considerable amount of cell cappings and other debris will also collect on the sticky paper, so it is best to inspect the sticky paper carefully for mites after removal. This method is able to detect low level infestations. Apistan strips are available from most of the large beekeeping suppliers and can be used both for detection and treatment of varroa infestations.

If a colony is found to be infested, all colonies at the site should be treated for mites with Apistan strips in the same manner. These strips contain the miticide fluvalinate and are not to be used during honey flow, or when there is surplus honey present in the colony that may be removed for human consumption at a later date. Therefore, late fall, after removal of surplus honey, or early spring, prior to honey flow, are the best times to treat for varroa mites.

Always carefully follow all label instructions with regard to the storage, use and disposal of pesticides.

Revised: 10/01

CAUTION! Pesticide recommendations in this publication are registered for use in Kentucky, USA ONLY! The use of some products may not be legal in your state or country. Please check with your local county agent or regulatory official before using any pesticide mentioned in this publication.

Doing the BEE Dance

2010-03-02T19:13:00.000-08:00

Stop dancing! - (National Geographic)

Bees do their famous waggle dance when they want to tell hive mates where to find a good source of food and other resources. But what do they do when they discover that their co-workers may be buzzing off into a trap, such as a spider lurking at the food source?

They break up the waggle dance by butting their heads into the bees dancing, according to research published yesterday in the journal Current Biology.

The waggle dancer (at center with yellow and pink paint marks) is frozen when receiving a stop signal from a bee marked "S" to her left.

Photo courtesy of James Nieh

A biologist at the University of California at San Diego has discovered that honey bees warn their nest mates about dangers they encounter while feeding with a special signal that's akin to a "stop" sign for bees, the university said in a news statement.

The discovery resulted from a series of experiments on honey bees foraging for food that were attacked by competitors from nearby colonies fighting for food at an experimental feeder, the university explained. "The bees that were attacked then produced a specific signal to stop nest mates who were recruiting others for this dangerous location."

Honey bees use a waggle dance to communicate the location of food and other resources. Attacked bees directed "stop" signals at nest mates waggle dancing for the dangerous location, scientists say.

NGS stock photo by Bianca Lavies

James Nieh, an associate professor of biology at UCSD who conducted the experiments, said this peculiar signal in bee communication was known previously by scientists to reduce waggle dancing and recruitment to food, but until now no one had firmly established a "clear natural trigger" for that behavior.

"The stop sign is a brief vibrating signal made by the bee that lasts for about a tenth of a second with the bee vibrating at about 380 times a second. It is frequently delivered by a sender butting her head into a recipient, although the sender may also climb on top of the receiver," Nieh said.

Bee researchers originally called it a "begging call," because they believed the signaling bee made it to obtain a food sample from the receiver, UCSD said.

"But Nieh discovered in his experiments that one trigger for this signal---which caused the waggle dancers to stop and leave the nest---was attacks from bee competitors and simulated predators. The more dangerous the predator or competitor, he found, the more the stop signals bees produced to stop other bees from recruiting to that location," UCSD said.

"This signal is directed at bees who are recruiting for the dangerous food location and decreases their recruitment," explained Nieh. "Thus, fewer nest mates go to the dangerous food site. This is important because an individual experiences danger and stops recruiting, but the stop signal enables her to 'warn' nest mates who have not yet experienced danger and are still recruiting. The end result is that the colony will reduce or cease recruitment to the dangerous food patch in proportion to the danger experienced."

Nieh found in his experiments that during aggressive food competition, attack victims significantly increased their production of stop signals to nest mates, some by more than 40 times. Bees foraging for food that attacked other bees or experienced no aggression did not produce stop signals. But bees exposed to a "bee alarm pheromone" increased their stop signaling by an average of 14 times. Those whose legs were mechanically pinched in a simulated bite increased their stop signals by an average of 88 times.

Honey bees from different colonies fight for space at a crowded feeder.

Photo cortesy of James Nieh

Nieh said that cooperation within and between cells in an organism relies upon positive and negative feedback. "Superorganisms," such as honey bees, are like a multi-cellular organism because each individual bee, just like a body cell, acts for the good of the whole, the colony. Superorganisms use many types of positive feedback signals, but there are few known examples of negative feedback signals.

What's interesting to biologists about the discovery of the stop sign, Nieh said, is that it's an example of a negative feedback, in which the colony's actions are stopped for the good of the colony.

"This is only the second example of a negative feedback signal ever found in a superorganism and is perhaps the most sophisticated example known to date," he said.

Nieh was assisted in his experiments by UC San Diego undergraduate volunteers working in his laboratory. His study was supported by the UC San Diego Opportunities for Research in Behavioral Sciences Program, which is supported by the National Science Foundation. ORBS is a program for high school students and undergraduates that provides research experience for students who are traditionally underrepresented in the sciences.

2008-05-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

CNN -SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A survey of bee health released Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 percent of the nation's commercially managed hives lost since last year.

Bees are dying at unsustainable levels, the president of the Apiary Inspectors of America says.

Last year's survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America found losses of about 32 percent.

As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops around the country, it's clear the insects are buckling under the weight of new diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic varroa mite, said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, president of the group.

This is the second year the association has measured colony deaths across the country. This means there aren't enough numbers to show a trend, but clearly bees are dying at unsustainable levels and the situation is not improving, said vanEngelsdorp, also a bee expert with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

"For two years in a row, we've sustained a substantial loss," he said. "That's an astonishing number. Imagine if one out of every three cows, or one out of every three chickens, were dying. That would raise a lot of alarm."

The survey included 327 operators who account for 19 percent of the country's approximately 2.44 million commercially managed beehives. The data is being prepared for submission to a journal.

About 29 percent of the deaths were due to colony collapse disorder, a mysterious disease that causes adult bees to abandon their hives. Beekeepers who saw CCD in their hives were much more likely to have major losses than those who didn't.

"What's frightening about CCD is that it's not predictable or understood," vanEngelsdorp said.

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff announced that the state would pour an additional $20,400 into research at Pennsylvania State University looking for the causes of CCD. This raises emergency funds dedicated to investigating the disease to $86,000.

The issue also has attracted federal grants and funding from companies that depend on honeybees, including ice-cream maker Haagen-Dazs.

Because the berries, fruits and nuts that give about 28 of Haagen-Dazs' varieties flavor depend on honeybees for pollination, the company is donating up to $250,000 to CCD and sustainable pollination research at Penn State and the University of California, Davis.

Haagen Dazs worried about honey bees - CNN

2008-03-01T15:50:00.000-08:00

Disappearing bees threaten ice cream sellers
Premium maker Haagen-Dazs says vanishing bee colonies in the United States could mean fewer flavors and higher prices.
email EMAIL | print PRINT | digg DIGG | RSS RSS
Subscribe to Companies
google my aol my msn my yahoo! netvibes
feed://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_news_companies.rss
Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop reader
See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close)
By Parija B. Kavilanz, CNNMoney.com senior writer
February 20 2008: 8:25 AM EST

bee_honey.ce.03.jpg
Bees are responsible for 40% of Haagen-Dazs' flavors currently sold in the market.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Haagen-Dazs is warning that a creature as small as a honeybee could become a big problem for the premium ice cream maker's business.

At issue are the disappearing bee colonies in the United States, a situation that continues to mystify scientists and frighten foodmakers.

That's because, according to Haagen-Dazs, one-third of the U.S. food supply - including a variety of fruits, vegetables and even nuts - depends on pollination from bees.

Haagen-Dazs, which is owned by General Mills, said bees are actually responsible for 40% of its 60 flavors - such as strawberry, toasted pecan and banana split.

"These are among consumers' favorite flavors," said Katty Pien, brand director with Haagen-Dazs.

"We use 100% all natural ingredients like strawberries, raspberries and almonds which we get from California. The bee problem could badly hurt supply from the Pacific Northwest," Pien said

Pien said Haagen-Dazs is hoping scientists get a breakthrough in this mystery soon. Otherwise, she said, the company may have to "re-examine the flavors that we currently offers our customers."

"We have to ensure that we have enough supply to maintain our variety," she said.

Additionally, a supply shortage of key ingredients could push up retail prices for its products, she said.

Pien said the company is donating $250,000 to both Pennsylvania State University and the University of California, Davis to fund research into the bee colony collapse disorder (CCD).

She said Haagen-Dazs is also rushing to raise consumer awareness about the problem by launching a new flavor this spring called Vanilla Honey Bee.

"We'll use part of the sales from this flavor help the honeybees," she said.

"This is the first time that Haagen-Dazs has adopted a cause like this," said Pien. "We are taking this very, very seriously because it impacts not just our brand but the entire food industry."

Board meeting - honey time.

2008-02-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

National Honey Board to Meet in Denver in February
NHB will hold its February board meeting at the Warwick Hotel in Denver, Feb. 21 and 22. Board meetings are open to the public. For meeting information, please call (303) 776-2337.

National Honey Report for December
The Agricultural Marketing Service has issued the December 2007 National Honey Market Report. http://www.ams.usda.gov/fv/mncs/honey.pdf.

2008-02-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

NHB Success Story: Applied Science Product Prototypes Become a Reality with Two New Honey Products on the Market!
For the past two years, NHB has worked to increase honey consumption by identifying and formulating promising honey-based products through its Applied Science program. NHB recently experienced sweet success when two product prototypes, solid honey and honey balsamic vinegar, were launched in the marketplace.

Honey Drop™
In January, Island Abbey Foods Ltd. introduced the Honey Drop™, the first 100% pure, solid honey product. The Honey Drop™ is an individual serving of dried honey without any additives or binding agents, making it a neat and convenient sweetener for hot beverages.

An inventor and entrepreneur, Island Abbey’s John Rowe independently conceived the concept of solid honey in the 1990's. Rowe researched a natural, dried honey product and discovered none existed. Believing such a product would be a convenient form of honey with broad consumer appeal, Rowe began developing production methods.

Separately, prompted by growing interest from food manufacturers in dried honey, NHB initiated development of a solid honey concept on behalf of the U.S. honey industry to optimize the utility of the various forms and styles of honey. The board then prospected for food manufacturers willing to move the concept from ideation to the store shelves and connected with Rowe. The rest of the story is honey history!

The Honey Drop™ comes in two flavors, pure honey and pure honey and lemon, and is packed for both retail and foodservice sales. The Honey Drop™ has a shelf life of one year and contains no artificial coloring, flavoring or preservatives. For more information, visit www.NoStickyFingers.com.

FAT BEES - www.randyoliver.com

2007-12-26T18:33:00.001-08:00

"The point that I'd like to make really clear to beekeepers is that you're not managing white boxes - you're managing the livestock within those boxes. Protein is the key ingredient of feed.... Everything about bee foraging involved the economics of energy expenditure vs. energy gain. Even though a bee is able to fly for two, three, or more miles to reach flowers, the time and metabolic costs involved to traverse such distances may result in meager net returns. The most productive foraging is done within a half mile of the bee yard - an area of about a square mile."

the gist of the article found in the American Bee Journal - September 2007 - is that the feeding of bees during the long cold and usually non productive months is of utmost importance in order to KEEP the colony alive and ready for pollination activity come February/March when the blossoms are out and the farmers are looking to hire the bee keepers.

No brainer feeding means light fructose syrup in the spring to stimulate the queens to lay and heavy fructose syrup in the fall for winter stress, however feeding syrup to a colony without a pollen flow can be counter productive forcing bees to dig into their vitellogenin reserves which then increases protein stress.

Bees get their protein from a mixture of plant pollens, critical mix as amino acid compositions differ - pollen suppliment not substitute - one can either purchase an irradiated or ethylene oxidtreated pollen - dry formulated feed - as bees like sweet - sugar level at least 50% (dry weight), same fat or oil = lipids, antimicrobial and phagostimulatory qualities also improve the texture. Again, pollen supplement not substitute.

Why feed the colony - to build up colony populations 1. for pollination, splitting, 'shaking' bees (newly bought and introduced to the hive); 2. prior to a honey flow - to ensure maximum production; 3. to ensure that the generation of 'winter' bees has their vitellogenin reserves topped off especially important in dry summer areas if planning on pollination; 4. to prevent disease and minimize damage from varroa mites.

Feeding a weak colony just before bloom in an attempt to boost it strength is a waste but it may help to recover the colony's health before bloom.

Sharing the honey with the bees - taking a percentage off for 'store sale' as verse to taking it all - the 'leaving/sharing' gives the bee her own honey to feed on thus creating less need for outside intervention.

BEES and OUR HEALTH

2007-12-26T18:29:00.000-08:00

Health Benefits of Honey

Raw unfiltered honey is the key to ultimate nutrition. Raw honey is made
from the nectars of flowers. Worker bees gather the nectar and place it in
their honey sac where it mixes with acid secretions. Bees reduce the
moisture content from 40-80% to 18-20% before the cell is sealed and the
honey is complete.

Most processed honey today has been heated and filtered, robbing it of its
nutritional value and resulting in a product with little more than a simple
sweetener. Honey is an instant energy-building food containing all the
essential minerals necessary for life, all of the B complex group, amino
acids, enzymes, and other vital factors. Honey is virtually free of bacteria.

Raw honey contains up to 80 different substances important to human
nutrition. Besides glucose and fructose, honey contains: All of the
B-complex, A, C, D, E, and K, minerals and trace elements: magnesium,
sulfur, phosphorus, iron, calcium, chlorine, potassium, iodine, sodium,
copper, and manganese. The live enzyme content of honey is one of the
highest of all foods. Honey also contains hormones, and antimicrobial and
antibacterial factors.

QUESTION FOR ANYONE OUT THERE TO ANSWER

2007-04-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

DOES ANYONE KNOW ABOUT TACKTIC AS A BIO INSECTICIDE FOR BEES? USED TO KILL VARROA MITES.
PRODUCT: TACK TICK

letter from Andy Benavente

2007-04-10T16:38:00.000-07:00

A comment on your Pollution and water-availability story...

In India, some of the poor in cities like Calcutta, Lahore, and others,
live by recycling nearly everything we in America throw away...

There are families, for instance, who sort through garbage to find,
disassemble, and melt down BIC and other ballpoint pens by hand, to use
the plastic to manufacture crude toys they sell to tourists...
They use the meager profits to buy survival supplies of food and water.

Unfortunately, since there is ZERO Regulation of these homemade
industries, the family members breathe-in the smoke from the garbage-fed
fires and melting plastic, causing incredible damage to their lungs...

NO ONE CARES.

WEED?

2007-03-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

Think twice before you reach for the weed killer this summer—did you know that some of the most offensive weeds actually produce the best tasting honey?

Star ThistleStar thistle blooms mid-summer, thriving in dry, semi-arid conditions. Considered a noxious weed by environmentalists, star thistle colonizes and spreads rapidly, displacing vegetation and producing sharp, toxic spines. Ingesting large amounts of the sharp flowers can be fatal for livestock such as horses. Star thistle has invaded California, covering 22 percent of the state and is gaining ground in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
Environmentalists and animal enthusiasts agree, star thistle should be eradicated, but bees love the nectar from this prickly plant. Nectar from the yellow star thistle flowers produces a unique honey, light in color with a slightly sweet flavor. Star thistle aficionados claim the flavor resembles candy and is best enjoyed straight from the bottle.

KudzuKudzu was originally introduced to the United States in 1876 as the miracle vine, promising bountiful animal forage and a solution for erosion control. However, it was soon discovered that Kudzu has one fatal flaw—it grows too well.
Kudzu earned its name as "mile-a-minute vine" in the south, where ideal conditions encourage Kudzu vines to grow as much as one foot per day during summer months. The vine can grow as much as sixty feet each year, climbing trees and destroying valuable forests.
With its large leaves and sweet-smelling blooms, Kudzu is a favorite among bees. Nectar from the Kudzu plants produces a rare, very strong, dark honey with a rich, sweet flavor.

DandelionOften considered the bane of lawn-lovers, the dandelion is a widely distributed perennial weed. The weed is difficult to destroy because it can reproduce from its deep roots or seeds released by its bright yellow flowers.
Dandelions do, however, deserve credit as an important source of nectar and pollen during the early spring season across the United States. Dandelion honey and pollen are used in early bee brood rearing to give colonies a boost in population so they are better able to gather more honey from main floral sources available later.
Dandelion honey is a rare treat, bright yellow to deep amber in color with a strong flavor that mellows over time. Dandelion honey is most recognizable by its intense floral aroma.
www.Honeylocator.com

TO BEE or NOT to BE -

2007-03-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

Pure honey is exactly what it says it is - 100% pure honey - and has only 21 calories per teaspoon. There are no added ingredients because it is all natural. Honey is simply made by bees and bottled by people. So, why the puzzlement? Because companies are making products that are known in the industry as Honey Pretenders.

Buyer Beware: A honey pretender is a product that looks like honey and may even taste like honey. But if you look closely at the label it is actually made from other sweeteners mixed with honey or colored to look like honey (sometimes referred to as a honey blend).
These non-pure honey products are baffling consumers because the label clearly says honey even though the product has been adulterated and is not 100% pure honey.
Whether labeled as Blended Honey, Honey Blend or Honey Syrup, non-pure honey pretender products appear to represent a serious threat to the sales of pure honey.
www.honeylocator.com

BEES and The FARMER - FRIEND not FOE -

2007-03-28T12:32:00.001-07:00

Modern machinery for agriculture has led to the eradication of nesting sites for wild pollinators of all types. Block monoculture of crops has caused a feast-or-famine situation where pollinators have excess sources of nectar or pollen for a short time but then starve during other periods so that reproductive cycles are not completed at sufficient success rates to continue the species in that region. These two factors are causing the decline of the wild pollinators in areas of intense agriculture. The backyard gardener and small farmer in mixed-use areas are not so badly affected from loss of habitat because of the variety of plants in the area. Pesticide use, however, in suburban, mixed-use, and agriculture areas are further decimating the wild and domestic pollinator populations.

Two types of pesticides are in general use today that are harmful to pollinators. These pesticides carry warnings on their labels under the "environmental hazards" area. It is illegal to apply these pesticides in violation of these warnings. If these regulations were followed, there would be no major pesticide kills of wild or domestic pollinators. The evidence is that these regulations are not being followed. The reasons for not following these regulations include inconvenience, cost, lack of understanding of the regulations, and lack of understanding of the impact. It is believed that if the impact were understood, the others would be overcome.

Non-residual material: Example - Malathion (TM) is an insecticide used for quick knock-down of insects. Its label directions for bees says: "This product is highly toxic to bees exposed to direct treatment on blooming crops and weeds. Do not apply it or allow it to drift to blooming crops or weeds if bees are visiting the treatment area." The directions do not mention residues.
Residual material: Example - Sevin is an insecticide used on several vegetables and fruits. Its label directions for bees says: "This product is highly toxic to bees exposed to direct treatment or residues on blooming crops and weeds. Do not apply this product or allow it to drift to blooming crops or weeds if bees are visiting the treatment area."

In each case, it is the responsibility of the applicator to protect all bees through proper application. It is not restricted to "domestic" bees and it covers the area, not the crop. Thus, if clover is blooming on the orchard floor, it is illegal to use a non-residue spray when bees are working the clover. The same situation occurs when residential tree sprayers fail to consider blooming shrubs in yards where trees are being sprayed. Since bees are early risers, this would mean that the spraying would best be done in late evening or at night, not always convenient. It would be illegal to apply a residue type pesticide in these situations. Residue-type pesticides are often preferred because they reduce the cost of protecting the crop by reducing the number of applications. Residue pesticides have the added disadvantage that they are carried back to the brood nest and continue to kill successive generations of bees.

Proper use of pesticides thus requires observation beyond the crop itself. One of the best ways to determine if bees are working at the time is to maintain a hive in the area to check before pesticide use. If they have quit for the day or it is too cold for them to work, it is safe to spray. An alternative is to walk the field and its borders, examining crop and weeds, to determine bee activity. Even clean corn fields can have bee activity, seeking the pollen from the tassels as a protein source, thus posing a hazard if a residue-type pesticide is used.

Irresponsible use of pesticides can destroy pollinators nesting over a mile away. When this happens, the hive is at a minimum greatly weakened and stressed by losing the field bees for a week or more. Residue-type pesticides also cause loss of successive generations. Hives weakened by pesticides often will not recover sufficiently before winter to survive. Beekeepers facing the continual depopulation of their hives stop keeping bees in the area, further depleting the pollination forces. This is one reason bees are moved in for pollination and then out after bloom, in spite of the inconvenience and cost.

Beekeepers can generally do nothing to prevent pesticide kills. It is impossible to monitor spraying within a two mile radius of the hive. The low profit margin on honeybees also restricts the amount of monitoring of individual hives, thus delaying discovery of a pesticide kill until it is almost impossible to determine when it occurred, the pesticide used, and the source.
Losses to predatory mites, drought, floods, and pesticide kills, all effect the beekeeper and pollination fees, which have doubled in northwestern USA in the last three years. It is estimated that it costs $80 to maintain a single colony for pollination which is an alternative use to honey production. The farmer and the bee man should be friends. If they aren't, neither one will be in business for long.

(Ray Lackey has been keeping honeybees for over 15 years on Long Island. He has served as President of the Long Island Beekeepers Association. He often speaks at nature centers, parks, schools, scout troops, and adult meetings on honeybees and pollination. He has earned a Master Beekeeper certification, through Ohio State University, from Eastern Apiculture Society, the principle beekeeping organization in Northeastern USA and eastern Canada.)

BEES and The FARMER - FRIEND not FOE -

2007-03-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

MAN MADE PROBLEMS - man does not learn from past mistakes

2007-03-28T12:08:00.000-07:00

Man-made problems - (www.bbc.co.uk)
Dr Sugarto Hazra, an oceanographer at the University of Calcutta says there is more than one cause of the problem.

Ajoy Kumar Patra says his island is being washed away
"Cutting down the mangrove that used to cover the island, to make way for farming, destroyed the ecology," he says. The mangrove used to bind the topsoil in position. Now it is being washed away.
The farmers also used to dig wells to get fresh water for irrigating their paddies. But in time, Dr Hazra says, underground reservoirs emptied and then collapsed.
Added to all that, "The sea level is rising around here, as it is everywhere in response to global warming", the oceanographer said. "So the land is subsiding and at the same time the sea is advancing."
The farmers of Ghoramara have tried to save their island by building dykes around the edges.
But Dr Hazra says this is just a short term solution that may make the situation worse.
"The problem with the dykes is that they stop the sediment the river would normally deposit here from nourishing the island's soil.
"The sediment is being washed out to sea rather than compensating for the rising water level."
So the agriculture designed to feed the community on the island is in fact contributing to its death.
'Tip-toeing into crisis'
Experts in food production say Ghoramara is a symbol of the dramatic combination of factors which mean the world is heading for extreme food shortages in the coming decades.
Similar phenomena are taking place on other islands and in low-lying coastal plains around the world.

The dykes around the island are only a short-term solution
The factors which are impacting on food production include soil erosion caused by intensive farming, and global warming which could reduce the yield of staple grains or make weather patterns less predictable for farmers.
The relatively new phenomenon of bio-fuels - for example, the production of ethanol from corn which can be used to supplement petrol - may take a huge proportion of the output of the big grain farms in the American Midwest.
"The global figures already show a drop in food stocks. We have got less buffer stocks than we have had for many, many decades," said Dr Tim Lang, a food and nutrition expert at The City University in London.
"We are tip-toeing into the most enormous crisis."
The over-consumption of food in many parts of the world is another issue. There are now more overweight people than chronically hungry, and the number of people with "diseases of the rich" like diabetes is increasing, including in developing countries.

WAKE UP from the Pope

2007-03-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

this was forwarded to me:

This is a wake-up call. The Pope is requesting that we think more about Hell in our daily lives. I guess there's just too much joy in the Sudan, too much dancing in the streets in Baghdad, an over-abundance of housing for the homeless, a loving home for every animal, and overnight New Orleans has reverted to its pre-Katrina state. So stop being so freaking happy and imagine those flames licking your knees! Get with the program. Karen (is it hot in here or is it just me?)

ARTand the ARTIST

2007-03-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

my comment on the amibiguity of intent and artist
> relationship - i
> personnally usually have an intent - a concept -
> something i need to say
> whether it be a political, social or simply an
> emotional statement but the
> work always starts with a statement 'need'. As it
> evolves, and art does
> evolve in the process, the statement can encompass
> something not thought of
> prior or simply may flow into a cross- over of
> combined statement 'need'.
> This would be the intent. As to an audience
> reaction, I would hope that the
> viewer responds to not only the artist's intent,
> should they grasp it, but
> to the colour, texture and use of space. It is
> through these techniques
> that the intent is carried to the viewer. The
> purpose is always to get a
> rise - like or dislike but something. The art needs
> to be responded to in
> some manner. Colour assault; texture and visual
> assault - assault being
> pleasurable or not; disturbing or evoking
> compassion; excitement or a
> calming feel. Art is to evoke through
> representation, whether it be
> abstract, expressionistic or realism. To evoke
> through the use of colour,
> technique, use of space, medium. I am personally
> interested in that which
> makes the human mind and spirit work; not that the
> mechanism simply does
> but how and why it does.
> Erika Wain
> www.LoonArtHouse.com
> Trade Winds

WINDS - that blow.....

2007-03-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

Air has weight - cold air weighs in more than warmer air. Therefore, cold air has more pressure. When the sun warms the air, the air expands - becomes lighter and rises. This movement causes a wind - the air to move. The speed of air movement is determined by how close the cold air and warm air mass together and their pressure or temp difference. The bigger the difference, the faster the wind blows...

Winds do not blow in striaght lines due to the Coriolis force - a result of the Earth's rotation - In the Northern Hemisphere the winds blow clockwise around areas of high pressure - counterclockwise around areas of low pressure.

The Beaufort Wind Force Scale was developed in 1805 by Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort of the British Navy to measure sea winds. This is the common way of estimating wind speed.

Hurricanes - June through November - develop over warm tropical waters (80F or higher), getting their energy from the warm moist air rising from the ocean's surface. To getclassified as a Hurricane, the storm must have winds of 74 milesPH or greater. Some sustained winds can reach 150mph plus with gusts up to 190mph. Such storms are called Typhoons in the Western Pacific and Cyclones in the Indian Ocean.

Tornadoes are violently rotating colums of air known as the Vortex. These require high humidity, extreme atmospheric instability and falling pressure. A Vortex is often created as part of a thunderstorm when swift winds in the upper atmostphere and slower winds near the ground set are into a spinning motion. Those high winds in a Tornado are due to the extreme low pressure forming at the centre of the spinning column of air. Air speads up as it converges toward the low pressure.

GLOBAL WARMING -

2007-03-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

According to the Old Farmer's 2007 Almanac this ought to give us food for thought-

It is estimated that 386,000 square miles of seaice have disappeared since 1974.

Record warmth in 2005 is notable, because global temperature has not received any boost from a tropical El Niño this year. The prior record year, 1998, on the contrary, was lifted 0.2°C above the trend line by the strongest El Niño of the past century.

Global warming is now 0.6°C in the past three decades and 0.8°C in the past century. It is no longer correct to say that "most global warming occurred before 1940". More specifically, there was slow global warming, with large fluctuations, over the century up to 1975 and subsequent rapid warming of almost 0.2°C per decade.

Recent warming coincides with rapid growth of human-made greenhouse gases. Climate models show that the rate of warming is consistent with expectations . The observed rapid warming thus gives urgency to discussions about how to slow greenhouse gas emissions.

Current warmth is nearly ubiquitous and largest at high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Our ranking of 2005 as warmer than 1998 is a result mainly of the large positive Arctic anomaly. Excluding the region north of 75N, 1998 is warmer than 2005. If the entire Arctic Ocean were excluded, the ranking of 2005 may be even lower.

Our analysis differs from others by including estimated temperatures up to 1200 km from the nearest measurement station . The resulting spatial extrapolations and interpolations are accurate for temperature anomalies at seasonal and longer time scales at middle and high latitudes, where the spatial scale of anomalies is set by Rossby waves. Thus we believe that the remarkable Arctic warmth of 2005 is real, and the inclusion of estimated arctic temperatures is the primary reason for our rank of 2005 as the warmest year.

WATER .....WATER.....

2007-03-22T16:11:00.000-07:00

Headlines in the Financial Times herald the
APOCALYPSE, NOW -

All of us should be ashamed - it is not too late to act and many lives could be saved -

There is enough water but it does not reach the poor, and that threatens us all -

The solution is in public investment, regulation and public/private sector partnerships -

Water is priced and used not as a scarce environmental resource, but as an infinitely available commodity -

MAKE every drop count -

A massive 400,00 litres of water goes into the production of the average car -

Experts sent to spread the conservation word - company agronomists are introducing new technologies -

In a study of alternatives, Spain is the leading producer of desalinated water in Europe and America -

Every drop of effort brings a gush of rewards -

You may think you have a fair allocation but, because of climate change, availability of water may suddenly drop -

Reaching out to others - how companies have extended their mission beyond the core business -
We want to have a positive rate of return on our investments, but it is not a return-driven fund -

A growing problem why the sector is likely to put increasing strains on supply -

The ups and downs of using gravity - as droughts are more frequent, hydro power becomes less reliable -

Water, water all around: how it can be drunk - techniques for mitigating a shortage -

Pollution adds to a daunting resource shortage - the economy takes precedence despite a fast-looming crisis -

What is it? And why do one billion thirsty people need it?

Two thirds of the world is covered in water. Shouldn't three-thirds of the world's population be able to drink it?

Best option is to clean and re-use waste - consumers may shudder at the idea of recycling but that is not entirely rational -

The average American still uses 400 lires of water a day -

Golf courses are notorious for their use of large amoutns of water -

Sustainable success starts with local commitment -

Coldcomfort as the globe warms - spells out the irony of increased floods and droughts -

Bees and their importance

2007-03-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

The honey bee is of utmost concern to the well fare of the human race - you smile or even laugh at the thought - but without the honey bee to pollinate the fruit there would be no fruit, no vegetables or alphalfa to feed the cows or wild flowers to nourish the bees and without foilage there is no exchange of oxygen - in short... very little life as there would be nothing for the animals to eat or human to chomp on - vegetarians and carnivours alike - we are history. there is a strange happening going in the world of the bees - they are simply disappearing. of course, there are mites and the like of which bee keepers are aware and fight on a regular basis but the total disappearance of whole hives/colonies is quite another story - possibly one due to the use of a Imidacloprid is a systemic, persistent pesticide manufactured by Bayer Corp. with low toxicity to mammals. Merit is the brand marketed for home use while Marathon is used in the nursery trade. Imidacloprid is also the active ingredient in Advantage, Bayer's spot-on flea killer for dogs and cats. It an analog of nicotine sulfate, the pesticide naturally found in tobacco and petunias. It was first synthesized in Japan in 1987 and registered for use in the United States in 1994. Imidacloprid works by interfering with the nervous system of insects. Its primary effect is paralysis of the insect mouth parts resulting in starvation. Unfortunately French and Canadian sources contend that imidacloprid maybe implicated in "Mad Bee Disease". In France, the beekeepers contend that the trouble began when a form of imidacloprid, Gaucho, was used to treat sunflowers seeds. In response, Bayer has research that shows no link to imidacloprid and "Mad Bee Disease". Bayer contends that "Mad Bee Disease" is caused by a virus or a spiraoplasm that produces similar symptoms. However, we all should be aware that the chemical is known to be highly toxic to honey bees. actually what it does is disable the honey bee from finding its home due to the chemical attack on its nervous system so it simply wanders until it starves ...until it dies..... it is time to ASK these questions - what is the value of the honey bee to the survival of mankind and how can i make a difference - the answer: we NEED RESEARCH and a NEW AWARENESS - pass the word... we are talking life, honey!

commentary

AND YET ANOTHER ATTACKER to our BEES

THANNKSGIVING and THE BEEKEEPER

TRUE OR NOT TRUE

Drowning Government in Antibiotic Tainted Chinese Honey

TESTS SHOW MOST STORE BOUGHT HONEY ISN'T HONEY -

American Bee Association Legislative Committee

POISONING THE PLANET PART 2

POISONING THE PLANET

* Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent * guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 April 2011 17.21 BST * Article history

Honey Laundering and Authenticity

IN defense of the AGRICULTURIST

WHERE TO LOOK FOR INFORMATION

NATURE vs NURTURE - Bees Tell All

ANOTHER THOUGHT on CCD and the Plight of the BEE

the SECRET to white whipped honey is.....

NEW SPECIES OF BEE....

BEEKEEPERS STUNG BY LIFTED QUARANTINE - BC, Canada

China's Honey Trade Buzzing With Corruption

Malte Baesler's 'take' on CCD - Hamburg

U. S. Honey Bee Industry Struggles

SAVE THE BEES! - GREEN PLANET TV

THE LAST BEEKEEPER - GREEN PLANET TV

Monday, March 16, 2009 Vancouver Island Quarantine

COULD HEMP HELP SAVE THE BEE

French Beekeepers Warn of Losses Because of New Bayer Pesticide

The FRANKLIN BUMBLEBEE- extinct?

NEW YORK CITY vs. CALIFORNIA

FIRST ALL AMERICAN HONEY BEE

And Humans think they have it bad!

Dysentery in Honeybees

Nosema disease, an obscure killer

A personal commentary -

Tracheal -- the vampire mite

OARDC/The Ohio State University

Horticulture and Crop Science

1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH 44691

Controlling Tracheal Mites in the Bee Hive

HYG-2164-97

Vegetable Shortening Patties

Product: Vegetable Shortening (eg. Crisco™)

Menthol

Product: Pure Menthol Crystals

Results of Research: Using Essential Oils for Honey Bee Mite Control

Essential Oils have Two Modes of Action:

VARROA MITES INFESTING HONEY BEE COLONIES

by Ric Bessin, Extension EntomologistUniversity of Kentucky College of Agriculture

Doing the BEE Dance

Haagen Dazs worried about honey bees - CNN

Board meeting - honey time.

FAT BEES - www.randyoliver.com

BEES and OUR HEALTH

QUESTION FOR ANYONE OUT THERE TO ANSWER

letter from Andy Benavente

WEED?

TO BEE or NOT to BE -

BEES and The FARMER - FRIEND not FOE -

BEES and The FARMER - FRIEND not FOE -

MAN MADE PROBLEMS - man does not learn from past mistakes

WAKE UP from the Pope

ARTand the ARTIST

WINDS - that blow.....

GLOBAL WARMING -

WATER .....WATER.....

Bees and their importance

by Ric Bessin, Extension Entomologist
University of Kentucky College of Agriculture