From MAILER-DAEMON Sat Jun 17 06:53:32 2000 Received: from listserv.albany.edu (listserv.albany.edu [169.226.1.24]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id GAA29419 for ; Sat, 17 Jun 2000 06:53:31 -0400 (EDT) Received: from listserv.albany.edu (listserv.albany.edu [169.226.1.24]) by listserv.albany.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id GAA10485 for ; Sat, 17 Jun 2000 06:53:14 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <200006171053.GAA10485@listserv.albany.edu> Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 06:53:14 -0400 From: "L-Soft list server at University at Albany (1.8d)" Subject: File: "BEE-L LOG0005D" To: adamf@METALAB.UNC.EDU Content-Length: 94080 Lines: 2093 ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 02:51:31 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Stan Sandler Subject: Re: GM Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I would agree with most of what Hank Misima said except this: >GM technology will also not help "feed" the world. Farmers in third >world countries save seed, they don't have money to buy it. US farmers >produce more food that can be profitably sold. Seed is food and sometimes it gets eaten (with grains). We will in the next while enter a period where fossil fuel energy becomes scarcer. Then transporting grain around the world will become more expensive (in terms of energy not just money) and in both first and third worlds agriculture is energy intensive (not just for machinery but also for inputs like fertilizer -- nitrogen is a component of air but takes a lot of energy to put into fertilizer. When GM technology gives us grains that fix nitrogen from the air like legumes it WILL help feed the world. Unfortuneately the technology should never have become so linked with private enterprise. It has been abused. But I would reserve judgement on its future. Regards, Stan ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 21:19:33 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "David L. Green" Subject: Re: supercedure in package bees? Comments: To: fairfax@alum.mit.edu MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 5/21/00 4:15:25 PM Pacific Daylight Time, fairfax@ALUM.MIT.EDU writes: I saw what > looked like queen cells in this hive on the two frames I inspected. I saw > good brood but no queen. > > Should I worry about these "queen cells?" As a novice, I can't claim to be > certain that they were queen cells, but they certainly resembled the > pictures in Dadant's "First Lessons in Bee Keeping." Dadant mentions that > supercedure is sometimes a problem in week 3 with package bees. My research > before buying indicated that York provides quality, well-bred queens and I > would hate to lose one so quickly. It's pretty common. Just in case they don't have viable brood to make a queen from, I'd suggest that you take a frame of open brood, with eggs from your good hive and give it to the weaker one. Actually, it can be a frame where she has just started, if you don't want to weaken them too much. You only need a handful of eggs. If they immediately make cells from this you'll know they don't have good brood to work from, as their own queen has failed. The weather has been unusually good this spring for mating, in the southeast, and drones are extremely plentiful. I haven't been keeping actual count but I would estimate that between 5 and 10% of this year's queens are already showing some drone brood in worker cells. They mated well enough to get them started, but not enough for sustained production. My solution: cells if I have them, otherwise a frame of brood with eggs. Queen failure is not only common, but it is growing more common. I can't say as to the queen breeder being to blame. York's has a good reputation. There's been some discussion lately in some bee circles about more and more drones being found sterile (as with other animals as well). It could be a result of low levels of pesticide exposure in the environment.... Giving them another queen is another option, but you should also give them a couple frames of sealed brood at the same time, because they need young bees to care for the queen, and your bees are now getting old. My own preference is to help them raise their own. If it fails, unite them with the other hive, and split them in the spring. Dave Green The Pollination Home Page: http://pollinator.com ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 20 May 2000 14:20:42 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: BeeCrofter@AOL.COM Subject: Re: eucalyptus MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit An invasive weed they are trying to remove in Florida ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 20:55:31 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: GImasterBK@AOL.COM Subject: Re: supercedure in package bees? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hello Steve, You are TOO anxious, just like a beginner SHOULD BE. As an "old-timer", started beekeeping in 1933 so this is my 68th year, you just need to read more. A 5 lb. package is compared to a 3 lb. package is like an insurance policy to get a good start. However, since the life of a bee is only 42 days in flying weather, half or more than half of all your package bees are dead now (3 weeks). The main task of the worker bees in colony development from foundation is to keep the brood nest warm, 91°-96°, and none of the new bees have emerged yet to replace the dead ones. Just keep that 1:1 sugar syrup on them for the next 3 months until Sept, because bees ABSOLUTELY will not draw comb for any reason whatsoever unless there is a nectar flow present, and 1:1 sugar syrup is an artificial nectar. By the way, you like most uninformed beekeepers think HONEY is the first choice of food to a bee. It is NOT! Their first choice is real nectar, their second choice is artificial nectar like 1:1 sugar syrup, and the 3 rd choice is honey, which is just there winter food supply. Honey to a bee is like Hardtack to a sailor - a survival food, not filet mignon. Heat rises. Brood must be kept warm. You will find that bees don't like to have much brood in frames 1&2 or 9&10, because they can't cover (warm) that wide a space. Hence, bees like to lay brood in a "chimney effect" and hence frames 4,5,6&7 of the SECOND story are much more popular than the outer frames of the first story. Don't bother to look for the queen. She would be EASY to find if you had paid 50¢ to have York mark each one. Just look for OPEN brood. An egg for 3 full days and then a larva for the next 6 days, and capped on the 10th day. To look for eggs, you turn the frame upside down, have the sun behind you and look down into the cells particularly near the center the frame. I doubt that you have a supersedure cell already, but not impossible if the bees are thoroughly dissatisfied with the queen. A Supersedure cell is found ONLY on the face of the comb near the center of the frame It will be about the diameter of a dime or a nickel and project outward maybe 1/8" further than worker comb. Sooner or later, you will hear of me, because I do a lot of writing about bees and have monthly articles on the WEB, am writing another book now, and travel over most of the world teaching beekeeping FREE OF CHARGE to those countries or states that pay my transportation + room and board to get there. I am very active in EAS and ABF giving talks and putting on workshops in these every year FREE. I am a retired scientist who has kept up to 135 colonies per season for scientific studies in addition to honey production to pay for my experiments. My WEB addresses are: http://www.cybertours.com/~midnitebee/ click the lower right image http://www.beekeeper.org/george_imirie/index.html What is your location? Weather and crops are so different depending on location. If you don't have THE BEEKEEPER'S HANDBOOK, 3rd Edition (April 1999), written by Dr. Diana Sammataro, for $29.95, you should! I believe that this might be considered the BEST beginner's book ever written. Regardless of fame, books written more than 10 years ago are pretty much obsolete in 2000, because they don't cover or even mention both the bad points as well as the good things that have all occurred in the last 15 years: The bad things are tracheal mites found in 1984, the Varroa mite found in 1987, AHB entering Texas in 1990, and the small hive beetle in 1998. The GOOD things that really excite my enthusiasm to get back to research are the GREAT importance of honey bee PHEROMONES, the importance of HYGIENIC BEES to control disease resistance of the bee, and so much more is known about swarm control and the use of other races of bees than a few years back. I hope that I have helped, and don't hesitate to write, because I am now partially disabled by strokes and have time to help beeHAVERS who want to become beeKEEPERS. George Imirie in Maryland where we will have EAS 2000 July 31-Aug 4 ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 14:02:15 +0100 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Max Watkins Subject: Re: Sterile Drones: Why? In-Reply-To: <200005181417.KAA19265@listserv.albany.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In the 15 years since Apistan has been used (according to label direction) there have been no deleterious effects from the use of this product on bee brood, adult bees or on colony development. And no, this is not just company rhetoric, bee institutes in many parts of the world have looked for effects of Apistan treatment on many hundreds of colonies - a condition of the various regulatory authorities. I cannot vouch for Bayvarol personally but it should have undergone similar testing in the few countries where it has been registered. Saying that, all biological material, including colonies of bees can be expected to exhibit a range of behaviour to any "foreign" substance put into the hive. As far as we know Apistan has no deleterious effects to any life stage of the honeybee. After all this time in use I would be surprised if effects started showing up now. Max Dr Max Watkins Vita (Europe) Limited Brook House, Alencon Link Basingstoke, Hants RG21 7RD UK Tel. +44 (0) 1256 473177 Fax +44 (0) 1256 473179 -----Original Message----- From: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology [mailto:BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu]On Behalf Of tomas mozer Sent: 18 May 2000 15:16 To: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu Subject: Re: Sterile Drones: Why? graham law wrote: Has anyone out there had similar experience with Bayvarol/Apistan treatments? If there is anything in this suspicion then Spring treatments should be avoided if not absolutely necessary. see http://www.nalusda.gov/ttic/tektran/data/000009/21/0000092180.html and http://www.nalusda.gov/ttic/tektran/data/000009/83/0000098333.html ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 12:27:28 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: John Mitchell Subject: Bees in the news MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I pull these stories from a database with limited access, so I can't just post a link and a headline for list members. Scientists seek demise of bee parasite Monday, May 22, 2000 By Associated Press As bee trucks arrive to pollinate Maine's wild blueberry crops, scientists are looking for new ways to control a tiny parasite that has been killing honeybees for more than a decade. The bloodsucking varroa mite, together with another mite, has nearly wiped out honeybees in the wild and its growing resistance to chemicals has made heavier losses a fact of life in colonies maintained by beekeepers. That means the search is growing more urgent for new ways to control the tricky and unpredictable parasite, which was blamed for killing off about half of Maine's hives last winter. "If you don't have a chemical that will kill them, you're out of business. The mites will take over the hive," said David Hackenberg, a Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, beekeeper who returned last week from delivering bees to Jasper Wyman & Son, one of Maine's largest wild blueberry producers. The varroa mite turned up in Maine in 1987 in bees that were imported from Florida, where the mite made its first appearance that year. The mite, with some help from an even tinier villain known as the tracheal mite, has wiped out an estimated 90 percent of wild honeybees in the United States, said Bob Danka, a research entomologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The varroa mite, about the size of the head of a pin, attaches to a bee larva after growing within a sealed-up cell in a bee colony. Then it spreads to the rest of the colony, transmitting viruses and bacteria as it goes. The tracheal mite sucks the blood of an adult honey bee from within its breathing tubes. Because of the die-off, honeybees have virtually disappeared from playgrounds and backyards across the United States. The survival of commercial honeybee operations has depended largely on the vigilance of the beekeepers and a chemical called fluvalinate, which is marketed under the name Apistan. But beekeepers noticed a growing resistance in the mid-1990s. "I've had calls from a number of people, commercial beekeepers, who lost a thousand hives or more because the treatments gave out," said Troy Fore, executive director of the American Beekeeping Federation in Jesup, Georgia. Now, many beekeepers like Hackenberg have turned to the insecticide Coumaphos, marketed by Bayer Corp. under the name CheckMite. But not all beekeepers are following suit and losses are mounting, said Nick Calderone, an entomology professor at Cornell University. CheckMite is being authorized year by year while the Environmental Protection Agency reviews its safety. Hackenberg, a former president of the American Beekeeping Federation, said more insecticides will be needed eventually. "We need two chemicals or three chemicals, so we can rotate them all," he said. Other solutions are in the works. USDA is selling breeder bees from eastern Russia that are genetically resistant to the varroa mite, to breed with bees in the United States. Scientists also are studying the use of new chemicals such as formic acid, along with better management practices, Calderone said. Some growers have experimented with other species including bumblebees, but honeybees are widely preferred because they can pollinate many different crops, said Hachiro Shimanuki, a research microbiologist at the USDA bee research laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 20:04:57 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Rimantas Zujus Subject: Radioactive nuclides Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-4" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Dear Beefriends Maybe, somebody is interested in honey radioactive pollution. Many radioactive nuclides spread to different countries after Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident after 1986. Some consumers of agricultural goods (also a honey) even after 14 years doubt if the used products are free of radioactive nuclides and don't affect their health. Therefore the Beekeepers Union of Lithuania asked their branch Beekeeper Societies to provide the honey samples from 26 regions and 47 such samples were collected. Also 2 samples of German origin honey for comparison were bought in honey shops. The radioactive pollution was explored in Radiation Safety Center in Vilnius with gamma spectrometric OXFORD device. It makes possible to evaluate the ecological, sanitary, hygienic consequences of specific radionuclide activity. Time spent for a sample evaluation took 5-118 hours, and it depended on Cesium (Cs-137, half decay time 30.174 years) activity. Potassium (K-40, half decay time 1.28 E9 years) pollution was also explored. The study of radioactive nuclide in honey showed that results gotten for German and Lithuanian origin products are similar and the pollution level meets the Lithuanian and EU regulations. More details could be found in http://rizujus.lei.lt/Beekeeping/ApisAssoc/Gamma%20nuclides.htm Taste Lithuanian honey without fear :-) Sincerely Rimantas e-mail : zujus@isag.lei.lt http://rizujus.lei.lt/ 55 North, 24 East ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 12:31:22 -0600 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: T'N'T Apiaries Subject: Re: GM pollen MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >Surely if there is >GM pollen in the honey then the honey must be from the same source and >therefor must be considered contaminated. If tolerance levels are low (< 5%) and pollen counts high (>50%), you're probably safe making this statement. However most honey sellers and the honest buyers will tell you pollen analysis is really only a tool and by no means fool proof. A common example here in Canada is clover honey produced late in the season. Sometimes pollen testing will say it is 75 - 90% canola. The honey will be water white and stay liquid till after Christmas - characteristics of clover not canola. When a report comes back like this, the producer will recall a small patch of volunteer canola in the area. Nectar from the clover, pollen more easily obtained from the canola. A specialty honey buyer in the US told me a few years ago that with some of the varieties honeys he packs he relies more on colour, favour and texture than the pollen counts. He found them unreliable. The European buyers pretend to swear by pollen testing, but will throw the results out the window when the need suits them. If the honey must be 100% GM free, then I'd say that with the presence of a GM pollen there is likely some nectar in there from a GM plant. As soon as percentages become involved, things get real fuzzy. Dave Tharle Ardmore, AB ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 16:25:59 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: John Mitchell Subject: Honey loan deficiency program MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Any word on what happened during the second week of May when these guys (see below) went to Washington? Clipped from a letter to American Honey Producers Association: We feel, with this provision in the (federal) budget specifically earmarking some monies for specialty crops that this may be our opportunity to get the loan deficiency program reinstated on honey. Lyle Johnston, Jack Meyer, Jr., Steve Parks, Bobby Coy, Harvey Price, and myself (Richard Adee) are going into Washington the second week of May to work on legislation to reinstate the program. We will ask for an 80-cent per pound loan rate, which according to a recent study by Dr. Roger Hoopingarner is 70% of cost of production. The buy back rate will be set by the world market. They were also working on this (clipped again): We will also be touching base with the Agricultural Appropriations subcommittee concerning the funding of USDA-ARS bee research. The administrations budget request an increase of $300,000 for the Weslaco Bee Lab and we want an additional $300,000 for the Baton Rouge Bee Lab. This will enable Baton Rouge to bring on a full-time scientist to enhance the research for mite resistant bees. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 15:08:48 -0600 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Jerry J Bromenshenk Subject: Re: Radioactive nuclides In-Reply-To: <200005221811.OAA18118@listserv.albany.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I appreciate the notice about the study. We have studied radioactive materials in honey, pollen, and bees in the U.S. since the early 1970's, having worked in rural areas of the west and on a variety of DOE and DOD sites - e.g. downwind of nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel rod reprocessing facilities, etc. We also collaborated with Croatian scientists conducting post-Chernobyl studies. The Lithuanian study says that recent levels of radioactive materials in honey do not exceed human health safety standards. Our studies show that these materials can show up in beehives, but not usually at levels high enough to be a health threat. In Croatian, measurable levels of some radionuclides were found in honey derived from honey dew nectar - and this seems to be a consequence of the Chernobyl accident. Again, the levels are measureable, and the transport routes of interest, but do not appear to pose any threat to people eating honey. Jerry J. Bromenshenk, Ph.D. Director, DOE/EPSCoR & Montana Organization for Research in Energy The University of Montana-Missoula Missoula, MT 59812-1002 E-Mail: jjbmail@selway.umt.edu Tel: 406-243-5648 Fax: 406-243-4184 http://www.umt.edu/biology/more http://www.umt.edu/biology/bees ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 17:34:02 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "Ted J. Hancock" Subject: when is it time to order a new queen ? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Mark Baird asked if he was doing the right thing by uniting a = laying-worker colony with a queen-right colony. Since some of the old = timers seem to have missed this one, I'll give Mark my 2-cent's worth. No, Mark, you are not on the right track here. If you open the hive = and the bees seem skitterish and buzz around a lot they are probably = queenless. If they've been queenless for several weeks, one or more = workers will have started to lay unfertilized eggs. They prefer to lay = in drone cells, and will lay several eggs in each cell, sometimes = sticking them to the wall of the cell because they can't reach the = bottom. I would not try to unite a hive in this state with any = queen-right colony, since the laying workers will kill the queen. Since = laying workers are indistinguishable from other workers (I've never seen = one laying an egg, and I expect few have ever seen one, period), you can = try to eliminate them while saving the rest of the workers by shaking = the whole hive out in tall grass 100+ feet from the yard. The theory is = that because laying workers have developed sexual organs they are too = heavy to fly, and 100+ feet of tall grass will prevent them from walking = back to the apiary. Meanwhile, the normal workers will fly back and = join new hives. Generally a hive containing laying workers is more = trouble than it is worth - even if you salvage the productive workers = they will be old and soon die. However if your hive simply has a drone-laying queen, you can = successfully unite it with a stronger colony (using your newspaper) as = long as you kill the drone-laying queen. Queens can become drone-layers = in two ways. First if a virgin can't get out to mate for 4 or 5 weeks = she will give up and start to lay eggs, which of course are = unfertilized, hence drones. Once she starts laying she never will fly = out to mate, even when the weather turns nice. The second way hives can = get stuck with a drone-layer is if a laying queen runs out of semen with = which to fertilize her eggs. In my experience, a virgin drone-layer = will also start off laying several eggs in one cell, but unlike laying = workers, the eggs are all stuck to the bottom of the cell, never on the = sides. Under both of these conditions, the bees may at first seem = content because they have a queen, but as the weeks pass they too will = get increasingly buzzy and grumpy. Finding queens takes practise - usually by working for a commercial = beekeeper and concentrating on the task so much that you dream about = queens every night for a week. It's mainly a matter of gaining = confidence that you can spot her and learning to work a hive without = causing the bees to run around. Virgins are hard to find (I'm talking = bees here) because they are nervously running around, but a laying queen = is slow-moving and sedate, if you don't use too much smoke, or get rough = handling the hive. If you've gone through the hive twice without = finding the queen it's best to close up the hive and try again another = day, since the bees will have started running, making it more difficult = to spot the queen. You can find the queen by shaking the whole hive = through a queen excluder nailed to the bottom of a super, but this has = got to be hard on the queen. I would only use this method if you are = desperately trying to find a queen you are planning to pinch. The alternative is to use a marked queen. Kind of off the topic = here - but I used a marked queen in an observation hive once at a fair. = The queen had a white disk glued to her thorax with a black '99' = clearly visible in the centre of the disk. To my surprise over 50% of = the general public asked if this disk was natural ('No, Ma'am, are you = naturally blonde? Actually she got that number when the Oilers drafted = her...'). Ted Hancock ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 08:53:11 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: crpost Subject: Re: eucalyptus MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit David & Sarah Grew-Foss wrote: > They are also a fire hazard... I would recommend some serious thought before > growing them in Texas, perhaps consult a > botanist about how they would act in your climate. What is important to remember is the diversity of eucalypts, with hundreds of species growing naturally in Australia. Their characteristics vary incredibly. >From 90 meter tall e. diversicolor trees to shrubby (and messy) e. lehmanii and ornamental e. ficefolia. Some have the potential to become invasive in certain areas. This has to be checked out - correctly so. In South Africa, fire-breaks of eucalyptus are planted in between plantations of pine trees and other types planted for commercial reasons, as well as to delimit natural areas of indigenous fynbos and forests. The only requirement of these fire-breaks that makes them ultra efficient, is the fact that once per year the lanes have to be cleared of the debris under them. The fact that nothing else grows under tightly spaced eucalyptus trees, because of their oily exudate, aids in their efficiency as fire breaks. The recent spate of fires in the South Western Cape and the Cape Peninsula proved conclusively that clean eucalyptus fire-breaks stop runaway fires. That many of the species provide fantastic honey and/or pollen is a definite. Perhaps their down side can be balanced against their positive benefits. Mainly that of providing bee food in times of dearth, because no matter how dry it gets, many eucalypts - having access to deep ground-water, will still provide. Robert Post ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 08:50:44 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: crpost Subject: Re: dca MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit awcannon wrote: > bearing in mind that drones get the chop at the years end, how do the = > new years drones know where to find all of those drone congregation = > zones? I have my doubts about them. Aaaah, the mystery of it. The theory of a super-organism probably plays a distinct role here. Bees are perceived to be only the cells of an organism, called - for want of a better term - the bee colony. As each cell in e.g. a human body is constantly replaced because of it's inherrent wear and tear, so each bee is replaced over time. As each cell or groups of cells have a function to perform in the body, so too does each bee or group of bees have their function to do in the colony. As humans and other creatures procreate, so too do colonies of bees procreate by casting swarms. The communication within human bodies is performed by hormones: so too does the colony have chemical signals coursing through it in the form of pheromones. In the event of DCA's it is perhaps slightly simpler - they are drawn by the queen pheromone towards a general area. There, perhaps survival instinct groups them together in "safer" areas, in clearings between trees, in valleys and other wind becalmed, open areas surrounded by shelter from predatory birds. We know that bees are attracted to the vibrations of other bees and that is perhaps the reason why they group together within DCA's. No need to be told by the previous "old-boys" of the club where the party is at. There have been many studies done on DCA's. Lately with radar. One of our SA researchers Geoff Tribe has done a lot of work on them. I you wish, I could request furher input from him. Greetings Robert Post ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 08:54:03 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: crpost Subject: Re: Sterile Drones - the 2000 man? Comments: To: John Burgess MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit John Burgess wrote: > Neither Bayvarol nor Apistan are organophosphates, unlike Coumaphos. > They are both classed as synthetic pyrethoids, and are regarded as > significantly less hazardous to people than OP's. John, Yes, that's what we are led to believe. The point here is that I don't think the chemical companies told us about the sterilisation effect of these substances on drones either! Are any of the people around that they tested this on? Robert Post - Editor CAPENSIS, Journal of the Cape Bee ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 07:31:23 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Aaron Morris Subject: Re: DCAs MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" crpost wrote what struck me as a lot of poetic hooey, but it was nice style, including: > In the event of DCA's it is perhaps slightly simpler - they are drawn by > the queen pheromone towards a general area. There, perhaps survival instinct > groups them together in "safer" areas, in clearings between trees, in > valleys and other wind becalmed, open areas surrounded by shelter from predatory > birds. Well, based on my limited experience (a single DCA hunt at Gormanston), the DCA we discovered was an open soccer field, shielded neither from wind nor birds. It was a totally open area. I cannot say if that particular DCA was typical, nor do I know if one were to return there a day or two later a similar discovery would have been made. I wonder if it was just chance that a group of drones was coincidently passing by as the feather drenched in queen pheremones was dangled provocatively in front of them. Two interesting points: when the feather was moved near electric wires (not of high voltage) the drones split away from the feather in an instant. They would not fly near the wires. And speaking of splitting away, you should have seen the pack of drones take off in a swarm when presumedly, the real thing (a virgin queen) flew onto the scene. They took off in a collective swarm, the kind you see in cartoons, until they disappeared in the distance. Now, does this speak for DCAs or can one assume rather that drones travel in packs? I cannot say, many more excursions are necessary. > We know that bees are attracted to the vibrations of other bees and > that is perhaps the reason why they group together within DCA's. Or perhaps they travel in packs. > There have been many studies done on DCA's. Lately with radar. One of > our SA researchers Geoff Tribe has done a lot of work on them. If you wish, > I could request furher input from him. By all means, please do! Aaron Morris - wondering DCAs or dumbsticks? ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 08:57:41 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: John Edwards Organization: Hayden Bee Lab, USDA-ARS,Tucson, Arizona Subject: Re: dca MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit crpost wrote: > awcannon wrote: > > In the event of DCA's it is perhaps slightly simpler - they are drawn by > the > queen pheromone towards a general area. Nope, sorry. The DCAs form whether there are flying queens or not. I have forwarded this thread to Dr. Loper, he will hopefully jump in and provide some radar insights. Landmarks seem to play the greatest role in DCA formation. We tried to prove a link with magnetic anomolies in the earth, but could never get a solid connection. As seen on radar, the drones flow like water above treelines and branch off to swirls at intervals, sometimes over open areas, sometimes not. Much like a meandering stream. One thing that surprised us was the lack of boundaries - the drone flight paths just go on and on, combining and dividing. Now that we can put short movies on the internet, I should try to capture some segments of Dr. Loper's and Wayne Wolf's radar footage for wider distribution. The patterns are really beautiful. Stay tuned - I'll post a link if I set up a radar movie site. ----------------------------------------------------------- John F. Edwards "Feral Bee Tracker and AHB Identifier" Carl Hayden Bee Research Center Tucson, Arizona 85719 http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/home/edwards/edwards.html ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 16:46:52 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: tomas mozer Subject: thelytoky and ahb Comments: cc: jsbee@msu.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit forwarded/cross-posted for information/discussion purposes only: ------Original Message------ From: kim@airoot.com Sent: May 23, 2000 2:39:28 PM GMT Subject: Catch The Buzz Article The Conference held in Tucson in April had several surprises, and loads of great information. Bee Culture will be publishing the Proceedings from that conference as soon as the information has been formatted and is ready. This is the first of many findings that were discussed at the conference. This news of African bees is EXCITING! The African(ized) Queen: New Twist Found To Hive Drama Africanized honey bees have an unexpected advantage in the battle to keep beekeepers from replacing highly defensive Africanized queens with gentle, easily managed European ones. Within only one week after their queen dies or is removed by beekeepers, Africanized worker bees--which are female--are capable of activating their ovaries to produce viable female eggs for re-queening the hive. That's according to preliminary findings by Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman of the ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, Tucson, Ariz., and Stanley S. Schneider of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. European worker bees' ovaries can't start producing eggs until the queen has been missing for at least three weeks. And, egg-laying worker bees that are queenless typically produce male offspring. In contrast, the Africanized workers' faster, one-week response to queenlessness, and ability to produce a queen from their own female eggs, could explain why many beekeepers' efforts to re-queen an Africanized hive with a docile European queen haven't succeeded. Queens introduced into colonies that have egg-laying workers will be attacked and killed. Scientists already knew that some kinds of African honey bees, such as the Cape bee of South Africa, can lay viable female eggs within one week of becoming queenless, and nurture them to become their queen. But the ARS and University researchers are apparently the first to observe this phenomenon in Africanized worker bees in the northern hemisphere. Migrating from Brazil, Africanized bees are today found in Arizona, California, Texas, New Mexico and Nevada. The scientists are developing new tactics to foil the Africanized workers' ability to make their own Africanized queen. DeGrandi-Hoffman reported the findings at the Second International Conference on Africanized Honey Bees and Bee Mites, held recently in Tucson. ARS, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief research wing, was co-sponsor. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Kim Flottum Editor, Bee Culture Magazine http://www.airoot.com/beeculture/index.htm For an archive Catch the Buzz postings, visit: http://bee.airoot.com/beeculture/buzz/index.html To unsubscribe to this emailing, simply goto: http://bee.airoot.com/beeculture/buzz/unsubscribe.html * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 20:22:16 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Hank Mishima Subject: Fwd: Report of Gene Transfer from G-E Rapeseed to Bacteria and Fungi in the Gut of Bees Content-Type: Multipart/Mixed; Boundary=WebTV-Mail-28473-9873 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit MIME-Version: 1.0 (WebTV) --WebTV-Mail-28473-9873 Content-Type: Text/Plain; Charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit News of GM transfer. Hank Mishima Fairview OR -------------------------------------------------------- To contact your elected officials see www.vote-smart.org --WebTV-Mail-28473-9873 Content-Disposition: Inline Content-Type: Message/RFC822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit Received: from mailsorter-101-10.iap.bryant.webtv.net (209.240.198.44) by storefull-106.iap.bryant.webtv.net with WTV-SMTP; Tue, 23 May 2000 08:20:45 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: Received: from maynard.mail.mindspring.net (maynard.mail.mindspring.net [207.69.200.243]) by mailsorter-101-10.iap.bryant.webtv.net (8.8.8-wtv-f/ms.dwm.v7+dul2) with ESMTP id IAA10059 for ; Tue, 23 May 2000 08:20:43 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [165.121.35.85] (user-2ini8ql.dialup.mindspring.com [165.121.35.85]) by maynard.mail.mindspring.net (8.9.3/8.8.5) with ESMTP id KAA16549; Tue, 23 May 2000 10:38:29 -0400 (EDT) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: beb@pop2.igc.org Message-Id: Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 07:47:43 -0800 To: beb@igc.org From: Beth Burrows Subject: Report of Gene Transfer from G-E Rapeseed to Bacteria and Fungi in the Gut of Bees Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ; format="flowed" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable ********************************** Report of Gene Transfer from G-E Rapeseed to Bacteria and Fungi in the Gut of Bees ********************************** =46rom: "Tappeser" Organization: Oeko-Institute e.V. Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 15:37:25 +0100 Subject: new stories from Germany These are the latest results from risk research in Germany. You may distribute it because I think everybody should get to know it. The paper was submitted to Nature but they refused to accept it. Prof. Kaatz, the author, tries to publish it in another scientific journal. I commented on his results in television. Warm regards Beatrix Tappeser The German Television ZDF reported on Sunday May 21 that a German researcher found a gene transfer from genetically engineered rapeseed to bacteria and fungi in the gut of honey bees. Prof. Hans-Hinrich Kaatz from the Institut f=FCr Bienenkunde (Institute for bee research) at th= e University of Jena experimented during the last three years with honey bees on an experimental field with transgenic rapeseed in Saxony, Germany. The field trial was performed by AgrEvo, the rapeseed was engineered to resist the herbicide glufosinate (Liberty, Basta).=20 Prof. Kaatz built nets in the field with the transgenic rapeseed and=20 let the bees fly freely within the net. At the beehives, he installed pollen traps in order to sample the pollen loads from the bees=B4 hindlegs when entering the hive. This pollen was fed to young honey bees in the laboratory. (Pollen is the natural diet of young bees which need a high protein diet). Then Prof.Kaatz took the intestine out of the young bees and spread the contents on growth medium to grow the microorganisms. He probed the microorganisms for the pat-gene, the gene that conferes resistance to glufosinate. In some bacteria and also in a yeast hefound the pat-gene. This indicates that the gene from the genetically engineered rapeseed was transferred in the bee=B4s gut to the microbes. (Summary written by Greenpeace Germany) Dr. Beatrix Tappeser Institute for Applied Ecology Postfach 6226, D-79038 Freiburg Phone: (49)761-45295-39 or 0 Fax:(49)761-475437 email: tappeser@oeko.de ******************** forwarded by The Edmonds Institute beb@igc.org --WebTV-Mail-28473-9873-- ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 11:14:51 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Yves Layec Subject: pemphredon Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I am looking for informations on the pemphredon, a solitary wasp or bee, may be belonging to the genus sphecidae. Could someone give me some help? Is there something published about this insect? Thanks. Yves LAYEC ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 10:31:15 -0600 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Allen Dick Subject: Important Notice from the Moderators of BEE-L MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit If you are new, welcome to BEE-L . In case you are wondering, there is no BEE-L FAQ as such, but we do maintain extensive archives that go back over a decade and can be found via http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/BEE-L/. The rules for posting, and pretty well anything else you need to know about BEE-L can be found there too. Lately we are receiving quite a few otherwise valid posts that contain: * huge irrelevant signatures * V-cards * binaries such as PDF files or viruses * complete quotes of entire previous articles including signatures, * even quotes of complete BEE-L digests We like to approve all posts, but such problematic posts are discarded with a sigh, and usually without comment, by the busy moderators. If your post does not come back to you via the list within 24 hours, please consult the guidelines and also please look in your 'sent' folder to see what the problem is. allen -- one of the BEE-L moderators ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 07:55:35 +1200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Nick Wallingford Subject: Varroa updates from NZ MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" I keep an up to date register of the information related to NZ's varroa outbreak at http://www.beekeeping.co.nz/varroa Our Government will be faced with the decision about whether to attempt eradication within the next week or so, after hearing the facts from several technical committees that have been advising and informing them. ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 07:54:05 +1200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Nick Wallingford Subject: Resmetherin MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Some years ago one of our NZ bee scientists was working to find a good 'knock down' type chemical for killing bees in a hive, one that was (1) able to kill quickly and effectively (2) leave no residues in the honey/wax (3) would make for minimal clean up (hopefully with the bees dropping to the floor upon death (4) allow for full reuse of wax, frames, boxes and (5) safe for operator... Only chemical I remember specifically him talking about at the time was resmetherin, described now as a mosquito adulticide. Any comments on what might be possible? Other chemicals? ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 09:08:31 +1200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Ron Law Subject: Re: pemphredon MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit goto http://www.ussc.alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/advsearch? Book mark it -- it's the very best of advanced search engines. Then put pemphredon and sphecidae in the search space, choose must contain all and click fast search. Voila! Ron Law Yves Layec wrote: > I am looking for informations on the pemphredon, a solitary wasp or bee, > may be belonging to the genus sphecidae. > Could someone give me some help? Is there something published about this > insect? > Thanks. > Yves LAYEC ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 19:17:01 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: GImasterBK@AOL.COM Subject: Re: Resmetherin MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Resmethrin is definitely the bee killer choice when it is necessary here in Maryland. All of our bee inspectors carry a spray can with them at all times, just in case. George Imirie ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 17:47:39 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: John Edwards Organization: Hayden Bee Lab, USDA-ARS,Tucson, Arizona Subject: Re: Varroa updates from NZ MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Nick Wallingford wrote: > Our Government will be faced with the decision about whether to attempt > eradication within the next week or so, Well, I guess most people have had their say by now. If only one colony with varroa survives the "eradication" of the bees, what will the authorities and beekeepers do next year ?? ----------------------------------------------------------- John F. Edwards Carl Hayden Bee Research Center Tucson, Arizona 85719 http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/home/edwards/edwards.html ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 17:40:08 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: John Edwards Organization: Hayden Bee Lab, USDA-ARS,Tucson, Arizona Subject: Re: Resmetherin MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Nick Wallingford wrote: > Some years ago one of our NZ bee scientists was working to find a good > 'knock down' type chemical > Only chemical I remember specifically him talking about at the time was > resmetherin, We tested it a little here in Tucson - I remember it was applied under a lid for a few seconds (from aerosol can), and the bees absolutely shot out of the entrance and were dead in a few seconds. Pretty impressive. I know nothing about the residues - since we were in test mode, the colony was bagged and disposed of as hazardous waste. - John ----------------------------------------------------------- John F. Edwards Carl Hayden Bee Research Center Tucson, Arizona 85719 http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/home/edwards/edwards.html ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 06:03:50 PDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Kirk Waskey Subject: Re: GM Seed (Minnesota Newspaper Article) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Just a post to pass on an article that was in the St. Paul Minnesota paper this morning. Modified seeds firmly rooted -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LEE EGERSTROM STAFF WRITER -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The controversy over genetically modified seeds appears to have had little impact on farm planting decisions this year as the spring planting season draws to a close in the Upper Midwest. Interviews with farmers and seed sellers suggest that Minnesota and Wisconsin farmers are planting about the same percentage of modified seeds as they did in 1999. That means more than 50 percent of the soybeans and more than one-third of the corn will be grown from seeds that were modified to help the farmers cope with insects or weeds. Concerns over genetically modified organisms have centered on issues of trade, big business and science. But for Duane Adams of rural Hutchinson, the decision to plant GMO seeds didn't take much head-scratching. Most of the corn in his area between Hutchinson and Cosmos in central Minnesota is used as cattle feed by local farmers, he said, or is used to process ethanol fuels. ``There's a lot of emotionalism over new science, but I haven't heard anyone say they won't drive around with GMO corn in their gas tank,'' he said. Late last year, a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of early planting intentions suggested that American corn farmers would slightly reduce GMO planting for corn, soybeans and cotton. The modest retreat from GMO planting likely changed as farmers lined up their last seed purchases, said Joe Schieber, a farmer and Pioneer Hi-Bred seed dealer in Caledonia in southeastern Minnesota. Some of the early planned cutbacks came from farmers opting for lower-cost, nonmodified seed, he said. But as the winter progressed, weather concerns around the world strengthened corn and soybean prices in futures contracts traded at commodity exchanges. With prospects improved for making money on corn and soybeans, ``farmers started going for the yields,'' Schieber said. They began ordering more seed varieties that were insect resistant or compatible with efficient weed killing chemicals. In Golden Valley, preliminary marketing results show that 65 percent of the corn seed bought from Novartis Seeds this year contained the Bt gene to help farmers fight corn borer infestations. That's down 2 percentage points from last year's 67 percent Bt market share at Novartis, the company said. Des Moines-based Pioneer, the largest seed company and now a unit of the DuPont chemical and life sciences firm, hasn't assembled sales data for this year yet, company spokesman Doyle Karr said. But preliminary queries of the sales department show only a slight decline from last year's GMO use, he added. Farmers began planting GMO crops in 1996. GMO varieties of corn, soybeans and the smaller oilseed crop of canola were a significant portion of the crops planted in 1998. That year also saw multinational chemical and pharmaceutical companies consolidate most of the major North American seed companies into life science companies to combine seed genetics with related biology and chemistry fields. Perhaps more than the introduction of new science itself, the global mergers and acquisitions attracted public attention, and people began wondering what biotechnology was all about, said Doug Magnus, a soybean farmer from Slayton, Minn. Consumer, environmental and other groups began pressuring the European Union to block imports of agricultural commodities produced from genetically modified seeds. EU regulators have given approval for importation of about half the GMO-produced crops grown in North America, South America and parts of Europe itself. Members of the Union of Concerned Scientists have raised questions about proper government regulation and the release of GMOs into commercial use. Chief among concerns are proper testing to see if modified foods create allergen problems or if modified plants might cause mutations in other plant life surrounding the crops. Magnus, vice chairman of the United Soybean Board national trade association, said farmers indicated they were concerned last fall that they might lose markets if they grew GMO crops. That concern largely ended, however, when Cargill Inc. issued a statement last December saying its policies hadn't changed; it would buy corn and soybeans at its country grain elevators and mills regardless of the seeds the farmers used. ``That pretty much ended the debate for farmers, for at least another year,'' Magnus said. Linda Thrane, spokeswoman for Minnetonka-based Cargill, said the December announcement was issued because the company was growing weary answering media questions about its GMO policy. Many of the inquiries were coming from media that doesn't usually cover the company and didn't know Cargill's previous positions, she said. Looking back, the company's statement did give farmers confidence about markets when they sat down during the winter months to make seed purchasing decisions, she said. Farmers are restricted in how they use the seeds so they will never have 100 percent use of the GMOs. For instance, the Bt corn must have a 20 percent ``refuge'' around the fields to protect other insects and help prevent insects from mutating into Bt resistance. Seed salesman and farmer Schieber said farmers are not likely to pay the higher cost for enhanced seeds if they haven't had historic problems with corn borers or problems managing their weeds. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 07:05:35 -0600 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Allen Dick Subject: Re: Report of Gene Transfer from G-E Rapeseed to Bacteria and Fungi in the Gut of Bees In-Reply-To: <200005240333.XAA29179@listserv.albany.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Report of Gene Transfer from G-E Rapeseed to Bacteria and Fungi > The paper was submitted to Nature but they refused to accept it. > The field trial was performed by AgrEvo, the rapeseed was > engineered to resist the herbicide glufosinate (Liberty, Basta). > He probed the microorganisms for the pat-gene, the gene that conferes > resistance to glufosinate. In some bacteria and also in a yeast he found > the pat-gene. This indicates that the gene from the genetically engineered > rapeseed was transferred in the bee=B4s gut to the microbes. > > (Summary written by Greenpeace Germany) I'm not surprised that this comes from GreenPeace or that Nature refused to publish it. Nowhere is it above mentioned that the gene that was used to create Liberty Link Canola was discovered originally and 'borrowed' from bacteria that someone noticed controlling plant growth in their immediate vicinity using a similar natural chemical that they generate somehow -- and always have. As for the facts of the matter, and where the marker came from, what it means, and how conclusive the test was, we cannot begin to tell from the article. allen -- A Beekeeper's Diary: http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/ Package installation & performance experiments, winter loss, fondant feeding, Pierco vs. Permadent vs. dark comb, unwrapping bees, spring splitting tricks, AFB, varroa, protein patties and much much more... Over 1600 served ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 10:04:51 -0600 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Allen Dick Subject: Fourth Annual University of Illinois Bees and Beekeeping Short Course MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit http://www.life.uiuc.edu/entomology/beecourse/ShortCourse.html allen -- A Beekeeper's Diary: http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/ Package installation, performance experiments, winter loss, fondant feeding, Pierco vs. Permadent vs. dark comb, unwrapping bees, spring splitting tricks, AFB, varroa, protein patties and more... Over 1400 served ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 07:02:02 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Aaron Morris Subject: Re: BEE-L: approval required (1464662C) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" This message was originally submitted by marcs@LEGATO.COM to the BEE-L list at LISTSERV.ALBANY.EDU. It was edited to remove mark-up characters. ----------------- Original message (ID=1464662C) (88 lines) ------------------- Reply-To: "Marc Sevigny" From: "Marc Sevigny" To: "bee" Subject: ANP Foundation Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 17:01:49 -0400 I recently inherited a couple of colonies with ANP foundation, as well as 2 deeps of ANP. In the two active colonies, the bees seem to only store some nectar in the ANP cells, no brood. All of the brood is going up in the wax honey supers. I also caught a swarm a couple of weeks ago, and decided to put the swarm into the only spare brood chambers that I had, the ANP. The bees went inside for about 2 hours, then absconded. I don't know if the reason was the ANP foundation or not. But so far, I'm afraid to continue trying to use this foundation. Too bad, too, since it was apparently so expensive. Anyone else have any recent experience with the stuff? Or was is a short-lived fad? Marc Harvard, Massachusetts ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 00:09:56 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: peter dillon Subject: Contaminated Rape MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The French Government has applied the Principle of Precaution and has ordered the total destruction of the 600 hectares of Genetically modified Oilseed Rape. Peter ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 11:11:01 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: tomas mozer Subject: mimicry between droneflies and honeybees Comments: cc: tommozer@hotmail.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit posted for information/discussion purposes only from: http://helix.nature.com/nsu/000525/000525-7.html ecology : Out of the strong came forth sweetness HENRY GEE Wednesday 24 May 2000 "The mimicry between droneflies and honeybees has been fooling humans for over 2000 years," say Y. C. Golding and M. Edmunds of the University of Central Lancaster, Preston, UK, who have just worked out why. Ancient Egyptians and Greeks thought that bees were born from the rotting carcasses of cattle. It even got into the Bible (Judges, chapter 14, verse 8). Strongman Samson tore a lion in two while on the way to woo a prospective bride among the Philistines. On his return, "there was a swarm of bees" in the lion's broken body. Not until 1898 did entomologists recognize that these bees born of decay and death are, in fact, droneflies -- insects more closely related to houseflies and bluebottles than bees. Droneflies lay their eggs in ditches and sewers, and adults 'mimic' bees to fool potential predators. A harmless fly that looks sufficiently like a bee causes a hungry bird to hesitate for long enough to allow the fly to flee. Indeed, wherever bees go, they are followed by a gaggle of 'false bees' -- droneflies, and other insect impostors -- hoping to cash in on the bees' stinging reputation. But to the trained human eye, droneflies and bees are different. And some birds, with their far sharper vision, can tell a bee from a dronefly ten metres away, so who do the droneflies think they're fooling? Golding and Edmunds report in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London1 that what droneflies lack in appearance they make up for in behaviour: they may not talk the talk, but they can walk the walk. The researchers watched bees, droneflies and other insects about their business in a variety of summertime settings, from a glade by a river bank, to plantings in city-centre parks. Unlike other insects, droneflies spend as much time in flowers, and the same amount of time flying between flowers, as bees. This bee-like behaviour could be enough to prompt second thoughts in the minds of predators. There is, however, a fly in the ointment. For this kind of mimicry (known as 'Batesian' mimicry) to work, the theory goes that the mimic must be substantially rarer than the model. The rationale is easy: a bird won't risk pecking a stripy insect if it is likely to be a bee, so the mimic's disguise remains intact. However, if harmless mimics outnumber the models, birds will soon rumble the deception and pluck up courage to attack -- safe in the knowledge that the prey is more likely to be harmless. At several of the sites examined by the researchers, droneflies substantially outnumbered real bees, and yet the droneflies still seemed to be benefiting from looking, and behaving, like bees. The researchers suspect that what we are seeing is an unstable situation, a result of human disturbance. Droneflies, like rats, cockroaches, tuberculosis and other familiars of corruption, are camp-followers of humanity. The recent spread of human beings (and their nasty habits) across the globe has generated unprecedented opportunities for droneflies to breed. So although mimics now mob bee models, predators, it seems, have yet to twig. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Golding, Y. C. & Edmunds, M. Behavioural mimicry of honeybees (Apis mellifera) by droneflies (Diptera: Syrphidae: Eristalis spp.). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 267, 903-910 © Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2000 - NATURE NEWS SERVICE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2000 Reg. No. 785998 England. ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 11:22:21 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: tomas mozer Subject: Two spatial memories for honeybee navigation Comments: cc: tommozer@hotmail.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit posted for information/discussion purposes only from Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Issue May 2000: http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/proc_bio/proc_bio.html Two spatial memories for honeybee navigation R. Menzel, R. Brandt, A. Gumbert, B. Komischke, J. Kunze Volume 267 Issue 1447 page 961 Insect navigation is thought to be based on an egocentric reference system which relates vector information derived from path integration to views of landmarks experienced en route and at the goal. Here we show that honeybees also possess an allocentric form of spatial memory which allows localization of multiple places relative to the intended goal, the hive. The egocentric route memory, which is called the specialized route memory (SRM) here, initially dominates navigation when an animal is first trained to a feeding site and then released at an unexpected site and this is why it is the only reference system detected so far in experiments with bees. However, the SRM can be replaced by an allocentric spatial memory called the general landscape memory (GLM). The GLM is directly accessible to the honeybee (and to the experimenter) if no SRM exists, for example, if bees were not trained along a route before testing. Under these conditions bees return to the hive from all directions around the hive at a speed comparable to that of an equally long flight along a trained route. The flexible use of the GLM indicates that bees may store relational information on places, connections between landmarks and the hive and/or views of landmarks from different directions and, thus, the GLM may have a graph structure, at least with respect to one goal, i.e. the hive. The Royal Society is a registered charity promoting science no. 207043 Copyright ©2000 The Royal Society. All rights reserved ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 15:29:38 -0300 Reply-To: eunice.wonnacott@pei.sympatico.ca Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Eunice Wonnacott Subject: Re: Resmetherin MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Nick W: You asked for "ideas" ?? Somed years ago a homeowner asked me to eradicate bees from an outbuilding. Not knowing what was there, I suited up and went inside. For once it was SO easy. Bumblebees had nested in a small hand pushed floor cleaner. I asked for a pan of water (preferably hot) large enough to accommodate the cleaner, and plunged the whole thing in at once. Easy, safe, effective, cheap etc So..............maybe it would be possible to be inventive and remove bees from the colony with a power vaccuum cleaner, vented into a tank of water? (Some models are built with a water container, instead of using disposable dust bag). All the best, Eunice ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 15:54:23 +0100 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Dave Cushman Subject: Re: BEE-L: approval required (1464662C) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- > This message was originally submitted by marcs@LEGATO.COM to the BEE-L list > Anyone else have any recent experience with the > stuff? Or was is a short-lived fad? > > Marc > Harvard, Massachusetts Reply Hi All My understanding is that ANP comb will only be occupied with brood if NO ordinary wax combs are present. It gives the drones funny curled under tips to the wings as well but they seem to fly ok. Best Regards Dave Cushman >Email: dave.cushman@lineone.net >Web: http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 09:34:07 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "Lipscomb, Al" Subject: Re: Varroa updates from NZ MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain >Nick Wallingford wrote: >> Our Government will be faced with the decision about whether to attempt >> eradication within the next week or so, >Well, I guess most people have had their say by now. If only one colony with >varroa survives the "eradication" of the bees, what will the authorities and >beekeepers do next year ?? ----------------------------------------------------------- >John F. Edwards >Carl Hayden Bee Research Center >Tucson, Arizona 85719 Good question. Some thoughts that come to mind: 1)Have maybe 2-5 years before getting on the chemical merry-go-round. Knocking back the mite population by destroying the bees could result in a lower total cost than treating every hive in the country two times a year. When you count the cost of chemical as well as the labor involved the cost of treatment can be rather high. 2)Keep at it. Smallpox took a few years, and a lot of work to wipe out but the project was not dumped after the first year. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 08:39:37 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "Lipscomb, Al" Subject: Re: mimicry between droneflies and honeybees MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain >Ancient Egyptians and Greeks thought that bees were born from the rotting >carcasses of cattle. It even got into the Bible (Judges, chapter 14, verse >8). Strongman Samson tore a lion in two while on the way to woo a >prospective bride among the Philistines. On his return, "there was a swarm >of bees" in the lion's broken body. Should have kept quoting, the text says "a swarm of bees and some honey". I would guess that the lions corpse mummified in the desert heat and a small swarm of settled in. I doubt droneflies produce honey. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 09:38:05 -0400 Reply-To: Marc Sevigny Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Marc Sevigny Subject: Imirie Shims MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I recently inherited a bunch of Imirie shims. I like the idea of providing an additional entrance (especially since I use queen excluders). But I am concerned about the violation of bee space. Can I expect to be ripping apart burr comb each time I open the hive up? Have people had good experiences with their use? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email server is running an evaluation copy of the MailShield anti- spam software. Please contact your email administrator if you have any questions about this message. MailShield product info: www.mailshield.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 09:42:55 -0400 Reply-To: Marc Sevigny Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Marc Sevigny Subject: ANP Foundation MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I have concluded that my bees are not accepting the ANP foundation in a couple of hives that I recently took over. What is the best way of transitioning back to standard wax foundation? I don't have extra frames at this point, but should be receiving frames and foundation on Tuesday. Should I slowly replace the plastic ANP frames with foundation a couple at a time? Or should I just rip out the entire ANP brood chambers and replace them with new (not yet drawn out) foundation? Can I expect the foundation to be completely drawn out on twenty frames of foundation at this point in the season? Anything I can do to assist the bees in drawing it out? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email server is running an evaluation copy of the MailShield anti- spam software. Please contact your email administrator if you have any questions about this message. MailShield product info: www.mailshield.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 09:34:15 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Aaron Morris Subject: Re: mimicry between droneflies and honeybees MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" This message was originally submitted by edmund.lear@SASOL.COM to the BEE-L list at LISTSERV.ALBANY.EDU. It was edited to remove quotes of previously posted material. ----------------- Original message (ID=57699619) (41 lines) ------------------- From: "Lear, Edmund (ENL)" To: "'Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology'" Subject: RE: mimicry between droneflies and honeybees Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 15:35:55 +0200 An interesting case. I have seen bees in the carcass of a horse and a donkey. The skin of both animals was intact but all the inners were cleaned out. In regards to the Samson incident, there is the misconception that it all happened over night. Careful study will show there is about a year between the death of the lion and the surplus of honey. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 20:20:02 -0400 Reply-To: Honeybees@inorbit.com Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Garry Libby Subject: Re: Imirie Shims In-Reply-To: <200005261335.JAA02275@listserv.albany.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi Marc, I've been using Imirie Shims for five years and love them. When You add drawn supers put the shim above the queen excluder as an upper entrance, they can be put between drawn supers also. You must remove the super as soon as it is filled, You can not leave it for an extended period or the bees will build burr comb. I use shims year round on top of the inner cover as an entrance and to aid in ventilation. Also, You can put two on an inner cover to use as a baggie feeder(if robbing is a concern You wrap masking tape around the opening side). When stacking supers to store You can staple plastic window screen on the solid edge to make a screen to keep out wax moths and other insects and use one on the top and one on the bottom. You could use screened ones in between to place moth crystals on too. George Imirie invented a very useful gadget when He thought up the shim. Thank You George. Sincerely, Garry Libby Attleboro, Massachusetts, USA 41.56 N 71.17 W ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 22:30:44 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Ellen Anglin Subject: Re: Imirie Shims Comments: To: Marc Sevigny MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii If you use the shims between supers, yes, you will be taking out wild comb each time you open them- it can get pretty messy. But they do have good uses! I have used similar shims on top of the top super to create a more generous top opening, and the bees love it! They prefer this enterance to the one at the bottom! The shims I have (Homemade) are deep enough that I can place them between hive bodies, and lay a queen cage in the middle- no removing frames and fiddleing with hanging the queen cage. After three days I remove the empty cage, remove the small amount of wild comb they have built, and put the colony back to rights- quicker than fiddling with putting frames back in, etc., the old way. I have also stapled 8 mesh hardware cloth to one side of some of my shims. If I discover swarm cells on the bottom bars of the top hive body, I can insert this divider to make an instant split- old queen below, a couple swarm cells left up top above the new enterance, and I am set untill I can get back with more equipment to do a proper split. These screened shims are also dandy for setting up a nuc on top of an established colony- the nuc has it's own enterance, but can still get heat from the colony below. The extra space when a shim is added also ensures that a swarm cell on the bottom of a frame is not damaged by hitting the top of the frame below when you place the frame in another colony. (Requeening using swarm cells.) I place a spacer (Or two) on top of a colony and use the extra space to provide fondant, pollen or syrup in baggies. (What is a baggie feeder but an extra deep shim with the enternce sealed?) Broken/burr comb can also be left on top of the colony in one of these for clean up, before solar melting. Use your imagination! I keep finding new uses for these handy spacers. I sliced a couple rotten old hive bodies into 1/2 to 1 inch spacers, and I keep finding new uses for them. Ellen Anglin ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 08:58:27 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "Richard A. Trevino, Jr." Subject: Re: Imirie Shims Comments: cc: Marc Sevigny MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit George Imirie is the inventor of the Imirie Shims, which creates an upper entrance for your hive. This entrance is very usefull to the honey bee in that it creates a short cut in traveling within the hive. The shim also has a number of other uses that are being posted. George Imirie write the "pink pages" which can be found at: http://www.beekeeper.org/george_imirie/index.html He has written an article on the "Proper use of the Imirie Shim". All his article are packed with valuable lessons on upgrading you from a beeHaver to a beeKeeper. Thank you George Imirie for your mentorship and sharing your years of knownledge with us. Richard A. Trevino, Jr. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 20:52:02 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: crpost Subject: Re: when is it time to order a new queen ? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit "Ted J. Hancock" wrote: > Since laying workers are indistinguishable from other workers (I've never > seen = > one laying an egg, and I expect few have ever seen one, period), Having a penchance for going into laying worker mode at the drop of a hat, a number of A. m. capensis laying workers have been observed doing just that. Indeed photographs exist. Main differences - in our case - are distended, but more often swollen abdomens and the k-wing syndrome, normally associated with T-mites. Perhaps also due to the swollen abdomen. > Kind of off the topic = > here - but I used a marked queen in an observation hive once at a fair. = > The queen had a white disk glued to her thorax with a black '99' = > clearly visible in the centre of the disk. To my surprise over 50% of = > the general public asked if this disk was natural All the time. To the extent that one often does not get asked directly, but watch their faces ... and you know what they are thinking! So we tell them. Robert Post ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 14:17:43 -0700 Reply-To: Bosaiya Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Bosaiya Subject: Re: Imirie Shims MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit What advantage do the shims have over a hole drilled in the supers? I've always done that with wonderful results. They congregate around those holes and use them almost exclusively in some cases. I've never used the shims so I just wondered what the difference might be. Regards, Bosaiya .....designs to knock you out..... http://www.knockoutproductions.com ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 21:40:27 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Al Subject: Re: Imirie Shims Comments: To: Bosaiya In-Reply-To: <200005272332.TAA20852@listserv.albany.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sat, 27 May 2000, Bosaiya wrote: > What advantage do the shims have over a hole drilled in the supers? I've > always done that with wonderful results. They congregate around those holes > and use them almost exclusively in some cases. I've never used the shims so Once you drill the hole in the super you are kind of stuck with it. The shims allow for adjustmet. For example if you have a large number of supers on you can add shims. I use almost all medium supers for both brood and honey production. I don't want extra holes in my brood chambers so I insert a shim up in the honey supers when needed. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 09:38:46 +1200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Robert Mann Subject: unpubd claim of horiz gene transfer Comments: cc: nbalist@beekeeping.co.nz Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,319418,00.html The Observer GM genes 'jump species barrier' GM food: special report Antony Barnett, public affairs editor Sunday May 28, 2000 A leading zoologist has found evidence that genes used to modify crops can jump the species barrier and cause bacteria to mutate, prompting fears that GM technology could pose serious health risks. A four-year study by Professor Hans-Hinrich Kaatz, a respected German zoologist, found that the alien gene used to modify oilseed rape had transferred to bacteria living inside the guts of honey bees. The research - which has yet to be published and has not been reviewed by fellow scientists - is highly significant because it suggests that all types of bacteria could become contaminated by genes used in genetically modified technology, including those that live inside the human digestive system. If this happened, it could have an impact on the bacteria's vital role in helping the human body fight disease, aid digestion and facilitate blood clotting. Agriculture Minister Nick Brown, who was yesterday advising farmers who have accidentally grown contaminated GM oilseed rape in Britain to rip up their crops, confirmed the potential significance of Kaatz's research. He said: 'If this is true, then it would be very serious.' The 47-year-old Kaatz has been reluctant to talk about his research until it has been published in a scientific journal, because he fears a backlash from the scientific community similar to that faced by Dr Arpad Pustzai, who claimed that genetically modified potatoes damaged the stomach lining of rats. Pustzai was sacked and had his work discredited. But in his first newspaper interview, Kaatz told The Observer: 'It is true, I have found the herbicide-resistant genes in the rapeseed transferred across to the bacteria and yeast inside the intestines of young bees. This happened rarely, but it did happen.' Although Kaatz realised the potential 'significance' of his findings, he said he 'was not surprised' at the results. Asked if this had implications for the bacteria inside the human gut, he said: 'Maybe, but I am not an expert on this.' Dr Mae-Wan Ho, geneticist at Open University and a critic of GM technology, has no doubts about the dangers. She said: 'These findings are very worrying and provide the first real evidence of what many have feared. Everybody is keen to exploit GM technology, but nobody is looking at the risk of horizontal gene transfer. We are playing about with genetic structures that existed for millions of years and the experiment is running out of control.' One of the biggest concerns is if the anti-biotic resistant gene used in some GM crops crossed over to bacteria. 'If this happened it would leave us unable to treat major illnesses like meningitis and E coli .' Kaatz, who works at the respected Institute for Bee Research at the University of Jena in Germany, built nets in a field planted with genetically modified rapeseed produced by AgrEvo. He let the bees fly freely within the net. At the beehives, he installed pollen traps in order to sample the pollen from the bees' hindlegs when entering the hive. This pollen was fed to young honey bees in the laboratory. Pollen is the natural diet of young bees, which need a high protein diet. Kaatz then extracted the intestine of the young bees and discovered that the gene from the GM rape-seed had been transferred in the bee gut to the microbes. Professor Robert Pickard, director-general of the Institute of the British Nutrition Foundation, is a bee expert as well as being a biologist and has visited the institute where Kaatz works. He said: 'There is no doubt that, if Kaatz's research is substantiated, then it poses very interesting questions and will need to be looked at very closely. 'But it must be remembered that the human body has been coping perfectly well with strange DNA for millions of years. And we also know many people have been eating GM products for years without showing any signs of ill health.' ---- - Robt Mann consultant ecologist P O Box 28878 Remuera, Auckland 1005, New Zealand (9) 524 2949 From MAILER-DAEMON Sat Jun 17 06:53:32 2000 Received: from listserv.albany.edu (listserv.albany.edu [169.226.1.24]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id GAA29419 for ; Sat, 17 Jun 2000 06:53:31 -0400 (EDT) Received: from listserv.albany.edu (listserv.albany.edu [169.226.1.24]) by listserv.albany.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id GAA10485 for ; Sat, 17 Jun 2000 06:53:14 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <200006171053.GAA10485@listserv.albany.edu> Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 06:53:14 -0400 From: "L-Soft list server at University at Albany (1.8d)" Subject: File: "BEE-L LOG0005D" To: adamf@METALAB.UNC.EDU Content-Length: 94080 Lines: 2093 ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 02:51:31 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Stan Sandler Subject: Re: GM Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I would agree with most of what Hank Misima said except this: >GM technology will also not help "feed" the world. Farmers in third >world countries save seed, they don't have money to buy it. US farmers >produce more food that can be profitably sold. Seed is food and sometimes it gets eaten (with grains). We will in the next while enter a period where fossil fuel energy becomes scarcer. Then transporting grain around the world will become more expensive (in terms of energy not just money) and in both first and third worlds agriculture is energy intensive (not just for machinery but also for inputs like fertilizer -- nitrogen is a component of air but takes a lot of energy to put into fertilizer. When GM technology gives us grains that fix nitrogen from the air like legumes it WILL help feed the world. Unfortuneately the technology should never have become so linked with private enterprise. It has been abused. But I would reserve judgement on its future. Regards, Stan ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 21:19:33 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "David L. Green" Subject: Re: supercedure in package bees? Comments: To: fairfax@alum.mit.edu MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 5/21/00 4:15:25 PM Pacific Daylight Time, fairfax@ALUM.MIT.EDU writes: I saw what > looked like queen cells in this hive on the two frames I inspected. I saw > good brood but no queen. > > Should I worry about these "queen cells?" As a novice, I can't claim to be > certain that they were queen cells, but they certainly resembled the > pictures in Dadant's "First Lessons in Bee Keeping." Dadant mentions that > supercedure is sometimes a problem in week 3 with package bees. My research > before buying indicated that York provides quality, well-bred queens and I > would hate to lose one so quickly. It's pretty common. Just in case they don't have viable brood to make a queen from, I'd suggest that you take a frame of open brood, with eggs from your good hive and give it to the weaker one. Actually, it can be a frame where she has just started, if you don't want to weaken them too much. You only need a handful of eggs. If they immediately make cells from this you'll know they don't have good brood to work from, as their own queen has failed. The weather has been unusually good this spring for mating, in the southeast, and drones are extremely plentiful. I haven't been keeping actual count but I would estimate that between 5 and 10% of this year's queens are already showing some drone brood in worker cells. They mated well enough to get them started, but not enough for sustained production. My solution: cells if I have them, otherwise a frame of brood with eggs. Queen failure is not only common, but it is growing more common. I can't say as to the queen breeder being to blame. York's has a good reputation. There's been some discussion lately in some bee circles about more and more drones being found sterile (as with other animals as well). It could be a result of low levels of pesticide exposure in the environment.... Giving them another queen is another option, but you should also give them a couple frames of sealed brood at the same time, because they need young bees to care for the queen, and your bees are now getting old. My own preference is to help them raise their own. If it fails, unite them with the other hive, and split them in the spring. Dave Green The Pollination Home Page: http://pollinator.com ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 20 May 2000 14:20:42 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: BeeCrofter@AOL.COM Subject: Re: eucalyptus MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit An invasive weed they are trying to remove in Florida ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 20:55:31 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: GImasterBK@AOL.COM Subject: Re: supercedure in package bees? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hello Steve, You are TOO anxious, just like a beginner SHOULD BE. As an "old-timer", started beekeeping in 1933 so this is my 68th year, you just need to read more. A 5 lb. package is compared to a 3 lb. package is like an insurance policy to get a good start. However, since the life of a bee is only 42 days in flying weather, half or more than half of all your package bees are dead now (3 weeks). The main task of the worker bees in colony development from foundation is to keep the brood nest warm, 91°-96°, and none of the new bees have emerged yet to replace the dead ones. Just keep that 1:1 sugar syrup on them for the next 3 months until Sept, because bees ABSOLUTELY will not draw comb for any reason whatsoever unless there is a nectar flow present, and 1:1 sugar syrup is an artificial nectar. By the way, you like most uninformed beekeepers think HONEY is the first choice of food to a bee. It is NOT! Their first choice is real nectar, their second choice is artificial nectar like 1:1 sugar syrup, and the 3 rd choice is honey, which is just there winter food supply. Honey to a bee is like Hardtack to a sailor - a survival food, not filet mignon. Heat rises. Brood must be kept warm. You will find that bees don't like to have much brood in frames 1&2 or 9&10, because they can't cover (warm) that wide a space. Hence, bees like to lay brood in a "chimney effect" and hence frames 4,5,6&7 of the SECOND story are much more popular than the outer frames of the first story. Don't bother to look for the queen. She would be EASY to find if you had paid 50¢ to have York mark each one. Just look for OPEN brood. An egg for 3 full days and then a larva for the next 6 days, and capped on the 10th day. To look for eggs, you turn the frame upside down, have the sun behind you and look down into the cells particularly near the center the frame. I doubt that you have a supersedure cell already, but not impossible if the bees are thoroughly dissatisfied with the queen. A Supersedure cell is found ONLY on the face of the comb near the center of the frame It will be about the diameter of a dime or a nickel and project outward maybe 1/8" further than worker comb. Sooner or later, you will hear of me, because I do a lot of writing about bees and have monthly articles on the WEB, am writing another book now, and travel over most of the world teaching beekeeping FREE OF CHARGE to those countries or states that pay my transportation + room and board to get there. I am very active in EAS and ABF giving talks and putting on workshops in these every year FREE. I am a retired scientist who has kept up to 135 colonies per season for scientific studies in addition to honey production to pay for my experiments. My WEB addresses are: http://www.cybertours.com/~midnitebee/ click the lower right image http://www.beekeeper.org/george_imirie/index.html What is your location? Weather and crops are so different depending on location. If you don't have THE BEEKEEPER'S HANDBOOK, 3rd Edition (April 1999), written by Dr. Diana Sammataro, for $29.95, you should! I believe that this might be considered the BEST beginner's book ever written. Regardless of fame, books written more than 10 years ago are pretty much obsolete in 2000, because they don't cover or even mention both the bad points as well as the good things that have all occurred in the last 15 years: The bad things are tracheal mites found in 1984, the Varroa mite found in 1987, AHB entering Texas in 1990, and the small hive beetle in 1998. The GOOD things that really excite my enthusiasm to get back to research are the GREAT importance of honey bee PHEROMONES, the importance of HYGIENIC BEES to control disease resistance of the bee, and so much more is known about swarm control and the use of other races of bees than a few years back. I hope that I have helped, and don't hesitate to write, because I am now partially disabled by strokes and have time to help beeHAVERS who want to become beeKEEPERS. George Imirie in Maryland where we will have EAS 2000 July 31-Aug 4 ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 14:02:15 +0100 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Max Watkins Subject: Re: Sterile Drones: Why? In-Reply-To: <200005181417.KAA19265@listserv.albany.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In the 15 years since Apistan has been used (according to label direction) there have been no deleterious effects from the use of this product on bee brood, adult bees or on colony development. And no, this is not just company rhetoric, bee institutes in many parts of the world have looked for effects of Apistan treatment on many hundreds of colonies - a condition of the various regulatory authorities. I cannot vouch for Bayvarol personally but it should have undergone similar testing in the few countries where it has been registered. Saying that, all biological material, including colonies of bees can be expected to exhibit a range of behaviour to any "foreign" substance put into the hive. As far as we know Apistan has no deleterious effects to any life stage of the honeybee. After all this time in use I would be surprised if effects started showing up now. Max Dr Max Watkins Vita (Europe) Limited Brook House, Alencon Link Basingstoke, Hants RG21 7RD UK Tel. +44 (0) 1256 473177 Fax +44 (0) 1256 473179 -----Original Message----- From: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology [mailto:BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu]On Behalf Of tomas mozer Sent: 18 May 2000 15:16 To: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu Subject: Re: Sterile Drones: Why? graham law wrote: Has anyone out there had similar experience with Bayvarol/Apistan treatments? If there is anything in this suspicion then Spring treatments should be avoided if not absolutely necessary. see http://www.nalusda.gov/ttic/tektran/data/000009/21/0000092180.html and http://www.nalusda.gov/ttic/tektran/data/000009/83/0000098333.html ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 12:27:28 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: John Mitchell Subject: Bees in the news MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I pull these stories from a database with limited access, so I can't just post a link and a headline for list members. Scientists seek demise of bee parasite Monday, May 22, 2000 By Associated Press As bee trucks arrive to pollinate Maine's wild blueberry crops, scientists are looking for new ways to control a tiny parasite that has been killing honeybees for more than a decade. The bloodsucking varroa mite, together with another mite, has nearly wiped out honeybees in the wild and its growing resistance to chemicals has made heavier losses a fact of life in colonies maintained by beekeepers. That means the search is growing more urgent for new ways to control the tricky and unpredictable parasite, which was blamed for killing off about half of Maine's hives last winter. "If you don't have a chemical that will kill them, you're out of business. The mites will take over the hive," said David Hackenberg, a Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, beekeeper who returned last week from delivering bees to Jasper Wyman & Son, one of Maine's largest wild blueberry producers. The varroa mite turned up in Maine in 1987 in bees that were imported from Florida, where the mite made its first appearance that year. The mite, with some help from an even tinier villain known as the tracheal mite, has wiped out an estimated 90 percent of wild honeybees in the United States, said Bob Danka, a research entomologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The varroa mite, about the size of the head of a pin, attaches to a bee larva after growing within a sealed-up cell in a bee colony. Then it spreads to the rest of the colony, transmitting viruses and bacteria as it goes. The tracheal mite sucks the blood of an adult honey bee from within its breathing tubes. Because of the die-off, honeybees have virtually disappeared from playgrounds and backyards across the United States. The survival of commercial honeybee operations has depended largely on the vigilance of the beekeepers and a chemical called fluvalinate, which is marketed under the name Apistan. But beekeepers noticed a growing resistance in the mid-1990s. "I've had calls from a number of people, commercial beekeepers, who lost a thousand hives or more because the treatments gave out," said Troy Fore, executive director of the American Beekeeping Federation in Jesup, Georgia. Now, many beekeepers like Hackenberg have turned to the insecticide Coumaphos, marketed by Bayer Corp. under the name CheckMite. But not all beekeepers are following suit and losses are mounting, said Nick Calderone, an entomology professor at Cornell University. CheckMite is being authorized year by year while the Environmental Protection Agency reviews its safety. Hackenberg, a former president of the American Beekeeping Federation, said more insecticides will be needed eventually. "We need two chemicals or three chemicals, so we can rotate them all," he said. Other solutions are in the works. USDA is selling breeder bees from eastern Russia that are genetically resistant to the varroa mite, to breed with bees in the United States. Scientists also are studying the use of new chemicals such as formic acid, along with better management practices, Calderone said. Some growers have experimented with other species including bumblebees, but honeybees are widely preferred because they can pollinate many different crops, said Hachiro Shimanuki, a research microbiologist at the USDA bee research laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 20:04:57 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Rimantas Zujus Subject: Radioactive nuclides Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-4" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Dear Beefriends Maybe, somebody is interested in honey radioactive pollution. Many radioactive nuclides spread to different countries after Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident after 1986. Some consumers of agricultural goods (also a honey) even after 14 years doubt if the used products are free of radioactive nuclides and don't affect their health. Therefore the Beekeepers Union of Lithuania asked their branch Beekeeper Societies to provide the honey samples from 26 regions and 47 such samples were collected. Also 2 samples of German origin honey for comparison were bought in honey shops. The radioactive pollution was explored in Radiation Safety Center in Vilnius with gamma spectrometric OXFORD device. It makes possible to evaluate the ecological, sanitary, hygienic consequences of specific radionuclide activity. Time spent for a sample evaluation took 5-118 hours, and it depended on Cesium (Cs-137, half decay time 30.174 years) activity. Potassium (K-40, half decay time 1.28 E9 years) pollution was also explored. The study of radioactive nuclide in honey showed that results gotten for German and Lithuanian origin products are similar and the pollution level meets the Lithuanian and EU regulations. More details could be found in http://rizujus.lei.lt/Beekeeping/ApisAssoc/Gamma%20nuclides.htm Taste Lithuanian honey without fear :-) Sincerely Rimantas e-mail : zujus@isag.lei.lt http://rizujus.lei.lt/ 55 North, 24 East ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 12:31:22 -0600 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: T'N'T Apiaries Subject: Re: GM pollen MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >Surely if there is >GM pollen in the honey then the honey must be from the same source and >therefor must be considered contaminated. If tolerance levels are low (< 5%) and pollen counts high (>50%), you're probably safe making this statement. However most honey sellers and the honest buyers will tell you pollen analysis is really only a tool and by no means fool proof. A common example here in Canada is clover honey produced late in the season. Sometimes pollen testing will say it is 75 - 90% canola. The honey will be water white and stay liquid till after Christmas - characteristics of clover not canola. When a report comes back like this, the producer will recall a small patch of volunteer canola in the area. Nectar from the clover, pollen more easily obtained from the canola. A specialty honey buyer in the US told me a few years ago that with some of the varieties honeys he packs he relies more on colour, favour and texture than the pollen counts. He found them unreliable. The European buyers pretend to swear by pollen testing, but will throw the results out the window when the need suits them. If the honey must be 100% GM free, then I'd say that with the presence of a GM pollen there is likely some nectar in there from a GM plant. As soon as percentages become involved, things get real fuzzy. Dave Tharle Ardmore, AB ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 16:25:59 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: John Mitchell Subject: Honey loan deficiency program MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Any word on what happened during the second week of May when these guys (see below) went to Washington? Clipped from a letter to American Honey Producers Association: We feel, with this provision in the (federal) budget specifically earmarking some monies for specialty crops that this may be our opportunity to get the loan deficiency program reinstated on honey. Lyle Johnston, Jack Meyer, Jr., Steve Parks, Bobby Coy, Harvey Price, and myself (Richard Adee) are going into Washington the second week of May to work on legislation to reinstate the program. We will ask for an 80-cent per pound loan rate, which according to a recent study by Dr. Roger Hoopingarner is 70% of cost of production. The buy back rate will be set by the world market. They were also working on this (clipped again): We will also be touching base with the Agricultural Appropriations subcommittee concerning the funding of USDA-ARS bee research. The administrations budget request an increase of $300,000 for the Weslaco Bee Lab and we want an additional $300,000 for the Baton Rouge Bee Lab. This will enable Baton Rouge to bring on a full-time scientist to enhance the research for mite resistant bees. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 15:08:48 -0600 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Jerry J Bromenshenk Subject: Re: Radioactive nuclides In-Reply-To: <200005221811.OAA18118@listserv.albany.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I appreciate the notice about the study. We have studied radioactive materials in honey, pollen, and bees in the U.S. since the early 1970's, having worked in rural areas of the west and on a variety of DOE and DOD sites - e.g. downwind of nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel rod reprocessing facilities, etc. We also collaborated with Croatian scientists conducting post-Chernobyl studies. The Lithuanian study says that recent levels of radioactive materials in honey do not exceed human health safety standards. Our studies show that these materials can show up in beehives, but not usually at levels high enough to be a health threat. In Croatian, measurable levels of some radionuclides were found in honey derived from honey dew nectar - and this seems to be a consequence of the Chernobyl accident. Again, the levels are measureable, and the transport routes of interest, but do not appear to pose any threat to people eating honey. Jerry J. Bromenshenk, Ph.D. Director, DOE/EPSCoR & Montana Organization for Research in Energy The University of Montana-Missoula Missoula, MT 59812-1002 E-Mail: jjbmail@selway.umt.edu Tel: 406-243-5648 Fax: 406-243-4184 http://www.umt.edu/biology/more http://www.umt.edu/biology/bees ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 17:34:02 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "Ted J. Hancock" Subject: when is it time to order a new queen ? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Mark Baird asked if he was doing the right thing by uniting a = laying-worker colony with a queen-right colony. Since some of the old = timers seem to have missed this one, I'll give Mark my 2-cent's worth. No, Mark, you are not on the right track here. If you open the hive = and the bees seem skitterish and buzz around a lot they are probably = queenless. If they've been queenless for several weeks, one or more = workers will have started to lay unfertilized eggs. They prefer to lay = in drone cells, and will lay several eggs in each cell, sometimes = sticking them to the wall of the cell because they can't reach the = bottom. I would not try to unite a hive in this state with any = queen-right colony, since the laying workers will kill the queen. Since = laying workers are indistinguishable from other workers (I've never seen = one laying an egg, and I expect few have ever seen one, period), you can = try to eliminate them while saving the rest of the workers by shaking = the whole hive out in tall grass 100+ feet from the yard. The theory is = that because laying workers have developed sexual organs they are too = heavy to fly, and 100+ feet of tall grass will prevent them from walking = back to the apiary. Meanwhile, the normal workers will fly back and = join new hives. Generally a hive containing laying workers is more = trouble than it is worth - even if you salvage the productive workers = they will be old and soon die. However if your hive simply has a drone-laying queen, you can = successfully unite it with a stronger colony (using your newspaper) as = long as you kill the drone-laying queen. Queens can become drone-layers = in two ways. First if a virgin can't get out to mate for 4 or 5 weeks = she will give up and start to lay eggs, which of course are = unfertilized, hence drones. Once she starts laying she never will fly = out to mate, even when the weather turns nice. The second way hives can = get stuck with a drone-layer is if a laying queen runs out of semen with = which to fertilize her eggs. In my experience, a virgin drone-layer = will also start off laying several eggs in one cell, but unlike laying = workers, the eggs are all stuck to the bottom of the cell, never on the = sides. Under both of these conditions, the bees may at first seem = content because they have a queen, but as the weeks pass they too will = get increasingly buzzy and grumpy. Finding queens takes practise - usually by working for a commercial = beekeeper and concentrating on the task so much that you dream about = queens every night for a week. It's mainly a matter of gaining = confidence that you can spot her and learning to work a hive without = causing the bees to run around. Virgins are hard to find (I'm talking = bees here) because they are nervously running around, but a laying queen = is slow-moving and sedate, if you don't use too much smoke, or get rough = handling the hive. If you've gone through the hive twice without = finding the queen it's best to close up the hive and try again another = day, since the bees will have started running, making it more difficult = to spot the queen. You can find the queen by shaking the whole hive = through a queen excluder nailed to the bottom of a super, but this has = got to be hard on the queen. I would only use this method if you are = desperately trying to find a queen you are planning to pinch. The alternative is to use a marked queen. Kind of off the topic = here - but I used a marked queen in an observation hive once at a fair. = The queen had a white disk glued to her thorax with a black '99' = clearly visible in the centre of the disk. To my surprise over 50% of = the general public asked if this disk was natural ('No, Ma'am, are you = naturally blonde? Actually she got that number when the Oilers drafted = her...'). Ted Hancock ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 08:53:11 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: crpost Subject: Re: eucalyptus MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit David & Sarah Grew-Foss wrote: > They are also a fire hazard... I would recommend some serious thought before > growing them in Texas, perhaps consult a > botanist about how they would act in your climate. What is important to remember is the diversity of eucalypts, with hundreds of species growing naturally in Australia. Their characteristics vary incredibly. >From 90 meter tall e. diversicolor trees to shrubby (and messy) e. lehmanii and ornamental e. ficefolia. Some have the potential to become invasive in certain areas. This has to be checked out - correctly so. In South Africa, fire-breaks of eucalyptus are planted in between plantations of pine trees and other types planted for commercial reasons, as well as to delimit natural areas of indigenous fynbos and forests. The only requirement of these fire-breaks that makes them ultra efficient, is the fact that once per year the lanes have to be cleared of the debris under them. The fact that nothing else grows under tightly spaced eucalyptus trees, because of their oily exudate, aids in their efficiency as fire breaks. The recent spate of fires in the South Western Cape and the Cape Peninsula proved conclusively that clean eucalyptus fire-breaks stop runaway fires. That many of the species provide fantastic honey and/or pollen is a definite. Perhaps their down side can be balanced against their positive benefits. Mainly that of providing bee food in times of dearth, because no matter how dry it gets, many eucalypts - having access to deep ground-water, will still provide. Robert Post ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 08:50:44 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: crpost Subject: Re: dca MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit awcannon wrote: > bearing in mind that drones get the chop at the years end, how do the = > new years drones know where to find all of those drone congregation = > zones? I have my doubts about them. Aaaah, the mystery of it. The theory of a super-organism probably plays a distinct role here. Bees are perceived to be only the cells of an organism, called - for want of a better term - the bee colony. As each cell in e.g. a human body is constantly replaced because of it's inherrent wear and tear, so each bee is replaced over time. As each cell or groups of cells have a function to perform in the body, so too does each bee or group of bees have their function to do in the colony. As humans and other creatures procreate, so too do colonies of bees procreate by casting swarms. The communication within human bodies is performed by hormones: so too does the colony have chemical signals coursing through it in the form of pheromones. In the event of DCA's it is perhaps slightly simpler - they are drawn by the queen pheromone towards a general area. There, perhaps survival instinct groups them together in "safer" areas, in clearings between trees, in valleys and other wind becalmed, open areas surrounded by shelter from predatory birds. We know that bees are attracted to the vibrations of other bees and that is perhaps the reason why they group together within DCA's. No need to be told by the previous "old-boys" of the club where the party is at. There have been many studies done on DCA's. Lately with radar. One of our SA researchers Geoff Tribe has done a lot of work on them. I you wish, I could request furher input from him. Greetings Robert Post ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 08:54:03 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: crpost Subject: Re: Sterile Drones - the 2000 man? Comments: To: John Burgess MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit John Burgess wrote: > Neither Bayvarol nor Apistan are organophosphates, unlike Coumaphos. > They are both classed as synthetic pyrethoids, and are regarded as > significantly less hazardous to people than OP's. John, Yes, that's what we are led to believe. The point here is that I don't think the chemical companies told us about the sterilisation effect of these substances on drones either! Are any of the people around that they tested this on? Robert Post - Editor CAPENSIS, Journal of the Cape Bee ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 07:31:23 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Aaron Morris Subject: Re: DCAs MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" crpost wrote what struck me as a lot of poetic hooey, but it was nice style, including: > In the event of DCA's it is perhaps slightly simpler - they are drawn by > the queen pheromone towards a general area. There, perhaps survival instinct > groups them together in "safer" areas, in clearings between trees, in > valleys and other wind becalmed, open areas surrounded by shelter from predatory > birds. Well, based on my limited experience (a single DCA hunt at Gormanston), the DCA we discovered was an open soccer field, shielded neither from wind nor birds. It was a totally open area. I cannot say if that particular DCA was typical, nor do I know if one were to return there a day or two later a similar discovery would have been made. I wonder if it was just chance that a group of drones was coincidently passing by as the feather drenched in queen pheremones was dangled provocatively in front of them. Two interesting points: when the feather was moved near electric wires (not of high voltage) the drones split away from the feather in an instant. They would not fly near the wires. And speaking of splitting away, you should have seen the pack of drones take off in a swarm when presumedly, the real thing (a virgin queen) flew onto the scene. They took off in a collective swarm, the kind you see in cartoons, until they disappeared in the distance. Now, does this speak for DCAs or can one assume rather that drones travel in packs? I cannot say, many more excursions are necessary. > We know that bees are attracted to the vibrations of other bees and > that is perhaps the reason why they group together within DCA's. Or perhaps they travel in packs. > There have been many studies done on DCA's. Lately with radar. One of > our SA researchers Geoff Tribe has done a lot of work on them. If you wish, > I could request furher input from him. By all means, please do! Aaron Morris - wondering DCAs or dumbsticks? ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 08:57:41 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: John Edwards Organization: Hayden Bee Lab, USDA-ARS,Tucson, Arizona Subject: Re: dca MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit crpost wrote: > awcannon wrote: > > In the event of DCA's it is perhaps slightly simpler - they are drawn by > the > queen pheromone towards a general area. Nope, sorry. The DCAs form whether there are flying queens or not. I have forwarded this thread to Dr. Loper, he will hopefully jump in and provide some radar insights. Landmarks seem to play the greatest role in DCA formation. We tried to prove a link with magnetic anomolies in the earth, but could never get a solid connection. As seen on radar, the drones flow like water above treelines and branch off to swirls at intervals, sometimes over open areas, sometimes not. Much like a meandering stream. One thing that surprised us was the lack of boundaries - the drone flight paths just go on and on, combining and dividing. Now that we can put short movies on the internet, I should try to capture some segments of Dr. Loper's and Wayne Wolf's radar footage for wider distribution. The patterns are really beautiful. Stay tuned - I'll post a link if I set up a radar movie site. ----------------------------------------------------------- John F. Edwards "Feral Bee Tracker and AHB Identifier" Carl Hayden Bee Research Center Tucson, Arizona 85719 http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/home/edwards/edwards.html ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 16:46:52 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: tomas mozer Subject: thelytoky and ahb Comments: cc: jsbee@msu.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit forwarded/cross-posted for information/discussion purposes only: ------Original Message------ From: kim@airoot.com Sent: May 23, 2000 2:39:28 PM GMT Subject: Catch The Buzz Article The Conference held in Tucson in April had several surprises, and loads of great information. Bee Culture will be publishing the Proceedings from that conference as soon as the information has been formatted and is ready. This is the first of many findings that were discussed at the conference. This news of African bees is EXCITING! The African(ized) Queen: New Twist Found To Hive Drama Africanized honey bees have an unexpected advantage in the battle to keep beekeepers from replacing highly defensive Africanized queens with gentle, easily managed European ones. Within only one week after their queen dies or is removed by beekeepers, Africanized worker bees--which are female--are capable of activating their ovaries to produce viable female eggs for re-queening the hive. That's according to preliminary findings by Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman of the ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, Tucson, Ariz., and Stanley S. Schneider of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. European worker bees' ovaries can't start producing eggs until the queen has been missing for at least three weeks. And, egg-laying worker bees that are queenless typically produce male offspring. In contrast, the Africanized workers' faster, one-week response to queenlessness, and ability to produce a queen from their own female eggs, could explain why many beekeepers' efforts to re-queen an Africanized hive with a docile European queen haven't succeeded. Queens introduced into colonies that have egg-laying workers will be attacked and killed. Scientists already knew that some kinds of African honey bees, such as the Cape bee of South Africa, can lay viable female eggs within one week of becoming queenless, and nurture them to become their queen. But the ARS and University researchers are apparently the first to observe this phenomenon in Africanized worker bees in the northern hemisphere. Migrating from Brazil, Africanized bees are today found in Arizona, California, Texas, New Mexico and Nevada. The scientists are developing new tactics to foil the Africanized workers' ability to make their own Africanized queen. DeGrandi-Hoffman reported the findings at the Second International Conference on Africanized Honey Bees and Bee Mites, held recently in Tucson. ARS, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief research wing, was co-sponsor. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Kim Flottum Editor, Bee Culture Magazine http://www.airoot.com/beeculture/index.htm For an archive Catch the Buzz postings, visit: http://bee.airoot.com/beeculture/buzz/index.html To unsubscribe to this emailing, simply goto: http://bee.airoot.com/beeculture/buzz/unsubscribe.html * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 20:22:16 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Hank Mishima Subject: Fwd: Report of Gene Transfer from G-E Rapeseed to Bacteria and Fungi in the Gut of Bees Content-Type: Multipart/Mixed; Boundary=WebTV-Mail-28473-9873 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit MIME-Version: 1.0 (WebTV) --WebTV-Mail-28473-9873 Content-Type: Text/Plain; Charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit News of GM transfer. Hank Mishima Fairview OR -------------------------------------------------------- To contact your elected officials see www.vote-smart.org --WebTV-Mail-28473-9873 Content-Disposition: Inline Content-Type: Message/RFC822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit Received: from mailsorter-101-10.iap.bryant.webtv.net (209.240.198.44) by storefull-106.iap.bryant.webtv.net with WTV-SMTP; Tue, 23 May 2000 08:20:45 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: Received: from maynard.mail.mindspring.net (maynard.mail.mindspring.net [207.69.200.243]) by mailsorter-101-10.iap.bryant.webtv.net (8.8.8-wtv-f/ms.dwm.v7+dul2) with ESMTP id IAA10059 for ; Tue, 23 May 2000 08:20:43 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [165.121.35.85] (user-2ini8ql.dialup.mindspring.com [165.121.35.85]) by maynard.mail.mindspring.net (8.9.3/8.8.5) with ESMTP id KAA16549; Tue, 23 May 2000 10:38:29 -0400 (EDT) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: beb@pop2.igc.org Message-Id: Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 07:47:43 -0800 To: beb@igc.org From: Beth Burrows Subject: Report of Gene Transfer from G-E Rapeseed to Bacteria and Fungi in the Gut of Bees Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ; format="flowed" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable ********************************** Report of Gene Transfer from G-E Rapeseed to Bacteria and Fungi in the Gut of Bees ********************************** =46rom: "Tappeser" Organization: Oeko-Institute e.V. Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 15:37:25 +0100 Subject: new stories from Germany These are the latest results from risk research in Germany. You may distribute it because I think everybody should get to know it. The paper was submitted to Nature but they refused to accept it. Prof. Kaatz, the author, tries to publish it in another scientific journal. I commented on his results in television. Warm regards Beatrix Tappeser The German Television ZDF reported on Sunday May 21 that a German researcher found a gene transfer from genetically engineered rapeseed to bacteria and fungi in the gut of honey bees. Prof. Hans-Hinrich Kaatz from the Institut f=FCr Bienenkunde (Institute for bee research) at th= e University of Jena experimented during the last three years with honey bees on an experimental field with transgenic rapeseed in Saxony, Germany. The field trial was performed by AgrEvo, the rapeseed was engineered to resist the herbicide glufosinate (Liberty, Basta).=20 Prof. Kaatz built nets in the field with the transgenic rapeseed and=20 let the bees fly freely within the net. At the beehives, he installed pollen traps in order to sample the pollen loads from the bees=B4 hindlegs when entering the hive. This pollen was fed to young honey bees in the laboratory. (Pollen is the natural diet of young bees which need a high protein diet). Then Prof.Kaatz took the intestine out of the young bees and spread the contents on growth medium to grow the microorganisms. He probed the microorganisms for the pat-gene, the gene that conferes resistance to glufosinate. In some bacteria and also in a yeast hefound the pat-gene. This indicates that the gene from the genetically engineered rapeseed was transferred in the bee=B4s gut to the microbes. (Summary written by Greenpeace Germany) Dr. Beatrix Tappeser Institute for Applied Ecology Postfach 6226, D-79038 Freiburg Phone: (49)761-45295-39 or 0 Fax:(49)761-475437 email: tappeser@oeko.de ******************** forwarded by The Edmonds Institute beb@igc.org --WebTV-Mail-28473-9873-- ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 11:14:51 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Yves Layec Subject: pemphredon Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I am looking for informations on the pemphredon, a solitary wasp or bee, may be belonging to the genus sphecidae. Could someone give me some help? Is there something published about this insect? Thanks. Yves LAYEC ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 10:31:15 -0600 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Allen Dick Subject: Important Notice from the Moderators of BEE-L MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit If you are new, welcome to BEE-L . In case you are wondering, there is no BEE-L FAQ as such, but we do maintain extensive archives that go back over a decade and can be found via http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/BEE-L/. The rules for posting, and pretty well anything else you need to know about BEE-L can be found there too. Lately we are receiving quite a few otherwise valid posts that contain: * huge irrelevant signatures * V-cards * binaries such as PDF files or viruses * complete quotes of entire previous articles including signatures, * even quotes of complete BEE-L digests We like to approve all posts, but such problematic posts are discarded with a sigh, and usually without comment, by the busy moderators. If your post does not come back to you via the list within 24 hours, please consult the guidelines and also please look in your 'sent' folder to see what the problem is. allen -- one of the BEE-L moderators ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 07:55:35 +1200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Nick Wallingford Subject: Varroa updates from NZ MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" I keep an up to date register of the information related to NZ's varroa outbreak at http://www.beekeeping.co.nz/varroa Our Government will be faced with the decision about whether to attempt eradication within the next week or so, after hearing the facts from several technical committees that have been advising and informing them. ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 07:54:05 +1200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Nick Wallingford Subject: Resmetherin MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Some years ago one of our NZ bee scientists was working to find a good 'knock down' type chemical for killing bees in a hive, one that was (1) able to kill quickly and effectively (2) leave no residues in the honey/wax (3) would make for minimal clean up (hopefully with the bees dropping to the floor upon death (4) allow for full reuse of wax, frames, boxes and (5) safe for operator... Only chemical I remember specifically him talking about at the time was resmetherin, described now as a mosquito adulticide. Any comments on what might be possible? Other chemicals? ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 09:08:31 +1200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Ron Law Subject: Re: pemphredon MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit goto http://www.ussc.alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/advsearch? Book mark it -- it's the very best of advanced search engines. Then put pemphredon and sphecidae in the search space, choose must contain all and click fast search. Voila! Ron Law Yves Layec wrote: > I am looking for informations on the pemphredon, a solitary wasp or bee, > may be belonging to the genus sphecidae. > Could someone give me some help? Is there something published about this > insect? > Thanks. > Yves LAYEC ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 19:17:01 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: GImasterBK@AOL.COM Subject: Re: Resmetherin MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Resmethrin is definitely the bee killer choice when it is necessary here in Maryland. All of our bee inspectors carry a spray can with them at all times, just in case. George Imirie ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 17:47:39 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: John Edwards Organization: Hayden Bee Lab, USDA-ARS,Tucson, Arizona Subject: Re: Varroa updates from NZ MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Nick Wallingford wrote: > Our Government will be faced with the decision about whether to attempt > eradication within the next week or so, Well, I guess most people have had their say by now. If only one colony with varroa survives the "eradication" of the bees, what will the authorities and beekeepers do next year ?? ----------------------------------------------------------- John F. Edwards Carl Hayden Bee Research Center Tucson, Arizona 85719 http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/home/edwards/edwards.html ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 17:40:08 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: John Edwards Organization: Hayden Bee Lab, USDA-ARS,Tucson, Arizona Subject: Re: Resmetherin MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Nick Wallingford wrote: > Some years ago one of our NZ bee scientists was working to find a good > 'knock down' type chemical > Only chemical I remember specifically him talking about at the time was > resmetherin, We tested it a little here in Tucson - I remember it was applied under a lid for a few seconds (from aerosol can), and the bees absolutely shot out of the entrance and were dead in a few seconds. Pretty impressive. I know nothing about the residues - since we were in test mode, the colony was bagged and disposed of as hazardous waste. - John ----------------------------------------------------------- John F. Edwards Carl Hayden Bee Research Center Tucson, Arizona 85719 http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/home/edwards/edwards.html ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 06:03:50 PDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Kirk Waskey Subject: Re: GM Seed (Minnesota Newspaper Article) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Just a post to pass on an article that was in the St. Paul Minnesota paper this morning. Modified seeds firmly rooted -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LEE EGERSTROM STAFF WRITER -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The controversy over genetically modified seeds appears to have had little impact on farm planting decisions this year as the spring planting season draws to a close in the Upper Midwest. Interviews with farmers and seed sellers suggest that Minnesota and Wisconsin farmers are planting about the same percentage of modified seeds as they did in 1999. That means more than 50 percent of the soybeans and more than one-third of the corn will be grown from seeds that were modified to help the farmers cope with insects or weeds. Concerns over genetically modified organisms have centered on issues of trade, big business and science. But for Duane Adams of rural Hutchinson, the decision to plant GMO seeds didn't take much head-scratching. Most of the corn in his area between Hutchinson and Cosmos in central Minnesota is used as cattle feed by local farmers, he said, or is used to process ethanol fuels. ``There's a lot of emotionalism over new science, but I haven't heard anyone say they won't drive around with GMO corn in their gas tank,'' he said. Late last year, a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of early planting intentions suggested that American corn farmers would slightly reduce GMO planting for corn, soybeans and cotton. The modest retreat from GMO planting likely changed as farmers lined up their last seed purchases, said Joe Schieber, a farmer and Pioneer Hi-Bred seed dealer in Caledonia in southeastern Minnesota. Some of the early planned cutbacks came from farmers opting for lower-cost, nonmodified seed, he said. But as the winter progressed, weather concerns around the world strengthened corn and soybean prices in futures contracts traded at commodity exchanges. With prospects improved for making money on corn and soybeans, ``farmers started going for the yields,'' Schieber said. They began ordering more seed varieties that were insect resistant or compatible with efficient weed killing chemicals. In Golden Valley, preliminary marketing results show that 65 percent of the corn seed bought from Novartis Seeds this year contained the Bt gene to help farmers fight corn borer infestations. That's down 2 percentage points from last year's 67 percent Bt market share at Novartis, the company said. Des Moines-based Pioneer, the largest seed company and now a unit of the DuPont chemical and life sciences firm, hasn't assembled sales data for this year yet, company spokesman Doyle Karr said. But preliminary queries of the sales department show only a slight decline from last year's GMO use, he added. Farmers began planting GMO crops in 1996. GMO varieties of corn, soybeans and the smaller oilseed crop of canola were a significant portion of the crops planted in 1998. That year also saw multinational chemical and pharmaceutical companies consolidate most of the major North American seed companies into life science companies to combine seed genetics with related biology and chemistry fields. Perhaps more than the introduction of new science itself, the global mergers and acquisitions attracted public attention, and people began wondering what biotechnology was all about, said Doug Magnus, a soybean farmer from Slayton, Minn. Consumer, environmental and other groups began pressuring the European Union to block imports of agricultural commodities produced from genetically modified seeds. EU regulators have given approval for importation of about half the GMO-produced crops grown in North America, South America and parts of Europe itself. Members of the Union of Concerned Scientists have raised questions about proper government regulation and the release of GMOs into commercial use. Chief among concerns are proper testing to see if modified foods create allergen problems or if modified plants might cause mutations in other plant life surrounding the crops. Magnus, vice chairman of the United Soybean Board national trade association, said farmers indicated they were concerned last fall that they might lose markets if they grew GMO crops. That concern largely ended, however, when Cargill Inc. issued a statement last December saying its policies hadn't changed; it would buy corn and soybeans at its country grain elevators and mills regardless of the seeds the farmers used. ``That pretty much ended the debate for farmers, for at least another year,'' Magnus said. Linda Thrane, spokeswoman for Minnetonka-based Cargill, said the December announcement was issued because the company was growing weary answering media questions about its GMO policy. Many of the inquiries were coming from media that doesn't usually cover the company and didn't know Cargill's previous positions, she said. Looking back, the company's statement did give farmers confidence about markets when they sat down during the winter months to make seed purchasing decisions, she said. Farmers are restricted in how they use the seeds so they will never have 100 percent use of the GMOs. For instance, the Bt corn must have a 20 percent ``refuge'' around the fields to protect other insects and help prevent insects from mutating into Bt resistance. Seed salesman and farmer Schieber said farmers are not likely to pay the higher cost for enhanced seeds if they haven't had historic problems with corn borers or problems managing their weeds. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 07:05:35 -0600 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Allen Dick Subject: Re: Report of Gene Transfer from G-E Rapeseed to Bacteria and Fungi in the Gut of Bees In-Reply-To: <200005240333.XAA29179@listserv.albany.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Report of Gene Transfer from G-E Rapeseed to Bacteria and Fungi > The paper was submitted to Nature but they refused to accept it. > The field trial was performed by AgrEvo, the rapeseed was > engineered to resist the herbicide glufosinate (Liberty, Basta). > He probed the microorganisms for the pat-gene, the gene that conferes > resistance to glufosinate. In some bacteria and also in a yeast he found > the pat-gene. This indicates that the gene from the genetically engineered > rapeseed was transferred in the bee=B4s gut to the microbes. > > (Summary written by Greenpeace Germany) I'm not surprised that this comes from GreenPeace or that Nature refused to publish it. Nowhere is it above mentioned that the gene that was used to create Liberty Link Canola was discovered originally and 'borrowed' from bacteria that someone noticed controlling plant growth in their immediate vicinity using a similar natural chemical that they generate somehow -- and always have. As for the facts of the matter, and where the marker came from, what it means, and how conclusive the test was, we cannot begin to tell from the article. allen -- A Beekeeper's Diary: http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/ Package installation & performance experiments, winter loss, fondant feeding, Pierco vs. Permadent vs. dark comb, unwrapping bees, spring splitting tricks, AFB, varroa, protein patties and much much more... Over 1600 served ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 10:04:51 -0600 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Allen Dick Subject: Fourth Annual University of Illinois Bees and Beekeeping Short Course MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit http://www.life.uiuc.edu/entomology/beecourse/ShortCourse.html allen -- A Beekeeper's Diary: http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/ Package installation, performance experiments, winter loss, fondant feeding, Pierco vs. Permadent vs. dark comb, unwrapping bees, spring splitting tricks, AFB, varroa, protein patties and more... Over 1400 served ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 07:02:02 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Aaron Morris Subject: Re: BEE-L: approval required (1464662C) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" This message was originally submitted by marcs@LEGATO.COM to the BEE-L list at LISTSERV.ALBANY.EDU. It was edited to remove mark-up characters. ----------------- Original message (ID=1464662C) (88 lines) ------------------- Reply-To: "Marc Sevigny" From: "Marc Sevigny" To: "bee" Subject: ANP Foundation Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 17:01:49 -0400 I recently inherited a couple of colonies with ANP foundation, as well as 2 deeps of ANP. In the two active colonies, the bees seem to only store some nectar in the ANP cells, no brood. All of the brood is going up in the wax honey supers. I also caught a swarm a couple of weeks ago, and decided to put the swarm into the only spare brood chambers that I had, the ANP. The bees went inside for about 2 hours, then absconded. I don't know if the reason was the ANP foundation or not. But so far, I'm afraid to continue trying to use this foundation. Too bad, too, since it was apparently so expensive. Anyone else have any recent experience with the stuff? Or was is a short-lived fad? Marc Harvard, Massachusetts ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 00:09:56 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: peter dillon Subject: Contaminated Rape MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The French Government has applied the Principle of Precaution and has ordered the total destruction of the 600 hectares of Genetically modified Oilseed Rape. Peter ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 11:11:01 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: tomas mozer Subject: mimicry between droneflies and honeybees Comments: cc: tommozer@hotmail.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit posted for information/discussion purposes only from: http://helix.nature.com/nsu/000525/000525-7.html ecology : Out of the strong came forth sweetness HENRY GEE Wednesday 24 May 2000 "The mimicry between droneflies and honeybees has been fooling humans for over 2000 years," say Y. C. Golding and M. Edmunds of the University of Central Lancaster, Preston, UK, who have just worked out why. Ancient Egyptians and Greeks thought that bees were born from the rotting carcasses of cattle. It even got into the Bible (Judges, chapter 14, verse 8). Strongman Samson tore a lion in two while on the way to woo a prospective bride among the Philistines. On his return, "there was a swarm of bees" in the lion's broken body. Not until 1898 did entomologists recognize that these bees born of decay and death are, in fact, droneflies -- insects more closely related to houseflies and bluebottles than bees. Droneflies lay their eggs in ditches and sewers, and adults 'mimic' bees to fool potential predators. A harmless fly that looks sufficiently like a bee causes a hungry bird to hesitate for long enough to allow the fly to flee. Indeed, wherever bees go, they are followed by a gaggle of 'false bees' -- droneflies, and other insect impostors -- hoping to cash in on the bees' stinging reputation. But to the trained human eye, droneflies and bees are different. And some birds, with their far sharper vision, can tell a bee from a dronefly ten metres away, so who do the droneflies think they're fooling? Golding and Edmunds report in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London1 that what droneflies lack in appearance they make up for in behaviour: they may not talk the talk, but they can walk the walk. The researchers watched bees, droneflies and other insects about their business in a variety of summertime settings, from a glade by a river bank, to plantings in city-centre parks. Unlike other insects, droneflies spend as much time in flowers, and the same amount of time flying between flowers, as bees. This bee-like behaviour could be enough to prompt second thoughts in the minds of predators. There is, however, a fly in the ointment. For this kind of mimicry (known as 'Batesian' mimicry) to work, the theory goes that the mimic must be substantially rarer than the model. The rationale is easy: a bird won't risk pecking a stripy insect if it is likely to be a bee, so the mimic's disguise remains intact. However, if harmless mimics outnumber the models, birds will soon rumble the deception and pluck up courage to attack -- safe in the knowledge that the prey is more likely to be harmless. At several of the sites examined by the researchers, droneflies substantially outnumbered real bees, and yet the droneflies still seemed to be benefiting from looking, and behaving, like bees. The researchers suspect that what we are seeing is an unstable situation, a result of human disturbance. Droneflies, like rats, cockroaches, tuberculosis and other familiars of corruption, are camp-followers of humanity. The recent spread of human beings (and their nasty habits) across the globe has generated unprecedented opportunities for droneflies to breed. So although mimics now mob bee models, predators, it seems, have yet to twig. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Golding, Y. C. & Edmunds, M. Behavioural mimicry of honeybees (Apis mellifera) by droneflies (Diptera: Syrphidae: Eristalis spp.). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 267, 903-910 © Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2000 - NATURE NEWS SERVICE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2000 Reg. No. 785998 England. ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 11:22:21 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: tomas mozer Subject: Two spatial memories for honeybee navigation Comments: cc: tommozer@hotmail.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit posted for information/discussion purposes only from Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Issue May 2000: http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/proc_bio/proc_bio.html Two spatial memories for honeybee navigation R. Menzel, R. Brandt, A. Gumbert, B. Komischke, J. Kunze Volume 267 Issue 1447 page 961 Insect navigation is thought to be based on an egocentric reference system which relates vector information derived from path integration to views of landmarks experienced en route and at the goal. Here we show that honeybees also possess an allocentric form of spatial memory which allows localization of multiple places relative to the intended goal, the hive. The egocentric route memory, which is called the specialized route memory (SRM) here, initially dominates navigation when an animal is first trained to a feeding site and then released at an unexpected site and this is why it is the only reference system detected so far in experiments with bees. However, the SRM can be replaced by an allocentric spatial memory called the general landscape memory (GLM). The GLM is directly accessible to the honeybee (and to the experimenter) if no SRM exists, for example, if bees were not trained along a route before testing. Under these conditions bees return to the hive from all directions around the hive at a speed comparable to that of an equally long flight along a trained route. The flexible use of the GLM indicates that bees may store relational information on places, connections between landmarks and the hive and/or views of landmarks from different directions and, thus, the GLM may have a graph structure, at least with respect to one goal, i.e. the hive. The Royal Society is a registered charity promoting science no. 207043 Copyright ©2000 The Royal Society. All rights reserved ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 15:29:38 -0300 Reply-To: eunice.wonnacott@pei.sympatico.ca Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Eunice Wonnacott Subject: Re: Resmetherin MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Nick W: You asked for "ideas" ?? Somed years ago a homeowner asked me to eradicate bees from an outbuilding. Not knowing what was there, I suited up and went inside. For once it was SO easy. Bumblebees had nested in a small hand pushed floor cleaner. I asked for a pan of water (preferably hot) large enough to accommodate the cleaner, and plunged the whole thing in at once. Easy, safe, effective, cheap etc So..............maybe it would be possible to be inventive and remove bees from the colony with a power vaccuum cleaner, vented into a tank of water? (Some models are built with a water container, instead of using disposable dust bag). All the best, Eunice ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 15:54:23 +0100 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Dave Cushman Subject: Re: BEE-L: approval required (1464662C) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- > This message was originally submitted by marcs@LEGATO.COM to the BEE-L list > Anyone else have any recent experience with the > stuff? Or was is a short-lived fad? > > Marc > Harvard, Massachusetts Reply Hi All My understanding is that ANP comb will only be occupied with brood if NO ordinary wax combs are present. It gives the drones funny curled under tips to the wings as well but they seem to fly ok. Best Regards Dave Cushman >Email: dave.cushman@lineone.net >Web: http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 09:34:07 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "Lipscomb, Al" Subject: Re: Varroa updates from NZ MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain >Nick Wallingford wrote: >> Our Government will be faced with the decision about whether to attempt >> eradication within the next week or so, >Well, I guess most people have had their say by now. If only one colony with >varroa survives the "eradication" of the bees, what will the authorities and >beekeepers do next year ?? ----------------------------------------------------------- >John F. Edwards >Carl Hayden Bee Research Center >Tucson, Arizona 85719 Good question. Some thoughts that come to mind: 1)Have maybe 2-5 years before getting on the chemical merry-go-round. Knocking back the mite population by destroying the bees could result in a lower total cost than treating every hive in the country two times a year. When you count the cost of chemical as well as the labor involved the cost of treatment can be rather high. 2)Keep at it. Smallpox took a few years, and a lot of work to wipe out but the project was not dumped after the first year. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 08:39:37 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "Lipscomb, Al" Subject: Re: mimicry between droneflies and honeybees MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain >Ancient Egyptians and Greeks thought that bees were born from the rotting >carcasses of cattle. It even got into the Bible (Judges, chapter 14, verse >8). Strongman Samson tore a lion in two while on the way to woo a >prospective bride among the Philistines. On his return, "there was a swarm >of bees" in the lion's broken body. Should have kept quoting, the text says "a swarm of bees and some honey". I would guess that the lions corpse mummified in the desert heat and a small swarm of settled in. I doubt droneflies produce honey. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 09:38:05 -0400 Reply-To: Marc Sevigny Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Marc Sevigny Subject: Imirie Shims MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I recently inherited a bunch of Imirie shims. I like the idea of providing an additional entrance (especially since I use queen excluders). But I am concerned about the violation of bee space. Can I expect to be ripping apart burr comb each time I open the hive up? Have people had good experiences with their use? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email server is running an evaluation copy of the MailShield anti- spam software. Please contact your email administrator if you have any questions about this message. MailShield product info: www.mailshield.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 09:42:55 -0400 Reply-To: Marc Sevigny Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Marc Sevigny Subject: ANP Foundation MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I have concluded that my bees are not accepting the ANP foundation in a couple of hives that I recently took over. What is the best way of transitioning back to standard wax foundation? I don't have extra frames at this point, but should be receiving frames and foundation on Tuesday. Should I slowly replace the plastic ANP frames with foundation a couple at a time? Or should I just rip out the entire ANP brood chambers and replace them with new (not yet drawn out) foundation? Can I expect the foundation to be completely drawn out on twenty frames of foundation at this point in the season? Anything I can do to assist the bees in drawing it out? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email server is running an evaluation copy of the MailShield anti- spam software. Please contact your email administrator if you have any questions about this message. MailShield product info: www.mailshield.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 09:34:15 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Aaron Morris Subject: Re: mimicry between droneflies and honeybees MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" This message was originally submitted by edmund.lear@SASOL.COM to the BEE-L list at LISTSERV.ALBANY.EDU. It was edited to remove quotes of previously posted material. ----------------- Original message (ID=57699619) (41 lines) ------------------- From: "Lear, Edmund (ENL)" To: "'Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology'" Subject: RE: mimicry between droneflies and honeybees Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 15:35:55 +0200 An interesting case. I have seen bees in the carcass of a horse and a donkey. The skin of both animals was intact but all the inners were cleaned out. In regards to the Samson incident, there is the misconception that it all happened over night. Careful study will show there is about a year between the death of the lion and the surplus of honey. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 20:20:02 -0400 Reply-To: Honeybees@inorbit.com Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Garry Libby Subject: Re: Imirie Shims In-Reply-To: <200005261335.JAA02275@listserv.albany.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi Marc, I've been using Imirie Shims for five years and love them. When You add drawn supers put the shim above the queen excluder as an upper entrance, they can be put between drawn supers also. You must remove the super as soon as it is filled, You can not leave it for an extended period or the bees will build burr comb. I use shims year round on top of the inner cover as an entrance and to aid in ventilation. Also, You can put two on an inner cover to use as a baggie feeder(if robbing is a concern You wrap masking tape around the opening side). When stacking supers to store You can staple plastic window screen on the solid edge to make a screen to keep out wax moths and other insects and use one on the top and one on the bottom. You could use screened ones in between to place moth crystals on too. George Imirie invented a very useful gadget when He thought up the shim. Thank You George. Sincerely, Garry Libby Attleboro, Massachusetts, USA 41.56 N 71.17 W ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 22:30:44 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Ellen Anglin Subject: Re: Imirie Shims Comments: To: Marc Sevigny MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii If you use the shims between supers, yes, you will be taking out wild comb each time you open them- it can get pretty messy. But they do have good uses! I have used similar shims on top of the top super to create a more generous top opening, and the bees love it! They prefer this enterance to the one at the bottom! The shims I have (Homemade) are deep enough that I can place them between hive bodies, and lay a queen cage in the middle- no removing frames and fiddleing with hanging the queen cage. After three days I remove the empty cage, remove the small amount of wild comb they have built, and put the colony back to rights- quicker than fiddling with putting frames back in, etc., the old way. I have also stapled 8 mesh hardware cloth to one side of some of my shims. If I discover swarm cells on the bottom bars of the top hive body, I can insert this divider to make an instant split- old queen below, a couple swarm cells left up top above the new enterance, and I am set untill I can get back with more equipment to do a proper split. These screened shims are also dandy for setting up a nuc on top of an established colony- the nuc has it's own enterance, but can still get heat from the colony below. The extra space when a shim is added also ensures that a swarm cell on the bottom of a frame is not damaged by hitting the top of the frame below when you place the frame in another colony. (Requeening using swarm cells.) I place a spacer (Or two) on top of a colony and use the extra space to provide fondant, pollen or syrup in baggies. (What is a baggie feeder but an extra deep shim with the enternce sealed?) Broken/burr comb can also be left on top of the colony in one of these for clean up, before solar melting. Use your imagination! I keep finding new uses for these handy spacers. I sliced a couple rotten old hive bodies into 1/2 to 1 inch spacers, and I keep finding new uses for them. Ellen Anglin ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 08:58:27 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "Richard A. Trevino, Jr." Subject: Re: Imirie Shims Comments: cc: Marc Sevigny MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit George Imirie is the inventor of the Imirie Shims, which creates an upper entrance for your hive. This entrance is very usefull to the honey bee in that it creates a short cut in traveling within the hive. The shim also has a number of other uses that are being posted. George Imirie write the "pink pages" which can be found at: http://www.beekeeper.org/george_imirie/index.html He has written an article on the "Proper use of the Imirie Shim". All his article are packed with valuable lessons on upgrading you from a beeHaver to a beeKeeper. Thank you George Imirie for your mentorship and sharing your years of knownledge with us. Richard A. Trevino, Jr. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 20:52:02 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: crpost Subject: Re: when is it time to order a new queen ? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit "Ted J. Hancock" wrote: > Since laying workers are indistinguishable from other workers (I've never > seen = > one laying an egg, and I expect few have ever seen one, period), Having a penchance for going into laying worker mode at the drop of a hat, a number of A. m. capensis laying workers have been observed doing just that. Indeed photographs exist. Main differences - in our case - are distended, but more often swollen abdomens and the k-wing syndrome, normally associated with T-mites. Perhaps also due to the swollen abdomen. > Kind of off the topic = > here - but I used a marked queen in an observation hive once at a fair. = > The queen had a white disk glued to her thorax with a black '99' = > clearly visible in the centre of the disk. To my surprise over 50% of = > the general public asked if this disk was natural All the time. To the extent that one often does not get asked directly, but watch their faces ... and you know what they are thinking! So we tell them. Robert Post ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 14:17:43 -0700 Reply-To: Bosaiya Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Bosaiya Subject: Re: Imirie Shims MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit What advantage do the shims have over a hole drilled in the supers? I've always done that with wonderful results. They congregate around those holes and use them almost exclusively in some cases. I've never used the shims so I just wondered what the difference might be. Regards, Bosaiya .....designs to knock you out..... http://www.knockoutproductions.com ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 21:40:27 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Al Subject: Re: Imirie Shims Comments: To: Bosaiya In-Reply-To: <200005272332.TAA20852@listserv.albany.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sat, 27 May 2000, Bosaiya wrote: > What advantage do the shims have over a hole drilled in the supers? I've > always done that with wonderful results. They congregate around those holes > and use them almost exclusively in some cases. I've never used the shims so Once you drill the hole in the super you are kind of stuck with it. The shims allow for adjustmet. For example if you have a large number of supers on you can add shims. I use almost all medium supers for both brood and honey production. I don't want extra holes in my brood chambers so I insert a shim up in the honey supers when needed. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 09:38:46 +1200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Robert Mann Subject: unpubd claim of horiz gene transfer Comments: cc: nbalist@beekeeping.co.nz Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,319418,00.html The Observer GM genes 'jump species barrier' GM food: special report Antony Barnett, public affairs editor Sunday May 28, 2000 A leading zoologist has found evidence that genes used to modify crops can jump the species barrier and cause bacteria to mutate, prompting fears that GM technology could pose serious health risks. A four-year study by Professor Hans-Hinrich Kaatz, a respected German zoologist, found that the alien gene used to modify oilseed rape had transferred to bacteria living inside the guts of honey bees. The research - which has yet to be published and has not been reviewed by fellow scientists - is highly significant because it suggests that all types of bacteria could become contaminated by genes used in genetically modified technology, including those that live inside the human digestive system. If this happened, it could have an impact on the bacteria's vital role in helping the human body fight disease, aid digestion and facilitate blood clotting. Agriculture Minister Nick Brown, who was yesterday advising farmers who have accidentally grown contaminated GM oilseed rape in Britain to rip up their crops, confirmed the potential significance of Kaatz's research. He said: 'If this is true, then it would be very serious.' The 47-year-old Kaatz has been reluctant to talk about his research until it has been published in a scientific journal, because he fears a backlash from the scientific community similar to that faced by Dr Arpad Pustzai, who claimed that genetically modified potatoes damaged the stomach lining of rats. Pustzai was sacked and had his work discredited. But in his first newspaper interview, Kaatz told The Observer: 'It is true, I have found the herbicide-resistant genes in the rapeseed transferred across to the bacteria and yeast inside the intestines of young bees. This happened rarely, but it did happen.' Although Kaatz realised the potential 'significance' of his findings, he said he 'was not surprised' at the results. Asked if this had implications for the bacteria inside the human gut, he said: 'Maybe, but I am not an expert on this.' Dr Mae-Wan Ho, geneticist at Open University and a critic of GM technology, has no doubts about the dangers. She said: 'These findings are very worrying and provide the first real evidence of what many have feared. Everybody is keen to exploit GM technology, but nobody is looking at the risk of horizontal gene transfer. We are playing about with genetic structures that existed for millions of years and the experiment is running out of control.' One of the biggest concerns is if the anti-biotic resistant gene used in some GM crops crossed over to bacteria. 'If this happened it would leave us unable to treat major illnesses like meningitis and E coli .' Kaatz, who works at the respected Institute for Bee Research at the University of Jena in Germany, built nets in a field planted with genetically modified rapeseed produced by AgrEvo. He let the bees fly freely within the net. At the beehives, he installed pollen traps in order to sample the pollen from the bees' hindlegs when entering the hive. This pollen was fed to young honey bees in the laboratory. Pollen is the natural diet of young bees, which need a high protein diet. Kaatz then extracted the intestine of the young bees and discovered that the gene from the GM rape-seed had been transferred in the bee gut to the microbes. Professor Robert Pickard, director-general of the Institute of the British Nutrition Foundation, is a bee expert as well as being a biologist and has visited the institute where Kaatz works. He said: 'There is no doubt that, if Kaatz's research is substantiated, then it poses very interesting questions and will need to be looked at very closely. 'But it must be remembered that the human body has been coping perfectly well with strange DNA for millions of years. And we also know many people have been eating GM products for years without showing any signs of ill health.' ---- - Robt Mann consultant ecologist P O Box 28878 Remuera, Auckland 1005, New Zealand (9) 524 2949