From MAILER-DAEMON Sat Feb 28 10:59:34 2009 Return-Path: <> X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.8 (2007-02-13) on industrial X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-83.9 required=2.4 tests=ADVANCE_FEE_1,ADVANCE_FEE_2, AWL,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR,SPF_HELO_PASS,USER_IN_WHITELIST autolearn=disabled version=3.1.8 X-Original-To: adamf@IBIBLIO.ORG Delivered-To: adamf@IBIBLIO.ORG Received: from listserv.albany.edu (unknown [169.226.1.24]) by metalab.unc.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id B16974909B for ; Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:52:22 -0500 (EST) Received: from listserv.albany.edu (listserv.albany.edu [169.226.1.24]) by listserv.albany.edu (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id n1SFhrqA016524 for ; Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:52:22 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:52:17 -0500 From: "University at Albany LISTSERV Server (14.5)" Subject: File: "BEE-L LOG0706A" To: adamf@IBIBLIO.ORG Message-ID: Content-Length: 87132 Lines: 1953 ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 00:24:36 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Peter Dillon Subject: Re: Non Robbing attitude in CCD cases In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Jerry, Thank you for the rundown. You wrote "Simple answer - yes. Although, one of the early signs of CCD seems to be that affected colonies will not take feed - syrup or pollen substitute." Reading the above comment then focusing on CCD affected colonies only and not others in the area: Does this indicate that CCD affected bees are ignoring feed or not capable of taking it? Have the CCD affected bees been observed during the period of refusing / ignoring presented feed ? Are the CCD affected bees, if refusing feed material that has been supplied, continuing with normal foraging activities on flora in the vicinity of the yard ? If they are flying to and gathering nectar sources, what is their behaviour profile during this activity ? If not flying, what are they doing otherwise ? Peter ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 06:46:32 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bill Truesdell Subject: Re: The real issue with pollination In-Reply-To: <465EF3F8.7F1B@saber.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Paul Cherubini wrote: > > What I am having trouble understanding is the claim that > natural pollinators aren't abundant and fairly diverse even > in and around our most intensive monocultures. A valid question, especially when you consider what was there before. There seems to be an assumption that there were lots of local pollinators and the bad Agribusinesses drover them to extinction. The problem with that assumption is that there may have been few pollinators in the first place since most grasslands do not need them since grasses are generally wind pollinated. So you are actually not changing the pollination method, and you would have few pollinators either way since they are not needed. To discount migratory pollinators like butterflies misses the mark on how many plants are pollinated. Plants do rely on migratory pollinators and set their bloom time for their arrival. You could go into an area and find no pollinators to speak of but lots of plants that need pollinators. Butterflies and even bats can accomplish it as they move through. So pollinators can be missing from an area that needs them and they migrate through, such as a desert, or are not needed except in small numbers, such as a prairie. As far as the other post that addresses the study on how added pollinators gives increased yields, we have gone down that path recently and do not need to do so again. Bill Truesdell Bath, Maine ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 05:31:44 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: C Hooper Subject: Propolis, Bee Venom Effective in Treatment of Psoriasis MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII Apitherapy in Treatment of Psoriasis: A New Therapeutic Modality Fatma A. Abd Raboo, Ahmed G. Hegazi, Faten K. Abd El Hady, Nahla E. Ramzy, Dalia M. Shaaban and Doha Y. Khader Department of Dermatology & Venereology, Tanta University and Department of Microbiology, National Research Center SEE: http://apitherapy.blogspot.com/2007/06/propolis-bee-venom-effective-in.html ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 09:14:20 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Griggs Mike Subject: ...and who decided to call Nosema a "fungus"? Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.2) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed The Microsporidia were reclassified in a monumental (and very stiff & formal) presentation in Nature. New genetic evidence for reclassification changed what we call it, increased our understanding on a genetic basis but does not really change our understanding of the biology. I have multiple pdfs supporting the classification change should any be interested--I do not have the Nature monograph! Below is a partial abstract which will give you an idea of the tenor of these articles! ----------------------------- Congruent evidence from a-tubulin and b-tubulin gene phylogenies for a zygomycete origin of microsporidia PatrickJ.Keeling Abstract The origin of microsporidia and the evolutionary relationships among the major lineages of fungi have been examined by molecular phylogeny using a-tubulin and b-tubulin. Chytrids, basidiomycetes, ascomycetes, and microsporidia were all recovered with high support, and the zygomycetes were consistently paraphyletic. The microsporidia were found to branch within zygomycetes, and showed relationships with members of the Entomophthorales and Zoopagales. This provide ssupport for the microsporidia having evolved from within the fungi... -------------------------------- Mike ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 09:18:38 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Brian Fredericksen Subject: Re: The chief suspect Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit On Thu, 31 May 2007 09:54:54 -0400, Bill Truesdell wrote: Too many things will end up as suspect with no real >defined cause. I hope I am wrong. > See this new article for a so called hint of what is being found, everything and nothing...........? http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/01/BUGQ2Q5AAI22.DTL "Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater (Merced County), said he has seen portions of the report being prepared for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to be released later this month. He said it lays out several possible causes, including parasites and a lack of genetic diversity." ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 13:50:01 GMT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "waldig@netzero.com" Subject: Re: Propolis, Bee Venom Effective in Treatment of Psoriasis Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit >>Apitherapy in Treatment of Psoriasis: A New Therapeutic Modality Charlie, Do you know where I can view the full text of the report? I am particularly interested in the application method. Waldemar ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 10:42:24 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Jerry Bromenshenk Subject: Re: Non Robbing attitude in CCD cases MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit CCD colonies in the early phases often will not take feed of any type, in the hive, or outside. As the problem increases in severity, foraging activity often drops off dramatically. In the aftermath of a severe loss from CCD, recovering colonies may do fine, and once you see white honey cappings, things seem to be on the way to full recovery. But, some beekeepers reported this spring that their recovering colonies were dawdling along. If fed syrup, the queen would stop laying as soon as the syrup jug went dry, even though there was plenty of natural forage available to stimulate egg-laying. Jerry ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 08:36:11 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Paul Cherubini Subject: Re: Robbing, Swarming, CCD MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > In TX, the beekeeper had lots of honey, so he took the lids off the > hives, pulled up a honey frame, and left them open for two weeks > in sunny, warm weather. NADA, no bees at all. > In FL, CCD colonies had no beetles or wax moth. What about other sugar loving insects such as ants, yellow jackets and cockroaches? Are we to believe some unknown thing in the CCD deadouts repels all food infesting insects for several weeks? Just imagine the practical implications if such a powerfully repellent chemical really existed (could be used in fruit packing plants, candy factories, cinnamon roll bakeries, around trash dumpsters and so forth). Paul Cherubini El Dorado, Calif. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 14:58:20 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: =?windows-1252?Q?Yoon_Sik_Kim?= Subject: AHB's Come Home to Roost Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hello, Gang, A few days ago, I got a call from Legacy Park, a local retirement home in Shawnee, OK, regarding a swarm clustered on a small tree branch on its perimeter. It had swarmed, in fact, the previous night, and got rained on, which reduced the original large swarm to the size of a football by the time I arrived at the scene. Here are a few observations about this particular swarm that drew my attention on their strange behavior, which forced me to think they were or could be indeed AHB’s. 1) The size of their cluster was relatively small, less than the size of a football. 2) Once I removed the initial cluster, the invisible parent colony spun off a few more, all smaller than football, typically the size of a grapefruit. Their cluster size being nearly equal, I could not ascertain them to be the primary and the secondary swarms. 3) One word that might sum up their behavior was they were agitated or excited, constantly flying over me and the cluster location. I know a swarm can be in a bad mood once rained on particularly overnight. But they were exceptionally “nervous.” 4) When I boxed them and relocated to Research Farm early in the morning, nearly all of them crawled out onto the truck bed where I had the box whereas another colony I also moved remained calm. 5) To entice them, I have given them two deeps with some drawn combs, but they elected not to stay put (to my relief?); personally, I wanted to keep them to further observe their progress: buildup, foraging, mite- resistance, etc. At one point, all of them got out and clustered beneath outside the screened bottom board; it was then when I smelled that they might escape. No I did not have a queen excluder to block the queen in, either. When I poured them back in on the landing board, they all looked and behaved as if "bewildered," not going into the box quickly. 6) Their presence apparently made nearby colonies agitated as well since some of them, being disoriented, tried to enter neighboring colonies. Around 2003 the Oklahoma State University Extension Office did a DNA test on a swarm in downtown Shawnee, OK, and they confirmed the presence of AHB’s in my area, which excited me. But till the other day, I have not seen any weird behavior I am describing above. All the drones looked much smaller; most important, some of the bees’ thorax had this light tan color, as if they belonged to different sub species, a color I have never seen. There were quite a few of those “mutations,” including drones. I felt as though I were looking at a more primitive version of scuts whatever they might have looked like in the past. Any one with AHB swarm experience? ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 18:11:06 -0400 Reply-To: bee-quick@bee-quick.com Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: James Fischer Subject: Re: Robbing, Swarming, CCD MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Just imagine the practical implications if such a powerfully > repellent chemical really existed (could be used in fruit > packing plants, candy factories, cinnamon roll bakeries, > around trash dumpsters and so forth). This specific aspect of CCD interests me, and I know a thing or two about "bee repellents". :) So, lets walk through this... 1) To "repel" bees from an entire hive (not just a super) you'd need one heck of a volatile compound of some sort. The "distance" at which this stuff seems to repel bees and pests is from a foot to several feet. I'm surprised that there is no human-detectable odor, as everything beekeepers have ever used to drive bees out of supers has been something that humans could also smell. 2) Something so volatile would oxidize/react very quickly, and "evaporate" in the process, which would mean that it would "wear off" quickly, and no longer be repellent. 3) But it does not seem to "wear off" quickly. This seems to contradicts the "highly volatile" quality, so the easy answer is that >>>something is making more of this compound continuously<<<. It can't be a mere chemical process, it has to be a byproduct of an ongoing biological process, one that lives on after the bees are gone from a CCD dead-out. One would think that such a thing would be easy to find. So far, no one has found any volatiles, or any biological process that might produce this "repellent effect". If we ever figure out what it is, the "good" side-effect of repelling bee pests will likely be overshadowed by the "bad" aspect of it being connected with CCD. >From preliminary results, it appears that one can decontaminate combs from CCD dead-outs with either irradiation, or acetic acid, as mentioned in the "Catch The Buzz" e-mail newsletter from Bee Culture: http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2007.04.26.08.42.archive.html So, the reasonable conclusion is that this is something that we can "kill", which implies that it is something that can live on comb, even dead-out or abandoned comb. But you'd think something like that would be fairly easy to find, yet it has not been found so far. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 19:37:30 -0500 Reply-To: Erik Whalen-Pedersen Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Erik Whalen-Pedersen Subject: Re: Robbing, Swarming, CCD MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable This so-called repellent would be for (wasps) YELLOWJACKETS and not = bees! Honeybees seek nectar and pollen. Wasps get whatever they can = and the most common offenders in this case. my opinion- Erik From: James Fischer=20 > Just imagine the practical implications if such a powerfully=20 > repellent chemical really existed (could be used in fruit=20 > packing plants, candy factories, cinnamon roll bakeries,=20 > around trash dumpsters and so forth). ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 20:54:32 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Dick Marron Subject: Robbing MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Good post Jim. I hadn't thought it through that way. Jerry Bromenshenk Used his best equipment to find something volatile in a hive at all stages of CCD. I'd guess he could find it if anyone could. His equipment will trap a gas in a glass tube full of charcoal. It is analyzed later at the big machine. Perhaps those samples are still waiting for the funds. On the subject of robbing. The 15 dead hives (all of them) I found this spring, were cleared for varroa, t-mites, and nosema. I have since put bees into most of the equipment and they are happy. However, I have about 10 supers of honey that I left uncovered, expecting them to be robbed out--for about a month now. A few bees have checked them out but won't rob them. (There is a flow on). BTW they wouldn't take feed in the fall. Do I think this is CCD? No. Dick Marron ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 19:01:32 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Paul Cherubini Subject: Re: Robbing, Swarming, CCD MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Erik Whalen-Pedersen wrote: > This so-called repellent would be for (wasps) YELLOWJACKETS > and not bees! Honeybees seek nectar and pollen. Wasps get > whatever they can and the most common offenders in this case. You might want to check out the trash dumpster area of a large commercial bakery sometime to see what critters come to rob the frosting off of discarded cinnamon rolls, cakes or donuts: honeybees, yellowjackets and ants. Or you might want to visit a sugar beet or apple juice processing plant and ask the employees what's one of the major critters that will fly into the plant if the windows or doors are cracked open: honeybees. Ditto in regard to candy factories, soda pop factories, etc. I am unaware of an commercially available repellent spray that is capable of keeping bees, ants and wasps away from sugary food products left out in the open for more than a matter of minutes or hours. Paul Cherubini El Dorado, Calif. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2007 09:24:29 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "Peter L. Borst" Subject: National Pollinator Week MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline June 24-30, 2007 has been designated National Pollinator Week by the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. http://www.pollinator.org/pollinator_week.htm * * * This summer, Post Offices will be abuzz with the release of the four-design, 20-stamp Pollination booklet. The four designs featured depict: two Morrison's bumble bees paired with purple, or chaparral, nightshade; a calliope hummingbird sipping from a hummingbird trumpet blossom; a lesser long-nosed bat preparing to "dive" into a saguaro flower; and a Southern dogface butterfly visiting prairie, or common, ironweed. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2007 09:46:16 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "Peter L. Borst" Subject: No CCD in AZ MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit form the Sierra Vista Herald http://www.svherald.com/ Dee Lusby: "I'm not seeing the problem with the honeybees I keep, but then I am an organic beekeeper. Why? Because healthy, happy bees don't need any additives. You want a natural sustainable beekeeping system. To me the disappearing disease is a last stress factor that causes our bee colonies in this country and other places in the world to collapse due to increased dependency of many artificial management ways today that simply don't work." Reed Booth, The Killer Bee Guy in Bisbee, said his hives are full and it's been business as usual. "I think the problem is with the European bees," he said. "Producers ship their hives all over for pollination of crops. That's a stress on a colony. They are more susceptible to disease. That's why the Africanized bee was brought in — to help build immunity." ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2007 22:13:18 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bob Harrison Subject: Re: No CCD in AZ MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello All, from the Sierra Vista Herald http://www.svherald.com/ Ed Hermes ( A.D. of A.) "The honey industry accounts for 11.8 million annually" " The Arizona Dept. of Ag. no longer has a bee division ,so exact data is not available" What's wrong with this picture? An industry generating 11.8 million besides pollination can't afford a single bee inspector? The article points out organic beekeepers are not seeing CCD problems. The reality is they make up less than one percent of beekeepers so are statistically insignificant. I also must point out many large operations factory farming bees are doing quite well. The largest operation in Florida and most queen rearing operations. Although CCD losses are significant they seem to involve large losses in certain operations in certain areas. Which to me should be key to finding the answer to CCD losses. Arizona does not have large areas of row crops using pesticide treated seed (for example) as does the areas which have shown the most losses. As Dr. Sanford said in his CCD update article ( May 2007 pg. 17): quote: " Beekeepers that have been the most effected so far have been close to corn, cotton, soybeans, canola, sunflowers, apples vine crops and pumpkins" from the information I have been told by CCD beekeepers and researchers I have spoken with I have to agree with the above statement. I have no way of knowing if Dr. Sanford listed the above in order of importance but I personally would have listed corn first if I was making a suspect list. If pesticides are eventually shown to be the source of CCD then all the bs put out in the Herald is bs as not even organic methods or small cell will protect bees from contaminated pollen or pesticides. In beekeeping you always look for the simple answer first. Follow the evidence. To sum CCD up: The CCD team from what I am told is sitting back waiting to see what happens this fall. Many samples have not been processed due to lack of funding. Now lets fast forward to this fall. Two possible scenarios: 1. repeat of last fall with an even bigger die off. CCD team does not know which area to look at first. Still no money for many of the tests needed. 2. Normal fall losses and CCD goes the way of "disappearing disease" of old. If number 1 happens many nay sayers of CCD will wish they had pushed for a solution instead of waiting until they had losses themselves with no solution. I remember what it was like when tracheal and varroa mites first hit. Beekeepers sit by and watched while whole outfits were wiped out. The cries of varroa losses by their fellow beekeepers and to get prepared fell on deaf ears. Twice my fellow beekeepers fought me in Missouri to get products registered to fight mites. One actually told the state inspector we did not need apistan registered as HE was not SEEING varroa on his bees. Apistan was registered and we turned our losses around an Mr. hard headed beekeeper lost ALL his hives the next year. I have worked out a game plan for my operation and plan to implement at first signs of CCD if no. 1 above happens.. What will others do? Watch hives crash? What can it hurt to at least have a plan to implement if necessary? Hopefully CCD will simply disappear! Bob -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 07:31:19 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Michael Palmer Subject: Re: No CCD in AZ In-Reply-To: <003701c7a58d$23338820$1bbc59d8@BusyBeeAcres> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed > >I have worked out a game plan for my operation and plan to implement at >first signs of CCD if no. 1 above happens.. And what would that be, Bob? Mike ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 09:14:56 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bob Harrison Subject: Re: No CCD in AZ MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello Mike & All, >And what would that be, Bob? First let me say I see no signs of CCD in my bees. The bees are slightly behind what I would like to see according to when our main honey flow normally starts (June 1 St.). However June 1st. is past and the nectar is not flowing *strong* yet so things are catching up. I actually need the bees to fill the arches around the brood with honey before putting on my supers. The beekeeper which said he had possible CCD last year ( said so on survey) and thinks he is seeing problems now and I have been in contact. I have looked through his deadouts etc. I found a couple problems which would explain his deadouts. His deadouts did not fit the CCD description and his honey supers are on now so all we can do is wait and see. My plan. All my hives have been reworked this spring ( 80% 2007 queens /20% 2006 queens). All are equal in strength and building towards hive peak. No supers are on but will be supered this week( .. Some could have been but have been opening up brood nests and equalizing brood) All had brood comb looked at last week. No problems. I do intense management of production colonies. Once supered only random checks on brood will be made. BROOD COMB IS THE PLACE TO LOOK FOR CCD. Corn in our area is only at best inches tall. Will produce serious pollen in late July and into August. Time hives in our area went backwards last year. I plan to rent an airplane at the local airport after supers are on and fly over my yards. checking for large areas of row crops within two miles of each yard. The air is the best way to judge plus to find large areas of Clover not seen from roads. If I find a large area of bee forage and move hives into the area it will more than pay for the airplane rental. Then fly south into cattle country to plot areas in which no row crops are grown. I plan to find a large holding yard in those areas free of row crops. I realize having all supers pulled as soon as the main honey flow is over is not possible. At times I am still extracting in November and this looks like a big year. So I will pull as many as possible and then move the hives, supers and all to the holding yard . Away from row crop pollen. Then pull the supers as needed in the holding yard. I want no pollen from pesticide treated seed in my hives. I have also been told. ( may or not be true) that when pesticide treated seed is used the pesticide can stay in the ground and even non pesticide treated seed the next year will pick up the systemic pesticide. Does the list know if this is true? The above plan was given to me by a large beekeeper in another country which has been through contaminated pollen issues in the past. He also gave advice on further testing which would be expensive but *may* be done. He suggested leaving a pallet ( four hives) in each of my yards and monitor the difference between moving or not moving away from the problem. This actually would be a huge amount of work and cost as I need a certain number of hives in a yard to be cost effective. Maintaining and monitoring many yards with a single pallet is not something I can afford to do at my busy time of the year. The loss of the hives is not the big concern but the fuel and labor cost plus the time taken away from other jobs needing doing is. The last option and the option agreed on by myself and my beekeeping partner is to relocate all hives of both operations north into Nebraska to an area which produced record crops last year , plenty of fall pollen and no CCD problems. The problem here is doing a long move in the hottest time of the year. 80F. even at night. Short moves are not risky but long moves are risky. Also what to do with hives still heavy with honey supers. None of the above plans are easy to implement and not costly. A version of the above is too strip supers and move only the best yards out of harms way and let the other half dwindle. depopulate and use after supers are pulled to rebuild in spring. I have had a large numbers of requests off line for my plans so decided to publish in hopes other beekeepers find find useful information. Each beekeepers situation is different. What are others planning to do if they start seeing hives going backward in early fall? Sincerely, Bob Harrison Missouri -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 12:08:58 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "Peter L. Borst" Subject: No CCD in AZ MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline The mechanism of usurpation of European honey bee nests by Africanized honey bee swarms David C. Gilley, USDA - Agricultural Research Service, Tucson, AZ 85719 > I studied for two seasons the behavior of usurpation swarms in our Southern Arizona apiary and report my findings. Some important findings are: 1) usurpation swarms often contain more than one mated queen, and may thus be absconding swarms from several colonies that have merged to increase their chance of survival; 2) usurpation attempts often fail; 3) the host queen is killed by the usurping workers, not by the usurping queen; 4) the usurping queen is protected from host workers by a tight cluster of usurping workers for up to four days following her entry into the host nest. These observations not only advance our understanding of an unusual case of intra-specific reproductive parasitism, but may also help us determine how to prevent Africanization of managed colonies by nest usurpation. > Nest usurpation is a form of reproductive parasitism that occurs between African honey bees in the Americas and the European subspecies that are traditionally used for apiculture in the region. During nest usurpation, a swarm of African bees invades a European bee nest and replaces the European queen with its own queen. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 12:35:46 -0600 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Josh Markle Subject: Interview MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit My name is Josh Markle and I am a beekeeper and freelance journalist in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I am writing an article about CCD and the threat to Canadian beekeepers in a weekly newspaper that is distributed throughout Southern Alberta. I'd like to highlight the plight of a beekeeper who has suffered CCD losses either in Canada or the US. If anyone would like to talk - by email, phone, or whatever is most convenient for you - I would really appreciate it. If anyone has any serious suggestions/input about what will make this article a good resource for beekeepers/everybody else, please don't hesitate. There is definitely no shortage of shoddy writing on this topic out there, and I do not want to add to it. Email me directly at jrmarkle@ucalgary.ca Thanks, Josh ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 04:17:58 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Grant Gillard Subject: Re: Interview In-Reply-To: <46630A02.4070700@ucalgary.ca> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit I have not seen CCD in my hives, but there is also no shortage of people who have asked me if my bees are still alive. After I tell them I'm doing fine, I get a follow-up question like, "I hear the cell phones is what's killing them" and "Don't they all have some kind of mite?" It might be helpful to list all the things which we've ruled out but are still in vogue in the ignorance of the general public. Grant Jackson, MO --------------------------------- You snooze, you lose. Get messages ASAP with AutoCheck in the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 12:30:04 GMT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "waldig@netzero.com" Subject: Re: No CCD in AZ Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit >>The above plan was given to me by a large beekeeper in another country which has been through contaminated pollen issues in the past. He also gave advice on further testing which would be expensive but *may* be done. Has the CCD team tested frame-stored pollen from CCD dead-outs for possibly high pesticide levels? >>A version of the above is too strip supers and move only the best yards out of harms way and let the other half dwindle. depopulate and use after supers are pulled to rebuild in spring. Provided the equipement from dwindled colonies is not contaminated with pesticides or pathogens, right? Waldemar ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 10:37:07 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Diotima Booraem Subject: Re: No CCD in AZ In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed At 12:00 AM 6/4/2007, you wrote: >I have also been told. ( may or not be true) that >when pesticide treated seed is used the pesticide can stay in the ground and >even non pesticide treated seed the next year will pick up the systemic >pesticide. Does the list know if this is true? Hi Bob, Like so much else in agriculture and beekeeping, it depends. Some of the things it depends on are the half-life of the pesticide in question, the relative amounts of sand, silt, clay and organic matter in the soil, the amount of microbial life in the soil (usually comparatively sparse in conventionally-cropped fields), soil pH, the amount of precipitation during the year, temperature, plant uptake, and even the type and frequency of tillage. That said, while there has been research done on persistence of certain pesticides in the soil, there has been little follow up done, to my knowledge (admittedly, I don't keep up on it the way I used to) on the degradates and metabolites of those pesticides, which can be even more toxic, and more persistent, than the original pesticide. There has also been little research done on the combined effects of various pesticides, not to mention the combined effects of the various degradates/metabolites. So if CCD is related to chemical effects from treatment of cropped plants, we will, I suspect, need a well-funded, multi-disciplinary Sherlock Holmes to find it. That said, I live uphill from a commercial, conventionally-cropped apple orchard here in Western NC. My farmer neighbor is sensitive to my bee's needs, and sprays early or late in the day, and keeps the clover mowed between the rows. I have 3 hives, two in their fourth year on large cell, one of which is a split that is in its third year on small cell. All seem healthy, I have NEVER treated any of them. I did requeen the original two hives the second year with queens from B. Weaver that they claim are varroa resistant, though they have been superceded now. I also lost one hive last year -- a package in its second winter that had to be requeened a month after hiving and never built up strength, even in the second summer. They starved. They left me two deeps of beautifully drawn small cell, and I'm going to get a nuc of New World Carniolans next week from a local beekeeper to replace them. I'm having fun with bees, and trying to get a little honey, not make a living, so I see no point in treating. I want to find bees that can survive without treatment. I think that we have a huge problem in the world today with use of chemicals we know little or nothing about when it comes to long-term effects both on humans and the environment, and putting yet more insecticides into a hive of insects just doesn't seem right to me -- it must weaken them to some degree, even if the effects are sub-clinical, and it adds to the overall problem of environmental toxicity. I'm reading a book right now called "The Hundred Year Lie" by Randall Fitzgerald about the issue of manufactured chemicals in the environment. While it is written by a journalist, not a scientist, it is well-documented and appalling. I can't say you'll enjoy it, but it's worth reading. Regards, Diotima ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "If there is a better solution...find it" Thomas Edison Virtual Assistance: The better solution for small business. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Diotima Booraem, CPVA Virtual Executive Assistance http://www.virtualhelp.biz E-mail: diotima@virtualhelp.biz ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 18:43:27 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Peter Dillon Subject: Oxalic Acid and water quality MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Taking the accepted formulation of 1 litre of water/1 kilo of sugar and 35 grammes of Oxalic di-hydrate to prepare a varroa controlling mixture, I was wondering the following: Will the quality of the water influence the ability of the acid to do its dirty deed ? The water from my well is loaded with dissolved mineral material - Saline surface deposits cause problems in damp areas that dry out on the summer months. Local farmers have had to plant alkaline resistant grasses and other tolerant plants on many areas to ensure some vegetative cover. We have shale as the bed rock (and it is the aquifer) with over burden of glacial derived till - again shale based with other material. Peter ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:18:11 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: ALDEN MARSHALL Subject: CCD Via Climate MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1; reply-type=original Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Medhat wrote: [ It is an interesting post. Yes, we have high winter mortality, but they don't show the same symptoms as the described CCD hives in the USA.. We can count all the bees in dead hives and no brood, ] I Would think the effects of CCD would appear different according to climate? Such as bees not leaving when to cold to fly. Alden Marshall Hudson, NH ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 22:16:16 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: randy oliver Organization: Randy Oliver Subject: Re: Oxalic Acid and water quality MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Taking the accepted formulation of 1 litre of water/1 kilo of sugar and > 35 grammes of Oxalic di-hydrate to prepare a varroa controlling mixture, Peter, this is an erroneous formula, but a common mistake. The proper formula for winter treatment is 35g per liter of syrup. You need 56g OA if you mix a liter of water and 1 kilo of sugar. Both formulas will give you a 2.7%w:w or 3.4%w:v mixture--appropriate for winter treatment. For summer use, some recommend 70g OA in 1 L water plus 1kg sugar (3.4%w:w or 4.2%w:v) Europeans tend to express the percentage as w:v, Americans as w:w. This leads to much confusion. In all cases, 5ml per seam of bees, measured accurately. If your water is "hard," the oxalate will precipitate out as calcium oxalate. I suggest using soft water. For more info, my oxalic article from ABJ (minus photos to date) is free for viewing at www.randyoliver.com Randy Oliver ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 12:59:21 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Brian Fredericksen Subject: Re: No CCD in AZ Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit I doubt we will find that corn is a problem, the majority of corn is grown in IN, IA, IL southern Mn, Eastern NE and northern MO. Here in Mn the corn will be tasselling in early July to the 3rd week, right when we have our major flow for basswood and sweet clover. Why would our bees here at least be scrounging for pollen in a corn field when its prime time flow season? The corn belt has had few CCD reports too so I just don't buy the corn seed treatment idea thats causing CCD. BTW I grow apples 1800 trees and keep my bees in my orchards year around. I use fungicides in the spring, and some limited insecticides during the summer which are from the organophosphate class. Its very easy to grow apples here with out the use of heavy chems, my bees in the orchards look just as good as anywhere else and make the same honey crop. I have no clover or other plants in bloom on my orchard floor just grass. Provado the Imidicloprid version for apple spray is very expensive and only used if leafhoppers or other leaf sucking insects move in usually in later summer. Its hard to see how a one time treatment would contaminate the soil or be in the tree next spring during apple bloom, unless the applicator over -uses the material. I typically use less then half the label rate on most chems and get good results. I'm not looking for 100 % perfect fruit either. So depending on the orchard grower, apples can be no more dangerous to have your bees near then say corn.....Maybe the question is corn tasselling during a dearth of nectar or pollen, could that be the case further south of here? I had some SARE funding a few years ago to buy a microscope and have a grad student do some pollen identification analysis to see what floral sources our bees were visiting. She analyzed pollen from traps and from honey residues. We found very small quantities of corn pollen in the traps. To me Imidacloprid is more of a possible concern in FL for oranges and the new pest they have moving in there, on sunflowers, canola, cotton, and other crops which are more heavily visited by honeybees then corn. Also if other flowering plants like clover are found below or by some of these crops when sprayed with Imidacloprid then obviously that would be of concern too. My sense if that sunflowers and canola and cotton would be of greatest concern to beek's if the seeds were coated with Imidacloprid since these plants are more attractive to bees then corn or fruit trees after bloom. On fruit like apples the material will still be absorbed by the leaves but this is different since the applications on fruit is most likely done long after the bloom. With no fruit on a plant before or during bloom fruit growers have less of a reason to spray for insects. So what I'm trying to say is Imidacloprid can be found in a honeybees environment in different ways at different times of the growing season. I'm not sure that all uses of that chemical are of concern to us beekeepers. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 08:42:20 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Brian Fredericksen Subject: Re: Oxalic Acid and water quality Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Good point In an indsutrial or academic chemistry lab any time water is used in a solution it is distilled water. I use only distilled water in my OA syrup treatments as our water is quite "hard" and full of minerals. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 09:00:17 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Brian Fredericksen Subject: Re: CCD Via Climate Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit I do beleive there is plenty of confusion in the northern areas on the cause of high winter losses. IMO its hard for some beekeepers to do an autopsy without being biased when constantly bombarded by the hype and massive misinformation being spewed daily by the media on the "deathly silence of the spring of 2007." Here is a report from Ontario which may explain some of the losses in north eastern Canada and the USA. What Happened to the Honey Bees in Ontario During the Winter of 2006-2007 in Ontario? By Doug McRory Provincial Apiarist Let us consider a short biology lesson on honey bees on how the population of a colony develops during the season. In spring a colony normally comes out of winter with about 15,000 honey bees. These bees need to be quickly replaced with young workers and that occurs if there is a good influx of pollen and nectar into the colony in early spring. If this does not happen we have what is termed "spring dwindling". The colony population normally builds up to about 60,000 bees in the summer. The last week of August through to the third week of September, if the colony has access to adequate pollen and honey resources it will develop a flush of brood that will give it about 15,000 - 20,000 physiologically young bees to form the winter cluster. This is the most critical segment of the yearly population for the survival of the colony through the winter. Honey bees naturally die off at 2% of the population per day during the active season. In about 50 days all of the old bees will die out of the fall population leaving a cluster of young bees that have neither raised brood nor burned themselves out collecting pollen or honey. This cluster does not normally raise much brood during October, November and December when they let the temperature of the cluster drop down to 70 degrees F. These bees are much longer lived than the bees of summer. About January 15 the bees respond to the lengenthing day length and if they have pollen and honey available from that stored in the brood chambers, the bees raise the temperature to raise brood and they normally replace the bees that were produced in the fall by the end of March. Thus the cycle of the colony can carry on into the next season. In Haldimand-Norfolk and Niagara Regions the weather in August and September was wet and cool. The plants remained in a vegetative state. They did not produce nectar and pollen and the bees were not stimulated to produce the fall flush of brood. We had "fall dwindling" as the old bees died off. It was warm enough that old adult bees could fly out and die away from the colonies, as it stayed warm right across Ontario until mid January. Bees normally leave the colony to die if it is at all possible. Normally in October and December the bees die in the colonies as the temperatures do not allow them to leave. Beekeepers in the area south of a line from St.Thomas to Hamilton lost on average 70% of their colonies. Three beekeepers lost close to 100% of their colonies. There were beekeepers with bees inside the area and also outside that area and their losses were signifantly less outside the affected area. Everyone lost their bees in that area and they all had different mite management regimes, genetics and management. There were many colonies with no adult bees left in them with lots of feed in the combs. There were no significant amounts of brood as the combs were dry. Beekeepers with all of the publicity about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in United States jumped to the conclusion that they had CCD. After much discussion with many of them they do not feel that their colonies were alright one week and then two weeks later all of the adult bees had disappeared leaving three to four frames of brood with a queen such as is described with CCD in the United States. CCD hits when bees are in their active brood rearing stage. Beekeepers in Ontario are reusing the dead equipment and they are not seeing reoccurring losses like beekeepers in United States where it is recommended to not reuse the equipment. Ontario beekeepers are convinced that the two winter loss scenarios explained in this article represent what has happened in Ontario this past winter. I am aware of only one beekeeper in the region that lost so many colonies that recognized that the bees were not getting anything in August and pulled off his supers the last week of August and treated and fed his bees early with both pollen subitute and sugar syrup. He had bees to sell to those beekeepers around him that lost this spring. A complicating factor in Haldimand-Norfolk and Niagara was that the Varroa mites were building up quickly last fall. Samples from beekeepers who had mite scouting done by the Tech-Transfer Team were made aware of this and began treatments. Most beekeepers saw all of the great plant growth and waited to take off the honey supers and did not start treatment until later in September. Most beekeepers in the region felt that the bees did not look right even in August. Some beekeepers in the region do not know their resistance status to the various treatments and were undoubtly using very ineffective treatments. Virus built up in the bees due to the Varroa levels and the fall clusters were noticeably smaller than normal. Because these colonies had no young bees coming into the population they simply dwindled away in late fall. One beekeeper at the Simcoe beekeepers meeting told me that he had all of his dead hives cleaned up and stored before Christmas of 2006. In the rest of Ontario, another coincidence happened that is very hard to defend against in early 2007. The weather across Ontario was very mild until about January 15, 2007 which encouraged early brood rearing. The weather turned extremely cold for a period of over six weeks. The bees normally start to rear brood in January and it is usually the best colonies that have a supply of pollen and feed that get the most brood going. The bees once they get brood started will not leave it in cold weather but will pull into a very tight cluster on the brood to keep it warm and they loose contact with the feed. Honey or feed is the honey bees' source of energy to produce heat. They starve to death with lots of feed very close to the cluster. Occasionally bees are found in little clusters throughout the colony on the feed as they have warmed up enough to venture out to get feed from the outside combs and then the temperature dropped again and caught the groups of bees out from the cluster. Bees can move up onto feed if it is cold but cannot move sideways to get to feed. The beekeepers that feed at least 60 pounds plus of sugar syrup in the fall, along with whatever the bees have in their brood nests in the fall had the advantage over those who feed less. The extra feed in the combs directly above the brood nest really paid off in this type of winter. Those that normally feed heavy have not lost significant numbers of colonies. Winter wrapping also helped as it would offset the quick changes in the cold conditions. This was the one winter in 20 when the beekeeper had to do all of the good management things that in many years do not make a significant difference but every so often make all of the difference. The average loss for the province is about 37%. Loses last year averaged 11% and for several years before that were 18%. The mites are having a pronounced effect. Before mites if the average was over 10% it was a bad season. Those beekeepers with no bees in their equipment need to get bees back in it to protect it from wax moth damage! Ontario beekeepers have been very helpful to the beekeepers that have lost their colonies. The bees needed for spring pollination are currently in the orchards. Other beekeepers still have bees available to help if necessary. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 12:55:44 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Brian Fredericksen Subject: Re: Robbing, Swarming, CCD Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit When I hear these reports of no robbing I wonder how much of this can be explained away with early or late season factors like tempurature and low bee activity. Here in the north we don't see bees trying to rob dead out equipment with much vigor until the number of foragers increases and the weather gets into the 80's. Leave dead out equipment outside and not closed up and no bees would hardly try and get in between Oct into May around here at least. Another way to put this is, there is nothing repelling the bees, just the bees are not interested. There are so many legends alive concerning CCD its hard to know what to beelive. Was there just one or two reports of this no robbing or several dozen? ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 18:37:35 GMT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "waldig@netzero.com" Subject: Weight of full honey supers. Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Can someone recommend a web site listing the weights of wooden deep, medium, and shallow honey supers with 8 frames fully drawn out and filled with capped honey? Since one-piece frames have an extra 15% cell area, I'd assume to add 15% to the weight of supers with wooden frames... ? Thanks, Waldemar ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 14:39:00 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Peter Dillon Subject: Re: Oxalic Acid and water quality In-Reply-To: <000701c7a730$a5579e00$ad25fea9@jps.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Randy, I really meant to write : Taking the accepted formulation of 1 litre of water/ 1 kilo of sugar, then to a litre of the resulting mixture add 35 grammes of Oxalic di-hydrate to prepare a varroa controlling mixture. I apologise for the confusion I may have caused and hope people note well the correct formulation. Thanks for the advice on water quality. Regards, Peter ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 21:08:33 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Kent Stienburg Subject: Re: Weight of full honey supers. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello Waldemar, Sorry not a web site but my weights for 9 frame medium average between 53 and 60 lbs. Kent Stienburg ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 21:07:52 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Dee Lusby Subject: Terribly wrong in nature MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi all: Don't normally forward emails here from organicbeekeepers list, but made an exception due to content and also writer being Erik Osterlund asking. Can anyone add anymore information,and/or is anyone else seeing or hearing of similar in other northern regions/countries? Respectfully submitted, Dee A. Lusby Small Cell Commercial Beekeeper Moyza, Arizona Subj: [Organicbeekeepers] Terribly wrong in nature Date: 06/05/2007 10:07:06 AM Mountain Daylight Time From: honeybee@elgon.se Reply-to: Organicbeekeepers@yahoogroups.com To: Organicbeekeepers@yahoogroups.com Just got a report from a friend in Finland. Something seems to be very wrong in nature there at the moment. In the radio there are warnings for high UV-radiation outside. Most probably the ozon layer is terribly thin there. In daytime the temperature is warm with bright sunshine. Dandelions are blooming heavily. But around one after noon the flowers shut their flowers as if it was nighttime. In shady places they are still open. bees are flying very little. Beekeepers must feed their bees to keep them from starving. I havn't seen anything like that in Sweden where I live. Finland is a bit further north from the latitude I live at and I live somewhat more to the west. Anyone up north on the list that have experienced anything similar? Erik ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better Globetrotter. Get better travel answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545469 ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 08:08:39 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: P-O Gustafsson Subject: Re: Oxalic Acid and water quality In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Standard mixture in Scandinavia for oxalic dripping is: 75 g Oxalic-2-hydrate, 1 liter water, 1 kg sugar. Use 20 to 35 ml solution for each hive depending on the size of the treated colony. http://beeman.se/research/oxalic/oxalic-0-nf.htm http://www.entom.slu.se/res/bi/proj16b.html -- Regards P-O Gustafsson, Sweden http://beeman.se ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 07:41:54 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "Peter L. Borst" Subject: Transgenic Honey Bees MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline > In 1996, researchers performed the first field test of a transgenic predatory mite in the U.S. (Hoy 2000). Since then, genetically modified pink cotton bollworms (PBW) have been released in confined field cage trials (USDA APHIS 2001a). > Early efforts to develop transgenic bees (Omholt et al. 1995; Ronglin et al. 1997; K. Robinson et al. 2000) suggest that there are no barriers to harnessing this technology. The work described here provides additional resources that should contribute to molecular analyses of honey bee behavior, using candidate gene studies, positional cloning, and functional genomic approaches. * * * > With the sequencing of the honey bee genome, identifying genes of resistance is a possibility. We may also learn how to turn genes on and off at critical stages as a means to maintain healthy colonies. The development of transgenic bees that express resistance may be a possibility. Known genes of resistance from Apis cerana could be transferred to Apis mellifera to express resistance. -- Susan Cobey ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 10:54:28 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Aaron Morris Subject: FW: [BEE-L] Terribly wrong in nature MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable This message was originally submitted by ron-eefje@TELE2.SE to the BEE-L = list at LISTSERV.ALBANY.EDU. It was edited to remove quotes of = previously posted material. -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- From: Ron & Eefje [mailto:ron-eefje@tele2.se] Sent: Wed 2007.06.06 09:49 To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Subject: Re: [BEE-L] Terribly wrong in nature Hello, The situation i Sweden isn't that much different by the looks of it. The = UV index for Finland is according to their meteorological organisation 6 = today. When I look at the values for Sweden the peak of 6,5 was measured = today, on average it was 3,7 that last half hour. I can't say that I = have seen flowers respond in the way that Erik reported for Finland, but = will report it when this happens here in Sweden. Ron van Mierlo ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 13:57:30 +0300 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: =?iso-8859-1?B?QXJpIFNlcHDkbOQ=?= Subject: Re: Terribly wrong in nature MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit About nature and bees in Finland I know quite a bit just looking outside the window. It's true we have had a spring that has been not near the averages. Bees had the first flight in February mote than month earlier than average. The weather was after that very warm, but when willows started to bloom it turned so cold that the bees did not get much. Also the weather stayed + 10 - + 15 during dandilion flowering and this prevented the bees from getting much. The past week has been hot upper temperatures + 26 and it is promising the same for still a week. Unfortunate for my bees the dandilions are almost gone and the next flowers that give nectar are still closed. Most likely they will open after about a week. The main crop from wild raspberries after two- three weeks. We always have this 2 - 3 weeks without nectar this time of year. The bees don't fly much as there is no nectar available. As bees started raising brood a month earlier than normal and have got less than normal from two most important spring plants, the hives have very little or no honey. I have been feeding mine for the past 3 weeks in order to keep them going . As I am an organic beekeeper this means feeding honey and organic sugar. We have had warnings in media about high level of UV radiation. But the sun is almost as high as it can bee for us, and the clear weather allows the radiation in. The levels are high but nothing abnormal. Its quite recent with this warnings as before the health officials did not worry so much. Now they are better informed about the risks of cancer coming from burned skin. The only new fact for me is reports from bumblebees that are dying in some places. I figure that they are starving out as they also started earlier than normal and have got very little food. Normal people call about the bumblebees for beekeepers association and wonder if they are seeing CCD. Ari Seppälä Finland Anyone on the list coming for IBRA beekeeping congress in Finland next week ? ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 14:32:06 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Chris Slade Subject: Re: Terribly wrong in nature MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 06/06/2007 12:14:38 GMT Standard Time, deelusbybeekeeper@YAHOO.COM writes: But around one after noon the flowers shut their flowers as if it was nighttime. In shady places they are still open. Have the Finns advanced their clocks an hour for the summer as many countries do? If so the flowers may be closing when the sun is at its zenith? Why not before? Do they re-open as the afternoon advances and they pass into shadow? An interesting observation that ought to prompt some research. Chris ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 15:36:39 +0300 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: =?iso-8859-1?B?QXJpIFNlcHDkbOQ=?= Subject: Re: Terribly wrong in nature MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit I missed this part about flowering in my pervious mail. I think the beekeeper talks about dandelions. That would be the only flower showing opening / closing at this time of year here. My opinion is that they stay open till late afternnoon when the weather is cool, but close much earlier in hot weather that we have now. The change in closing time was radical as 10 days ago the day high temperatures were + 12 - + 14, now + 26. Maybe also the fact that the flowering period is coming to end has something to do with timing ? How do dandelions stay open in other parts of the world ? Ari Seppälä Finland ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 18:55:17 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Peter Dillon Subject: Re: Terribly wrong in nature In-Reply-To: <638460.23027.qm@web51606.mail.re2.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Regarding Dandelions, I have seen over many years that this plant when in flower exhibits periodic opening and closing of the yellow heads. To such an extent that at mid morning there is little else on my lawn but dandelions - then by early afternoon, back to a normal green. Rain will cause premature closing of the flower heads. See link below: http://www.timeproject.org/Content/Utils/ContrDetail.asp?itemid=415 For those who choose not to visit the site noted, the dandelion opening and closing times average is listed as : Dandelion (Taraxacum officionale) 5-6 a.m. -- 2-3 p.m. Regards, Peter ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 13:08:25 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Anthony Norman Morgan Subject: SV: [BEE-L] Terribly wrong in nature In-Reply-To: A<46674965.8020200@mts.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hei! Here in Norway we have midday today UV index 4 for northern and western coastal observation stations, 5 for south and eastern stations and 7(!) at Finse at the highest point on the Bergen to Oslo railway. Flowering of dandelions (never seen so many) has coincided with hot, sunny, wind-free weather. The good weather is continuing but most dandelions have gone to seed now - over the last two days. Spring started early, then we had the long cold (and wet) period mentioned by others in scandinavia giving many problems with feeding. We now reckon many plants and crops are between 3 and 4 weeks behind normal timing. Cheers Tony ----------------------------------------- Anthony N Morgan, Førsteamanuensis Institutt for Elektroteknikk Høgskolen i Sør-Trøndelag N-7005 Trondheim, Norway anthony.morgan@hist.no Tlf. 73 55 96 04 Fax. 73 55 95 81 ----------------------------------------- Lat 63 deg 26 N. Long 10 deg 45 E Alt. 55m Apis mellifera carnica ----------------------------------------- ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 04:10:16 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: C Hooper Subject: NC Radio Station Reports on Recent Apitherapy Conference MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII Bee Sting Therapy WUNC Radio (USA), 5/29/2007 Of the many alternative medical therapies gaining popularity, one is getting a lot of buzz. Some folks claim honeybees and all their products are useful for everything from cancer prevention to pain treatment. It's an ancient alternative therapy that's coming back into use. Practitioners and enthusiasts for all things apiary met in the Triangle recently. Rose Hoban reports. SEE: http://apitherapy.blogspot.com/2007/06/us-radio-station-reports-on-recent.html ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 14:42:33 -0800 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Mea McNeil Subject: Re: Cost of getting started In-Reply-To: <20060103225329.58887.qmail@web32111.mail.mud.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I ordered from the Amish wooden ware supplier, Dan Miller, and found his prices low and his work good. I was in for a harsh surprise when I got the shipping bill, however. If you do order from him, it will be much cheaper if you issue the UPS order yourself, and confirm with him that he is using boxes to UPS standard sizes to avoid surcharge. Mea McNeil If you are within driving distance of Watertown, NY there is an Amish guy Dan Miller, 5670B County Road 10, Heuvelton NY 13654. Lloyd Spear ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 21:35:48 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "=?UTF-8?Q?Peter_L._Borst?=" Subject: Re: Terribly wrong in nature Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit >See link below: >http://www.timeproject.org/Content/Utils/ContrDetail.asp?itemid=415 I hope everyone was able to read this fascinating essay on "Flower Clocks". > The idea of Flower Clocks creation took place already in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. They planted plants, which flowers open up at fixed daytime, at flowerbeds and used as peculiar clocks. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ****************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 21:53:55 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "Peter L. Borst" Subject: Comparison of pollen collected by four different subspecies MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In this interesting study, different subspecies of honey bee were compared to see if the type of collected is related to the type of bee. Evidently, it isn't. Comparison of pollen spectra collected by four different subspecies of the honey bee Apis mellifera by Kirsten Köpplera, et al Colonies belonging to 4 subspecies of Apis mellifera, namely A. m. capensis, A. m. ligustica, A. m. carnica and A. m. mellifera were placed, one colony per subspecies, at 5 sites with a high floral diversity in the Taunus region in Germany. A total amount of 4008.3 g of pollen loads were trapped during 3 seasons and 214 different pollen types were identified. The comparison of pollen spectra did not result in a separation of the subspecies. Date of sampling and sampling site, however, had a major effect on the composition of pollen samples. Furthermore, subspecies were not significantly different in the structure of dominance, evenness and diversity of pollen types. -- Peter L. Borst ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************