From MAILER-DAEMON Sat Feb 28 11:09:03 2009 Return-Path: <> X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.8 (2007-02-13) on industrial X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-83.8 required=2.4 tests=ADVANCE_FEE_1,ADVANCE_FEE_2, AWL,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR,NORMAL_HTTP_TO_IP,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 15C9F49087 for ; Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:03:39 -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 n1SG3YWn017258 for ; Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:03:38 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:03:35 -0500 From: "University at Albany LISTSERV Server (14.5)" Subject: File: "BEE-L LOG0805E" To: adamf@IBIBLIO.ORG Message-ID: Content-Length: 109260 Lines: 2514 ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 20:05:17 -0700 Reply-To: naturebee@yahoo.com Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "J. Waggle" Subject: Re: Alarm Pheromone / Aggressive Ferals In-Reply-To: <85433.35111.qm@web36601.mail.mud.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Eric Simms wrote: > Always mark or note your defensive colonies and work them > last, lest ye be pheromone marked for a target that any > respectable guard bee would pursue. That’s a great piece of advice, and its too bad we don’t hear it offered up more often. Another reason I do the defensive colonies last, is because it would be difficult to tell where the stinging is coming from when working the other hives. BTW, you can sell your extra stings for $2.50 a piece to China: MSNBC, Bee Stings Create Buzz http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/16770068#16770068 Best Wishes, Joe **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 00:50:44 -0400 Reply-To: bee-quick@bee-quick.com Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: James Fischer Subject: Re: Sheer number of compounds in hives MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Peter quoted a Penn State Press Release thusly: >> "Bees were found on the floor with paralytic-type >> movements, and guard bees were observed removing >> paralytic bees from colonies and flying across >> the room. The majority of these 'twitcher' bees >> were found to have IAPV." Strange, no one has ever seen any of the so-called "twitcher" bees in any actual CCD-symptom hives in the field. As a result, one is forced to ask if the IAPV they used was obtained from Sela in Israel, where IAPV was said to be a quick killer of hives and included "twitch" symptoms. As the Penn State team has already stipulated that the speculative "strain" of IAPV that has been in the USA for years is very different from the Israeli "strain" of IAPV, I don't see the connection between this work and CCD, except for the obvious end-game of reduced population caused by unusual bee mortality being somewhat similar to CCD. If the virus was obtained from Israel, rather than from USA sources, then this would be nothing but the worst form of distracting showmanship. It would be rather like shooting several people and watching them bleed to death, and then claiming that the bullets were a possible cause of Ebola, which also causes people to die from blood loss. (A silly example, I know, but there's lots of ways to loose significant blood, and most of them can kill the patient if untreated. Only one of them is Ebola, and it has specific unique symtoms.) **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 07:29:29 +0000 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Gavin Ramsay Subject: Re: Alarm Pheromone / Aggressive Ferals MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi Eric, Jim and All > I have had defensive bees come straight at my veil, collide and spray me in the > face with the defensive pheromone so vigorously as to make it uncomfortable > to inhale. Anyone know if the bees are releasing venom as well as pheromone in such a situation? Inhaling venom is thought by some to have a role in precipitating later allergies. Probably coincidence, but I became allergic to venom the spring after having to deal with the most aggressive colony I've had. A possible second reason not to follow Joe's suggestion to stick your nose into the winter cluster when you see stingers in the air?! all the best Gavin **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 08:53:56 +0100 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Dave Cushman Subject: Re: Alarm Pheromone / Aggressive Ferals In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Chris > Joe - could you please try to describe the smell of alarm pheromone? > > Geraniums. > > Chris Now is that Geraniums or zonal pelergoniams (sp) which are often called Geraniums in UK ? Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY http://www.dave-cushman.net (http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman) Short FallBack M/c, Build 7.01/2.01 **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 03:43:37 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: C Hooper Subject: Manuka Honey Row Escalates MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII Manuka Honey Row Escalates NZPA, 5/29/2008 http://apitherapy.blogspot.com/2008/05/manuka-honey-row-escalates.html A Te Awamutu honey company at odds with other New Zealand apiarists promoting anti-bacterial manuka honey claims rating tests for medical effectiveness gives varying results for the same batches of honey. Manuka Health NZ Ltd, said today that the wider manuka honey industry had failed to disclose that repeated tests on the same sample can vary by up to 50 per cent in terms of its anti-bacterial effectiveness. It said New Zealand Laboratory Services Ltd had stated two years ago there was a problem with the "repeatability" of results for honeys rated at UMF 20 with high anti-bacterial activity levels... **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 09:24:46 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bill Truesdell Subject: Re: Manuka Honey Row Escalates In-Reply-To: <20080529034337.84d281a5f2f7df0ef38485a84124037d.8ebf5496d0.wbe@email.secureserver.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit C Hooper wrote: > It said New Zealand Laboratory Services Ltd had stated two years ago there was a problem with the > "repeatability" of results for honeys rated at UMF 20 with high anti-bacterial activity levels... Not unusual, which is why some other honeys do as well in anti-bacterial trials. I found differences in my own honey from the same hive. In essence, you have a range which depend on the nectar, weather, time of year, and a whole bunch of other things. Just take one- drying time of the honey. If the humidity is down and the heat up, honey will dry more quickly and be capped earlier. That reduces the time for enzymes to work and create high concentrations of glucose oxidase, a key anti-bacterial agent. So that batch of honey will exhibit less anti-bacterial agents than one allowed to dry longer in the same hive. So it would not be unusual to have different result for the same honey especially since little is known about the formation of all the other compounds found to contribute to any honey's healing ability. Manuka has great PR, which I think is fine, since it helps all honey by association. Bill Truesdell Bath, Maine **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 09:39:35 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "Peter L. Borst" Subject: Diseases of Unknown Origin MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline There are all kinds of possible reasons for the death of bees, apart from infections, and there is little doubt that bees dying of non-infectious diseases were often included in casualties attributed to the Isle of Wight disease. Irnms (1907) found the most successful remedy was "feeding cane sugar" and in Cumberland, where the disease was said to he serious in 1915 and 1916, with between 5 and 20% of colonies "affected" according to a report of their beekeeper's association at the time, it was said that "1916 was a poor season, many colonies were insufficiently provided for winter, and sugar was practically unobtainable". It appears therefore, that starvation was often to blame for some losses included in casualties alleged to he due to the Isle of Wight disease. So-called treatments for the disease must have killed numerous colonies. One official report said diseased bees were short of nitrogen, because their distended rectums contained much pollen. This followed the mistaken belief that adult bees usually did not need protein food and, when they did, that pollen was unsuitable; so it was recommended that all pollen combs should he removed in autumn and the colonies fed beef extract to make good their supposed nitrogen deficiency. This would certainly kill or seriously cripple any colony because pollen is essential for adult bees and beef extract IS poisonous for them, mainly because of its salt content. The ruinous idea of removing so-called "pollen-clogged" combs persisted, however, and was widely practised for many years. Other remedies that were recommended were phenol, formalin, "Izal", sour milk, salt and other chemicals lethal to bees, all to he fed in syrup to ailing colonies and as preventives to healthy ones. Other reports describe colonies which clearly were crippled with foulbrood and poison sprays were certainly used, probably with less consideration than today for bees. Perusal of all the British bee journals from their beginnings until about the 1920s shows that many beekeepers eventually attributed all colony deaths that had no obvious cause to the Isle of Wight disease. Some beekeepers were sceptical; they pointed out that the symptoms were those of the fairly well-known disease called paralysis for which there was no known cause, but which had been described from time to time at least half a century before the Isle of Wight disease. from: Diseases of Unknown Origin: The Isle of Wight Disease in: L. Bailey and B. V. Ball (1991) "Honey Bee Pathology" **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 09:52:06 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bill Truesdell Subject: Re: Ozone Decontamination at Logan, Utah for combs with chemic al contamination In-Reply-To: <747077.67129.qm@web51606.mail.re2.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I seldom reply to Dee, since I do not have AHB so cannot relate to her experience. Maybe, in time, we all will have AHB and share common ground. But then, again, I do live in Maine and she in Arizona, so climate might be a bit different. Since the Formic Acid issue seems to be "harm to the bee", I can only say that if Formic kills some bees (it does) harms some drone (it does) but does so in the less than 10% range and only during application, then I would take that as manageable compared to 100% loss. Bill Truesdell( Disclaimer and confession -Even though I raise my fruits and veggies organically, I am not that pure since I did have our Doctor's give vaccinations, antibiotics and medication to our children. They were not raised organically.) Bath, Maine **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 10:23:06 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Lesli Sagan Subject: NY Times article on honeybees in the City MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline The article in today's NY Times is far more sympathetic than most, but does contain a few knee-slappers: "But the life of a wild honeybee in the city is a rough one. Mr. Planakis says the average lifespan is about 28 days, nearly all of them consumed with work. Honeybees kept on a farm live longer, perhaps three or four months." Ah, those poor urbanite bees! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/nyregion/28bees.html?ex=1369713600&en=921fb988f7ebbfa3&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink -- ***************************** Lesli Sagan lesli.sagan@gmail.com **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 07:27:55 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Jeremy Rose Subject: Bee Hive Value MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I am purchasing my business partner's half of our business, and we have been talking to different beekeepers getting their take on the value of bee hives at this time of year. We are in coastal California. I was hoping I could get your opinions for the fair price of: 1. Healthy Doubles including used equipment 2. Queenless Doubles with no brood (might not to be able to save them) 3. Queenless nucs/splits (with brood) 4. Nucs/splits with queens -- Sincerely, Jeremy Rose **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 10:35:55 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Jerry Bromenshenk Subject: Re: NY Times article on honeybees in the City MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit As per life span of a bee, the best work on this was done in Germany some years ago. Foragers were marked at feeders, variety of tests of distance, etc. I'd have to look it up, but the gist was that forager bees have a finite life that depends on how far they fly. As they add up the miles/kilometers, they slowly wear out. The overall summary was that in good weather with readily available food resources (bloom), forager bees that flew EVERY day, only lasted about 10-12 days. We used that bit of information in some bee population models and found that it worked well - during periods when weather is inclement, bees log fewer flight hours, so live longer. We then dug out lots of papers where the authors marked bees - most of these authors DID not know about or at least did not reference the German studies. Surprisingly, that same 10-12 day life span popped out of the papers, so its appears to be a reasonable estimate. However, nothing was said about urban versus farm bees. Urban bees MIGHT live shorter lives because of factors such as air pollution (i.e., Atkins smog studies) or a higher chance of becoming a smear on the windshield of a vehicle. Jerry **************Get trade secrets for amazing burgers. Watch "Cooking with Tyler Florence" on AOL Food. (http://food.aol.com/tyler-florence?video=4&?NCID=aolfod00030000000002) **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 12:19:35 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "Peter L. Borst" Subject: the life span of the honey bee MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit I have spent the last month intensively studying the life span of the honey bee. I hope to put it all together into an article someday soon. Howevert: > Commonly held views assume that ageing, or senescence, represents an inevitable, passive, and random decline in function that is strongly linked to chronological age. In recent years, genetic intervention of life span regulating pathways have provided compelling evidence to challenge these views. > The honey bee has two alternative female castes (queens and workers) and a single male phenotype (the drone). Queen and worker fates are not genetically determined, and full sisters can belong to both castes. Yet, the highly reproductive queens are long-lived and can survive 2 years (Seeley 1978) or, in extreme cases up to 4 years (Botzina 1961; Page & Peng 2001). I > n contrast, the essentially sterile workers vary in life span from a few weeks to about 1 year, whereas the drone life span is only 45 weeks (Winston 1987). Thus, although queens and workers can be closely related genetically, distinct longevity phenotypes emerge between them. Within the worker caste, furthermore, variation in life span develops as a function of social environmental alterations. Throughout ontogeny, worker bees change between tasks in an orderly and usually age dependent manner. > Young workers typically perform within-nest activities like nursing larvae and after 23 weeks they make a transition to foraging duties collecting pollen (a protein source) and nectar (a carbohydrate source) for the colony (Winston 1987). During favourable conditions with brood rearing, life spans of workers vary between 2 and 8 weeks. When workers switch from nest to foraging tasks, the behavioural transition is accompanied by a demographic shift due to a rapid increase in mortality as well as by manifold physiological changes (Robinson et al.1992). > Since the age at foraging onset is usually far more variable than the duration of the forager phase, the timing of this behavioural switch is the major determinant of a bee's overall life span. Moreover, during unfavourable periods when brood rearing and foraging ceases, a third worker sub-caste develops (diutinus or 'winter' bees). > This sub-caste is characterized by an extreme life span potential of up to 1 year (Maurizio 1950). Thereby, sister worker bees can show a vast but naturally occurring variation in longevity, albeit sharing a highly similar genetic background. Worker bees, furthermore, facilitate studies that contrast the robustness of ageing processes to their plasticity, because they display a unique feature: behavioural reversion (Robinson et al. 1992). -- Ageing in a eusocial insect: molecular and physiological characteristics of life span plasticity in the honey bee D. Mnch, G. V. Amdam, F. Wolschin Functional Ecology 2008, 22 , 407421 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2008.01419.x **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 19:10:11 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Juanse Barros Subject: Glucose Oxidase / was Manuka MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline "Just take one- drying time of the honey. If the humidity is down and the heat up, honey will dry more quickly and be capped earlier. That reduces the time for enzymes to work and create high concentrations of glucose oxidase, a key anti-bacterial agent. So that batch of honey will exhibit less anti-bacterial agents than one allowed to dry longer in the same hive." Bill, does really capping time influences glucose oxidase concentration? People around here thinks that as darker the honey "better for health". Which color is manuka? And my experience with capping time is that it has a certain correlation with honey color. If darker (like avocado) it takes ages to be cap (RH is low T is high), while canola is very fast (RH and T medium) and gives very clear honey. Do the enzymes stop working after the honey is capped? Could the enzyme amount be due to nectar "sugars" characteristics? -- Juanse Barros J. APIZUR S.A. Carrera 695 Gorbea - CHILE +56-45-271693 08-3613310 http://apiaraucania.blogspot.com/ juanseapi@gmail.com **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 17:45:30 GMT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "waldig@netzero.com" Subject: Re: NY Times article on honeybees in the City Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit >>Honeybees kept on a farm live longer, perhaps three or four months." Ah, those poor urbanite bees! This swarm was near E182nd St and Crotona Ave in East Tremont up in the Bronx in NYC. This is only several hundred feet west of the sizable Bronx Park which is home to the famous and wonderful Bronx Zoo. [I believe Jim Fisher keeps several hives at the Bronx Zoo.] This section of the Bronx is quite green and I expect it provides very good forage for the bees with much less natural predation from skunks and such. I did not realize the NYPD has a police officer, Tony Planakas, trained on removing swarms! The swarm is headed to an organic farm in Connecticut. I guess organic is better...? ;-)) Waldemar **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 10:06:21 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: randy oliver Subject: Re: Sheer number of compounds in hives In-Reply-To: <004401c8c147$8e6372a0$0201000a@j> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline > If the virus was obtained from Israel, rather than from > USA sources, then this would be nothing but the worst > form of distracting showmanship. Vivid metaphors aside, the virus came from the East Coast. The Penn State researchers extensively sequenced the virus that was in an East Coast operation from multiple colonies and multiple bees and it fits in the "East coast" lineage and is quite distinct from the Israeli strains. I cannot guess why anyone would suspect that the Penn team would illegally import a viral strain from Israel, and then inoculate bees in a nonquarantine situation. Randy Oliver **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 14:00:08 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Jerry Bromenshenk Subject: Re: the life span of the honey bee MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Thanks Peter Science is not static. However, the data from Germany that says the life of a forager bee is short doesn't argue against the more recent information - the gist being, when do you start the clock? Jerry **************Get trade secrets for amazing burgers. Watch "Cooking with Tyler Florence" on AOL Food. (http://food.aol.com/tyler-florence?video=4&?NCID=aolfod00030000000002) **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 14:01:06 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: David MacFawn Subject: Honeybee Management Technique MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I believe beekeepers that have been keeping bees for many years develop techniques and skills that they do not realize to manage bees. I am interested in picking your brain as to these bee management skills. What I am after is something that I can use for the Master Beekeeping program in VA, NC (I have already discussed this with David Tarpy) and SC. I am interested in your additional comments about management technique. David M. When a hive is queen less it is noisy. You can verify queenlessness if there are not any brood/eggs in the hive. Also, the bees are restless. Dr. Fell published a paper on this. If the bees get very excited and you are "sprayed" with alarm pheromone, you should wait until tomorrow to work the bees or start at the other end of the apiary working hives. You have failed to contain and stop the bees from getting excited with smoke (short puffs). These could be over defensive bees but even so, with the proper technique you should be able to stop defensive mechanisms. Before working another hive, you should smoke vigorously the area "sprayed" with alarm pheromone. Good beekeepers have the ability to produce volumes of smoke from their smokers. This will assist in controlling the bees. smoke the entrance liberaly if you are not looking for the queen. If looking for the queen smoke the entrace less before going into the hive. use slow methodical movements. Use short puffs of smoke as much as possible. Listen to the bees and watch their movements. The minute they start to increase their noise, smoke them a little. If a bee starts flying erratic, smoke them a little. use a hive tool to break open the "seal" between supers and hive body. Go easy. open the hive, smoke short puffs over the frames. You can use short puffs of smoke to direct the bees. Avoid using a bee brush as much as possible for hive manipulations. take out an end frame, look for the queen then set aside. Generally you want to keep the queen in the hive on a frame as much as possible. examine the next frame and put back into the hive in the same positions. Place the frame back do not let it drop that last 1/2" or so into the groove. Continue looking at each frame all the way thru the super or brood chamber. observe runniniest on the comb. Observe how much capped brood and the pattern. Observe holes in the brood. Look to see eggs and larvae the sign of a laying queen. Observe if have honey and then a band of pollen in the corners. If not need to assess if need to feed. Is the nest layout correct? Have they swarmed. stay in hive as short as possible. The rougher you are with your bees the more you will get stung. Avoid banging equipment. Place the supers back on the hive body; do not let it drop. Avoid mashing the bees around the edge of the super. Use short puffs of smoke to move the bees off the edge. **************Get trade secrets for amazing burgers. Watch "Cooking with Tyler Florence" on AOL Food. (http://food.aol.com/tyler-florence?video=4&?NCID=aolfod00030000000002) **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 14:08:06 -0400 Reply-To: bee-quick@bee-quick.com Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: James Fischer Subject: Re: NY Times article on honeybees in the City MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > but does contain a few knee-slappers I haven't met Officer Planakis yet, but I was asked to come to the site the next day to be interviewed by one of the local NYC TV stations about the 400 or so stragglers left after his removal of the bulk of the colony. No box with a pheromone lure was left to collect stragglers, which in my view is the mark of a rank amateur. Another clue was that he wore a full bee suit on a hot day to collect a very passive swarm on a brick wall. I was fresh out of lures myself, as I've collected a number of swarms this spring. The mild winter was very good to the bees, it seems. The local residents, some who were forced to walk within a few feet of the mass of bees on the brick wall to get to their apartments, had the same question as the reporter - "Why are the bees BACK?". Despite Planakis being a police officer, there was apparently no attempt made to do any "public relations" and/or reassure the civilians that the bees were not a public safety issue. I played nice for the TV camera, and simply stressed that the bees were harmless, homeless bees that I expected would make their way back to the original colony from which they swarmed, but what I was thinking was "What a buffoon this guy was to make such a sloppy job of such an easy swarm to collect." The David Graves fellow sold jelly and jam at one of the NYC Farmers Market for years and then started beekeeping in western MA. He claims to have 12 hives at various sites around New York and the surrounding boroughs, and has even been filmed for TV carrying individual frames of comb down ladders, and across boards between rooftops, and installing package bees into brand-new-looking boxes. Despite the small number of hives and the tedious comb-by-comb harvesting, he amazingly never runs out of "New York City Rooftop Honey" with brisk sales every weekend. I've never met anyone with only 12 hives who never ran out of honey, so I'm guessing that the bulk of this honey really comes down from MA in the trunk of his car, and that his labels are not very accurate as to the actual origin of the honey. > However, nothing was said about urban versus farm bees. Urban bees > MIGHT live shorter lives because of factors such as air pollution > (i.e., Atkins smog studies) or a higher chance of becoming a smear > on the windshield of a vehicle. Urban bees tend to be "rooftop bees", flying above tree level to gather nectar that will mostly be gathered from trees. More to the point, it is rare for NYC traffic to reach speeds at which bees would be in any danger. I can rarely even get the Volvo out of 3rd gear until I am well outside the city. There's also a surprising lack of pesticides used in parks and in home gardens everyone is very concerned about staying organic and non-toxic, regardless of cost. Not at all like rural areas, where the co-ops carry some pretty nasty stuff, and are happy to sell it. Same thing in Europe, it seems: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4621184.stm Also, the new low-sulfur diesel has made a big change for the better in city air quality as compared to even a few years ago. The views have become much less hazy. Best of all, the isolation is a good thing from a disease and pest standpoint. Overall, I'd guess that urban bees have shorter foraging sorties due to the wide variety of different trees and blooms in a small area, and can be more "productive" than their rural counterparts. Give me a few years, and I'll be able to say for sure. I'd guess that fewer predators, isolation from the migratory routes, and plantings being constantly replaced by skilled gardeners the moment that blooms end would mean that an urban hive would live a productive and healthy life. **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 20:04:03 +0000 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Gavin Ramsay Subject: Re: Honeybee Management Technique MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi David Of all of your list of management skills, this one seemed particularly wise: > stay in hive as short as possible. :-) all the best Gavin **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 17:55:41 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bill Bartlett Subject: tulip poplar MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I have posted this before: the bees in my area (midatlantic coast, US) = no longer work the tulip poplar tree for nectar. This known fact also = appeared in Bee Culture in the letters to the editor. There was no = response. I have since asked a certified arborist, a forest ranger, a = member of the forest service, a biologist from the local college and = numerous other beekeepers and friends. The response I get is that they = have no idea and hardly know what I am talking about. I guess it is only = a few beekeepers that care. Now I find that we can add another tree to the list. That would be the = black locust. This might not be so bad, but these were two of the best = nectar sources in this area. Now the honey production is down. I would = venture to guess that there are other trees and plants that also have = stopped producing nectar. I can only assume that it is the climate = change (warming) that is the cause. I just can't figure out why there is = no flow to the flowers of these two trees. Any guesses? Bill Bartlett Valley Lee, Maryland=20 **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 17:58:09 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "=?windows-1252?Q?J._Waggle?=" Subject: Re: Alarm Pheromone / Aggressive Ferals Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit wrote: >And I must add my voice to the protest over the use of the >term "aggressive". No such thing as "aggressive" bees. Hum, Your protest isnt being heard by the upper echelon. Dewey M. Caron says there are aggressive bees http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/pdfs/Tips-Handle_Bees-PM.pdf Multiple stings may be an indication of aggressive bees. Call um, pissed off, frisky, testy, stingy, mad, upset When the a colony is proactive, coming out stinging at the approach of a vehicle, instead of 'reactive' to simuli to the colony itself, IMO, that is aggressive. Joe **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 18:29:54 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bill Truesdell Subject: Re: Glucose Oxidase / was Manuka In-Reply-To: <7eb65cc10805291010p4429684ay35a7a08259d0e647@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Juanse Barros wrote: > Do the enzymes stop working after the honey is capped? No. But there are less enzymes if the honey dries quickly. Remember, that quick drying will reduce the bees part in the drying process, which is to "eat" and regurgitate the nectar. Each time they do that it increases the enzyme load. The longer it takes to dry the honey, the more enzymes. Bill Truesdell Bath, Maine **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 18:34:52 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "=?windows-1252?Q?J._Waggle?=" Subject: Re: Alarm Pheromone / Aggressive Ferals Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Gavin Ramsay wrote: > A possible second reason not to follow Joe's suggestion to stick your nose into the winter cluster when you see stingers in the air?! Once one knows their capabilities, and develop a knowledge of bee behavior, they can do such things with a confidence in their abilities. I encourage and teach to new bees, the using of several senses in order to properly inspect a colony. I consider smelling as a key function in analyzing a colony. I never realized just how important it was, and how much I rely on it, until 2 seasons ago, when I began teaching a newbee that has NO sense of smell. So now, the slack from this lacking of smell, must be taken up by fine-tuning his visual sense and knowledge of bee behavior to a higher level, as he will need to rely on it more, so I focus more on pointing out minute details in bee behavior to compensate. I occasionally forget his lack of smell, so as I talk what I am thinking, observing and smelling when working colonies, he constantly has to remind me, Joe, I cant smell, remember? ;) It is typical for detailed inspections for disease to place ones nose as close as possible to the colony to check for AFB or other abnormal smells. A slow wafting type sniff, not to inhale, but to get the odor into the smell receptors is whats needed. An expert (shall remain namless) that was inspecting my colonies proceeded to get on his hands and knees and spent far more time than I do with my nose in my colonies; he spent about 20 to 30 seconds with his nose nearly resting on the top bars of each colony. So dont tell me that I cant tell others where they should stick their noses! ;) (smiley face) Best Wishes, Joe **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 19:24:36 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Chris Slade Subject: Re: Honeybee Management Technique MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Move hands around, not across a hive as the bees are attracted to rapid movements. If you move your hands over an open hive do so at half speed. When smoking, you aren't trying to gas the bees, just to induce the guards to go and find some open stores to gorge. This takes time, so count slowly to 120 whilst putting your veil on and giving the hives subsequently to be examined a whiff (no more) of smoke. Don't jar the hives. Avoid this by lubricating with wax/oil (Vaseline in UK) where wood meets wood. Generally don't wear gloves unless you feel you really have to as they make you clumsy and insensitive. To gain confidence in gong gloveless, cut the thumb and first 2 fingers off an old pair of gloves. Minimise drifting by arranging hives in a broken pattern facing different directions rather then in a straight line. Write up your record as soon as you have put the roof back on the hive. If you can confidently and unstung do so with veil off, resting the notebook on the roof of that hive give them full marks for temperament. Listen to the engine noise. Chris **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 19:27:44 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "=?windows-1252?Q?J._Waggle?=" Subject: Re: Ozone Decontamination at Logan, Utah for combs with chemic al contamination Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Bill Truesdell wrote: >Since the Formic Acid issue seems to be "harm to the bee", I can only say that if Formic kills some bees (it >does) harms some drone (it does) but does so in the less than 10% range Hello Bill, Not to get involved here, but Just thought Id express some of my thoughts on the matter. When following assessments of feral swarms from colony initiation, till colony maturity. (Setting aside for a moment, the obvious duds and failure to thrive); I am seeing perhaps a level of performance differing as little as 5%, is usually all that separates the keepers from the colonies that need culled, OR winter survivors from winter mortalities. When you consider a colony performing 5% better at all levels from colony initiation in May. And you factor in the all compounding interest (so to speak) across all levels of colony functions. A colony performing at 5% higher than others, IMO, could easily be twice as strong as the colony performing only a few percentage points lower by the end of the season, this especially noticeable during poor seasons. So in short, it is of my belief, that you need NOT do "harm to the bee", kill bees, or be able to detect any noticeable harm, in order to cause mortality. All that is needed, is to hinder the colonies ability to perform less than what it is capable of, and the potential is there to cause colony death when an environmental stress or two are added. My two cents. Best Wishes, Joe **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 21:18:01 -0500 Reply-To: whalen-pedersen@mchsi.com Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "E. Whalen-Pedersen" Subject: Re: tulip poplar In-Reply-To: <007d01c8c1d6$bdb46f20$220624d8@D651JL91> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Bill Bartlett wrote: > bees in my area (midatlantic coast, US) no longer work the tulip poplar tree for nectar. ... > add another tree to the list. That would be the black locust. Could it be that we are not ready for the nectar flow like we used to be? Some years they are early and some years they are late. There is also not a flow from black locust, for example, every year. Here in NE Illinois I have been watching the black locust around me this year and they have not yet bloomed. There appear to be more than in recent years and I have taken the measure to add supers but the weather this Spring but it has not yet happened. The flow this year was delayed for a number of the regular events. Even dandelions were late. Erik **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 02:28:06 GMT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "waldig@netzero.net" Subject: Re: NY Times article on honeybees in the City Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit >>...the mark of a rank amateur. Everyone was an amateur at one point... why pick on the officer? I give lots of credit to the NYPD for getting an officer trained in bee handling. >>Another clue was that he wore a full bee suit... In the attached photo the veil is off though. :) http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:V-shOPX1NyoJ:www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp%3Fstid%3D1%26aid%3D82056+honey+bee+swarm+Bronx&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us So does that make the officer a pro now? Hardly. You can get a swarm of AHB up north, too. AHB can be defensive even in a swarm cluster. Also, this could have been a colony in the wall and the bees may have been a bee beard around the entrance. Police are trained not to take unnecessary chances on the beat and they should take proper precautions with what is perceived as docile swarms. >>...no attempt made to do any "public relations" and/or reassure the civilians that the bees were not a public safety issue. Didn't you don a veil for the Fox News camera recently? That surely did not send a reassuring message to the uninformed public. :o) >>I played nice for the TV camera... but what I was thinking was "What a buffoon this guy was to make such a sloppy job..." Sounds like hypocrisy to me. What I was thinking as I read the story: ''What if this swarm had issued from a nearby managed hive in the Bronx Zoo? I hope a beekeeper negligent in swarm prevetion/control did not cause the unsuspecting public unnecessary alarm...'' Would harm good public relations. It would be interesting to ask officer Palankas if there was a marked queen... :)) Waldemar **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 09:22:43 +0100 Reply-To: ruaryrudd@iol.ie Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Ruary Rudd Subject: Re: NY Times article on honeybees in the City In-Reply-To: <000001c8c1b6$f2f1f150$0201000a@j> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit So you didn't leave a lure either: Pot calling kettle comes to mind Ruary -----Original Message----- Behalf Of James Fischer Sent: 29 May 2008 19:08 No box with a pheromone lure was left to collect stragglers, which in my view is the mark of a rank amateur. I was fresh out of lures myself, as I've collected a number of swarms this spring. **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 07:58:17 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: =?windows-1252?Q?Mike_Bassett?= Subject: Re: tulip poplar Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit On Thu, 29 May 2008 17:55:41 -0400, Bill Bartlett wrote: > >Now I find that we can add another tree to the list. That would be the black locust. I just can't figure out why there is no flow to the flowers of these two trees. we had the best locust flow old time bee keepers had ever seen last year. some trees are just now flowering but not like last year. mike bassett n.y. **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 08:17:13 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: dan&jan Subject: Re: tulip poplar In-Reply-To: <007d01c8c1d6$bdb46f20$220624d8@D651JL91> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Bill Bartlett wrote: > I have posted this before: the bees in my area (midatlantic coast, US) no longer work the tulip poplar tree for nectar. This known fact also appeared in Bee Culture in the letters to the editor. I live in the Boone, NC area and find that Black locust will produce nectar only once every 5-7 years. The past several years the locust leaf miner has been in full swing and at least two generations have been causing severe foliage damage-- no leaves+ no carbohydrate reserves to set flower buds also severe drought have had a severe impact on tree health. The same conditions are undoubtedly affecting the tulip poplar, sourwood, goldenrod and other flowering plants. We too see the lack of bee activity on tulip poplar. Bottom line--environment, environment Dan V in the NC mountains **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 08:39:21 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Peter_de_Bruyn_Kops?= Subject: Re: Glucose Oxidase / was Manuka Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit This subject has attracted my beekeeping and intellectual interest and I'm interested in corroboration. >>> Remember, that quick drying will reduce the bees part in the drying >>> process, which is to "eat" and regurgitate the nectar. Each time they do >>> that it increases the enzyme load. The longer it takes to dry the honey, >>> the more enzymes. I don't remember. Is there research to back that up? It seems equally plausible to me that bees could sense the enzyme load and only top it up if necessary, thereby saving the effort/biological expense of making more enzymes than necessary. Evolution has a habit of weeding out waste. It seems to me the bees' part in the drying process is to circulate dry air in and moist air out. Regurgitation works on curing/enzyme levels. Given weather and daily temp fluctuations, the moisture level in uncapped honey is unlikely to decline monotonically to the capping point but rather fluctuate for a while between 16 and 22%. My mental model (no research) is that honey gets capped when the moisture is below some threshold AND the enzyme levels are above some threshold AND the colony has the time and materials to get the job done. I believe capping happens in bursts. **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 08:49:23 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: =?UTF-8?Q?Peter_Borst?= Subject: Re: Alarm Pheromone / Aggressive Ferals Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit J. Waggle wrote: > he spent about 20 to 30 seconds with his nose nearly resting on the top bars of each colony. I do this. In fact, one time I pulled into an apiary late on a rainy day. I was trying to decide whether to inspect or give it up for the day (and come back another day, of course). There were twelve hives and I decided to do a sniff test. I opened the covers one by one and sniffed. It wasn't until the last hive that I smelled that distinctive odor of (of what? I liken it to the smell of road kill in summer) ... I decided to do a thorough check and found them all to be OK except the one I sniffed out. By the way, apropos of sting odor on the hands: last season I got into the habit of washing my hands with rubbing alcohol, mainly to clean off the propolis. To think that I went 30 years with fingers stained by bee glue before I thought of this! Works really well, and doesn't seem to dry out the skin like you'd think it would. This year I switched to a hand sanitizer which is 60% ethanol and has glycerin which probably is better on the hands. I use it between hives; it eliminates bee glue build up on the fingers and removes the odor of bee stings. Bees do not seem to object to the smell of alcohol at all, nor does the mild scent of the hand lotion seem to be a problem. pb **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 08:53:09 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bill Bartlett Subject: Fw: [BEE-L] tulip poplar MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=response Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Erik wrote: Could it be that we are not ready for the nectar flow like we used to be? Dear Erik, This is not a matter of if and when they bloom. This is watching the trees, usually more than once a day while the trees are in bloom over a period of years. Through the whole bloom time there are NO insects visiting these blooms. Bill B **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 09:47:05 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bill Bartlett Subject: Re: tulip poplar MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=response Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Dan V in the NC mountains wrote: > We too see the lack of bee activity on tulip poplar. > Bottom line--environment, environment Dear Dan, So we see what is going on. I would like to know the science that lets the tree produce leaves yet no nectar in the flowers. Bill B **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 09:50:44 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bill Bartlett Subject: Re: tulip poplar MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="Windows-1252"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > mike bassett n.y. wrote: > we had the best locust flow old time bee keepers had ever seen last year. > some trees are just now flowering but not like last year. Mike, I have to think that it is a period of cold weather that allows the trees to produce nectar. That is what has changed here in Maryland and south. You still have a cold period in N.Y. Bill B **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 09:55:59 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Jerry Wallace Subject: Re: Fw: [BEE-L] tulip poplar In-Reply-To: <000e01c8c254$1d947890$220624d8@D651JL91> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I have loads of mature tulip poplars (6-10 foot diameter trees) within a quarter mile of my hives that literally rain nectar during a heavy flow. However, the bees?generally ignore this bloom in favor of other floral sources.? I have come to the conclusion that the other sources have a higher sugar content and are thus preferred over the tulip poplar.? I suspect earlier, warmer weather also plays a factor in the equation as I note the bees won't work certain plants until daytime temperatures reach 70-80 degrees on average, ignoring them until warmer weather raises the sugar content. **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 11:31:45 -0400 Reply-To: bee-quick@bee-quick.com Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: James Fischer Subject: Re: NY Times article on honeybees in the City MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit If my view seemed harsh, it is because I have asked the NYC health dept to correct a "technical error" in their regulations. They prohibited beekeeping in NYC on the grounds that bees were added to their list of "dangerous animals inclined to do harm". While they agree that this is a provably false statement, any bad PR about bee swarms might have a negative impact on what would otherwise be a simple no-brainer. > What if this swarm had issued from a nearby managed hive in the Bronx Zoo? The hives at the Zoo are a mile away from the swarm location. It is very unlikely that a swarm would fly a mile before settling on a wall. The swarm settled well southwest of the Zoo, and the Zoo hives are in the far Northeast corner of the Zoo property. > I hope a beekeeper negligent in swarm prevetion/control did not cause > the unsuspecting public unnecessary alarm... Just to reassure you, both Zoo hives were split in April, and both of the hives that were split were headed by new queens installed last fall. Supers have been on since late April, so they are too busy making a crop to swarm. Haven't seen any queen or swarm cells either, something I wanted to show to the Zookeepers I am teaching. And yes, there is a swarm trap in a tree a few hundred feet from the hives. It is still there, baited with some old comb and some synthetic lure stuff I've been messing with (citral/geraniol). > So you didn't leave a lure either: Pot calling kettle comes to mind Hold on there, those were not my bees to collect. I had no right to trespass on private property, nor had I any right to collect bees where I had not been asked to do so. The twice this year that I have been asked by NYPD and Parks and Rec to collect swarms in Manhattan professional jobs were done. In this case, merely talking with the residents and explaining what was going on seemed to be sufficient to calm their fears, so I considered the problem solved. This sort of thing is 99% public relations, and 1% beekeeping, as everyone who has collected a swarm "with an audience" knows. **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 11:40:56 -0400 Reply-To: bee-quick@bee-quick.com Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: James Fischer Subject: Re: Sheer number of compounds in hives MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > I cannot guess why anyone would suspect that the Penn team > would illegally import a viral strain from Israel, and then > inoculate bees in a nonquarantine situation. Yes, it was over-the-top, wasn't it? Just like the Guns and Ebola reference. :) Sorry, but where an obvious over-the-top "vivid metaphor" appears, something else that is also over-the-top just might be another. While the guns and Ebola was fairly easy to detect as such, apparently the "Israel" reference just wasn't vivid enough. My apologies. They can't all be winners. 100% Attempted-Humor-Free below: I hope that the actual point was obvious - the unique (and to date), non-CCD-related symptom of "twitching" that was reported by PSU staffers is very inconsistent with what we've been calling "CCD" up to now. The only version/strain of IAPV said to create these "twitch" symptoms was the strain found by Sela in Israel, as he noted in his paper in the journal "Virology" last summer, hence the attempted tongue-in-cheek "one is forced to ask...". But, aside from demonstrating yet again something that was not in question, that IAPV can kill bees, we are left with some very inconsistent symptoms from a virus that has already been shoved to the bottom of the key suspect pathogen list. These symptoms only make it more clear that IAPV just isn't a critical component of CCD at all, perhaps more clear than the finding of IAPV in so many "healthy" colonies, and the lack of IAPV in non-insignificant numbers of CCD colonies. Now, I could be wrong here, but this would require everyone else who has looked at CCD colonies to have also missed the "twitching". I wonder if there were any control colonies placed greenhouses at the same time as the IAPV-infected hives. One of the reasons that bumblebees are used in greenhouses is that honey bee colonies tend to die out in greenhouses, with the bulk of foragers banging themselves to death against the glazing of the greenhouse on their first sortie, younger bees taking over as foragers, and so on until the massive losses result in rapidly reduced populations, perhaps even something that might look somewhat like CCD. **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 13:10:40 -0700 Reply-To: deelusbybeekeeper@yahoo.com Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Dee Lusby Subject: Re: Alarm Pheromone / Aggressive Ferals In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii I will agree that there ARE overly aggressive honeybees in ALL races/strains. Just like there are overwhelmingly gentle/wimpy ones that run away and hide sorta. But mostly bees are very workable and it takes much to really get them going/setoff in working our hives. HIves that do set off, going into a beeyard before you even get out of vehicle are to be requeened,.... for rule of thumb is, if that hot, they can only mate gentler!! But I'd inspect first to see if something had just happened to be setting them off too to put them on guard as things do happen. As for the wimpy ones......I don't think anyone cares! But they certainly are not normal either. Dee A. Lusby **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 18:58:25 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Chris Slade Subject: Re: tulip poplar MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 30/05/2008 02:28:05 GMT Standard Time, wbartlett@MD.METROCAST.NET writes: I just can't figure out why there is no flow to the flowers of these two trees. Any guesses? Water table? Chris **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 16:36:59 -0600 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Mike Cooper Subject: Urban Bee Keeping MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable If anyone is willing to share them I would like some pictures and = account of keeping bees in the Urban environment. We are being confronted more and = more by municipal ordinances restricting beekeeping. Some counties and municipalities would like to limit beekeeping to properties of five = acres or more and 50 feet from the nearest property line.=20 So, any pictures or accounts of keeping bees in a crowed urban = environment would be appreciated. Mike C. =20 W7osg@cableone.net =20 =20 **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 21:06:38 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bob Darrell Subject: Re: Glucose Oxidase / was Manuka In-Reply-To: <483F2E62.5020509@suscom-maine.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v753) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On 29-May-08, at 6:29 PM, Bill Truesdell wrote: > > Remember, that quick drying will reduce the bees part in the drying > process, which is to "eat" and regurgitate the nectar. Each time > they do that it increases the enzyme load. The longer it takes to > dry the honey, the more enzymes. > Hi Bill and all During our trip to New Zealand we spent some time on the west coast of the south island. To say that it rained is an understatement(it poured). The host at our B&B complained that they were suffering the worst drought in years. Maybe the wet climate is one of the reasons that manuka honey has the reputation it has because the bees take a long time to dry it. Would honey from the prairies which I understand can be extracted before it is capped in that dry climate have fewer enzymes as a result? Bob Darrell Caledon Ontario Canada 44N80W **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 21:09:06 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: =?windows-1252?Q?Bob_Harrison?= Subject: Re: Fwd: [BEE-L] Fumidil Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hello All, As the battle to control nosema ceranae continues most of us look to Spain for the answers. Spain has been fighting the problem for years. The label which allows for drenching is on the label for a reason. From my own experience I know without drenching bees with N. ceranae and not taking feed are doomed without the drench. Many of us believe the new Medvet product does not have the kick of the old product. We believe that the formula was changed so the product would mix better with water. *Tests* using left over Mid con fumidil (hard to disolve) in comparison with the new product seems to convince at least a few of us. bob **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 20:58:34 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: =?windows-1252?Q?Bob_Harrison?= Subject: Re: FW: [Pollinator] Pesticide Ban in Germany Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hello All, The battle against the neonicotinoids hits the decade mark. Quotes from the sites: " beekeepers and ag officials in Italy, France and Holland ALL noticed similar phenomena in their fields when planting began a few eeks ago" Hard to believe the problem is soley related to application? "Prompting thwe Coalition against Bayer to demand that the pesticide maker withdraw all neonicotinoids from the market worldwide" Good luck with that! I personally would be happy with some label changes and bans in certain areas. Nothing like setting high goals but a total ban to me seems too high a goal. However proof of problems is mounting such as: "tests on dead bees showed that 99% had high levels of clothianidin" Bayer should be made to pay for those proveable losses! bob **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 04:30:35 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Chris Slade Subject: Re: Alarm Pheromone / Aggressive Ferals MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I was talking yesterday to a chap who claims to be the only person in England who professionally collects bee venom. He told me that he is careful, not only to be fully protected at the time but also to wear a respirator to avoid developing sentitivity through any sprayed venom getting into the lungs. Are people who routinely apply noses to hives or who can accurately describe the scent of alarm pheromone in danger of becoming sensitised. The chap was selling, inter alia, a cream containing venom which apparently is good for arthritis. I applied a little to the palm of a hand and a few minutes noticed a warm tingling and some reddening. It might work. Chris **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 21:58:26 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: randy oliver Subject: Re: Sheer number of compounds in hives In-Reply-To: <000101c8c26b$8d72cf60$0201000a@j> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline > Now, I could be wrong here, For once, I have no argument with your statement whatsover : ) but this would require > everyone else who has looked at CCD colonies to have > also missed the "twitching". Only if they only looked next to the hive. To date I have only seen IAPV tried in a single kangaroo court with only one prosecutor, and no defense. I'll wait until it gets a fair scientific trial with actual data involved before I absolve it of all blame. Randy Oliver **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 06:58:12 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bill Truesdell Subject: Re: Glucose Oxidase / was Manuka In-Reply-To: <02C1ED93-4A32-403F-BC77-E10F534B0F1F@interlog.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Bob Darrell wrote: > Maybe the wet climate is one of the reasons > that manuka honey has the reputation it has because the bees take a long > time to dry it. Would honey from the prairies which I understand can be > extracted before it is capped in that dry climate have fewer enzymes as > a result? Could be but there are so many variables involved that it would be difficult to pin down the reason for the variability in enzyme levels in honey. Early capping is only one. Manuka honey is also touted for other anti-bacterial compounds found in the honey, and I have no idea if they are enzyme related or occur naturally in the nectar. Bill Truesdell Bath, Maine **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 07:06:54 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bill Truesdell Subject: Re: tulip poplar In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Chris Slade wrote: > I just can't figure out why there is no flow to the flowers of these two > trees. > > Any guesses? I wonder if the problem is with the trees or that there is a more desirable nectar source blooming at the same time. If there were dry conditions, maybe the other source provides nectar under adverse conditions. Or it could be, as we are experiencing in Maine, that everything is blooming at once, so there is a lot to choose from. Last year we had a long spring, with progressive blooms. This year is an instant, short spring. Bill Truesdell Bath, Maine **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 04:28:58 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: C Hooper Subject: Molan: Manuka Tests May Give Different Results, Yet Still Be Accurate MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII Molan: Manuka Tests May Give Different Results, Yet Still Be Accurate Honey Ratings System Under Fire All About Hawke's Bay (New Zealand), 5/30/2008 http://apitherapy.blogspot.com/2008/05/molan-manuka-tests-may-give-different.html ...Prof Molan said natural honey could vary in its chemical composition within the same drum of honey, and successive samples from the same drum could give different results, yet still be accurate. Prof Molan spent years researching "active" manuka honey and his work has been developed by apiarists using the UMF umbrella to create a market for medical honey, wound dressings and similar products which they say are worth more than $100 million... **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 07:38:05 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: =?windows-1252?Q?Jim_?= Subject: Re: Sheer number of compounds in hives Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit >> this would require everyone else who >> has looked at CCD colonies to have >> also missed the "twitching". > Only if they only looked next to the hive. Sorry, but the press release from PSU said: "...guard bees were observed removing pralytic bees from colonies and flying across the room. The majority of these 'twitcher' bees were found to have IAPV." There was no need to look anywhere outside the hives at all. So, let's extract what we can from that carefully-crafted statement from PSU: 1) Clearly "twitcher" bees were found IN hives. 2) The majority (NOT ALL) of these bees were found to be infected with IAPV. 3) The hives were in a greenhouse. 4) Nothing is said about what was found in control colonies, or if there even were any control colonies. What can a reasonable person conclude from the above? 1) That IAPV is not even the sole cause of the "twitching", as it was only found in THE MAJORITY (rather than all) of the "twitcher" bees. 2) That if "twitcher" bees were a symptom of CCD, such bees would have been easily found IN THE HIVE by now. 3) That the attempt to infect hives with IAPV was a clear attempt to satisfy Koch's postulates, and it utterly failed to result in the disease symptoms we would call "CCD". 4) That honey bees in greenhouses are STILL a very bad idea. :) So, I'll say it again - this data clearly tends to show yet again that IAPV does not correlate well with CCD, or even with the well-known CCD symptoms. > To date I have only seen IAPV tried in a > single kangaroo court with only one > prosecutor, and no defense. I'll wait > until it gets a fair scientific trial > with actual data involved before I > absolve it of all blame. That's funny, the claim that IAPV is "associated with" (and the unstated claim that IAPV is the proximate cause of) CCD was made by a long list of people with funding, equipment, sole access to all the samples collected, and months with which to prepare their case. I've been one of the few people consistently pointing out that the rush to judgement has been to "convict" IAPV rather than "absolve", even though the actual data does tend to "absolve". These claims were published in "Science". See: http://bee-quick.com/reprints/dapaper.pdf Before the ink was even dry on that paper, analysis of more samples led to the Evans/Chen paper in ABJ, which completely and utterly refuted each and every claim made about IAPV in the first paper. See: http://bee-quick.com/reprints/claims_collapse.pdf http://www.dadant.com/documents/ChenandEvansarticlefromDec07ABJ.pdf Now we have yet even more data that, if examined closely with a level gaze, tends to verify yet again that IAPV symptoms just don't match CCD symptoms. See: http://aginfo.psu.edu/news/2008/5/beeresearch.html It would seem that the claim has gotten a very high-profile hearing, and been refuted by not just Evans and Chen of USDA, but now also by the PSU team itself, to a limited extent. I don't see how this process, where researchers are refuting and contradicting the claims made by members of their own team, and even those who made the claims are contradicting their own prior claims could be called a "Kanagroo Court". Yes, I understand that that the results are being framed in a manner that tends to give the impression that progress is being made, but one must always read Science with a critcal eye, and audit the data with a sharp pencil. (The capital "S" in Science stands for "Skeptic".) This team has refused to release any sequence data and sample metadata from the "Science" paper, and now has produced two sets of results that are massively inconsistent with the claims made last September. It is time to admit that IAPV has been a minor player in the drama, and that other pathogens are better suspects when viewed in combination. The AIA has already realized this, so I am no longer "alone" in my view on this. That's the neat thing about science - it is neither a democratic process, nor a popularity contest. Small amounts of data speak loudly, and can refute even the grandest claims. The data here speaks loudly. **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 04:48:26 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: C Hooper Subject: New Book Looks at Honey Trade Worldwide MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII New Book Looks at Honey Trade Worldwide Honey of a Book Tells Sticky, Sweet Tale Otago Daily Times (New Zealand), 5/31/2008 http://apitherapy.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-book-looks-at-honey-trade-worldwide.html THE HONEY SPINNER: On the trail of ancient honey, vanishing bees and the politics of liquid gold Grace Pundyk Pier 9, pbk, $40 Review by Charmian Smith There is a trend for authors to trace certain products around the world, writing a sort of travel book, memoir, history and exploration of a topic all rolled into one. Australian journalist Grace Pundyk picks honey and honeybees as her topic, and follows them along the sticky road from Yemen to Australia, from Borneo to China and through the big honey-packing businesses in the United Kingdom and United States. It is not all sweetness and light, despite the heavenly wild honeys she discovers along the way... **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 08:10:45 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Roni Subject: Advanced Beekeeping Books? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I've found many books out there for beginners, but can you recommend books for the next level up? Roni **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 05:52:21 -0700 Reply-To: naturebee@yahoo.com Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "J. Waggle" Subject: Re: Alarm Pheromone / Aggressive Ferals In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Chris Slade wrote: > Are people who routinely apply noses to hives or who can > accurately describe > the scent of alarm pheromone in danger of becoming > sensitised. Alarm pheromone is NOT bee venom, so I don’t know how exposure to the smell of ’alarm pheromone’ can cause one to be sensitized to ’bee venom’. I haven’t seen any evidence that supports this concern;,,, please provide. > The chap was selling, inter alia, a cream containing venom > which apparently > is good for arthritis. I would ask, why these folks applying bee venom cream on a daily basis are not being sensitized through repeated absorption through the skin as well as inhaling? Joe **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 09:08:29 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Lionel Evans Subject: Re: Alarm Pheromone / Aggressive Ferals MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="UTF-8"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Peter, What was the problem with the hive you sniffed out? Lionel **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 09:12:13 -0700 Reply-To: naturebee@yahoo.com Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "J. Waggle" Subject: Re: tulip poplar In-Reply-To: <4841314E.8040005@suscom-maine.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit > > I just can't figure out why there is no flow to > the flowers of these two > > trees. I’m not all together buying the theories that there are “more desirable nectar source blooming at the same time.” OR that “trees aren’t producing a nectar flow.” For areas having these blooms, what more desirable source could there possibly be at this time of year, other than tulip and locust? If someone’s proposing this theory, tell us what these blooms are? Assuming right off, these trees are not producing a flow of nectar might be a distraction, we perhaps should also be "thinking inside the box" Beekeepers from the past often have stated the requirement for bee colonies to be 'strong and healthy' in order to obtain these early surpluses, and I would assume this still holds true today. A beekeeper thinking he is doing everything right, might be apt to blame the bloom, rather than the condition of his colonies. You need go no further than looking at what impact varroa, as well as other stresses have on a colonies ability to collect a surplus to have a logical explanation worht considering. What may appear to be a strong colony to a beekeeper, may in fact be masking the fact that the colony may be coping with an underlying stress sufficient to hinder foraging abilites. Best Wishes, Joe Feralbeeproject.com **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 12:20:48 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bill Bartlett Subject: Fw: [BEE-L] tulip poplar MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Re: [BEE-L] tulip poplar > Chris Wrote Water table? Chris, That might be a good guess but I live next to a tidal pond that has = plenty of water and the tulip trees are right on the bank. The Aquifer where we = get our water has went from 12 feet down to about 28 feet down in thirty = years. Billy Bee **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 13:09:32 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Bill Truesdell Subject: Re: Glucose Oxidase / was Manuka In-Reply-To: <48412F44.3040000@suscom-maine.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Did a little research to try and find where I had read about glucose oxidase and its concentrations in ripe honey and it was the Hive and the Honey Bee in the Acids section of the Honey chapter. Its concentration is a function of the time the bees have to add it to the ripening nectar, but I was wrong in my second reply- that it could still work after capping. To quote- "The considerable variation in the amount of acid in honeys perhaps reflects the time required for the nectar to be completely converted to honey under differing conditions of environment, colony strength, and sugar concentration of the nectar, since the activity of glucose oxidase in full density honey is negligible." When nectar comes in, it is regurgitated by the bee, picked up by a house bee and moved to a cell. It is then moved again by the house bees to speed drying. If drying is fast, there are less moves and less visits to the bee's honey stomach, hence less add-ons. Bill Truesdell Bath, Maine **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 18:07:24 +0100 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: joe mc cool Subject: WANTED; MD frames In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Please, does anyone in the UK have MD frames (deeps and shallows) they might sell - perhaps someone giving up bee keeping. Thanks Joe Mc Cool **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 15:02:24 -0700 Reply-To: deelusbybeekeeper@yahoo.com Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Dee Lusby Subject: Re: Alarm Pheromone / Aggressive Ferals In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Chris writes: ...but also to wear a > respirator to avoid > developing sentitivity through any sprayed venom getting > into the lungs. Question: If venom therapy is used to build immunity to bee stings starting with one sting full dose or as quick as possible and out, and then working up, taking more and more,... then for beekeepers wearing veils and bees on veils doing same, or as in instance you refer to above.........how does this create problems for developing sensitivity then which is opposite effect? Somehow I am not following what you are writing or saying.... Dee A. Lusby **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 18:03:38 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Brian Fredericksen Subject: Re: FW: [Pollinator] Pesticide Ban in Germany Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit On Fri, 30 May 2008 20:58:34 -0400, Bob Harrison wrote: > >"tests on dead bees showed that 99% had high levels of clothianidin" > this reads like a presidential primary news story which was taken out of context to inflame the masses. if you do a search and read all of the articles on this issue in Germany you find out that the losses were attributed to a misapplication of the seed coating. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/23/wildlife.endangeredspecies? gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront "Tests on dead bees showed that 99% of those examined had a build-up of clothianidin. The chemical, produced by Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of the German chemical giant Bayer, is sold in Europe under the trade name Poncho. It was applied to the seeds of sweetcorn planted along the Rhine this spring. The seeds are treated in advance of being planted or are sprayed while in the field. The company says an application error by the seed company which failed to use the glue-like substance that sticks the pesticide to the seed, led to the chemical getting into the air. Bayer spokesman Dr Julian Little told the BBC's Farming Today that misapplication is highly unusual. "It is an extremely rare event and has not been seen anywhere else in Europe," he said." i'm no fan of farm chems but marian fraziers paper in the recent ABJ pretty much says it all. the vast majority of contaminates in USA comb from CCD losses are coming from beekeepers. i'm tired of the Bayer story - its a dead issue really. like others have said someone in the USA would have found a smoking gun and they have not. . time to move on to other real issues with real data - like stopping the self contamination of combs by beekeepers. Bob don't you see it as your role to help stop the use of legal and illegal miticides that build up in combs? Alot of beekeepers look up to you. I think you are doing a disservice to beekeepers by trying to keep this dead Bayer horse alive. its just distracting beekeepers from the REAL issue. along with the dead horse Bayer we have the Einstien quote and the stupid UK line about bees perishing in a decade. this kind of tabloid nonsense is slowing reform in our industry. who are the beekeepers going to blame when the mainstream media starts picking up the story that the top 2 chems found in the disappearing bee hives is from the beekeepers themselves? (maybe Bayer again since they make Checkmite?, its Bayer no matter which way you dice and slice but never the beekeepers) the back lash could be nasty. its just a matter of time. meanwhile ABF, NHB and other industry players are in complete denial. **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 19:41:37 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: Chris Slade Subject: Re: FW: [Pollinator] Pesticide Ban in Germany MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 31/05/2008 03:13:31 GMT Standard Time, bba@DISCOVERYNET.COM writes: tests on dead bees showed that 99% had high levels of clothianidin" Did they die with it or of it? Chris **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 19:52:11 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "Peter L. Borst" Subject: Bees in the news MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline More bright lights from the news media: Britain's 44,000 beekeepers are not very commercially minded. Like the bees, they work largely for free. I came to understand what was happening only when I visited an apiary tucked away in a quiet corner of my Twickenham constituency. Volunteers tend the hives and manage the swarms because they love their hobby. Simple common sense and national self-interest suggest that the Government should support some research into bees and their diseases. Without proper research, it is difficult to quantify the scale of bees' decline absolutely. But what is known is troubling. There are 270,000 hives in Britain. Last winter one in five colonies perished. Half of Italy's 50 billion honey bees died last year. The picture is similarly bleak across France, Germany, Brazil and Australia. And nobody quite knows why. American fruit growers have lost billions due to a phenomenon dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder, first reported in 2006. CCD has wiped out close to two million colonies across America and billions of bees worldwide. We need bees. Einstein was said to have calculated: 'If bees disappeared off the surface of the globe then Man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more life.' [no more newspapers] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 20:00:48 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: =?UTF-8?Q?Peter_Borst?= Subject: Re: Alarm Pheromone / Aggressive Ferals Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Lionel Evans wrote: >Hi Peter, >What was the problem with the hive you sniffed out? American foulbrood. I have also encountered a hive with chalkbrood so bad you could smell it outside of the hive. It's sort of a very nasty blend of bad cheese and dirty socks. pb **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 20:10:03 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: =?UTF-8?Q?Peter_Borst?= Subject: Re: Advanced Beekeeping Books? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit "Bees and Beekeeping" by Eva Crane (12 June 1912 – 6 September 2007). The New York Times reported that "Dr. Crane wrote some of the most important books on bees and apiculture." Trained as a nuclear physicist, she changed her field of interest to bees, and spent decades researching bees, traveling to more than 60 countries, often under primitive conditions. "A Book of Honey" (1980) and "The Archaeology of Beekeeping" (1983) reflected her strong interests in nutrition and the ancient past of beekeeping. Her writing culminated in two mighty, encyclopaedic tomes, "Bees and Beekeeping: science, practice and world resources" (1990; at 614 pages) and "The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting" (1999; 682 pages). pb **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * **************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 21:08:32 GMT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu From: "waldig@netzero.net" Subject: Re: tulip poplar Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit >>what more desirable ... other than tulip and locust? ...tell us... I am not sure of its influence over the other two but white clover opened up together with locust here this year. The flow thus far is behind last year's [for me, due to cooler spring and slower build up (I don't feed to accelerate build-up)]. The bees are strong now and may catch up in the next 1.5 weeks of locust bloom. The brood is solid and there is plenty of stored pollen. Bee traffic is good when it's not raining and hardly a bee comes back with pollen. They seem to be foraging in earnest for nectar. Waldemar **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * ****************************************************