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Volume 158 No. 7 July 2018 — ltur

Contents
Email
info@americanbeejournal.com 75 e
Web 9
www.americanbeejournal.com
Editor - Kirsten Traynor Advertising Manager - Marta Menn
Publishing Department - Dianne Behnke & Susan Nichols

The Great Chirping — 797

● International Honey Markets Report

Ron Phipps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
● How Regenerative Agriculture Can Help Save the Bees
Rusty Burlew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759
● Becoming a Beek
Laura G. Shields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 763
● Seed a Legacy
Katie Coleman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767
Articles

● The Varroa Problem - Part 17a The Blueberries and the Bees — 791
Randy Oliver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771
● The Stinging and the Stingless: Among the Honey-making Bees Bee Brief . . . . . . . . . . . 723

Departments
of Maya Mexico
W.S. Robinson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777 Letters to the
Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725
● Letting Nature Sort Out the Varroa Problem in Ireland
John McMullan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 News & Events . . . . . . 727
● The Great Chirping: A Concert for Insects with Insects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 U .S . Honey Crops
and Markets . . . . . . . . 735
● Keeping An ‘Eye’ on Bee Stings
Gary Templeman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 807 Beekeeping Basics . . . 756
● Envisioning the Future of Beekeeping Part 2 Beekeepers: The Next
Tammy Horn Potter and Michele Colopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 809 Generation . . . . . . . . . 816
● My Summer with the Swarmcatcher
Leslie Tiller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813 Classified
Advertising . . . . . . . . . 829
● Wildflower Program: Supports Bees and Other Pollinators
NCDOT’s Roadside Environmental Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819 Advertising Index . . . . 832

The Classroom
Columns The Curious Beekeeper
Jerry Hayes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751 Rusty Burlew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801
Bees & Beekeeping, Past & Present Notes from the Lab: The Latest Bee Science Distilled
Wyatt A. Mangum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785 Scott McArt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821
The Scientific Trenches For the Love of Bees and Beekeeping
Alison McAfee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791 Keith Delaplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823

July Cover Picture American Bee Journal ISSN 0002-7626

Leslie Tiller ventured out into the swamps of AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL (ISSN 002-7626) is
published monthly at American Bee Journal, 51 S.
ing to National Archive Publishing Co., 300 N. Zeeb
Road, P.O. Box 998, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106.
Virginia to meet local swarmcatcher Jack. Their 2nd Street, Hamilton, IL 62341. Periodicals Postage
Paid at Hamilton, IL and at additional mailing offices.
©Copyright Dadant & Sons, Inc., 2017. All rights re-
served, printed in USA. The Publishers cannot guar-
adventures together led them to a beautiful POSTMASTER: Send address changes to American
Bee Journal, 51 S. 2nd Street, Hamilton, IL 62341. In
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Subscriptions stop at expiration date printed on label. ton, IL 62341. (888) 922-1293. Fax (217) 847-3660.
Read her delightful tale in this issue. Available in microfilm form at moderate prices by writ-

July 2018 719

720 American Bee Journal
722 American Bee Journal
 A good friend of mine said that in
farming there are years where ev-
erything goes wrong. In the good
years, you better sock away for those
bad, because they definitely appear.
When they do, it isn’t one thing that
goes wrong. It’s one thing on top of
another and then another. I’ve been
keeping bees for 16 years and this
may be the worst spring I ever had.
What should have been easy work
turned into grueling long hours, as I
attempted to recover from one thing
after another.
As people, we don’t often like to
talk about what went wrong. We
like to gush about the highlights, the
amazing honey yields, the years the
bees are bursting out of the boxes
at the seams, when everything goes
smooth and the bees earn us money
with very little effort. This was not
one of those years.
So what went wrong? February was
extremely warm in my neck of the
woods, with temperatures in the 80s,
then March turned bitter cold again.
The maples were in full bloom, but
the weather was so cold and windy
that the bees couldn’t fly.
I installed the first round of queens
into my nucs in early April, when the
temperature climbed into the high
Despite the rough spring, I was able to meet
all my committments and teach some fun
classes. Here is a hands-on queen catch at a
local meadery, where participants get to find,
pick up, and mark queens.
July 2018
60s. But it didn’t last. It quickly plum-
meted back into the high 40s and low
50s during the day with up to 20 mph
winds and nights below freezing. Not
one of those queens made it home
from a mating flight. I live on a mi-
gratory bird path and I have a sneak-
ing suspicion my plump virgins made
tasty snacks for the hungry birds.
To get a jump start on the spring
season, my friend and I moved bees to
the coastal swamps of North Carolina.
Usually the flow kicks on in February
and the nucs made in March do beau-
tifully, drawing out an extra super of
comb. Our goal was to super, then
haul them up north to Maryland and
split them, dropping a cell into the
top half and selling a strong nuc with
a well mated queen. We checked on
the colonies in late March and we had
excellent takes of 80-90%. The bees
were building up beautifully, so we
left them to keep growing on the flow.
When we came back two weeks
later to move them north, the bees
looked good in two yards, but our
biggest yard was simply missing bees.
They had brood in two boxes, but not
enough bees to cover the brood. What
had happened?
Talks with the landowner revealed
that an airplane had flown directly
over the yard, spraying the pines for
pests. The colonies didn’t die, but it
set them back a good three weeks.
Instead of being able to split them,
we had to nurse them back to full
strength. 8 hours each way wasted.
April and May were cold and wet
in Maryland. Two young black bears
broke into my apiary, chowing down
on several nucs. I fixed the fence.
They came back and pulled a few
through the fence. I moved all the
colonies back from the fence line, so
they climbed into the bee truck and
tore apart the empty comb I had
stored after a long day, even biting
into empty Jester nuc boxes.
Demonstrating how to add attendants to a
queen cage during a queen catching class.
We set up an emergency electric
fence at the apiary 2 miles down the
road. But I had a few nucs sitting out-
side the boundary, as I couldn’t make
it too big. I’ve kept bees in that yard
since 2005 and never had an issue.
The bears destroyed 8 nucs sitting
outside of the fence. Things change!
And then it rained 6” in 3 hours in
Frederick County, Maryland. I didn’t
really notice, because I live up on a
mountain. I had to drop cells in one
of my outyards the next day. Driv-
ing there, 4 of the bridges were out.
What would normally have been a
20 minute drive, took 45. I thought I
was driving through a war zone with
hunks of missing asphalt. The one
yard where I keep bees on a hill near
an old gristmill was devastated. The
river crested, washing away the own-
ers garden and half my mating yard.
They were calling for more rain. So I
dropped everything and moved the
remaining colonies out that night.
A long story to say that beekeeping
requires perseverance. We live for the
good years, and keep trekking in the
bad. Like the bees, we’re survivors.
- Kirsten
723
 Send your letters to the editor,
Attn: Kirsten Traynor,
Dadant, 51 S. 2nd Street,
Hamilton, IL 62341,
Fax: 1-217-847-3660,
or email: editor@americanbeejournal.com
Due to size and content, we may be unable to publish all information received.
We may also edit your letter to avoid offensive language. Thank You!

BACKYARD BEEKEEPER
HIVE DESIGN...
To the editor,
I am just finishing my latest beehive
in my quest to find a perfect beehive!
I thought your readers might find it
interesting. With the attached photos
I thought I would tell why I chose
each detail of the hive design.
• I chose Long Langstroth type hive
because the hive takes standard
frames that are readily available
and inexpensive. They are also
easy to handle. With a long hive
you never need to lift a heavy
super. The frames took my small
strip of beeswax foundation which
I prefer to use in wedge top frames.
These frames would also take other
beekeepers preference of different
comb foundations.
To get a greater ratio of honey to
wax I use a 9 frame spacer after
the first 10 frames of brood frames.
But you would not have to do this.
These standard frames allow the
installation of a common nuc or
package of bees.
• I chose a clear Lexan follower
board because I want to observe
progress on comb building after
adding the nuc or package of bees
without opening their space. I can
then see when to add more frames
without taking out the follower
board and disturbing the bees. It
is so interesting to watch the bees
through this ‘window’.
• I chose clear Lexan inner covers
so I could open the top and watch
them without disturbing the busy
bees. This adds another element
of fun to my hive and allows me
to show others live bees working
inside a hive without donning bee
suits. I put small holes in the Lexan
to allow air circulation.
• The top will have a sheet of 1 1/2”
Styrofoam insulation which is not
installed yet in this set of photos.
That insulation fits above the
ventilation holes shown at the ends
of the hive.
• The top is hinged so old men like
me can handle it by themselves.
• A large wide entrance is in the end,
rather than the side, to encourage
all the brood frames to stay at that
end. That makes it easy to harvest
honey from the end away from the
entrance. Generous space under the
frames allows easy access for the
bees to any part of the hives. No
additional entrance will be needed.
An entrance reducer is easy to
control access in colder times. Only
one entrance for guard bees to
protect.
• Heavier 1 1/2” wood sides, and
bottom, for better climate control,
especially in our Montana winters.
• Having the hive off the ground on
legs makes it more convenient and
helps keep critters out of the hive.
Legs do not have to be fancy and
they could be just plain 2x4 lumber
or even cinder blocks. I plan to
finish it with clear, water based,
exterior, Polyurethane and add
some decorative metal accents from
Hobby Lobby. The options for paint
and/or decoration are endless. It
can be a real piece of garden art.

Hive in progress Finished hive

July 2018 725

 These are not new ideas. Rather
they are a compilation of ideas from
bee magazines and more experienced
beekeepers. The credit goes to two
people in particular. Dr. Leo Sharshkin
of Horizontalhive.com, and Caroline
Abbott of AbbotSustainableFarms.
com.
Dr. Leo Sharshkin puts on the most
interesting and informative seminars
on beekeeping you can imagine.
And Caroline Abbott shares the
basics of beekeeping and Long Lang
Hive Management in language we
backyard beekeepers can understand.
Reading the information on the
Horizontal Hive website and on
Abbott Sustainable Farms website
will give some actual dimensions of
the hive box itself.
Even if the honey was not such a
terrific food and saving more bees
wasn’t important, beekeeping is just
plain fun!!
Enjoy!!
Tony Seitz
COPYRIGHT ISSUE
The photo of the Carniolan Queen
with her court, tagged Green 58, was
taken by Kathy Keatley Garvey at
Univ. of CA., Davis. This photo was
featured in the June issue article, Su-
perorganism Resilience by Bill Hes-
bach Pg. 607 and 675. I’d like to give
credit to Kathy for her fine photog-
raphy. This queen was an aging, 3
year old, instrumentally inseminated
New World Carniolan breeder queen
placed in an observation hive at UCD
that Kathy photographed.
Susan Cobey
Honey Bee Insemination Service
WA
Response from the Editor:
Dear Sue,
Thank you for the clarification on
the photo and our humble apologies
to you and Kathy. We didn’t know
the author didn’t have copyright to
the image. It’s a beautiful photo and
Kathy Keatley Garvey is an amazing
photographer. If she’s ever interested
in putting together a photo essay, we
would certainly be interested in pub-
lishing it, so our readers can better ap-
preciate what fine work she does.
Sincerely,
Kirsten
726
WILL THE HIVE SURVIVE
Winters over starting to flow
Collected bounties starting to show
All the young continue to grow
all this pressure, something must go
The Hive is alive
About to break forth
Will the hive survive
It’s a matter of course
The hive is alive
about to break forth
The sun is high, the day is warm
To a branch lands a swarm
In two pieces the hive is torn
A brand new colony is born
Is the hive alive
where is the queen
Will the hive survive
It’s yet to be seen
Is the hive alive
Where is the queen
Inside a cell she waits to begin
Hopes to avoid a rival’s sting
If she’s freed, she’ll take to wing
In the air for a mating fling
Will the hive survive
She’s gotta get back
Will the hive survive
She can’t lose track
Will the hive survive
Avoid bird attacks
Will the hive survive
she’s gotta get back, lay eggs of her own
she’s gotta get back, spread pheromone
look she’s made it back to her home
© 11 / 26 / 2008 Michael R. Lund
DWV QUEEN
During my inspection rounds in Attached are 2 sets of photo’s, on
February I came across a queen with comb and on my hand. It’s amazing,
DWV and Paralysis. She overwintered having spent nearly all your life
and was obviously a drone layer last with bees you can still come across
fall. I just thought it was interesting something new.
that, 1. she survived the winter, 2. the
colony didn’t get rid of her, they were Take care,
still taking care of her. Maybe this is
more common than I realize. I’ve never Bob Wellemeyer
seen something like this before. VA Apiary Inspector
American Bee Journal
 bee will find a flower and drink all the nectar before other
bees can intervene and take it.”

Discovery of Two Neurons

The team found that the bee has two taste neurons
within each ‘taste bud’ which interact to enable this
persistent, intense sugar neuron activity. Lead author,
Newcastle University PhD student Ashwin Miriyala
said: “Other insects have one type of taste neuron that is
activated by sugars. We have discovered however, that
bees have two different types of sugar-activated neurons.
“The first neuron exhibits intense activity when in
contact with sugar. The second neuron intermittently
inhibits the activity of the first neuron for short durations
of time. This inhibition allows the first neuron a sort of
‘resting period’, so it can recover and maintain its intense
WHAT GIVES BEES THEIR activity for longer periods of time.
SWEET TOOTH? “Our data show that the interaction between these two
sugar neurons is a result of electrical connections between
them. This is the first evidence for this kind of connection
in any insect taste neuron.”
The work was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and
the BBSRC and following these findings, the Newcastle
University team intend to carry out further research
investigating how the bee’s sense of sweet taste might be
interrupted by pesticides.
REFERENCE: Burst firing in bee gustatory neurons
prevents adaptation. Ashwin Miriyala, Sébastien Kessler,
F. Claire Rind and Geraldine A. Wright. Current Biology

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA TO
MEASURE ECONOMIC IMPACT
OF HONEY INDUSTRY
Scientists have discovered bees linger on a flower, emp- Industry can promote its economic contributions
tying it of nectar, because they have sugar-sensing taste – but only if beekeepers, importers, packers and
neurons which work together to prolong the pleasure of processors participate in study
the sweetness.
Newcastle University researchers report that the bees’ FREDERICK, Colo. (May 16, 2018) – From beekeep-
taste neurons found on their proboscis - their mouthparts ers and honey importers to packers and processors, the
- fire intense signals for up to 10 seconds - much longer honey industry plays a unique and vital role in the U.S.
than the taste neurons found in other insects. Bees visit economy. To illustrate the industry’s true impact, the Uni-
flowers to obtain nectar, which they eat to feed their col- versity of California is asking business owners to com-
ony and to fuel their flight. Bees can taste sugars on their plete a short survey. The questionnaire will measure the
proboscis and when in contact with food, taste neurons economic impact of all aspects of the honey industry by
on the proboscis are activated signaling the presence of calculating the number of jobs the industry creates and its
food. total economic activity.
Publishing in Current Biology, the researchers report The questionnaire’s data will be used to create a final
that the neurons that specifically respond to sugar exhibit report that showcases the role of the honey industry in the
a very intense activation, which persists up to 10 seconds. broader U.S. economy as well as its impact on regional
While these neurons exhibit intense activity, the bee will economies throughout the country.
remain feeding at the same sugar source. Only when this To accurately assess this large and varied industry, the
activity declines, does the bee remove its proboscis to en-
able it to try a further feeding point.
Author Geraldine Wright, Professor of Insect Neu-
roethology, explains: “We demonstrate in bees that, like
in humans, the first taste of something sweet such as a lol-
lipop is incredibly intense but then becomes less interest-
ing. This is so our sensory neurons don’t get overloaded
and burn out.
“What we’ve found in bees is that the initial intense
sweetness of sugar can last up to 10 seconds - so they will
stay on the same sugar source. This makes sense if you
think a worker bee is not just collecting for its own use
but is storing it for others in the hive. It also means the

July 2018 727

University of California is looking to the businesses that
make up the honey industry to take part in the question-
naire. The information will be entirely confidential, with
the survey conducted online through a secure form with-
out personally-identifiable information. Participants have
until Friday, June 15, 2018 to complete the survey.
“The University of California Agricultural Issues Center
at UC Davis is committed to helping agricultural organi-
zations better understand their economic impact,” said
Project Scientist Dr. Bill Matthews. “We’re looking for-
ward to quantifying the honey industry’s important role
within the U.S. economy.”
To participate in the U.S. Honey Industry Impact Ques-
tionnaire, please visit the US Honey Economic Impact Sur-
vey before June 15, 2018.
“The honey industry makes significant contributions to
the US economy,” said Margaret Lombard, CEO of the Na-
tional Honey Board. “Finally being able to quantify our
impact the way other industries have will allow us to gen-
erate goodwill for our industry’s many contributions.”
To learn more about the University of California Agri-
cultural Issues Center at UC Davis, please visit https://aic.
ucdavis.edu. For more information on the National Honey
Board, please visit www.honey.com.
NEW BOOK AVAILABLE:
PLANTS HONEY BEES USE IN THE
OHIO AND TENNESSEE VALLEYS
Plants Honey Bees Use in the Ohio and Tennessee Val-
leys is the first book to focus on the plants used by honey
bees in the states containing the Ohio and Tennessee Val-
leys. (AL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MS, NC, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV).
This book was written as a guide for anyone who is inter-
ested in honey bees.
As beekeepers, we know how important good forag-
ing opportunities are for our honey bees. However, what
constitutes “good foraging opportunities” is complicated
by the fact that the specific plants a hive uses depends
on its location. Some plants only grow in certain parts of
the country. Other plants grow across a wide range, but
honey bees may use them more in some states than in oth-
ers. Even within a state how much honey bees use certain
plants can vary from one location to the next depending
on a variety of factors.
Front cover and sample page
728
Because of all the factors that influence whether honey
bees use any given plant, books and other resources fo-
cused on the entire country are of limited value to bee-
keepers who want to know what plants their bees might
be using in their location. Plants Honey Bees Use in the
Ohio and Tennessee Valleys fills this void by providing
beekeepers in the states that make up the Ohio and Ten-
nessee Valleys with specific information relevant to honey
bees in this region.
Plants Honey Bees Use in the Ohio and Tennessee Val-
leys contains full color pictures and descriptions of over
175 plants organized by when they bloom. Also included
are chapters about honey bees and their plight, honey bee
foraging behavior, factors that influence nectar and pol-
len production throughout a plant’s range, and planting
for honey bees. The book is 302 pages long and retails for
$29.99.
The author, Shannon Trimboli is a beekeeper, wildlife
biologist, and author. She lives in south central Kentucky
where she is active in her state and local beekeeping com-
munities. In 2016, she started Busy Bee Nursery and Con-
sulting which specializes in plants and habitat consulting
services for honey bees, native pollinators, and wildlife
conservation. In 2017, she was named the Beekeeper of the
Year for the Kentucky State Beekeepers Association.
To order a copy of Plants Honey Bees Use in the Ohio
and Tennessee Valleys, visit http://www.shannontrimboli.
com/shop/plantshoneybeesuse/. Please contact Solidago
Press@shannontrimboli.com for wholesale or bulk orders.
The author is also available to speak at beekeeping and
other events.
RAIDING THE RAPE FIELD
Honey bees can produce vast amounts of honey off
canola, known as oilseed rape in Europe. It’s an early
flow that can crystallize in the comb if the weather turns
cool. Some beekeepers lately have become hesitant about
placing their colonies near canola, worried that the pol-
len from treated fields is negatively impacting honey bee
health. New research shows that flowering fields nearby
can reduce pest pressure on the oil crop, reducing the need
for pesticides.
Oilseed rape fields are home to a variety of insects that
bother farmers. The pollen beetle is one of them. The bee-
tle’s larvae feed on the flower buds of oilseed rape causing
damage and crop failure. The larvae of different species of
weevils also have a preference for rape: They tunnel into
the plants’ stems making them wither and die.
Conventional farming practice generally relies on chemi-
cal pesticides to exterminate the hungry insects. But obvi-
ously their populations can also be kept at bay by promot-
ing their natural enemies. These include ground beetles,
spiders and other predatory insects that live on the ground.
“They eat the pests’ larvae when they drop to the ground
to pupate,” Professor Jochen Krauß explains; he is a bi-
ologist at the Biocentre of Julius-Maximilians-Universität
Würzburg (JMU) in Bavaria, Germany. As a result, there
are fewer pests on the fields in the next year. Earlier stud-
ies showed that the predatory insects are quite efficient at
fighting the rapeseed pests.
Flowering fields provide shelter for predators
How can we promote the natural enemies of rape pests
in modern agricultural landscapes? The research team
American Bee Journal

Valuable for agricultural landscapes: a young flowering field in
full blossom. Credit: (Photo: Fabian Boetzl)
from the JMU Chair of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biol-
ogy has found out that this can be comparatively easily
achieved with the help of flowering areas and other so-
called agri-environmental schemes. These measures are
specified by the government and are relatively well-estab-
lished on German farmland. But when it comes to imple-
menting the measures, better strategic and tactical plan-
ning are necessary, as the researchers report in the Journal
of Applied Ecology.
Flowering fields and ecological focus areas are either
plots of arable land lying fallow where farmers seed flow-
ering plants or arable fields that have developed into
meadow-like habitats. “Such land provides permanently
good living conditions for the enemies of rape pests. From
there, the predators can set out to raid the fields and de-
vour the pests’ larvae,” says Professor Ingolf Steffan-
Dewenter.
Twice as many predators in oilseed rape fields
“We encountered twice as many predatory ground bee-
tles in oilseed rape fields bordering a field with an agri-
environmental scheme than on other rape fields,” says
PhD student Fabian Bötzl. As the distance to the flowering
plot increases, the number of predatory species and indi-
viduals decreases. Distance is a decisive factor of effective
natural pest control, because the density and diversity of
predators is crucial in this respect.
“Agri-environmental schemes have the same effect as
semi-natural habitats. This demonstrates how valuable
these measures are for the agricultural landscape,” the
JMU ecologist says and recommends incorporating flow-
ering areas and other refuges for animals in agricultural
landscapes in a strategic and evenly distributed approach.
This not only promotes wild bees and other pollinators,
it also supports the natural enemies of pest insects. The
distance effects discovered by the researchers can now be
used to determine best farming practices based on model
calculations and simulations.
Facts about the study
The research team studied 31 areas around Würzburg
in northern Bavaria - between the towns of Gemünden,
Ochsenfurt and Hassfurt - to obtain the results. They in-
vestigated the effects of older and more recent flowering
areas, of ecological focus areas and of semi-natural calcar-
eous grasslands.
July 2018
The diversity and number of predators that are active on
the ground surface (beetles and spiders) were determined
by using pitfall traps. The experiment was conducted over
a period of three months during the growth period of oil-
seed rape to be able to assess the natural pest control dur-
ing this time.
The study was performed within the scope of the eu-
ropean Ecodeal collaborative project (Enhancing biodiver-
sity-based ecosystem services to crops through optimized
densities of green infrastructure in agricultural land-
scapes). Professor Steffan-Dewenter coordinates the Ger-
man section of the project.
To read the paper’s abstract: http://dx.doi.org/
10.1111/1365-2664.13162
‘VIRTUAL SAFE SPACE’ TO
HELP BUMBLE BEES
The many threats facing bumble bees can be tested us-
ing a “virtual safe space” created by scientists at the Uni-
versity of Exeter. Bumble-BEEHAVE provides a computer
simulation of how colonies will develop and react to mul-
tiple factors including pesticides, parasites and habitat
loss.
The tool lets researchers, farmers, policymakers and oth-
er interested parties test different land management tech-
niques to find out what will be most beneficial for bees.
Field experiments can be very timely and costly, so results
from Bumble-BEEHAVE can help refine and reduce the
number of experiments needed.
Bumble-BEEHAVE - which is freely available online - is
a powerful tool that can make predictions, according to a
new study.
“We know that pollinator decline is a really big problem
for crops and also for wildflowers,” said Dr Grace Twiston-
Davies, of the Environment and Sustainability Institute at
the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall.
“Bumble-BEEHAVE takes into account the many com-
plicated factors that interact to affect bumble bees.
“This provides a virtual safe space to test the different
management options.”
“It’s a free, user-friendly system and we’re already start-
ing to work with land managers and wildlife groups on
the ground.”
Disentangling the many factors that affect bumble bee
colonies is incredibly complicated, meaning real-word
This is a red-tailed bumble bee (Bombus lapidarius).
Credit: Matthias Becher
729
testing of different methods by land managers is often
not feasible.
This problem prompted the Exeter scientists to create the
BEEHAVE (honeybees) and Bumble-BEEHAVE computer
models. Bumble-BEEHAVE can simulate the growth, be-
haviour and survival of six UK bumble bee species living
in a landscape providing various nectar and pollen sourc-
es to forage on.
“The Bumble-BEEHAVE model is a significant step to-
wards predicting bumble bee population dynamics,” said
Professor Juliet Osborne, who leads the BEEHAVE team.
“It enables researchers to understand the individual and
interacting effects of the multiple stressors affecting bum-
ble bee survival and the feedback mechanisms that may
buffer a colony against environmental stress, or indeed
lead to spiraling colony collapse.
“The model can be used to aid the design of field experi-
ments, for risk assessments, to inform conservation and
farming decisions and for assigning bespoke management
recommendations.”
Professor Osborne and team won the BBSRC Social In-
novator of the Year 2017 award for creating the BEEHAVE
models.
“We really hope that researchers and landowners will use
the model and give us feedback so we can improve it fur-
ther in future” said model developer Dr Matthias Becher.
The new study, published in the Journal of Applied
Ecology, is entitled: “Bumble-BEEHAVE: a systems model
for exploring multifactorial causes of bumble bee decline
at individual, colony, population and community level.”
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13165
WORLDWIDE
3RD AUSTRALIAN BEE CONGRESS
Hosted by the
Australian Honey Bee Industry Council Inc.
June 27th – 30th, 2018
Theme of “Pollination and Beekeeping
for the Future”.
www.australianbeecongres
SPECIAL BEEKEEPER TOUR TO CUBA
November 10 - 18, 2018 - featuring visits to apiaries,
witnessing the rearing of queen bees, visiting honey pro-
cessing plants, research centers, an agriculture center, and
packaging plants. Visit with local beekeepers. This is a
unique fully inclusive tour arranged with the cooperation
of the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture and includes: island
transportation, hotels, private homes, meals,and full tour-
ing program. The tour will include visits in and around
Havana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Caonao and Santa Clara.
For the complete itinerary and pricing, please contact:
blubic@transeairtravel.com or call 202 362 6100.
Due to the success of last year’s tour, the trip is being
repeated in 2018. CUBA is especially successful in raising
bees as no pesticides are used. Long known for its cigars
and rum, Cuba has added organic honey to its list of key
agricultural exports, creating a buzz among farmers as
pesticide use has been linked to declining bee populations
elsewhere. Organic honey has become Cuba’s fourth most
730
valuable agricultural export behind fish products, tobacco
and drinks, but ahead of the Caribbean island’s more fa-
mous sugar and coffee.
All of [Cuba’s] honey can be certified as organic. Its hon-
ey has a very specific, typical taste; in monetary value, it’s
a high ranking product. After the collapse in 1991 of the
Soviet Union, Cuba’s main trading partner, the island was
unable to afford pesticides due to a lack of foreign curren-
cy, coupled with the U.S. trade embargo. By necessity, the
government embraced organic agriculture, and the poli-
cies have largely stuck. Cuba has been immune to the bee
die-offs hitting other regions.
Now that the United States is easing its embargo fol-
lowing the restoration of diplomatic ties last year, Cuba’s
organic honey exporters could see significant growth if
the government supports the industry, beekeepers said.
The country’s industry is still tiny compared with honey
heavyweights such as China, Turkey and Argentina. But
with a commodity worth more per liter than oil, Cuban
honey producers believe they could be on the cusp of a
lucrative era. Most of Cuba’s honey exports go to Europe.
REGIONAL
Conference (Aug 15-17)
Speakers Include (subject to change):
• Celia Davis, NOB (National Diploma in Beekeeping,
UK)
• Dr. Jamie Ellis, University of Florida
• Randy Oliver, Scientific Beekeeping
• Mike Palmer, French Hill Apiaries, Vermont
• Freddy Proni, North Carolina Grown
• Sammy Ramsey, University of Maryland
• Dr.Juliana Rangel, Texas A&M
• Dr. Jennifer Tsuruda, Clemson University
• Dr. Kirsten Traynor, American Bee Journal
• Michael Young, MBe, Institute of Northern Ireland
Beekeepers and many others
Short Course (Aug 13 & 14) Topics Include:
• Beginners Track
• Intermediate Track
• Apiary Track
• Electronic Hive Monitoring
• Excellence in Honey & Hive Products
• Queen Rearing
American Bee Journal
 Special Events:
• Beekeepers’ Beach Bash
• Tea with Celia Davis
• Queen of the Sun Film Screening
• Honey Show and Awards Banquet
• Silent Auction and Dinner
• Trip to historic Jamestown, entry point for honey
bees into North America
• Trip to St. George’s Brewery and Apiary
ELECTRONIC HIVE MONITORING
AT EAS 2018
EAS 2018 will feature a day-long electronic hive
monitoring track with speakers from current suppliers
and researchers working on the next generation of
these technologies. Learn how weight, temperature,
audio, video, and other sensors can help you keep your
colonies healthy and productive. Details at: http://www.
easternapiculture.org.
WHAZZUP AT WAS?
WAS Annual Conference
August 3-5, Boise, Idaho
Plan to join us in Boise this August to meet and mingle
with some of the most influential and knowledgeable
beekeepers in the country. Expect some fun! We’ll convene
the 41st Annual Western Apicultural Society (WAS)
Conference on Friday, August 3, at the brand-new, eclectic,
and undeniably unique Jack’s Urban Meeting Place
(JUMP), a venue that truly offers something for everyone.
Jennifer Berry and Randy Oliver will open with updates
on current research projects. Dr. Dewey Caron will present
on “Varroa, Forage, Pesticides - HBHC Resources for WAS.”
The “Two Jerrys of Beekeeping” will tell us about Bayer/
Monsanto’s current efforts to improve beekeeping (Jerry
Hayes) and provide a personal perspective addressing the
role of technology in beekeeping’s past and future (Jerry
Bromenshenk). Sarah Red-Laird will lead a Next Gen
session under the moniker, “The Future of Beekeeping
is Ours!” and also present on “Education Programs,
Research Projects, and University Collaboration on the
Advancement of Saving Bees.” Melinda Jean Stafford will
share insights for increasing success in young apiarists.
On Saturday, August 4, Jennifer and Randy will invite a
handful of young beekeepers to join them on the outdoor
JUMP patio, complete with pop-up apiary. The entire
inspection will be visible to the rest of us through ceiling-
to-floor windows as well as heard by way of Jennifer and
Randy’s wireless mics. Dr. Jamie Strange will share the
state of the art on bumble bee biology and practical aspects
of bumble bee culture. Dr. Ramesh Sagili will provide
information on honey bee nutrition and an update on his
activities with the Bee Informed Partnership. And Ellen
Topitzhofer will recount results from years of observations
as a member of the Pacific Northwest Tech Transfer Team.
Dr. Ron Bitner will present on “Bee-Friendly Farming:
Ground Cover for Native Bees.” In the evening, we’ll be
able to observe the practical application of his knowledge
at Bitner Vineyards, the location of our annual banquet.
We will conclude Sunday morning, August 5, with a
July 2018
panel discussion focusing on various master beekeeper
programs available throughout the country. Panelists will
describe their respective programs in the context of ability
to provide positive community outreach as well as insight
into how to develop a successful program.
The WAS Conference is open to all. Come to Boise
August 3–5, learn about recent advances in beekeeping,
and enjoy the wonderful summer climate in one of
America’s most livable cities.
For updates, visit:
www.westernapiculturalsociety.org.
WAS Up! Boise 2018!
HEARTLAND APICULTURAL SOCIETY
to Host 16tH AnnuAl Beekeeping WorksHop
At WAsHington university in st. louis on
July 11-13, 2018
Beekeeping Extension Specialists and Scientists
to Present Courses for
Beginners and Experienced Beekeepers
Program to feature Lectures, Labs, Queen Rearing,
and Classes, Field Trips to Sites of National
Significance, and Social Events
Planning continues for Heartland Apicultural Society’s
annual conference – HAS 2018 - to be held July 11-13, 2018
at Washington University, in St. Louis. HAS is an annual
conference focused on discussing the latest research and
methods in beekeeping. Established in 2001 by several
professional entomologists, the conference rotates
through the Midwest to make it easier for Midwest
beekeepers to attend the sessions. The conference was
last held in Missouri in 2012. “We are excited about the
opportunity to bring this conference back to Missouri,”
said Bob Sears, Heartland Apicultural Society president,
and a St. Louis area beekeeper. Sears is among several
volunteers pulling together the organizational structure
that will support the three-day conference featuring
both keynote speakers as well as concurrent break-
out sessions and evening events. Among the speakers
confirmed to date:
• Bee Squad, a collaborative, beekeeping instructional
and public outreach team at the University of
Minnesota Bee Lab, directed by Rebecca Masterman,
PhD
• Jennifer Berry, Apicultural Research Professional
and Lab Manager for the University of Georgia
Honey Bee Program
• Dr. Keith S. Delaplane, MBE Professor, Walter B. Hill
Fellow & Honey Bee Program Director University of
Georgia
• Dr. Samuel Ramsey, University of Maryland, varroa
researcher
• Dr. Marla Spivak, Distinguished McKnight
University Professor, Apiculture /Social Insects,
University of Minnesota
• Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Assistant Professor,
University of Maryland
More details will be posted as they are finalized at
http://www.heartlandbees.org.
731
 WEST VIRGINIA
STATES
tHe wv Beekeepers assoCiation
CONNECTICUT
fall ConferenCe on august 24 & 25 2018

Guest Speakers are Dr. Samuel Ramsey and Dr. Parry

Kietzman. The conference will be held in Fairmont, WV at
the High Tech Center in the Robert H. Mollohan building
WHERE: Norfield Church Community Room, (handicap accessible). Pre-registration is $35 for members
64 Norfield Road, Weston, Connecticut before August 10, 2018. Please visit www.wvbeekeepers.
org to pre-register and get hotel rates.
WHEN: Last Tuesdays of the Month at 7:30pm Contact Debbie Martin for additional information at:
debbeez7@yahoo.com
The Back Yard Beekeepers Association (BYBA) has been
educating the public about honey bees and beekeeping for
twenty + years. With over 400 members, our association
has grown to become one of the Nation’s largest regional
clubs for beekeeping hobbyists. Some of our members are
just getting started as beekeepers, and some have enjoyed
this hobby for years. All share an interest in the wonder-
ful and remarkable world of the honey bee. This regional
club is dedicated to promoting beekeeping as a hobby, and
spreading the good word about the remarkable honey bee.

• September 25, 2018 Richard Cowles: The Queen of

Your Dreams
• October 30, 2018 Dewey Caron: Topic TBD
• November 27, 2018 Bill Hesbach: Over-wintering

For more information check our website for the latest

updates www.backyardbeekeepers.com.

NEW YORK
ConsCious Beekeeping: speCial session for Beginners

How are My Bees? understanding and Meeting

your Bees’ MidsuMMer needs

July 28, 2018 — 9am-5pm

Ensure healthy hives and successful overwintering. Top-

ics include: Assessing hive health, when to super, harvest-
ing honey, monitoring and managing varroa, and more.
All classes $95 each.

The Pfeiffer Center,

260 Hungry Hollow Road Chestnut Ridge, NY 10977
www.pfeiffercenter.org
845-352-5020 x120

TEXAS
texas Beekeeper’s assoCiation 2018 suMMer CliniC
June 30tH 2018 froM 9 aM to 5 pM
lone star Convention Center in Conroe, texas

keynote speaker: dr. JaMie ellis

Join us at the TBA’s annual Summer Clinic

Classes for beekeepers of all levels

Entry fees and registration at www.texasbeekeepers.org

732 American Bee Journal

July 2018 733
734 American Bee Journal

I
United States
n many parts of the United
States, spring was cold and wet,
severely delaying the beekeeping
season. Bees are now building up
and bringing in lots of nectar.
Northeast—The winter dragged
out a long time, with spring weeks
behind normal. The white maple had
not yet come out in New Hampshire
at the time the reporter completed
the survey in May. “Weather is very
unpredictable; up one week, down
next, then snow.”
Throughout the region, spring
started very late. Since then, they’ve
had consistently warmer weather.
In New York the “fruit trees bloom-
ing well, dandelion blooming well.”
Packages had a slow start but are
building well now. Northwestern
New England had mixed reports on
losses of up to 40%, mainly due to
starvation or queen loss. In this re-
gion, bees reportedly came through
winter somewhat weak. In Northern
New England, overwintered colo-
nies reportedly were fairly static in
brood rearing in late April and there
were problems with clusters remain-
ing small. Surviving weak colonies
were combined and hive bodies
reversed with most overwintered
queens beginning to lay normally.
Cold snaps were quite common into
late May. In Southern New England,
colonies have strengthened and bees
are foraging.
In the retail market a reporter from
New York notes “more sustained
sales – more repeat customers.”
Mideast—Spring in this region
was late, on average two to three
weeks. In Tennessee a reporter notes
that colony numbers are down 40%.
Weather this spring was cool, with
below average temperatures. “Ten-
nessee beekeepers on average lost
80% of their bees overwinter.”
From West Virginia we hear that
the tulip flow and the wildflower
flow were average. Also pollina-
tion prices for apples were up $2 per
July 2018
colony, bringing in $45 each. Virginia
reports that the flow from brambles
and thistle has been good, while tulip
poplar was average. Packages have
been building up normally. From
Kentucky reporters note that the crop
prospects are good, with tulip poplar
in middle of May, followed by clover.
At the time they completed the July
report, the main flows had not yet
commenced. Only mountain blooms
with some wild cherry.
Kentucky commercial beekeepers
report good mated queen acceptance
in splits.
Southeast—While the northeast
and central has been freezing, we’ve
had mixed reports from the south-
east. Florida reporters noted that
the season started 2 weeks early to 1
week late, with colonies of average
strength.
Prospects for the rest of the season
look good “unless we get too much
rain”. The tallow and palmetto were
just starting to bloom in Florida.
In Alabama, overwintered colo-
nies expanded rapidly. Ideally, these
larger populations would be collect-
ing nectar honey crops, but the main
nectar flow has been late this season.
Even so, colonies with large popu-
lations were already swarming in
April.
Honey prices in the wholesale mar-
ket are excellent for specialty honey,
with orange blossom wholesaling at
$2.40-3.00 per lb. “Always heavy in-
terest in the orange honey.” Unfor-
tunately, the orange blossom flow is
Intermountain
Northeast
West West Central East Central
Mideast
Southeast
Southwest
reported as poor, due to “greening
on citrus.” Palmetto, wildflower and
galberry flows in Florida are average.
Pollination prices vary from $45-130
per hive, depending on the crop. $65
per hive is reported for watermelons.
Southwest—In contrast to most of
the country, spring came two weeks
early in the Southwest and colonies
looked great coming out of winter.
The tallow flow has been strong in
Louisiana. New Mexico reports that
the season has been dry, tending to-
ward drought. One reporter notes
“Early in season, still hopeful.” The
fruit trees have been blooming, pro-
ducing a good flow. Russian olive
was just starting to bloom. Prospects
for honey looked fair, depending on
rainfall. Harvests expected from Rus-
sian knapweed, alfalfa.
In Arizona, desert and plant bloom
were the main sources for nectar and
pollen, with alfalfa also serving as a
source. Pasture conditions are from
poor to very poor, as drought condi-
tions continue.
Demand for packages was high and
not all beekeepers were able to obtain
the bees they needed for the season.
Wholesale market is fair, while the
retail market is strong. Chunk honey
in a pint jar is retailing for $17.75.
“The local honey demand is high.”
There is “always a market for whole-
sale comb honey.”
East Central—Spring was very late,
at least 2-3 weeks behind normal.
Colonies are reported to be at aver-
age strength or weak. The flows just
started late due to all the snow. In Illi-
nois, a reporter notes “Very slow start
to the year. Colonies doing ok or bor-
derline in March when warm weather
had maple coming in they did well,
however weeks of cold and snow
have killed those colonies and pushed
back others. We will be expanding to
double (or that’s the plan). If weather
doesn’t improve, we will be in trou-
ble.” From Indiana we hear “Spring is
very late this year. Bees only have oc-
casional days to fly and forage. How-
ever on suitable days they have been
bringing in pollen, mostly yellow,
probably from pussy willow. Colo-
nies are optimistic and are brooding
up well. Colonies seem healthy and
most mite counts are low.” From
Wisconsin we hear “Cold weather but
colonies rebounding.”
“Colonies arriving back from Cali-
fornia almonds were set back due to
cold. Divides and nucs were 2 weeks
behind in delivery.”
The dandelion flow is reported as
average to excellent in this region,
with a fair flow predicted from clo-
ver due to good moisture conditions.
735
 U.S. HONEY PRICES FROM OUR REPORTERS
HONEY MARKET FOR THE
North- Mid- South- South- East West Inter- West MONTH OF APRIL 2018
east east east west Central Central Mountain In volumes of 10,000 pounds or greater
Wholesale unless otherwise stated
$2.00- $1.60- $1.95- $2.25- $2.08- $1.60- $1.75- (Courtesy April 2018
White lb Blk $2.40 USDA National Honey Report)
$5.00 $3.00 $2.30 $2.60 $3.30 $2.60 $2.50
$1.95- $1.40- $2.00- $1.90- $1.50- $1.60- Prices paid to beekeepers for extracted, unprocessed
Amber lb Blk $2.40 $2.05
$4.50 $1.80 $2.60 $2.50 $2.50 $2.35 honey in major producing states by packers, han-
$100.80- $80.00- $84.00- $58.00- dlers & other large users, cents per pound, f.o.b. or
1 lb CS 24 $119.76 $156.00 $1.92 120.00 $134.40 104.40 $180.00 $276.00 delivered nearby, containers exchanged or returned,
$88.80- $60.00- $90.00- $57.00- $60.00- prompt delivery & payment unless otherwise stated.
2 lb CS 12 $112.20
$144.00 $114.00 $120.00
$114.00 $84.00
$110.00 $84.00 -Report includes both new and old crop honey-
$127.20- $60.00- $58.00- $87.00- $84.00- $60.00- $60.00-
5 lb CS 6 $128.10 $180.00 $150.00 $98.00 $120.00 $101.70 $103.00 $104.00 (# Some in Small Lot — +Some delayed pay-
Retail ments or previous commitment)
$1.45- $2.50- $5.00- $3.19-
Jars 8 oz $4.00
$4.49 $3.19
$4.50 $6.00
$3.00 $6.00
$8.00 Arkansas
Squeeze $3.10- $5.79- $3.69 $2.80- $3.00- $3.49- $3.50- $4.00- Soybean Light Amber $1.68
Bear 12 oz $6.00 $6.50 $4.75 $6.00 $5.50 $4.85 $12.00 California
$7.50- $6.00- $3.25- $4.40- $5.50- Sage White $2.10
Jars 1 lb $4.05 $7.69 $5.69 $12.00 $10.00 $6.50 $10.00 $15.00 Valley Light Amber $1.80
Dakotas
Jars 1.5 lb $5.50-
$7.00 $7.29 $7.95
$6.00- $6.65- $4.75- $5.89-
Clover White $2.10 - $2.20
(pint) $13.00 $12.00 $8.50 $10.00 $9.49
Florida
$7.58- $7.00- $8.00- $8.60- $6.25- $13.99- Brazilian Pepper Light Amber $1.70
Jars 2 lb $15.00
$12.39 $9.79
$18.00 $15.49 $9.10 $11.25 $20.00 Mixed Flower Light Amber $1.80
Jars 3 lb $9.50- $130.00- $12.99- $14.59 $10.00- $11.50- $22.00 $14.30 Orange Blossom White $2.60 - $2.65
(quart) $25.00 $19.00 $16.00 $24.00 $15.00 Orange Blossom Extra Light Amber $2.75
$10.00- $10.00- $11.00- $18.00- $16.99- $14.00- $11.00- $10.00- Hawaii
Jars 4 lb $35.00 $30.00 $29.75 $30.00 $20.00 $16.25 $28.50 $32.00 Mixed Flower Extra Light Amber $1.80
Mixed Flower Light Amber $1.80
$22.00- $15.00- $15.50- $16.25- $16.00- $19.00- $16.00-
Jars 5 lb $40.00 $39.50 $35.50 $32.00 $24.00 $25.00 $33.25 $15.49 Iowa
Clover White $2.12
Creamed $5.50- $5.50- $5.49- $5.25- $5.69- $5.95- $4.75- $5.00-
12 oz $7.50 $8.00 $6.95 $6.99 $9.00 $8.50 $7.00 $7.00
Comb $6.00- $5.50- $5.25- $5.50- $10.00- $8.25- $12.00 $5.75-
which delayed making increases.
12 oz $14.00 $13.00 $13.25 $13.50 $20.00 $12.00 $13.50
Round $5.00- $4.50- $4.50- $4.00- $8.00- $4.25- Soil moisture has been good. “Many
Plastic Comb $8.50 $13.00 $7.50 $8.25 $12.00 $12.00 $7.00 $12.49 times cool, wet, late springs bring
$76.00- $36.00- $33.95- $24.00- on good wildflower flow,” notes a
1 Gallon $116.00 $60.00 $50.00 $36.00 $96.00 $45.00 $50.00 $45.20
reporter from Iowa. In contrast Kan-
$180.00- $190.00- $175.00 $140.00- $140.00- $150.00- $140.00- sas is experiencing a severe drought.
60 lb $225.00 $300.00 $200.00 $209.00 $180.00 $225.00
$220.00
From Nebraska we hear “Went from
The above prices are not meant to provide a realistic picture of prices in all states of the winter to summer in about a week.
particular area. They are intended merely to show what a few beekeepers are receiving Excellent dandelion flow (late but
for their honey and we realize prices may vary tremendously, even within individual strong).”
states. The bulk prices for honey are stated per pound, delivered buyer’s warehouse,
containers exchanged or furnished by buyer, unless otherwise noted. Where prices are “We have been through all the bees
not shown, insufficient data were available. feeding and treating. Looks like a 25-
30% loss – not terrible, but not what
“From my records I keep of bloom HOUSES, and the Dairy Industry. we want,” we hear from Iowa. In
dates our blooms are very off. I am Beekeepers are being forced to pay April there was still no pollen coming
afraid this means abbreviated build extreme fees due to agriculture zon- in. “I went back through the records
up time and possibly a shorter pro- ing laws. The area known as cheese and found that 2008 was much the
duction season. It is going to be a country USA is making it difficult for same. Pollen did not come until April
challenge to get the bees built up beekeepers. Over $600.00 in zoning 14th. …Being patient is difficult.”
and have splits for winter less re- fees and restrictions on honey pro- “Nearly everyday we get a phone
placements.” duction are being imposed. …The call asking (begging) for nucs from
In mid May, a reporter noted that dairy is hitting back on the almond a small beekeeper who has lost ev-
“the plant progress is still behind nut milk industry by trying to impose erything. Most package sellers were
average. Fruits like apples are in full zoning restrictions on beekeepers.” booked early so many small beekeep-
bloom whereas the usual blooming Wholesale market for honey is ers are searching for bees.”
time is the 3rd and 4th week of April. poor, while retail is reported as fair From Iowa we hear “We checked
…Here is my area we have had an in Illinois. In Indiana the wholesale every hive for mite level – this is a lot
abundance of rain, which helps the market is aggressive, due to a short- of work. But now we see why yards
clover and other plants put on a lot age of good honey. The retail demand crash. Lurking in almost every yard
of growth.” The black locust, clover for honey is excellent due to a “short- are 2-3 potential mite bombs that we
and soybean flows are looking good. age of American honey.” most likely would never have found!
Apple flow was great. White Dutch West Central—This region experi- Besides finding the bombs we’ve
is reported as average. enced a delayed spring due to cold found beautiful colonies with 0 mites
Beekeepers were able to obtain the and snow. “Colony strength was – our breeders in our queen raising
packages and queens they needed to good if adequate stores provided. operation. …We now believe mite
rebuild from winter losses. Beekeep- Low levels of varroa in overwin- monitoring is absolutely necessary!
ers are earning $75.00 for cranberry tered bees.” Winter loss is reported Thank you for helping us along our
pollination. From Wisconsin we hear at 25-30% for Iowa, whereas before learning curve.”
“Beekeepers in southern counties are devastating varroa mites, losses av- Nebraska reports that the crop
feeling the political pressure of NEW eraged 15-20%. Cold, wet spring prospects are good, due to sufficient

736 American Bee Journal

Prices paid to Canadian Beekeepers for unpro-
cessed, bulk honey by packers and importers in
U. S. currency, f.o.b. shipping point, containers in-
cluded unless otherwise stated. Duty and crossing
charges extra. Cents per pound.
Clover White $1.35 - $1.42
Mixed Flower White $1.39 - $1.42
Prices paid to importers for bulk honey, duty paid,
containers included, cents per pound, ex-dock or
point of entry unless otherwise stated.
Argentina
Clover White $1.32
Mixed Flowers White $1.20 - 1.34
Mixed Flowers Extra Light $1.21 - $1.50
Mixed Flowers Light Amber $1.18 - $1.25
Orange White $2.10
Brazil
ORGANIC White $1.70
ORGANIC Extra Light $1.92
ORGANIC Light Amber $1.87
India
Mixed Flower White $0.97 - $1.02
Mixed Flower Extra Light $0.92
Mixed Flower Light Amber $0.87 - $0.97
Mustard White $0.94
Mustard Extra Light $1.07
Mustard Light Amber $0.90-1.07
Ukraine
Mixed Flower Light Amber $0.90
Vietnam
Mixed Flower Light Amber $0.86 - $0.91
Mixed Flower Amber $0.81
moisture. The dandelion flow was
outstanding, while the fruit trees
were average. Various shrubs pro-
vided a good flow. The plum bush
is reported to have had a poor flow.
While it’s still too early to tell at the
time our reporter completed the sur-
vey, build up is very good.
From Missouri “Many wildflowers
are in bloom. …Agriculture is about 2
weeks behind in crop planting of soy-
bean and cotton due to a cold snap
this spring.” The black locust flow
was poor, but prospects for sweet clo-
ver, alfalfa, soybean and other clovers
looks good. South Dakota reports an
average dandelion flow.
Packages built up more slowly
than usual, due to very cold spring
temperatures. Pollination prices in
Nebraska were reported to be $85 for
apples and $125 for pumpkins. From
July 2018
that same state we hear “April was
very cold. Queens shut down for a
couple weeks, hives went backwards!
But weather corrected and hives are
building up nicely now. What looked
like a disaster is looking like an above
average spring buildup. Poorly made
splits are growing, and give reason
for a hopeful summer.”
In Kansas we hear that “Due to
drought in our area, small packers
are seeking out local honey,” driving
up wholesale prices. The entire re-
gion reports good demand for local
raw honey.
Intermountain—Winter losses
were higher than normal in this re-
gion and spring buildup has been
fair. Demands for queens and pack-
ages have been strong with adequate
supplies to meet demands.
During the month of April tem-
peratures were above normal. Pre-
cipitation was above normal in parts
of Idaho and Northwestern areas of
Colorado. The rest of Colorado and
all of Utah experienced below normal
precipitation during the same period.
According to the U.S. Drought Moni-
tor, the Northern areas of Idaho had
near normal soil moisture conditions
during April. Southern Idaho was
rated as abnormally dry. All areas
in Utah have some level of drought
conditions, ranging from extreme to
moderate. In Colorado, most areas
are also experiencing some type of
drought conditions. Unless good
moisture is received soon, foraging
in this area could be limited during
the summer months.
Commercial beekeepers are back
from California. Beekeepers jumped
right into action, preparing for the
upcoming summer season. Some
bee colonies looked good and heavy
while others were light and not as
robust as they had hoped. Just about
all commercial beekeepers have
completed their colony splits and
divides. One beekeeper even stated
that his spring bee build up was so
good that he had enough bees to sell
off extra nucs, in addition to his own
splits and divides. There are still is-
sues with some new splits and di-
vides accepting new queens or queen
cells. This is a constant battle for bee-
keepers to track colony queen accep-
tance and supersedure from within
the existing colony.
Bees were starting to pollinate
apple, pear and cherry orchards. Dan-
delions, willow trees, choke cherries
and wildflowers were providing pol-
len and nectar for bees. These early
sources are good for the colony build
up prior to the start of the main sum-
mer season. Most commercial bee-
keepers seem to be staying ahead of
mite infestations by being proactive
in their treatment schedules. This has
probably contributed to fairly light
losses so far this spring.
Demand for honey continues to
exceed the supply. Very little honey
remains available from commercial
beekeepers. Some honey remains
available for retail market.
West—The dry winter was followed
by a very cold and wet spring in the
north, but it has been dry in California.
“Lack of rain, doesn’t look like we’re
going to have much of a season.” A re-
porter from Oregon notes that colony
numbers are down 60% due to “bad
mite problem last fall.” This was prob-
ably made worse by the mild winter,
which allowed an early growing sea-
son and brood rearing.
Due to increased demand and the
costs of keeping bees, nuc prices are
reported up 20%.
A reporter in Oregon notes that
the “Judge will not release irrigation
water to farmers” due to “fish prob-
lems”. The madrone tree and big leaf
maple provided early nectar flows.
In California the sage and brush flow
were poor, while the wildflower is
average. Both bees and nectar were
scarce in lowland areas, though bee-
keepers at higher elevations fared
better.
737
738 American Bee Journal
740 American Bee Journal
 by RON PHIPPS

With special contributions from Stan Daberkow, Arne Dübecke,

Norberto Garcia, Walter Haefeker, Pam Phipps and Michael Roberts

Honey cannot be defined without

reference to its modes of production.

T
IntroductIon
he International Organiza-
tion for Standardization (ISO)
has begun a process to es-
tablish international standards for
bee products, including honey, for
which a multi-faceted analysis and
comments are warranted. There
is both promise and danger in the
process of establishing such stan-
dards. We describe the process later
in this article.
Strong science based standards,
if faithfully implemented, will play
a major role in reducing a flood
of adulterated honey. The prom-
ise is that strong standards will
be established which integrate
proper modes of production and
use the most sophisticated sci-
entific methodologies to detect
adulteration, which currently dis-
torts and threatens the international
honey market, harming beekeepers
and defrauding consumers of the au-
thentic honey they seek to buy.
Correctly addressing and resolv-
ing the potential contradiction be-
tween weak and strong standards is
crucial since there are long term im-
plications for food safety, food au-
thenticity, food fraud, food security
and ecological sustainability. These
concerns are national and global in
their scope. We have to take into
account that there is a striking co-
nundrum because the amount of
“honey” circulating in the market is
not justified by the number of colo-
nies managed worldwide coupled
with the decline in productivity per
hive of authentic honey.
It is imperative to mobilize and
integrate our knowledge into these
standards, combining:
• advanced scientific understanding
• industry knowledge regarding
legitimate modes of honey
production
• legal expertise in food fraud
• and regulatory authorities from
honey producing and consuming
countries.
Media attention to the issues of
food fraud is growing. This article
aims to bring together the expertise
from different fields needed to en-
sure that the promise of strong sci-
ence based standards is realized. We
need to make sure that international
standards are formulated and vetted
with a deep understanding of the
nature of the product, and the most
advanced scientific knowledge about
the product. The creation of effective
standards requires an international
Global Honey Exports, Bee Colonies, and Productivity from 2007 to 2014
and transparent effort which mobi-
lizes the broadest realm of expertise
and experience in the international
beekeeping community and honey
market.
The definition of honey as a prod-
uct of nature must be absolutely in-
dependent of the multiplicity of uses
of honey. The creative marketing of
honey to consumers, and impact of
beekeeping practices upon the health
of human beings and the environ-
ment, depends upon the authenticity
of nature’s first sweetener.
Modes of Honey ProductIon
Honey cannot be defined without
reference to its modes of produc-
tion. As described in The Hive and the
Honey Bee (Dadant, 2015, p. 535), the
honey extraction process involves
uncapping the honey comb and
keeping the honey moisture around
18% in order to avoid fermentation
which can result from high moisture.
Honey from combs that are capped

July 2018 741

benefits from the full interaction of
bees and their botanical sources.
The Codex definition of honey has
been established: “Honey is defined
as “the sweet substance produced
by honey bees from the nectar
of blossoms or from secretions
on living plants, which the bees
collect, transform and store in
honey combs” (Codex Alimentarius
Commission, 2001).
At the end of May, 2018, the
Secretariat of the ISO confirmed
agreement with the fundamental
concept of the Codex standard for
honey, which precludes artificial
drying or extraction of water from
honey.
The President of the European
Professional Beekeepers Association,
Walter Haefeker, has explained that
in honey production, the market has
two extremes, which can be perfectly
defined by the time allowed for the
bees to turn nectar into honey. He
states:
In Asia, a production model
to overcome reduced yields and
high production costs has been
developed. The model is based
on harvesting unripe honey, and
the transformation of nectar into
honey is made partly by bees
and partly in “honey factories”.
Then the honey factories filter,
eventually dilute, eliminate
residues, dehumidify, and pack
the product.
Biologically speaking, by
harvesting immature honey,
storing bees are partly alleviated
of their work inside the hive and
become foraging bees at an earlier
age (Seeley, 2015), thus allowing
higher yields with reduced costs.
The resulting sweet product
lacks many positive properties
of natural honey. Natural honey
is a highly complex product with
around 200 different substances,
which cannot be artificially
emulated.
One could think of the indus-
trial product as “fast honey” as
opposed to “slow honey”, where
the hive is the honey factory and
the bees are given the time neces-
sary to add their unique value.
The harvest of immature honey
and its further processing in fac-
tories is not in accordance with
Codex Alimentarius, the accepted
international standard for foods.
The intrusion and/or extraction
of any substance from honey, as
742
opposed to the activities of the bees
themselves, are not allowed.
The Chinese mode of honey pro-
duction is more in accordance to
their own honey standard (National
Standards of People’s Republic of
China, 2015), which defines honey
as “a natural sweet substance pro-
duced through fully brewing when
the nectar, secretion and sweet de-
posits from plants are gathered,
mixed with the secretion of their
own, modified and stored in the
honeycomb by honey bees”. The
definition includes the word “brew-
ing”, which reminds an industrial
process. In addition, and according
to that definition, the production of
honey may finish when bees first
store the product in the honeycomb.
It is well known that bees deposit,
remove, add enzymes, and re-de-
posit immature honey in comb cells
many times during the maturation
process. The final transformation of
nectar into honey is a long process
that finishes after the capping of the
honey cell. Furthermore, and not
surprisingly, nothing is said in the
Chinese standard about the impos-
sibility to add or extract substances
from honey.
The above described model of
semi-industrial honey production,
which is suspected to be also used
in other Asian countries besides
China, is also linked to the use of
rice syrups specially developed
to adulterate honey because they
pass the current official tests used
to check honey purity in important
honey import markets, like Europe
and the U.S.
The increasing global difficulties
to produce real honey have
increased the costs of production,
and the sustainability of many
beekeeping operations around the
world is now being challenged
by the insufficient prices offered
for the product. The ongoing and
dramatic collapse of honey prices
is creating a man-made crisis for
beekeepers, whose underlying
cause is the phenomena of ‘man-
made/machine made’ syrups
which are fraudulently marketed
as ‘Honey.’
This model is more akin to modern
breweries manufacturing beers, not
beehives producing natural honey.
As Jodie Goldsworthy has said, “The
products of such factories cannot be
dignified with the word honey. They
are at most syrups.” Such syrups
completely lose the essence of honey,
which has been poetically described
as “the soul of a field of flowers.”
One of the most significant and in-
sidious modes of production is the
use of resin technology. Resin tech-
nology applied to honey began in
China, and is advertised as being sold
all over the world. The technology is
easily moved in and out of factories,
as indicated by the description “plug
and play.”
In 2016 it was also erroneously
claimed that resin technology was
“approved by the FDA for honey.”
The FDA rejected that claim. Resin
technology violates codex standards
because it intrudes water, then re-
moves it, literally “washing” the
honey. This sophisticated mechanism
not only disguises country of origin
and facilitates transshipment and
circumvention, but it also removes
chemical components that turn honey
dark. By lightening the honey it be-
comes more valuable. By removing
offensive flavors and aromas it brings
into the marketplace a huge amount
of otherwise repugnant honey. Proper
modes of production preclude the use
of resin technology.
Beekeepers who focus on the
production of pure honey are
driven to compete with an unfair
production model employed in some
exporting countries. These improper
modes of production are encouraged
by some importers and packers
in different countries because of
short-term gains and lower prices
of the final product. This goes
against defending honey’s image
as a natural product and against
efforts to protect honest beekeeping
as an essential component of the
social responsibility practices of
companies. It also happens at the
expense of consumers, who often
do not receive the product they
pay for, and puts in jeopardy food
safety, food security and ecological
sustainability.
The international honey market
is suffering the consequences of in-
creased availability of a product that
has no limits of production in terms
of quantities. All honey markets in
the world are interlinked like con-
necting vessels. Although a small
beekeeper, no matter his nationality,
may think that he is not affected by
international market trends because
he only sells his honey at a local mar-
ket, sooner than later the price of his
product will suffer the consequences
of events that first affect the interna-
American Bee Journal
tional honey market. Honey adul- as 1 percent is the generally accepted consumer, who is paying a high pre-
teration is not an exclusive problem cut off between trace contamination, mium price for an inferior product.
of the international market, it is in- which might be accidental, and more But it also has major impacts on the
deed a threat that goes through all deliberate adulteration for economic coffee producers themselves” (Com-
markets no matter their magnitude gain.” Gil Chapman, head of intelli- municaffe, May 2018).
or nationality. The use of improper gence at the National Food Standards The use of NMR testing to detect
modes of production of “honey” re- Agency, Food Crime Unit, said “we adulteration is currently being used for
sults in a distorted market in which are always keen to understand how pomegranate juice, honey, coffee and
there are no Ceilings to Quantities, scientific advances expand the range other foods. It has been highly recom-
no Floors to Prices and no Future for of tools which can be used to validate mended as a deterrent to food fraud
Beekeepers. the authenticity of food products sold by Dr. Michael Roberts, expert on food
to UK consumers.” The report con- fraud and U.S. and international law,
nuclear MagnetIc resonance cludes “…the results suggest some founding Executive Director of the
tecHnology coffee may not be as high quality as Resnick Program for Food Law and
The temptation of honey adultera- it is being described. This affects the Policy at UCLA School of Law.
tors has clearly increased in recent
years because of the availability of
cheap adulterants, and the obsoles-
cence of official methodologies to de-
tect the fraud.
It is well known that many efforts
have been made to deny, disparage
and delay implementation of Nuclear
Magnetic Resonance (NMR) testing
as one of the most advanced, sophisti-
cated and data driven methodologies
to detect adulteration of honey. But
this resistance is scientifically unten-
able. The power of NMR, which can
measure in honey 36 or more param-
eters, is being recognized for more
food products. As an example, it has
been common to blend robusta coffee
with more expensive, high quality
arabica coffees and fraudulently la-
bel such adulterated products under
an “Arabica” label. This practice is
now being detected through the use
of NMR testing.
Dr. Kate Kemsley concluded, from
the research she lead for the charita- Vietnam’s Honey Exports (prepared by N. Garcia from UNCOMTRADE data)
ble non-profit organization Quadram
Institute: “This is an important mile-
stone for detecting fraud in coffee,

India’s Honey Exports (prepared by N. Garcia from UNCOMTRADE data)

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Device

July 2018 743


US Honey Prices and Selected Imports, 2010-2017 (Prepared by S. Daberkow)
U.S. Honey Prices, 2010-2017 (prepared by S. Daberkow)
tHe euroPean sItuatIon
The latest study made by the
European authorities in order to
evaluate the prevalence of honey
adulteration in the E.U. market,
although demonstrating high levels
of non-conformance, probably
underestimated the real situation
since neither NMR nor other targeted
methods were used (European
Commission, 2016).
In January 2018, the European
Commission organized a Technical
Round Table on Honey Authentication
in Geel, Belgium. The purpose of the
meeting was to collect the opinion of a
broad representation of stakeholders
of the honey supply chain. The
commission sought input on the
current challenges to authenticate
honey, seeking to identify the gaps
in available tools and knowledge
and identify ways of filling those
gaps. The Round Table suggested a
set of actions to be undertaken by a
coordinated effort of all stakeholders
744
of the honey supply chain and
competent authorities.
European Union imports of Chinese
honey grew from 4.6% (2007) to 28.7%
(2015) of total E.U. honey imports
(Garcia and Phipps, 2017). That gen-
eral European trend had some excep-
tions, e.g. Germany and Switzerland,
which maintained their high-quality
standards.
During 2017, the United Kingdom
by far led European honey importa-
tions from China. In addition, unit
prices paid by U.K (US $1.83/kg. or
$0.83/lb.) for Chinese honey were
below the average (US $2.09/kg. or
$0.95/lb.), which may imply lower
quality requirements.
During the last years, new honey
export countries also appeared
in Europe taking advantage of
the heterogeneity of honey prices
according to their geographic origin,
which may have created a financial
incentive for some European
countries to import cheap honey from
China and then re-export it as locally
produced (García, 2016).
Honey labeling rules are not
homogeneous throughout the
E.U. Efforts are currently made to
encourage all countries to have
labeling regulations that require the
declaration of all geographical origins
of honeys contained in a jar. In such a
way, all European consumers would
have the same opportunities to know
what they are purchasing.
Authorities in the EU are
investigating honey and wax which
have been found to contain resins
potentially harmful to human health.
tHe u.s. Honey Market
Honey imports into the U.S.
have been showing a constant and
steep growth. During recent years,
U.S. domestic honey production
has decreased at a rate of 700 tons/
year (1,500,000 lbs.), while honey
imports increased by 7,000 tons/
year (15,000,000 lbs.). U.S. domestic
production of 148,000,000 lbs. only
represented 25% of total U.S. honey
needs in 2017 (García, 2018).
U.S. honey imports have shown
a changing pattern since Honey-
gate. In 2012, the five main honey
export countries from the Americas
(Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico,
and Uruguay) represented 62% of
total U.S. imports, while in 2017 the
U.S. only imported 41% (84,003 tons
or 185,193,000 lbs.) of its total needs
from these five countries. In 2017, In-
dia, Vietnam, Ukraine, Thailand, and
Taiwan provided 53% (107,104 tons
or 236,121,500 lbs.) of total U.S. honey
imports (ITC-UNCOMTRADE).
As pointed out by Dr. Stan Da-
berkow, contrasting domestic honey
prices with generic imported bulk
honey suggests why many honey
packers and food processors would be
attracted to imports—especially from
India and Vietnam (See charts). Fur-
thermore, the price spread between
domestic and imported honey from
these countries has increased rather
dramatically since 2010. In 2010, the
difference between domestic honey
and Indian honey was US $.42 per
lb. but by 2017 the spread had grown
to US $1.23. Similarly, that spread for
Vietnamese honey had more than
doubled from US $.55 to $1.36 per lb.
The lack of a U.S. standard for
honey and the need to update the
official controls for honey adulteration
are opening the doors for a risky shift
in the U.S. honey market in terms of
quality and protection to consumers.
American Bee Journal
tHe cHInese Honey Market
It is quite interesting that more
affluent consumers in China appear to
have the same appreciation of natural
honey as those in Europe or the U.S.
During his presentation at the Chinese
Bee Products Industry Conference
(CBPIC2018) about the “Registration
of Overseas Processing Enterprise
for Imported Honey” Mr. Zhou
Xing, speaking for the Department
for Registration, Certification and
Accreditation Administration of P.R.
China (CNCA) made the point that
“Chinese consumers are willing to
pay significantly higher prices for
imported honey.”
There are more and more signs that
the “fast honey” production model is
not only failing to meet the market
requirements of the export markets,
but is also unable to adjust to the rap-
idly evolving domestic consumer ex-
pectations. This change in the honey
segment is part of an overall trend in
China. It is no coincidence that the
7th Slow Food International Congress
took place in Chengdu, China last
year.
Chinese investigative reporters
have found that in major Chinese
cities, an alarming percentage of the
honey sold and investigated was
adulterated or fake. This is why Chi-
nese consumers try to buy from bee-
keepers who produce and directly sell
their honey, or buy imported honey
from companies they consider to be
reliable.
The concern with food fraud, food
safety and food security is intense and
Chinese honey factory (2018)
July 2018
growing in China and India, given
their combined populations of about
3 billion people. The Chinese and
the Indian governments are seeking
the expertise of international experts
to address concerns about food pro-
duced and consumed within their re-
spective countries.
Iso standard for royal Jelly and
IMPlIcatIons for Honey
Efforts from China to initiate the
work on the development of an
ISO-standard for honey follow the
completion of an ISO standard for
royal jelly.
In the light of past cases of re-la-
belled honey transshipped from China
to the US and what we know about
production and treatment of honey
(harvest of unripe honey that needs
drying, resin treatment, blending of
“negative syrups”) it is legitimate to
ask what the intention of that action
could be. We have to take care that
harvests of watery unripe honey do
not become an internationally recog-
nized standard for honey production
as this honey needs drying to reduce
water content to meet the specifica-
tions of the Codex Alimentarius and
also national standards around the
globe. Furthermore, it would consti-
tute a huge damage to the reputation
of honey if resin treatment for the re-
duction of residues like antibiotics and
pesticides were to become a respect-
able way of producing honey. These
practices and modes of production
should not find their way into an in-
ternationally recognized standard.
develoPMent of an Iso standard
(WHen tHe World agrees)
Arne Dübecke has provided a short
description of how the development
of an ISO standard works:
The ISO is an organization develop-
ing standards for anything that needs
standardization according to the mar-
ket demand on a global level. The
development of standards involves
technical experts who are responsible
for a specific subject area related to
the standard to be developed. From
the first proposal of a standard to the
final publication usually takes about
three years during which develop-
ment of the standard passes through
several stages.
ISO 12824:2016 specifies
the production and sanitary
requirements for royal jelly and
establishes a series of organoleptic
and chemical test methods to
control royal jelly quality. It also
specifies the requirements of
transport, storage, packaging
and marking for royal jelly. This
International Standard applies
to the royal jelly production
(collecting, preliminary processing
and packaging) and trade links.
This International Standard is not
applicable to royal jelly products in
which other foods are mixed.
The first stage is called the proposal
stage. The proposal stage responds to
and confirms the need for a new stan-
dard in the subject area. A new work
item proposal (NP) is submitted to a
technical committee for voting and
nomination of a project leader. Dur-
ing this stage, possible future compli-
cations with the development of the
standard are raised and included into
the proposal (copyright, patent, con-
formity assessment).
During the preparatory (second)
stage a working group is set up, in-
cluding experts in the subject area and
the project leader. The working group
creates a working draft (WD) for the
standard to be developed. Successive
working drafts are circulated amongst
the members and discussed until con-
sensus is reached. The agreed work-
ing draft is then forwarded to the
parent committee as a committee
draft, which then leads to the third,
the committee stage.
In the committee stage, the commit-
tee draft is debated on by the techni-
cal committee members and voted.
Successive committee drafts are dis-
cussed until consensus is reached
745
resulting in the technical document,
which will then enter the enquiry
stage. In this stage, the technical docu-
ment is submitted to the ISO central
secretariat as a Draft of International
Standard (DIS), which is then for-
warded to all ISO members for vot-
ing and debate. The approval of the
DIS requires two thirds in favor and
not more than a quarter as negative
votes. DIS without technical changes
from the enquiry stage skip the ap-
proval stage and directly enter the
publication stage. In case of technical
changes in the enquiry stage, the DIS
will go through the approval stage,
where the changed DIS is submitted
once again to the ISO central secretar-
iat as the Final Draft of International
Standard (FDIS) which undergoes the
enquiry stage once more. Eventually,
the approved DIS and FDIS from the
enquiry stage are published in publi-
cation stage.
tHe legal dIMensIon of tHe Iso
standard
The legal perspective on food stan-
dards has been presented by Dr. Mi-
chael Roberts: “the basic difference
between a technical regulation and a
standard lies in the area of compliance:
while compliance with a technical
regulation is compulsory, in case of a
standard, it is voluntary.” “The World
Trade Organization prefers the inter-
national standards of organizations
that adhere to …principles [which] in-
clude transparency and openness, im-
QSI – Targets of Food Adulteration
746
partiality and consensus, effectiveness
and relevance, and coherency and at-
tention to the needs of the developing
countries. A diffuse set of public and
private organizations promulgate in-
ternational food standards, including
… the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO). These public
and private institutions collaborate
on various levels… Although these
international standards are voluntary,
when they are incorporated into na-
tional regulations or through volun-
tary contracts of private firms, such
standards have the potential to affect
trade significantly.”
Such standards do not have the
force of law but can be used in private
agreements. Food standards have
been developed in the U.S. by the
scientific non-profit organization US
Pharmacopia (USP), which acquired
the Food Chemicals Codex in 2006.
Recommendations for the American
honey industry from Prof. Roberts, in
his important white paper, include the
development of a USP standard for
honey and adoption of NMR testing.
conclusIon
Good and effective honey standards,
which are essential to both global food
security and ecological sustainability,
should be created by reputable and
knowledgeable members of the
international industry. It is essential
in writing valid and effective honey
standards to assemble the greatest
expertise and experience from the
domains of apiculture, science, and
law from private, government and
academic spheres.
The concern with food fraud
is international. The Netflix
documentary on honey (released
in 2018 in 22 languages), the Dr. Oz
segment on honey (2018), attention
from governments including the U.S.,
China, India, and Germany, and the
pioneering work of Prof. Michael
Roberts, in both his book Food Law in
the United States and his honey white
paper, manifest the growing concerns.
The two tiered pricing in the market
reflects the impact of the problem of
adulteration. Honey is ranked num-
ber 3 in the list of foods subject to
fraud by US Pharmacopeia.
It is clear that there is a major and
pervasive problem which has not
disappeared despite Honeygate,
deferred prosecutions, arrests and
media exposure.
The importance of eliminating
adulterated honey from the inter-
national market is manifold. First,
without its elimination there is, as
cited above, 1) no ceiling to volumes,
2) no floor to prices and 3) no future
for beekeepers. If there is no future
for honest, hardworking beekeepers,
global food security and ecological
sustainability are put in jeopardy. De-
mographic trends demand authentic-
ity and safety in our food supply and
ecological sustainability.
Because of the tremendous diver-
sity found within the world’s honey
supply and the multiplicity of vari-
ables which affect its chemical and
physical profiles, a more robust and
vigorous traceability regime must
be developed. Modern traceability
regimes with computerization al-
low specification of floral source,
climate, time of production, specific
geographic region and specification
of preliminary extraction, processing
and blending.
We note that IBM is developing a
system, which they call “blockchain,”
which is applicable to international
and domestic commerce. Such a
system could help prevent customs
and food fraud for honey, but only
if the system were to incorporate
full information about primary and
intermediary stages of processing
and production. Brett Adee wisely
counsels that “As honey is infinitely
fractionable, I have a hard time
grasping how this could maintain the
integrity of the market.”
The validity of this comment
resides in the fact that there are so
American Bee Journal
many primary and intermediary
processes that can and have been
used to disguise adulteration of
honey by the time such products
labeled as honey enter the realm of
the retailer, food service industry or
food manufacturer.
A rigorous traceability regime can
and should be wedded to legitimate
modes of production. That marriage
must exclude and preclude those
modes of production which are
utilized to create food fraud in honey.
Too often economically motivated
adulteration has suppressed the
most advanced testing modalities
promulgated throughout the world.
The world’s bees are responsible
for contributing to the production of
a large percentage of foods, includ-
ing foods containing essential phyto-
chemicals that promote health, which
are sold by major retailers, health
food stores, and gourmet shops.
The international honey industry,
in light of this reality, has the moral,
legal and commercial imperative to
suppress illicit modes of production
and utilize an integration of the most
scientifically advanced modes of
detection.
contrIbutors:
Dr. Stan Daberkow, former economist
for the USDA, author of numerous
articles on honey and agriculture
including a chapter on marketing in
the Hive and the Honeybee
Arne Dübecke, leading scientist
in Quality Service International
Laboratory (QSI), expert on the
chemistry of honey and analysis of
the authenticity of foods.
Norberto Garcia, Prof. of Apiculture,
July 2018
President of the Scientific Commission Mr. Phipps is President and founder of CPNA
on Beekeeping Economy of International, Ltd. He is a former member of
Apimondia, author of articles on the the National Honey Board and Co-Chairman
honey market. of the Committee for the Promotion of Honey
and Health. He was a recipient of a National
Walter Haefeker, President of the Eu- Science Foundation Fellowship in the Philos-
ropean Professional Beekeepers Asso- ophy of Theoretical Physics. In 2017 he was
ciation, bringing invaluable technical appointed Vice President of the Apimondia
expertise to the honey industry. Scientific Commission on Beekeeping Econ-
Michael T. Roberts, founding Execu- omy. He has worked with FDA to develop a
tive Director of the Resnick Program research protocol for the global diversity of
for Food Law and Policy at UCLA honey. e-mail: info@cpnaglobal.com
School of Law, Vice Chairperson of the
Advisory Board of the International
Food Authenticity Assurance Organi-
zation, world expert on food law.
references
https://www.comunicaffe.com/quadram-
institute-develops-new-coffee-testing-
method-to-deter-fraudsters/
European Commission, (2016). Coordinated
control plan to establish the prevalence of
fraudulent practices in the marketing of
honey. Retrieved from: https://ec.europa.
eu/food/safety/official_controls/food_
fraud/honey_en.
García, N. (2016). A Study of the Causes of
Falling Honey Prices in the International
Market. American Bee Journal 156: 877-882.
García, N. (2018). Honey Adulteration
and Honey Market Worldwide. Paper
presented at the BEECOME Congress.
Graz, Austria. February 2018.
García, N. & Phipps, R. (2017). Honey
Market Report. American Bee Journal
157:1043-1049.
Graham, Joe (ed.) (2015). The Hive and the
Honey Bee (Dadant, p. 535)
National Standards of People’s Republic
of China GB 16740-2014 (2015). Retrieved
from:http://www.mpi.govt.nz/document-
vault/14401.
Roberts, Michael (2016). Food Law in the
United States, Cambridge University
Press, p. 65-66, 196.
Seeley, T. (1995). The Wisdom of the Hive.
Cambridge (MA). Harvard University. P.
155-176.
747
748 American Bee Journal
750 American Bee Journal

Q
TOUGHEST JOB
I am curious on your thoughts on
this article. The Bee Apocalypse Was
Never Real; Here’s Why: https://
www.acsh.org/news/2018/04/17/bee-
apocalypse-was-never-real-heres-
why-12851
Thank you,
Randy McElroy
A has these challenges. Can you imag-
Beekeepers in a commercial set-
ting have been ignored for years and
have been characterized as the ugly
step sisters of agriculture. Passionate
beekeepers, i.e. those who have had
a desire to learn and not reinvent the
wheel on honey bee management,
have learned by trying and failing and
trying again how to keep their busi-
nesses alive. They have done amaz-
ingly, but they are always at the tip-
ping point of maintaining honey bee
vitality. They need colonies to survive
as that is what they can rent or sell to
growers and others to make a living
and pay the bills. They are very smart
and adaptable within limits.
They adjusted to this thing inap-
propriately named CCD, because
they could use honey bee biology to
figure out how to mostly—but un-
fortunately not consistently—keep
ahead of varroa. They live by the
motto split and divide and split and
divide some more as a method of in-
surance, knowing they will lose about
30% of their colonies per year. There
July 2018
are more honey bee colonies in the
US now than any time in prior years,
because of this technique of mak-
ing extra colonies knowing you will
lose some. It doesn’t mean there are
not continuing unresolved honey bee
health issues; it just means the bee-
keepers understood and used honey
bee biology to make and build a bet-
ter buffer by investing in extra colo-
nies as insurance.
I don’t think anyone in any other
segment of production agriculture
ine if corn growers were losing 30% of
their corn plants every year?
Q
EXPIRED
PRODUCT
Thank you for all your help you
have given me in the past. I really ap-
preciate your candor and expertise.
Hypothetical question: If you were
given an unopened box of expired
varroa control product (Dec, 2017)
would you use it?
I would use it myself, but have
never used this product before. I have
used Hop Guard and Oxalic acid. But
hate to throw it away, if it could help
me. I do know what the label says.
Just thinking out loud. I can under-
stand if you do not want to address
this. Thank for your help.
Terry
A
Glad I was able to help you in the
past. I do not chose to not address
much. Let’s give it another try :)
I think that in all respects the ‘label is
the law’. And the label gives a date
when the product may not meet label
specifications.
The product has been tested for
safety and efficacy in a robust regula-
tory process. Shelf life has been tested,
so that the product matches the stated
safety and performance expectation
of the regulatory agency and the ulti-
mate user. But, that is all out the win-
dow now, because the product was
tested when the active ingredient was
fresh and new. And now it is not.
All of us beekeepers are cheap, pen-
ny pinchers. I know this will be hard,
but throw it away. You don’t know
if it will help your bees or hurt your
bees or do nothing. A replacement
nuc, package or queen will cost more
dollars than throwing this ‘expired’
stuff out.
Q
BLUEBERRY EFB
For the last couple of years I’m hav-
ing some hives break out in European
Foulbrood only in blueberries. Same
load of bees from another state that
overwintered here went to some pol-
lination 3 miles away of a much dif-
ferent crop and they didn’t get it. Got
to be something with a fungicide or
for frost protection they run water a
lot and the humidity is so high the
hives come down with it. Thoughts?
Chris
A
Back in the day I worked in Michi-
gan as blueberry production ramped
up there. Colonies would always
come down with EFB. At that time
I was told by apiculture specialist
at Michigan State University that it
was a pH issue with the nectar that
was transferred and fed to post 3 day
larvae. As the main dominant nectar
source in this concentrated berry pro-
751
duction, the pH of blueberry nectar
threw the general pH of the larval
food off, allowing EFB organism (Me-
lissococcus pluton) to get a foot hold
advantage. It came and went with
blueberry pollination and beekeep-
ers were concerned, but it always re-
solved itself after the fact, so nobody
panicked.
Q
Hi Jerry,
MOLD
Two of my hives winter killed and
I plan to replace them with package
bees in two weeks. The foundations
have a light film of mold on them and
there is a little dead capped brood.
Will the new bees clean this mess or
should I toss the frames and start new?
Mac in Maine
A Q
If you are sure that there was no
AFB disease issues with the colonies’
demise, I think they will be fine.
New bees will clean up superficial
stuff like molds and other icky look-
ing stuff quickly and easily.
Colonies dying…..Remember the
three words to memorize: varroa, var-
roa, varroa!
Google up Tools for Varroa Man-
agement from the Honey Bee Health
Coalition for 90% success keeping
colonies alive.
Q A
CLOGGING
BROOD NEST
Hey Jerry,
Any suggestions as to how to limit
the amount of honey in the brood nest
during the flow? Same for pollen.
As always, Thanks for your com-
ments. They are much appreciated.
Rob
Tallahassee
A directly from state and local associa-
All comb space in a colony nest
at this time of the year is designed
for raising replacement and addi-
tional colony workers along with
the small food resources to support
that biological necessity. Our Euro-
752
pean genetically based bees are ‘al- miles or more away as this distance
ways’ preparing for the next winter. forces these older bees to do a location
As such, storing a significant amount re-set. You need to keep these nucs at
of surplus nectar is based on lots of this distance 7-10 days for the re-set.
foragers and available comb space. You are doing great. Best to you this
If there isn’t sufficient comb space season.
available in supers and there is suffi-
Q
cient unused comb space in the brood
nest, then it is waaaay easier to dump
the nectar off in the open cells in the GUARDING WATER
brood nest comb.
Honey bound brood nests are a real
thing. But, many times it happens be-
cause there is lack of open cells else-
where and a less than amazing queen,
who fails to fill up the brood nest with
enough baby bees to take away that
space.
Successful honey production is lots
of bees + lots of flower nectar + space
(open comb). Limit any single one of Hi Jerry,
those and you don’t have as good a Love your column, I’m always
honey crop as you could have. learning something new – and I’ve
been keeping bees since 1982. And
speaking of learning something new,
HOW FAR TO I had not heard of this particular be-
MOVE SPLITS havior before, but I’m sure it’s noth-
ing new in the bee world. I have a
Jerry, read your column every bee watering station, basically a self-
filling dog watering dish banked with
month. Have been raising bees for 20
colorful glass marbles to give the
years and sure have made my share
bees a place to stand while drinking.
of mistakes. No one around to help
Here in Reno, Nevada, water can be a
me. Have learned how to split bees
scarce commodity. A few days ago, I
and have been told to take them two
was watching the bees drinking from
miles away after splitting. How long
their watering station, and I noticed
do you recommend leaving them be-
one girl was not drinking, but instead
fore bringing them back to my bee
scampering around, checking out the
yard?
other bees. Occasionally, she would
challenge a drinking bee, and they
Ed,
would tussle for a few minutes and
Northern Michigan
one would fly away. Then the non-
drinking bee resumed her guarding
behavior.
Some time ago, my neighbor, who
also has a watering station, reported
If you aren’t trying your best and being stung by a foraging bee, with
no provocation. I thought at the time
making honest mistakes you aren’t
following your honey bee passion. that it was unusual for a field bee to
sting unprovoked. I’m now thinking
Back in the day I didn’t have a men-
tor either. I read, read and read some maybe the colony is stationing guard
bees at remote outposts to protect
more and opened up the hive to learn
how to compare and contrast what their scarce resource and drive away
I saw over the years. Bees are still bees from other colonies. And that
maybe it was such a guard bee that
smarter than I am :). But in 2018 there
are so many learning opportunities stung my neighbor in defense of the
water supply.
tions and online that new beekeep- Thanks for the great column, Jerry!
ers have tremendous educational re-
sources available to them now. Ray Hopper
Soooo, the assumption is that in
your split you will have X quantity of
older forager bees who have been out-
side and the location of their colony is
A Thank you for the Classroom
known to them, so they can find their
way back. We move nucs a couple compliment.
American Bee Journal
 The only time that I have seen ag-
gressive behavior guarding a re-
source is with Africanized bees. I just
did some checking and found that
Africanized bees have been identified
as far north as Sacramento, Califor-
nia. Which means at about the same
distance north and parallel of where
you are.
You can have various behaviors
and traits with Africanized bees with-
out full defensive behavior, because
of interbreeding with European ge-
netically based honey bees.
But, be careful because something
is possibly going on in your area.
Q
TREATING VARROA
…..MAYBE
Thank you for the varroa treat-
ment guide from the HBHC (Honey
Bee Health Coalition). I have read the
document and for my small apiary
have come away with the following
treatment scenario; please look it over
and comment as you like regarding
its integrity?
Treat with Oxalic Acid vaporization
between Thanksgiving and Christmas
when no brood is present in the hive;
three treatments at least 21 days apart
During the nectar flow and brood
formation, the most aggressive time
for varroa reproduction, treat with
Formic Pro, two strips placed over
the brood area for 14 days. One treat-
ment.
After the nectar flow and collection
of honey, if needed, treat with Hei-
lyser Technology Thymol strips; one
treatment.
As far as doing varroa washes and
counts, I have chosen to look for mite
drops on sticky boards beneath the
screened floor of each hive; the evi-
dence that I will look for that bees are
benefiting with the treatment is their
thriving numbers, and vigorous ac-
tivity from the hive, and their general
state of survivability.
Anthony
A
Let’s talk about this bit.
You are arbitrarily and prophylacti-
cally treating for varroa, because you
really don’t know your mite popula-
tion as you are not efficiently sam-
pling for varroa. You are guessing.
July 2018
The only thing looking at a natural
mite drop tells you is that you have
dead varroa, not what the real ‘disper-
sal’ population is. Then to put that in
context of how many mites are truly
in the colony, generally 2/3rds, may
be hiding and reproducing in sealed
brood cells. Sampling for varroa with
multiple alcohol washes and looking
for numbers of 3 or less mites per 100
bees is the only real way we can as-
sess treatment efficacy. Then sample
wash again after the treatments to see
if they in fact actually worked and
to what degree, so a decision can be
made for another treatment method
or product selected.
I went out and looked at climate
data for where you are in Texas.
Based on the average temperatures
per month you have brood all winter
long. There would be NO time when
you don’t have brood. And varroa
need brood to reproduce themselves,
so there is no lag here. Most of us
would not consider this winter, but
rather a really nice place to go to get
away from real winter further north.
This is why so many commercial bee-
keepers go to south Texas in the ‘win-
ter’ so they can split and build up col-
onies, getting them ready for almond
pollination. Warm weather removes
or masks a variety of stressors.
Using so many acids is really tough
on the queens and brood. Honey bees
are tough until they aren’t. In your
warm location a mixture of African
and European honey bee genes might
be well adapted. If you are not re-
queening, because your colonies do
so via supersedure, swarming, ab-
sconding and replacement after acid
damage, but your colonies are still
giving you the return you want, keep
it up. I think there is a better way, but
honey bees are very diverse and for-
giving up to a point.
Q
DOING IT RIGHT
Love your column. You’re not only
informative, but funny. To the point:
I perform alcohol washes for mite
counts. Measuring approximately 300
bees (I’ve actually counted them once
dead to see how accurate a ½ cup is)
I shake them up for a few minutes
and strain. Say I find 1 mite. Then I
do it again on the same bees. I find
another 1 or 2 mites. I do it again and
usually on the 3rd try I’ll have 0 mites.
There have been times when the first
wash had 3, which is Ok. But the
2nd and 3rd wash might yield another
6. I asked members of my bee club if
they have any thoughts, but if they do
the alcohol wash, it’s only once. What
are your thoughts? Do you think one
wash is accurate enough?
Thanks,
Debbie Mattie
A
Charlie Chaplin is quoted saying
“A Day without Laughter is a Day
Wasted”. You are doing your varroa
alcohol washes PERFECTLY! There
is no way to measure broadly how
many varroa are parasitizing your
bees, unless you can do this measure-
ment to its best, most informative
number.
Let’s say you have to measure a
wooden board so you can cut it ex-
actly right for a project you have. If
you cut it too long or too short your
final product won’t be completed
successfully. You go and get your roll
out flexible tape measure. You pull it
out and put the beginning at the end
of the board. But, you don’t stretch
it out tight along the board. You just
have this flexible, curvy, loopy tape
measure laid along the side. How,
the heck do you know what the right
length is?? You have not followed
through on how to get the right length
by pulling the tape measure out tight
and followed the carpenter’s mantra,
“measure twice, cut once”.
Varroa on adult bees are stuck in
abdominal segments, and in the first
wash if they are loosened so they
come out, they may get stuck in the
mass of bees in the container you
are using and aren’t washed out. It
takes a few washing’s to get most of
them to move through that mass of
bees and get washed out so you can
count (measure) them. The beekeep-
ers mantra should be “wash 3 times,
treat once”.
Researchers do exactly what you
are doing Debbie to get the right
count. Without the right count, you
cannot possibly treat at the right time
with the right product, so you get the
most varroa control and elevate your
colonies health.
Keep it up
753
Q THE BEES WENT
HOME
I made my first splits and they seem
to have all failed. They just looked
like they had enough bees from the
top, but pulling the frames a few days
later they were almost bare. Sugges-
tions on doing it better next time?
Thanks,

Bob

A Next time after you put frames of

open brood and adhering nurse bees
and shake others in, screen the en-
trance to the nuc and move them 3+
miles away for a few weeks. If you
can’t do that, switch the nuc (don’t
screen entrance) and parent colony
position, so the nuc is where the par-
ent was. It will gain all the bees from
the parent. The parent colony—now
in a different location—should have
enough young bees and emerging
bees in 4-5 frames to make up for the
loss quickly.

754 American Bee Journal

 Packages, Nucs & swarms, Oh my!
Y
ou’ve made the leap and are ready to get bees, but
the choices are a little overwhelming. So many op-
tions and how do you compare? What is the best
way to start out? And most importantly, what kinds of
questions should you ask of your bee supplier to truly un-
derstand what you are receiving? Not all bees are created
equal; often if the price is low, so is the quality.
There are three main ways that new beekeepers obtain
their first bees:
Each source of bees is described in detail below, listing
the pros and cons. The ease of installation and the cost are
rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the easiest and least
expensive.
• A package
• A nucleus colony abbreviated nuc
• A swarm
PaCkagEs
Packages are typically sold as 2 or 3 lbs. packages of
bees. They come in a wood or plastic mesh box with a
feeder can of sugar syrup and a mated queen. They are ei-
ther shipped via mail or picked up directly from a supplier.
Often beekeeping clubs will bulk order packages and make
them available to members at a specific price.
Most packages are produced in our southern states
and the quality of them can vary greatly, from excellent to
subpar. To produce packages, large commercial beekeep-
ers typically shake excess adult bees from their colonies
into a big collector box. These are then funneled into the
packages until there are enough bees to reach the desired
weight. A mated queen in a cage is added into the package.
Most package producers are making thousands of pack-
ages at once and then shipping them north.
Pros:
• Packages are typically less expensive, ranging in
price from $90-175
• They can easily be installed into non-standard colo-
nies like top bars, long lang or Warre hives.
• They are often available early in the season.
756
Cons:
• The bees will occasionally abscond, meaning they
fly away in search of different accommodations.
This is not uncommon when installed onto brand
new equipment that has never housed bees before,
because it doesn’t smell like home.
• Sometimes they arrive during inclement weather
when temperatures suddenly drop in the spring,
making it difficult to keep them alive.
• Because queens are produced en masse for pack-
ages, they are not always well mated. Some pro-
duce poor brood patterns, while others only lay
drones. It has become more common for the pack-
age queens to be replaced by the bees within one
month of installation.
• Packages can overheat during transport and nega-
tive effects are not always immediately apparent.
EasE of InstallatIon: 3
Cost: 3
nuCs
Nucs are typically sold as 4 or 5
frame nucs. They can be ordered as
deep or medium frames, depending
on the producer. They are a com-
plete miniature colony that contains
all the resources needed to start,
kind of like getting a puppy that
grows into a full size dog by the end
of that first season.
Pros:
• A nuc is the easiest type of colony for a beginner
• The queen has already been accepted by the bees
and the unit functions as a whole
• A nuc typically comes with 3-4 frames of brood in
all stages of development, plus 1-2 frames of pollen
and honey.
• They are often locally produced and may be better
adapted to the region, if the seller is producing the
queens locally.
Cons:
• The cost of the nuc is often substantially higher than
a package, typically ranging in price from $160-225;
however it includes frames of fully drawn comb,
which is worth about $20-40.
• There are irreputable nuc dealers, who take ad-
vantage of new beekeepers, selling colonies with
frames of foundation or only eggs.
American Bee Journal
 • Locally produced nucs are often available a little
later in the season, meaning you may miss out on
the main nectar flow. However your goal your first
year is to simply build the colony up strong enough
to survive the winter, which can be done via feed-
ing if necessary.
• Some nuc producers require frame exchanges or
you to drop off your own equipment or pay a nuc
box deposit. This has become less common in re-
cent years.
EasE of InstallatIon: 1
Cost: 5
swarms
Swarms are free and we all love free. Swarms are an
excellent source of bees, but capturing a swarm can be a
little overwhelming for a new beekeeper, who has never
handled bees before. The best way to capture a swarm is
to volunteer to help an experienced swarm catcher at your
local association.
Pros:
• Absolutely free, though not always easy to collect
• Swarms are typically from a good source of bees
that was healthy enough to swarm.
Cons:
• Swarms can land in some very inconvenient or
dangerous locations. I refuse to risk my life and
will only collect swarms that are within easy reach.
• The colony has already swarmed, so the queen in
that colony has a genetic tendency to swarm. If
you only collect swarms and never add in different
genetics through requeening, you are selecting for
bees that like to swarm.
• Swarms prefer to move into spots that already
smell like a colony. When you put a swarm into
brand new equipment with only foundation, they
will sometimes abscond and look for better accom-
modations elsewhere.
• Swarms can overheat during transport.
EasE of CaPturE & InstallatIon: 4-5
Cost: 1

Nuc Production Yard. If a beekeeper produces the nucs, they

will often have yards like the one pictured above housing many
nucleus colonies in development. These happen to be supered
to prevent swarms.
I belong to numerous Facebook groups and some of the
nucs people received this year are downright criminal. The
frames should have good coverage of bees, there should be
capped worker brood on at least one to two frames, and the
queen should have an excellent brood pattern.
Recently nuc brokers have entered the picture, selling
nucs they bring up from southern states or shaking pack-
ages on to combs and then selling them on once the queens
have started laying eggs.
Good questions to ask your nuc seller:
• Do you produce the nucs you sell?
• Do you raise your own queens or do you order
them in?
• If you order them in, what state are they coming
from?
• What is the composition of the nuc? How many
frames of brood will it contain? Swarm. This swarm split in two and settled 40’ up in a tree. We
were unable to recapture it.

July 2018 757

758 American Bee Journal
B
eekeepers are frequently at
odds with the biologists who
promote native bee conser-
vation. Native bee advocates claim
honey bees are stealing all the forage,
while beekeepers resent land that is
off limits to bee hives. But in truth,
bees are bees.
Although I’m fascinated by how
the species are different, I’m also
intrigued by their similarities. Ev-
ery time I run into one of those lists
with titles like “Amazing facts about
honey bees!” I scan them for accuracy.
Although the facts listed may be true,
they usually apply to all bees. For ex-
ample, you might read “A drone can’t
sting!” So? Neither can any other
male bee. It’s like saying poodles bark
or goldfish swim.
As honey bees evolved to live in
colonies that could overwinter, they
retained traits that were useful and
lost others. It’s a great story, but we
need to recognize that many bee spe-
cies remained solitary because the
system worked for them. Because
bees are bees, what is good for one
species is likely good for the rest, so if
we can build a better environment for
one, we’re building it for all.
why rEgEnEratIvE organIC
Is DIffErEnt
Last month, I had the pleasure of
speaking with Andrew Smith, an
entomologist/agronomist with the
Rodale Institute, the group that is
promoting the new Regenerative
Organic Certification. He had me on
board the instant he explained that
part of their mission is to help polli-
nators thrive, regardless of whether
they are managed species or wild. He
July 2018
believes that caring for the ecosystem,
rather than a single species, is key to
pollinator health.
According to Smith, Regenerative
Organic is far more concerned with
ecosystem health than the National
Organic Program (NOP) that is cur-
rently in place. As it stands today, the
NOP is focused primarily on restrict-
ing chemical inputs, so we’ve come to
think of organic products as simply
having minimal chemical exposure.
Smith explained that “The current
NOP system simply glosses over is-
sues like biodiversity, soil health, and
animal welfare.”
thE InItIal organIC vIsIon
Back in the 1980s when the organic
program first evolved, J.I. Rodale
and Dr. Rudolf Steiner envisioned
an ecologically-based program that
incorporated animal welfare and so-
cial justice alongside the restriction
of chemical inputs. They believed
that, “It is essential to farm in a way
that enriches rather than degrades
the soil, and values both animals and
workers.” Although the NOP gives
lip service to all three areas, there
is currently very little in the way of
oversight for the animal welfare and
social justice aspects of organic agri-
culture. Basically, when it comes to
animal and human welfare, the NOP
accepts the word of the grower that
he is implementing best practices.
In contrast, the new certification
program stresses the three modules of
soil health and land management, an-
imal welfare, and farmer and worker
fairness. Furthermore, each mod-
ule has three tiers of achievement:
bronze, silver, and gold. The grower
must demonstrate compliance at each
level before he is eligible to receive
certification and move further along
the pathway.
The animal welfare and social jus-
tice requirements of Regenerative Or-
ganic go much further than the NOP
ever envisioned. In addition, the new
program puts much more emphasis
on ecosystem fitness, stressing both
biodiversity and soil health, each of
which have a substantial impact on
pollinators and beneficial insects.
soIl hEalth anD organIC mattEr
Any gardener will tell you that
nothing beats organic matter for im-
proving the soil. Decomposing life
forms hold soil particles together and
give soil its structure. Soil that is high
in organic matter contains many nu-
trients, drains well, has tunnels and
channels that allow oxygen exchange,
and supports a great diversity of life.
In addition, organic matter breaks up
clay, which means the soil is less like-
ly to shrink and expand, water is less
likely to puddle, and roots are better
able to penetrate the ground. And
soil rich in organic matter does not
dry and shatter in the sun like pieces
of broken pottery. Everything good
about soil comes from those decom-
posing plants, animals, fungi, and
microbes.
However, in chemically-supported
agriculture, organic matter is sadly
lacking. Nutrients are provided to
crops in the form of fertilizer, and be-
cause organic matter is not returned
to the soil, the fields become dusty
and dry, meaning erosion by wind
and rain is a constant problem. The
lack of organic matter together with
759
Bumble bee on Lamium purpureum. Many native bees are Highbush cranberry is a Pacific Northwest native plant that does
equally happy foraging on introduced or native plants. not attract honey bees, but native bees eagerly forage from it.

the presence of pesticides causes the
normal soil organisms to disappear,
resulting in depleted biomass and
further soil destruction.
ProtECtIng thE lanD
In contrast, Regenerative Organic
puts soil health front and center. For
example, the new standards encour-
age buffer and contour strips, com-
posting, cover crops, green manure,
and crop rotations. In addition, it pro-
motes grass-lined waterways, wind
barriers, field borders, and perennial
plantings as well as pollinator habi-
tat, insectary strips, wildlife habitat,
riparian restoration, and tree and
shrub plantings. In a happy conflu-
ence of interests, each of these soil-
conserving techniques can help pol-
linators and beneficial insects.
According to Smith, something
as simple as a water ditch running
across a field would be treated differ-
ently. “In conventional agriculture a
ditch or swale is plowed through as
if it doesn’t exist. In regenerative agri-
culture, the ditch is treated as a natu-
ral waterway.” A perennial buffer is
planted on both sides of the ditch,
which is never plowed. The buffer
could be forbs, trees, shrubs, or even
grasses.
Such a buffer protects the water
itself from runoff, provides wild-
life and pollinator habitat, acts as a
windbreak, and may provide shade,
depending on the plants used. So a
farmer not wishing to shade his crops
could use low-growing vegetation or
grasses, while a rancher could pro-
vide shade trees for his animals.
Regenerative agriculture is espe-
cially focused on the ability of organ-
ic matter to sequester carbon in the
soil. In the process of growing, plants
take up carbon dioxide and give off
oxygen. This works in concert with
animal life, which uses oxygen and
gives off carbon dioxide. It’s a sweet
system, and when cared for prop-
erly, soil has a tremendous capacity
to store carbon dioxide in the form of
organic matter. When we turn a cover
crop into the soil, we are taking the
carbon dioxide the plants collected
from the atmosphere and plowing it
underground.
hEalthy soIl anD hEalthy BEEs
To understand how each of these
soil conservation measures help bees,
it’s important to understand some-
thing about bee lifestyles. In North
America we have about 4,000 species
of native bees, as well as a number of
introduced species, all of which help
pollinate crops, trees, wildflowers, or-
namentals, and landscape plants. In
addition to the European honey bee,
introduced species include the alfalfa
leafcutting bee, Megachile rotunda; the
horned-face bee, Osmia cornifrons; the
European woolcarder bee, Anthidium
manicatum, and about twenty others.
Approximately 70% of all bee spe-
cies live underground. Although
there is a certain amount of variation,
ground-dwelling bees have an active
period of about two months in the
spring or summer. During that peri-
od, they mate, build nests, collect pro-
visions, and lay eggs before they seal
up their excavations and die. After

An Andrena bee resting on leaf litter. These ground-dwelling

bees, often called mining bees, live in large aggregations if The tiny Lasioglossum bees pollinate a wide variety of plants.
the soil is left undisturbed from year to year. They are excellent This one was foraging on curly-cup gumweed on the central
pollinators. Oregon high desert.

760 American Bee Journal

Bees need plenty of building materials. This Osmia lignaria is
collecting mud. Other bees use petals, leaves, plant fibers, and
plant exudates to build their homes, just as honey bees use
propolis
hatching from eggs, the next genera-
tion enters a dormant state that lasts
approximately ten months before
emerging the following spring.
These bees, largely unnoticed, are
some of our most important pollina-
tors. In addition to helping with the
crops, they tend to plants we hardly
think about like our woodland under-
story. But because their lives under-
ground span the entire year, the soil
in which they live cannot be plowed
or tilled, nor can it be exposed to
heavy farm machinery that compacts
the soil and flattens the nests.
The other thirty percent—the cavi-
ty-nesting bees—also need a place to
live. If left alone, hollow reeds, dead
trees, and beetle-bored fence posts
can provide homes for this group. In
addition, they need a source of build-
ing materials that comes from mud
puddles, fibrous leaves, flower pet-
als, and sticky plant secretions. These
bees thrive on the plants we leave in
place from year to year.
Both the soil nesters and the cavi-
ty-nesters, including the robust eu-
social bees such as bumble bees and
honey bees, have similar needs when
it comes to food. They all need nectar
and a rich source of pollen, the more
diverse the better. In addition to food,
places to live, and building materials,
all bees need a reliable, non-polluted
supply of water.
a farm DEsIgnED for BEEs
Taken together, it is easy to see how
regenerative agriculture and bees are
made for each other. Not only is the
soil left undisturbed in habitat strips,
wind breaks, riparian zones, and field
borders, but those areas also support
flowering plants that can feed many
bees, other pollinators, and beneficial
July 2018
This small Sphecodes bee is a cleptoparasite on other bee
species. Even though they do little in the way of pollination
themselves, a good diversity of species indicates a healthy
ecosystem.
insects. Reliable sources of water such duce. However, he believes the de-
as buffered pesticide-free streams, air mand is there and many people are
free of pesticides, and a variety of happy to pay extra for the knowledge
flowering forbs, trees, and shrubs can that their purchases arise from sus-
enhance the health of both wild and tainable, regenerative land.
managed species. Right now, buying organic means
The diversity of living things is the fewer chemical inputs are being used
major difference between a regenera- on your food. But when people opt to
tive farm and a conventional one. The buy the Regenerative Organic label,
plant and animal life in the periphery they will know that the land is being
of the fields enhances pollination of cared for in a way that assures its fu-
the crops, yet when there is no crop, ture, workers were treated fairly, and
insect life can thrive on a healthy the animals raised there—including
ecosystem that is allowed to persist pollinators—have a chance at sur-
through the seasons. vival that is unimaginable on conven-
Once you provide a suitable envi- tional farms. Regenerative Organic
ronment, nature will fill it with plant could be the best way yet to “save the
and animal life that can co-exist in bees.”
proximity to the farmed land. Togeth-
er they form an ecosystem that was
familiar in the days before vast acre-
ages of chemically-supported mono-
culture. Yes, there are economies
inherent in today’s modern farming
practices, but they come at a high cost
to growers, farm workers, the envi-
ronment, and the pollinators.
While the need for managed bees
will not disappear, regenerative ag-
riculture could lower the stress on
managed colonies. All bees working
a well-managed regenerative farm
would have exposure to a variety of
plants that can provide a balanced
diet. In addition, a farm with large
numbers of native pollinators will of-
ten require fewer managed hives per
acre, which can lessen the opportu-
nity for disease transmission between
colonies.
thE Cost of rEgEnEratIvE farms
Smith is quick to acknowledge
that regenerative agriculture requires
more management, and organic food
and fiber are more expensive to pro-
761
I
am entering my second year bee- Pick up day arrived! My two oldest with me. He recommended cutting
keeping, and what a year it has kids, 8 and 5 at the time, got up early out the queen cells, and so I contin-
been! My journey began in the with me to make the trip. The nuc was ued to inspect, and scrape queen cells
Spring of 2016 when my uncle and bursting at the seams. I came home for weeks. My mentor, as well as the
I attended a 1 ½ day Western North and installed the bees into a 10-frame owner of our local bee store, conclud-
Carolina (WNC) Beginning Beekeep- with hive top feeder, my legs shaking ed a split was in order, despite the age
ing Course at the Folk Art Center in the whole time. of the hive, because “they can’t get it
Asheville NC. It was sponsored by One week later I inspected the out of their mind to swarm.”
the Center for Honeybee Research. In a hive. Queen cells! I had purchased The hive was split. Now, a few
neat and tidy story, my beekeeping the nuc about 45 minutes away. The months into beekeeping I had two
career would have begun then. How- seller chatted some with me over the colonies! One was left to raise their
ever, I found myself overwhelmed phone, but it was my mentor—he also own queen from frames of eggs after
with what I learned it took to keep sells nuc’s, although I didn’t know we destroyed all the swarm cells and
bees, and underwhelmed by the lo- him when I placed my order—who they did. The colony with the original
cation available to me at the time to took the time to come over, inspect queen continued to produce capped
house my bees. In the months that fol- and discuss the situation in person queen cells. My mentor and local bee
lowed, my husband and I purchased
a house and 5 ½ acre property, and I
did a lot of reading. By December of
that year I had placed an order for my
first nuc!
Spring of 2016 dawned beautiful
and bright, and I was (almost) as ex-
cited for pick up day as I was for the
arrival of each of our children. My
husband, allergic to bees, assisted in
the prep work of installing the solar
powered bear fence, and that is about
where his involvement ended.
Mentor? We were told at bee school
to get a mentor. I have no family or
friends nearby who keep bees. I was
at a loss until I was talking to an ac-
quaintance one evening. She heard I
was getting bees. The conversation
quickly turned into a full blown dis-
cussion with me lamenting the lack
of a mentor. Well, she knew someone!
She called him, he called me, and
what a blessing he has been. Neither
myself nor my bees would have sur-
vived this long without him. Installing my very first nuc on our new property

July 2018 763


BOB house already partially occupied
store owner recommended re-queen-
ing because “there’s something in
that queen they don’t like.”
My mentor came over a number
of times during the beekeeping sea-
son. I would often inspect, report to
him what I observed, without un-
derstanding what I had seen actu-
ally meant. His visits would always
teach me something about the bees,
their behavior, how to handle them
confidently and gently, how to do a
My daughter Emma, an avid helper in the bee yard
My children enjoying our first honey harvest
764
sugar shake, and so on. Near the end
of the season (after worries over rob-
bing, mites, etc.) I mentioned to him
maybe I was an alarmist when it came
to the bees. His slow, steady and kind
response, “that’s often the case with
new beekeepers.”
The two colonies overwintered
well and I took another, more thor-
ough, beginning beekeeper course
this spring with Polk County Bee
Club. I failed to get into the hives
early enough in the season, which
complicated the spring build-up. I
am still fixing those mistakes, but
did make one split to bring me up to
three colonies.
Problems I encountered included
the bees making lots of swarm cells,
though as far as I can tell the colo-
nies never swarmed. They drew lots Daughter Cody and son Tucker
of drone comb, some of which I re-
moved. I treated for mites, but unfor- long enough and they put on honey
tunately I was a little too late with my before I could remove the treatments.
treatment, which meant I couldn’t I am trying to wean myself off call-
harvest the honey. I gave them room ing my mentor every time I inspect,
to grow, but I didn’t harvest the su- which I am sure he appreciates. I am
pers, because the window was not having some success in at least diag-
Expanding the bear fence so it can house more colonies
The bee yard, which now houses three colonies.
American Bee Journal

My mentor Eric Nelson looking for the
queen.
nosing problems, even if I often don’t
know how to fix them.
I am now donning a full bee suit,
which is a regression from last year’s
veil and gloves. However, I found my-
self getting more and more anxious
about inspecting my colonies. My
husband and kids bought me the suit
for me for Christmas, and although I
feel less of a beekeeper in it, I worry
less about the stinging and therefore
can handle the bees more gently and
think more clearly with it on. My bees
got 2nd place at the WNC State Fair
in the chunk honey class. I recently
passed the written and practical ex-
ams for the NC Beekeepers Certified
My chunk honey won a ribbon at the WNC Mountain State Fair
July 2018
My daughter Cody thinks I’m a Super
Hero for keeping bees
Beekeeper level and am waiting to re-
ceive my certificate.
Working with honey bees has
sparked an interest in bees of all
kinds. My husband made a Blue Or-
chard Mason Bee (BOB) house for me,
and it is half full already!
thIngs I’vE lEarnED
Because of the rural location we live
in, our children, and my husband’s
often flexible but unpredictable work
schedule, I have pieced together my
education: NC Beekeepers DVD li-
brary and online quizzes, Henderson
County Beekeepers for access to cer-
tification avenues, Polk County Bee
Club for monthly meetings, American
Bee Journal subscription, lots of books
(my favorites listed at the end), call-
ing on my mentor, Eric Nelson, and
also shadowing him when possible,
and my local bee store, Holbert Bee
Supply. There are many options for
information; find what works for you.
When in Rome…do what you need
to do to have fun. For example, the
full bee suit. With it on, I feel more
comfortable managing my bees.
Make beekeeping as enjoyable as pos-
sible for you, right now.
Keeping honey bees is a roller
coaster, full of highs and lows, and I
have concluded I will probably never
have all of my colonies queenright
and just right. Beekeeping has been
one of the most challenging things I
have ever embarked on. Revel in the
challenge of it.
I tell people what I have found in
beekeeping is a discipline that com-
bines many interests: nature, agricul-
ture, economics, statistics, environ-
ment, geography, genetics, politics,
and more.
You know you are a beek when
someone politely asks “how are your
bees doing?” and five minutes later
you are still rambling on to a face
with eyes that have glazed over.
my lIst of thE BEst nEw BEEkEEPEr
Books:
First Lessons in Beekeeping, Keith S.
Delaplane
Beekeeping for Dummies
The Beekeepers Handbook, Fourth Edi-
tion, Diana Sammataro and Alphonse
Avitabile
Our Native Bees, Paige Embry
How to Manage Blue Orchard Bee, Jordi
Bosch & William Kemp
Dadant & Sons, Inc.,
Hamilton, IL
or your nearest branch
Your one-stop shopping
center for beekeeping supplies
in 2018! Be sure you receive
our big catalog in 2018.
Check out our new products
and don’t forget...
FREE SHIPPING
on orders over $100!!
1-888-922-1293
www.dadant.com
765
 Seed A Legacy
Pollinator Habitat Program
Expands to 11 Midwest States
by Katie Coleman

T
he Bee & Butterfly Habitat Fund tat to support the health of monarch seed mixtures vary from state to state
expanded their reach to 11 butterflies; an endangered species and site location. Throughout the
states across the Midwest with that has seen over 80 percent popula- program BBHF offers guidance and
the launch of their Seed A Legacy Pol- tion decline in the past 20 years; hon- technical support during the prepara-
linator Habitat Program, which part- ey bees, with a 40 percent annual hive tion, establishment and maintenance
ners with landowners to provide free loss; and other beneficial pollinators of pollinator habitats.
or heavily discounted seed mixtures like the native Rusty Patch Bumble Applications are reviewed and se-
to restore critical habitats for honey- Bee, which is an endangered species. lected based on 30 different factors
bees and monarch butterflies. Since Seed A Legacy grows NextGen Habi- that point to land with the highest
the program was implemented in the tat Projects, designed to benefit a potential to create highly nutritious
Dakotas in 2015 they’ve established wide range of native and managed and lasting pollinator habitats. Decid-
284 habitats on 3,122 acres of land. pollinator species, as well as grass- ing factors include project size, crop-
The application period for Seed A land songbirds and other wildlife. ping history, proximity to an apiary
Legacy’s fall 2018 planting projects Their seed mixtures are designed to or willingness to partner with a bee-
are open until August 31 to private, improve habitat through higher pol- keeper, the surrounding landscape
public and corporate landowners in linator value, at a more effective cost, and condition of the land.
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Min- that establishes quickly, and provides Harold Schulz, 82, has grown 10
nesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North better weed competition value. The acres of rich pollinator habitat on his
Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and total acreage for each project is split 225 acres of land just outside of Bis-
Wisconson. Successful applicants will in half and two seed mixtures are pro- marck, North Dakota since joining
be announced in September and will vided for separate plantings: a honey the program in 2016. His project was
enter into a five-year agreement to es- bee habitat seed mixture, dominated successful and an estimated fifty dif-
tablish and maintain pollinator habi- by clover and legume species, and a ferent plant species per seed mixture
tats on their land. monarch butterfly seed mixture con- were planted through Seed A Legacy.
The Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund sisting mainly of wildflowers. The Schulz has been hosting beekeep-
was formed in 2015 in an effort to re-
store critical habitat for pollinator spe-
cies that has been decimated largely
due to agricultural practices and
chemical/pesticide application. The
fund is a collaborative effort between
Browning’s Honey Co, Inc., Project
Apis m., a non-profit 501 organiza-
tion that funds and directs research
for bees, and Partnership Coordinator
Peter Berthelsen, who’s been a wild-
life biologist for over 27 years.
“The Bee & Butterfly Habitat Fund
formed out of a sense of frustration
about what was happening in pol-
linator conservation programs,” Ber-
thelsen said. “We felt that we could
provide significantly more pollinator
benefits at a more reasonable cost in a
way that landowners would be really
interested in joining.”
Their Seed A Legacy Program aims
to improve the model for pollinator
conservation efforts by growing habi- A large expanse of milkweed along the migratory path of monarch butterflies.

July 2018 767


A farm selected for habitat improvement. The red X marks where the pollinator habitat
will be planted.
ers’ hives on his land for over 25 years
in exchange for honey, and as the new
habitats have grown his understand-
ing of bees has expanded. Before join-
ing the program, he really only un-
derstood a small portion of the way
bees were interacting on his land and
in our ecosystem.
“To me they were just bees that pro-
duced honey,” Schulz said. “But then
one day I learned about the program
and now I’ve learned so much about
bees that I had no idea about before.
It’s been amazing what that kind of
habitat will draw. It’s improved the
land, it’s certainly improved the habi-
tat for wildlife, and I’m really enjoy-
ing it,” Schulz said. “That’s what I
promote: habitat for wildlife.”
This spring through Seed A Legacy
Schulz will plant new seed mixtures
to convert another seven acres of his
land to provide habitat for wildlife.
“In June and July I go down and start
looking for the flowers,” Schulz said.
“I think it’s a great program and I’m
impressed with the people involved.
They couldn’t be nicer.”
Monarchs traverse long distances to get to their mating
grounds. Loss of prime food sources complicates the travel.
768
Danielle Downey, executive direc-
tor for Project Apis m., has been work-
ing with honey bees for 25 years and
supports BBHF under one of their for-
age initiatives. PAm funds research
studies, purchases equipment for re-
search labs, provides scholarships and
supports graduate students studying
to become bee scientists. To date, they
have funded 150 research projects, 44
of which are currently active.
“The habitat bees have is getting
less and less in quantity and quality.
The honey production in this country
is falling. Row crops on farms are ex-
panding and there’s just not enough
habitat left,” Downey said. “We know
if you give bees and butterflies good
nutrition, no matter what issues
they’re facing they are better able to
mitigate them. You can make a big
impact if you plant strategic mixes
that support bees and the migratory
flyway of monarch butterflies. And
you also benefit songbirds, game
birds, and all kinds of wildlife and
native pollinators by engineering the
right habitats.”
The plantings also provide food to many other pollinators, who
take advantage of the nectar and pollen.
Downey explained that although
Seed A Legacy is limited to certain
states, the migratory nature of bees
and butterflies across the U.S expands
their reach to have a larger impact.
“Bees in North Dakota go to Cali-
fornia and pollinate crops for most
of the world’s almonds. Even though
the habitat is only in states that may
not be close to you, those bees are
pollinating food systems for all of
us and they’re moving around. The
amount of good you can do in one
state is connected to all the agricul-
ture in California, and it reaches so
many people.”
In particular BBHF is working to
improve pollinator habitat to sup-
port honey bees that pollinate Cali-
fornia’s commercial almond crops,
an industry currently with around 1
million almond-bearing trees, which
are said to require two hives per
acre to ensure adequate pollination;
that equates to a need for two mil-
lion hives from across the U.S. to be
transported annually for pollination
services.
“We believe one of the most impor-
tant factors that determines health of
hives when it goes to almonds is what
kind of access they had to highly nu-
tritious, highly valuable forage in the
months of July and August,” Berth-
elsen said. “Those hives have a much
higher likelihood of being healthy
and productive come California al-
mond time.”
The 11 states participating in the
program were selected based on
how critical the land is for honey bee
health and the Monarch Butterfly Re-
covery Plan, which was established
by Dr. Chip Taylor of the University
of Kansas to address and restore hab-
itat loss for monarch butterflies. The
recovery plan provides critical habi-
tat that supplies adequate nutrition
American Bee Journal
 Once planted, the amount of visitors can be astonishing.
and forage during the monarch’s an-
nual migratory path.
Expansion of BBHF to more sates
is projected to continue with the
procurement of additional funding.
Funding comes from corporate spon-
sors, commodity groups such as the
National Corn Growers Association,
private donors, commercial beekeep-
ers, not for profit pollinator groups,
and agricultural companies.
“Seed A Legacy allows all these dif-
ferent groups to come together to
support a common mission. We don’t
have the luxury of drawing lines in
the sand. This is a really big issue and
we have to work to bring more peo-
ple together, especially for monarch
butterflies,” Berthelsen said.
There are three active research proj-
ects underway studying the Seed A
Legacy seed mixtures and the impact
their NextGen habitats are having on
pollinator species. The NYS Geologi-
cal Survey is studying the pollinator
value in their seed mixtures, and ac-
cording to Berthelsen, so far they
have found 10 times the pollinator
value in their seeds at a 30 percent
lower cost compared to existing con-
servation programs.
The monarch butterflies find excellent sources of nectar to
help fuel their long trek.
July 2018
By providing food sources that bloom throughout the spring
and summer, the plantings can support diverse pollinators.
The Bee Integrated Program is
studying the different factors that af-
fect bee health: forage and nutrition,
diseases, parasites, pesticides and
chemical applications and the kind
of impact the Seed A Legacy habitats
are having on them. And this year a
new research project is underway at
the University of Minnesota, which is
studying the seed mixtures that land-
owners receive through the program
and how they are impacting butter-
flies, honey bees and native bees.
A native bee foraging on the seed mix
Katie Coleman
had her first intro-
duction to bees last
year while living at
an apiary in Wilton,
California. She is a
writer from Buffalo,
NY with a focus on
journalism and po-
etry. She spends as
much time as she
can in nature and is
interested in farming
and living a conscious, sustainable life.
An abundance of solitary bees often appear when habitat is
planted that provides nectar and pollen.
769
770 American Bee Journal
 I’ve noticed some hot buzz words of late—such as “treatment-free,” “natural,”
or “Darwinian” beekeeping, or the “rewilding” of the honey bee. I feel that it is
worthwhile to explore these concepts from an objective practical and evolution-
ary perspective. My hope is to facilitate rational discussion of our options for
solving The Varroa Problem.
T
he Varroa Problem is not just a bee/mite issue—it’s an
evolutionary event in which viruses and beekeepers
are fully involved players. Varroa would likely no
longer even be much of a problem if it were not for the fact
that some of our beekeeping practices work in favor of the
mite and Deformed Wing Virus (DWV). The Solution to The
Varroa Problem is for beekeepers to better understand how
their management practices affect the evolutionary pres-
sure upon the bee, varroa, and DWV.
I’m 100% behind the concepts of “natural” and “treat-
ment free” beekeeping, but as a biologist, am concerned that
many who think that they’re helping, are actually inadver-
tently working against the natural evolutionary process.
There are ways to be part of The Solution, but they’re a little
more involved than simply withholding treatments for var-
roa. In this two-part article, I hope first to dispel some myths,
then explain how the coevolution of varroa and DWV cre-
ated a monster, how beekeeping practices play a part in the
evolutionary selective pressure, and then to objectively rank
different management approaches as to as whether they
qualify as being part of The Problem or part of The Solution.
assIgnIng thE BlamE
Along with the explosive increase in recreational bee-
keeping, there comes a good deal of passionate arguing
about the “best” way to keep bees. These debates often
seem to be more about a beekeeper’s ideology or tradi-
tion rather than about actual bee biology, and often de-
volve into the mere repetition of rigid dogma rather than
the constructive weighing of evidence and analysis of the
long-term evolutionary consequences to the bee.
The British Columbia Honey Producers Association
publishes an excellent quarterly called Bee Scene. In last
July 2018
fall’s issue, an article by beekeeper Kerry Clark caught my
eye—“Mutual Respect in the Treatment-Free Debate.” I’m
in full agreement, since either side has grounds for making
a case. I find closed-minded finger pointing, blaming, and
demonization of others to be counterproductive. Although
proponents of either side can convincingly rationalize and
justify their positions, the truth is that both sides are often
right, and both sides are often ill-informed about the biol-
ogy involved.
So let’s just step out of our echo chambers for a moment,
and educate ourselves as to exactly what created The Var-
roa Problem, and then how we can make better-informed
decisions as to how to solve it. I’ll begin by suggesting that
we all accept some part of the responsibility:
Are large-scale commercial beekeepers part of The Prob-
lem? For the most part, yes.
Are small-scale “treatment free” beekeepers part of The
Problem? For the most part, also yes.
Practical application: both of the above are the wrong
questions to be asking. May I suggest that it is more
worthwhile to be “pro” a desirable goal, rather than
“anti” this or that. Our goal is healthier bees, free of The
Varroa Problem. So the question that every beekeeper
should ask themselves is, are you being part of a realistic
solution?
There are ways that every beekeeper, depending upon
their circumstances, can help to be part of The Solution--or
at least less a part of The Problem. But first we need to clear-
ly define exactly why we still suffer from The Varroa Prob-
lem thirty years after the invasion of the mite. It’s all about
the biology and evolutionary processes involved in bee/
771
mite/virus/beekeeping dynamics. It’s actually relatively
straightforward to understand, but without a clear under-
standing of the evolutionary selective pressures resulting
from our various beekeeping practices, any efforts to solve
The Problem will be futile in the long run.
lEt’s fIrst gEt somE faCts straIght
The main problem that I see is that much of the discus-
sion that I read is based upon erroneous information, so
I’d first like to go over some easily-verifiable facts.
The oft-repeated alarm about the “decline” or “immi-
nent extinction” of the honey bee is a false narrative—be-
guiling but unsupported by fact. It’s true that the varroa/
DWV complex has made beekeeping more difficult than it
used to be, but the simple fact remains that the number of
managed colonies of bees is increasing in the U.S. as well as
in most every other country.
Practical application: the health of honey bee colonies
will indeed decline if varroa is not managed. But if var-
roa is kept to a low level, my colonies appear to be as
healthy as they’ve ever been in my 50 years of beekeep-
ing. Many professional beekeepers are enjoying finan-
cial success these days.
Let’s look at the oft-trumpeted colony mortality figures.
Under natural conditions, the honey bee population in any
area will swing up and down over the years, the majority
of colonies perhaps dying when there is a severe winter,
prolonged drought, or some plague, but then during good
times the population quickly rebounds until it reaches the
carrying capacity of the land.
So let’s imagine that there is a consecutive series of good
years, and that a “stable” population of wild honey bee
colonies has come into balance with the available floral
resources. Under these perfect conditions, what percent-
age of colonies will die each year? Let’s do the math. Un-
der perfect conditions every single colony will swarm at
least once during the season—thus temporarily doubling
the population. But if the overall population of colonies
Fig. 1 Life is tough for colonies living in the wild. Their success
at surviving until reproduction in their second season is low. The
unforgiving environment exerts strong selective pressure for
“fitness.” The addition of varroa/DWV to the environment has
added another component to that required fitness.
772
is to remain stable, that means that at least half the colonies
must die each year. And this is where natural selection takes
place—with the most “fit” colonies having a better chance
of surviving, see Fig. 1.
Practical application: don’t let the elevated colony loss
rates from those who aren’t adequately controlling var-
roa mislead you—the honey bee, left to its own devices,
is a survivor, and is going to do just fine. Keep in mind
that if you go out of your way to help slacker (less fit)
colonies survive, that you are working against the nat-
ural evolutionary process. Start each season with more
colonies than you plan to take through the winter—and
cull those that don’t perform.
That said, regarding the wild populations of the
Western honey bee in their native ranges in Europe,
some subspecies are indeed under threat not only from
varroa, but also from having their invaluable locally-
adapted genomes contaminated by introduced com-
mercial bloodlines from nearby managed colonies.
In this case, the recent pleas by Blacquière and Pan-
ziera to modify beekeeping practices to help conserve
the genetic heritage of these threatened races certain-
ly apply. As explained by Neumann and Blacquière:
Here lies a great opportunity for beekeeping in several coun-
tries, where economic constraints are no longer leading as bee-
keeping has become a hobby sector, with dispersed and small
apiaries being the rule. Sustainable solutions for the apicultural
sector can only be achieved by taking advantage of natural selec-
tion and not by attempting to limit it.
Practical application: I fully support the efforts by
those involved in sustaining threatened races of honey
bees in their native lands. Recreational beekeepers in
those countries can be part of The Solution.
On the other hand, in North America the honey bee is a
well-established, but non-native invasive species. Its pres-
ence is not necessary for the survival of native species of
plants—a function that is well-performed by native pol-
linators, who may in fact face competition from the honey
bee. Thus, the honey bee is not a necessary component for
the functioning of natural ecosystems on this continent.
That said, we North Americans place great value on the
honey bee to perform pollination services of agricultural
crops, as well as for producing honey and beeswax. As
such, bees kept for these purposes can be considered as
domestic livestock. In addition, many recreational bee-
keepers enjoy keeping bees simply as pets.
Practical application: when bees are kept as either live-
stock or pets, it confers upon the keeper the responsibil-
ity to provide for their care (Fig. 2), and to be respectful
of other beekeepers’ operations. The unmanaged bee
population not only doesn’t need our help, but may be
harmed by well-meaning recreational beekeepers (I’ll
explain further on).
Another false claim is that our beekeeping practices
are not sustainable. Clearly, we need to wean ourselves off
our miticide dependence for varroa control, but there are
plenty of beekeepers who could correctly claim that their
management practices appear to be sustainable for the
foreseeable future.
American Bee Journal
Fig. 2 As an example of our ethical responsibility to our live-
stock, I offer the above snip from the Grass Roots Farmer’s Co-
operative. The practice of good animal husbandry requires that
those who are responsible for their livestock control external
parasites (in our case, varroa). Furthermore, we should each
be part of a plan to improve the resistance of our animals (our
bees) to that parasite.
A case in point: my sons and I have a 35-year history
of supplying, without fail, healthy, strong colonies for
almond pollination. In recent years we tripled the size
of our operation, all the while selling off about a third
of our bees as nucs each spring. And we do so without
the use of synthetic miticides, and the rare use of an an-
tibiotic. Our operation and methods appear to be fully
sustainable.
A third myth is the claim that one’s beekeeping practices
are “natural.” In reality, as soon as a beekeeper sets up an
apiary, they’ve created an unnatural density of colonies, all
then forced to compete against each other. This unnatural
host density also allows for an unnaturally elevated colony-
to-colony transmission of parasites. The only form of truly
“natural” beekeeping that comes to mind is practiced in
Africa and some other countries—where the bee “keeper”
simply hangs a hollow log in the occasional tree and hopes
for a swarm to move in, from which they can later steal
some honey.
Practical application: I came of age as a California
“Flower Child,” am a long-term organic gardener, and
live as close to an “all-natural” lifestyle as I can. So I have
the right to say that the term “natural beekeeping” is an
oxymoron. The moment that you place a swarm, pack-
age, or nuc into a hive, you’ve unnaturally intervened.
And if the bees that you use are of commercial stock, it
is even more unnatural. And if you place more than one
hive in an apiary (or you have beekeeping neighbors),
you’ve then created an even less natural situation.
Bees don’t care a whit about whether anything is “nat-
ural” or “artificial”—they only care about the end result
(Fig. 3). They’ll happily move into manmade structures
and thrive there—so long as the cavity is dry and insulat-
ed. As far as “natural” food, I can easily see the health of
my colonies improve in late summer when I feed them an
artificial pollen sub, and it’s well established that colonies
winter just fine on stored sugar syrup—bees just need good
nutrition, and don’t care where it comes from. And bees
hate many of the “natural” essential oils and other concoc-
tions often introduced in their hives—I personally use the
“natural” treatments of thymol and organic acids mainly
due to their lack of contamination of the combs1 and their
apparent short-term adverse effects upon colony health,
rather than because they can be claimed to be “natural.”
July 2018
Fig. 3 Honey bee swarms will readily choose manmade cavi-
ties in which to nest—they appear to base their choice upon
location, volume, water tightness, and defensibility rather than
whether it is “natural” or “artificial.” The swarm colony above is
thriving in a narrow, rectangular, artificial cavity made of pres-
sure-treated wood and plywood with urea-formaldehyde glue.
Photo courtesy of beekeeper Scott Ball.
Now don’t get me wrong--I’m not saying that the
above cavity will be best for thermoregulation during
winter, but rather that the bees may evaluate the benefit
of various methods or products differently than does the
beekeeper.
Practical application: using the word “natural” doesn’t
put a halo around your head nor necessarily make a man-
agement method or product beneficial to bees. “Natural”
is an arbitrary distinction—but it’s a good baseline to
which any “improvements” can be compared. Similar to
how humans appear to benefit from living in fabricated
structures, and from eating diets of crops artificially se-
lected for human edibility and nutrition, the honey bee
can also not only adapt to unnatural cavities and man-
agement methods, but may actually benefit from some
of them.
O.K., now that we’ve got some facts straight, let’s start
looking at the relationship between bees and beekeepers.
our Part In CrEatIng thE monstEr
We’re all sick to death of The Varroa Problem. The ques-
tion then is how Joe or Jane Beekeeper can help solve the
problem. In order to do so, they need to understand why
The Varroa Problem has not gone away on its own—as did
the decimating plagues of the past that we suffered during
the invasions of wax moth, chalkbrood, tracheal mite, and
Nosema ceranae.
Understand that there is no “balance of nature”—bio-
logical life continually adapts to the environment of our
ever-changing planet. All life forms use the same “operat-
ing system” based upon DNA, yet that code is continu-
osly being modified via mutation and reordering, with the
773
winning codes determined by natural selection (most spe-
cies—like the dinosaurs—eventually go extinct, since they
did not adapt well enough). The honey bee, due to the
multiple matings of the queen, as well as the bees’ notably
high rate of genetic recombination, is expert at adaptation.
And one of the environmental factors that bees need to
adapt to are viruses—the rogue pieces of genetic material
that hijack the cellular machinery of living things.
Viruses are the ultimate parasite, stripped of any excess
machinery—consisting simply of a set of genetic instruc-
tions coupled with a target-specific locking and injection
mechanism. It’s debatable as to whether viruses should
even be called a life form, as an infective virus can be cre-
ated in the lab from scratch.2 Viruses don’t think, feel, or
eat, and have no plan, nor any necessary need to harm or
kill their hosts (Fig. 4). They are perhaps the clearest ex-
ample of how the process of evolution works at the genetic
level, due to the simplicity of their reproductive process,
as well as the fact that it takes place at such high speed.
Fig. 4 In the photo above one can see two adult bees with the
deformed wings resulting from a severe infection of DWV when
those bees were in the pupal stage. You can also see some pre-
pupae apparently also suffering from DWV, plus a sick adult bee
at the upper left unable to emerge from its cell. Of interest, there
would be little or no fitness benefit to the virus from killing or
deforming its individual host bees, unless the virus depended
upon causing the colony to collapse in order to get dispersed
to other hives.
Practical application: viruses are everywhere—every
living organism has means for dealing with them. The
Varroa Problem is not only about varroa—the mite is
only the vector. The real problem is the viruses—mainly
Deformed Wing Virus. This virus has before our very
eyes rapidly evolved to take advantage of its new vector.
And beekeepers are part of why that came about.
unDErstanDIng BEE, varroa, vIrus & BEEkEEPIng
CoEvolutIon
Varroa is a minor problem for its native host, the Eastern
honey bee, Apis cerana. Humans started The Varroa Problem
when we exposed the Western honey bee to the mite. Even
then, it still took quite a few years for a novel strain of var-
roa—the Korean haplotype—to adapt to Apis mellifera, and
then become today’s worldwide problem.
Once this strain of varroa evolved to the point that it
was able to effectively reproduce in Apis mellifera colonies,
it changed the environmental niche of the honey bee—the
colony now needed to deal with an immune-system-de-
stroying parasite, along with a novel mode of exposure to
774
viruses and bacteria introduced through the mite’s feed-
ing wounds.
Practical application: the honey bee is now in the pro-
cess of evolutionary adaptation to this huge change. Bee-
keeping practices influence that evolutionary process.
We humans have since inadvertently introduced varroa
to nearly every population of Apis mellifera on the planet.
Each initial invasion of the mite then decimates the estab-
lished wild population of honey bees—but typically a few
colonies survive. Those survivors then provide a low host
density for the mite (fewer bee colonies), thus severely lim-
iting hive-to-hive horizontal transmission of the mite. This
minimizes the mite invasion pressure upon the survivors,
allowing natural selection to then take place, favoring
those few colonies that exhibit some degree of mite resis-
tance. Eventually, those somewhat resistant lines of bees re-
establish a population. This has happened again and again.
So why is varroa still such a problem for us? It’s because
of three key things:
1. Our lack of selection for varroa-resistant bee stock,
2. Our continual restocking of colonies that die—thus
maintaining a high host density, and
3. The evolution of Deformed Wing Virus.
I’m not going to belabor our need for varroa-resistant
stock—we all know that. It’s the next two things that we
need to understand. After varroa first kicked our butts, it
appeared that we could deal with the mite by treating once
a year with an effective miticide. But then an obscure in-
sect virus called Deformed Wing Virus evolved to take ad-
vantage of varroa as a vector and facilitator. Certain forms
of DWV then coevolved with varroa to exploit an endless
source of food—the worker brood in the continually-re-
stocked colonies in managed apiaries large and small. We
are now dealing with a monster—the varroa/DWV com-
plex—in which both species mutually benefit from their
“marriage.” This insidious symbiotic partnership is our
nemesis, and will likely only get worse until we all keep
mite-resistant bees.
Practical application: so long as we keep providing
an endless platter of brood in non-resistant restocked
hives, nature will continue to select for mite/virus com-
binations that are best able to invade those new colo-
nies. This is true for both bees kept as livestock and with
those kept for recreation. Any beekeeper is not being part
of The Solution if he/she stocks their hives with domes-
tic stock and allows them to collapse due to lack of var-
roa management!
It’s all aBout suCCEssful DIsPErsal anD transmIssIon
It may help to understand the difference between a
parasite and a parasitoid. Parasites generally benefit by
not killing their host—think of fleas or ticks—their species
do better with live hosts continually transmitting young
parasites to new hosts. A parasitoid, on the other hand,
requires that the parasite kills its host in order to complete
its life cycle—a critical component of that life cycle being
dispersal to a new host individual.
In Apis cerana, varroa is an endemic parasite—always
there at a low level, and vertically transmitting from parent
colony to swarm,3 with little or no advantage to be gained
by causing the collapse of its host colony. This can also
American Bee Journal
be the case for A. mellifera, but so long as there are always
other colonies within easy flight range, it will always be to
to varroa/DWV’s advantage to kill its host colony in order
to disperse by drift and robbing.
Take home message: in the case of the varroa/DWV
monster, causing the collapse of the host colony at the
right time greatly increases the odds for that line of virus
to be transmitted to other colonies. When a beekeeper
allows managed colonies to collapse from varroa/DWV,
that beekeeper is inadvertently giving an adaptive ad-
vantage to the varroa/DWV combinations that are the
most effective at causing the death of their host colony.
Restocking that varroa-killed hive with another package
of domestic bees and then allowing it to again collapse is
completely contrary to being part of The Solution.
hErE’s how It works
Neither varroa nor DWV benefit from causing the death
of bee pupa or adults. But so long as beekeepers continue
to maintain a high host density (lots of hives in the neigh-
borhood), it then becomes evolutionarily advantageous to
a DWV strain to kill its host colony—so that drifting bees
and incoming robbers then better disperse that particular
combination of varroa/DWV to surrounding hives.4
Practical application: it is only advantageous for the
varroa/DWV monster to kill its host colony if there is a
good chance that the collapse will result in the parasites
being transmitted to at least two new colonies not yet
infected by the specific genetics of the virulent para-
sites—otherwise it would be to the parasites’ advantage
to not overly harm its host colony, and instead be ver-
tically transmitted to its future swarms. The key factor
is colony density—how many other colonies there are
within flight range.
It would also not be advantageous for varroa/DWV to
kill its colony during winter cold, since that would also
spell the death of that bloodline of mites and strain of vi-
rus. Thus I’d expect low density, unmanaged honey bee
populations in long-winter areas (such as in the Arnot
Forest) to rapidly develop stable host-parasite relation-
ships with varroa/DWV.
The best (most adaptive) timing for varroa/DWV dis-
persal to occur would be during the late-summer nectar
dearth when robbing and bee drift is likely to occur (Fig-
ure 5). This must be balanced against the virulence of the
varroa-DWV monster—if the mites were then to rapidly
reproduce in the new host colonies, they might kill the
colony during the winter. So the late-season timing is just
right, since that’s when the colonies reduce broodrear-
ing, and thus suppress mite reproduction. This allows the
newly-introduced virulent varroa/DWV monster to lie
relatively dormant until spring buildup begins.
Practical application: the marriage of varroa with
DWV is a match made in hell, as far as managed bees
are concerned, since so long as there is an unlimited sup-
ply of nearby hives to infect, it will always be to DWV’s
advantage to kill its host colony in late summer or early
fall. In this respect, varroa/DWV acts more like a parasit-
oid than a parasite, since the virus uses the drifting and
robbing bees to infect its next host colony. It is the virus-
induced collapse and resulting horizontal transmission
that we do not want to evolutionarily reward.
July 2018
Fig. 5 In the simulation above, starting with 100 mites in the hive, var-
roa overtook the colony in late August, finally infesting over a third of
the brood cells. Due to the high infestation rate of the adult bees in
August and September, the virus would suddenly go “epidemic” due to
the amount of vectoring by the mite, and every mite during its phoretic
phase would stand a good chance of feeding on an adult bee with a
high DWV load, thus resulting in the pupae subsequently parasitized by
those mites being overwhelmed by the virus. At collapse, drifting and
robbing bees very effectively transmit both the mite and virus strains to
surrounding colonies.
Thus, if we look at where the varroa/DWV marriage
stands today, we see that there is selective pressure for
DWV not to be too virulent (as are the paralytic viruses),
as it could kill its host colony during winter or early in
the season when little robbing takes place, but to be viru-
lent enough that when the mite infestation rate exceeds
around 15 mites per 100 bees in late summer, that the
colony collapses at just the right time for transmission
to other hives. This timing may be synchronized by the
apparent increase in the efficiency of varroa as a vector
as the duration of its phoretic phase increases during late
summer5—our understanding of this insidious relation-
ship keeps growing.
The bad news is that both varroa and DWV are able to
evolve rapidly—the honey bee reproductive cycle typically
takes a full year—that of varroa, around 17 days, and for
DWV, mere hours. And as suggested by genetic analysis by
Andino6 varroa is likely still adapting to its new host, and
may eventually become an even more successful parasite
unless we start breeding bees that can fight it on their own.
And you can bet money on DWV continuing to evolve!7
nExt
All is not doom and gloom. The honey bee is demonstra-
bly able to overcome the varroa/DWV complex. It’s really
up to us beekeepers whether we continue to contribute to
The Problem. In the next installment I’ll go over the pros
and cons of the various proposed options for beekeepers,
big or small, wishing to be part of The Solution.
aCknowlEDgEmEnts
Thanks as always to Pete Borst for research assistance,
and to all the dedicated and hard-working bee researchers
from whose publications I draw useful information.
notEs anD CItatIons
1 Thymol can actually leave substantial residues in the combs, per-
haps depending upon the method of application. But those resi-
dues would not generally be considered to be of concern to human
health, and based upon my experience with Apiguard®, do not
appear to have an adverse effect upon colony buildup following
treatment.
775
2 Lamp B, et al. (2016) Construction and rescue of a molecular clone
of Deformed Wing Virus (DWV). PLoS ONE 11(11): e0164639.
doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0164639
3 Yes, I understand that the swarm is actually the parent colony
(containing the old queen), with the daughter colony (with a new
queen) remaining behind. Apis mellifera appears to exhibit a greater
propensity for the robbing of weaker colonies than does A cerana
(Anna H. Koetz, AH (2013) Ecology, behaviour and control of Apis
cerana with a focus on relevance to the Australian incursion. In-
sects 4(4): 558–592), perhaps to avoid horizontal transmission of
the mite.
4 Such dispersal of a pathogen is termed “horizontal transmission.” This
concept is nicely reviewed by Nolan, MP IV (2016) Impacts of inter-
colony distance, mite host choice, and colony polyandry on the
host/parasite relationship between Apis mellifera and Varroa de-
structor. Dissertation, University of Georgia.
5 Piou V, et al (2016) Impact of the phoretic phase on reproduction
and damage caused by Varroa destructor (Anderson and Trueman)
to its host, the European honey bee (Apis mellifera L.). PLoS ONE
11(4):e0153482.
6 Andino, GK, et al (2016) Differential gene expression in Varroa ja-
cobsoni mites following a host shift to European honey bees (Apis
mellifera). BMC Genomics 17:926.
7 Martin, SJ, et al (2012) Global honey bee viral landscape altered
by a parasitic mite. Science 336: 1304-1306.

Randy sees beekeeping through the eyes of

a biologist. He’s kept bees for over 50 years,
and with his sons runs around 1500 hives in
the California foothills. He closely follows bee
research, engages in some himself, and enjoys
sharing what he’s learned with others.

776 American Bee Journal

I
IntroDuCtIon
n my work with bees, I’ve been for-
tunate to study not just the Euro-
pean honey bee, Apis mellifera, but
Asian honey bee species as well. And
in my travels in the tropics, whether in
Australia, Africa, Asia or Latin Amer-
ica, I’ve always admired the beauty of
foraging or nesting stingless bees (dis-
tant, social cousins of Apis) of varying
species. In particular I’d heard intrigu-
ing tales of Melipona beecheii, the bee
the Maya call xunan kab—the “Royal
Lady Bee.” These honey-makers were
kept, revered and even deified by the
ancient Maya of Mexico and Central
America. Recently I had the opportu-
nity to work with them.
On a trip to Tabasco State in south-
eastern Mexico, I found myself work-
ing with both Africanized European
honey bees and various stingless
bee species. In fact, variety became a
theme for the trip. My wife, Maria Ka-
therman, and I visited an assortment
of men and women, young and old,
of varied heritage and personal his-
tory. We walked through varied agri-
cultural areas including milpas, small
mixed fruit and vegetable plantings.
We saw staple crops like beans and
maize, but also pineapples, bananas,
plantains, papayas, avocadoes, sugar
cane, chili peppers, squashes, yucca,
coffee, cacao, achiote. Nearly every
rural yard sported pigs and piglets,
ducks, turkeys, chickens, horses, a
few cows and goats. And mixed with
the agricultural land was wild land,
including ancient forest. Howler
monkeys clambered through the
trees, their coarse roars providing
entertaining ambience for idyllic bee
yards. (Fig.1).
July 2018
Fig. 1 The apiary of Fatima Rico, near the
town of Redencion del Campesino in the
Usumacinta Canyon Ecological Reserve.
I was invited to visit Tabasco as a
Fulbright Specialist in December-
January this year by Biologist Luis
Manuel Godínez García. Luis is a bee
expert and instructor in the Natural
Resources program at Universidad
Politécnica Mesoamericana (U.P.M.)
near Tenosique on the Guatemala
border. It’s gorgeous country. The flat,
limestone Yucatán Peninsula juts off
to the northeast. The famed Mayan
ruins of Palenque and Pomoná are
nearby. Smaller ruins are scattered
everywhere; there are more than 40
small Mayan sites along the 25-mile
Fig. 2 The famed Puente de Boca del Cer-
ro, at the mouth of Usumacinta Canyon.
(~40 km) drive from Tenosique to the
university.
U.P.M. is nestled against mountains
of uplifted, weathered and forested
karst, including the 125,000-acre
(~50,000 hectares) Usumacinta Can-
yon Ecological Reserve that stretches
along the Usumacinta River, south
and east into Guatemala (Fig. 2). To
the north is a vast, flat wetland and
the Gulf of Mexico. Tiny, agricultural-
ly oriented villages are grandfathered
in to the mountains of the ecologi-
cal reserve, where Maria and I spent
most of our field time. Generous hosts
demonstrated local practices in both
apiculture and meliponiculture—the
keeping of stingless bees—and after-
ward shared delicious traditional cu-
linary delicacies.
Like the people, the plantings and
the livestock, the bees of the region
are diverse. Orchid bees of a beauti-
ful, metallic green (Euglossa spp.),
or bumble-bee-like orange-and-black
(Eulaema meriana) are common. Even
in the courtyard of the house in Teno-
sique that U.P.M. provided for us,
there were two exquisite nests of the
stingless bee Scaptotrigona pectoralis,
with their serpentine entrance tubes
of cerumen (mixed propolis and wax)
(Fig. 3). Of 46 described species of
Mexican stingless bees,1 at least 20
occur in the area around Tenosique
in which Luis Godínez does his col-
laborative work with a close-knit
group of dedicated beekeepers, ag-
ricultural engineers, students and
ex-students—his Bee Team (or “A
Team,” if you think in Spanish: Equipo
de Abejas).
…Or “Luis and His Disciples,” as I
soon came to think of them. The stu-
777

Fig. 3 Guardian stingless bees, Scaptotrigona pectoralis, congregate in the entrance
tube of their nest.
dents are so devoted that they sacri-
ficed their Christmas vacations to join
our bee activities for three weeks. All
in the group are ardent adherents to
Luis’s philosophy of using bees as a
gateway to sustainable agriculture
and forestry. Godínez envisions bees
as a key tool in preserving remaining
fragments of old-growth forest from
the destruction that is constant in
post-colonial Mexico and worldwide:
clear-cutting, followed by clearing the
land for crops, exhaustion of soil fer-
tility, then grazing. Agriculture in this
pattern is dominated by large mono-
cultures of crops like sugar cane,
corn, soybean and oil palm. These
industrial agriculture methods have
even trickled down to small farmers,
who often plant monocultures, pay
little attention to soil health and over-
use insecticides and herbicides.
Luis is intent on introducing dif-
ferent values. He encourages farm-
ers and beekeepers to minimize use
of insecticides harmful to bees. Bee-
keepers locate their hives near forests,
learning and demonstrating the im-
portance of flowering trees to provide
food for bees, old trees as nest sites,
and the intricate relationships among
the trees, crops and their pollinators.
His program emphasizes diversify-
ing income without deforestation,
using bees as a way for smallholders
to take advantage of their location in
the ecological reserve without harm-
ing it. And Godínez has seen families
strengthened by their participation
778
in the bee program: married couples
united by the work, and the next gen-
eration taking on hives and planting
flowering plants and fruit trees.
The team’s project area in Tabasco
encompasses seven municipalities
(comparable to U.S. counties), in
which there are about 220 families
keeping honey bees in 21 villages.
The team also involves itself with
about 85 colonies of stingless bees in
14 communities.
We visited three households where
families were keeping eight differ-
ent species of stingless bees, housed
in traditional wooden plank or log
hives for honey production, includ-
ing many hives of the Royal Lady
Bee. Mostly it was women who were
managing these bees, often inherited
from their grandmothers, mothers or
aunts. And we saw about 100 hives of
Africanized honey bees, again mostly
managed by women. We inspected
about 2/3 of those hives.
afrICanIzED BEEs
It’s almost a mythical saga by now:
26 swarms of purposely introduced,
tropically adapted, very defensively
inclined African honey bees (Apis
mellifera scutellata) escaped a research
project in southeastern Brazil in 1956.
Swarms radiated in all directions,
breeding with more docile resident
European honey bees over many
decades, but retaining much of their
defensive behavior.2 The Africanized
offspring made their first appearance
in Tabasco in 1985. All the honey bees
now in the region are considered Af-
ricanized hybrids. They are widely
kept, sometimes by the same families
that keep stingless bees. They appear
to be co-existing nicely with the na-
tive bees in this area of diverse topog-
raphy and vegetation.
Luis Godínez has a lifetime of ex-
perience working with bees in vari-
ous parts of Mexico, both in academia
and as a commercial beekeeper. He
demonstrates great skill in manipu-
lating Africanized colonies. Although
some colonies still have the poten-
tial for ugly stinging incidents, Luis
uses techniques that reliably keep
them tractable. He also is certain that
the bees’ defensiveness has greatly
waned since their arrival more than
30 years ago. Without doubt they are
far gentler than the very defensive
European bees I have worked in Jor-
dan (A. m. syriaca) and Kenya (A. m.
scutellata).
Mexican beekeepers have se-
lected for gentler swarms and their
offspring, destroying colonies that
were particularly defensive. And af-
ter many apiarists abandoned their
unruly hives, a new generation of
beekeepers has come along, with dif-
ferent expectations about stinging
propensity. “These bees only cause
problems if you make a serious er-
ror,” Luis says.
Following, together with a descrip-
tion of other management methods,
are some of Luis Godínez’s ways of
avoiding those errors with African-
ized bees. Some of his techniques are
well-known to U.S. beekeepers.3 Oth-
ers are not.
Godínez advises locating apiaries
well away from people and livestock.
Nowhere did we see honey bees kept
within villages, whereas many hives
of stingless bees were kept in back-
yards in close proximity to both peo-
ple and their animals. Only single-
hive stands are used, either fashioned
from steel concrete reinforcement bar
(Fig. 4) or consisting of platforms on
cylindrical central pedestals (Fig.
5). Legs and pedestals are placed in
moats of motor oil to defend against
ants, including very destructive army
ants (Eciton spp.). Sometimes hive
stand supports are coated with axle
grease as well. Colonies are placed
about 10 feet (~3 m.) from each other
in apiaries comprising no more than
25 hives. Hive bodies are rarely paint-
ed, but are coated in linseed oil and
beeswax against the extremely high
rainfall and humidity in the region.
American Bee Journal
Fig. 4 Hives on stands of concrete rein-
forcement bar, with legs in cans of mo-
tor oil.
Godínez notes that non-toxic paint is
difficult to find, so he does not recom-
mend painting hives.
The brood box most common-
ly used in the area is a “Modified
Dadant” hive body—approximately
two inches (~5 cm.) deeper than the
standard deep box used in the U.S.
Apiarists generally employ just one of
these as a brood chamber. Ten even-
ly spaced frames are used in brood
boxes. Medium-depth honey supers
are placed above, holding only eight
frames, evenly spaced with broad-
shouldered end bars.
Luis recommends that people ma-
nipulating Africanized colonies al-
ways work in teams of two or three—
not alone. One person’s exclusive job
may be to smoke the bees; another
may spritz them with water and use
a bee brush to gently brush bees from
the top bars of frames. A third person
manipulates the boxes and frames,
and performs inspections.
Members of our team, which most
days consisted of about 10 people,
wore jeans and either long-sleeved
or short-sleeved shirts, or even tee
shirts to work with the Africanized
bees. Although some local beekeep-
ers have devised their own impres-
sive veils (Fig. 6), the team used a
variety of kinds of black-fronted veils
with white sides and back—not the
white-fronted ones that are popular
elsewhere for working Africanized
Fig. 7 Luis Godinez squats by a nest of
Nasutitermes termites. The nest material
makes excellent smoker fuel.
July 2018
Fig. 5 Angélica Gómez stands with her
hives, which rest on cylindrical pedestal
platforms.
bees. Team members, including nov-
ice students, rarely wore gloves.
Smoking was intense. We used
large, widely available standard
smokers, but not the outsize Brazil-
ian-style smokers. A favored fuel was
the dark cardboard-like material of
the arboreal nest of a common local
Nasutitermes termite, nearly always
available with a little searching near
the apiary (Fig. 7). The team member
charged with smoking made a round
of all the hives, puffing entrances
with several thick billows of smoke.
The round was repeated twice, so
that all hives in the apiary were very
well smoked before any hive was
opened.
Covers were removed carefully,
with gentle puffing of smoke and a
few spritzes of water from a spray
bottle. Frames were handled slowly
and deliberately, with care not to
press or crush bees. During manipu-
lation a constant stream of smoke was
directed over the opened hive, and
the spray bottle was used to mist bees
with water when they poked their
heads above the top bars or threat-
ened to sting (Fig.8).
Luis considers water spritzing very
important, explaining that it wets the
bees’ wings, keeps them from flying
at the beekeeper, and causes many
guards to stop any defensive behav-
ior and simply imbibe the water. He
often uses the juice of a single lemon
to scent and flavor a bottle of water,
saying this further calms the bees. As
he supervises and assists his team,
“humo y agua, humo y agua”—smoke
and water, smoke and water—is his
constant mantra.
While working a colony, the team
paid close attention to neighboring
colonies as well, watching for signs of
agitation, and smoking those hives as
needed. If a hive seemed particularly
intractable, we minimized its distur-
bance, for example removing just a
central brood frame and confirming
Fig. 6 Néstor Mayren stands with a heavy-
duty veil of his own design and making.
by the presence of eggs that there was
a laying queen. Then we closed the
hive and moved on to the next one.
I witnessed or helped in the inspec-
tions of ~ 60-70 colonies. I was stung
a total of four times on the hands, a
result of my own clumsiness working
with a single, quite defensive colony.
This may be hard to believe (aren’t
these killer bees?), but I saw only one
other person on our team get stung.
Twice.
Luis encourages his collaborators
to use only bees that come either from
wild swarms, or colonies on comb
taken from hollow trees and caves.
Elsewhere I have described our un-
dertaking a challenging transfer of a
colony from a limestone cave.4 Wheth-
er removing bees from a tree or from
a cave, the process involves much
initial smoking and water spraying to
put the bees off guard, then continu-
ously smoking them to encourage
them to abandon their cavity. Combs
are cut, removed and transferred into
wired frames. They are pressed into
the wires and held firmly in place
with large rubber bands (Fig. 9). The
displaced bees meanwhile normally
form a cluster nearby, and must be
Fig. 8 The author inspects a frame as team
members waft smoke and spray water.
779
Fig. 9 Combs transferred into frames are
held in place with large rubber bands.
carefully shaken and brushed into
the hive (Fig. 10). The beekeeper re-
turns after dark to collect the newly
hived bees. Not infrequently the bees
refuse to accept their new home, ab-
sconding before nightfall and leaving
the combs behind. But most times
the beekeeper has a new hive, and
has saved the considerable expense
(about 1,000 pesos, or U.S. $50) of
purchasing a colony of bees.
Beside the savings in pesos, a
great advantage of harvesting bees
from the wild is an apparent, strong
natural selection process among fe-
ral colonies that weeds out diseased
and mite-infested colonies. While
honey bees over much of Mexico are
infested with the devastating, hungry
Varroa destructor mite, it is evidently
absent from the hives of Godínez’s
collaborators. In all our colony in-
spections, the team saw no signs of
varroa or varroa damage. Luis notes
that although the mite is not in his
area, it is common in other parts of
Tabasco and in neighboring states, in
all areas of Mexico where beekeepers
purchase their bees from commercial
suppliers, and where bees are sup-
plied by a government program.
A common problem associated
with harvesting wild combs is that
the several combs pressed into each
frame may be uneven, irregular and
with gaps between them (Fig. 11). In
the resulting absence of consistent
bee space, bees readily build bridge
and burr combs, and cram propolis
Fig. 12 The team employs a clothes iron
wired for use as a foundation embedder.
780
Fig. 10 Bee Team members brush, spray,
smoke and shake bees into a hive.
into small crevices, sticking frames
together and making them difficult to
remove and manipulate. One of the
major jobs of Luis’s group is therefore
the culling of frames of old, irregular
combs once the bees have vacated
them, and replacing them with foun-
dation. I saw several instances where
this had not been done, and predict-
ably the brood nest was a messy
conglomeration, very challenging to
work. The team thus spends much
time installing foundation into frames.
One of their more interesting tools is a
makeshift foundation embedder that
uses an adjustable-heat clothes iron
as a current regulator. Spliced wires
extending from the iron are touched
to opposite ends of the wires in the
frames to melt the wax foundation
into place (Fig.12).
Africanized bees select small cavi-
ties for nesting, and they swarm and
abscond frequently.2,5 Honey yields
are thus not high from the resulting
small colonies. Beekeepers in the area
typically harvest several times a year,
often removing just a super or even a
few frames from a colony at a time.
U.P.M. provides extracting services
with a state-of-the-art modern hon-
ey-processing facility for beekeepers
wishing to utilize it. Retailed honey
from honey bees typically brings
about 120 pesos ($6.40) per liter, in
contrast to the far more expensive
honey from stingless bees.
stInglEss BEEs
While the introduced European
honey bee is by far the more prolific
honey producer, native stingless bees
are the honey-making gems of this
part of the world. They are classified
in the family Apidae, sub-family Api-
nae, tribe Meliponini, while Apis are
in the same family and sub-family,
but tribe Apini. Stingless bees com-
prise some 500-600 species ranging
through the tropics and sub-tropics
of Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin
America. They are especially well
Fig. 11 Irregular combs, commonly seen
when transferring bees from the wild.
represented in the American trop-
ics, with over 400 species found from
Sonora, Mexico, to Buenos Aires.6,7
In Mexico and Central America their
cultural importance cannot be over-
stated. Their cultivation, and use of
their honey as a sweetener, medicine,
and ingredient in the alcoholic drink
balché extends thousands of years into
Mayan history.1 Slaa et al.,8 May-Itza
et al.,9 and Heard,10 among many oth-
ers, recognize the great importance of
stingless bees as pollinators of both
cultivated and wild plants of the trop-
ics and sub-tropics.
Like honey bees, the Meliponini
are eusocial, with perennial colonies
that have single queens, multiple
drones and numerous workers spe-
cialized for different tasks. Most spe-
cies nest in cavities. Brood combs are
stacked horizontally, often taking on
a shape reminiscent of Mayan pyra-
mids. An involucrum, multi-layered
sheets of mostly wax, surrounds the
brood. Honey and pollen are stored
around the edges, in thimble-sized,
egg-shaped pots made of wax and
resins.6 As with all bees, males cannot
sting. The parts of the females’ stings
are present but are reduced and not
functional. Many species can defend
themselves by behaviors such as fly-
ing at the eyes, hair-pulling and hon-
ey- or resin-smearing; others take lit-
tle or no defensive action even when
severely disturbed.
Ayala et al.1 provide much informa-
tion about the status of stingless bees
Fig. 13 A guard bee occupies the small
entrance to a Melipona beecheii hive.
American Bee Journal
Fig. 14 Stingless bee hives of Socorro Ve-
lueta García hang in her shelter.
and meliponiculture in Mexico. They
list the 46 described species for the
country, and provide a table indicating
whether and for what uses the bees are
cultivated, and species distribution by
state. But reports and knowledge have
been lacking for some areas, including
the state of Tabasco, especially in this
remote and relatively pristine part of
the state near Guatemala. Thus the
species list in the following paragraph
is a contribution to the understanding
of distribution and uses of Mexican
stingless bees.
Maria and I had the pleasure and
privilege of visiting three area meli-
ponicultores, people keeping various
species of Meliponini for their honey
and cerumen—or just for enjoyment.
We witnessed seven species being
kept in wooden plank box hives, all
for honey production: Trigona fulvi-
ventris, Frieseomelitta nigra, (still cited
by some authors as Trigona nigra),
Melipona beecheii, Melipona solani,
Tetragonisca angustula, Nannotrigona
perilampoides, and Cephalotrigona zex-
meniae. One beekeeper had a log hive
containing an unidentified species of
Plebeia, kept not for honey but just
for pleasure. All species were identi-
fied by Luis Godínez, a bee taxono-
mist whose current work includes
lead authorship of a data set for
social insects occurring in adjacent
Campeche State.11
Significantly, about half of the ap-
proximately 40 hives of stingless
bees we visited were occupied by the
Royal Lady Bee, M. beecheii (Fig. 13).
This stately bee, unusual among the
Meliponini in being nearly as large as
a European honey bee, is reportedly
threatened in much of its range. Its
numbers have dwindled to the point
of near extinction in the adjacent,
largely deforested Yucatán Peninsula,
particularly in Quintana Roo State.12
However, Luis maintains that xunan
kab is thriving in the florally diverse
region around Tenosique, both under
cultivation and in the wild. He be-
July 2018
Fig. 15 Stingless bee hives of Juventino Fig. 16 Brood nest (front right), involu-
Hernández López rest on benches. crum (front left) and honey pots (rear)
of Melipona beecheii are exposed in an
lieves that Apis and the stingless bees
open hive.
partition the floral resources, gener-
ally not competing for food. Also
there are many large-diameter trees
as potential M. beecheii nest sites in
the area. In contrast to its scarcity in
the Yucatán, the Royal Lady is readily
encountered in the wild near Teno-
sique. In fact, Luis recently informed
me that in just two months following
our departure, his team found five
wild colonies of M. beechei.13
Nearly all the stingless bees we saw
Fig. 17 Brood nest (front right), surround-
were kept in traditional hives of either ing involucrum and honey pots (rear left)
wooden planks nailed together, or oc- of Frieseomelitta nigra are exposed in an
casionally in hollow logs capped at open hive.
the ends with circular wooden discs.
Hives were protected from rain un-
der simple roofed shelters. They were
either hung horizontally, from wires
five to six feet (~1.5-2 m.) above the
ground (Fig. 14), or placed on benches
or shelves (Fig. 15). During our visit,
the main activity that Godínez’s team
undertook with stingless bees was to
help with honey harvest, which most
beekeepers perform two to four times
per year. We harvested honey from
several hives of M. beecheii, from F. Fig. 18 Members of the team use syringes
nigra, and from T. angustula. to extract honey from the honey pots of
Meliponicultores opened their hives M. beecheii. Left to right: Itzel Rubí Alejo
by prying up nails at the top corners, Osorio, Lea Parra Gómez and Ana Laura
exposing both brood nest and honey Trinidad Sánchez.
storage pots (Figs. 16, 17). Our group
then sprang into action with syring-
es and pitcher. We used syringes to
break into the wax honey pots and
suck out the honey, pot by pot, dis-
pensing it into the pitcher (Figs. 18,
19). Toward the end of each extrac-
tion, the box was tipped on end and
spilled honey was sucked up from
the recesses of the hive. The process
required about half an hour per hive.
During the procedures, none of these
three species showed the slightest de-
fensive behavior.
A typical total annual honey har-
vest from M. beecheii might be about
six liters. From other, smaller species, Fig. 19 Agricultural Engineer Lea Parra
it is considerably less. The honeys we Gómez holds a pitcher of honey harvest-
took from the three species differed ed from a single M. beecheii hive.
781
strikingly in flavor, color, acidity and
moisture content. Most stingless bee
cultivators use the limited quantity
of honey for personal consumption,
largely as medicine for ailments such
as sore throat and cough, though tra-
ditionally it has been used to treat an
extraordinary range of disorders.14
Beekeepers also commonly give the
honey to friends, neighbors and visi-
tors who wish to use it as medicine.
When they do sell stingless bee honey,
it brings a remarkable price: about 800-
1,000 pesos/liter, or $40-50 per liter.
An important aspect of Godínez’s
philosophy is to accept meliponicul-
tores’ traditional ways of keeping their
bees, but to gently nudge them toward
techniques such as splitting colonies
and transferring them into more mod-
ern, upright (“racional”) hives. These
hives are vertically oriented to accom-
modate upward expansion, similar to
natural nests in hollow treese. Modern
hives include a bottom brood area and
small, drawer-like honey supers that
can be removed without disturbing
the brood nest below (Fig. 20). Honey
can then be extracted meticulously
and selectively from the honey pots in
the supers.
Fig. 20 Néstor Mayren stands beside an
empty, modern stingless bee hive.
ConClusIons
This remote and ecologically di-
verse region of Mexico offers great
opportunity for further cooperative
work. The Usumacinta Canyon Eco-
logical Reserve has much potential
for study, not just of the many species
of bees but of the diversity of biota
in general. Several U.P.M. students
are in fact currently involved in such
projects. “We do not even know what
birds are there,” Luis told me.
782
U.P.M. is an important local re-
source, with modern teaching, labo-
ratory and hive-product-processing
facilities, and skilled faculty. Still in
early stages of development is a large
demonstration apiary of both honey
bees and stingless bees. The univer-
sity would be an excellent base for
visiting professors in many fields,
and even potentially for international
meetings. Both the University Di-
rector, Jose Armando Paz, and Luis
Godínez welcome cooperation. Luis
is particularly interested in an inves-
tigation of exactly what species of
stingless bees inhabit the reserve, es-
pecially considering that many Meli-
ponini are likely superficially similar,
cryptic species that will be confirmed
only by DNA comparisons.1,6
Among the more interesting les-
sons I drew from the experience is
that defensive behavior of the Afri-
canized bees is indeed diminishing in
this region, and that there are sound
techniques for managing them while
greatly minimizing stings received.
In addition, it appears that Luis
Godínez’s reliance on harvesting bees
from the wild is of great importance
in maintaining this island of varroa-
free colonies.
And my most heartening conclu-
sion of all: here in the Mayan country
of Tabasco, the Royal Lady Bee still
holds court.
rEfErEnCEs
1 Ayala, R., V.H. Gonzalez and M.S. Engel.
2013. Mexican stingless bees (Hymenop-
tera: Apidae): diversity, distribution, and
indigenous knowledge. Pp. 135-152 in Pot
Honey: A Legacy of Stingless Bees. Vit, P.,
S.R.M. Pedro and D.W. Roubik, eds. New
York: Springer. DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-
4960-7
2 Winston, M.L. 1992. Killer Bees: The African-
ized Honey Bee in the Americas. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
3 Delaplane, K.S. 2015. Management for
honey production. Pp.487-527 in The Hive
and the Honey Bee. J. Graham, ed. Hamil-
ton, Illinois: Dadant and Sons
4 Robinson, W.S. 2018. Taming killer bees.
Bee Culture. March issue: 55-56. www.
beeculture.com/taming-killer-bees/ 27
February 2018.
5 Schneider, S.S. 2015. The honey bee colo-
ny: life history. Pp. 73-109 in The Hive and
the Honey Bee. J. Graham, ed. Hamilton, Il-
linois: Dadant and Sons
6 Michener, C.D. The Bees of the World. Bal-
timore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity Press
7 Michener, C.D. 2013. The Meliponini. Pp.
3-18 in Pot Honey: A Legacy of Stingless Bees.
Vit, P., S.R.M. Pedro and D.W. Roubik, eds.
New York: Springer. DOI 10.1007/978-1-
4614-4960-7
8 Slaa, E.J., L.A. Sánchez, K.S. Malagodi-
Braga and F.E. Hofstede. 2006. Stingless
bees in applied pollination: practice and
perspectives. Apidologie 37: 293-315
9 May-Itzá, W. de J., J. A. González, P. De
La Rúa, J. Serrano, L. A. Medina-Medina,
and J.J.G. Quezada-Euán. 2008. Crianza
de abejas sin aguijón en Mesoamérica.
Vida Apícola 152: 50-55
10 Heard, T.A. 1999. The role of stingless
bees in crop pollination. Annual Review of
Entomology 44: 183-206
11 Godínez García, L. M. and P. Ramos Ri-
vera. 2017. Fauna de insectos sociales del
estado de Campeche. Version 1.4. Comis-
ión nacional para el conocimiento y uso
de la biodiversidad. Occurrence Dataset
https://doi.org/10.15468/bac4gy accessed
via GBIF.org on 2018-02-27
12 Villanueva, G.R., D.W. Roubik and W.
Colli-Ucán. 2005. Extinction of Melipona
beecheii and traditional beekeeping in the
Yucatán Peninsula. Bee World 86: 35-41
13 Godínez García, L.M. 2018. Personal
communication. 11 March 2018
14 Ocampo Rosales, G.R. 2013. Medicinal
uses of Melipona beecheii honey, by the
ancient Maya. Pp. 247-260 in Pot Honey:
A Legacy of Stingless Bees. Vit, P., S.R.M.
Pedro and D.W. Roubik, eds. New York:
Springer. DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-4960-7
aCknowlEDgEmEnts
I thank the Fulbright Specialist Pro-
gram, funded by the U.S. Department of
State, Bureau of Educational Affairs, for
the award that enabled this work.
My wife, Maria Katherman, provided
intellectual insights, Spanish-translating
abilities and her usual excellent company.
She also made many valuable suggestions
to improve this manuscript. Luis Manuel
Godínez García taught me enormous
amounts about local bees and beekeeping,
and became a fast friend. Two members
of the Bee Team were especially helpful
in clutch situations: student Miguel Ángel
Corzo Romero and Agricultural Engineer
Lea Parra Gómez. The entire team was
delightful company: They included Ag-
ricultural Engineer Abilene Loeza Reyes,
U.P.M. Chemist Ana Luisa Ortiz Paz, and
students Tomasina García Pinto, Ana Laura
Trinidad Sánchez, Itzel Rubí Alejo Osorio,
Jaider Manuel Martínez Corzo, Julio Guill-
ermo Núñez Ledezma and Carlos Guill-
ermo Núñez. Especially helpful among the
many U.P.M. administrators who made us
feel at home were Director Jose Armando
Paz and Jacobo Salomón Abreu Sherrer.
Maria and I thank the following bee-
keepers for welcoming us into their bee
yards, their hives and their homes, in-
variably plying us with delicious meals:
Néstor Mayren, Socorro Velueta García,
Fátima Rico, Amira Bocanegra, Juventino
Hernández López and Angélica Gómez.
W. S. Robinson teaches biology and ento-
mology at Casper College in Casper, Wyo-
ming. His most recent bee research has been
on behavior of Apis dorsata and Apis cerana
in Thailand.
American Bee Journal
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784 American Bee Journal

W
e’ve all heard of mite bombs would have reinfested the colony. mer when forage is scarce.1,2 This
and varroa hitchhiking into The actual number would be much low-nectar-flow and high-dearth var-
our colonies via robber bees. higher, because under normal cir- roa immigration pattern most likely
But how many are actually sneaking cumstances those immigrating var- results from robbing.
in? As the summer comes on in full roa would reproduce, thus roughly When forage is abundant, robbing
force, be advised this is the time when doubling the varroa population every is quite infrequent. When forage be-
varroa mite immigration can spike, in reproductive cycle. But the continu- comes scarce, bees will rob honey
some years quite drastically. ous miticide application ensures that from weak colonies. As these colonies
Varroa mites can enter our hives in those immigrating mites were killed become weak from large varroa mite
large numbers. I will show some of before they could reproduce. populations, regular colony functions
my scientific data on varroa mite im- Both research papers (and my own (like guarding the hive entrance) di-
migration that I meticulously collect- data, which I report below) show minish or break down, making it easy
ed several years ago to demonstrate the same varroa immigration pat- for strong colonies to steal honey.
how varroa immigration can rapidly tern. Varroa immigration is low in When robber bees plunder these colo-
increase mite populations. However, the spring when forage is abundant. nies, free-roaming varroa mites latch
before I delve into what I saw first- Then varroa immigration can in- on to them and ride back to their col-
hand, let’s review two older, but still crease dramatically during the sum- onies. The varroa mites can actually
relevant, research papers. The typical
setup to monitor mite immigration
is to have colonies with virtually no
varroa mites at the beginning of the
observational period. This is usually
achieved through a very effective mi-
ticide treatment. To make sure no var-
roa reproduction occurs in the colony,
a continuous miticide treatment is
then applied.
This continuous treatment is for
research purposes only and should
never be used to control varroa mites.
Used on a routine basis, such a treat-
ment could result in contaminated
honey and wax. It is also detrimental
to the bees and could lead to the de-
velopment of resistant varroa mites.
Since initially the varroa popula-
tion was essentially zero, mites found
on the sticky board must have immi-
grated into those colonies. The sticky
boards were replaced every few days
during the active season. The incom- Fig. 1 Varroa mite immigration into one hive, designated FT94. The vertical axis gives
ing varroa were counted over the the average number of immigrating varroa mites (per day). The horizontal axis gives
time period. When finished, one can the time (in the number of mite counting trips). Here you can see the pattern of varroa
see how the number of immigrating mite immigration into the colony. Immigration is low in the spring, and it increases in
varroa fluctuated over the season. the summer. For colony FT94, when immigration reached the height of the summer
Summing up the varroa over time surge, almost 50 varroa mites were immigrating into the colony each day. As we will
gives the total number of mites that see, this high level of immigration does not always occur.

July 2018 785

 route” out of the collapsing host via
robbers. With the onset of winter this
escape route is shut down. Colonies
that have suffered too much from
their varroa populations perish along
with their mites. In the spring, other
colonies rob out the honey stores of
“mite free” dead colonies.
In addition, this summer varroa
immigration shown in the data below
would be for areas without substan-
tial problems with small hive beetles.
In the typical scenario with small hive
beetles, they are a secondary colony
invader. A colony becomes weaker
from excessive varroa. Before the
colony succumbs, small hive beetle
larvae engulf the hive with offensive
slime. This kind of colony destruc-
tion results in reduced or no robbing,
dooming the varroa on the bees of the
colony. So perhaps areas with very
high small hive beetle pressure may
select for lower equilibrium varroa
mite populations, preferably well un-
Fig. 2 The immigration of varroa into five colonies in the same apiary (FT). The total
immigration for this apiary is 7,077 varroa mites. The number of varroa mites immi-
der the threshold for treatment. How-
grating into individual colonies is at the lower right corner of Figure 2. The number of ever, these populations may interact
immigrating varroa mites ranged from a colony with 2,213 mites to another with 337 with each other in unexpected (non-
mites. For the first colony, immigration would be an important factor driving up the linear) ways.
colony’s varroa population in just one season. The second colony with only 337 immi- Now let’s look at my data for some
grating varroa mites is relatively low. (A time series is a technical term for observations actual varroa immigration numbers
made over time.) (and the variation in those numbers).
To obtain the immigration pattern,
smell when their host colony is crash- robbing colony and could lead to its every 2-3 days typically from May to
ing and will preferentially climb onto demise. Notice that with this chain re- October in 2002, I counted varroa on
foragers.3-5 action of colony deaths, the parasites my version of sticky boards, which I
Those immigrating mites fuel the (mites) do not die when the host (bee then cleaned, recoated with oil, and
parasite population growth in the colony) dies – because of this “escape then slid them back under the screen
floors of my top-bar hives. Varroa mite
counting was tedious and time con-
suming, so I chose to do it in my apiar-
ies where at least I could be with my
bees. (For all my varroa mite research,
I counted over 400,000 mites this way.)
Figure 1 shows a typical varroa
immigration pattern made from 46
counting trips (on colony FT94). I
highlighted some dates to help indi-
cate the foraging conditions. In the
beginning, the varroa immigration
was low, mostly less than 10 varroa
mites per day in the spring before
June 22. By mid-June our spring nec-
tar flow was over.
For this particular colony, the im-
migration fluctuates until July 21,
well into a time of little forage, when
colonies still had plenty of honey
stores. After July 21st, the varroa im-
migration increased dramatically
throughout the rest of the summer.
As autumn approached towards the
end of the graph, the varroa immigra-
Fig. 3 The immigration of varroa into three colonies in another apiary (HA). The total tion returned to single digit numbers.
immigration for this apiary is 3,026 varroa mites, somewhat less than at the other api- The total number of varroa mites im-
ary (FT). The number of varroa mites immigrating into individual colonies is relatively migrating into this colony was 2,213.
low too.

786 American Bee Journal


Varroa mites visible on my sticky boards.
The blue arrows point out adult females.
So for this colony, the mite population
went from zero to 2,213 all by immi-
gration. The total end-of-season var-
roa population would have been even
larger if the immigrating mites had
been able to reproduce.
Figure 2 shows colony FT94 along
with four other colonies in the same
apiary (FT). These colonies were of
similar strength and should have had
similar chances of finding other colo-
nies to rob (that is, other colonies in
the apiary or in their foraging range).
Notice that two of them (FT174 and
FT183) also had strong immigration
surges (like FT94). On the other hand,
the colony FT161 had a weaker surge
and FT10 had hardly any surge at all.
The important point here is the
variation in the varroa immigra-
tion for different colonies. Appar-
ently, some colonies (FT94, FT174 and
FT183) were more successful at rob-
bing (and acquiring mites) than other
colonies (FT10 which only acquired
337 mites). In other words, there was
considerable variation in the varroa
mite immigration among colonies–
even in the same apiary.
In contrast to these results with
large numbers of immigrating varroa
mites, what about mite immigration
at another apiary? During the same
time period at another apiary, I con-
ducted the same observational study
on three colonies. The second apiary
(HA) was out of the foraging range of
the first apiary (FT), so the sites were
independent of each other. Figure 3
shows the varroa immigration profiles
of the three colonies. The first colony
(HA78) had a weak varroa immigra-
tion increase during the summer and
the other two colonies had moderate
immigration increases. In all, the var-
roa immigration pressure was lower at
July 2018
this apiary (HA) compared to the first
apiary (FT).
These results demonstrate that the
amount of varroa immigration can
vary between different apiary loca-
tions, as well as colonies in the same
apiary. Intuitively this variation
makes sense because varroa immi-
gration depends on the presence and
strengths of colonies in the apiary and
those nearby. In addition, I have con-
ducted the same procedure in other
seasons and obtained virtually no
mite immigration. So the immigra-
tion can be high in some seasons and
low in other seasons.
As the busy summer season comes
on, keep a watch on colonies; be sure
to sample and monitor for varroa
mites. With immigration, the number
of the destructive pests can increase
surprisingly quickly. Remember, you
need to get the bees through the sum-
mer in good condition so they will be Beekeepers need to monitor for spikes
ready for winter. It is critical to reduce in varroa immigrating into a colony, be-
the varroa pressure in your colonies cause the mites are such effective vec-
in later summer, so the bees can raise tors of viruses. They preferentially invade
drone brood, but as the nectar flow ceas-
healthy brood that becomes your
es, the bees typically reduce drone rear-
winter bees.
ing and the varroa are forced to invade
worker cells.
Literature Cited
1
Sakoski F., N. Koeniger, and S. Fuchs Dr. Wyatt Mangum,
(1990). Seasonality of honey bee colony in- author of Top-Bar
vasion by Varroa jacobsoni Oud. Apidologie Hive Beekeeping:
21:547-550. Wisdom and Pleasure
2
Greatti M., N. Milani, and F. Nazzi (1992). Combined, is an inter-
Reinfestation of an acaricide-treated api- nationally known top-
ary by Varroa jacobsoni Oud. Experimental bar hive beekeeper,
& Applied Acarology 16:279-286. who started keeping
3
Cervo, R., Bruschini, C., Cappa, F., Mecon- bees at age 10. He switched all his colonies
celli, S., Pieraccini, G., Pradella, D., & to top-bar hives back in 1986, long before it
Turillazzi, S. (2014). High Varroa mite became popular. He is also an apicultural
abundance influences chemical profiles of historian, who blends his knowledge of
worker bees and mite–host preferences. beekeeping history with his study of honey
Journal of Experimental Biology, 217(17), bee behavior. email: wmangum@umw.edu.
2998-3001. www.TBHSbyWAM.com
4
Frey, E., & Rosenkranz, P. (2014). Autumn
invasion rates of Varroa destructor (Meso-
stigmata: Varroidae) into honey bee (Hyme-
noptera: Apidae) colonies and the resulting
increase in mite populations. Journal of eco-
nomic entomology, 107(2), 508-515.
5
DeGrandi-Hoffman, G., Ahumada, F., Zazu-
eta, V., Chambers, M., Hidalgo, G., & Wat-
kins deJong, E. (2016). Population growth
of Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae) in
honey bee colonies is affected by the num-
ber of foragers with mites. Experimental
and Applied Acarology, 69(1), 21-34.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Suzanne Sum-
ner for her comments on the manu-
script. The collection of the varroa
immigration data was supported by
a grant from the Sustainable Agricul-
ture Research and Education (SARE)
Program, and the Southern Regional
SARE Producer Grant Program.
787
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788 American Bee Journal

T
he response to varroa infesta- period indicating a balanced situ- all samples of these callow bees were
tion in North County Dublin ation. This tolerance at high mite negative to DWV.
has been to introduce a bee- drop levels has been recorded in the Most of the mite-drops were dead
keeping regime that allows honey past in tolerant feral colonies. Also, with 41% sustaining leg damage
bee hosts and parasites (mites and the impact of Deformed Wing Virus varying from a missing leg tip to mu-
the diseases they transmit) to find (DWV) today is very low. When colo- tilation with all eight legs missing,
their evolutionary path to tolerance. ny treatments were first discontinued leaving leg sockets. Irregular damage
This research, published online by there were purges of dead and dying to the idiosoma was low at 3%. Regu-
Bee World on 17th April 2018, de- wing-damaged bees in front of hives, lar damage (dimples) to the idiosoma
scribes a study to identify reasons particularly in late summer. During was common and compared to 2004
for the varroa tolerance that is being the study the observed wing damage archived samples had increased 3.4x
demonstrated. on emerging callow bees was very and 2.0x for mother and daughter
It has been known for a long time low (24 out of 7,552). Using RT-PCR mites respectively. This increase is in-
that feral colonies have developed
tolerance and that in some countries
ongoing bee breeding and special col-
ony selection is achieving tolerance.
In contrast, in North County Dublin
the only beekeeper-involvement has
been to remove the old queen into a
nucleus at swarming time, simulating
a swarm that is then kept in the area.
As such, it mimics the behaviour of
feral colonies. As seen in many coun-
tries, Ireland too experienced a large
increase in beginning beekeepers in
the last decade. In this region their
introduction into beekeeping was
facilitated through mentoring by ex-
perienced beekeepers, some of whom
also provided start-up colonies to be-
ginners. This policy decision was tak-
en by the local beekeeping association
to reduce the transmission of diseases
into the region and also to restrict the
introduction of non-native strains of
Apis mellifera.
Varroa mites were first discovered
in the region in 2003 in the author’s
apiary and by 2010 all treatments in
this apiary were discontinued. Today
most association members do not
treat their bees. The study of colonies
in the author’s apiary found:
Natural mite drop in colonies was
high, with similar levels at the be- North County Dublin, bounded by the Irish Sea to the east, counties Meath and Kildare
ginning and end of a twelve-month to the west and the river Liffey and the inner suburbs of Dublin City to the south.

July 2018 789

dicative of a large reduction in mite
fecundity over the period.
There was no indication that cen-
tral brood-nest temperature had ris-
en since the arrival of varroa mites.
Therefore, no evidence that increased
tolerance was assisted by a reduc-
tion in sealed cell duration due to a
general temperature rise. However,
increasingly in North County Dublin
drone cells are being observed further
up the brood comb, where they are
exposed to a higher local temperature
and a reduced brood-cell period. This,
combined with the preference of var-
roa mites for cooler cells would con-
tribute to reduced varroa virulence
and could indicate that selection is
taking place, facilitating the critical
role of drones in varroa tolerance.
Furthermore, the study questions the
use of open-mesh floors in temperate
climates as a varroa control measure.
To read the full paper, view the
original research published in Bee
World 95 (2) online on 17th April 2018.
John McMullan “Adaptation in hon-
ey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies exhib-
iting tolerance to Varroa destructor in
Ireland”. https://doi.org/10.1080/000
5772X.2018.1431000
John McMullan is
secretary of his local
beekeeping associa-
tion and keeps bees
in North County Dub-
lin and in an out-api-
ary in County Galway.
He is an engineer by
profession and re-
ceived a doctorate in zoology (parasitology)
from Trinity College Dublin in 2007. His re-
search area is diseases of the honey bee with
a particular interest in parasitic mites.

790 American Bee Journal

 Thousands of honey bee colonies arrive in the Fraser Valley’s blueberry fields
every spring, but beekeepers are worried this crop may be harming their bees.

M
y alarm only managed to participate in blueberry pollination in rogate these colonies for the five most
announce one jolting ring the future at a scale that could create prominent indicators of colony health
before I slapped it off. The a major pollination deficit. Too many we could think of: pollen quality,
clock read 3:45 am, and there was no commercial beekeepers have reported honey quality, amount of brood, pres-
time to waste. Bleary-eyed, I threw to- similar concerns to ignore, and it’s ence of diseases, and the size of the
gether a thermos of coffee for the road time for the issue to be investigated adult population. The previous day,
and grabbed the day bag I had packed with scientific rigor. We are even will- we had sampled and measured the
the night before, complete with sun- ing to get up at 3:45 am to do it. same things in forty colonies which
glasses, 2 bottles of water, granola Heather Higo and Marta Guarna, were established from the same pack-
bars, and a pillow for the long car the project managers, met us in the age source but spared of any agri-
ride ahead. My colleague, Bradford field to help with the long day of cultural pollination duties. As more
Vinson, arrived to pick me up at 4:00 work ahead. We were about to inter- Fraser Valley beekeepers got the call
am on the dot. I jumped in his pick-up
truck and we headed out to the Valley.
Bradford and I were bound for the
blueberry fields in Agassiz, a small
town in the Fraser Valley of British
Columbia, two hours east of Vancou-
ver. There, forty honey bee colonies
were waiting for us – all New Zea-
land packages established earlier in
the year – which had just been placed
in the blueberry plots to fulfill pollina-
tion contracts.
Blueberries are Canada’s biggest
fruit export, generating about $400
million in revenue annually. Most of
those berries are grown in BC and
rely on honey bee pollination for re-
liable fruit set. But over the last few
years, beekeepers have voiced grow-
ing concerns over the health of their
blueberry-pollinating colonies; in par-
ticular, an unusually high incidence
of European foulbrood (EFB) disease
and a yet-unidentified “snotbrood
disease,” which looks similar to EFB Our first day of field work in Agassiz, BC. The bees are clingy in the cool morning air
but comes back as negative in diag- as we assess the 40 colonies established from New Zealand packages, which are not
nostic lab tests. Some beekeepers have engaging in blueberry pollination this year. Left to right: Ryan Riley, Bradford Vinson,
even indicated that they will decline to and Heather Higo. Photo by Alison McAfee.

July 2018 791


The team gets started on field work just as dawn is beginning to break in beautiful
Agassiz. These 40 colonies are from the same New Zealand package source, but have
just been placed in the blueberry fields. Left to right: Karina Nielsen, Shal Chaudhary,
Heather Higo, Bradford Vinson, and myself. Photo by Marta Guarna.
to move their colonies into the fast- association with blueberry pollina-
approaching blueberry bloom, we tion in Michigan.1 He found that there
evaluated a further 120 hives with might be a link between the acidity
various genetic origins at four other of the pollen and EFB susceptibility;
field sites, creating one of the biggest that is, larvae on a diet of less acidic
experiments on bee health in blueber- pollens (like blueberry and cranberry,
ries to ever be conducted. pH 6.0-6.4) were more susceptible to
This isn’t the first time that bee- the disease than larvae on a diet with
keepers have questioned the impact more acidic pollens (like alfalfa, pH
that blueberry pollination has on 4.4). Interestingly, he found that the
their colonies. In the 1980s, Gordon same trend held true for more acidic
Wardell devoted an entire PhD thesis and less acidic pollen patty supple-
to the topic of European foulbrood’s ments. In his thesis, Wardell proposed
that the mechanism could be rooted in
the diet’s ability to change the acidity
of the larva’s gut, once ingested.
The logic is that Melissococcus plu-
tonius – the causative bacterial agent
of EFB – thrives in less acidic condi-
tions, so the less acidic diet may be
having a Goldilocks effect. It’s mak-
ing the larval gut environment perfect
for M. plutonius to multiply. Likewise,
the more acidic diet was making the
gut less appealing, offering a protec-
tive effect. Based on these findings,
Wardell developed a nutritional
supplement – MegaBee pollen pat-
ties – with a carefully adjusted pH
to help counteract the low acidity of
blueberry pollen. It’s still on the US
market today.
Wardell’s experiments were easily
the most detailed investigation into
the link between EFB and blueberries,
but they weren’t the last. Dean Polk,
a county agent at the New Jersey
Agricultural Experimental Station,
reported that similar blueberry-asso-
A sample of bee bread for agrochemi- ciated EFB and “snotbrood” concerns
cal analysis. From each colony, we take are being raised by beekeepers on the
thirty cells of the freshest packed pollen East Coast of the US. Polk raised this
we can find, spread across three differ- point at the Entomology Society of
ent frames. Photo by Marta Guarna. America conference in Denver, Colo-
792
rado last November and had con-
ducted a small-scale field experiment
to investigate the issue.2
In Polk’s study, the researchers
monitored brood area and pesticide
residues in commercial hives for the
blueberry and cranberry pollination
rounds in 2015, ’16, and ‘17. They
found that the colonies’ brood areas
decreased during the pollination pe-
riod; however, their ability to draw
further conclusions was limited, par-
tially because relatively few colonies
were sampled and partially because
there were no comparisons to colo-
nies from the same source, but which
didn’t participate in blueberry or
cranberry pollination. And that is a
very important comparison to make,
because otherwise skeptics can (rea-
sonably) argue that any decline in
colony health could be simply due
to other environmental factors like a
long bout of bad weather or an out-
break of EFB across all colonies – not
just those in blueberries.
So, while concerns over bee health
in blueberries have been voiced be-
fore, this is the first time it has been in-
vestigated at such a large scale. So far,
whether there is a significant difference
in disease incidence between blue-
berry pollinating and non-pollinating
colonies is unknown. That’s what we
hope to find out, and if so, what we
can do about it. To get a head-start on
addressing the latter, we are not only
measuring the health of colonies in
and out of blueberries, we are also test-
ing if Wardell’s MegaBee pollen pat-
ties can improve colony outcomes in a
large-scale, industrial setting, whether
the blueberry-pollinating colonies are
more EFB-afflicted or not. After all, pH
might not be the only benefit of using a
pollen supplement.
Blueberries are a notoriously diffi-
cult forage source for honey bees. The
opening of the bell-shaped flower is
usually too narrow for honey bees
to efficiently access the anthers (the
part of the flower that produces pol-
len). Kyle Bobiwash, a researcher at
Simon Fraser University, published
a paper in the Journal of Economic En-
tomology last year showing that when
three species of managed pollinators
(Apis mellifera, Bombus huntii, and B.
vosnesenskii) were placed in blueberry
fields, honey bees brought in the least
amount of blueberry pollen per load.3
B. huntii was the clear winner in terms
of collection efficiency, bringing in an
average of 3 times more blueberry
pollen grains per load than honey
bees. This is at least in part because
American Bee Journal
some Bombus species are able to uti-
lize “buzz” pollination, in which they
grab onto a blueberry bell and vibrate
their wing muscles to help release the
pollen grains, without having to rub
against the anthers.
If honey bee colonies retrieve
relatively little pollen from blueber-
ries despite being located in a sea of
bushes, then the relationship between
blueberry pollen pH, the larval gut
environment, and M. plutonius’s pref-
erences may not be as straightforward
as it seems. Bobiwash’s study showed
that blueberry-pollinating honey bees
were only bringing in about 15% blue-
berry pollen, relative to all the other
pollen sources. It could be that it still
causes enough of a pH difference to
increase susceptibility to EFB disease,
especially considering that many
blueberry-pollinating colonies move
to cranberries next, which are another
high-pH pollen source. However, it
could also simply be that the honey
bees become generally pollen-defi-
cient during their time in the high-
bush fields, since they (presumably)
need to travel farther than normal to
escape the blueberry desert and for-
age on better pollen sources.
Even though honey bees bring in
a lower per-capita load of blueberry
pollen, honey bees are still effective
blueberry pollinators. George Hoff-
man, from Oregon State University,
presented his work at the same Ento-
mology meeting as Polk4 with a talk
titled: “Whoops, I stepped in it: A
novel mechanism of honey bee (Apis
mellifera) pollination of blueberries.”
The title speaks for itself. In the talk,
he described how honey bees often
get pollen on their tarsi (feet) and
forelegs while foraging on blueber-
ries, which is enough to pollinate the
flowers. Think of it like taking a pinch
of pollen from flower to flower, whilst
hardly putting any in your pockets.
MegaBee pollen supplements could
have the benefit of not only protect-
ing larvae against EFB, but also mak-
ing up for what could be relatively
sparse foraging in the acres of blue-
berries. Of our 200 project colonies,
120 of them are for the sole purpose
of determining if the patty supple-
mentation is beneficial. By May 8th
we completed assessing all the proj-
ect colonies as they were rushed into
blueberries, and in about four weeks
we will assess them again, right be-
fore they move back out. In between,
any leftover patties will be carefully
removed, weighed, and replaced with
fresh ones.
July 2018
One of Julia Common’s bees lands on a clump of blueberry blossoms at the field site
in Delta, BC. Honey bees struggle to collect much pollen from blueberries, but are
still effective pollinators by their sheer numbers and propensity to step in pollen as
they poke their forelegs into the bell-shaped flowers. Photo by Bradford Vinson. Right:
Bumble bees, like this Bombus flavifrons, are efficient blueberry pollinators because
they can vibrate their wing muscles to release more pollen. Photo by Alison McAfee.
We hope that our 200-colony study in our project are happy to provide us
will help land concrete answers about with information on the timing, type,
what’s going on with the blueberries and quantity of agrochemical appli-
and the bees. We expect to have pre- cations, which will help us interpret
liminary data analyzed by the end of our results.
the summer, but some aspects (like All these factors – fungicide expo-
the agrochemical analysis of honey sure, pollen pH that’s too high, and an-
and pollen) could take much longer. ecdotes of serious increases of EFB and
We are particularly interested in those “snotbrood” incidence – are enough
results, though, because many people to make beekeepers (understandably)
– beekeepers and researchers alike – question putting their colonies in blue-
have suggested that fungicides might berries again. Julia Common, one of
be the underlying issue. It’s a viable the cofounders of Hives for Humanity
hypothesis, since honey bees do pick who I wrote about previously,7 is one
up fungicide residues while foraging such beekeeper. On top of her and her
on blueberry flowers, whether they daughter’s work creating and main-
retain the pollen or not; more and taining therapeutic apiaries in Van-
more fungicides (and their adjuvants) couver’s poverty-stricken Downtown
have been shown to be less benign Eastside, she also normally contracts
than once thought.5,6 colonies out for blueberry pollina-
However, we need to remember tion. However, her colonies suffered
not to blame the growers for spraying so badly from EFB and “snotbrood”
– they have legitimate needs for fun- last year that she didn’t want to send
gicides and other pesticides. For ex- them back to blueberries. “It’s hugely
ample, cool, wet springs (like we had upsetting to see your bees dying,”
in BC over the last couple of years) Julia said to a StarMetro reporter
can jump-start anthracnose, which is last April.8
a serious fungal fruit-rot disease. It’s In the same interview, she said
one of the most common blueberry that she considered “walking away
diseases in both Canada and the US. from agriculture.” However, Julia has
But the berries don’t show symptoms teamed up with our study and agreed
until it’s too late – during or after har- to place 50 of her colonies in blueberry
vest – when nothing can be done to pollination to help strengthen our ex-
save the crop. Growers can regularly periment. “I began thinking I actually
prune and avoid overhead irrigation, owe it to the bees to stay in agricul-
but the best way to prevent the dis- ture and figure out if there’s some
ease is to apply prophylactic fungi- way to try and see if we can mitigate
cides. Growers do what they need to all these negative factors that the bees
do, and in my experience, it’s not be- are facing.” And if Julia is willing to
cause they don’t care about the bees. send 50 colonies to the front line, I’m
They are simply looking out for their certainly willing to get up two hours
livelihood. In fact, growers involved before dawn and work them.
793
rEfErEnCEs:
1 Wardell GI. (1982). European foulbrood:
Association with Michigan blueberry pol-
lination, and control. Michigan State Uni-
versity. PhD dissertation.
2 Polk D and Schuler T. (2017). Measures
of honey bee health (Apis mellifera) dur-
ing blueberry and cranberry pollination in
New Jersey. Entomological Society of Ameri-
ca annual meeting. Conference abstract.
3 Bobiwash K, Uriel Y, and Elle E. (2017).
Pollen foraging differences among three
managed pollinators in the highbush
blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum). Journal
of economic entomology. 111(1): 26-32.
4 Hoffman GD, Lande C, and Rao S.
(2017). Whoops, I stepped in it: A novel
mechanism of honey bee (Apis mellifera)
pollination of blueberries. Entomological
Society of America annual meeting. Confer-
ence abstract.
5 Fine JD, Cox-Foster DL and Mullin CA.
(2017). An inert pesticide adjuvant syn-
ergizes viral pathogenicity and mortal-
ity in honey bee larvae. Scientific reports.
doi:10.1038/srep40499.
6 Mullin, C. A, Fine, J. D., Reynolds R. D.
and Frazier, M. T. (2016). Toxicological
risks of agrochemical spray adjuvants:
Organosilicone surfactants may not be
safe. Frontiers in public health. doi: 10.3389/
fpubh.2016.00092.
7 McAfee A. (2017). Hives for humanity:
Using bees to create social change in the
Downtown Eastside. American Bee Journal.
157(9).
8 Cruickshank A. (2018). B.C. beekeepers
worry blueberries are making their bees
sick. StarMetro Vancouver. [web] https://
www.thestar.com/vancouver/2018/04/28/
bc-beekeepers-worry-blueberries-are-
making-their-bees-sick.html.
Alison McAfee began
researching honey
bees in 2013 as a bio-
chemistry undergrad-
uate student at the
University of British
Columbia, where she
is currently pursuing a
PhD. She became en-
chanted with the little ladies and is pursuing
a degree in genome sciences and technol-
ogy, specializing in hygienic behavior and
its underlying mechanisms. In 2017, she re-
ceived the Canadian Association of Profes-
sional Apiculturists Student Merit Award – a
recognition that honors outstanding achieve-
ments in honey bee research and extension.
Email her: alison.mcafee@alumni.ubc.ca and
check out her blog: www.alisonmcafeeblogs.
wordpress.com

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794 American Bee Journal

July 2018 795
796 American Bee Journal
 The Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the World Wide
Fund for Nature Germany (WWF) are vocally promoting awareness of how
dramatically insects are dying. Classical musicians and real insects made music
onstage together for the first time. And not just any stage; the premiere of Insect
Concerto took place on May 21, 2018, in the Chamber Music Hall of the Berliner
Philharmonie in Germany.

R
ecent studies have shown that “The tones of the animals with their fIrst lIvE PErformanCE
populations of flying insects really quite high and calling sounds oCCurrED on may 21
in Germany have collapsed 75 but sometimes also groovy rhythms During the Berliner Philharmonie
percent – with dramatic consequenc- are a unique inspiration for us. This is open house on Monday, May 21,
es for us all. The insects’ quiet death what makes the piece completely dif- Gregor Mayrhofer and an ensemble
has prompted the WWF Germany ferent to any conventional concert,” from the Karajan Academy per-
and Karajan Academy of the Berliner reports Gregor Mayrhofer. formed the piece for the first time.
Philharmoniker to give them a loud
voice: Insect Concerto – the first con-
cert that sees insects and an orchestra
make music together.
The project’s musical head is Gregor
A. Mayrhofer, conductor scholarship
recipient of the Karajan Academy. For
the WWF Germany, the 30-year-old
composed a ten-minute concert from
the song of grasshoppers, cicadas, and
crickets with strings, wind players,
harps, and percussion instruments.
“The soloists in this piece are the
insects. We musicians wanted to
find a way to combine the sounds
of classical music with their special
song and rhythms,” says Gregor
Mayrhofer. The result is a special
composition that artistically stages
a musical dialogue between human-
kind and nature. The work features
classical instruments being played in
an unusual way: scratching, scrap-
ing, chirping, and even the flapping
of wings of mosquitoes or columns of One of the insect soloists decides to walk across the sheet music, suprising the con-
ants are heard. ductor and amusing the orchestra.

July 2018 797


The small but mighty insect performers add a unique sound to the performance. By
including live insects, the concert raised awareness of biodiversity loss.
The insects appeared in a special
terrarium.
You can listen to the composition
at www.insect-concerto.com, down-
loading the piece for a donation
amount of your choice. All proceeds
from the sale of the piece go to WWF
Germany projects for the preserva-
tion of insect diversity and promo-
tion of sustainable agriculture – a
basic prerequisite for the survival of
insects.
“We are very pleased to have this
artistic support for our work combat-
ing insects dying on such a scale,”
says Jörg-Andreas Krüger, Director of
Ecological Footprint at WWF Germa-
ny. “In the last 30 years, populations
of flying insects in Germany have
fallen by three quarters. The effects
on the ecosystem and our diet are
dramatic. Insects are right at the be-
ginning of the food chain in the form
of food for birds and pollinators for
plants; 90 percent of flowering plants
are pollinated by insects. In turn, ani-
mals and people live on these. In Ger-
many and the rest of Europe, WWF
is therefore working together with
farmers and political decision mak-
ers on measures to prevent the insects
dying,” explains Krüger.
The idea for Insect Concerto came
from Scholz & Friends Berlin, the
regular agency of the Berliner Phil-
harmonie. Oliver Handlos, Managing
Director Creative: “The Insect Con-
certo project is based on the idea of
writing a concert with insects for in-
sects. Humankind and animals enter
into a vocal dialogue with each other
with nature setting the tone. The joint
concert gives the creatures a big stage
798
to, as it were, make people sit up and
take notice of them. We are giving a
voice to those who will soon no lon-
ger have one.”
thE worlD wIDE funD for naturE
The WWF was founded in 1961 in
Switzerland and is today one of the
largest international conservation or-
ganizations for nature and the envi-
ronment. The organization operates
in over 100 countries and has around
5 million sponsors worldwide. Its
staff are currently implementing
1,300 projects all over the globe aimed
at protecting biodiversity.
thE karajan aCaDEmy of thE
BErlInEr PhIlharmonIkEr
Since it was founded in 1972 by
Herbert von Karajan, the orchestra
academy has served to prepare tal-
ented musicians for the demands of
professional orchestras. The scholar-
ship recipients go through a rigorous
selection procedure and are subse-
quently taught for two years by mem-
bers of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Around a third of the members of the
Berliner Philharmoniker are former
scholarship recipients of the academy.
Interview with Matthias Meissner
Advisor for Sustainable Agriculture
Policy at the WWF in Germany
Mr. Meissner, what is the so-called
insect decline?
As dramatic as it may sound, it does
appear that insects are in severe danger.
There have been studies with frightening
results. In 2017, scientists from Germa-
ny, the Netherlands, and Great Britain
together with insect experts from Krefeld
found that three quarters of insects’ bio-
mass has been lost since 1989. This rapid
decline in insects’ abundance also points
to a decline in species diversity.
Is that just a regional problem?
No, definitely not. There are several re-
ports about the decline from all over the
world. In China, especially in areas where
pesticides are used a lot, there aren’t
enough insects to pollinate the apple
trees. That’s why people have to pollinate
them artificially.
What could be possible reasons for
this dramatic development?
One of the reasons is the intensive ag-
riculture. It uses a lot of pesticides – and
these become a twofold problem. Insects
do not only die from insecticides directly.
They starve as well, as herbicides kill the
weeds, which are food for the insects.
Why do we need to save the insects?
What role do they play in our ecosys-
tem?
Well, they are food for other animals,
especially birds. Long story short: if you
have a decline of insects, you have an in-
terruption in the food chain, which is a
tremendous problem.
You’re saying it’s dangerous for
other animals …what about our spe-
cies?
This scenario wouldn’t end well for us
humans. Insects pollinate so many plants
we use, like vegetables, rapeseed and fruit
plants. Not to mention plants like the
cotton plant, which is essential for us to
make clothes. Eventually we don’t just
have a decline in insects but in the pro-
duction of plants as well, which means
that we will have great, great difficulty
producing sufficient food and clothing.
What is the WWF’s strategy to stop
the insect decline?
We are trying to change agriculture
in Europe and Germany by doing a lot
of lobbying work like talking to policy
makers. The reduction of pesticide use has
reached the European Parliament. But
one of the biggest challenges is to redis-
tribute the European agricultural subsi-
dies to farmers who care about nature and
environment.
And outside of the political debate?
Although giving policy makers a wake-
up call is crucial, we work at the front-
lines, too: together with farmers we de-
velop measures for their farms. And last
but not least, we also fight for protected
habitats in general. Areas which are ex-
American Bee Journal
clusively reserved for biodiversity are
very important for breeding and feeding.
Interview with
Professor Hannelore Hoch
Leibniz Institute for Evolution and
Biodiversity Science
Ms. Hoch, you specialize in the fas-
cinating variety of insect sounds.
And you have also advised the com-
position of the insect concerto.
Yes, for me, the idea behind the cricket
choir is a very enticing, a very charming
one. It shows the possibility of humans
and insects playing together. Especially
because playing music together actually
means listening to each other.
However, in nature we hear less and
less insect sounds in recent years.
Sadly, yes. One way to see the insect
decline or to actually feel the insect de-
cline is what we observe on the wind-
shields going on a motorway. I remember
when I was a kid and we drove on the mo-
torway, my father had to stop every half
hour to clean the windshield of the insects
that had gone smashed. This is no longer
observed.
What might be possible consequenc-
es if the insect decline continues?
Well without insects humans would be
hungry and naked as most of our food and
fabrics rely on the action of insects. Near-
ly all vegetables, all fruits, cotton - all is
the result of the pollination. Insects play
an enormous role in all kinds of so called
ecosystem services. And besides pollina-
tion: don’t forget that insects have a very
important role in the food webs! Insects
are eaten by a lot of other animals, very
importantly by birds, bats, hedgehogs,
frogs… And they also decompose dead
wood and dead animals!
Is there something everyone can do
to help save the insects?
There is actually a lot! First of all we
should allow some wild places in the cities
and in our private gardens. We shouldn’t
eradicate all wild herbs but let them grow
even if only in a small part of one’s gar-
den. It’s surprising how beautiful nature
draws a very unique picture to your gar-
den! And always consider that insects are
a million species and humans are only one.
How do insects make their music?
Many insects use their abdomen to tap
onto the ground, they´re really percus-
sionists. Other insects produce sound by
so called stridulation. That means rub-
bing of two hard parts against each other,
like in a violin for example.
July 2018
Gregor A. Mayrhofer, composer and conductor, found that incorporating insect sounds
forced the musicians to play their instruments in unusual ways.
The similarities to classical instru-
ments seem obvious.
Indeed, but there are completely differ-
ent types too. Insects can produce sound
and vibration by the use of an organ which
is called the tymbal. The tymbal is a spe-
cialized area in the basely part of the abdo-
men to which attaches a big muscle on the
inside. As it contracts, these ribs are being
pulled in consecutively and produce a row
of clicks. This is the principle Cicadas use
to produce this loud sounds which we all
know from the Mediterranean.
Interview with
Gregor A. Mayrhofer
Composer and Conductor
Mr. Mayrhofer you composed a mu-
sical piece for orchestra and insects.
How are your Soloists doing?
They are doing great! The 45 bush
crickets that will be performing with
our human musicians are currently back
home at the breeder’s place in Berlin Neu-
kölln – but will rejoin the ensemble for
the big premiere of the piece on the 21st
of May.
Why did you decide to write a piece
for this unusual combination of mu-
sicians?
Although our piece might appear fun-
ny at first, the situation of the insects is
quite severe! In some parts of Germany
three quarters of flying insect species have
already perished. If this goes on, it will
have terrible consequences. Insects are
a very important link in the food chain.
They pollinate the plants we eat and are
themselves food for many other animals.
Many of us think of them just as annoy-
ing creatures, like mosquitos or wasps,
but often we don’t realize how important
insects are!
So did you intend to change our per-
spective on insects?
When you´re living in a city, you for-
get sometimes, that we humans are part
of nature too. I think, it’s important not
to lose the link to the animal world. So
my idea was, to create a musical dialog
between the insects and the humans.
How do you compose a dialogue?
The “languages” of insects and clas-
sical musicians are quite different,
aren’t they?
First of all we listened carefully to
the infinite variety of their sounds and I
transcribed some of their rhythmic pat-
terns. Funnily, we found one cricket that
is always chirping in a funny irregular
rhythm, so he became our basic groove for
the whole piece. I tried to create a musi-
cal language, which links the noisy world
of the insect swarm with our traditional
instruments. Sometimes we had to find
some new ways to use our instruments.
So I told my musicians: Do what your vi-
olin teachers probably would never have
allowed you.
How did your musicians react?
For many of them it was quite a new
thing. They didn’t have to produce their
normal Tchaikovsky- or Mozart-like vio-
lin sound but had to explore the whole
variety of scratch and squeak noises with
our bows and even with the reeds of the
wind instruments.
799
That sounds like the most tricky
part?
Indeed it was. I was very lucky to have
such fabulous musicians who were able
to shift so quickly in between the two
sound worlds, in order to connect their
noisy “chant“ to our classical music.
Very often the notation doesn’t show the
exact sound, but gives them more a kind
of graphical explanation of what they
should do, for example: put the bow here
and then pull it up. Funnily some parts
of the score finally looked like some insect
colonies running over the paper, too.

But you also used new kinds of in-

struments, right?
Yes, there is for example the “Perga-
mentrassel”, a kind of rattle, that creates
very beautifully whispering rustle and
crackle sounds like the leafs around the
insects. A friend of mine, Sebastian Breit-
samer constructed it and as far as I know
it is the first time in music history, that
this completely new instrument is played
in a piece of music.

In the film about your piece we see

the cricket walking on your violin.
How come this insect is so trustful
with you? One would expect it to fly
away …
It was so funny, because we didn’t plan
this. During the interview he just always
started walking directly towards my Vio-
lin - apparently he likes being a musi-
cian…! But to be more realistic, I could
imagine, that he recognizes the wood of
the violin, which might remind him of
his natural habitat. Or smells the rosin,
what every violinist uses to create a good
friction in between bow and instrument,
so maybe he thought: “I should try this
stuff too in between my wing and leg,
maybe it will make my chirping sound
even more beautiful…“ In every case
he himself made another connection be-
tween the two worlds.

To see the YouTube video:

https://youtu.be/135F0X3pz-0

800 American Bee Journal

I
can be naïve at times, so when I
was asked to write an article about
“why women are better beekeep-
ers” I said sure, no problem. After all,
the hardest part of writing is finding
a topic. But in truth, the assignment
turned into a nightmare.
My first mistake was thinking it
would be fun. Once I began working
on it, though, I realized I didn’t actu-
ally believe that women were better
beekeepers, just different. So I de-
cided to send a survey to the readers
of my blog to see what they thought.
I changed the wording and simply
asked who were the better beekeep-
ers and why. I didn’t collect names
or emails, so the answers were com-
pletely anonymous.
Caught off guarD
Beekeepers seldom surprise me,
but I was totally derailed by their re-
plies. I was firmly chastised for even
asking the question. Many responses
Cathy Misko stopped on the highway
when returning from teaching about
bees to collect a smashed hive someone
else lost during transport.
July 2018
were along the lines of, “Why would
you even ask such a stupid ques-
tion?” or “Don’t you have anything
better to do?” Another wrote, “This
is the dumbest survey I have ever
seen. It’s just a way to cause friction
and controversy for no good reason.”
Whoa, I was just asking.
The responses made me wonder if
anyone remembered the best-selling
book, Men Are from Mars, Women Are
from Venus? That book, which sold 50
million copies and spent 121 weeks
on the best seller list, is about the dis-
tinct ways the sexes respond to stress
and stressful situations. Personally, I
believe the sexes respond in different
ways, but it appears that most bee-
keepers do not agree—at least not on
the surface.
Tucka Saville noted “We fit inside small
sEx makEs no DIffErEnCE spaces during removals.”
Of the approximately 500 responses
I received, I estimate that at least 90%
said there is absolutely no difference
between the abilities of male and fe-
male beekeepers. They said that bee-
keeping was more about experience,
willingness to learn, intelligence, and
compassion. One said, “I don’t think
gender affects beekeeper success, in-
stead each person’s personality and
essential nature are the big factors.”
Others balked at the word “bet-
ter.” One man asked, “Is the better And we look good in hats!
beekeeper the one with the healthiest
bees or the one that makes the most
honey?” Good point. A woman wrote, success. If I manage to overwinter my
“It all depends on how you measure one hive, I’m happy.”
801
rEaDIng BEtwEEn thE lInEs
Still, with a deadline looming, I
went back and re-read the responses.
I was looking for tell-tale remarks
that would give me some insight into
how we each evaluate other beekeep-
ers. It turns out that a lot of the an-
swers were followed by the very re-
vealing word “but.” For example, “I
don’t think sex matters, but men are
smarter.” Or this, “It’s not an appro-
priate question, but women are more
uniformly thoughtful.” And “I don’t
know any women beekeepers, but I
wish I did.”
If there was any overarching agree-
ment among all the people who elab-
orated, it was that men have the ad-
vantage of being physically stronger.
The physical ability of men was men-
tioned over and over, more than any
other single characteristic in the entire Vivi Wilkes helps her brother Sullivan install queens into splits.
survey. “Men are generally built better for heavy lifting.” Another explained,
“Men are better at moving supers and
cranking extractors; women are better
at record-keeping.” A third explained
it this way, “Men are stronger and can
lift heavy equipment more easily, but
women have to be more resourceful to
make up for it.”

It’s morE than just musClE

Men are also seen as being more
scientific, more expedient, and more
business oriented. A woman lament-
ed, “My husband slams through the
hive going by the UM book, nothing
else matters.” One man explained that
“Men are more dogmatic about how
things should be done, while women
are more open to new ideas.” Another
writer put it like this, “I don’t think
gender makes a difference, but since
there is no “man power” movement,
I choose men. After all, the drones
need someone to cover their backs.”
Women, on the other hand, were
almost universally seen as more car-
ing and more deliberate. “Women are
better suited to the finer points of bee
breeding,” said one. In characterizing
female beekeepers, respondents used
words such as intuitive, nurturing,
instinctive, detail-oriented, patient,
gentle, and observant. One man said,
“Unlike women, men can crush a few
bees without becoming emotionally
attached to each one.”

BusInEss anD art

Many respondents thought men
were more interested in the busi-
ness of bees, while women are more
Many people think women are more artistic, but I disagree. This hive by Rick Che- concerned with the welfare of bees.
verton honors the Tennessee Volunteers. The team mascot is a bluetick hound One women said, “My mentor, who
named Smokey. is male, relates to the bees as a busi-

802 American Bee Journal


Holly Kozlowski learning to do a sugar
roll to monitor for varroa.
ness while I think of them as a hobby.
He’s all about money in, honey out.
He wants productive bees, and I want
happy bees.”
A number of beekeepers mentioned
that women were more artistic when
it came to decorating bee hives, and
were more apt to paint their hives or
make them look homey in some way.
These comments surprised me be-
cause, from my perspective, the most
artistic hives I’ve seen were created
by men. That said, I’ve also noticed
that women tend to decorate with
paint while men decorate with wood.
Tanya Phillips grafting young larvae into cell bars to raise queens in Austin, Texas.
July 2018
thE BattlE of thE sExEs
I also found a raft of comments
that seemed to come out of nowhere.
Again, many of these pronounce-
ments were preceded by the vow that
there is absolutely no difference be-
tween males and females. No differ-
ence at all, but:
“Men are more interested in dove
tails than bee tales.”
“Women are afraid of bugs in
general.”
“Some guys have a macho self-
image to fill and will get themselves
stung 20 times and then try to pretend
it doesn’t hurt. Silly boys.”
“Women are not practical.”
“Men are too practical.”
“Women spend too much time in
the hive because they need to name
them all.”
“Men have more aggressive opin- Nikki Rasmussen attempts her first
ions on the right and wrong way to swarm retrieval. “Nightfall came on
do things and an obsession with get- much too quickly,” she remarked.
ting lots of honey.”
“My first hive is now four hives; his
first two hives are now dead.”
On the other hand, many respon-
dents mentioned the teamwork they
enjoyed with their partners. One
woman wrote, “My husband started
with the bees 30 years ago, book in
one hand, hive tool in the other. How-
ever, he gave up after a year. Now 30
years later, I am still the beekeeper, but
he is the builder.” Another respondent
said, “I wouldn’t do as well without
my wife. She sees things I would miss,
and she keeps good records.”
wE all IrrItatE EaCh othEr Janice Mercieri teaching the Lancaster,
Whereas we may be equally skilled NH cub scouts about the importance of
honey bees as pollinators. Each scout
and competent beekeepers, the sexes
had the chance to try on the bee suit.
do manage to irritate each other. An-
noyances come in all forms, but it’s
seems to be the little things that fre-
quently rub us the wrong way.
Although I hear both men and
women refer to bees as “girls,” I
agree with several respondents that
men excel at this irritating habit. One
woman went even further and said,
“I hate having to hear male beekeep-
ers make sex jokes about worker
bees, when they’re actually talking
about women.” On the other hand,
women make sex jokes about the
lazy and worthless drones who are
only interested in one thing. I have
to admit I’m guilty as charged on
that score.
What I found most interesting were
the sweeping generalizations aimed
at the opposite sex. Again, these re-
spondents usually began by disclaim-
ing any difference in beekeeping abil-
803
ity, but just had to mention their one
little complaint:
“Men talk endlessly about DIY,
gadgets, and sheds, while women
collect every possible bee-related
fashion accessory.”
“Men vacuum bees.”
“Women talk to bees.”
“Men kill bees because they’re
clumsy.”
“Women kill bees because every-
thing takes longer. A woman will
spend all afternoon cooing at a half-
dead bee and ignore the rest.”
“Men brandish hive tools like
weapons.”
“If you lend a woman a hive tool,
you will never see it again.”
“Women can’t keep a smoker lit.”
“My husband started the car on fire
with his smoker.”
Many of the comments came from
left field. These were the comments I
couldn’t make heads nor tails of and
which didn’t fit neatly into any cat-
egory:
“Women have better eyesight.”
“Sexy bee suits make happy bees.”
“I wish you would start a dating
site for beekeepers.”
“Men would rather deal with
70,000 angry women than just one.”
wide range within each gender and
extreme overlap across the genders.”
To me that is the reality—male and
female beekeepers are the same, but
different.
Enough of this nonsense. It’s now
time to leave this topic behind and get
back to tending our girls…um…bees.
Rusty Burlew has
studied agriculture,
honey bees, and envi-
ronmental science for
over 30 years. She is a
passionate advocate of
native bee conserva-
tion and founded the
Native Bee Conser-
vancy in Washington State. You can visit her
website at https://honeybeesuite.com or
email her at rusty@honeybeesuite.com. Karen Helmers checking her hive.

summary of thE sExEs

One writer summed up the sexes
like this, “The best comparison I can
think of is the two most scientifical-
ly-sound popular bee sites on the
Internet. Both are completely accu-
rate, highly informative, exquisitely
researched, and written by authors
with environmentalist tendencies.
But the one authored by a woman Margaret Wilkes checking on colonies with her father James Wilkes, who started the
treats pollinators of all types as gems Hive Tracks app used to keep colony records and track colony health.
to be treasured, while the one by a
man focuses heavily on identifying
the best practices in commercial bee-
keeping. It’s impossible to say which
is better.”
The original question was “Are
women better beekeepers?” and the
answer is simply, “They’re not.” To
wrap this up, I go back to a comment
Kirsten Traynor made when I took
this assignment: “While I think there
are definitely gender differences in
behavior and how males and females
handle challenges, there is also a

804 American Bee Journal

July 2018 805
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806 American Bee Journal

L
ong term beekeepers have most eyeball itself. That was my experience with your own touch, especially with
likely experienced stings any- last week after winding down from watery eyes. Irrigate the eye as much
where from head to toe. The fin- removing capped frames and check- as possible to dilute the venom.
gers, ankles and wrist areas seem most ing some ‘docile’ hives. As I walked My second response was to take
common to attract a ‘friendly lick’ away from the apiary a disgruntled the Prednisolone tablets to hopeful-
from the darlings of a hive. Unwar- bee whacked me right in the eyeball ly reduce any swelling to minimize
ranted stings are usually due to inap- itself faster than I could blink. eye damage. The good news is my
propriate protective wear, careless or The initial reaction was $%^&* this eyeball did not explode. The swell-
rough handling, typically a result of is serious! Getting the sting out fast ing reduced but the blood vessels in
applying accidental pressure (squash- was paramount. Naturally mild pan- the eye became very inflamed within
ing) the bee, so that she responds in ic along with thoughts like “will my minutes (see picture). Jelly like ‘flu-
self-defense from her rear end. eyeball swell and explode?” came to ids’ constantly oozed over the eye,
Everyone reacts differently to mind. “What if the retina swells and blurring my vision. With a mild head-
stings, ranging from little or mild re- detaches leaving me blind?” ache above the affected eye I was able
action to a large reaction of instant You need to act quickly and calmly to remove a swarm at another job an
swelling. Those who have a more se- to remove the sting (that feels like hour later.
rious reaction (anaphylaxis) should lemon juice on the surface of your eye Can you guess what I did wrong?
find another hobby. Near fatal ana- making it awkward to keep it open) ANY eye injury needs immediate
phylaxis that needs urgent medi- You must have a mirror close by, even medical attention as permanent in-
cal treatment may come too late one a vehicle rearview mirror is handy to jury can result even weeks later. The
day if you’re working in a remote pinpoint and remove the sting your- professional advice from my physi-
bee yard. Even when keeping bees self. Do it yourself; it is easier and saf- cian is: “Seek urgent medical atten-
in metro areas, it is wise to have your er as you are more aware and gentler tion” in the event of a sting on the eye
own allergic reaction covered with
medications on hand immediately
should you require it. It could be as
simple as an antihistamine.
I’m one of the lucky ones that have
copped dozens of stings within min-
utes and despite feeling a bit ‘woozy’
am able to keep working in the api-
ary. On the other hand my partner
Kay has a large reaction and can show
puffy eyes that almost close within
minutes from a single sting above
the upper body region. For this we
keep steroid tablets (Prednisolone) in
a cooler with an EpiPen. The EpiPen
is just an added security of our medi-
cal kit, needed more for others than
ourselves. Some medications require
a prescription, so talk to your primary
care physician if you have a medium
to large reaction.
Now here is a painful thought.
How would you react and what
would you do if a bee stung you on
the eyeball? No not the eye lid but the The author’s eye turned red and watery from the direct sting to the eyeball.

July 2018 807

surface. Mechanical, toxic and immu-
nological injury must all be consid-
ered. Prompt (careful) removal of the
sting and irrigation are essential. It is
likely topical, and possibly systemic,
medication will be required. Medica-
tion may include antibiotics to pre-
vent infection, antihistamines or cor-
ticosteroids to suppress the immune
system’s response to the venom.
So I wrote this article for your pro-
tection. Panic is the most dangerous
reaction in any medical emergency
but if you are ‘armed’ with the knowl-
edge your eyeball will NOT explode
and you seek “urgent medical atten-
tion” it goes a long way to calming
the situation. Just try to remove the
sting CAREFULLY with your finger,
not scratching the surface of the eye,
irrigate it and seek urgent medical at-
tention as soon as possible to reduce
complications and infection that can
result weeks later.

808 American Bee Journal

E
very spring, beginning beekeep-
ers dutifully pay their preregis-
tration fees, sleepily show up
at their area beekeeping schools and
sit through introductory bee classes,
sometimes for the entire day. These
beginners are women, people of col-
or, the millennials, and survivors from
The Great Recession. How is the in-
dustry addressing this diversity, and
what are the stumbling blocks? We
interviewed beekeepers across the US
to envision the future of beekeeping.
These are their thoughts in the second
of a three-part series.
DIvErsIty
Beekeepers are a microcosm of so-
ciety. Keeping bees connects people
from all different backgrounds in
ways they never dreamed, and ev-
eryone interviewed for this article
agreed that “more beekeepers are a
good thing. As the industry grows we
gain new perspectives and continu-
ally hear new ideas.”
However, one beekeeper was dis-
mayed by local associations that hold
meetings, and serve their members
the way it was done in 1960, “we are
not in third grade,” this person said.
“With the diversity of membership
comes a respect for the members, all
of the members; and an acknowledge-
ment that not all members believe in
an antiquated “Meeting Agenda;”
even if it is in the By Laws that were
written in 1960!”
The diversity of beekeepers is one
of the industry’s strengths. Through
Kentucky State Apiarist Tammy
Horn’s research she noted in 2012,
“historically, group demographics
that are not part of the status quo have
“found a way” to do well in beekeep-
ing in spite of the cultural constraints
that may have stymied their efforts
initially (for example the 19th cen-
tury bee conferences in which women
July 2018
were not allowed to attend meetings
in the same room as men).” Other
beekeepers continue to struggle with
the status quo but a different writer
noted, “as the current “old guard”
buzz off, the influx of new beekeepers
is already updating the beekeeping
landscape, in both cultural diversity
and geographic diversity.” Probably
40% or more of the members of our
state associations are women. Canada
has responded with commercial bee-
keeping courses geared to women.
Yet some barriers remain, including
the perception that one is not taken
seriously due to gender, or lack of aca-
demic degrees. One woman beekeep-
er exclaimed, “I write to researchers
and “gurus” of the bee world fairly
often and am dismayed by the dis-
missive responses I sometimes re-
ceive. The folks actually keeping bees
could offer some valuable feedback
on what is working. Instead, I am of-
ten told my experiences could only be
because of “xyz” pet theory the writer
happens to hold about my situation.”
With the increase of urban and sub-
urban beekeeping comes the potential
for more conflicts due to misinfor-
mation and fear of bees. Information
about beekeeping and honey is often
misconstrued in the media or the sen-
A grassy desert of a lawn is transformed into pollinator habitat by a backyard beekeeper.
sational stories get the attention (the
“if it bleeds, it leads” phenomenon).
Thus, the beekeepers expressed the
need for the bee industry to educate
non-beekeepers. “We need more “non-
beekeepers” aware of what is happen-
ing in our environment, one said. The
public does not understand the value
of pollinators, of locally grown food,
and especially local raw honey.”
Although beekeepers have always
been “America’s last cowboys,” the
people interviewed in this article are
beginning to articulate a desire for
more regulation. The honey producers
addressed the need for better regula-
tion and knowledge of imported hon-
ey with country of origin in the fore-
front, as well as a national definition
of honey in order to expand the under-
standing of honey to the consumer. As
beekeeping expands into backyards,
beekeepers exclaimed, “We need more
gardeners planting for all pollinators
and working to totally reduce the use
of glyphosate and the next generation
of pesticides.” It will take all of us to
improve bee health. Educating our
neighbors about pollinator forage is
key to providing diverse nutrition for
healthy bees, and this will be good for
all types of beekeepers (i.e. backyard
and commercial).
809

Beekeeping is popular in urban and sub-
urban areas.
Diversity in beekeeping is an op-
portunity to engage new people, mo-
tivated by a variety of factors. “The
diversification is thrilling to me as an
advocate for beekeeping,” one said.
“A traditional demographic in any
industry makes it easy to market to,
but slowly weakens the market as
the traditional demographic does the
same things over and over as they
become the accepted mores. With an
influx of new beekeepers comes new
minds unencumbered by these mo-
res, who are willing to see beekeep-
ing in a different light. They are the
ones who are most often interested in
understanding facts gleaned by moni-
toring solutions, and excited to share
what they’ve learned from them.
They question traditional beekeep-
ing methods because they are learn-
ing without bias, and in doing so, are
helping spread a new understanding
of honey bees and beekeeping.”
stumBlIng BloCks
Beekeepers at the state and local
level agreed, “Local laws against bees
are starting to become a huge problem.
Beekeeping needs to be protected so
individuals can manage bees to pol-
linate their cities and suburbs, and
enhance the quality of life in our com-
munities.”
Those beekeepers who provide ed-
ucation to children in schools, muse-
ums, etc. find the “public schools do
not have the slightest idea how to in-
corporate bee biology into the science
curriculum, for this insect that makes
possible fruits, nuts, vegetables, and
seeds for humans to consume.” Oth-
ers agreed and added, “With urban-
ization comes the need to increase
education of non-beekeepers, and the
continual need for plants to provide
“food” sources for honey bees.”
810
Education within the bee industry, on technology, state associations, and
beekeepers felt, was also constrain- opportunities available to the bee
ing the bee industry. “If you go to a industry.
national bee conference lately, you To continue this discussion, go to
will hear endlessly about how hob- Envisioning the Future on the Polli-
byist and backyard beekeepers are nator Stewardship Council Facebook
destroying the beekeeping industry, page and select FORUM from the
with mite bombs, by not treating, etc. menu on the left side of the page.
Knowing your mite counts, and hav-
ing a treatment plan is a part of good Contributors to this series: Anita
beekeeping, and that so many to this Deeley, Susan Rudnicki, Rich Wi-
day do not do this is very upsetting.” eske, Rich Morris, Dave Strickler,
A number of those interviewed Stuart Shim, Kathleen Ireland, Jen-
expressed concerns about ethics in nifer Brown, Jim Garrison, Terry
beekeeping. Ethics is a big stumbling Lieberman-Smith, Dan Winter
block especially for the new beekeep-
ers who begin beekeeping with the
“wrong mentor.” One suggestion
was to have an “Underwriters Lab”
for qualifying instructors, education,
product sales, and more for the bee-
keeping industry.
All those beekeepers interviewed
agreed, “Blaming the beekeeper for
the problems bees are having needs
to stop. We will only find a solution
when we stop spending so much time
blaming and arguing. Varroa is a prob-
lem, but there are also other problems,
and all should be treated equally.” Ev-
eryone responded beekeepers need
to seek a vision of beekeeping at the
local, state, and national levels. Ther
beekeeping industry needs to plan
how they educate beekeepers and
non-beekeepers, develop strategies
for legislative actions, and begin in-
teractions with other beekeepers with
a willingness to work together within
the bee industry.
The future of beekeeping is now. Al-
though federal bee labs have declined
from eight to three, affirmative action
laws have meant that more scientists
are female and they are leading ef-
forts to resolve hive management and
nutrition problems. Universities have
scholarships that have made it feasi-
ble for the next generation of educa-
tional leaders to be visible and have a
better chance of minority representa-
tion. High schools and home schools
are incorporating pollinator educa-
tion into their lesson plans through
4-H and other education outreach. Al-
though much work needs to be done
to educate the non-beekeeping public,
at no point in time have there been
so many entities collaborating to im-
prove the bee industry. State Pollina-
tor Protection Plans, while voluntary,
are happening and consumer demand
is now beginning to have economic
changes in the marketplace.
In Part Three of this series bee-
keepers will provide their thoughts
American Bee Journal
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July 2018 811

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812 American Bee Journal

C
“ raigslist? Are you crazy?” my
friend said. “You’re going out
to the Dismal Swamp, alone,
to look at some hives posted on
Craigslist? Well, keep your cellphone
handy and whatever you do don’t let
him take you to a second location!”
I’m a city girl and at the time was
a fairly new beekeeper. This was a
30 minute drive to the country, then
down a long dead end road. The pic-
tures of the cypress hives he made
were beautiful. Rustic and natural.
Langstroth and top bars. I parked
and took a deep breath. There was no
answer at the front door but I could
hear the sounds of power tools from
another building. So I walked farther
down the lane to the workshop. Was
this the second location?
I startled him, he terrified me. He
was heavily tattooed, pierced, had
a strange patch on his nose. And he
was surrounded by a pack of ....Bos- Junkyard cutout of bees in pallets.
ton Terriers? Very friendly Boston with the bees. The comb was old, very an opportunity to educate the home-
Terriers. He grunted a greeting. Then dark and massive and had probably owner on the value of honey bees.
he said, “Grab your beesuit, I’ll show been there for years. The entire hive The comb still needed to be removed,
you how to do a top bar inspection.” was multi-level on a horizontal plane. and the fascia repaired. Then all the
And so began my working relation- Probably 4 feet long and 2 feet wide. removal equipment had to be cleaned
ship with Jack, the local “Swarm- It was fascinating to see an entire of any remaining insecticide. A lot of
catcher”. hive of comb built side to side rather work for a tragic outcome.
He said he occasionally needed than up and down. The bee popula-
some help with cut outs and swarm tion was low so we suspected it had
retrievals. I viewed it as a learning op- recently swarmed. A generator pow-
portunity with a mentor. The first job ered the beevac and we removed as
was a hive removal from a junkyard many bees as we could. It was early
stack of pallets. Abandoned vehicles, spring but there was not much brood.
tires, trash, overgrown with weeds. The few rescued bees were relocated
Rumor was a body had been found to Jack’s three acre apiary.
in one of the abandoned trailers years Bees in the fascia of a garage was
ago. Scary place. The property owner our next call. The homeowner had
cleared a path to the pallets. Heavy sprayed the bees with insecticide.
equipment was required to lift off the There was little that could be done for
top layers of pallets to get to the layer the remaining bees, but it provided Very old horizontal comb in the pallets.

July 2018 813

River house removal of bees in column.
See the bees in the top of the scrollwork
in the second column from the left?
The pastor of a small neighborhood
church called to say he had bees in his
office. Thousands. They could get in
but couldn’t get out. It was fascinat-
ing to watch Jack follow the bees in
his mind from their entrance, through
the interior of the wall, to the point in
the office where they were entering,
then narrow down precisely where
the comb was being built. He opened
up the wall at exactly the right spot.
The comb was new. Probably a re-
cent swarm. The pastor stuck around
to watch the process. He had a gun
strapped to his waist, said it was a
rough part of town. While Jack was
cutting out the comb I was rubber
banding it into frames. The gun carry-
ing pastor was obsessed with brush-
ing bees off my butt. It was funny in
an unsettling way. We rescued a lot
of bees, cut out beautiful comb, left a
Trying to determine best approach for the bee rescue off a 20’ ladder
814
A close up of bees before the cut out was performed on the intricate scrollwork.
These types of jobs don’t permit a fear of heights. Jack had to work off a 20’ ladder,
standing on the rung for most of the day.
lot of honey for the congregation and
a big mess for the gun-toting, butt-
brushing pastor. I was ready to get
out of there.
Another cut out call took us to the
river house. This was a grand old
majestic home on the water with
bees at the top of a pillar. Waaaay up
there! The goal in removals or cut-
outs from residential structures is to
save the bees with as little damage as
possible to the property. Bees choose
fascinating places to build their
hives. In this case it was in intricate
scrollwork so a lot of thought and
planning went into where and how
to cut. Standing 20’ up on a ladder
for most of the day Jack was finally
able to remove most of the comb.
He would lower it down to me in a
bucket on a pulley and I would band
it into frames. By the end of the eight
hours it took for this job we were
both honey soaked and exhausted.
I asked Jack about his tattoos. They
are more than just body art. They tell
a story. It’s the story of his cancer
war. The word “Duke” is prominent
among flat-top buildings and the Uni-
versity chapel. Over all was a Trans-
former style robot and a spiky yellow
ball. The ball is symbolic of the che-
motherapy attacking the leukemia
cells. The helicopter was his mode
of transportation to the hospital. The
buildings are the campus where he
spent a year undergoing a bone mar-
row transplant. With his immune sys-
tem so severely compromised a fun-
gus attacked his face and left him with
a hole that required a prosthetic nose.
You learn a lot about a person when
you’re elbow deep in bees and honey.
We removed bees from mailboxes,
Removal from a different vantage point
American Bee Journal
 And now we’re in.
from laundry rooms, from trailer
wheel wells. And we probably re-
trieved a dozen swarms from trees.
The season was busy.
Our last, late season call took us
to another house on the river. There
were bees coming into a small up-
stairs bathroom through a fan vent.
Working in a tightly confined area,
in a beesuit in the heat, with stinging
insects and no lunch breaks can lead
to some nasty moods. Fortunately
there was comic relief. The bathroom
was painted yellow and there was a
framed child’s drawing on the wall
of a honey bee with the words “Bee
Happy!” And we finished the job
with a satisfied home owner. Long
day, another successful bee removal.
Comb inside the column of river house.
July 2018
The Swarmcatcher‘s story told in his tattoos.
I got two beautiful cypress hives
that summer. And I learned so much
about bees. And people. Bees can pick
awkward, creative and inconvenient
places when they swarm. They can
put themselves at risk. That’s when
they need to be relocated for their
own safety. People come with stories.
Sad stories, joyful stories, romantic
and heartbreaking, but everybody has
a story. Some of these stories are never
told. And some of these stories are On the wall where we removed bees from
told in colorful, expressive body art. the ceiling of a bathroom.
I’ve always heard you can find any-
thing on Craigslist. I found beautiful
Leslie Tiller is a backyard beekeeper from
hives, went to a second, third and coastal Virginia. Her beekeeping approach is
fourth location and experienced a fas- based on experience and respect for nature
cinating season of adventure with The and grounded in appreciation for the bees
Swarmcatcher. who give us so much and ask for so little.
My cypress hives made by the Swarmcatcher.
815
Beekeepers
the Generation
next
How Honey Bees Stay Cool
A colony chills down much like we do
Y
oung honey bees can easily overheat. The
larvae are very sensitive to temperature.
Adult bees work hard to protect the young,
regulating the hive temperature. Just like you might
enjoy stepping into an air conditioned room on a hot
summer day, the adults work together to keep the tem-
perature in a comfy zone. Scientists at Tufts University
recently showed that worker bees dissipate excessive
heat within a hive in a way that’s very similar to how
we cool ourselves through sweating.
A young bee develops from an egg to adult within a
cell, a cradle made of wax. For healthy development,
the youngsters must be maintained between 89.6 to 95
degrees Fahrenheit. The adults can withstand much
higher temperatures, comfortably surviving in heat up
to 122 degrees Fahrenheit.
The worker bees perform many duties, including
controlling the thermostat inside the hive. They can
turn up the heat on a cold day by vibrating their wing
muscles-much like us shivering. They cool down the
colony during the summer to ensure hive’s survival.
To protect the vulnerable brood when it’s hot, work-
ers fan the comb, collect water and spread out liquid
droplets in their mouthparts, which then evaporates
off, functioning like a swamp cooler to bring down
the temperature. When the heat stress is concentrated
in a specific location the bees absorb heat by pressing
themselves against the brood nest wall. This behavior
is called heat-shielding.
But what do the bees do with that extra heat they
absorb? The scientists at Tufts decided to find out.
To learn more about the behavior they studied seven
small colonies of 1,000 to 2,500 adult bees in observa-
816
tion hives. An eighth hive, empty of bees, was used
as comparative control. And then they turned on the
heat!
They hit the colony with a warm spotlight typically
used in the theater, blasting each colony for 15 min-
utes. To monitor the temperature inside each colony
they used internal probes that recorded the tempera-
ture. With the heat blasting the colony, the worker
bees pressed their bodies against the surfaces near the
brood. Like insect sponges, they absorbed the heat
with their bodies, which dropped the temperature in
the colony. After 15 minutes, a time brief enough to
prevent serious harm to the bees, the theater light was
turned off.
But what happened to all the heat those bees collected
in their bodies? The scientists tracked the heat move-
ment using thermal imaging. 10 minutes after the
theater light was switched off, the observation hives
with bees were back down to the normal temperature,
while the control colony was still at a whopping 104
degrees Fahrenheit.
The bees moved the absorbed heat by physically
removing themselves to cooler parts of the colony,
spreading out the heat.
The top row shows how the bees moved the heat from the
concentrated red spot throughout the hive, cooling it down . The
bottom row shows the control, where heat stayed dangerously high .
American Bee Journal
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INGREDIENTS:
2 cups (1 pint) heavy whipping cream
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup honey (clover honey works well) + 1 tablespoon for topping + a
little more for serving if desired
1/2 teaspoon Fleur de sel sea salt + more for serving if desired

DIRECTIONS:
Pour the whipping cream into the bowl of a stand mixer affixed with the whisk attachment. Start out
mixing on low speed, then slowly increase speed to high and mix until the whipping cream forms stiff peaks,
about 2 minutes. You can also use a bowl and a hand mixer, or a bowl and a whisk and mix by hand (but it’ll
probably take awhile unless you have superpowers!)
Using a spatula, gently fold the sweetened condensed milk, 1/4 cup honey, and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt into
the whipped cream. Continue stirring gently until completely combined. Pour into a freezer-safe container
with airtight lid. Drizzle the top with 1 tablespoon honey. Seal.
Freeze until solid, at least 6 hours.
Scoop into cups, bowls, or onto cones; drizzle individual servings with a little more honey and a bonus
pinch of sea salt if desired. Serve. Recipe from kitchentreaty.com

How much water can bees carry?

A bee weighs about 90 mg and typically sucks up about 25 mg of
water into her crop to transport back to the hive. She can carry up to
50 mg of water in a single trip, more than half her own body weight.

How do bees know to collect water?

The overheated nurse bees start begging desperately. On hot days
the colony grows thirsty, so a nurse bee walks up to another bee,
contacts her antennae with her own and begs for water by extending
her tongue between the mouthparts of the other bee.

July 2018 817

818 American Bee Journal
 “This is fascinating! What can we do
to get this sort of thing started in North Carolina?”
W
ith these prophetic words,
First Lady Dottie Martin in-
spired the North Carolina
Department of Transportation to be-
gin a roadside wildflower program in
1985. What began as 12 experimental
acres has grown to include plant-
ings all along interstate and primary
routes across the Tar Heel State.
With additional encouragement
from the Garden Club of North Caro-
lina, the North Carolina Wildflower
Program now encompasses 1,500
managed acres consisting of one-
third each: annuals, perennials, and
North Carolina native wildflowers.
One hundred percent of these wild-
flowers are grown from seed, not
plugs or root stock.
With cooperation from the NC De-
partment of Agriculture and Consum-
er Services (NCDA&CS), NC State
University researchers, and much
trial and error, today much more is
known about planting, managing
and maintaining wildflowers than
in the early years. Managing grasses
July 2018
and undesirable broadleaf plants is
the key to a successful program, and
these cooperative efforts help achieve
the desired results.
State Roadside Environmental En-
gineer Mr. David Harris says, “North
Carolina’s topography and location
in the mid-Atlantic region affords
the Department two annual planting
cycles. During July, autumn-bloom-
ing wildflowers like cosmos, zinnias
and sunflowers are seeded along the
roadsides. In October, spring and
summer-blooming wildflowers like
Toadflax, Corn Poppy, Rocket Lark-
spur, Lance-leaved Coreopsis, and
other varieties are sown. These seed
germinate and over-winter as ro-
settes. These rosettes begin flowering
the following spring.”
With 33 years of experience, road-
side employees know which flow-
ers bloom in sequence. By planning
specific combinations of flowers like
Red Poppy, California Poppy, and
Toadflax, they manage to increase the
span of blooms on individual sites.
By mostly planting ‘meadow-effect’
beds, the plantings appear to be natu-
ral and unplanned. In contrast ‘spe-
cial effect’ beds show the creativity
and ingenuity of the crews installing
the plantings.
North Carolina’s roadside wild-
flowers are a huge hit with travelers
who often send correspondence re-
marking about the wildflowers.
Research conducted under the di-
rection of Dr. Danesha Seth Carley,
NC State University, proved roadside
wildflowers support bees and other
pollinators. When compared to tra-
ditionally maintained rights of way,
wildflower beds have 6 times more
pollinator bees, 2.5 times more pol-
linator flies, 5 times more pollinator
butterflies, and 37 times more pollina-
tor wasps. Rights of way are increas-
ingly important as they serve to link
remnant farmlands. During migra-
tion between these remnant farms,
roadside wildflowers provide vital
pollen, nectar and habitat to sustain
the pollinators.
819

Revenue funding generated by
the purchase of personalized license
plates and donations, keeps the wild-
flower program a keystone to North
Carolina’s travel and tourism indus-
try. If you live in North Carolina,
please consider purchasing a person-
alized license plate to help fund the
North Carolina Wildflower Program.
Travel and tourism is the second
largest industry in our state realizing
an annual economic impact of over 24
billion dollars.
In recognition of NCDOT’s Wild-
flower Program and to promote the
820
advantages of wildflowers to bees
and other pollinator species, Bayer
CropScience has partnered with NC-
DOT to fund additional sunflower
plantings along the roadsides. Over
the past 3 years, in a private/public
partnership, Bayer CropScience has
contributed $350,000 for NCDOT
to plant sunflowers. Sunflowers are
seeded statewide beginning in mid-
April. Approximately 75 days later,
the sunflowers begin to flower. The
flowers will last, depending upon
available rain, for up to 3 weeks. After
the seeds are allowed to mature, NC-
DOT mows these beds – thus scatter-
ing the seed. Approximately seventy
days later, a second crop of sunflow-
ers begins to bloom. NCDOT realizes
two blooms per season from its sun-
flower plantings. Swarms of pollina-
tors take advantage of the sunflower
plantings.
During 2017 and 2018 America will
remember its 100 anniversary of in-
volvement in World War I. In addition
to numerous cultural activities around
the State, NCDOT planted over 200
acres of Flanders Poppy along its
roadsides. These plantings were in-
spired by the World War I poem - In
Flanders Fields by John McCrae.
On April 4, 2018, David Harris as-
sisted The Garden Club of North
Carolina in presenting the 2017 annu-
al awards to regional and best state-
wide wildflower and daylily beds.
Division 13, representing Rutherford,
Burke, McDowell, Buncombe, Madi-
son, Yancey and Mitchell Counties
received the Best Overall Wildflower
Program recognition for 2017. The
NCDOT Flickr account has imagery
of the winning division beds: https://
w w w. f l i c k r. c o m / p h o t o s / n c d o t /
sets/72157694529242634/
NCDOT Public Information pro-
duced a video featuring the winners.
It can be viewed at: https://www.you-
tube.com/watch?v=S1AQpk8wiHc
For more information about the
North Carolina Wildflower Pro-
gram visit: http://www.ncdot.gov/
doh/operations/dp_chief_eng/road
side/wildflowerbook/
American Bee Journal
 Notes
The Latest Bee Science Distilled
T
his spring, I received several
phone calls from beekeepers,
growers and pesticide applica-
tors regarding the risk posed to honey
bees from insect growth regulators
(abbreviated as “IGRs”). These chem-
icals are used as insecticides to control
insect pests, especially in agricultural
settings. And since many of them are
developed to be insect-specific (e.g.,
they target leaf-chewing caterpillars,
not bees), they can potentially mini-
mize risk to the friendly insects while
controlling the pests that cause crop
damage.
Due to the flurry of interest in this
topic that was crossing my desk,
I was pleased to see a new cutting-
edge publication on IGRs and bees.
So, for our eighth “Notes from the
Lab,” it’s time to delve into the risks
posed to honey bees from IGRs,
where we highlight “The effects of
the insect growth regulators me-
thoxyfenozide and pyriproxyfen
and the acaricide bifenazate on
honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae)
forager survival,” written by Adrian
Fisher and colleagues and published
in the Journal of Economic Entomol-
ogy [111:510-516 (2018)].
Before we get into their study, a
quick analogy. I’m sure everyone is
familiar with the hormone called tes-
tosterone. If you’ve lived through pu-
berty yourself, or you’ve seen junior
high school boys go through puberty,
you know that hormones can greatly
influence behavior and physique!
Well, think how testosterone influ-
ences adolescent males and multiply
that by 100. Now you’re starting to
July 2018
from the Lab:
understand how juvenile hormone
influences insects. If some insects are
exposed to too much juvenile hor-
mone, they get stuck between being
a larva and pupa and never complete
development. Or their eggs can be-
come sterile. Or they face several
other scenarios that can lead to a slow
or quick death. In other words, if you
spray juvenile hormone on some in-
sect pests, it could be a really effective
chemical that kills the bad guys!
OK, now for the study. The authors
observed that several chemicals were
being sprayed on California almonds
during bloom, including the IGRs
pyriproxyfen and methoxyfenozide
and the miticide bifenazate. None of
these chemicals were developed to
harm bees, which is why they were
being sprayed during bloom while the
bees were out pollinating the almonds.
So… were the chemicals safe for
bees? To answer this question, the
authors set up a nice assay that mim-
icked how bees would be exposed
to the chemicals during pollination.
They collected several forager bees,
put them in a wind tunnel (basically,
just a fancy box that you can blow air
through), and sprayed them with sev-
eral doses of the IGRs or the miticide:
1/2x, 1x, 2x, and 3x the recommended
dose that pesticide applicators would
use. Importantly, they found that for-
aging bees were about 5 times more
likely to die when exposed to each of
the chemicals compared to controls
(bees sprayed with water only).
Wow, 5 times more likely to die…
but I thought IGRs and miticides
weren’t supposed to hurt bees? Un-
by Scott McArt
fortunately, before this study, there
was actually very little known about
the effects of pyriproxyfen, methoxy-
fenozide and bifenazate on honey
bees.
Let’s take methoxyfenozide, for
example. Methoxyfenozide is known
to be quite effective at controlling
lepidopteran pests (caterpillars and
moths) by lowering their fertility and
interfering with development. Thus,
it’s a relatively popular pesticide
that’s sold under the trade name In-
trepid®. But is it safe for bees?
In methoxyfenozide’s Preliminary
Environmental Fate and Ecological
Risk Assessment (September 2016),
the US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) stated that while sub-
mitted field studies did not indicate
adverse effects on the brood, a re-
cently submitted lab study indicated
that risk to larvae exceeded the “level
of concern” under the 2014 Guid-
ance. The Assessment suggested that
follow-up studies would increase
EPA’s confidence with regard to risk
conclusions. Therefore, in its Interim
Registration Review Decision for me-
thoxyfenozide (March 2018), the EPA
stated that it was currently determin-
ing whether additional data were
needed.
Clearly, the results from Fisher
and colleagues warrant consider-
ation by the EPA. These are exactly
the type of data they’re looking for!
And similar data were requested for
pyriproxyfen and bifenazate. Thus,
Fisher and colleagues’ study is very
timely in terms of informing regula-
tory considerations that have the po-
821
Fig. 1. Experimental set up used to test the effects of pesticides on honey bee forager survival. First, a) 30-40 bees were loaded into
clean bioassay cages. Then, b) cages were placed in a wind tunnel and exposed to either a pesticide-free control or pesticide-laden
atomized liquid treatment in increasing concentrations. Once treated, the caged bees were transferred into c) plastic holding units
with feeders containing 50:50 sucrose solution ad libitum and placed in an incubator held at 34° C to measure worker mortality
every 24 h for 10 days.

tential to reduce pesticide risk to bees rEfErEnCE: Scott McArt, an

on a broad scale. Fisher II, A., C. Colman, C. Hoffmann, B. Assistant Professor
Fritz and J. Rangel. 2018. The effects of the of Pollinator Health,
Fantastic! So, who’s paying atten-
insect growth regulators methoxyfeno- helps run the Dyce
tion? Hopefully the EPA. But in ad- Lab for Honey Bee
zide and pyriproxyfen and the acaricide
dition, grower organizations such as bifenazate on honey bee (Hymenoptera: Studies at Cornell
the Almond Board of California could Apidae) forager survival. Journal of Eco- University in Ithaca,
greatly benefit from knowing about nomic Entomology 111: 510-516. New York. He is par-
the results of this work. After all, if ticularly interested
they don’t have healthy honey bees in scientific research that can inform man-
to pollinate their almonds, they don’t agement decisions by beekeepers, growers
and the public.
have almonds! Luckily, the Almond
Board is perhaps one of the most pro- Email: shm33@cornell.edu
active grower organizations in the Lab website: blogs.cornell.edu/mcartlab
country in terms of bee health (see, Pollinator Network: pollinator.cals.cornell.edu
for example: http://www.almonds. Facebook: facebook.com/dycelab
com/pollination#BeeBMPs).
Perhaps it’s time for additional
grower organizations to move beyond
adolescence, carefully consider their
hormones (such as IGRs), and de-
velop proactive pollinator BMPs that
utilize the latest cutting-edge science.
Until next time, bee well and do
good work,
Scott McArt

Fig. 2. Same as above, just a different view of the bioassay cages (a); the experimental flight tunnel (b); and the incubator set up
housing the bees after exposure (c).

822 American Bee Journal

 Symbionts in the Honey Bee Nest
By now, readers of this column
know that the honey bee colony is an
assemblage of individuals, organized
to a greater or lesser degree by genetic
kinship, yet behaviorally specialized
and integrated to optimize survival
and reproduction of the group. Nu-
merous times in this column we have
drawn metaphors between organs,
tissues, and behaviors in a metazoan
organism, such as ourselves, and the
corresponding behavioral castes in
a honey bee colony. We can, for in-
stance, see parallels in the decision-
making process between a human
brain deciding which car to buy and
a honey bee swarm deciding which
cavity to move into.
We have learned that new proper-
ties emerge out of the action of large
groups when individuals in the group
are free to make independent reac-
tions to local stimuli. In this manner,
for example, colony-level temperature
regulation is the sum action of each
individual bee shivering, clustering
more tightly, or clustering more loose-
ly in an attempt to find her “comfort
zone.” The sum of everyones’ comfort
zones adds up to the cluster surviving
winter.
Similarly, the choice of nest cavity,
the foraging for propolis, guarding
behavior, and the allocation of forag-
ing tasks to the oldest worker cohorts
correspond to colony-level immune
responses that limit the entry of nest
enemies. And the chaotic construc-
tion of new comb by nectar-engorged
bees results in the repeating parallel
beeswax combs that provide square
meters of texturally-rich substrate on
which the daily drama of brood rear-
ing, honey storage, and social interac-
tions can play out.
All of this comprises a complex
July 2018
biological entity we call the honey
bee superorganism, with biotic
components (the bees) and abiotic
(the cavity and beeswax combs),
a reproductively autonomous
Darwinian unit of selection,
environmentally stable, proven and
refined by natural selection to be
an effective vehicle for transmitting
down the generations the bundle of
genes we call Apis mellifera.
The nest of a highly social insect can
be so environmentally stable, both as
a structural shelter and an oasis of
optimum temperature and humid-
ity, that it has been called “a factory
in a fortress,1” the “factory” referring
to the production of a worker force
which in turn procures the energetic
resources to sustain the colony’s re-
production, and the “fortress” in the
case of the honey bee referring to the
hollow cavities that scout bees seek
out and appraise for their optimal
volumes, insulative properties, and
defensibility.
These hollows are usually in trees,
range from 30-60 liters in volume, and
have small entrances. Once bees oc-
cupy them the workers scrape away
the dead soft wood, coat the sound
wood and interior cavity walls with
a propolis envelop, then proceed to
build up to 3 m2 of parallel combs.2
This is the “skeleton,” if you will, of
the honey bee superorganism, the
substrate on which the bees through
behavioral means regulate tempera-
ture and humidity for optimum living
conditions. These cavities are then, by
direct behavioral extension, rendered
into ideal environments for insect
adult life and immature development.
Other species think so too. In honey
bees as with many other highly social
insects, there are tenants in the house
– whole bestiaries of organisms3 who
live in the same nest, benefiting from
the safe harborage, and making a
living off the bees or nest detritus.
Such close relationships between
different species are called symbioses,
and within that label the relationships
can range from parasitic (one species
benefits at the expense of the other),
to commensal (one benefits, the
other is not harmed), to mutualistic
(each benefits). Additionally, these
categories can be further categorized
as obligate (the relationship is exclusive
and necessary to at least one of the
parties) to facultative (one or both
can enter or leave the relationship as
opportunity permits).
It is helpful to never forget that
genes are inherently selfish and that
natural selection rewards, without
bias or impartiality, on the basis of
one criterion only – whatever works.
And “working” in this case means
whatever heritable characters pro-
mote the survival and transmittal of
the genes that code for them.
It’s easy to read cold-hearted self-
ishness in a parasite that takes the life
of its host, but even the most benign
of mutualists is playing by the same
rules – only in this case, cooperation
with its symbiotic partner has proven
to be the best strategy for transmit-
ting its genes. Once the calculus of
gene transmittal tips in a different
direction, the mutualist will be quick
to adapt – on purely selfish grounds.
So, when we talk about symbionts,
it’s good to remember that these cat-
egories are, in the words of Hughes et
al., “a continuum of costs and benefits
with parasitism at one end and mutu-
alism at the other.”4
Many authors have observed
that large social insect colonies are
823
like miniature ecosystems with
layers of species and multi-trophic
interactions similar to that observed
in human scale terrestrial ecosystems.
The same laws of ecology apply,
so that, for example, whether it’s a
social insect colony or a hedgerow
in England, the number of species
living in either ecosystem tends to
increase with increasing size and
age of the ecosystem. Large, long-
lived, and stable systems tend to
“collect” species over geologic time,
many of which species may enter
into symbiotic relationships with
others, thus further enlarging and
complicating the relationship webs.
In the ants and termites, we find
the largest number, diversity, and
complexity of nest symbionts – and
for these very reasons: large size,
long life, and stability. With virtually
infinite space, the subterranean nests
of ants and termites become diffuse
and vast, a feature that encourages the
evolution of secondary reproductives
and large populations. Their nests
include examples of sophisticated
animal architecture, such as heat
chimneys, that maintain favorable
microclimates for insect nurseries and
fungus gardens grown by the insects
for food – among the most remarkable
examples of symbiotic coevolution
known in biology. Their highly
diversified and numerous soldier
castes provide waves of defensive
protection, and in some species the
reproductive pair live their post-
dispersal lives protected in hardened
mud bunkers deep in the nest.
In the end, these contrived habitats
generate positive feedback loops that
further perpetuate large populations,
long colony life, and stability. These
same conditions render complex
social nests virtually predator free –
yet another positive reinforcement,
as life history theory predicts that
low predation pressures encourage
selection for long life.5 Is it any
wonder that opportunistic species
would evolve mechanisms to escape
detection, to invade, to colonize,
and to integrate into these attractive
“fortress factories?”
And, reflecting on a recurring
theme of these columns, yet again we
see how features of the honey bee su-
perorganism are recapitulated in the
evolution of free-living organisms
such as ourselves, so that by studying
them we learn about us. For just as the
honey bee superorganism has picked
up symbionts in its long natural histo-
ry, so too has our own lineage of Homo
824
sapiens. There are “nest invaders” in
our bodies, tenant species who run
the gamut of parasitic (hookworms)
to commensal (hair follicle mites)
to mutualist (an array of microbiota
essential to normal human physiol-
ogy).6 And, whether in the honey bee
superorganism or human organism,
these symbionts have themselves
shaped the evolution of their hosts.
We could not be what we are without
our symbionts.
The convergences between
organisms and superorganisms
are instructive for understanding
general principles of evolution, and
sometimes those convergences are
remarkable. But the two are not
equivalents, and when it comes to
symbionts their differences mean
that host/symbiont evolution follows
different paths. For starters, most
free-living organisms do not have a
“factory in a fortress” life style that
so effectively buffers stressors and
eradicates predatory pressure.
Hughes et al.4 hypothesize that in
highly social species, parasites tend to
become less virulent and mutualists
less cooperative over geologic time
compared to the same players in non-
social or primitively social species.
Parasites tame down for several
reasons, not least of which is the
favorable selection for long life
afforded by the factory in a fortress
life style. From the parasite’s point
of view, a short-lived host that could
die at any time from a number of
causes should be exploited rapidly,
but a long-lived host represents
an opportunity for slower, more
sustained exploitation – hence,
selection for low parasite virulence.
Second, in spite of the fact that
early epidemiologists predicted that
large colonies of densely populated,
highly-related individuals should be
a recipe for epidemics, the reverse has
proven true: colony-level selection
for group immunity – the topic of
my discussions in March and April
of 2017 – has effectively dampened
an escalating arms race between host
and parasite. The sum of these effects
is the prediction that large social
colonies accumulate large numbers of
diverse, low-virulence parasites.
Mutualists are predicted to become
less cooperative in large social
colonies owing to the ecological
principle that species accumulate
over time in stable habitats. Some
of these newcomers may enter
into symbiotic relationships, either
parasitic, commensal, or mutualistic,
with the earlier mutualists. Following
their own selfish interests, players in
the new arrangement may revise life
history strategies to be less beneficial
to the host.
Hughes et al.4 give an interesting
example of a kind of symbiotic “arms
race” that can occur in the fungus-
growing ants and termites. These
large and successful social insect
groups are widely separated in their
phylogenetic history, yet each has ad-
opted a sophisticated and literal form
of animal agriculture – the culturing
of elaborate fungal gardens deep in-
side their nest for food – an example
of convergent evolution, when widely
unrelated species arrive at a similar
solution to a similar problem.
The habit of fungus farming is tens
of millions of years old, rendered sta-
ble by the hosts’ evolved abilities to
protect their fungal mutualists from
disease pathogens. But these safety
nets have nevertheless not prevented
the accumulation of opportunistic
fungal invaders that attack the mutu-
alist fungi.
In response, certain ant species have
evolved new mutualisms with bacte-
ria that attack the fungal pathogen,
growing the bacteria on their bodies
in fact. Not to be outdone, the bacte-
ria themselves are attacked by yet an-
other nest invader, a yeast, rendering
the bacteria less effective. I can’t help
but think of the poem by Augustus De
Morgan:7
Big fleas have little fleas
upon their backs to bite ‘em,
And little fleas have lesser
fleas, and so, ad infinitum.
And the great fleas, themselves, in
turn, have greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater
still, and greater still, and so on.
The picture painted by Hughes
et al.4 is a time vector of increasing
species number and diversity inside
the complex social insect nest. They
become “biodiversity hotspots”
within their larger landscapes –
little enclaves of environmental
stability, independent to some degree
of ambient conditions. They are
predicted to “produce highly diverse
communities of relatively avirulent
pathogens and moderately benign
mutualists.”
These superlatives certainly apply
to the over-achieving ants and
termites, but things are a little more
understated with the bees which, as
a group, are conspicuous for their
American Bee Journal
relative scarcity of nest symbionts. recovered from dead natural colonies of the disease. This is a weak stab
Kistner3 offers some explanations has extremely low levels of disease at mutualist status, but it may be
for this: the comparatively small bacteria or spores.9,10 A USDA scientist, as good as it gets with honey bee
populations of bee colonies (tens of E.F. Phillips (cited in 10), pointed out macrosymbionts.
thousands) compared to ants and in 1907 that wax moth larvae do not Moving up the virulence scale in
termites (tens of millions); a higher eat scales of American foulbrood, Fig. 1 we next encounter the obligate
spatial density of termite colonies but even if they eat the surrounding commensal, the bee louse. These
(mounds “as far as the eye can see”) comb so that scales drop to the floor are flightless flies found exclusively
compared to honey bee colonies where they are subsequently covered in honey bee nests.12 They practice
spaced at a scale of square kilometers;8 up by debris, that that would have a chemical mimicry, taking on the
the small volume of bee nests with suppressing effect on the proliferation cuticular odor of the bees to avoid
propolis envelopes, and small highly-
defensible entrances; and the habit of
bees for removing refuse and dead
bees from the nest whereas ants and
termites often incorporate debris into
the structure of the nest.
Nevertheless, I think that even
the few honey bee nest symbionts
that exist give evidence of the kinds
of evolutionary dynamics noted by
Hughes et al. for nest symbionts in
general. In Figure 1, I have listed the
macrobiotic nest symbionts of the
western honey bee, most of whom are
familiar to beekeepers everywhere,
and ranked them by their virulence.
Starting at the bottom we have the
natural nest commensal / mutualist,
the greater wax moth. Even though
wax moths are listed as pests in ev-
ery beginning beekeeping book, their
role is more nuanced than that, to the
point that I suggest them as the only
honey bee nest symbiont that per-
forms mutualistic benefit for its host.
Granted, they are first and foremost
opportunistic scavengers. They are
almost exclusively associated with
honey bees, but they are occasion-
ally found in bumble bee nests. The
adults lay their eggs in cryptic cracks
and crevices in the nest whereupon
the larvae hatch and tunnel through
combs, eating pollen and other pro-
tein refuse. It is only when a colony
is weakened and its adult population
plunges from an unrelated stressor
– usually queen loss – that the moth
larvae, now unrestrained, explode
and cause complete destruction of the
combs and their contents.
It is in this context that most
beekeepers encounter moths, and
justifiably associating them with
dead colonies and destroyed combs,
Figure 1. A summary of the macrobiotic nest symbionts of the western honey bee,
relegate them to pest status. But at a Apis mellifera, ranked in order of virulence expressed toward their host. The arrow
population scale this same behavior indicates increasing virulence (red) or greater benignity (green). Theory predicts that
constitutes an “ecosystem service” large social insect nests will select for parasites that are less virulent and mutualists
for the next swarm occupant of a that are less cooperative. This seems to hold in nature. In fact, highly virulent, colony-
hollow cavity following the death of destroying epidemics are unknown in the social insects – with the one exception of
the previous colony. Feral colonies the managed honey bee. But this case is exceptional because of numerous non-nat-
in general have lower levels of ural man-assisted introductions of alien parasites, most notably the parasitic varroa
pathogens compared to managed mite for whom the natural host is the Asian honey bee, Apis cerana. Remove these
colonies9,10 (but see Thompson et exceptions, and the nest symbionts of Apis mellifera seem to comply with the general
al.11), and the frass of wax moths pattern. Note the symbionts are not drawn to scale.

July 2018 825

detection. 13 They are particularly
attracted to queens, with infestations
of over 100 per queen reported in
the literature.12 Afinity for the queen
is probably adaptive, given that she
is the longest lived individual in the
colony and receives frequent attention
and feeding from her attendants. The
bee louse is associated with little to no
measurable fitness costs to the host
colony, but as the louse directly steals
food from the mouths of queens and
workers, it cannot be considered a
mutualist. Interestingly, from a purely
economic viewpoint, the bee louse
has been considered a beekeeping
pest because the tunneling activity
of its larvae can spoil the pristine
appearance of comb honey.
Next we encounter the closely
related microscopic mites, Acarapis
dorsalis and A. externus. These mites
are natural obligate parasites of honey
bee adults. In a supreme expression of
niche specialization, A. dorsalis spends
its time on the pronounced dorsal
groove of the adult bee, whereas A.
externus occupies the neck area. Both
feed on bee blood, presumably by
piercing soft inter-segmental tissues.
The literature appears nearly silent
on any measurable fitness costs to bee
colonies from these parasites.
This is not the case for their sister
species, the tracheal mite, Acarapis
woodi, next up on our virulence scale.
Not content to occupy the exterior
folds of its host’s body, A. woodi
made the leap to entering the internal
tracheal (breathing tube) network
of its host where, in that protected
environment, the mite would pierce
the tracheal wall, drink its host’s
blood, and lay eggs and produce a
brood of young. Infested tracheae
are heavily scarred, and infested
individuals rapidly perished.
Authorities have debated for de-
cades whether A. woodi was respon-
sible for a bee epidemic in early 20th
C England called Isle of Wight dis-
ease. Regardless, between the years
1984-1990 there was a verifiable out-
break of A. woodi in North America.
Colonies would degenerate into weak
disorganized clusters with extremely
high rates of overwintering loss. State
regulators responded in some cases
with widescale apiary depopulating
programs that some argued, during
and since, were more damaging than
the parasite itself.
Morse and Eickwort14 put forward
the tantalzing hypothesis that A.
woodi is in fact a very new species,
having recently diverged from one
826
of its external cousins, A. dorsalis
or A. externus, going so far as to pin
down a date and place: “near the
end of the last century [the 19th] in
the United Kingdom.” Evolutionary
biologists typically do not expect to
work with such recent time scales, but
the authors’ premise is sound that it
is a simple innovation to move from
living externally on the thorax of one’s
host to entering the tracheae whose
largest branch exits via a spiracle on
the side of the thorax. It is easy to
imagine how the safe harborage and
easy access to food afforded by such
a move would be highly adaptive, at
least in the short term.
Next we encounter a nest
symbiont with a more recent and
dramatic apicultural history –
Aethina tumida, the small hive beetle
(SHB). First detected in the U.S. in
Charleston, SC in 1996,15 the SHB is
a sap beetle, member of the beetle
family Nitidulidae known for their
strong affinity for fermenting plant
products. Subsequent genetic analysis
confirmed its origin from southern
Africa, 16 where it presumably
speciated as a dietary specialist on the
fermenting products and nest detritus
of honey bee nests. Adult beetles
enter bee nests and deposit their eggs
cryptically, in a similar fashion to
wax moths. Beetle larvae then spread
across combs, eating pollen, honey,
and even brood.
In uncontrolled infestations the
action of beetles causes unchecked
honey fermentation and formation
of a slime on the surface of combs.
Unlike wax moths that limit their
depredations to fatally weak colonies,
SHBs are able to contribute directly to
colony dwindle and decline. There
is evidence that this divergence
event is young, perhaps even on a
scale similar to the recent divergence
hypothesized above for A. woodi.
This is because A. tumida is not (yet)
an obligate dietary specialist on A.
mellifera nest contents. The beetles
clearly prefer bee nest products, but
they will opportunistically deposit
eggs and complete a life cycle on
exposed fruit.17,18
At the apex of Fig. 1 we land on
the most persistant and damaging
nest symbiont of all – the non-natural
obligate parasite Varroa destructor.
Having been introduced onto the
western honey bee, A. mellifera, from
its natural host the eastern honey bee
A. cerana in the 1960s, Varroa found
in modern commercial beekeeping
the perfect storm – a populous new
host lacking virtually any natural
resistance to its depredations. It is
the great exception to the expectation
for low virulence in highly social
colonies, owing to the over-riding fact
that it is an unevolved, and therefore,
non-natural relationship.
The case histories of A. woodi
and A. tumida are instructive for
understanding how evolutionary
history can explain modern day
observations on parasite virulence.
In both cases the North American
honey bee populations evolved
resistance rapidly to these new pests.
It is generally agreed that depredation
pressure from SHB is less now than it
was even ten years ago, and in the
case of tracheal mites it is downright
difficult to find a positive sample for
teaching purposes. These outcomes
are a direct result of the natural
relationship between parasite and its
host. I would argue that A. woodi and
A. tumida do, in fact, represent recent
speciation events, in scenarios that
look like this:
From the African parental stock of
A. mellifera (lineage A for readers of
my May column), lineage M diverged
about 300,000 years ago and entered
northern Europe from the Strait of
Gibraltar after which during a suc-
cession of glaciation events the mod-
ern subspecies A. m. mellifera evolved
into its modern form, carrying with
it the most recent common ancestor
of the parasitic mite lineage Acara-
pis. Long thereafter, perhaps even in
historic times, perhaps – dare I be so
precise? – between the 17th C human-
assisted introduction of M lineage A.
mellifera into North America and the
early 20th C , Acarapis radiated into its
three modern species, one of which,
A. woodi, was capable of expressing
high virulence. But owing to its inher-
ited obligation to life on A. mellifera, it
was profoundly maladaptive for the
incipient A. woodi to continue such
unchecked reproductive depredation
on its host. In both the U.K. and North
America, the rapid decline of their re-
spective tracheal mite epidemics can
be explained as the result of extremely
strong selection pressure on A. woodi
for reduced virulence.
A similar situation is playing out
with SHBs, only this time the gulf
in shared evolutionary history is
wider, going back to the ancestral
African A lineage. Sometime after
the M diaspora, an ancestral Aethina
species in Africa began exploiting the
fermenting plant products it found in
natural nests of A-lineage A. mellifera.
American Bee Journal
In what was no doubt a kind of arms
race, the two species responded to one
another until a form of commensalism
evolved between them, explaining
why to this day African honey bee
subspecies resist SHB much more
easily than the M-derived subspecies
in North America.19
You might say in both cases that
North American A. mellifera had
about 300,000 years of “evolutionary
catch-up” to play. I’d say they did
a pretty good job. But in the case of
varroa, the catch-up time – the time
of divergence of A. mellifera from
the rest of its Asian cousins (Asia
being the home of the genus Varroa)
– is more like 15-40 million years.20-22
Given that we’re starting to see
evidence of naturalization in the A.
mellifera / Varroa relationship, I’d say
the western honey bee is still doing a
pretty good job.
rEfErEnCEs
1. Oster GF, Wilson EO. Caste and ecology
in the social insects. Princeton University
Press; 1979.
2. Seeley T, Morse R. The nest of the honey
bee (Apis mellifera L.). Insectes Sociaux.
1976;23(4):495-512.
3. Kistner DH. The social insects’ bestiary.
Social insects. 1982;3:1-244.
4. Hughes DP, Pierce NE, Boomsma JJ.
Social insect symbionts: evolution in
homeostatic fortresses. Trends in Ecology
& Evolution. 2008;23(12):672-677.
5. Keller L, Genoud M. Extraordinary
lifespans in ants: a test of evolutionary
theories of ageing. Nature. 1997;389
(6654):958.
July 2018
6. Dethlefsen L, McFall-Ngai M, Relman
DA. An ecological and evolutionary
perspective on human–microbe
mutualism and disease. Nature.
2007;449(7164):811.
7. De Morgan A. A Budget of Paradoxes
vol. II (2nd ed, The Open Court Publishing
Co, Chicago/London, 1915). 1915.
8. Seeley TD. Honeybee ecology: a study of
adapatation in social life. Monographs in
behavior and ecology (USA). 1985.
9. Bailey L. Wild honeybees and disease.
Bee world. 1958;39(4):92-95.
10. Gilliam M, Taber S. Diseases, pests, and
normal microflora of honeybees, Apis
mellifera, from feral colonies. Journal of
Invertebrate Pathology. 1991;58(2):286-289.
11. Thompson CE, Biesmeijer JC, Allnutt
TR, Pietravalle S, Budge GE. Parasite
pressures on feral honey bees (Apis
mellifera sp.). PloS one. 2014;9(8):e105164.
12. Grimaldi D. Underwood BA.
Megabraula, a new genus for two
new species of Braulidae (Diptera),
and a discussion of braulid evolution.
Systematic entomology. 1986;11(4):427-438.
13. Martin SJ, Bayfield J. Is the bee louse
Braula coeca (Diptera) using chemical
camouflage to survive within honeybee
colonies? Chemoecology. 2014;24(4):165-169.
14. Morse R, Eickwort G. Acarapis woodi,
a recently evolved species? Paper
presented at: Recent research on bee
pathology. International symposium
of the International Federation of
Beekeepers Associations, Gent (Belgium),
5-7 Sep 19901991.
15. Hood WM. The small hive beetle,
Aethina tumida: a review. Bee World.
2004;85(3):51-59.
16. Evans JD, Pettis JS, Shimanuki H. Mito-
chondrial DNA relationships in an emer-
gent pest of honey bees: Aethina tumida
(Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) from the Unit-
ed States and Africa. Annals of the Entomo-
logical Society of America. 2000;93(3):415-
420.
17. Ellis Jr JD, Neumann P, Hepburn R,
Elzen PJ. Longevity and reproductive
success of Aethina tumida (Coleoptera:
Nitidulidae) fed different natural
diets. Journal of Economic Entomology.
2002;95(5):902-907.
18. Buchholz S, Schäfer MO, Spiewok S, et
al. Alternative food sources of Aethina
tumida (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae). Journal
of apicultural research. 2008;47(3):202-209.
19. Ellis Jr JD, Hepburn R, Delaplane KS,
Neumann P, Elzen PJ. The effects of
adult small hive beetles, Aethina tumida
(Coleoptera: Nitidulidae), on nests and
flight activity of Cape and European
honey bees (Apis mellifera). Apidologie.
2003;34(4):399-408.
20. Culliney TW. Origin and evolutionary
history of the honeybees Apis. Bee World.
1983;64(1):29-38.
21. Engel MS. Fossil honey bees
and evolution in the genus Apis
(Hymenoptera: Apidae). Apidologie.
1998;29(3):265-281.
22. Cardinal S, Danforth BN. The
antiquity and evolutionary history
of social behavior in bees. PLOS one.
2011;6(6):e21086.
Keith S. Delaplane
is a Professor and
Walter B. Hill Fellow
at the University of
Georgia. He grew
up on a small farm
in Indiana. and is an
excellent artist, who
illustrates his own
articles.
827

MarketPlace
FOR SALE
1000 hives 10-frame two-story on 4-way pallets,
new outfit & queens, excellent condition, available
in May in California. (530) 671-6188.
FOR SALE: Singles and 1 1/2 story hives for sale.
1000 available. Call for Pricing, Jon@(208) 412-
1092 or Golden @ (208) 250-8420. www.golden
beeinc.com
Five frame NUCS for sale mid-April through Fall.
Price dependent on season and quantity of order.
Minimum order of 24 NUCS. No frame trade,
only return of our boxes. Call early to secure your
order. FOB Lewistown PA or Dade City, FL.
Please call W. Fisher Bee Farm for more infor-
mation. 1-800-736-6205. Ask for Aaron.
Cowen Heated top and bottom bar cleaner with
extra SS tub and hot water supply unit purchased
in 2009 less than 40 hours, asking $6000.00. Item
available for pickup in Lewistown, PA or Dade
City, Florida. For more information call 800-736-
6205.
Singles for sale, delivery possible on orders over
200. For pricing and availability call: 800-736-6205.
FIVE FRAME NUCS AND TEN
FRAME HIVES FOR SALE. CALL
JEROME @ (352) 406-4938 OR EMAIL:
TRAILHEADRANCH@GMAIL.COM
2000 10-frame hives, new queens, on 4-way pal-
lets, very good equipment in FL. Now or after al-
monds in CA. Limited numbers of 4 and 5-frame
deep nucs. Also available in FL starting in March.
Call NOW!! (262) 689-1000.
Make your own Honey Sticks. Complete sys-
tem to start putting your honey in your own
sticks for pennies per stick. Keep the profits
for yourself. www.honeystickmachine.com
Strong, healthy 5 frame Nucs (deep or medium)
available in South Florida starting in April of
2018. Limited quantities of mated queens are also
available. Call Joseph at (561) 715-5715 to place
your order.
HONEY PRICE UPDATES. Call Honey Hot
Line. (763) 658-4193.
PACKAGED BEES AND 5-FRAME NUCS.
TAKING ORDERS NOW FOR 2018. CALL
(231) 735-1203.
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING-Net price $1.00 per word per insertion. Initials, letters as in street address, counted as individual words. No advertisement accepted for less than 10
words. Payable cash in advance. Blind Classified 10% additional. (A blind ad is one in which responses are addressed to the ABJ and then forwarded to the advertiser.) Extreme care
always is exercised in establishing the reliability of all advertisers, but the publishers do not guarantee advertisements. Orders close the 20th of the second month preceding cover
date. Send typed copy to : Advertising Dept., American Bee Journal, 51 S. 2nd St., Hamilton, IL 62341 or FAX to 217-847-3660 or e-mail to: abjads@dadant.com.
July 2018
American Bee Journal
PARSONS’ GOLD SOLUTION - The
Only Solution For Keeping Your Honey
Bees Healthy! Herbal Treatment Oil &
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ness (419) 273-3066; Cell (419) 235-
7037. www.parsonsgold-honeybees.
com #33 Treatment Loaded Syringe -
$20.00 plus $8.00 S/H. Checks, Money
Orders, Credit Cards. Parsons’ Gold
Apiaries, c/o Robert B. Parsons, 2092
Twp. Rd., 195, Forest, OH 45843.
For Sale – 3000 10-frame singles. 2015
queens, new equipment. Also, 5-frame
nucs available. Call Chris (941) 720-
6025.
For Sale: 200 5-frame nucs and 400 single hives
in Florida. (772) 633-1134.
Bobcat, Hummerbee and Superbee Trailers cus-
tom built. New S450 Bobcat’s, set up with masts
and fifth wheels complete. Fifth Wheels sold
separately. Used Bobcat’s bought, sold and trade-
ins welcome. Custom truck bodies and Custom
smoker boxes, all built by a beekeeper FOR bee-
keepers. www.tropictrailer.com - Eli Mendes
239-340-0484, eli@tropictrailer.com
5-frame nucs for sale in NW Wisconsin. 2017
queens, nice equipment, no frame exchange. Will
be ready for pick-up end of April or first of May.
$125.00 each, quantity discounts on 50 or more.
Queen cells available March till May in Central
Florida (772) 215-2734. Sunnydellbees.com
Singles: Fresh queens, treated. Available Fall, Win-
ter, Spring - Hughson, CA. Call: 209-988-2823.
5 frame Nucs, 10 frame single hives on four-day
pallets, doubles, and story and a half hives, avail-
able year round in large and small quantities. Lo-
cated in the Florida Panhandle. Call for pricing,
Ryan Faircloth 850-510-4627.
FOR SALE: Deep extracting supers, 9-frames per
super. (308) 470-0177.
Turnkey operation in Southwest Idaho
40 years in business. 8 frame equip-
ment - 3000 colonies. 4 trucks, 2 Swing-
ers. 50+ locations. 3,000 sq. ft. shop
and extracting equipment. 2,800 sq. ft.
home and 17 acres available. Serious
inquiries only. goldenbeeinc.com or
call Golden Millet (208)250-8420.
FOR SALE: 1000 strong beehives after almonds
in California. One deep and a shallow on four
way pallets. $145.00 ea. 5000 medium depth su-
pers in very good condition in California $25.00
ea. Contact (714) 745-2518 .
5 Frame nucs in NorthEast Oklahoma. Available
Late April through Fall. No minimums. Taking
orders now for Spring 2018. www.RoarkAcres.
com Michael Roark (918)578-9201 nucs@
roarkacres.com
1000 colonies, 1 3/4 story new pallets good equip-
ment. Ready to split shake, make nucs after al-
monds in Red Bluff CA $225. Call Arrowsmith
and Sons. Also will have 1000 queen mothers,
3 story with 11,000 queen nucs - feed cans -new
pallets, $300,000. 530-515-4522.
Bee operation for sale in South Dakota. 90 loca-
tions – alfalfa, clover, Swinger lift trucks, honey
supers, extracting equipment, shops. Call Arrow-
smith & Sons - 530-515-4522.
5000 5 11/16” shallows for sale. $8/each call 559-
350-3066.
Hundreds of boxes with drawn comb. Deeps +
shallows. Phoenix, Arizona (480) 206-8740.
Supers for Sale: 10-frame, cleated, drawn comb.
6 5/8 shallows and full depth - $22.50 each. Also
have shallow feeders with wooden inserts and
plastic ladders, ready to work - $10.00 each. Have
some nucs for May pickup. Call for price. Jack
(909) 286-8288.
500 deep, 700 shallow supers with good comb
$25/$20 each, extracting equipment, 4-way pal-
lets, lids, and boxes (209) 324-6873.
For sale: 5 frame nucs in cardboard boxes, 10
frame singles, and 10 frame double deeps. Call
for pricing (916) 801-0617.
Successful Mid-Western Honey Com-
pany for SALE ! Complete packaging fa-
cility with sales to over 400 stores and
warehouses. Very profitable company, will
show profit instantly in sales to organic stores.
Comes with a one year supply of honey. Due
to health, ready to sell. Will consider land for
trade. Write: AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL,
PO Box152, Hamilton, IL 62341.
FOR SALE: 200 Five frame NUCS. Tampa FL.
813-451-6334.
Mann Lake extracting equipment for sale. Chain
uncapper. 80 frame extractor with tables and
pump. 3” inlet progressive cavity pump. Honey
pump with motor. Stainless steel cappings pump.
Custom made 55 gallon tank. Hoses and fittings.
Maxant wax separator. All items purchased new
in 2016. Excellent condition. 520-240-3135. Make
offer.
ATTENTION BEEKEEPERS!!! OUT OF BUSI-
NESS SALE IN CALIFORNIA!!! REDUCED
PRICING!!! TRUCKS DO NOT MEET CALI-
FORNIA CARB REQUIREMENTS. 2 - 2007
Freightliner Flatbeds, 10-Wheelers 23’x8’
bed $30,000 each. 2006 International Flatbed
6-Wheeler 23’x8’ bed $15,000. USED IN BEE-
KEEPING OPERATION. ALL IN EXCELLENT
SHAPE. CALL FOR DETAILS - ANNE 661-
805-0058.
BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENT: 200 new 6 5/8,
supers w/9 frames, w/Dadant Plasticell Foun-
dation each. Painted and ready to use. $35
each. Charles (701) 341-1814 Amity AR.
Dadant 3600 lb stainless tank. LARGE Dadant
pump control strainer system (18Hx20Wx41L),
3” inlet, 2” outlet, 2 baffles. 203-449-8147.
829
 5-FRAME NUCS W/NEW QUEEN OVER
50, $90. 10-FRAME, $180. QUEENS AND
BROODS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE IN
SOUTH MISSISSIPPI. CALL (251)-510-
7938.
Used, clean honey barrels (10-300). Dominisse
Honey (402) 360-0952 (NE).
New Beekeepers Forklift Trailers: 8000 lb. tor-
flex axle, 17.5/16 ply tires, electric brakes, tilt bed,
expanded metal treads. $6,500.00 For photos E-
mail: gcamfab@yahoo.com 269-685-1000 (cell/
text).
500 Deep and 1000 shallow 10 frame supers with
comb, 75 ea 4/12 x 8 frame with cut comb frames.
1000 new deep frames w/plasticell, 500 new shal-
low frames w/plasticell , 75 lb wax brood founda-
tion and 50 lb thin surplus wax foundation. 90 ea
10 frame 4 way pallets, 500 ea 10 frame covers.
Cowen 120 frame air ram extractor w/deboxer,
Cowen capping spinner, w/auger, 3 in pump and
Fagan capping wax melter. 2007.5 gmc 3500 w/
flatbed, Swinger 110 w/trailer. Located NW NM
call for prices etc. 505-801-5173.
4 Dadant Honeymaster Extractors. All purchased
new. Three are 2015’s and one is a 2016. Main-
tained and cleaned weekly. Call or text 605-949-
3170 with any questions and to save yourself
some $$$$ from buying new.
PLASTIC FRAME SAVERS – excellent on wood
or plastic comb. (805) 234-0747.
Cowen 120, Decapper, Deboxer, Auger, Spinner,
pump, honey tanks, 1000 6 5/8” supers drawn
comb, pollen traps, red wood covers, misc. 951-
694-5319.
Singles for sale, southeast TX. Call for pricing.
Dave at 936-425-1675.
450 screened bottom boards, with 1/8” white poly
drawers $15.00 each. Also a new 8 frame grabber.
Jake Maendel 1-204-513-0529.
HONEY FOR SALE
Excellent clover honey in drums and light beeswax
available. Mark Gilberts Apiaries, (608) 482-1988.
U.S. sweet clover, alfalfa, thistle mix, (9 drums of
black locust-limited supply), white honey, melter
honey, filtered, new drums, excellent honey -
f.o.b. several loads available. Produced by Bald-
win Apiaries, Darlington, WI (608) 776-3700.
Very nice looking & good tasting Nebraska
bottling honey. (402) 319-5125.
CLOVER – Buckwheat, Orange, Tupelo, and
Wildflower – pails or drums. PURE SWEET
HONEY FARM, 514 Commerce Parkway,
Verona, Wisconsin 53593. (608) 845-9601.
Clover, Basswood, Wildflower honey available in
drums in WI. Great tasting! Light beeswax avail-
able. Call (262) 689-1000.
Honey and beeswax for sale. Clover, Orange
Blossom, Wildflower. Many varietals available.
Smitty Bee Honey (712) 748-4292.
PREMIUM HONEYS – Summer: Michigan
Blueberry, Thistle (Knapweed) – excellent for
creamed honeys, plus FL premium fall pepper
and FL spring orange blossom honeys. Call Ed
(231) 408-7485. Email: edeisele@gmail.com
QUALITY HONEY, barrels, your buckets.
Hollenbeck, Kirksville, Missouri. (660) 665-2542
evenings.
Viet Nam, Indian and Brazilian
honey for sale in bulk. Beeswax and
bee pollen in bulk. Please call 908-
967-1484. Email: info@Sarahimpex.
com
Premium Michigan Honey from blueberries,
wildflowers and thistle. Selling by truck load.
Call Cory at 269.217.4404.
830
HONEY AND
BEESWAX WANTED
HONEY WANTED—Extracted or comb.
LEIGHTON’S HONEY, INC., 1203 Commerce
Ave. Haines City, Florida 33844. (863) 422-1773.
FAX (863) 421-2299
HONEY WANTED– all grades. Also, honey
barrels for sale. Contact Pure Sweet Honey Farm
Inc., 514 Commerce Parkway, Verona, WI. (608)
845-9601.
Round comb, Fresh, good tasting
Pollen, Varietal Honeys. 800-678-1226.
tasty@zspecialtyfood.com
HONEY PRICE UPDATES. Call Honey
Hot Line. (763) 658-4193.
ROYAL JELLY
BEST 100% PURE FRESH ROYAL JELLY.
$65.00 per kilo + shipping. HIGHEST PO-
TENCY. LOWEST PRICES guaranteed on
large orders. TOP QUALITY. Stakich, Inc.
248-642-7023 X 301
POLLEN
QUALITY, CLEAN, LOW MOISTURE POL-
LEN $5.50/lb. Min. 10 lbs. + shipping. LOW-
EST PRICES guaranteed for large orders.
Stakich, Inc. Phone 248-642-7023 X 301
Fresh 2018 Northern California raw bulk pollen
available. Available raw uncleaned and semi-dried
and cleaned. Call for pricing at (916) 224-2211.
Fresh California pollen. Spring blend of wildflow-
ers. Selling in bulk and shipping available to 50
states. Cleaned, dried and frozen or raw. Call for
pricing (916) 956-8869.
POLLINATION
Bees wanted for the Almonds. Art Harris, 6301
Victor St. #63, Bakersfield, CA 93308 (661) 444-
1470.
Almond Pollination 2019 - We are looking for
over 4,000 additional hives for the 2019 season.
Wintering yards with full service maintenance,
feeding and medication. We have trucks, fork-
lifts and crew to place hives in orchard. You are
paid 50% on February 25th and 50% April 20th.
Visit:www.almondbeepollination.com for more
details. California Almond Pollination Service,
Inc. (209) 202-8915. E Mail: steve@almondbee.
buzz
Outstanding Beekeepers wanted for long term
California almond pollination contracts. The Pol-
lination Connection. Contact us at 877-970-2337
(BEES) or info@pollinationconnection.com
BEES AND QUEENS
JERRY FOSTER QUEENS quality Carniolan and
hybrid Italian queens at competitive prices. Nucs
and packages also. Jerry Foster Apiaries, 937 9th
St., Colusa, CA 95932. Phone (530) 458-4234.
Pacific Northwest mated queens. Orders of 50 or
more. Treasure Valley Idaho. Call for Pricing, Jon
@ (208) 412-1092. www.goldenbeeinc.com
QUALITY QUEENS from HAWAII, available
year round. Call KARRUS QUEENS (808)
854-5308.
3 lb Packages Bees for sale, for pick up in
Wisconsin. Contact: Mark Gilberts Apiaries 608-
482-1988.
Let us put bees into your equipment with enough
time to feed them up for the almonds. May be
willing to do the feeding. Also, willing to fill your
equipment in the spring. Call Rick Riggs (661)
204-2631.
Doubles, singles, brood for sale
year round. FOB Jan-April, Oak-
dale, CA. April-Dec., Milton Freewa-
ter, OR. Queens less than 6 months,
great equipment. Ryan@sweetbee
honeyco.com (360) 907-0842. $5k min.
purchase.
Early-bird pricing for 2018. Italian & Russian
Hybrid package bees, queens and nucs. Pick
up in KY, ship to 5 zones. Web: www.school
housebees.com Pails of honey for sale year-
around. School House Bees (859) 356-1350.
NUCS & QUEENS – shipping available.
NorthFloridaBees@mail.com 850-661-8077
Cisneros & Sons Honey Bees is now taking or-
ders for 2018, Italians and Carniolan queen bees.
Available April to September. Call or email David
Cisneros (530) 592-7762. alex-cisneros@live.
com
Northern California Queens – Good Quality
Bred Italians. Call Jake: (530) 517-0359.
Marked Queens - 25 minimum order, tested on
full size deep frames - Breeders selected from
our most productive hives-$28 per queen + UPS
overnight. outwestapiary@gmail.com (530) 908
1311.
WILD SURVIVOR BREEDER QUEENS
NW Feral Stock - Hardy - Hygienic
Mite Tolerant - Disease Resistant.
– OLYMPIC WILDERNESS APIARY
Isolated Yards – (360) 928-3125. www.
wildernessbees.com
2500 10- Frame hives, 5 frame nucs. Avail-
able in CA and CO. 970-856-6710 or irish
temperbees@yahoo.com
Singles or doubles for sale mostly new equipment
with Kona Queens, 661-204-2632.
WANTED
Honey and Beeswax wanted. All colors and
varietals. Send samples or call Smitty Bee Honey
(712) 748-4292.
HELP WANTED
Full time position available in Oregon. Bee-
keeping experience and CDL required. Contact
Ryan@sweetbeehoneyco.com PO Box 558,
Milton Freewater, OR 97862 (360)907-0842.
Seasonal and full-time help needed at our migratory
bee operation. We are located in FL and WI. We
do pollination, queen rearing and honey production.
Some experience preferred, team environment,
wages dependent on experience, good opportunity
or advancement. Prior work history and references
required. Contact Gary at (262) 689-1000.
Olivarez Honey Bees/Big Island Queens is seek-
ing motivated beekeepers to join our Hawaii
team! Experience preferred. Self-motivator and
ability to work in a team environment a plus. Po-
sitions are full time, salary based on experience.
Great Benefits Package. Prior work history and
references required. Advancement opportunities
available. Submit resume to info@ohbees.com
or Olivarez Honey Bees Inc/Big Island Queens,
P O Box 847 Orland Ca 95963, Fax: 530-865-
5570, Phone 530-865-0298
MISCELLANEOUS
The AMERICAN BEEKEEPING FEDERA-
TION has many benefits to offer its members.
Send for a membership packet of information
today! We also offer a free Beginning Beekeeping
Packet. Contact the AMERICAN BEEKEEPING
FEDERATION, 3525 Piedmont Rd. NE, Bld. 5.
Suite 300, Atlanta, GA 30305-1509, Phone (404)
760-2875, Fax 404-240-0998, or email info@
abfnet.org.
American Bee Journal
HONEY BEE INSEMINATION SERVICE ATTENTION LIVESTOCK PRODUCERS—
Susan Cobey - Instrumental Insemination Spe- Ranch Magazine is your monthly information
cialized Equipment, Consulting, Training, guide for Angora, Cashmere and meat goats, as
Custom Service honeybeeinsemination.com well as sheep and cattle. Comprehensive Breeder
scobey@mac.com Tel. 360-969-9441. Directory. 1-Yr $27, 2-Yrs $54. Foreign &
Canada add $36 per yr. postage. Subscribe today!
PERIODICALS Box 2678-ABJ, San Angelo, TX 76902. Call for
L’ABEILLE DE FRANCE—The most important free sample. (325) 655-4434
of the monthly publications in France - for all THE SCOTTISH BEEKEEPER—Monthly Maga-
beekeepers, from the amateurs to the professional. zine of the Scottish Beekeeper’s Association. Inter-
Each month: an article for beginners, reports from national in appeal, Scottish in character. View back
specialists, a review of the latest information all numbers and Subscription rates at: http://scottish
over the world. Ask for a sample Annual subscrip- beekeepers.org.uk
tion: 40$ US. ABEILLE DE FRANCE- 5, rue du SOUTH AFRICAN BEE JOURNAL—The offi-
Copenhague-F 75008 PARIS. cial organ of the S.A. Federation of Bee Farmers’
THE AUSTRALASIAN BEEKEEPER— Associations. Published Bimonthly in English and
Senior Beekeeping Journal of the Southern Afrikaans, primarily devoted to the African and
Hemisphere. Complete coverage of all bee- Cape Bee races. Subscriptions incl. postage (six
keeping topics in one of the world’s largest copies). All subscribers outside of South Africa
beekeeping countries. Published by Pender R100-00 surface mail, payment to be made in
Beekeeping Supplies Pty. Ltd., “Bilga” 79 Nay- S.A. Rands. NB. Sample copies only available
lor Road, Urila, N.S.W. 2620, Australia. Annual on receipt of a donation. P.O. Box 41 Modder-
subscription paid in advance $160 AUD. fontein, 1645, South Africa.
THE AUSTRALIAN BEE JOURNAL— ULADAG BEE JOURNAL - Publication of
Caters to both amateur and commercial Uludag Beekeeping Association, published quar-
apiarists. Subscription $120.00 Australian terly in Turkish (with English titles and summa-
currently for all overseas subscribers per annum. ries of all articles) and English in all aspects of
Published monthly. Victorian Apiarists’ Asso- beekeeping; beekeeping news, practical beekeep-
ciation, Inc., P.O. Box 40, California Gully,Vic. ing, and research articles, and considered a link
Australia 3556 Ph: 03 5446 1543, Email: between Turkish beekeeping and the world. Gazci-
vaa@vicbeekeepers.com.au. lar Cad. No. 9/2 16220 Bursa-TURKEY Fax:+90
BEECRAFT The UK’s leading monthly beekeep- 224 224 3964 http://www.uludagaricilik.org.tr
ing magazine. View a digital copy and subscribe on
line at www.bee-craft.com.
DIE BIENE – ALLGEMEINE DEUTSCHE IM-
KERZEITUNG (ADIZ) – IMKERFREUND The
Bee magazines with special publications in bee
science and management for the hobbyist as well
as for the sideliner and professional beekeeper.
Three regional titles but same content today for
Germany except partly Imkerfreund for Bavaria.
Monthly publications with 64 pages. Subscription
Euro 44.50 per year – Deutscher Landwirtschafts-
verlag GmbH, Postfach 870324, 13162 Berlin, Tel.
+49(0)30/293974-87, Fax +49(0) 30/293974-59,
www.diebiene.de
HIVELIGHTS, National magazine of the Cana-
dian Honey Council. Published quarterly. Free
sample on request, write to Canadian Honey
Council, Suite 236, 234-5149 Country Hills
Blvd. NW, Calgary AB T3A 5K8, CANADA.
Subscription information available at www.
honeycouncil.ca.
HONEYBEE NEWS, The Journal of the New
South Wales Apiarists’ Association, Inc., Inter-
national Subscription AUS$50.00 (Airmail) Bank
Draft, Visa or MasterCard payable to NSW AA.
Published bi-monthly—For more information
contact: The Editor, PO Box 352, Leichhardt
NSW 2040 Australia. E-mail: honeybee@
accsoft.com.au
IBRA (the International Bee Research Associa-
tion) is a unique organization established in 1949
for the advancement of bee science and beekeep-
ing. It publishes two magazines: JAR – the Jour-
nal of Apiculture Research, for scientists, and BW
- Bee World, for beekeepers who want broaden
their horizons by learning about other beekeeping
traditions, other bees, other ideas. Members chose
which magazine(s) to include in their membership.
IBRA is a vital bridge between the local (hive)
and global concerns. IBRA is registered under UK
charity law (Office: 91 Brinsea Road, Congresbury,
Bristol, BS49 5JJ, UK) www.ibrabee.org.uk
IRISH BEEKEEPING—Read An Beachaire
(The Irish Beekeeper). Published monthly. Sub-
scription $50.00 per annum post free. Dermot
O’Flaherty, Journal Manager, Rosbeg, Westport,
Co. Mayo, Ireland

July 2018 831


A.N. Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 812
A & G Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810
A & O Forklift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720
Acorn Beekeeping Equip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
American Bee Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831
American Honey Producers . . . . . . . . . . . . 784
Avoyelle’s Honey Company . . . . . . . . . . . 806
Bastin Honey Bee Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
Bee Box Wraps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
BeeCulture.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 770
Bee Excellent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
Bee Hive Thermal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818
BeeInformed.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
Beekeepingins.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835
Beeline Apiaries & Woodenware . . . . . . . 805
Beelite Wax Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787
Bee Smart Designs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
Betterbee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766
BL Plastic Containers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
Blue Ridge Honey Company . . . . . . . . . . . 822
Blue Sky Bee Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
Bordelon Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
Borntrager, David. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 812
Brand New Industries, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
Brown Honey Co. Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810
Browning Cut Stock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
Brumley Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 812
Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. . . . . . . . . . . . 796
Bucko Gloves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783
Buzz’s Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738
CC Pollen Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Chinabeeworld.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 784
Complete Bee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750
Contract Pros Mfg.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750
Cook & Beals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831
Cowen Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 784
Cuba Beekeeper Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
Dadant & Sons, Inc. . . 721, 732, 747, 762, 765,
808, 833 & Back Cover
Dakota Gunness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800
Draper’s Super Bee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810
832
Advertising Index
EAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
Ernst Seeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776
Globalpatties.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740
Groteguth Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750
Hardeman Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788
HarrisHoneyBees.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827
Hawaiian Queen Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
Heilyser Technology Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 812
Heitkams Honey Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
Hilbert’s Honey Bees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790
Hogg Halfcomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
Honey B Healthy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 784
Horace Bell Honey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
JJ’s Honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 812
KingBee Apiaries & Pollination . . . . . . . . 831
Koehnen, C.F. & Sons, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
Kona Queen Hawaii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 828
Lassen Queen Bee Company . . . . . . . . . . . 811
Lohman Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
M & N Apiary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
Mann Lake Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739, 755
Maxant Industries, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
Meyers, A.H. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818
Miller Bee Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796
Misco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
Mother Lode Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788
Nod Apiary Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
Old Sol Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
Olivarez Honey Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834
OxaVap.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776
Park-Burris Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790
Pendell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
Pierco.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758
Plastic Packaging Concept. . . . . . . . . . . . . 812
Powell Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
Queen Right Colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827
QSI Honey and Food Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776
R.M. Farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761
Resilience Apiary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
Roberts Bee Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738
Ross Rounds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795
Rossman Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795
Sanders Honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
Selby Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737
Shastina Millwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
Sherriff, B.J. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754
Simpson’s Bee Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800
South Florida Bees-N-Queens . . . . . . . . . . 833
South Georgia Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 812
Spell Bee Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 784
Stan’s Pure Honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750
Stayer’s Quality Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Strachan Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
Strong Microbials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
Suhre, Adam Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783
Suhre, E. Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
Superior Bee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820
Swienty Beekeeping Equipment . . . . . . . . 783
Taber’s Honey Bee Genetics . . . . . . . . . . . 794
Texas Insurance & Financial . . . . . . . . . . . 811
Tinoco Bee Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Tree’s for Bees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 812
T.R.S. Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
Vidalia Apicultural Services . . . . . . . . . . . 783
VP Queen Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
Weaver, R. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
Western Bee Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718
Wicwas Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754
Wilbanks Apiaries Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
Wintersun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 812
Wooten’s Queens and Bees, Inc. . . . . . . . . 800
Z Specialty Food, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
Z’s Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804
American Bee Journal
 Browning Cut Stock
Boxes are Ponderosa Pine
9-5/8 Com. Boxes $10.50 / Budget Boxes $9.00
7-5/8 Com. Boxes $8.20 / Budget Boxes $7.95
6-5/8 & 5-11/16 Com. Supers $7.50 / Budget $6.85
All #1 frames $.70
1-3/4 Cleats $.22
1571 Hwy. 3 • Juliaetta, ID 83535
Phone 208.276.3494 FAX 3491

South Florida GOT WAX? GET PAID!

Bees-N-Honey
18299 Clearbrook Circle
Boca Raton, FL 33498
Queens and Nucs
available for sale
For information and pricing
please call, text or fax.
Credit cards accepted.
Phone: (561) 715-5715
Fax: (561) 423-0304
It’s that simple!
Light and dark.
Rendering services available.
BEE EXCELLENT
Phone (218) 776-3593
Fax (218) 776-3502
E-mail bexcel@gvtel.com
Global inquiries welcome.

July 2018 833

March 2018 835