Mailing list for the Person County Beekeepers Association, Roxboro, NC

[Lynn S Wilson <wilsonls AT esinc.net>]

NCSBA Report

Summer Meeting 2015-Lake Junaluska NC

Submitted by Lynn Wilson

Comparing how honey bees would manage if left to their own devices and what beekeepers think honey bees need, Dr. James Tew noted that a feral colony would throw about six swarms per year.  And what happens when we open the hive in the winter and let out all of the carbon dioxide, heat and humidity?   What part of the ecosystem are we eliminating when we clean up bottom boards?   The bees tolerate us, he says, but they resist domestication.

Dr. Tom Steeger, of the US EPA, offered his regulatory perspective on assessing pesticide risks.  While data suggests that the number of honey bee colonies declined worldwide (except in countries bordering the Mediteranean Sea) from 1985 to 2005, there are two problems:

1. Some of the data reflects only winter losses, and
2. The number of losses doesn’t reflect the increasing amount of work required to maintain colonies.

US losses attributed to Colony Collapse pointed to many factors:  pesticides, pests (varroa and tracheal mites, small hive beetles), diseases, agricultural practices (such as large monocultures), increasing urbanization, and bee management (such as carting bees over long distances).   Jeff Pettus identifies three primary factors (3 Ps):  Pesticide, Poor Nutrition and Pests.

The EPA’s assesses the ecological risk for every product entering the market, beginning with a risk hypothesis, and considering the vendor’s risk mitigation plan and the chemical’s persistence.   They also look at bee kill reports.  It’s up to the beekeeper to report losses.  

A 2011 global Pellston workshop focused on identifying appropriate ways to study pesticide effects both on individual bees (adult and larvae) as well as on the colony.  Scientists also asked, “Is the honey bee an appropriate surrogate for native bees in these studies?”  (Maybe “yes” in studies of individual effects but perhaps “no” at the colony level.)  Other protocols for non-Apis bees are being developed.  The agency is also developing toxicity tests for sublethal effects such as changes in foraging behavior.   They’re keenly aware of the difficulty of testing the effects of pesticide “soups” when multiple chemicals are applied together.   They are also looking at the effects of herbicides like glyphosate. 

Each vendor is responsible for generating its own data, but then EPA re-evaluates the data to reach its own conclusions.  Studies measure residues in soil, wax, bee bread and honey.   A full field study by vendor, then replicated by EPA (in some cases), may cost $1.2 million.   Legally, EPA is required to consider multiple factors:   science, economics and politics.   Risks must be balanced against benefits.  

With respect to neonicotinoids, studies found the larvae are less sensitive than the adults, and that adults show sublethal effects at extremely small exposure levels.   For insect growth regulators, larvae are more sensitive.

Paula Wyatt, from Haywood FSA, listed FSA supports available to beekeepers including insurance, compensation for bee losses, and low interest farm loans and loans for young people (working with 4-H or FFA).  See your local county FSA.

Pat Jones, from NCDA’s pesticide agency, outlined changes to the pollinator advisory box now required on chemical labels.   Please report suspected pesticide kills to Don Hopkins in the Apiary Section, 919-707-3753 or to his Pesticide Section, 919-733-3556 and they will file report with EPA.  

For contract pollinators, the label (on 76 active ingredients including neonics) used to required 48-hour notice by applicator but instead now says:  “Application is PROHIBITED from the onset of flowering until flowering is complete” when bees are on-site under contract.  

As a result of the President’s dictate on pollinator protection, NCDA is developing a “Pollinator Protection Plan”, including research activities and public education.   Potential strategies include Bee Aware flags to be flown at hive locations and online mapping of beehives (possibly using an application call Driftwatch offered by a company called Fieldwatch).   They’ve also prepared two publications to encourage farmer-beekeeper communication:   “Know your Farmer/for Beekeepers” and “Know your Beekeeper/for Farmers.”  

Mosquito control contractors apparently need more guidance.   NCDA is working with both DOT and Duke Power to increase pollinator habitat.

Don Coats’ lecture on “Honey Bee Anatomy Under the Scope” focused on some surprising aspects of bee biology.  

• Hearts pump hemolymph forward.
• Proventriculus acts as a second circulation pump to grab pollen from nectar for use by the honeybee.
• There’s no network of arteries and veins.
• Spiracles are connected to air sacs.
• Tracheal tubes fill the role of blood capillaries

He noted that diarrhea may be caused by bee diet and is not directly related to Nosema.   N.ceranae is a microplasm that can be found in high numbers in a healthy hive.  It cycles with the season.   While there are no clinical symptoms, it may reduce longevity and productivity.

He encouraged purchase of a stereoscope (around $280) that provides 40X magnification and enables not only study of bee biology and diseases, but also identification of pollen grains in honey.   Pollen grains can be isolated with millipore filtration or a centrifuge.

In his Friday talk on Laying Workers and Failing Queens, Dr. Jim Tew, identified these symptoms of laying worker:

• Multiple eggs in a cell
• Remarkably spotty brood
• Mostly drone brood
• Small, undersized and lethargic or flighty workers
• Unsuccessful, undersize queen cells

Spoiler alert, he says, “a colony with laying workers will die.”

While conventional wisdom would have you combine this hive with a strong colony, he says, DON’T, because:

• Bees are old
• Bees are falsely queen right
• Not worth your time.\

What about adding brood, nurse bees, introducing a new queen, or shaking out the bees to remove laying workers ... (they’ll beat you back to the hive, he says.)  All are desperate moves destined to fail.  Laying workers are common he says, especially during swarm season and after flow ends.

Dr. Wyatt Mangum created a sensation with a photo of his lab ... filled with two rows of observation hives that swivel so he can roll up and down the aisle to find the best bee show.  His talk on Colony Usurpation was dramatically photographed, showing how a small swarm actually brings in their own queen protected in a ball and isolates the resident queen in a ball keeping her out of reach of food until she dies.   If you see a pile of dead bees at your hive entrance, it may be the result of colony usurpation and not a pesticide kill.  

A speaker forum elicited these additional questions:

1. Is oxalic acid now registered for use against Varroa in NC?  

1. Yes, but only the drip form (not the fog) and Brushy Mtn has it (don’t use the product available from hardware stores.

1. Are more Varroa treatments coming?

1. Yes, and EPA is fast-tracking them.

1. How frequent are pesticide kills?

1. Seven bee kills were investigated this year and none were in rural settings.  Pesticide residues were found in 2 of the seven.

Wax workshop with Virginia Webb.   I’m likely to make some floating candles in black walnut shells (paint the shells first unless you want brown water she says) because they use very little wax and I have lots of black walnuts.   She says quilters will appreciate 1-oz bars for their needles and carpenters use 4-oz bars for finishing nails.  NOTE TO PCBA:  Webb says clubs can get 500 honey recipe booklets free annually from the National Honey Board.

Toxic Free NC recommends watching Vanishing of the Bees (appears to be available on YouTube).

Dr. Christian Kuhn talked about the history of beekeeping in Europe, emphasizing bees economic and cultural significance as beekeeping and bees were used as spiritual and political examples.  Understanding nature was viewed as a way to understand God (see Hans Blumenberg’s The Legibility of the World).  

Dr. Kuhn recommends the online resource Hobosphere to observe honeybees.  Caydee Savinelli repeated much of the lecture she presented for PCBA.  Paul Cheswick introduced WNC’s all-volunteer Center for Honey Bee Research.

Asheville beekeeper Debbie Roberts described her travels to talk about natural beekeeping in Turkey.   Turkish beekeepers are required to complete 60-90 hours of training and agree to keep a minimum of 30 hives upon completion.   They discourage hobbyists because they think hobbyists will be careless and do things damaging to commercial beekeepers.  She always works with a local beekeeper to present her workshops and shared fascinating pictures of traditional hives.

Kaleb Rathbone from NCDA’s Waynesville Research Station shared some of NCDA’s Pollinator project plans, including managing state properties such as the Research Stations to be pollinator friendly, and partnering with other groups ... like Lake Junaluska and NCDOT.

They begin by monitoring to see which pollinators they’re already getting, then adapt their practices accordingly.  Seed packets for pollinator friendly plants may be available from Joy Hicks with NCDA.  

One participant described the agricultural program, soon to include beekeeping, at Grays Creek High in Cumberland County.   The Alamance County Beekeepers partner with Farm Service Bureau to offer beekeeping equipment to 30 youngsters connected with either FFA or 4-H.

Wyatt Mangum shared intriguing pictures of what happens when new queen is introduced.  Initially hostile workers attempt to ball the queen and gradually the ball relaxes as the queen is accepted.  He recommends removing the attendant bees from the queen cage if there is little flow.  He suggests wedging the queen cage in the BOTTOM of a non-surplus honey super between two frames such that the cage will be horizontal when the super is in position.  This enables you to easily see whether queen has been released.  If you find bees balling the empty cage, they are probably also balling the queen.

About the conference and NCSBA.   About 400 people registered. 30 percent of attendees have kept bees for five years or less.   59 people took one of the MBP tests on Thursday and Friday (and maybe more on Saturday).      The NC Zoo committee reported that 77 percent of days were covered by 56 volunteers.   This committee, says Paul Madren, plans to install a pollinator garden in memory of Dr. John Ambrose and Irvin Rackley this fall.   And Judy Pick and Janno Lewis earned an award for their Zoo volunteer organizing efforts.   Haywood County has just completed a new honey extraction facility and their cooperative extension agent received and NCSBA award.  Geneva Greene from Orange County earned Master Beekeeper.   Todd Walker and Lynn Wilson were elected to posts on the NCSBA Executive Board.

NCSBA membership stands at 4000 members.

Rick Coors’ goal is for NCSBA to help build Dr. Tarpy a new lab.

(NOTE TO PCBA:   MBP tests will be offered again on October 3 in the Piedmont, October 24 in the mountains, and October 31 on the Coast.  2016 meetings will be February 25-27 in New Bern and July 7-9 at the Hickory Convention Center.   The 2017 spring meeting will be planned by SC Beekeepers and the July 13-15, 2017 meeting will be in Winston-Salem and celebrates NCSBA’s 100th birthday.  Chapters are encouraged to record their own histories and provide for maintenance of those histories.)

A lot of MBP data has been lost.  Send an e-mail to Paul Newbold, with your NCSBA member #, which certificate was earned and the date, for any MBP test earned prior to Thanksgiving 2014.

Clubs need to strengthen mentoring.

NCSBA approved a donation of $2000 to support efforts to bring Apimondia conference to Minneapolis in 2019.   The 2017 Apimondia conference is in Istanbul.  NCSBA encourages clubs to consider a donation to this effort.