MICHIGAN BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER

February 2007

Dan and Joyce Guthrie-Always willing volunteers Pictured: Judging Honey Contest-Annual Fall Meeting See inside for more pictures

JOIN US FOR ANR Week KELLOGG CENTER- EAST LANSING MARCH 9 & 10, 2007

www.MICHIGANBEES.ORG

Check us out we have made some changes

St. Paul -- TIle Minnesota Department of Agriculture has concluded and enforcement action against Adee Honey Farms of Bruce, S.D .. Adee Honey produces honey and in 2005 had several thousand bee colonies in Minnesota.

Adee Honey paid a $14,000 settlement penalty to the MDA for illegal use of pesticides within bee colonies to control varroa mites and for making a false statement to MDA inspectors.

MDA learned of the pesticide rnisuse during a random pesticide inspection at two Adee Honey Farm beef colonies in Yellow Medicine County. MDA inspectors noticed blue paper towels in several hives. follow-up laboratory testing showed that the towels contained oxalic acid and fluvalinate.

The U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA) hasn't registered any pesticide witll the active ingredient oxalic acid for use in bee hives.

The following can be found at:

http://lnirmesotaagcorrrrection.com/story- state.php?Id+1095&yr+2006

Minnesota Ag News Headlines

MDA Concludes Enforcement Action with Honey Producer. Minnesota Ag Connection -12/06/2006

Additionally, the only fluvalinate pesticide EPA has registered for use in bee hives is found in the pesticide product Apistan. This product is available in the form of strips, not papertowels. Apistan strips, however, are more costly than the liquid fluvalinate pesticide that MDA determined Adee Honey Farm used. The owner and operator of Adee Honey Fanus told MDA investigators he was aware that the pesticides he used were illegal and not for use in bee hives.

State and federal law requires that pesticides must be used in accordance with label directions, and this in­cludes proper use sites. Pesticide label directions and restrictions are designed to protect hmnan health and the environment, so it is imperative that users of these products read and follow the labels. Because the pesticides Adee Honey Farms used were not labeled for use in bee hives, no use directions and human or environmental precautions were on the labels.

Bee

December, 2006

The Varroa Conundrum

 was talking recently to a relatively new, be­ginning beekeeper about Varroa and winter­ing. (It is so much fun to talk to these new bee­keepers as they have so much enthusiasm and usually good questions.) While talking, and thinking out loud, about the numbers ofVarroa and the effect of their feeding on pupae, I came across a problem. At least it appears to be a prob­lem, to me.

If you look at the beekeeping research litera­ture on the maximum number of Varroa that a colony can tolerate before it collapses, the num­ber is about 4-5000. When I was at MSU we had colonies that collapsed with less than those num­ber and colonies that had more. But the figure of 4-5000 is not a bad one. By collapse, I mean the entire colony disperses with all the mites to other colonies near by.

The literature also says that if one, or two, mites feed on a developing bee (pupa) that its life will be shortened by up to one half.

Now lets take a colony with a reasonable number of bees in the fall of 30,000. Let us also take two 21-day Varroa cycles feeding on the developing pupae. That would give us 8-10,000 bees that had mites feed on them during their development, and thus shortening their lives by half. These bees then would die in the middle of the winter rather than living on until replacement bees emerge in late winter or spring. My prob­lem, as I worked through it that day, was that 20,000 bees should be enough to make it to spring-even with less than that. These colonies do not! Why not, is the puzzle. There may be some answers, but also more questions. I subse­quently talked on the phone to Dr. Gloria De- Grandi-HofIman, Research Leader at the V.S.D.A. Tucson bee lab. Gloria and I had a nice talk. (She is one of my forn1er students.) She also has developed a computer simulation program of a bee colony with Varroa parasites. She could put in various numbers of bees and mites and run it through a season or two to see what affect a certain number of mites had on the colony. So we tried several combinations of bees and mites. Even when the number of mites equaled 5,000 they did not kill the colony~in the simulations. That is, not until you put a poor queen into the colony. Then the colony would die off.

We have been plagued with poor queens lately, maybe caused by too many pesticides in the wax of the colony. These chemicals causing the poor queens, but also poor drones, thus making for poor matings. So that is one possibility.

There are some other possibilities as well.

One is that the mites are transmitting viruses to the bees and they in turn transfer the virus to other bees through the food exchange that goes on between the workers of the hive, and the workers and the brood.

If we consider viruses as a possible cause, then the establishing of late-summer nucs, or re­queening in the late summer might just be break­ing up that virus transmission cycle. 1 say this because these nucs and colonies seem to be sur­viving with a better percentage than most of our colonies that have many more bees in them go­ing into winter.

Maybe there are some virologists out there that could test colonies before a brood-break in late summer and then the bees subsequently. It is certainly food for thought.

The winter cluster should be low down in the hive at this time of year, as the bees need honey above them in order to move upward via the heat of metabolism. If the bees are high, or dispersed, that usually means trouble. Dispersed bees often means the colony has too many tracheal mites. If they are too high because oflack of honey then they will run out of honey before winter. It may be possible to put a candy board on the colony (or candy blocks) to get them over the lack of stored honey.

African Bees in Packages?

 have heard reports of very defensive bees from packages shipped from Florida. The State of Florida has admitted having African bees for a couple of years, but undoubtedly has had them for a longer time than that. It is almost always true that the movement of these bees is spread further than the authori­ties recognize, as well. I suspect that these kinds of reports will be more common as the African bees move further north into Georgia and throughout the South. African bees are also moving closer to the package and queen rearing area of California, though the north­ern movement has definitely slowed as they near San Francisco. Once the AHB reach their northern limit they still will affect a hy­brid zone. Bees that are moved north via packages, or migratory beekeeping, will bother us as well.

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Upcoming Bee Meetings

he American Beekeeping Federation meet­ing is in Austin, Texas. The dates ofthe meeting arc January 10-13,2007. The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. There will be plenty of good talks and a chance to so­cialize with beekeepers from all over the U.S. Dr. Larry Connor will be leading the Serious Sideliner Symposium From Thursday evening through Saturday.       

The American Honey Producers Association will meet in Phoenix, AZ from January 10-13, 2007 at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel (602-943­8200). The American Association ofProfcs­sional Apiculturists will be meeting with the APHA so there will be many good talks at this meeting, as well. Unfortunately, the two associa­tion's meetings have complete overlap this time so you will have to choose one or the other. You can see the entire AHP A program at: 'Nww.americaIIDoneyproducers.org

Honey Bee Genome

f you haven't seen it in the news magazines or read about it in various newspapers, the honey bee genome has been completed. The sequencing of the DNA had been completed earlier but this was the announcement of the genes themselves. The total number of genes is a little over 10,000 or about a third of the human genome. Several scientific arti~les were published along with the genome. One article placed the bees much fur­ther back on the evolutionary tree than previ­ously, predating the beetles. Another article compared the genes for taste and smell with other insects that have been sequenced, aIld the bee has much poorer sense of taste than the mos­quito or the fruit fly, but a much better sense of smell. Since nectars tend to be much the same the lack of a good sense of taste is not too sur­prising. The bee does need a good sense of smell to find flowers, for the drones to find queens and for the bees to organize and regulate operations within the colony.

I am sure that with the genome now known that more facts and genes will be identified. Maybe even those defensive genes of the African bees.

Some Do's and Don'ts of Beekeeping

Roger Hoopingarner

1.      Don't take offtoo much honey-think of honey that remains with the hive as an investment and you will get future returns on that investment. Less than about 15 pounds of honey (2 or 3 frames) will stop trood rearing.

2.      Extra honey during winter provides a buffer against rapid changes in temperature and allows the cluster of bees to re-form.

3.      Never accept a mean or temperamental colony any longer than it takes to re-queen the colony.

4.       A colony re-queened every year will produce more honey and will attempt to swarm much less than with an old queen.

5.      A two-queen colony will attempt to swarm much less than a single queen colony, and the two-queen colony will have a larger population of bees-which should mean more honey.

6.      Do provide extra entrances, or auger holes for summer flight and ventilation. Don't drill the auger holes through the hand-holds, but do buy corks or plugs to fill the holes when not needed.

7.       Neighbors will appreciate it if you provide water for your bees, especially if the neighbors have a swimming pool.

8.      Add supers in two's especially ifthey are the shallow kind or comb-honey supers, the bees seem to work into them better if there is more room. They need some space to effectively draw out foundation.

9.      When adding the first comb-honey supers I like to have a partially filled extracted super that the bees are working in placed over the comb-honey supers. This draws the bees into the section boxes faster.

10.   Put the second round of supers under the almost finished ones, unless the honey flow is nearly over and you are producing comb honey.

11.  Add more supers when you see the whitening (new wax added) to the inside of the top bars. Remember, more room will produce more honey.

12.   If you have more than one colony in a city, or urban, location use the anti-robbing screens most of the season. This will make you and your neighbors much happier.

B.    A cluster of bees must have honey above them as long as the temperature remains below clustering temperature within the hive. Heat from the cluster rises and allows the bees to slowly move upward.

14.   Treat bees for Varroa by September 1 st (in the north) as populations are increasing and moving onto worker bees as drones are no longer being produced. The bees raised in the fall are the "winter" bees that need to have a long life. When Varroa feeds on the developing pupae their life is cut in half. Having a worker bee only live 60 days instead of 120 will cause the colony to die in the middle of the winter.

15.   Monitor your colonies for mites (and diseases) at all times of the year. Use a sticky­board trap to check the down-fall of Varroa mites. If your colony has 10 or more mites during a 24-hour period then treat to control them.

16.   Replace combs every few years on a rotational basis. Chemicals from the environment and from miticide treatments build up in the wax combs. This build up of chemicals causes reduced viability of egiSs, larvae and adults.

17.   It is better to extract honey during warm weather as the speed of extraction will be much greater. Ten degrees rise in temperature will make honey How three times faster.

18.   Feeding bees is best done with an inverted 2-gallon honey pail (with a small-screened hole put into the cover) over the top bars of the frames. The pail is then covered with an empty hive body and hive cover.

19.   Feeding bees for winter should be started by September 15^th in the north as cold weather can come at any time and prevent the bees from converting and moving the honey to the proper location.

20.   Honey bees will produce more honey with fewer inspections~particularly during the honey flow. A full inspection may cut production for more than a day after the yisit.

21.   Know when the major honey plants are likely to bloom in your area. Watch for key indicator pla~ltS and have your supers ready or on the colonies before the bees need them.

MASTER BEEKEEPER PROGRAM CERTIFICATION

At the January 4, 2007 planning meeting of the SEMBA Boarc;J, the establishment of a Master Beekeeper program in Michigan was introduced. After considerable discussion, the board suggested this item be placed on the agenda of the MBA Executive Board meeting held at Michigan State University in January, 2007.

Before any program can be established, a feasibility study must be undertaken to determine whether or not there is sufficient interest. Items to be considered are: costs, instructional personnel, use of on-line instruction, location for on-site field testing, etc.

Beekeepers who are interested and have had at least five years experience might want to consider completing the following questionnaire and sending to:

Roger Sutherland 5488 Warren Rd.

Ann Arbor, MI 48105-9425

 Press Release

National Honey Board Issues Request for Production Research Proposals Studying Colony Health

Longmont, Colo. - The National Honey Board (NHB) alIDounces a request for research proposals regarding honey bee colony production. The goal of this research area is to help honey producers maintain colony health, while preserving honey quality.

Controlling such pests as the Varroa destructor, Acarapis woodi and the small hive beetle is the primary objective ofthis research area; however, other projects will be considered, including research outside the United States. NHB also will consider proposals that research new methods, as well as combinations of existing methods to increase efficacy rates.

Approximately $90,000 has been earmarked for this study .. However, the amount of funds available will depend on the number and merit of proposals accepted. Project funds will be available in 2007 and may be carried into early 2008 if necessary. The duration of the project should generally not exceed 12 months.

In 2004, NHB began exploring research opportunities to help beekeepers maintain colony health, without adversely affecting the production of quality honey. During the past few years NHB has funded twelve such projects.

Research proposals should be sent to NHB on or before Dec. 31,2006. For more information, visit http://www.honey.com/media/currentnews.asp. or contact Charlotte Jordan, project manager at (800) 553-7162.

NHB conducts research, advertising and promotion programs to help maintain and expand domestic and foreign markets for honey. These programs are funded by an assessment of one cent per pound on domestic and imported honey.

White Honey

1st Place - Joe Pastour

2nd Place - Bill Sirr

3rd Place - Dan Roger

Light Amber

1 st Place - Best Honey Farm

2nd Place - Ed Wracan

3rd Place - Dan Roger

4th Place - David Gable

Chunk Honey

1 st Place - David Gable

Creamed Honey

1st Place - Judy Schmaltz

2nd Place - Carol George

3rd Place - Norman Adams

Beeswax

1st Place - Norman Adams

Round Comb It's a tie!

Steve Reigler & Judy Schmaltz

Cut Comb

1 st Place - Gene Hilbert

2nd Place - Ed Wracan

Sectioned Honey John Bacon

Best of Show

Judy Schmaltz

for her creamed Honey

FRIDAY - MARCH 9, 2007

7:30AM TO 9:00AM REGISTRATION

9:00AM

CALL MEETING TO ORDER AGENDA

1.       CALL TO ORDER

2. WELCOME TO SPRING MEETING * ANNOUNCEMENTS

5.PLEDGE TO FLAG 4. 1/4 DOOR PRIZES

9:30AM TO 10:00AM

MIKE HANSEN

10:00AM TO 11 :OOAM

1.       SPEAKER - JAMES TEW

2.       SOAP - JUDY SCHULMTZ

3. MAKING ROLLED CANDLES - LARRY HASSELMAN

11':15AM TO 12:00PM

ZACK HUANG

BREAK-OUT SESSIONS

1.       SPLITS - PRESENTED BY SCHOOKCRAFT BEE CLUB

2.       PACKAGES - PRESENTED BY SEMBA

3.       EQUIPMENT - PRESENTED BY SVBA

4. BEE PLANTS - PRESENTED BY JOHN DUSEK-FABER'S GREENHOUSE, ST. CHARLES, MI

12:00PM TO 1 :30PM

LUNCH

1 :30PM TO 2:00PM

1/2 DOOR PRIZE GIVE-AWAY

2:30PM TO 3:30PM

"MARKETING - WHAT'S NEXT AFTER HARVEST" SPEAKER: ANN HARMAN

4:00PM TO 5:00PM

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS