Items of interest to beekeepers November 23
Happy Thanksgiving to Americans celebrating it on November 26th. (I'm an imported Canuck and I still think Canada has a much more sensible date to celebrate this important event - the second weekend of October - before ice and snow and airport closures have a chance to kibosh the holiday!)
Clubs, please forward to your members, or give them the list of items in this mailing and my email address so they can sign up if they wish. Thanks.
DISCLAIMER
These items are circulated as being of interest to beekeepers. The sender has no vested interest in them, pro or con, and does not engage in censorship of what information beekeepers should or should not have access to.
Based on the concept that it is not education unless you look at both sides of an issue, I work hard to keep a balance of opinions. Everyone will find articles here they disagree with from time to time (so do I, but it doesn't matter). Just remember they may be the ones you can learn the most from -- and then make decisions with a better base of understanding.
Fran Bach, Western Apicultural Society Journal and Washington State Beekeepers newsletter editor 509-573-4245 [email protected]
IN THIS ISSUE ---
BEE DOINGS IN WYOMING & THE YUKON EPA CANCELS SULFOXAFLOR REGISTRATION OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF HOPGUARD II REGISTRATION DNA SEQUENCING AND A SUPERCOMPUTER CAN HELP SUSTAIN BEES CAMELINA ANOTHER BEE-FRIENDLY CROP OPTION EYESONHIVES CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN ROBOTS COULD BECOME THE MAIN WORKHORSES POWERING FARMS FIRST GENETICALLY ENGINEERED ANIMAL IN FOOD PRODUCTION EVENTS LINKS
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BEE DOINGS IN WYOMING & THE YUKON
Wyoming has been pretty quiet for the last while but all that has changed.
On November 17th, the newly formed Southeast Wyoming Beekeepers Association met to formalize the organization as a 501-c-3 non-profit organization. Current membership is 30. The Wyoming State Beekeepers Annual Meeting, will be December 4-5, in Casper, Wyoming at the Ramada Plaza Riverside, registration begins at 9 am.
And the Wyoming Bee College will be held March 19-20, 2016 at Laramie County Community College, with speakers from Penn State, Michigan State University and University of Montana; a beginning beekeepers course and much more. Information: www.wyomingbeecollege.org.
And a little outreach has garnered great results, as can be seen by this report from Etienne Tardif in the Yukon Territory of Northern Canada. For you Americans, that's right next door to Alaska. Etienne writes -
I just received your contact information from Jennifer Hall at the Yukon Agriculture Association. I recently started the process of developing a beekeeping networking group for the Yukon. We are currently at close to 70 members and we've had one group get together to share ideas and help new beekeepers get started in the north. I am in the process of coordinating a beginners beekeepers course with a BC instructor (BC Honey Producers Association).
The Yukon Government has a program "Growing Forward" that will allow us to get funding for education as well as cover some of the infrastructure costs - electric fences being the primary one as it is very common for bears to damage or destroy hives when no fencing/protection is in place.
We have no big commercial bee yards up here. Most of us have between 2 and 12 hives. Developing a northern hardy stock is what is really needed as most southern bees have difficulty overwintering without major preparation. Now that we have formed the group we are leveraging group purchases, sharing reviews of bees suppliers, and sharing start up ideas for northern climates. For example, we had -35C (-31F) this morning so feeding strategies and overwintering techniques mean the difference between flying up bees from down south or propagating our survivors. Most of us are taking treatment- free approaches due to the limited contact with other bees and the spreading of pests and disease.
We will most likely form a club/association at some point in next year.
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From http://seedworld.com/epa-cancels-registration-of-sulfoxaflor
EPA CANCELS SULFOXAFLOR REGISTRATION
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cancels registration of products containing the insecticide sulfoxaflor, after the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled back in September that the EPA did not have sufficient data when it first approved sulfoxaflor.
Sulfoxaflor is the active ingredient found in Dow AgroSciences products Transform WG and Closer. It is a sulfoximine-class insecticide, not a neonicotinoid.
“As a result of the extensive data currently available on sulfoxaflor, Dow AgroSciences expects the pollinator protection concerns expressed in a recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to be readily and thoroughly addressed by EPA through further review of scientific data, supporting pressing grower needs for protection against destructive crop pests with renewed U.S. registrations of sulfoxaflor-containing products,” Dow AgroSciences says in a statement.
“Four full years of widespread U.S. product use – with additional use in Canada, Australia and other nations – have demonstrated excellent sulfoxaflor performance worldwide with no noted adverse effects on pollinators.”
Registrations outside the U.S. of sulfoxaflor-containing products should not be impacted by this decision. U.S. tolerances for sulfoxaflor are similarly unaffected.
More information is available here: http://www.dowagro.com/en- us/newsroom/pressreleases/2015/11/sulfox-epa-decision#.Vkt8nSeb47B eedWorld
As part of its recent action, EPA has issued an existing stocks provision allowing growers to use sulfoxaflor-containing products they have in hand consistent with directions on the pre-existing product label. Dow AgroSciences is, however, disappointed with EPA’s existing stocks provision which effectively removes a critical tool from the American grower by not allowing existing inventories of sulfoxaflor-containing products to be sold and distributed to end-users while EPA considers its next steps.
Dow AgroSciences remains confident in the benefits offered by this new class of insecticides and will work diligently with EPA and States to achieve new registrations for these important products to support the American grower.
Dow AgroSciences notes that contrary to misrepresentations circulated by pesticide opponents, sulfoxaflor is a sulfoximine-class insecticide, not a neonicotinoid, a distinction clearly established by the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee (IRAC) and published in the open scientific literature.
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OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF HOPGUARD II REGISTRATION
Washington, D.C.; November 18, 2015) BetaTec Hop Products announces that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has registered HopGuard® II, a new biochemical miticide that combats Varroa mites in beehives. This registration covers all US states. It is the result of rigorous examination of HopGuard® II and demonstrates that it should not cause adverse effects to health or the environment when used according to label instructions.
Produced from the cones of female hop plants, HopGuard® II Potassium Salts of Hops Beta Acids (K-HBAs) combats the devastating effects of the Varroa mite on honey bee colonies. To control mites, the product is applied in beehives via cardboard strips.
HopGuard® II also provides beekeepers another option to avoid the development of resistance toward other products. Rotating products to combat Varroa mites is an important tactic to prevent resistance development and to maintain the usefulness of individual pesticides.
Varroa mites are parasites that reproduce and feed on developing bees, affecting brood development and reducing the lifespan of worker bees. They also transmit numerous honeybee viruses. The health of a colony can be critically damaged by an infestation of Varroa mites. Once infested, if left untreated, the colony will likely die.
HopGuard® II is exclusively distributed in the USA by Mann Lake, Ltd: www.mannlakeltd.com.
BetaTec Hop Products is the application arm of the Barth-Haas Group, the oldest and largest hops company in the world. As part of the Barth-Haas Group, BetaTec Hop Products draws on over 200 years of hop experience. It’s vertically integrated operations include the growing, harvesting, processing, marketing, distribution and sales of hops products.
For more information about BetaTec and our range of hop products, please contact: BetaTec Hop Products [email protected] www.betatechopproducts.com
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DNA SEQUENCING AND A SUPERCOMPUTER CAN HELP SUSTAIN BEES
Researchers from Ohio State University are using the latest DNA sequencing technology and a supercomputer to uncover what plants honey bees rely on. They spent months collecting pollen from beehives and have developed a multi-locus metabarcoding approach to identify which plants, and what proportions of each, are present in pollen samples.
A single beehive can collect pollen from dozens of different plant species, and this pollen is useful evidence of the hive’s foraging behavior and nutrition preferences.
“Knowing the degree to which certain plants are being foraged upon allows us to infer things like the potential for pesticide exposure in a given landscape, the preference of certain plant species over others, and the degree to which certain plant species contribute to the honey bee diet,” says graduate student Rodney Richardson. “One of the major interests of our lab is researching honey bee foraging preferences so we can enhance landscapes to sustain robust honey bee populations.”
More information is available here: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/bsoa-- hda111315.php
For Richardson and his colleagues, metabarcoding is key to this research. It is a DNA analysis method that enables researchers to identify biological specimens.
Metabarcoding works by comparing short genetic sequence "markers" from unidentified biological specimens to libraries of known reference sequences. It can be used to detect biological contaminants in food and water, characterize animal diets from dung samples, and even test air samples for bacteria and fungal spores. In the case of pollen, it could save researchers countless hours of identifying and counting individual pollen grains under a microscope.
Richardson and his colleagues devised the new metabarcoding method using three specific locations in the genome, or loci, as markers. They found that using multiple loci simultaneously produced the best metabarcoding results for pollen. The entire procedure, including DNA extraction, sequencing, and marker analysis, is described in the November issue of Applications in Plant Sciences. To develop the new method, the researchers needed a machine powerful enough to process millions of DNA sequences. For this work, the team turned to the Ohio Supercomputer Center.
"As a researcher, you feel like a kid in a candy store," Richardson says. "You can analyze huge datasets in an instant and experiment with the fast-evolving world of open source bioinformatics software as well as the vast amount of publicly available data from previous studies."
In previous metabarcoding experiments, the researchers worked solely with a marker found in the nuclear genome called ITS2. ITS2 successfully identified plant species present in pollen samples, but it could not produce quantitative measurements of the proportions of each.
While searching for something better, they decided to test two markers from the plastid genome. Pollen was previously thought to rarely contain plastids, but recent studies showed promise for plastid-based barcoding of pollen. Richardson and his colleagues found that the combined data from the two plastid markers, rbcL and matK, successfully correlated with microscopic measurements of pollen abundance.
The new multi-locus metabarcoding method involves all three markers and could serve as a valuable tool for research on the native bee species that comprise local bee communities.
"With a tool like this, we could more easily assess what plants various bee species are relying on, helping to boost their populations as well as the economic and ecological services they provide to our agricultural and natural landscapes." Richardson says, "While the honey bee is seen as our most economically important pollinator, it's only one of several hundred bee species in Ohio, the vast majority of which are greatly understudied in terms of their foraging ecology."
- Rodney T. Richardson, Chia-Hua Lin, Juan O. Quijia, Natalia S. Riusech, Karen Goodell, and Reed M. Johnson. 2015. Rank-based characterization of pollen assemblages collected by honey bees using a multi-locus metabarcoding approach. Applications in Plant Sciences 3(11): 1500043. doi:10.3732/apps.1500043.
- Applications in Plant Sciences (APPS) is a monthly, peer-reviewed, open access journal focusing on new tools, technologies, and protocols in all areas of the plant sciences. It is published by the Botanical Society of America, a nonprofit membership society with a mission to promote botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, function, development, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere. APPS is available as part of BioOne's Open Access collection.
For further information, please contact the APPS staff at [email protected].
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CAMELINA ANOTHER BEE-FRIENDLY CROP OPTION
Camelina is an herbaceous, yellow-flowering member of the mustard family whose oil-rich seed and cold tolerance has piqued the interest of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists for its potential as both a winter cover crop and biodiesel resource.
Now, in the process of studying this plant, scientists with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have found that its flowering period can provide honeybees and other insects with a critical, early- spring source of nectar and pollen that’s usually unavailable then. This is especially true in Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota, where about one-third of the nation’s managed bee colonies are kept from May through October.
The researchers observed that fields of winter camelina and winter canola (another alternate oilseed crop) produced about 100 pounds per acre of nectar sugar over the course of a two- to three-week flowering season. That quantity, produced in such a short time, is enough to support the annual energy requirements of a typical bee hive, which is 100-200 pounds of sugar per year, according to Frank Forcella, an agronomist with ARS’ Soil Management Research Unit in Morris, Minnesota. He participated on a team of ARS and university scientists which evaluated the attractiveness of camelina, canola and a third oilseed crop—pennycress—during two years of outdoor field trials.
Highlights of the team’s findings—reported in the June 2015 issue of Industrial Crops and Products— are:
• Insect counts showed that, besides honey bees, the three oilseeds also attracted wild bee species, butterflies, beetles, and hoverflies, whose larval stage feeds voraciously on aphids.
• Insects visited flowering canola up to 15 times more often than pennycress and camelina, perhaps because of higher nectar levels in each individual flower, which are much larger than those of camelina and pennycress.
• Canola failed to bloom during one of the study years, a reflection of it being less cold-hardy than the other two oilseeds.
• Camelina earned the highest marks overall, thanks to its optimal combination of desirable agronomic traits.
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Next steps for the developers of EyesOnHives, which we reported on last week -
EYESONHIVES CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN
EyesOnHives - The Health Monitor for Honey Bees by Keltronix of Sanata Barbara CA kicked off its crowdfunding campaign to raise $8000 by December 18th to further develop their video monitoring system network and data bank. You can help. Visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/985910122/eyesonhives-the-health-monitor-for-honey-bees, pledge your support and get rewards. If they don't reach their goal by Dec 18th, they get nothing (and neither do you).
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In the category of "what's happening out there in other fields of agriculture", the following two items really grabbed my attention in Beth Roden's weekly newsletter for Bayer CropScience. She reports on two major steps in the ever-increasing technological development of agriculture.
ROBOTS COULD BECOME THE MAIN WORKHORSES POWERING FARMS In the next 10 years, robots could become the main workhorses powering farms!
Robots are beginning to transform farming in the U.S., from autonomous mowing and plowing to so- called precision agriculture, a data-based approach to planting and harvesting crops. The agricultural robot market is expected to grow to $16.3 billion by 2020, and one segment of that is drones.
It’s important to note that the agricultural drone has the potential to create an additional 100,000 jobs in the U.S. and $82 billion in economic activity by 2025. Drones for consumers are taking off, with GoPro and Apple getting involved in the arena, but Bank of America Merrill Lynch anticipates that 80% of the commercial market for drones will eventually be dedicated to ag!
Full details at http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-drones-will-drastically-transform-us- agriculture-in-one-chart-2015-11-17
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FIRST GENETICALLY ENGINEERED ANIMAL IN FOOD PRODUCTION
The first genetically engineered animal in food production was approved last week for sale by the US Food and Drug Administration! The Atlantic salmon was engineered to grow quicker and larger than your typical fish due to the hard work of AquaBounty Technologies, who have been waiting for federal approval for years. The FDA says it’s as safe and nutritious as any other salmon after its scientists “rigorously evaluated extensive data.”
FDA also studied the environmental impacts, particularly the risks that the AquaBounty salmon could escape into the wild and breed. FDA stated that because the company is using land-based locations in Panama and Canada that it would be "extremely unlikely" the fish could get into the wild.
FDA also stated that because the fish is effectively the same as a wild salmon, that the agency would not require any labels.
FDA's announcement can be found here: http://http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm472487.htm
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EVENTS
Nov 30 - Dec 2: Canadian Honey Council Annual General Meeting, Radisson Hotel Saskatoon, 405 Twentieth St East, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, immediately followed by Saskatchewan Beekeepers Convention. Info www.honeycouncil.ca or www.saskbeekeepers.com
Dec 2 - 5: Saskatchewan Beekeepers Association Convention, immediately following the CHC Annual Meeting, Radisson Hotel Saskatoon, 405 Twentieth St East, Saskatoon. For information on both go to: www.honeycouncil.ca or www.saskbeekeepers.com
Dec 3 - 4: Idaho Honey Industry Association 2015 Annual Meeting, Red Lion Downtowner, Boise, ID. For registration information and further information contact Cindy at [email protected] or call 208-888-0988.
Dec 4: Treasure Valley Beekeepers Club Winter Hobbyist Session, 1:30 – 4:30 pm, Red Lion Downtowner, Boise, ID. A donation of $5 per person at the door is suggested to help the Club defray venue costs. The TVBC event will immediately follow the conclusion of the Idaho Honey Industry Association’s 2015 Idaho Honey Conference being held at the Red Lion. The speaker will be Ellen Topitzhofer, Oregon State University Crop Protection Agent, who will provide current information emphasizing the necessity of good bee nutrition, along with tips and techniques for keeping bees healthy and alive that she has acquired while working across the Pacific Northwest. Ellen is part of the Bee Informed Project Pacific Northwest Tech Transfer Team (https://beeinformed.org/team-2/tech-transfer-teams/), which operates out of Oregon State University, in Corvallis, Oregon. Info Steve Sweet 208-850-3452 or [email protected].
Dec 4 - 5: Wyoming State Beekeepers Annual Meeting, Ramada Plaza Riverside Hotel in Casper, Wyoming; registration begins at 9 am. Info Catherine Wissner 307-649-2430 or [email protected].
Jan 5 - 8, 2016: American Beekeeping Federation Conference & Trade Show, Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa, Ponte Vedra Beach (Jacksonville) Florida. Save up to $100 by registering by October 14th! Info 404.760.2875 or visit abfconference.com.
Jan 5 - 9, 2016: American Honey Producers 47th Annual Convention & Trade Show, Albuquerque Embassy Suites, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Info http://www.ahpanet.com.
Feb 26 - 27, 2016: Utah Beekeepers Convention, Best Western CottonTree Inn. Info www.utahbeekeepers.org/convention.
Feb 26 - 27, 2016: 6th Annual Mason Valley Beekeepers Conference, Yerington, Nevada. Speakers include Randy Oliver and Dr. Lawrence Connor. Info Debbie Gilmore 775-463-2757 or visit www.masonvalleybeekeepers.org.
Feb 26 - 28: 9th Annual American Organic Beekeepers Association meeting, YMCA Triangle Y Ranch Camp and Retreat Center, Oracle, Arizona. Speakers so far confirmed: James Fearnley of UK/England, for Propolis Bee Research Updates/doings., Michael Bush of Nebraska, USA, talking on Breeding/Field Management,...Beniamin Pixie of USA talking on the Magic and Medicines of the Honeybee; Mead Making as Medicine,....Laura Ferguson of USA and Dir College Melissae/International Natural Bkpg Fed for beekeeping history/etc,...Don Downs USA, speaking on Apitherapy, ...Jacqueline Freeman USA, speaking on Relational Bkpg: How to be best friends with your bees,... Bruce Brown Phoenix, AZ, USA, talking on Regulations Pertaining to International Trade concerning honeybees/products of the hive.... Dee Lusby AZ, USA speaking on Wrap/Tie Frame Wiring/Embedding with help of Chris Romnes from New Mexico, USA,.....Dee Lusby for Friday Night Hello's going over Honey/Pollen/Propolis Nutrition Values, etc ...with later during weekend showing how to convert from hand trucks to floor trucks for working field commercially, along with honey house needs/changes for working as one gets retirement age and older. Cost is $200 per person including meals and dorm-style accommodation; $12 more if you need to rent bedding. For general information concerning the meeting, contacts are Keith Malone 907-688-0588, and Ranona/Dean at 978-407-3934 or see: YMCA of Southern Arizona - Tucson, Marana, Oro Valley http://www.tucsonymca.org or visit OrganicBeekeepers at Organic Beekeepers http://groups.yahoo.com/group/organicbeekeepers or contact Dee Lusby for information/registration at 520-398-2474 late evenings.
Mar 19 - 20: Wyoming Bee College, Laramie County Community College, with speakers from Penn State, Michigan State University and University of Montana. Beginning beekeepers course and much more. Info www.wyomingbeecollege.org.
Sept 6 - 10, 2016 World Conference on Organic Beekeeping, Argentina. Info www.ifoam.bio
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LINKS
These links will take you to important websites. Reprinting the items gets too voluminous, so I encourage you to visit the originals for some good reading any time.
Bee Diverse - about bees and pollination, particularly mason bees - how to mange them using homes and mason bee tools http://www.Beediverse.com/blog
Winnie the Pooh Guide to helping British bees: http://www.friendsofthehoneybee.com/wp- content/uploads/2015/06 E2463_BeeBooklet_Web.pdf
From Julie, an after-school child care worker: Looking for a good information site to teach children and beginning beekeepers? Try http://www.serenataflowers.com/pollennation/flowers-bees-honey/
UC-Davis on-line Newsletter: http://elninobeelab.ucdavis.edu/apiculture_newsletter.html
Apis newsletter - PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE. The Apis newsletter is now found at http://us9.campaign-archive2.com/home/?u=9296a3543dc631c8a50086511&id=ec6bf7d517 It can also be accessed through http://apis.shorturl.com http://beecare.bayer.com/service-center/publications/beenow-magazin
California State Department of Food and Agriculture blog - plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov
Honey Bee Health Coalition - www.honeybeehealthcoalition.org
Pollinator Stewardship Council - pollinatorstewardship.org/?page_id=349, with the most recent one posting at the top of the page
Project Apis m. - www.ProjectApism.org
Washington State University on bee health - www.extension.org/bee_health
WSU 'Green Times' newsletter - http://cahnrs.wsu.edu/blog/2015/01/wsus-green-times Colorado State University Pollinator Protection office - http://www.cepep.colostate.edu/Pollinator %20Protection/index.html
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Archived "Items...." are available on request.
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