ABJ_December_2020.indb 1281 11/5/2020 1:10:23 PM ABJ_December_2020.indb 1282 11/5/2020 1:10:26 PM Editor - Eugene Makovec Advertising Manager -Marta Menn Publishing Department - Dianne Behnke & Susan Nichols [email protected] www.americanbeejournal.com [email protected] CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS Volume 160 No. 12 December 2020 From the Editor ...... 1287 ARTICLES Letters to the Editor ...... 1289 • Time Warp: Cryopreservation of Germplasm Part 1: The contribution News and Events ...... 1293 M.E.A. McNeil ...... 1307

Classified Advertising ...... 1389 • Running Interference: RNAi and the promise of healthy Bill Hesbach ...... 1315 Year-end Index ...... 1393 • A Zooming Success in Advertising Index ...... 1398 Jonathan Hayes and Linda Tillman ...... 1333

COLUMNS • Honey Skep : An Eastern European holiday tradition The Classroom M.E.A. McNeil ...... 1340 Jamie Ellis ...... 1297 • Control While Honey is on the Hive, Part 2 Basics: Randy Oliver ...... 1349 Using to Preserve Woodenware Meghan Milbrath ...... 1303 • Ellen Tupper, the Iowa Bee Queen Beekeeping, Past and Present: Peter L. Borst ...... 1363 Summer Swarms: A prelude to usurpation Wyatt A. Mangum ...... 1321 • Does Locally Sourced Honey Alleviate Seasonal ? The research is inconclusive Science Insider: Feeding Might Not Andrew Bauer ...... 1369 Be as Useful as You Think Alison McAfee ...... 1327 • Monitoring Activities with a The Curious : from Bugs: Temperature Sensor Grid, Part 3 that feed humans Frank Linton, Anna Stumme, Brett Padula, Rusty Burlew ...... 1345. Gail Ifshin, Gregory Behrmann ...... 1373

Notes from the Lab: • Memphis Medical Startup Heals with Honey: How Honey Bees Recognize Their Sisters Product bioengineered for chronic or acute wound care Scott McArt ...... 1359 Justin Stokes ...... 1379 The American Bee Journal ISSN 0002-7626 • Oregon Master Beekeeper Anna Ashby Brings Honey to THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL (ISSN 002-7626) is Resort’s Table published monthly at American Bee Journal, 51 S. 2nd Street, Hamilton, IL 62341. Periodicals Postage Dewey M. Caron ...... 1383 Paid at Hamilton, IL and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to American Bee Journal, 51 S. 2nd Street, Hamilton, IL 62341. In the United States, $29.00 a year; two years, $55.00 and three years, ON THE COVER $78.00. Canada $47.00 a year; two years $90.00. Foreign $54.00 a year; two years $99.00. Subscriptions stop at Shannon Wallace of Claremore, Oklahoma, shared this great photo and expiration date printed on label. Available in microfilm caption with us: form at moderate prices by writing to National Archive Publishing Co., 300 N. Zeeb Road, P.O. Box 998, Ann “With all the crazy things going on with the COVID and numerous Arbor, Michigan 48106. ©Copyright Dadant & Sons, Inc., changes to every part of life, my wife Jody and I decided to start 2019. All rights reserved, printed in USA. The Publishers cannot guarantee advertisements in this magazine, but homeschooling our two girls. They traveled with us up to North Dakota we ask that any advertising complaints be made known and helped work bees. On the first day of homeschooling we took a to us, so we can further check the company’s reliability. Opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those picture of our girls, Alesha (left, 9th grade) and Faith (11th grade), while of the publisher. American Bee Journal, 51 S. 2nd St., Hamilton, IL 62341. (888) 922-1293. Fax (217) 847-3660. working the bees. We did some school work and had a ton of fun!”

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1284 11/5/2020 1:10:30 PM ABJ_December_2020.indb 1285 11/5/2020 1:10:33 PM ABJ_December_2020.indb 1286 11/5/2020 1:10:36 PM From the Editor Eugene Makovec [email protected]

The Grinchy Beekeeper

My very favorite Christmas pro- oils that, according to the workshop light-bulb heaters, essential oils again gram from childhood was the Dr. she’d attended, were critical to keep- (this time in feed), bananas (yes, ba- Seuss classic “How the Grinch Stole ing them healthy. I managed to talk nanas), and shelters of all kinds. Christmas.” One of our three chan- her down, explaining that essential One Facebook post showed a row of nels would show it every December, oils — which Ana Heck of the Min- a half-dozen hives, surrounded by and it was so special that, in years nesota Bee Squad has described as a straw bales and covered entirely by when we had a working TV, Dad “fire hose” of scents overpowering a plastic tarp. Don’t get me wrong — would let us boys come in early from the bees’ natural — are insulation can be helpful in colder cli- milking cows to watch it. not in fact “essential” to a functioning mates, late-winter may be in Of course, while both the rhymes bee colony. In two decades, I told her, order for early spring splitting, and and the graphics were hilarious I have never put essential oils in my more commercial have throughout, the moral of the story hives, save for occasional, short-term taken to inside wintering to be ready came at the end, when Whoville’s can- use of thymol-based Apiguard for for the early bloom. tankerous northern neighbor discov- mite treatment. As for me, I make sure the lids are ered the true meaning of Christmas: Small hive are certainly an on — though I have seen abandoned annoyance, but I’ve yet to see them hives that survived winter with- And the Grinch, with his take down an otherwise-healthy col- out benefit of covers. I also attach Grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow, ony. Yet there is a great trade in both mouse guards, and ensure they have stood puzzling and puzzling, how commercial and homemade SHB enough honey. One of 13 is light and could it be so? It came without rib- traps, while many of the just got a candy board. A fourteenth bons! It came without tags! It came using them are inadvertently draw- went queenless at some point and without packages, boxes or bags! ing those beetles into their hives by dwindled to nothing last month, and And he puzzled three hours till his feeding pollen supplements when a couple of the late splits have small puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch they are not needed. Worse, I’ve seen populations and might be iffy. But thought of something he hadn’t be- more than one conference speaker with luck I expect to bring 10-12 col- fore. Maybe Christmas, he thought, instruct beekeepers in the placement onies through to spring — at which doesn’t come from a store. Maybe of hive traps containing actual point I will again invoke the Grinch: Christmas, perhaps, means a little roach (!) inside their hives. bit more! This time of year, the worries are And the beek, with his beek-feet about getting colonies through win- all wet in the grass, stood puzzling In his “Three Things” article last ter. For context, we’re talking in my and puzzling, how did they all month, North Carolina bee inspector case about Eastern Missouri, where last? They lived without tar-paper, Lewis Cauble said he advises bee- winter is child’s play compared what or electrical coil. They lived with- keepers that if they properly manage some of you experience in the north- out quilt-boxes, or essence of oil. , queen events, and feeding (if ern U.S. and Canada. Still, for my Dad Then the beek thought of something needed), lesser issues tend to take in Central Wisconsin, winter prep he hadn’t been taught. Maybe bees care of themselves. meant finally getting his supers off can survive without something Yet in so many of our interactions in about October, then stacking some I’ve bought. Maybe they’ve done with newer beekeepers there is en- straw bales at the end of the row to just that for more years than we’ve tirely too much time spent worrying temper the worst of the north winds. thought! about trivial matters. Much local club Granted, this was pre-varroa — but Q&A is spent reassuring folks about again, take care of the , and … I’m out of space, and secondary pests (no, wax did Beginners especially have a hard the aroma from the not kill your colony), while tamping time believing that their tender kitchen tells me it’s al- down old wives’ tales, magic elixirs charges can survive in a thin-walled most time to carve the and quick fixes. wooden box outside in the elements. roast beast. To all I got a call one April from a be- So they often go to great lengths — of our ABJ readers, ginner who was frantic because her and sometimes great expense — to here’s hoping your packages were on the way and she’d protect them. Quilt boxes, insulation holiday feasts are not found a source for the essential boards, black tarpaper or poly wrap, delicious.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1288 11/5/2020 1:10:41 PM Send your letters to the editor, Attn: Eugene Makovec, Dadant, 51 S. 2nd Street, Hamilton, IL 62341, Fax: 1-217-847-3660, or email: [email protected] 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!

BEEKEEPING IN SCIENCE AND SKEPTICISM curve. Chronic studies (semi-field NATIONAL FORESTS studies) with bees were conducted I found Rusty Burlew’s article on at less than the maximum applica- After reading the “Say No to Ban- science and all the many human er- tion rates, were not conducted long ning Honey Bees in National Forests” rors, mistakes and bias that can de- enough for a chronic study, and may letter [Letters to the Editor, October] stroy its accuracy, a very good article. have been affected by rain events. A and downloading and reading the Xe- Good science with peer review is how full field study also had serious defi- rces petition, I would say both have we learn the truth, with repeatability. ciencies and was not fully acceptable. valid points. The petition pointed out Of course varroa is probably our Despite these deficiencies, EPA deter- a concern of mine; that introduced biggest problem, and its effect on mined that for bees the dietary acute managed bee colonies might bring winter survival. What was screaming and chronic risk quotients exceeded the risk of introducing diseases and to me though was, the global warm- the levels of concern for foliar appli- parasites into any population of natu- ing theory of sure linkage to fossil fuel cations of . ral () honey bee colonies already use. It seems to be guilty of almost all The European Food and Safety Au- residing within the National Forests/ of the mistakes mentioned in the ar- thority (EFSA) reviewed the industry- Parks. Another concern I would have ticle. I mean there is only one exam- submitted chronic studies for bees is the effect of maladapted ple (our earth) and the variables are as and concluded (https://efsa.online from managed bee colonies brought many as the world has. library.wiley.com/doi/full/10.2903/j. into the Forests. As Seeley and other There, I said it, so let the music start. efsa.2016.4610) that they had “severe researchers have shown, large natu- The proponents usually call us skep- deficiencies and drawbacks” based on ral areas of woodlands can harbor a tics unkind names. “short duration [of the studies], lack population of adapted natural bee of exposure measurement, and low colonies which may possess unique Dale Lesser number of colonies used.” For these genetics and unique solutions to the Dexter, Michigan reasons, EFSA further concluded that diseases/pests within their own en- “these studies cannot be used to draw vironment. They have then become any firm conclusion on the risk [of a part of that environment worthy of BAN ALL acetamiprid] to honeybees.” the protections afforded inhabitants of EPA’s risk assessment noted that our National Forests and Parks. More We were pleased to read the Notes the only industry-submitted test that from the Pollina- studies would be beneficial, however was acceptable was one of the RT25 as- I have seen research already showing tor Laboratory concerning the risk says. The results of this study, though, that there are effects both ways be- assessment for the neonicotinoids are highly variable depending on the tween native and introduced pollina- [Notes from the Lab, September of bee, age and of the bee, tors. Most of the beekeeping literature 2020]. This was an exhaustive study foliage used in the test, formulation of I’ve seen doesn’t recommend woods/ with important information for bee- the product, weather condi- forests as very productive loca- keepers and others who are interest- tions, application rate, etc. Because of tions, and possibly one is not collect- ed in bees. There are a few items that the high variability of this test, it is not ing honey, but rather from we would like to bring to the atten- used by risk assessors to determine the some of them. tion of the authors and the readers. toxicity or safety of a pesticide. Unfor- But there is a reason that nullifies The first item concerns the statement tunately, EPA product managers are all others as to why I say Yes to ban- that acetamiprid is much less toxic to using the results of this assay for label- ning managed honey bee colonies bees than the nitroguanidine insec- ing purposes to indicate when it is safe in our National Forests and Parks: ticides (, , for bees to on a treated crop. I want to see them as close to natu- , and dinotefuran). If Another item that we would like ral as possible; I don’t want to see you look at EPA’s recent assessment to bring to your attention is the idea /beekeepers within them of acetamiprid (https://www.regula of using -treated seeds any more than I’d want to see a coal tions.gov/document?D=EPA-HQ- as an insurance policy for infrequent, mine, oil well, or any other unnatural OPP-2012-0329-0026, pp.44-45), you occasional pests. intrusion. will see that the acute and chronic The idea of using for oc- toxicity bee studies submitted by the casional, infrequent pests conflicts Terry Combs pesticide manufacturer were not fully with established Integrated Man- Beekeeper and retired Coal Miner acceptable. Some of the early acute agement practices, which recommend Keyesport, Illinois bee studies lacked a dose response only applying a pesticide “when

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1289 11/5/2020 1:10:42 PM pest populations reach an economic pesticides. According to EPA’s risk Flawed industry studies should threshold.” (https://www.pnas.org/ assessment, acetamiprid seed treat- not be allowed to confuse the simple content/117/37/22609). ment poses a chronic risk for truth that systemic neonicotinoid in- A number of studies have been pub- and . Killing off their food secticides represent an unmitigated lished in the literature, showing little supply (insects) would make the risk disaster for pollinators. The Pollina- to no benefits from neonicotinoid seed to birds and mammals from exposure tor Stewardship Council supports a treatments in corn and , the to acetamiprid much greater. total ban on the use of neonics includ- dominant crops for these products. Finally, another item that we would ing acetamiprid, for all outdoor appli- Furthermore, recent evidence has like to raise is the comparison of cations, including foliar, drench, and shown that only 5% of crop fields acetamiprid risk to vertebrates ver- seed treatments. benefit from neonicotinoid seed treat- sus pyrethroids risk to vertebrates. Sincerely, ment. Saturating millions of acres of There are a number of published Steve Ellis crops with chemicals that are not ef- studies (https://onlinelibrary.wiley. President, ficacious is irresponsible and not mor- com/doi/abs/10.1002/em.20309), that Stewardship Council ally or economically justified. Elimi- found evidence of genotoxicity of nating the use of neonicotinoid seed acetamiprid in human and mamma- treatment on the 95% of crops that do lian lines. In addition, the Euro- not benefit from this treatment would pean human health risk assessments reduce environmental pollution by an classified acetamiprid as Category 2, enormous amount. meaning a substance that is suspected The neonicotinoids, including acet- of having carcinogenic potential for amiprid, are very soluble in water, humans. USEPA, on the other hand, mobile, and persistent. They have a concluded that acetamiprid “does high potential to run off into water not pose a cancer risk to humans” bodies and are highly toxic to aquatic (https://www.federalregister.gov/ invertebrates on an acute and chronic documents/2012/03/28/2012-7461/ basis. Adding more neonicotinoids to acetamiprid-pesticide-tolerances). the environment unnecessarily will In light of the varying results of these be a sure way to kill more aquatic in- studies and assessments, it would be sects and terrestrial insects (e.g., bees). premature to conclude that the risk It will also be a sure way to kill the of acetamiprid to vertebrates is much natural predators of the insects, which less than the risk of pyrethroids to will result in the need for additional vertebrates.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1291 11/5/2020 1:10:49 PM ABJ_December_2020.indb 1292 11/5/2020 1:10:52 PM wild honey bees, communicating his findings to assorted clientele groups through diverse Extension programming, and training future generations of bee educators, research- ers and conservationists. His work has contributed to a four-fold increase in the number of managed honey bee colonies and a five-fold increase in the number of beekeep- ers in Florida. “Dr. Ellis is a model for faculty not just at our university but within the land-grant system and across the world,” said Nick Place, dean of UF/IFAS Extension. “He is the go-to person for all things honey bees. Dr. Ellis has gained national and international recognition for his innovative Extension programming, which has allowed beekeepers Submit your News or Event to editor@americanbeejournal. and other stakeholders to adopt science-based practices com, or to Editor, 51 S. 2nd St., Hamilton IL 62341. Deadline that improve the health and productivity of honey bee is 45 days prior to publish date ― e.g. January 15th for the colonies. Dr. Ellis’ program has also increased the public’s March issue. awareness about the importance of honey bees within the food system and how all of us can support pollinators.” Ellis said he was honored to receive the award. ABJ COLUMNIST JAMIE ELLIS “Successful Extension programming is always the result WINS NATIONAL EXCELLENCE of the investment of many people. I am grateful to my UF/ IN EXTENSION AWARD IFAS colleagues, my collaborators, and the beekeepers we serve. I am excited that our efforts are making a lasting im- October 12, 2020 – University of Florida pact in the communities we support,” Ellis said.

By Samantha Murray, [email protected], 949-735-1076 HEALTHBERRY FARM WINS GOLD AWARD FOR OLD WORLD MELOMEL Recognizing visionary leadership and diversity in edu- cational programming, the U.S. Department of Agricul- DRYFORK, West Vir- ture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture ginia — Healthberry Farm (NIFA), Cooperative Extension, and the Association of awarded a Gold medal in Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) announced the Pyment category for that Jamie Ellis of the University of Florida will receive the their Honey River Pyment 2020 Excellence in Extension Award. in the 2020 Mead Crafters USDA-NIFA and Cooperative Extension have spon- Competition. sored the awards since 1991. The awards will be presented “We are proud to represent West Virginia by winning virtually on October 28. this award,” says Healthberry Farm’s owner, Ben McKean. “Each year, these awards showcase the fundamental, “This wine is made with 100% West Virginia grown ingre- transformative difference Cooperative Extension contin- dients, and represents a long tradition of mead-making in ues to make in our society,” said NIFA Acting Director the region.” Parag Chitnis. “Excellent programs like these are a testa- Ben studied under Master Meadmaker Ferenc “Frank” ment to the true value of Cooperative Extension capacity Androczi, proprietor of Little Hungary Winery in Buck- funds more than a century after the Smith-Lever Act cre- hannon, West Virginia. Frank learned the winemaking ated this unparalleled system of outreach and education practice from his family in Hungary, and he is most re- that enriches every across the nation.” membered for the grape and honey wine he bottled sim- “This year’s National Cooperative Extension Award ply as “Melomel.” In 1999, Ben and Frank began a formal winners demonstrate educational excellence,” said Mark apprenticeship through Augusta Heritage Center, also Latimore, Jr., associate dean and administrator for Exten- forming a life-long friendship. sion, Fort Valley State University, and chair of the Exten- Frank continued to be Ben’s mentor and friend and, af- sion Committee on Organization and Policy. “They stand ter Frank’s death, Ben began his own line of meads and as a powerful example of the impact of Cooperative Ex- melomel. Honey River Pyment uses the traditional name tension to address real-world problems in communities for honey wine with grape, and is an homage to Frank’s across the country.” own beloved Melomel. The Excellence in Extension Award is given annually Since the beginning, Ben has been true to Frank’s tradi- to one Cooperative Extension professional who excels at tional methods, which means he does not add sulfites or programming, provides visionary leadership and makes a chemicals, nor any sugar or additives, and he sources his positive impact on constituents served. ingredients locally if he cannot grow them himself. “Frank Jamie Ellis is the director of the UF/IFAS Honey Bee was doing things in a method. He didn’t know the word Research and Extension Laboratory, as well as a professor organic, but his practices came from the old-world before and Extension specialist the UF/IFAS department of ento- chemicals were available to small farmers.” This dedica- mology and nematology. tion to “better than organic” and local ingredients led him The laboratory’s mission is to advance the understand- to a collaboration with Hank Kopple of Kopple Vineyards ing of honey bees in Florida, the U.S. and globally, with in Lehmansville, West Virginia. The Gold Medal-winning the goal of improving the health and productivity of hon- Honey River Pyment is made with Kopple’s Chambourcin ey bee colonies everywhere. Ellis advances this mission grapes. These are fermented as whole , a tradition he through basic and applied research with managed and learned from Paul Roberts at Deep Creek Cellars in Friends-

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1293 11/5/2020 1:10:53 PM ville, Maryland. Ben uses his own Tulip Poplar varietal hon- the conference sponsors: Auburn University, Alabama ey and ages the wine for at least two years before bottling. Extension, the Eva Crane Trust; the International Bee Re- The Mead Crafters Competition, organized by the Na- search Association; Véto-pharma; Vita (); and the tional Honey Board, received over 300 entries for their an- Ricola Foundation, & Culture. nual competition. In 2019, Healthberry Farm won a silver medal for their Basswood Mead. COLOSS (Prevention of Honey Bee COlony LOSSes) is Select varieties of Honey River meads and melomels are a honey bee research association formerly funded by the available at regional distributors. A full list can be found at COST Programme (Action FA0803) and healthberryfarm.com/contact. currently by the Ricola Foundation – Nature & Culture, Healthberry Farm’s Honey River Meadery was featured Veto Pharma, the University of Bern and the Eva Crane in a February 2015 article in American Bee Journal. Trust ,which aims to explain and prevent massive honey bee colony losses. COLOSS does not directly support sci- SUCCESSFUL GLOBAL COLOSS ence, but aims to coordinate international research activi- ECONFERENCE DEFIES COVID-19 ties across Europe and worldwide, promoting cooperative approaches and a research programme with a strong focus The 16th Conference - and first eConference - of the on the transfer of science into beekeeping practice. CO- COLOSS honey bee research association has now ended. LOSS has more than 1,500 members drawn from 102 coun- Judged a great success by participants, this eConference tries worldwide. Its President is Prof. Peter Neumann of had a record number of attendees, with 216 members from the University of Bern, . Website: http://www. 41 countries taking part. This is coloss.org/ a clear recognition that the CO- The full proceedings of the first day of the COLOSS LOSS Membership (now in 102 eConference can be viewed free of charge on the COLOSS countries) appreciate working FaceBook page: https://www.facebook.com/COLOSS- together world-wide to make a Association-216713901804099/ sustained and valuable contri- The results of the COLOSS study on the impact of Co- bution to bee science. vid-19 on research in apidology can be found here: https:// Detailed updates were given www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00218839.2020.17 on the COLOSS Core Proj- 99646 ects: the BEEBOOK (standard research methods), B-RAP FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT (Bridging Research And Practice) and colony loss moni- Norman Carreck: COLOSS Press Officer, University of toring; and of the COLOSS Task Forces: Apitox, nutrition, Sussex, BN1 9QG, UK. Tel: +44 7918670169 Email: norman. sustainable bee breeding, , varroa survi- [email protected] vors, varroa control, Vespa velutina and . At the start of the year, and before the global Covid-19 ARS LURE ATTRACTS crisis curtailed international travel, many constructive LIVE ASIANGIANT , COLOSS workshops and meetings were held in a variety of locations. Notably, these included the well-attended HELPS LEADTO NEST DISCOVERY first COLOSS Conference, in Chiang Mai, . Despite Covid-19 restrictions, the Executive Committee WAPATO, WASHINGTON, October 29, 2020—A scent were determined to keep the spirit and activities of CO- lure designed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) sci- LOSS alive. In the several weeks prior to the main confer- entists to attract Asian giant hornets played a key role in ence, workshops for the individual core projects and task the discovery of the first nest of these invasive insects in forces were held virtually. Run at times to suit the loca- the United States. tions of those involved, attendances were generally higher Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) than at previous physical meetings. Participants discussed entomologists have verified several finds of Asian giant experimental results, planned publications and proposed hornets in Whatcom County since December 2019. They future collaborative experiments. have been actively searching for the Asian giant hornets’ eConference delegates heard that a number of impor- nests ever since. But finding a nest is a difficult tant COLOSS publications had been published in 2020, hunt, even that of the world’s largest hornet, when the including two definitive reviews on bee viruses, the latest nest is most likely a hole in the ground or a tree. results of the international colony loss monitoring surveys and the BEEBOOK chapters on honey and bee . In addition, the COLOSS survey to determine the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on bee research and extension ac- tivities had been published. One novel feature of the conference was the addition of short video presentations of current work which replaced the normal physical poster presentations. The annual prize for the best student presentation was awarded to Birgit Gessler of the University of Hohenheim, Germany, for her poster on: “Detecting molecular markers for (VSH) trait in honey bees”. The COLOSS Executive Committee are particularly A scented lure developed by ARS was used to live trap Asian giant grateful to Dr Geoff Williams and his colleagues from Au- hornets.www.ars.usda.gov/oc/images/photos/aug20/ burn University, USA., who hosted the eConference, and d4467-1/

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1294 11/5/2020 1:10:54 PM To increase the odds of finding the nest, the WSDA team planned to live-trap some of the Asian giant hornets, fit them with radio transmitters provided by USDA’s and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and track them back to the nest. The first step was to attract the Asian giant hornets to the traps. Enter chemical ecologist Jacqueline Ser- rano with the ARS Temperate Tree Fruit and Vegetable Research Unit in Wapato, Washington. She is carrying on the work of late ARS entomologist Peter Landolt, a world leader in chemical ecology research, who developed traps and attractive lures used for and hornet species like the . “The ARS lure is a chemical mixture of acetic acid. It smells like sweet fermenting rotting fruit, which can be a food source for Asian giant hornets,” said Serrano. The standard lure used in Asian giant hornet traps has been a blend of orange juice and wine vinegar. The problem is the orange juice and rice wine vinegar com- bination continue to ferment and get “rather gross over time,” said Serrano. In contrast, the ARS lure is stable, so the traps don’t need to be refreshed as often. On Oct. 21 and 22, the WSDA team caught two live hor- nets using the ARS lure. The team successfully fitted sev- eral Asian giant hornets with transmitters and tracked one of the hornets back to its nest in a tree cavity near the city of Blaine. On Oct. 24, personnel from WSDA and APHIS removed the nest. They continue to use the ARS lure in the search for more nests. The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agri- cultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

STATES

California State Beekeepers Association

It was with heavy hearts that the CSBA board of directors decided to cancel the 2020 CSBA Annual Convention that was scheduled to take place last month in Lake Tahoe, CA. Mark your calendars for the 2021 CSBA Annual Convention in sunny Santa Barbara:

November 16th-18th, 2021 Location: Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort We look forward to getting to learn, network, and socialize with our fellow industry members in 2021!

Californiastatebeekeepers.com [email protected] (916) 441-0302

MICHIGAN

The Kalamazoo Bee Club (Michigan) is holding an on- line bee school for beginner and intermediate beekeep- ers, on February 20, 2021. Featured speakers are Dr. Larry Connor and Mike Connor. For more information, visit kalamazoobeeclub.com.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1295 11/5/2020 1:10:56 PM 1296 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1296 11/5/2020 1:10:59 PM APIVAR’S at room temperature,” “keep out of sure my answers will be particularly SHELF LIFE direct sunlight,” etc. are common on useful. ☺ My guess is that humming Q product labels. Storing the product birds do not get much nutrition out Yesterday and again today, the bees per the label helps you ensure the of . I suspect they are a lot like on one of my hives covered the entire product maintains its efficacy and is bees in that case, i.e., they use the nec- front from top to bottom in a heavy ready to use once you need it again tar for fuel rather than food. In fact, mass. Clear skies and 70 degrees. The in spring. Again, all of this is pend- I looked this up online and found hive consists of two deep supers and ing that the product does not exceed that hummingbirds mainly eat a va- both are full of honey for winter. Also, its expiration date before spring. If it riety of insects. That is where they get after treating the bees with Apivar, I does, you will need to dispose of it their nutrition. The nectar is simply have some left. Can I save this for per the label. their energy source. With that back- spring or does it have a shelf life? ground, I would stick to feeding them sugar syrup rather than honey syrup. Mac Daggett, FEEDING I really do not know what potential September HUMMINGBIRDS impact, if any, honey could have on hummingbirds. My gut always says Q HONEY “when it doubt, stick to the way that My wife and I noticed a couple of you know works.” Without being an hummingbirds working some flow- expert, I would recommend staying A ers on a sweet basil plant a few weeks with the sugar water. Sounds like your hive is doing well. ago. We had not seen any in a few Your second question is an interest- I would guess that what you are see- years. So, I got my hummingbird ing one. I think pouring a cup of hon- ing is simply a strong colony spilling feeder out of balls and made ey into boiling water and returning it out of the hive. I think this will self- some syrup for them. The recipe was to a boil will help clear the honey of correct soon. 1 cup of regular sugar poured . I think the key is return- Apivar does have a shelf life (i.e., into four cups of boiling water. ing it to a boil and allowing it to boil expiration date) and it should be writ- The hummingbirds frequent it. a few minutes. Then, you can feed it ten on the package. It should not be Then I got to thinking that is not a to bees with little concern. Beekeep- used after the date indicated on the very nutritious diet; so, being a bee- ers routinely feed bees honey from package. The expiration date indi- keeper, I figured maybe making the other colonies. They usually do this cates the time that the product begins syrup from honey, same recipe, might by moving frames of honey between to lose efficacy. This is usually due to be more nutritious for them. My ques- colonies. To me, it is too much work the overall break-down of the active tions: (1) Is that a correct thought? (2) to extract honey from one colony and ingredient in the product. Thus, using Will pouring a cup of honey into boil- then feed it to another. I would rather an expired Varroa treatment exposes ing water sterilize it enough to feed just move frames of honey between the Varroa to a level of active ingredi- the bees if the answer to (1) is yes? colonies. I have fed bees extracted ent that may not kill it, thus increas- honey in the past. I usually do this ing Varroa’s chance of developing re- Douglas Doremus when the extracted honey turns out sistance to the product. All pesticide October to be of low table quality (it does not labels also include information about taste good). In that case, I dissolve it storage and disposal of the product. in water and feed it to bees the way I Consequently, there will be some- would sugar water. thing on the label that states how A Of course, the danger in that is you you should store the product when it Well, full disclosure here: I know can spread pathogens, most notably is not in use. Phrases such as “store very little about birds. So, I am not , between colo-

December 2020 1297

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1297 11/5/2020 1:11:00 PM nies. As a result, I only feed honey (alternatively: Google “UF Honey Bee 2) I would not feed it to bees. Fer- from one colony to another if I have Lab” and then navigate this way: > mented honey is not good for them. reasonable assurances that the colony Beekeeper Resources > Pests and Dis- 3) Freezing them (as you did) from which the honey came does not eases > Small Hive Beetles). should be fine. You can always rinse have American foulbrood. For the feeding issue — honey bees out the combs with water as well. need about a medium super full of This will wash away the fermented SMALL HIVE honey when heading into winter honey. Let the combs dry a couple of BEETLES (which we do not really have here days after this and then you can store GOTCHA’ DOWN? in FL). I like to have that available them. Both strategies work. Just FYI, Q for the bees by Thanksgiving. If your I prefer to freeze combs that are not I have a problem with my colony. bees are bringing in nectar at the mo- in use. However, I realize that freezer I had a few small hive beetles from ment, maybe they can increase their space is a premium for many of us the beginning (spring last year) in honey stores by then on their own. (me included). Consequently, I of- my hive; the nuc I started with came How much honey is already on this ten return my pulled supers back to with them. Within the last few weeks, hive? If you have less than a medium hives and simply store them on the the SHB population exploded. I also super of honey, you might want to hives over winter. Full disclaimer: think the strength of my colony is re- start feeding them 2:1 sugar water (2 I have only ever lived in southern duced. I see fewer bees and less activ- parts sugar:1 part water) until they (warm) so I am not certain ity. This may be normal for the time of have enough stored resources. this would work in Canada. Howev- year but I am worried. I tried several er, it works really well for me. It saves different SHB traps but without much freezer space and shed space. success. What else can I do to manage MORE ON SMALL the SHB in my rotation? Is there any HIVE BEETLES Reply from Dan: “treatment” to get rid of them? Q Thanks so much. Very helpful. Another thing I recognize is that I am a new beekeeper in Southern Only remaining question (for which the bees consumed their own honey Ontario, Canada, and this past season I am not really expecting an an- (some of the capped cells are disap- my one hive has had a SHB infesta- swer) is how does one eliminate/ pearing and empty). What does it tion. The honey in the supers had a reduce a SHB infestation in a hive? mean that the bees consume their vinegar-like smell, which I believe is Things I have done so far include: own honey? We still have flower- due to fermentation from SHB larvae ing plants around, etc. Should I feed excrement. I watched your extremely • removed all vegetation around them? With what? helpful video and I had a few follow- the hive and sprayed salt/vin- up questions that I thought you might egar into the soil, Matthias Herzog, Florida have some insight to. • Beetle Blaster traps in the hive, October I was wondering: • temporarily replaced bottom board with tray filled with oil, (a) Is there any way to salvage the and vinegar-smelling honey (eg. boiling • try to keep bees healthy (e.g., A it, making mead, etc.) or is it best to Varroa treatments). It is pretty normal for SHB popula- dump it down the drain? tions to be higher the time of year you (b) Is it healthy to feed this honey I understand that there really is not contacted me. You are doing what I back to the bees (maybe boiling it a cure-all for SHBs and it is all about would have recommended (trapping first)? rather than pest elimina- SHB adults). I would use a style of (c) Should I be concerned about tion. Also, the SHB does not appear trap that fits between the top bars of storing the wet supers (from which to be as big a problem as other pests, frames and put or min- the vinegar-smelling honey came) so it does not get as much attention/ eral oil + some cider vinegar over the winter? I froze all supers for research. My area is one of the first in into the traps. I would put up to four 2-3 days prior to extracting the honey. Canada to have it. They do not even traps per box. Would it be better to store the wet su- have this issue yet in neighboring If, though, you are not seeing SHB pers in a freezer or would room tem- towns 30 minutes away. If you have larvae, you likely do not have a ma- perature be fine? any further advice, that would be jor problem. Colonies can withstand great, but I understand that there is adult beetles reasonably well. In- Dan Vacca, Ontario not much more that one can do. stead, you should be worried when October you see SHB larvae. ANSWER: I would also ensure there are There really is no way to eliminate enough bees to cover all the frames so SHBs once they are established in an that all combs are protected from the A area. When we have large numbers in beetles. If the colony is strong, bees Sorry to hear about your SHB infes- our hives at the University of Florida, cover the frames, and you are not tation. we use traps such as Beetle Blast- seeing beetle larvae — your colony 1) Honey produces that smell ers in every box that composes the is likely OK. Here are some links to when it ferments. Fermented honey hive. Sometimes, we will put up to good resources on SHBs: is not great for bees. Thus, I would four traps per box. One of my team http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/honey- extract/dispose of it. It is not really members is also fond of using Swiffer bee/beekeeper-resources/pest-and- possible to use the honey for human sheets in each box. Collectively, this disease-resources/small-hive-beetles/ consumption. helps keep beetle populations “low”

1298 American Bee Journal

WHATABJ_December_2020.indb HAPPENED 1298 TO A HIVE UNDER 11/5/2020 1:11:01 PM OUR COLONIES? MY HIVE? but not eliminated. There are some tween the groups. My guess is that ural: pine straw, dried grass (though I really good resources on SHB control keeping bees in full sun may help do not like the way dry grass smells), on the web. Both Clemson University some colony parameters, but it can leaf/twig litter, wood shavings, etc. and the University of Arkansas have hurt others. In Florida where I live, I am not really a huge fan of burlap good documents about this pest. My colonies kept in full sun work hard to sacks, processed wood products, etc. team has linked to those on our web- keep the nest cool during late spring I never really know what added in- site. Have a look at these resources and throughout summer. The energy gredients are in those products so I and see if any help: cost to do this must be tremendous tend to shy away from them. I am and surely would offset any benefit also pretty lazy and do not want to http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/honey- that the bees might get from being in work too hard to collect smoker fuel. bee/beekeeper-resources/pest-and- full sun. Thus, I prefer to use what is around disease-resources/small-hive-beetles/ At the end of the day, I prefer to me. I have lived in places where I (alternatively: Google “UF Honey Bee keep colonies in morning sun and af- have had a lot of access to pine straw Lab” and then navigate this way: > ternoon shade. Practically speaking, (which is still my preferred fuel — it Beekeeper Resources > Pests and Dis- this means I like the colonies to be in just smells like bee smoke to me). I eases > Small Hive Beetles) the sun first thing in the morning, un- only have access to cut grass at my til just after noon, and then in shade home now, and that is only when I *At this point, I had no more ques- during the heat of the day. As an in- actually cut the grass. ☺ I lived in tions emailed to me to include in this teresting aside, many commercial South about 18 years ago and month’s column. What follows is a list beekeepers keep their colonies in full a beekeeper acquaintance there used of some other questions I received this sun, often placing hives in holding dry animal dung (dung from her- year about honey bees and beekeep- yards with no trees, in fields of low bivores) as smoker fuel. That was ing. Do you have a question you want plants for purposes, etc. amazing to me at the time but I grew answered? Feel free to email me at They do this out of necessity. Some to accept it. After all, animal dung is [email protected]. also keep the same colonies in full just processed grass. Nevertheless, Maybe your question will appear in a shade other times of the year, possi- I like to use what is around me be- future issue of The Classroom! bly to catch honey flows in the forest cause it is usually free. Free beats not or for some other reason. If there is a free every day. benefit to keeping colonies in the full So what is good for bees? Honestly, sun or the shade, it seems too small to I think using pine straw, cut/dried SUNSUN VS.VS. SHADESHADE celebrate. The good news about all of grass, animal dung, wood shavings, Q this … I could be wrong. That is why and things like these items are accept- Is it better to keep hives in full sun, we have science. ☺ It will inevitably able. The key from the perspective of full shade, or somewhere in between? correct me some day. bee health is not to over-smoke bees. I have never killed bees by smok- ing them, but I have compromised a colony, though only temporarily. I do not believe smoke has any long-term A Q impact on the bees. I get this question a lot. In fact, I What should I burn in my smoker? As a final note, a lot of folks use pa- end up answering this question many What works best to calm the bees? per, cardboard, burlap sacks, etc. as times per year. It is usually predicat- smoker fuel. I do not see any harm in ed on the idea that honey bees seem using these items but just be mindful to “do better” (which is what I often of any contaminants they may con- hear) when they are maintained in tain. Many of the beekeeping equip- the sun. I have heard Varroa and small A ment manufacturers also sell pellet- hive beetle populations are lower in I like to use whatever is (1) natu- ized wood shavings. This seems to colonies kept in full sun than in colo- ral, (2) available, (3) non-toxic, (4) work as well. nies managed in the shade. I have also free, and (5) safe for me. Let me ad- I do not recommend adding other heard that colony temperament seems dress the last one first. I have always compounds to your smoker. This in- to be worse when colonies are man- wondered about, but never found an cludes essential oil, tobacco, any treat- aged in full shade. What to believe? answer to, how safe using smokers is ment of any type, etc. Not enough is I can only provide an anecdotal for beekeepers. Commercial beekeep- known about these additives and I response. First, colleagues and I con- ers and their staff use smokers every do not think the potential reward is ducted a sun/shade study on small day, all day long. They have no filters, worth the risk. hive beetles years ago. We found that no safety measures, etc. When I work colonies managed in full sun and bees, I try to avoid breathing in too full shade had statistically indistin- much smoke, but I really do not know guishable beetle populations. I have how much is “too much.” It would be What to do with not seen similar work conducted for good to conduct a longitudinal study queen cells when other pests (Varroa as an example) or on the impact of smokers on beekeep- things are going well pathogens. The truth is, we just do ers. Maybe someone reading this an- Q not know. swer is an MD/PhD and looking for a What do I do with queen cells when I have kept bees in full sun, full great project ... the colony otherwise looks good? shade, and a mixture of the two and Now let me discuss my other They have a queen and she is laying have not seen any differences be- points. First, I like to use what is nat- well. What do I do?

December 2020 1299

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1299 11/5/2020 1:11:01 PM of brood, etc.). If these criteria are met and it is not swarm season, I remove A any queen cells I find. I might destroy A Honey bee workers make queen them altogether or place them in an- Why would you want to remove the cells for different reasons. Sometimes, other colony that is queenless. smell? It is your right of passage! In they make queen cells when a colony is all seriousness, this question has been getting ready to swarm. We call these my favorite one asked of me this year. cells … wait for it … swarm cells. Oth- HOW MUCH IS Unfortunately, there is no trick. You er times, the workers will make queen have to remove/wash your clothes. cells when they want to replace a fail- TOO MUCH? You also have to take a shower. That ing queen. The queen can be consid- Q is the only way to escape the smell. ered failing for any number of reasons. How often should I work my colo- My wife was not a bee person Maybe she quit laying altogether, or is nies? when we started dating. She could only laying drone eggs. Perhaps she always tell if I worked bees prior to is maimed in some way. Queen cells our dates. She even knew this after I made in these circumstances are called took a shower and changed clothes! supersedure cells. The bees are trying The smoke smell really gets in your to make a new queen to supersede A hands. There is no escaping it. (replace) the old one. Finally, worker First, I work my colonies about once As another example, we just built a bees may construct queen cells when every 7-10 days during production new bee lab at the University of Flori- the queen is dead or missing from season. I consider this from immedi- da. It is composed of two main build- the hive. These queen cells are called ately before the swarm season (late ings and an outdoor teaching facility. emergency cells. Some beekeepers use March for me) through the spring I made sure showers were included in the phrases emergency queen cell and honey flow (into the first week of June the designs of both buildings. I even supersedure queen cell interchange- for me). I work my colonies every 2-3 had a laundry room put in one. Why? ably. I tend to use them to mean dif- weeks in summer/early fall (June- There are times (albeit, less frequently ferent things. October). Then, I work my colonies these days) where I work the bees in There is a final instance in which maybe once in November, and not the morning and then have to meet a will make a queen cell. again through winter. I live in Florida with my administrators or visitors That is when the queen is otherwise so the word “winter” is somewhat later in the day. When this happens, doing just fine. She can be present, relative. However, I tend not to work the only way I can escape the smoke young, laying lots of eggs, etc. It may my colonies in December, January, or smell is to shower. even be outside of swarm season. February. I visit them once monthly to With that said, there is something During these times, it is really difficult hoist them from behind to see if they nostalgic about that hint of smoke to determine why the worker bees are have enough food stores. If they do, that hangs around on your hands making a new queen. It is likely that I will postpone working them again for a day or two. I played basketball they are sensing something we are until late February/early March. in middle and high school. Today, not. Maybe the opposite is true: May- At the recommendation of my when I walk into a basketball gym, be we are sensing (seeing) something wife, I wrote an article entitled “The the smell of hotdogs, popcorn, and that the bees are not sensing (smell- time commitment associated with freshly waxed courts, the sound of ing). As an example, it is conceivable keeping bees” for the American squeaky shoes, etc., transport me to that the output of a Journal some years ago. In that the days when I was young and play- can be low for whatever reason, even article, I go into more detail about ing ball regularly. That hint of smoke if she is a productive queen. In these how much time one can expect to does the same for me now. It takes instances, the workers are getting work colonies if they are a hobbyist, me back to the hives. I have learned mixed signals. Brood is present, but sideline, or commercial beekeeper. to embrace the smell, even if the non- they cannot perceive the queen. Thus, You can find that article by going to beekeepers with whom I interact find they may start to requeen themselves www.ufhoneybee.com > beekeeper it unpleasant. even when things look good to us. resources > management. There are other times that bees seem If you are a new beekeeper, I give This marks the end of The Class- to make queen cells when everything you permission to work your colo- room Q&A series for 2020. This year we know about bees tells us they nies a few times a week. I hated to has been a very trying year for many should not be making them. wait to work my colonies every 7-10 of you. COVID has devastated some I certainly cannot pretend to know days when I was just starting out with families and continues to be diffi- the reasoning behind making queen bees. I wanted to work them daily. I cult to understand and address. Job cells when the colony seems to be think our bees are pretty forgiving so and wage losses have been rampant. steaming along. Even still, I tend to it is ok to work your colonies a couple These and other issues produced a remove these cells when everything of times a week as you get started. divided nation grappling with a po- otherwise looks good to me. To an- larizing election. Despite all the bad swer the original question: (1) I look TIRED OF — and often over-sensationalized — for evidence of an existing queen (I SMELLING LIKE news, there is still good in the world. look for her or look for eggs/young As beekeepers, we have a common larvae). (2) I look to see if the queen is Q SMOKE! goal: Manage our colonies to make maimed in some way. (3) I determine I smell like smoke the rest of the them as strong and productive as if everything seems to be going well day after working my bees. Is there possible for the betterment of honey (the colony is productive, healthy, lots a trick to removing the smoke smell? bees, mankind, and the environ-

1300 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1300 11/5/2020 1:11:01 PM ment. We are united by our love of and fascination for honey bees. Let us remember 2020 for what it was, Browning Cut Stock a time of struggle that has made us Boxes are Ponderosa Pine all stronger and more resilient. Let us welcome 2021 as a year of new 9-5/8 Com. Boxes $10.50 / Budget Boxes $9.00 opportunity. Let us unite with com- 7-5/8 Com. Boxes $8.20 / Budget Boxes $7.95 mon purpose and celebrate what 6-5/8 & 5-11/16 Com. Supers $7.50 / Budget $6.85 makes us similar and what makes us All #1 frames $.70 different. I wish you all the Happi- est of Holidays and the Merriest of 1-3/4 Cleats $.22 Christmases. I look forward to shar- 1571 Hwy. 3 • Juliaetta, ID 83535 ing my passion for honey bees and Phone 208.276.3494 FAX 3491 beekeeping with you in 2021.

December 2020 1301

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1301 11/5/2020 1:11:03 PM ABJ_December_2020.indb 1302 11/5/2020 1:11:06 PM Beekeeping Basics Using Wax to Preserve Woodenware Photo by Kirk Mason Photo by MEGHAN MILBRATH

ver notice that the word “pain” The whole process occurs by dip- crafts, but less than used in industrial is in “painting”? While I love ping woodenware in a tank of hot applications. Often, the cost of ship- Ebees and beekeeping, I hate wax. The tank is basically a large ping is about the same cost as the wax, painting boxes. My sideline operation stainless steel rectangle with a remov- so if you have the vehicle and time to in Michigan is limited by both space able lid. Mine is big enough to dip pick it up it is likely worth your while. and time, and paint needs both to dry. six deep boxes at a time (two stacks I’m lucky because there are two other Since I operate out of a small shared of two side-by-side with one in the beekeepers in the area that I can order building, and Michigan weather is middle of each stack), though I’ve with to share costs. It is also important not always reliable for drying paint seen others that are much smaller. The to know what size pieces the wax will outside, a few years ago I looked into nice thing about having such a large arrive in if you have to hand-unload alternatives to painting boxes as a tank is that is ultimately saves a lot of like I do. While I can accept a freight method of woodenware preservation. time — between loading, unloading, shipment at the farm, I have to hand- I tried paraffin wax preservation, and and a 10-minute dip, each batch takes move it around the garage, so I get I have never looked back. The pro- about 15 minutes. If you double the 60-pound boxes that I can easily lift. cess is quick, it does not require space size of the batch, you halve the time I use a mixture of 2:1 ratio of paraffin for drying, and the boxes last much it takes to get through your wooden- and microcrystalline wax. I use this longer than those done with paint or ware. Of course, this is only useful if ratio because it is what most beekeep- stain. Even better, a hot wax system you plan on doing a lot of boxes. The ers use who dip their equipment (and can sterilize equipment — including downside to a large tank is that I had write about it on the internet or an- American foulbrood (AFB) spores, to purchase a LOT of wax to fill the swer my phone calls). I have not been and I love reducing disease risk any tank — about 700 pounds. able to find a lot of data or reasoning way that I can. In this article I have I have always been able to find the behind wax mixtures, but the current tried to outline my experience so you wax, though it is not cheap because it mix works fine, so I have not been mo- can see if this is something that might is an in-between size order for most tivated to mix it up. I do always talk to work for you and your operation. companies — more than used for a dealer to check the specs, because it is really important to pay attention to the flash point and the melting point. You want a wax with a higher melting point, so that it will not get tacky and sticky in hot sun in the bee yard (this is why does not work). More importantly, you want to have a high flash point so that you don’t create a driveway disaster. In order to sterilize boxes for AFB spores, you want wax that can be heated to 160° C (320° F). The wax also has to be hot because the process needs to be above the boiling temper- ature of water. Rather than coating the outside of the wood, the wax dip process boils the moisture out of the wood, and the wax is sucked inside. The hotter the wax, the faster this pro- Note the foam caused by the new boxes. We try to leave at least 12” between the top cess occurs. of the wax and the top of the tank, but that is sometimes not enough if the wood is wet Becacause you are boiling water out or you pack it full with lots of small pieces. Photo by Kirk Mason of wood, the moisture of the wood is December 2020 1303

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1303 11/5/2020 1:11:08 PM a very important consideration. When cement pad, and have a real fun af- a pain (there is only one employee the woodenware is brand new, and of- ternoon trying to move an 800-pound at the station for both counter work ten very wet, there will be a lot of mois- tank that is melted to your driveway. and propane refills, so sometimes we ture. Because we do it outside, we also Our tank is not insulated, so on would have to wait at the station for have to watch the weather so the boxes very cold days it is hard to keep the a long time). The 20-pound tanks also are dry and we don’t get rain/mois- wax up to temperature. One very cold got maxed out a lot. They would freeze ture into the tank. Moisture will cause and very windy day we were using up and required a lot of maintenance the wax to foam, and it can overflow. a ton of propane, and would have to to unthaw valves or to tip to get more We learned this the hard way, and now take breaks between rounds to bring pressure. We now use a 100-pound also have an accidentially (and expen- the wax back up to temp. Our solu- tank, and keep the small tanks to use sive) paraffin-sealed cement pad in our tion was to insulate with rockwool while the large tank is getting refilled. I driveway. Now, we never fill the tank and cement board. Those are both safe usually use a full 100-pound tank each more than ⅔ with wax, to allow for the to use, and non-flammable. However, weekend that I dip. space of the wood and the wax, and what we missed was that if there was I get up around 5 a.m. and start the our tank has a 2” baffle that drains into an overflow, the insulation would burners to melt the hardened block of an overflow bucket. If I were to make a keep the wax right next to the tank. wax. The time it takes to get the wax new tank, I would make a much larger It dripped down the side of the tank to temperature depends on the out- overflow pipe to a bigger bucket, be- and onto the casters, causing them to side weather, but usually it is about cause when overflows happen, they burn. We chose to learn through ex- 4 hours if the tank is uninsulated and are fast and dramatic. perience, but you could use foresight it is cold, or about 2 hours if it is in- Besides overflows, there is a lot of if you like — either insulate the tank sulated and warm out. Usually by 9 potential for fire. We minimize risk more safely, only dip on hot days, or or 10 in the morning we are busy dip- by keeping a fire extinguisher close assume that everything nearby is fair ping boxes. If the boxes are dry, we by, keeping a clear space around the for starting on fire, and pur- can keep the process going without tank, and having a steel lid always chase metal casters accordingly. stop. If they are wet, we often have to accessible — it hooks to the side dur- Our tank is heated underneath pause to let the excess water boil off ing use. Our bottom is flat, but in the with a black pipe burner (from a meat and the wax get back up to tempera- beta version, I would have a lip that smoker/grill company) with an adjust- ture. We use an infrared thermometer drops down to shield the burner from able regulator hooked to a 100-pound to easily check the surface tempera- drips. Our tank is on casters, so it can propane tank. I have seen photos of ture of the wax so we aren’t wasting be rolled out of the garage to an out- some people who heat their tank with our time trying to dip when it is too door, open cement pad for dipping. If an open fire. I believe this to be danger- cold. When the wax is not hot, it takes you had a forklift, I would just leave ous because the wax is so flammable much longer for the water to boil out, pallet jack openings rather than the and the flame cannot be “turned off” and the process does not seem as ef- casters in the design. If you do get if there is an emergency and there is fective. I usually try to do at least two casters, I would make sure they are no way to control the temperature of days in a row, because if it is warm metal — speaking from experience, the wax. Originally we used multiple enough (and I get up early enough) if you have composite casters, and it 20-pound propane tanks. We have a the wax will not completely solidify is a cold windy day so you insulate gas station nearby with propane re- at night, and I won’t have to wait for around the bottom of the tank too fill, and we would switch them out it to completely melt again. well, you will melt your casters to the as needed during the day. That was The dipping can easily be done with one person, but it is better with two. The person working the tank pro- tects themselves from the wax drips with a heavy duty apron and heavily insulated gloves. The other person moves boxes — we keep a pallet for woodenware that needs dipping on one side of the tank, and pallets of finished boxes on the other. The per- son working the tank adds the boxes slowly — preventing splashing, and watching the levels of foam/mois- ture. At 160 C (320 F) the boxes have to sit submerged for 10 minutes. The boxes will want to float, so you’ll need something to hold them down. I have seen designs for bars with a spring and catch, but we just use some scrap metal (see the rebar and angle ‘ladder’ in the photo) that is held down by a concrete block. We had to In this photo you can see bubbles as the hot wax is sucked into the corners of the wood. add a similar rack to the bottom of I have only had the dipping tank since 2015, so I cannot personally speak that well to the the tank so we were not pressing the longevity of the boxes, but I have yet to see any signs of rotting corners from the dipped boxes against the hot bottom where boxes. Photo by Kirk Mason they can burn.

1304 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1304 11/5/2020 1:11:08 PM The rack also keeps the boxes cleaner, as dirt and flotsam such as cocoons, , etc. from re-dipped boxes will sink to the bottom. We have a metal mesh skimmer (home- made with hardware cloth) to get bees and cocoons that float, but it is almost impossible to clean the dirt from the bottom of the tank, so we are careful about what goes in. I use a wire brush on used boxes to remove spider webs and dirt, and we keep the lid on the tank when it is in storage. Over time, the wax is no longer totally pristine, but it kind of adds to the natural look, and we don’t really care, so I have not put more effort into keeping the wax perfectly clean. After dipping, the boxes have to sit for only a few minutes to dry/ cool. Once they are cool to the touch they are completely ready to go. It is good to have a drying rack that col- lects the dripping wax — there is a lot that drips off the boxes in the process, Here is a photo of the caster burning incident. The flames are all just melting plastic. It and since it is so expensive we have smelled horrible. Photo by Meghan Milbrath found that it is worth it to reclean it and put it back in (we just put the col- there was a great benefit to dipping and nearby while I was already dip- lected wax in the tank in a strainer unassembled equipment, because ping boxes, and I have noticed that it as the tank is heating, and remove you can fit so much more into the takes much less time on the second the strainer once the liquid wax has tank. However, I soon realized that round — there is so much less foam melted out). It is better to have a place they often stick together — so tightly — indicating that the wax is hold- sheltered from wind to dry the boxes. that the wax does not penetrate in be- ing up at least for now. While I was We tried to dip boxes on a cold and tween. Prying them apart is difficult, trying to catch up on my back stock windy day (probably the same day as so it does not save that much time. It of woodenware I would usually fire we melted the casters), and the wax could be solved by a slotted rack of up the wax dipper twice per year — was drying so quickly it wasn’t get- some sort, however you also have to in the spring and in the fall. I would ting drawn into the boxes. We had watch the foam and overflow risk. If stack up equipment to be dipped in to scrape the outsides of the boxes, you pack the tank with a lot of new the garage, and when I would have at and wondered how much actually wood, that means a lot of moisture, least 60 boxes of my own equipment, went into the wood. You can paint easily boiling over. I would send an email out to local bee the boxes immediately after the boxes I only dip each box once, though I clubs and let them know what week- come out of the tank, but not really have seen that some people dip mul- end I would be dipping. I would do after they are finished. (I have never tiple times to make sure that the wood all of my boxes on a Saturday, and tried, but I can’t imagine it would is fully preserved. I have re-dipped then dip other peoples’ boxes on that work well.) We had a beekeeper want some boxes as the paint has worn Sunday. I leave pallets in the yard so to decorate their boxes, so we set up a off, or if they happened to be empty people drop off their equipment all tarp painting station on the grass next to the driveway, and they were ready to immediately paint them. I have not done that much, but I like the option so I can still easily mark mating nucs to prevent drifting. You can wax dip most equipment, used or new, as long as it is clean, not too wet, and not cheap plywood (the glues will delaminate). Metal covers and screened bottom boards are just fine — the wax drains off the metal, and a quick shake rids the screen of the liquid wax. I have had no prob- lems with dipping painted boxes — only one color faded — but I don’t think it absorbed well into the painted side. You can dip unassembled or as- A stack of woodenware sits ready to be dipped as a load of boxes sits submerged in sembled equipment. At first I thought the tank. The lid is hooked over the side for quick access. Photo by Kirk Mason

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1305 11/5/2020 1:11:10 PM A mix of wax dipped and painted boxes in the field. I add the cleat at the same time that I dip the boxes so I can keep track of which boxes have been dipped. As I retire out old boxes I likely will not paint anymore except to add decorations to minimize drifting.

week (every single piece has to be labeled and they either have to leave a note or email me their contact info and the inventory of what they left). In non-pandemic years, people often stay to help, or use the other jigs in the woodshop, and it is a pretty fun and social event. Usually someone orders pizza, and we spend the day talking bees. In those two days, and keeping a social pace, I can usually dip upwards of 200 assembled boxes. I estimate it costs $4-5 per box to cover the wax, propane, and initial materials. After each weekend of a few hundred boxes I have to refill the 100-pound propane tank and order a few hundred dollars’ worth of wax to refill the tank. I only charge enough to cover my costs, be- cause it isn’t part of my business — it is more of a service I offer, but I do feel that the demand is high enough in my area that someone could make it part of their business model. I have not had any complaints from other beekeepers, and I’ve been quite hap- py with the way the boxes turn out. The real test of the economics of this system will be if the wax dipped box- es last without care as long as people tell me. I’ve read that a dipped box can last decades, while painted boxes rarely last a full decade. In my calcu- lations, if I can prolong making new equipment by even a few years, the system will easily pay for itself. Only time will tell.

Meghan Milbrath is a bee- keeper and honey bee and pollinator researcher and Ex- tension specialist at Michi- gan State University.

1306 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1306 11/5/2020 1:11:14 PM TIME WARP

Cryopreservation of Honey Bee Germplasm Part 1: The drone contribution

by M.E.A. McNEIL

This array of liquid nitrogen tanks is at The National Animal Germplasm Program (NAGP), at Fort Collins, Colorado, where thousands of samples from agriculturally beneficial are cryogenically preserved. Only recently has honey bee germ- plasm been added. Harvey Blackburn, left, Coordinator of the USDA program, places vials into a tank with Biological Techni- cian Ginny Schmit. Photo credit: USDA/ARS

“ ool it. First, we cool it.” ed in the field has to be taken with a relatively low frequency in your origi- "What?” The young student, grain of salt,” said Hopkins. “We had nal sample, you can lose those char- CBrandon Hopkins, was ready good results according to fluorescent acteristics.” Numbers of colonies can to put some vials into a vat of liquid under a microscope,” which increase, but not . nitrogen, and he did not understand shows the proportion of live cells. “That’s a bottleneck, and that’s just to what his Master’s advisor, Charles “But that doesn’t necessarily mean start with,” he said. Herr, was telling him. They were at that it results in fertilized progeny to In a 1993-94 study he found that Eastern Washington University, at- produce queens from.” most queen breeders sampled in the tempting in 2008 to preserve frog sper- Hopkins subsequently came to matozoa and a last-minute addition of Washington State University to study some from honey bees. Herr explained for a PhD under Steve Sheppard, a that the semen should be brought population geneticist who has exam- down in temperature before freezing. ined the genetic diversity of domestic “I didn’t know anything about it,” bees with a large lens and found it said Hopkins. “My lack of knowledge imperiled. Sheppard saw that cryo- resulted in the comparisons that we preservation of honey bee sperm did.” They froze half of the samples could be developed as a tool to con- directly from room temperature, and serve and augment germplasm. the other half was cooled slowly to That motivation can be appreciated refrigerator temperature before it was by a digression into some history. A frozen. Herr knew the process from small number of queens from eight mammalian cryo-preservation as a were originally brought to way to avoid cold shock. the New World, and further importa- “We found that the semen had tion was cut off by a 1922 law intend- Brandon Hopkins learned a gradual much better survival in the treatment ed to stop tracheal mites. “For each method of cooling germplasm that has with the slow cooling effect,” said subspecies that was brought, there created possibilities for cryopreservation Hopkins. The goal was to eventually were just a few tens or hundreds of of bee genetics both at Washington State be able to inseminate queens with queens,” said Sheppard. “The stock University and at the National Animal stored semen. “It was a big step.” was almost certainly not selected Germplasm Program. Here, he places That work was done in a lab over a from across the parent range. If you tubes of semen into the liquid nitrogen decade ago. “Anything that’s not test- bring characteristics over that are in tank at WSU. Photo credit: Sue Cobey

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1307 11/5/2020 1:11:16 PM to bring samples of those and other virgin queens, selected by members subspecies back, but he could not get of the California Bee Breeders Asso- a permit. He was impeded by the 1922 ciation, had to be carefully timed as law, which prohibited importation of well. Coordinating the segues was honey bee germplasm in any form. critical: “The semen loses about 50% The same law and its iterations had viability every week,” he said. They thwarted bee breeder Sue Cobey’s established a bank at Pullman and attempts since 1990 to import germ- their quarantine apiary soon held re- plasm to build her New World Car- sultant Carniolans and Italians, and niolan stock, a subspecies she was the next year developing Caucasians retrieving from the genetic mix. She’d were added. It was a challenge.1 gotten one ephemeral permit, but It was not a new challenge. John when she relocated to UC Davis she Harbo recently recalled his work to could not get USDA approval for a preserve honey bee genetics nearly quarantine site there, as it was not re- 50 years ago. The USDA Honey Bee mote enough. In the meantime, Shep- Stock Center was built in Baton Rouge pard had at last gotten approval for an in 1967 to preserve important lines of isolated quarantine location outside honey bees for research and commer- WSU in Pullman. Cobey’s goals seg- cial use. Not long after he arrived there John Harbo, now retired as a research ued with his, and they joined forces. in 1971, Harbo was assigned the task of leader at the USDA/ARS bee lab at Ba- Their mutual quest was to bring back conserving some 20 lines of bees that ton Rouge, performs early experiments in new alleles from stocks of A. mellifera had been collected mainly by William 1977 with cryopreservation of bee sperm in Europe and western Asia to invigo- Roberts. Some were imported, such as in liquid nitrogen. Courtesy of John Har- rate the U.S. gene pool. Russian and Anatolian Caucasians or bo, Photo by Leah Taylor They found themselves in the same Brother Adam’s Buckfast. Others, from boat going nowhere. With reports of as early as 1936, were domestic lines West grafted from 10 to 20 breeders;in , importa- from across the country. the Southeast, from one. A decade tion permits stopped. Perhaps it was “Pure lines probably do not exist, later, Debbie Delaney, then at WSU, the irony of the government allowing at least in the U.S.,” Harbo wrote in found that nationally, about 500 moth- importation of 100,000 unregulated the American Bee Journal in 1973, ex- ers produced 870,000 queens, with a bee colonies from for pol- plaining that all of the lines had been net genetic loss over the previous ten lination, but in 2008 Sheppard got a named with letters for that reason. For years of 26% of the alleles from 10 mi- permit for WSU. It was highly restrict- want of a better method, the collection crosatellite loci — although some new ed. They could bring in semen only, had been categorized by color, from alleles were found. and from just three subspecies of the dark to light. For example, the Y line In 1999 Sheppard traveled to Central many that were known to have been came from a queen from a New Asia and discovered apple-pollinat- previously introduced to the U.S.: Orleans queen breeder in 1938, and ing bees, a subspecies not previously A.m. ligustica, A.m. caucasia, and A.m. YR came from Roberts’ subsequent known, Apis mellifera pomonella. Over carnica — Italians, Caucasians and experiments with color inheritance. several trips he applied to the USDA Carniolans. The semen would need to The Ka line, grouped with the darker be tested at the USDA lab for patho- bees, had been created in 1963 from gens, and the inseminated queens had Carniolan eggs shipped from England to be kept in quarantine in the isolated to Guelph, Ontario, where queens apiary in Eastern Washington. were produced and virgins shipped Their first shipment, A.m. carnica to Roberts in Baton Rouge; semen was semen from Germany, was caught up shipped from Germany by Friedrich in customs and then missed delivery Ruttner for Roberts to inseminate the to the lab in Pullman. Cobey chased queen bees from Canada. And Har- down the errant FedEx truck for miles bo’s job was to preserve it. and retrieved the sample as its viabil- Standard stock was maintained in ity waned, and she ignored bawdy a round-robin system, for which he jokes about her package at the bar needed to bring drones from particu- where she found the driver. lar places, and the inbred lines were To eliminate the delivery drama, the kept by making aunt-niece crosses, team got permission in 2009 to hand- one generation per year. Looking carry imports. “All these trips were a back recently, he said, “The longer maximum of about one week,” said we maintained these inbred lines, the Sheppard, who traveled to remote ar- more inbred they became. You quick- Steve Sheppard in Kazakhstan in 2015 eas of Europe and Asia. As soon as he ly got down to the sex allele problem, where he was collecting semen sam- ples from A. m. pomonella, an apple pol- gathered the live samples, the clock two sex alleles and the brood was not linating bee that he discovered. He and a ticked down to a complex choreog- viable. When we had 15 or 20 of those team from Washington State University raphy performed on spermatozoan inbred lines it was hard to keep them are cryopreserving germplasm from sev- time. He rushed the vials to a flight going through the summer, much less eral subspecies in remote areas of Eu- back and drove them to Pullman to over the winter. It sounds easy until rope and Asia. meet Cobey, who flew up from Davis you get into it, and when you’re into Photo credit: Brandon Hopkins to do the insemination. The arrival of it, man, it’s just labor.”

1308 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1308 11/5/2020 1:11:18 PM The Stock Center had research ob- jectives, too, “but you can’t do much research when you’re running around taking care of stock,” said Harbo. “We asked, when we get 20 years up the road what are we going to have? You’re going to lose material; you can say you’re going to preserve it, but ev- ery time you do a generation you’re going to have a little bit of loss.” He understood half a century ago that semen storage was key to pres- ervation. He was counseled by those doing cryopreservation for livestock, as Hopkins later was. “Bees were late into the game,” said Harbo, since by that time the science for cattle had al- ready been developing for decades. He was able to freeze bee semen and store it for as long as two years. “We produced viable progeny from frozen sperm and produced queen Sue Cobey collecting Carniolan honey bee semen in Slovenia that will enhance her and worker progeny from queens longtime efforts to bring the subspecies back in the US. Dr. Observing are Prof. Aleš that were inseminated with frozen Gregorc of the University of Maribor, a bee scientist, and Stane Plut, who keeps Car- spermatozoa. The queens laid well niolan stock, holding a cage of drones. Photo credit: Sue Cobey enough to preserve the germplasm, but none of them was good enough to perhaps. It seemed like that was the ally they dwindled away.” As did the head a productive colony. However, logical place to end the project. And Honey Bee Stock Center and all of its most of the next generation, the F1 if somebody else wants to take it up, lines. But John Harbo can take credit queens, were normal.” God bless them.” for successfully reviving cryogeni- He reported, in a 1983 paper,2 a de- Later, when the Honey Bee Stock cally preserved honey bee semen and cline in progeny that he speculated Center was combined with the other later breeding the VSH bee, which was related to duration of cryogenic USDA bee lab in Baton Rouge, they lives on. storage: Four-day-stored sperma- kept some strains with mutant mark- Hopkins needed proof of concept tozoa produced 22% worker brood, ers they’d gotten from Harry Laid- to regenerate frozen semen. “I did it,” while two-year-old spermatozoa pro- law. “They were handy to have,” said he said. “I had to prove this technique duced 8%. He compared his results to Harbo, “for determining if progeny was viable before it was worth taking bovine spermatozoa storage, which at comes from a certain place. We kept some student overseas and freezing that time showed a decline in viability them for about ten years, but gradu- a bunch of this valuable semen. I did after 12 months in liquid nitrogen. Reflecting on that work so many years later, he categorized the fail- ures: Some queens became drone layers, some had no sperm in the , some had mortality in the embryos, some had more than one sperm entering the egg, creating a gynandromorph or a mosaic. “You would think the sperm would be ei- ther dead or alive. But we learned it’s not that simple.” To improve the vi- ability of the sperm, he experimented with the temperature drop, cooling at various degrees before freezing, but he did not settle on an ideal protocol. “There seemed to be some genetic damage,” he said, and he feared intro- ducing it into the bee population. “I thought maybe the cure is worse than the disease.” In addition, the original purpose of the Center, to retain and distribute the stock, “didn’t work out very well. There was a lot of la- bor involved in maintaining those in- When John Harbo, right, arrived at the USDA Honey Bee Stock Center in 1971, he was breds. We were charging $25 a queen, charged with maintaining some 20 lines of bees. Most were collected by William Rob- but that was outrageous for the time erts, left, who soon after retired. Courtesy of John Harbo

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1309 11/5/2020 1:11:20 PM it by collecting [thawed] semen, and inseminating queens and putting a whole bunch of them in nucleus colo- nies with fresh semen controls. And dragging Steve [Sheppard] out to the be yard to show him that these queens were producing worker progeny.” The results were uneven, but Hopkins was able to raise three generations of queens from semen that had been fro- zen in liquid nitrogen, demonstrating the viability of this method of cryo- preservation. Sheppard was amazed. He said, “If you put [the semen] directly in the refrigerator it cools too quickly. If you put it in a glass of water at room temperature and put it in the refrig- erator for a few hours, it works fine. After that you can use a special ma- The Washington State University honey bee cryopreservation project has the Honey bee sperm is collected and stored chine to lower it down to -40° C at 3° first continuing bank preserving honey in the WSU cryopreservation bank. Sam- per minute floating in a bath of liquid bee germplasm. It’s maintained by Bran- ples such as these from 2013 have been nitrogen, using a computer. But the don Hopkins, now an assistant professor thawed and used to successfully insemi- real secret is: Put it in a glass of water. there. Credit: Brandon Hopkins nate queens with desirable genetics. It’s not the temperature but the rate Credit: Brandon Hopkins of change that makes the difference.” Now, with a proven method of stor- reports drone layers among other in- age Hopkins’ ingenuity got him a tick- adequacies. “That is why we never et to come along to preserve samples really expect that a queen insemi- on the next trip, in 2011. That nearly nated with cryopreserved semen will didn’t happen when they didn’t get head a full-size production hive,” he all their equipment on the plane. They said. “We just need a few undam- couldn’t persuade the TSA people aged sperm to fertilize a few eggs so that lingering condensation from the we can produce a queen from that team’s empty liquid nitrogen tank desired cross.” The technology is ad- was not smoke; as the boarding gate equate, though, and WSU is currently threatened to close, they managed to the only lab using cryogenetics for get the tank shipped. Cobey and Hop- breeding. They even make their own kins went to Slovenia for Carniolans, custom glass vials by heating, stretch- and Sheppard to France for A.m. mel- ing and fire-polishing capillary tubes. lifera — the little black bee that was They have used seven-year-old semen the first imported to America — al- to inseminate queens, and Cobey said lowed on a new permit. They met they have just regenerated a ten-year- up in Georgia to travel back into the old sample. Caucasus Mountains for A.m. caucasia Hopkins summarized two goals for — where they escaped some drunken their work as “the introduction of this locals accusing them of exporting a material to enhance the genetic diver- national treasure. sity of the U.S. breeding population, Each day, Hopkins managed to find and a conservation effort, too.” an unrefrigerated chicken egg for the “This is a game changer,” said small bit of yoke as the diluent used Sheppard. to preserve the semen. To hedge their A longtime dream come true for bets, they brought fresh semen back Sheppard is a germplasm repository To cryopreserve Caucasian bee semen as well, the quality of which is better for honey bees. The National Ani- collected that day in the Republic of than frozen. “At first I gave Brandon mal Germplasm Program (NAGP), Georgia, the Washington State University as little as I could [to freeze],” said at Fort Collins, Colorado, is a USDA team turns a hotel room into a lab, with Cobey, “but now I give him as much liquid nitrogen rolling down the hallway. cryopreservation bank preserving the Brandon Hopkins is bending over the as I can.” It was Cobey who had sup- genetics of agriculturally beneficial equipment while Steve Sheppard (at left) plied Hopkins with that first few animals in the U.S. Now, because of and an unidentified local observe. The ounces of honey bee semen in hopes the cryopreservation work at WSU, it trip required schlepping the dry shipper that he could learn how to successful- includes honey bee semen. Together in the foreground, microscope, tanks, ly preserve it. She is now at WSU and with Bob Danka, the WSU team had collection and freezing equipment and Hopkins is now an assistant professor already collected and stored samples computers, as well as finding N2 to main- and peer collaborator with Sheppard. from the USDA Baton Rouge lab; tain the stored material. Like Harbo, they see inconsistent VSH, Pol-line and nine Russian lines Photo credit: Sue Cobey results with frozen semen. Hopkins have been transferred from the Pull-

1310 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1310 11/5/2020 1:11:22 PM a gene that has some function that is Steve Sheppard in now unknown.” Kazakhstan collect- “If this piece inspires folks to allow ing drones from a us to come in and collect for the USDA local beekeeper. program that would be great,” he He and a team said. “It’s a big ask to allow a stranger from Washington to come into your outfit and collect a State University bunch of your material and freeze it. are cryopreserving Hopefully it inspires some people in germplasm from Florida, Georgia, the Midwest to let several subspecies us come in.” To volunteer when the in remote areas of project resumes, contact bhopkins@ Europe and Asia. wsu.edu. Photo credit: Bran- Some of the collected WSU genet- don Hopkins ics are dispersed to beekeepers. For example, Heitkam’s Honey Bees of man bank to Fort Collins. They have ues Sheppard and Hopkins’ contin- Orland, California, sends virgin Cau- added lines from Jackie Park Burris ued project to collect more samples casian and Carniolan queens for in- and Ray Olivarez, California commer- from diverse environments. “You can semination at WSU. Through DNA cial queen breeders. Sheppard heads have some pretty low success rates in sampling, it was found that genetic the Honey Bee Species Committee an attempt to undergo cryopreserva- diversity has increased above 1994 and works with Danka and Hopkins tion. If you can, you can make up for levels among queen producers who to expand the collection. that by collecting more material.” use that progeny. The head of the NAGP is Harvey And the future? “We will have “If you look across the world,” said Blackburn, an animal geneticist who embryos once Arun has gotten far Cobey, “we’re losing, what are there, oversees vast tanks holding over a enough with his work.” That is Arun 26, 27 subspecies and a lot of ecotypes million samples from 56,000 domes- Rajamohan at the USDA Fargo lab. of each subspecies. Pesticides, loss of tic animals from chickens to yaks. His remarkable science is a subject habitat, , all these things. With honey bees, “ is an of Part 2 of this article, to be found in With worldwide movement of bees, issue that we need to be concerned next month’s issue. we are losing their ranges. You can about,” he said, citing the devasta- Imagine if it had been possible to preserve that with cryopreservation tion caused by varroa — which he save the genetics of the 20 lines of bees techniques. My dream would be to called, in a misspeak that deserves to that Harbo nurtured, each collected for get all that stuff in a liquid nitrogen enter the lexicon, “the corona mite.” a reason, the unique definitions of each tank and be able to bring it back out He recognized Sheppard’s important now gone; to save the useful lines of sometime in the future. indicative work, but “there has been mutants sent to the USDA by Laidlaw, “But you have to know how to col- no national baseline study on a ge- disappeared; the Starlines and Mid- lect semen, and store it. I’m wanting nomic level, so that we don’t know nites, which Danka called “perhaps to train more people in insemination how much diversity we’ve lost over the most successful breeding program so it’s a more common practice, so these years of declining population.” ever,” lost; Caucasians from the Sears people can run with it, I hope. The Beyond preservation, he is hoping catalogue, a memory; Rob Page and brood viability is not going to be a that samples will be analyzed using Kim Fondrk’s pollen hoarding lines, productive colony, but we can recover quantitative genetics, to determine dispersed; carefully bred strains up in the stock by learning how to do that relatedness, and molecular genetics smoke with the California fires. and grafting off of those queens. The to determine diversity. “That genetic population could’ve diversity is so critical. The more diver- “This is a government repository,” been maintained in a liquid nitrogen sity you have within the bee popula- said Blackburn, “and our sample col- container here in the corner for how- tion, the more vigor, the more health lections are intended for the public ever long without the cost and labor you’re going to have. Cryopreserva- good. Our main mission is to have this and risk of maintaining living colo- tion is going to be an incredible tool.” material in case industry and science nies,” said Hopkins. “All kinds of needs it.” The bulk of the collection issues can affect breeding programs Endnotes is donated, and, in some cases, held that have value for conservation. 1 For further backstory see: McNeil, M.E.A. by agreement for a number of years And change is going to be- Steve Sheppard: Genealogy Toward a Bet- before access is offered. “The produc- come a bigger and bigger problem. ter Bee, Parts 1 & 2, American Bee Journal, April & May, 2012. ers are a pretty independent group of Some queen breeders, smaller ones 2 Harbo, John, Survival of honey bee spermato- people. But they say about donating too, have a lot of valuable genetics. zoa after two years in liquid nitrogen (-196°C), to the bank, this is a responsibility The value of this cryopreserved ge- Annals of the entomological Society of that I have. They donate material to netic material is that it could contain America, volume 76, number five, Septem- us with that kind of mindset.” alleles, copies of genes that contain ber 1983. As for the honey bee germplasm genetic information that may be M.E.A. McNeil is a jour- samples, “We don’t have enough to valuable in the future and could be nalist, Master Beekeeper give out now,” he said. “We’re a long lost by random chance or breeding and Northern California way from having a collection that’s pressure. It’s a hard concept to en- organic farmer. She can large enough and deep enough and vision, but some unknown threat in be reached at: mea@ meamcneil.com. broad enough that we feel comfort- the future may require a large genetic able distributing anything.” He val- pool in order to find the one copy of

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1311 11/5/2020 1:11:24 PM ABJ_December_2020.indb 1312 11/5/2020 1:11:26 PM ABJ_December_2020.indb 1313 11/5/2020 1:11:29 PM 1314 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1314 11/5/2020 1:11:32 PM Running Interference RNAi and the promise of healthy bees

by BILL HESBACH

Fig. 1 This DWV particle is only 30nm. As a comparative aid, that would be the size of a marble compared to the earth. They are invisible using light microscopy but are viewed in detail using electron microscopes.

n the human world, a virus par- hanced to kill DWV and, surprisingly, You may be wondering why a cell ticle that enters a body has several also be used to kill varroa. would present an opportunity for Iobstacles to overcome before it can Before discussing RNAi, it will help a virus to gain entry — rest assured infect us. Humans and other animals to review why viruses can be deadly it’s unintentional. Cells require many mount an immediate and formidable to humans and bees. A virus particle micronutrients that allow for normal immune defense. These innate re- is nothing more than a small collec- functions. Those micronutrients are sponses signal other defenses, which tion of amino acids protected by a coat carried into cells using specific modes are eventually memorized by our of protein known as a capsid2,3 (Figure of entry that involve recognizing sur- adaptive to fight 1). They are not alive, and without a face — the “lock and key” future attacks. Humans can become cell to invade, they would eventually arrangement mentioned earlier.6 Over immunized by natural viral exposure desiccate in the environment and be- many thousands or perhaps millions or vaccinations, which teach our im- come harmless. of years, virus particles mutate, and mune system to defend against a spe- When a virus particle, such as sometimes those mutations will acci- cific antigen by making antibodies DWV, which has evolved to function dentally develop surface proteins that and other specialized cells to fight it. as an intercellular parasitic, invades a mimic those of a micronutrient. The In the bee world, it’s much differ- bee’s cell, it begins to control the cel- cell has no way of distinguishing be- ent. Bees don’t have the biology to lular machinery and reproduce. Un- tween a legitimate nutrient or a virus, memorize the characteristics of a impeded, virus particles can repro- and as a result, a cell will often help a . Since bees lack an adaptive duce at exponential levels and start virus enter. But once a virus particle immune system, they don’t make an- to bud from the invaded cell’s surface moves inside a cell, it begins to reveal tibodies, so each time they encounter until healthy functions stop, and the its real identity as a particle and not a virus, like cell begins to die.4 When the viruses a micronutrient. In the case of DWV, (DWV), they must mount a defense overrun a bee’s RNAi defense, we standard cellular functions release its as if it were a novel pathogen. beekeepers observe the resulting pa- Fortunately, bees are not defense- thology as deformed wings and short- less, and we are learning more and ened lifespan (Figure 2). more about the different elements of their immune system and how they Viral cell invasion operate. There is one particularly ex- Once a virus particle finds its way citing defense that works inside their inside an animal, it begins to circulate cells and is a focus of recent research. until it finds a cell type that will al- You’ve heard of it before, and you will low entry. It’s a kind of lock-and-key continue to hear about it in the future; arrangement where the virus par- it’s RNA interference (RNAi).1 The ticle binds to a specific protein site.5 “interference” part denotes a refer- Once the binding sites are connected, ence to how RNAi can chop up a virus the particle can enter the cell. Bind- before the cell is damaged. ing may occur on one kind of cell or In this article, I’ll discuss some of many. For example, in honey bees, the microbiology of RNAi and refer- DWV particles can be found in many ence some promising research on how parts of the bee’s body, indicating that Fig. 2 Deformed wings occur when vi- this conserved cell function can be en- multiple cell types allow access. ruses reach the brains of bees.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1315 11/5/2020 1:11:34 PM RNA to start the reproduc- in many shapes and forms, and with curs when RNAi chops the dsRNA tion process. DWV, its genome is referred to as into small micro-sections that the cel- double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). lular machinery then can use as tem- The RNA-interference pathway When RNAi detects dsRNA, it goes plates to recognize and chop up simi- Fortunately, exposing its RNA ge- into action, reads the genome as for- lar viruses that enter the cell (Figure nome to a cell can be the end of the eign and sends the genome down the 3). The interference process can keep virus’s journey. Viral come RNAi pathway. The interference oc- a minor infection under control by continually chopping up the viral ge- nomes and preventing uncontrolled . So far, so good until the RNAi ma- chinery gets overrun. With the con- stant infusion of new virus particles, cells begin to lose the RNAi battle and allow unabated viral reproduction leading to pathology. But what if you could start the RNAi machinery ahead of time and gear up cell defense against an attack? It turns out that science may be able to do just that. The first attempt was to feed or inject bees with dsRNA that would trigger RNAi against viruses and transfer destructive RNAi to feed- ing varroa. It would be a magic bullet that works against viruses while, at the same time, interfering with cells in varroa, leading to their death. It can work, but releasing dsRNA viral-like genomes into the environ- ment raises issues that include possi- ble drift to non-target organisms with gene sequences similar to honey bees. In practical terms, the manufactur- ing of dsRNA material is expensive, labor-intensive to administer, and not stable in the environment.7 Another approach is to get bees to do the work of stimulating RNAi by producing dsRNA. But that can be tricky because bee cells do not natu- rally produce dsRNA. One way to get it done is to have bacteria that typi- cally reside in bees make it. In a recent study, molecular scientists engineered a bacteria called Snodgrassella alvi to do just that.8,9

Beneficial bacteria Bacteria are capable of maintaining small rings of DNA inside their cells called . Plasmids remain sep- arate from the bacteria’s genome, are independent and self-replicating, and can perform specific functions. Plas- mids are a natural way bacteria adapt to their environment. For instance, some plasmids can digest that enter bacteria, making those bac- teria resistant to treatment. Other ge- netically engineered plasmids make our national supply of insulin (Figure Fig. 3 The RNAi pathway involves several complicated cellular mechanisms. But, for 4). As long as a molecular engineer our purposes, it can be understood as chopping up intercellular parasites like DWV. knows how to make a func- In this figure, think of the dsRNA on the top as DWV, and the result is that no protein tion specifically, they can insert them production occurs to support viral reproduction. in bacteria to do the work .

1316 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1316 11/5/2020 1:11:36 PM tember 25, 2020 marked our 33rd year dealing with varroa. There may be a time when a simple application will clear bees of both viruses and pests. It’s in the future, but it can’t come too soon for beekeepers.

End notes and citations 1 RNAi is a term used to describe a compli- cated cellular function. For more informa- tion, see this wiki: https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/RNA_interference 2 The capsid protection of virus particles and the exine coating on a pollen grain function the same — they both preserve what’s in the center. In the case of a virus, it’s a genome that replicates the virus once inside a cell. With a pollen grain, the exine protects the nutritional protein in the cen- ter used in fertilization. The similarity is striking, but the results are far from equal. 3 Karel Škubník, Jiří Nováček, Tibor Füzik, Antonín Přidal, Robert J. Paxton, and Pavel Plevka Structure of deformed wing virus, a major honey bee pathogen 4 D. J. T. Sumpter S. J. Martin The dynam- ics of virus epidemics in Varroa‐infested honey bee colonies https://besjournals. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ j.1365-2656.2004.00776.x 5 Diverse virus particles enter almost all liv- ing cells on earth and exist in every niche on the planet, including all the oceans. 6 A binding site on a cell exists for healthy cellular functions. With the coronavirus currently ravaging humanity, the virus particle’s binding site helps with blood pressure regulation. 7 Large-Scale Field Application of RNAi Technology Reducing Israeli Acute Pa- ralysis Virus Disease in Honey Bees (Apis mellifera, : ). Wayne Hunter et al., December 23rd, 2010 https:// doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001160 8 Leonard, S.P.; Powell, J.E.; Perutka, J.; Geng, P.; Heckmann, L.C.; Horak, R.D.; Davies, B.W.; Ellington, A.D.; Barrick, J.E.; Moran, N.A. Engineered symbionts activate honey bee immunity and limit Fig. 4 As an example of a plasmid at work, in this figure, the human gene that pro- pathogens. Science 2020, 367, 573–576 duces insulin is combined with a bacterial plasmid and then reinserted in the bacteria 9 The S. alvi bacteria, named after the ex- to produce human insulin. The world’s supply of insulin is manufactured this way. traordinary entomologist R.A. Snodgrass who in 1910 changed the understanding of bee anatomy with his groundbreaking In the study mentioned above, S. ing the dsRNA died sooner. book, The Anatomy of the Honey Bee. alvi was successfully engineered to RNAi seems to have value in our 10 Zhao, Yazhou, et al. “The Dynamics of produce dsRNA — the exact ingredi- war on viral infections, but it can’t do Deformed Wing Virus Concentration and ent needed to stimulate RNAi. The it all. Despite the RNAi cellular ma- Host Defensive Gene Expression after theory is that with a harmless bacteria chinery’s best efforts, a recent study Varroa Mite in Honey Bees, concluded that varroa-vectored vi- Apis mellifera.” Insects vol. 10,1 16. 8 Jan. plasmid making specifically targeted 2019, doi:10.3390/insects10010016 dsRNA, the bee’s cells are primed for ruses disrupt critical players involved 11 Christina L. Mogren, Jonathan Gary defense and can resist infections. In the with wound response, immunologi- Lundgren In silico identification of off- 10 study, the plasmids targeted DWV, and cal balance, and cellular function. target pesticidal dsRNA binding in honey the results indicated that it could work. Under increased viral pressure, the bees (Apis mellifera). December 13th, 2017, In another part of the study, plas- systems break down, and pathology https://peerj.com/articles/4131/ mids targeted essential genes in var- begins. Even with all the research and Bill Hesbach owns and roa. When the varroa fed on the bees’ promise of molecular biology, the ball manages Wing Dance bodies, they ingested the dsRNA, inevitably is passed back to us bee- Apiary in Cheshire, and this time the varroa’s RNAi did keepers to control varroa populations. Connecticut. the work to interfere with essential In any event, molecular engineering genes in the varroa. When compared seems promising, especially if off-tar- to a control group, the varroa ingest- get insects remain unaffected.11 Sep-

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1317 11/5/2020 1:11:37 PM ABJ_December_2020.indb 1318 11/5/2020 1:11:40 PM ABJ_December_2020.indb 1319 11/5/2020 1:11:43 PM ABJ_December_2020.indb 1320 11/5/2020 1:11:46 PM eginning in late June, well after especially with beekeepers busy with do not know how widespread these our spring nectar flow, comes numerous jobs in the apiary. Small behaviors have become across our Bthe time I call usurpation sea- swarms off the ground are not very country. Before proceeding, we need son. I stop the truck well away from noticeable either. Moreover, these bee more background information on my hives and walk slowly into my re- behaviors are relatively new occur- bees balling a queen. search looking down, search- rences in our apiculture. Beekeepers We just finished a six-part queen ing. I keep the area clear around the do not routinely look for them. And introduction series and observed bees hives so I can spot any unusual bee to make matters more cryptic, we of an established queenless colony behavior –– especially on the ground (see Figure 1). I carefully search the area around the hives and the hive stands. I look over the outsides of the hives and un- der them too. Then I look around the bushes and up into the trees. What am I looking for? The bees on the ground could be swarms clustered in variable sizes, flat like a dinner plate on the dirt. The swarm cluster could be under the hive, tangled in the hive stand. Or a small swarm might have landed un- der the front end of the hive entrance, appearing cryptically as a small bee beard, belonging to the established colony. In reality –– it is a small inde- pendent swarm. Other clusters could be only a small knot of bees, around a queen (here called a queen ball) about the size of a hickory . Off the ground, I search for swarms, variable in size from a handful of bees to a three-pound package in size. This search is not how I look for spring reproductive swarms, where my vi- sion sweeps high up among the tree branches. Those spring swarms on the ground are rare, caused by a queen with damaged wings, or frag- ments of a soaked cluster hurled from tree limbs, the bees barely surviving a night of violent spring storms. Back to the summer; on the ground, Fig. 1 A frame-hive apiary with a cleared area around the hives for spotting bee clus- these small masses of bees are easily ters on the ground. The hives are on elevated hive stands so I can load and move full- missed among hives in thick grass, size hives with honey supers without needing help.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1321 11/5/2020 1:11:48 PM balling the cage screen containing a queen may slowly descend to the new foreign queen. In that situation hive floor. Therefore when searching (context), without the cage, the bees the host hive for queen balls, go all would form a small ball around the the way down to the bottom board. new queen and hold her until she On the other hand, usurpation died. For bee management, beekeep- queens do perish in these balls, per- ers should avoid queen balling to haps if the usurpation queen can- safeguard their queen bees; queen not get through the entrance fast balling is complicated, and far from enough, and she becomes encased being completely understood. in a ball of her protecting bees, situ- Bees can ball a queen, apparently ated well inside the hive. While ques- to “hold” her or maybe protect her. tions abound for how the usurpation When that happens before a usurpa- swarm takes over a colony, the fac- tion swarm invades an established col- tors for when their process fails are ony, the queen balling might stall the also worthy of study. takeover process. However for now Currently, I think a reasonable that statement remains an untested assumption is that the small sum- hypothesis. Yet I know when the usur- mer swarms and queen balls on the pation swarm rushes into the estab- ground might be usurpation swarms lished colony (host colony), the usur- Fig. 2 Ground swarm under a hive, cling- (or parts of them) that have become pation queen is immediately balled, ing to the hive stand. Below the hive is a stalled or delayed in their attempt to the ball being found near the entrance. typical location for these summer swarms. take over an established colony. As Presumably the bees in the ball are It could be a prelude to an invasion or the a rough working hypothesis, queen usurpation bees, but that has not been swarm might just off. This swarm was balls on the outside of the hive could confirmed. Deep in the brood nest a very calm, allowing my attention to shift occur because the usurpation bees ball of bees quickly forms around the to other bees around the hives. protect their queen(s) when their mother queen of the colony. The origin swarm encounters too many foreign of those bees is also unknown. remove the dead bees, so expect this bees (as they would upon invading a Remarkably then, early in the inva- symptom not to persist.) host colony). One way that could hap- sion, the bees ball both queens, usur- Most astonishingly, the usurpation pen is when the usurpation swarms pation and mother. Not only are the queen can become the accepted queen unite, which they readily do. origins of bees balling the queens un- of the colony in as little as 13 hours Swarms uniting are another as- known, but their origin could change –– about half a day. The usurpation pect of summer swarm biology that over time. At this time, limited fight- queen can begin laying her eggs in needs appreciation. Consider first, a ing breaks out between the usurpation the brood nest of the mother queen as beekeeper finds three regular spring swarm and the colony. The dead bees the mother queen dies in a queen ball. reproductive swarms hanging in trees appear in front of the hive. In addition In my bee house where I can house up above a row of hives. The immediate to searching for bee clusters on the to 30 single-comb top-bar observation concern would be how to catch the ground, one should look for a scatter- hives, I observed this incredible take- swarms before they launch for places ing of dead bees, as a possible recent over in one of those glass hives. From unknown. A matter so trivial it never usurpation event, although it needs that hive and others, I know the usur- occurs is: What if one swarm launch- verification with a hive inspection. pation queen becomes balled near the es, hovers, and lands on one of the ( and small animals can entrance. The ball around the mother other swarms, uniting with it? Even more unlikely, what if the remaining smaller swarm over and joins with the other two, forming one huge mega-swarm? These summer swarms will routinely unite that way. Al- though the swarms begin smaller, the resulting swarm may not be all that large, although I am sure there have been exceptions. I am still trying to observe the se- quence of events leading to when these swarms would unite, and the bees, being among foreign bees, be- gin to ball their queens. I would like to shoot it in slow motion movie clips, for later frame-by-frame study (called scrubbing the film). One must also concede that some of these summer swarms may behave Fig. 3 Two queen balls with attracted bees. They blend in with the ground and make as absconding swarms or early fall hardly a sound. Under foot, it is easy to step on them. It may be their swarms were on swarms, without any of these more the ground with them, but moved on with another queen among the bees; or their complicated survival behaviors. Far bees, confused in the apiary bee flight, just joined other swarms. past July, those swarms were des-

1322 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1322 11/5/2020 1:11:50 PM (L) Fig. 4 Small swarm on the hive cover (side view). Swarms landing on an active hive warrant immediate suspicion of being a usurpation swarm. (R) Fig. 5 Small swarm on the hive cover (top view). Even with suspicion, the bees remain a summer swarm until they invade an established colony. Then their behavior is beyond doubt — the swarm is a usurpation swarm.

tined to perish, since honey bees re- brood nest, combs and its bees. Emp- The queen ball descends little-by-lit- turned to America in the early 1600s. ty comb is not attractive to that kind tle and falls out. That is how the little Remember the last line in the old of swarm. Whether the caught swarm ball of bees ends up on the ground. rhyme: A swarm in July isn’t worth a had the queen or not, I would expect Hence my advice, given often when fly. Meaning those bees were doomed the bees to fly off and leave their gen- approaching a summer swarm –– — but not now. A usurpation swarm erous gift of empty comb and hunt a look down. Watch where you step; can take over an established colony, big strong queen-right colony to con- you might kill the queen in the ball. survive the winter on its honey, and quer. Now we are ready for a couple And expect more than one queen ball shatter the old survival rules of honey of crazy days in September. on the ground. bees in a temperate climate. After mostly an uneventful usur- The day reminded me that excep- See how these summer swarms I pation season, a boring July matched tions lurked close by to general rules, am describing here are fundamen- by a tranquil August, that malaise and not to let these rules form restric- tally different. If you are accustomed changed on September 7, 2020 when tive ruts in one’s thinking. It seemed to just working with and thinking I parked back from my main frame- unlikely these queen balls fell with of swarms as spring reproductive hive research apiary. the nearest shade branch some 40 feet swarms, my goal here is to broaden Even from the truck, I saw the most above. I would not expect two queen your understanding into the more obvious concern, a diffused swarm of balls to land adjacent to each other complex swarm biology now shown bees flying aimlessly around in the from such height (and survive hitting by at least some of our bees in the apiary. I knew that flight pattern. the hive). This small swarm, situated summer. That summer behavior The bees appeared lost. Watching on the hive top, could not drop queen could be during a dearth, but I have where I stepped among the hives, I balls either, and none were under the seen these swarms during a summer saw a swarm clustered on the ground hive. A swarm may have landed on cotton bloom, a long slow nectar flow. clinging to a hive-stand support (see the hive, and was joined by others, An example illustrates the futility Figure 2). hence the balling. of treating these summer swarms like Adding to the general complica- The hive-top swarm seemed to be they were spring swarms. At a state tion, on the ground, not under any related to the lost swarm bees flying bee meeting, an elderly beekeeper cluster, were two small queen balls, around in the apiary. I wanted to cage told me, his tone still hung up in dis- which had attracted some additional the queens from the hive-top swarm may, that he hived up a swarm on bees. The queen balls were well apart so I could account for them. First I drawn comb, caught in late summer. from each other, as if merely tossed had to disengage the balls from the Let’s assume he caught the queen in into the apiary. Where did they come cluster. I just gently inserted my index his hive. Although it sounds absurd from? I never could tell for sure (see finger into the cluster and hooked it for swarm catching, in this situation Figure 3). around what appeared to be mostly –– it didn’t matter. While he was pre- More pressing seemed to be a small a queen ball. Then I slowly pulled a paring to help the swarm with feed swarm on top of one of the hives (see mass of bees from the cluster, part of for the winter, to his utter consterna- Figures 4 and 5). The cluster was which was the queen ball. Most all tion –– the swarm left the hive. How against a brick. I could tell the bees the bees were buzzing and whining could the swarm reject that comb? were balling queens, probably two, as I withdrew the first ball from the Already built? That baffled him. An- by the way the balls interrupted the cluster. The bees usually will not sting swer: He was thinking about a spring normal festoons of bees, even with if handled gently. After separating the reproductive swarm. He had most them lying against the brick. first queen ball, I could clearly tell an- likely a usurpation swarm. A usurpa- As I have reported before, the other one was in the cluster. Using tion swarm is out to take over a fully queen balls slowly detach from the the same technique, I extracted the established colony: honey stores, festoons of a free-hanging swarm. second queen ball from the cluster.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1323 11/5/2020 1:11:51 PM (L) Fig. 6 Queen ball removal. I shot a movie clip of the double removal in one long take. I held the camera in my right hand, removing the queen balls with my left hand while balanced on the elevated hive stand next to the telescoping cover with the swarm. Here I am pulling out the second queen ball from the small swarm. (R) Fig. 7 Queen ball in hand. As I gently roll the queen ball around on my fingers, it did not “feel” like a queen-killing ball, more like a queen protecting/confining ball. Sometimes I cannot tell.

Figures 6 and 7 show my technique of third queen running in the crowd, not screen finger-probe through the tight queen ball removal. being balled (see Figure 8). She may mass of bees until I spot a bit of queen Remaining in the cluster, small have been with the bees on the hive anatomy: legs, wings, head, or abdo- groups of bees appeared as little top, or she might have just landed, men, which helps me locate her more knots. Suspicious that they might coming down with the flying part of closely. Finding a queen in a tight be queen balls, I teased them apart the swarm. While some of the swarm mass of bees from any angle is far with two fingers, delicate and touchy landed on the hive top, most of the different from seeing a queen most- work, until I saw they did not con- bees found me as a better place to ly from the top view on the comb. tain additional queens. Most likely (see Figure 9). (Knowing queen anatomy compared those bees were balling workers who I let the rest of the swarm fin- to worker anatomy is critical.) Even- had been near a queen in the balls ish collecting on me, scent fanning, tually, I removed both queens from and acquired some of their phero- and buzzing loudly on my neck and their balls and caged them. (The mov- mones. Eventually this remnant ball- around my ears, while I carefully ie clips of the queen removal were not ing will cease. removed the queens from the balls. worth keeping.) The swarm cluster began spreading That removal was difficult to photo- When first examining the apiary, I out on the hive top as the bees became graph or film because the queen re- had noticed something odd. On the attracted to the separated queen balls. moval takes two hands. I have tried upper side of one of the frame hives In the confused layer of bees running hanging the lens end of the iPhone were about ten bees crawling up un- to the queen balls and bees landing over the edge of the hive. Then using der the telescoping cover. With the on them from the swarm, I caught a both hands and looking through the new hive equipment, I knew no en- trance was up under the telescoping cover. Clearly though, that site was at- tractive to the bees. It may have been a recent bivouac site for a swarm and retained an attractive scent. I shook off the bees on me and put the third queen of the swarm in a top-bar hive nuc box, turned on its side to shelter the swarm from weather (see Figure 10). Some bees found the queen as ex- pected while other bees landed on the side of the hive (see Figure 11). The bees on the hive never settled down like a queen-right swarm. Also from Figure 11, see how the bees form a single layer on the side of the hive. Those bees were very active. Numerous bees on the side of the hive performed waggle dances, ap- parently not advertising nest sites like a spring reproductive swarm, one of which would be a future home for Fig. 8 A caught queen running among the bees. Bees were beginning to clump around the swarm. Of course trying to estab- her, possibly the beginnings of a ball. lish a colony, building combs, rearing

1324 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1324 11/5/2020 1:11:53 PM gorging on the honey stores of the parent colony, to survive the spring swarm to its new nest site, the sum- mer usurpation follows another sur- vival path. It forages, even on the meager few flowers it finds. From a survival perspective, both of life and genes, the usurpation bees need to keep strong enough to take over an established colony. It does not matter if all of them are killed in the fight- ing. Provided the usurpation queen survives, where reside all their genes, their progeny bees will live on. After bees clustered on the side of the hive, they finally moved over to the bees in the nuc box, although it seemed some were lost. I left the third queen, the one I caught running free, in a cage with the swarm in the nuc box. I turned the nuc box to shield the bees from storm winds. I left the swarm overnight with only one queen. Any incoming swarms would Fig. 9 The swarm on me. I let the bees land on me while I sorted out the three-queen be apt to unite with the swarm in the confusion on the hive top. Letting the bees stay on me seemed the simplest thing to nuc box, resulting in a larger swarm do until I figured out what to do with them. and queen balls. brood, and storing a vast amount of as stunning are summer swarms that Upon returning to the apiary the winter honey, beginning in Septem- forage. Some of these swarms may next day (September 8, 2020), no ber, far past the seasonal flowering never take over an established colony swarms had united with the one in period would be doomed to fail. So (like what occurred here in the api- the nuc box. Remarkably though, an- then, why all the waggle dancing? ary with all the confused queen ball- other swarm was on the ground right What were the dancing bees adver- ing). Yet by foraging, these swarms in front of the hives at the end of the tising? Nectar flowers. The summer presumably have more time to locate row (see Figure 12). It is tempting to swarm was foraging. I have watched an established colony, without los- think these swarms must originate returning foragers feed other bees. ing bees by starvation. Moreover, I from my hives. In my apiaries with During the morning, in shaded lo- do not see heavily engorged bees in a few hives, where their queen states cations with small summer swarms these summer swarms, certainly not are easier to determine to be normal, comprising a few dozen bees down like spring reproductive swarms. So I know usurpation swarms can arrive to merely about 10 bees, some waggle astonishingly again, instead of en- from elsewhere. danced and fed others (which tends to negate water hauling for cooling because the context is wrong). Although usurpation is a profound behavioral change in our bees, just

Fig. 10 Nuc box shelter for summer swarms. Before leaving the apiary, I will Fig. 11 The swarm as seen from below, showing the large area of bees directly on the turn the shelter to better protect the bees. hive. Numerous bees danced on the side of the hive.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1325 11/5/2020 1:11:56 PM through intuition, I knew too much time had passed for the swirling bees to render their decision. Suddenly I knew. The swarm from the day be- fore, in the nuc box shelter, the fly- ing swarm was going to unite with it. Sure enough, the swarm’s scent fanners had just begun to accumu- late at the edge of the box, furiously fanning out scent calling down the swarm. I checked all around the nuc box for competition scent-fanning. (The swarm could have been mak- ing another choice.) There was none. I put the caged queen near the scent fanners, like she would have landed with the flying swarm (see Figure 14). The swarm bees quickly covered her cage. Only one bee balled the cage. Once the swarm from the day Fig. 13 The summer swarm with its caged before became aroused and mixed queen with the incoming swarm, the bees balled the queen cage of the incom- Fig. 12 Another summer swarm found the into a diffuse cloud flying in front of ing swarm. Also initially the bees next day, as it would appear coming into the hives row. I held the queen cage, on the cage of the prior queen (from the apiary. Looking down, on the ground, suspended from a wire in the cloud, the overnight swarm) had not been searching for summer swarms is not a as best as I could, trying to simulate balling their queen cage, as best as I common beekeeping habit. the queen in the swarm while film- could tell without disturbing them ing one-handed. I wanted to film the too much. As the bees of the two The queen in the ground swarm usurpation swarm rushing in a hive swarms became mixed, balling bees was not balled. In the thin plate- like I have seen and photographed. I covered the screens of both cages. shaped swarm I easily caught and want to study a slow motion, frame- However because the bees were so caged her (see Figure 13). The bees by-frame, of the invasion behavior. similar in appearance and tempera- were becoming restless, not because While filming, keeping the queen ment, I could not tell which group I had the queen caged among them, in the swarm cloud, I was also watch- initiated or maintained the balling on but rather they were preparing to ing for the first scent fanners at a hive the respective queen cages. launch. In only a matter of minutes entrance signaling to the usurpation At least for now I have observed the swarm began flying, breaking swarm which hive to invade. Then one occurrence where summer swarms united and balling was initi- ated around both queens. For usurpa- tion, matters seem stalled because the bees must have a mobile queen. So can the bees resolve matters and get back to a usurpation pathway? I need a more undisturbed situation (no queen caging) to try for that deter- mination –– maybe next summer.

Acknowledgments The author thanks Suzanne Sumner for her comments on the manuscript. Visit TBHSbyWAM.com and Bee- ChildTheBook.com.

Dr. Wyatt Mangum, author of Top-Bar Hive Beekeeping: Wisdom and Pleasure Com- bined, is an internation- ally known top-bar hive beekeeper, who started keeping bees at age 10. He switched all his colonies to top-bar hives back in 1986, long before it became popular. Fig. 14 The swarm landing at the nuc box. The incoming swarm and their queen (cage) He is also an apicultural historian, who blends is to the left. The queen (cage) and the previous swarm are mostly to the right. Caging his knowledge of beekeeping history with his the queens may have disturbed matters too much, but I had to keep the swarms low study of honey bee behavior. email: wmangum and not high up in the trees. @umw.edu. www.TBHSbyWAM.com 1326 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1326 11/5/2020 1:12:00 PM SCIENCE INSIDER

Feeding Pollen Might Not Be as Useful as You Think

By Alison McAfee

It might make us feel like good beekeepers, but fall protein supplementation doesn’t produce more winter bees

any beekeepers do it. Lo- likelihood of the colony coming out in restricted pollen during the same pe- cal bee clubs suggest it to good shape in the spring. Right? riod using pollen traps, and she ap- Mtheir members, and some Actually, research suggests other- plied no treatment to five more.1 old-timers have done it for decades. wise. Dr. Heather Mattila, an associ- Mattila carefully measured how Even some apiculture authorities sug- ate professor of Biological Sciences fat the winter bees really were by re- gest it. But it might not be providing at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, cording their dry mass. She tediously our colonies with the benefits that we conducted a sequence of studies, marked cohorts of newly emerged think it is. starting in 2002, showing that fall bees with colored number tags, and Feeding pollen or pollen substi- pollen feeding has no impact on the recorded who was left alive in the tute in the fall is so routine in some winter bee population size nor their colony at different time points to de- spheres that its utility doesn’t seem longevity. termine longevity. And she painstak- to be questioned. This protein boost, Mattila, who was studying in Dr. ingly measured capped brood area says conventional wisdom, promotes Gard Otis’ laboratory in Guelph, — data which she incorporated into brood rearing at a time when pol- Ontario at the time, fed five colonies a model to estimate adult population len availability is dwindling. More supplemental pollen patties, giving size — every twelve days until brood fall brood reared by well-fed nurses them one pollen patty a week for rearing ceased, and again when rear- means more fat winter bees, and more four weeks between September and ing commenced in the spring. fat winter bees means there’s a higher October. For five other colonies she “In full-sized, established colonies, providing a pollen or pollen substi- tute in the fall promoted a short-term boost in brood rearing,” says Mattila. But, she explains, “This brood-rear- ing boost delayed the transition in colonies to a population of long-lived winter bees, and didn’t translate into improvements for the winter bee population.” Pollen supplementation indeed had the desired effect of nourishing the nurse bees and supporting the colonies’ ability to rear brood. It just wasn’t the right type. Despite the on- set of fall outdoors, those bees were summer bees, and soon died off to leave a similar population of winter bees compared to the other colonies. “Evidently,” Mattila and Otis write in their research article, published in The Canadian Entomologist,1 “none of the extra pollen provided to colo- nies was invested in enhancing the Eager workers are devouring a pollen patty in the spring. Feeding protein supplements quality of winter bees that colonies in the spring is more important than feeding protein in the fall. Photo: Alison McAfee reared, nor did the performance of

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1327 11/5/2020 1:12:02 PM winter bees suffer from a restricted winter bees.2 When they fed colonies Higo. “The thought was that it would supply of pollen during the fall.” pollen patties for different lengths act as insurance that the overwinter- “I was surprised that [Mattila] of time into the fall, they found that ing bees are strong and well able to found no positive effect of feeding colonies whose pollen supply dwin- rear plenty of brood early in the year.” pollen supplements,” says Heather dled earlier had a correspondingly Higo normally feeds a pollen patty Higo, a lifelong beekeeper and bee early onset of rearing winter bees. in September, and then not again until researcher in Langley, British Colum- Conversely, those receiving extended February. She notes that the speed at bia — a response echoed by many pollen supplementation into the fall which the patty is consumed in Sep- beekeepers. “In this area, because we delayed their winter bee rearing. But tember, even if the bees don’t neces- sometimes have long, mild fall weath- all groups still produced similar num- sarily need the protein, can also serve er, I think we are more prone to feed bers of winter bees, in the end. as a useful diagnostic. “If it doesn’t pollen supplements in the fall as well Feeding pollen in the fall does not get eaten quickly, that can be a sign as spring to ensure we get well-nour- “fatten up” winter bees, as I have that the colony is not strong or has a ished nurses.” seen written numerous times online. queen issue that requires more inves- Ontario and BC do have very dif- Yes, winter bees are fat, in a sense — tigation,” she says. ferent climates — Ontario winters are they are indeed heavier than sum- Well-known management guides, colder and longer — but average tem- mer bees, with higher levels of pro- like Canadian Best Management Prac- peratures in September through No- teins, , and sugars in their blood tices for Honey Bee Health (commis- vember are surprisingly similar. Matti- and swollen glands. But that fatness sioned by Agriculture and Agri-Food la expects that, although her work was isn’t facilitated by feeding colonies Canada), the Beekeeping Calendar conducted in Guelph, Ontario, results extra pollen — instead, feeding pol- for the Northeast (from Cornell Uni- would be comparable in other Cana- len just puts off fat-bee-production versity), and Best Management Prac- dian provinces and the northern U.S. until they finally get the signal that tices for Honey Bee Health (from the “I don’t feel I can make concrete rec- pollen is running out. And that delay Honey Bee Health Coalition), don’t ommendations to beekeepers about doesn’t have a significant impact on mention fall pollen feeding at all. the utility of feeding in the fall,” says the strength of the colonies at the be- This, while being, strictly speaking, Mattila. “It is possible that the effects ginning of spring, either. aligned with Mattila’s work, may add of a late-season brood rearing boost But I still hear fall feeding come to the confusion when new beekeep- would be more advantageous in up as standard colony management ers are trying to figure out what to do. smaller colonies. However, there is no procedure, particularly within bee “Beekeepers generally want the information available about whether clubs. The practice is encouraged in best for their best, and upon hearing fall feeding would help winter bee the “First Year Beekeeper” guide on a success with a management prac- populations in newer colonies in a prominent beekeeping blog. And the tice, they may be willing to try it,” way that is different from the larger Atlantic Tech Transfer Team recom- says Kerry Clark, president of the BC colonies we used in our study.” mends feeding pollen in the fall if it Honey Producers’ Association and In a second research article, Mattila looks like the colony has fewer than long-time beekeeper in the Peace re- and Otis show that pollen availabil- 3-6 frames of pollen going into winter. gion. But Clark cautions that feeding ity is actually an important cue that “I was advised years ago to feed pollen comes with risks, regardless of controls the timing of rearing winter pollen in the fall if you plan to use the time of year. bees, which may explain why pollen your bees early the following spring “For pollen collected from other feeding did not improve the quality of to make nucs or early splits,” says hives,” he says, “the freedom from pathogens is critical. Trials done in Saskatchewan showed that colonies fed pollen did worse than those un- fed, owing to the loss of brood in the fed group from chalkbrood infections initiated by spores in the pollen.” Clark says that pollen irradiation — which sterilizes it of pathogens — is now standard practice for pollen on the market. Feeding pollen substitute, of course, avoids this risk altogether. But in regions with small hive beetle, fall patties of any variety may feed the beetles as much as they feed the bees. Fall pollen feeding may not be ben- eficial, but what about the spring? Mattila performed experiments in the spring that were similar to the fall studies, while also measuring to- tal honey production over the course of the year.3 For three years in a row, This photo was taken on October 17 in Vancouver, BC. Despite being in an apiary with she fed colonies either pollen patties about sixty other colonies and lots of resource competition, these bees are still bring- made with real pollen, pollen substi- ing in late-season pollen. Photo: Alison McAfee tute (Bee-Pro, in this case), or nothing.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1328 11/5/2020 1:12:03 PM The fed colonies had all-you-can-eat reason why I myself was surprised 2 Mattila HR and Otis GW. (2007). Dwin- pollen or pollen substitute in the early to learn, while listening to Mattila’s dling pollen resources trigger the transi- spring for five or six weeks, depend- seminar on pollen supplementation tion to broodless populations of long‐ lived honeybees each autumn. Ecological ing on the year. at the Virginia State Beekeeping Asso- . 32(5): 496-505. Unlike fall feeding, spring feeding ciation’s fall conference in 2019, that 3 Mattila HR and Otis GW. (2006). Influ- led to significant improvements in extra fall pollen wasn’t beneficial: I ence of pollen diet in spring on develop- colony performance — in the short had learned that it was from my men- ment of honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) term. In the first year, when cool, wet tors, and assumed it to be true. colonies. Journal of . weather prevented the colonies from Fourteen years after the research 99(3): 604-13. foraging for their own pollen, sup- was published, some of us are still plemented colonies (whether with holding on to old habits. “This work substitute or real pollen) produced was done in 2002-2003,” says Mattila. Alison McAfee has a PhD in genome science approximately twice the amount of “It would be interesting to repeat it and technology from honey compared to the control hives. in the current climate of challenging the University of Brit- In subsequent years, however, when beekeeping. The multiple stressors ish Columbia, where conditions were more favourable, that most colonies currently endure she studied mecha- supplementation did not affect honey likely would play a role here.” nisms of hygienic be- production or other colony outcomes haviour in honey bees. She is now a post-doc eferences — findings which are echoed by Clark. R : at North Carolina State University in David 1 Mattila HR and Otis GW. (2007). “Whether added protein is a benefit Ma- Tarpy’s lab, and studies what keeps honey depends on a beekeeper’s environ- nipulating pollen supply in honey bee bee sperm alive. ment and objectives,” he says. “I have colonies during the fall does not affect the Email her at [email protected]. performance of winter bees. The Canadian tried feeding pollen substitutes in Entomologist. 139(4): 554-563. spring in the Peace region, but it was mostly a waste.” In his region, early spring pollen from natural sources is usually abundantly available. Sanders Honey Pollen supplementation only makes sense if the goal is to rear Queens summer bees — according to Mat- tila and Otis’ research, that is what For Sale it stimulates, whether it’s fed in the spring or the fall. And in the spring Josh Sanders experiment, the colonies that weren’t supplemented caught up, in terms 7288 Perdie Lee Rd of population size, by mid-summer. Nicholls GA 31554 For a hobby beekeeper, the benefits of spring feeding may be marginal. 912-399-8480 For a commercial operation aiming to produce as many early pollination units or nucs as they can, the benefits are likely more substantial. Although spring feeding only led to a bigger honey crop in one year of the trial, Mattila still recommends feeding in the spring for the sake of insurance. Summarizing her numer- ous research papers,1 she writes: “Beekeepers willing to invest the time and money in supplementing the pol- len diet of colonies would be better served by ensuring that colonies have an ample supply of pollen during the spring, when surplus nutrients can be directly incorporated into the brood rearing effort of colonies. If beekeep- ers feed pollen to colonies during the fall, then they will only artificially de- lay the production of the population of winter bees, and they are unlikely to improve the survival or spring nursing capacity of those workers that do winter.” Exactly why fall pollen feeding is so commonplace is still a bit of a mystery to me. Perhaps it is the same

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1330 11/5/2020 1:12:09 PM December 2020 1331

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1331 11/5/2020 1:12:10 PM ABJ_December_2020.indb 1332 11/5/2020 1:12:14 PM A Zooming Success in Georgia

by Jonathan Hayes and

Linda Tillman Hayes Jonathan

utting together a conference is a Sitting all day for two days in a to record their presentation for post- challenge in normal times. There row could be more than some peo- conference use. We set up our You- Pare venues to organize, food de- ple might want to do. We decided to Tube account. cisions to make, speaker travel and make available to registrants all key- On the Zoom platform, you can lodging to arrange, programs to de- note and breakout talks for two weeks record speakers in the main Zoom sign and print, registration to set up, following the conference. We got room, but not in the breakout rooms. and much more. signed permission from each speaker We decided to pre-record the break- In 2020 the Georgia Beekeepers Association reached our 100th anni- versary. We celebrated at our spring conference with , honey ice cream and singing “Happy Birth- day” to GBA. But our big anniversary blow-out was planned for the fall con- ference in September. In March, all of our plans were scrapped because of COVID. Refus- ing to give up, the conference com- mittee resolved to plan an online conference. We are a volunteer-run organization and were determined to accomplish this all on our own. As the King of Hearts in “Alice in Wonder- land” says, we decided to “Begin at the beginning; go on to the end and then stop.” We would learn what we needed along the way.

The planning process When the shutdown began in March, GBA subscribed to three Zoom accounts. We offer use of these free to our 46 local clubs to help them maintain connection throughout the pandemic. The clubs have speakers, use a video from GBA’s library or have a Q&A session. Using these ac- counts with clubs, we quickly learned the ins and outs of Zoom. This expe- rience helped us feel undaunted by the idea of presenting a whole con- ference on the Zoom platform. Local club use of Zoom also added to the willingness of our members to regis- ter for the fall conference. Our typi- cal conference draws 250 beekeepers. We purchased a large meeting add- on from Zoom to accommodate more than 100 attendees. The schedule for Day 1. Brochure designed by Holly Bayendor December 2020 1333

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1333 11/5/2020 1:12:17 PM too soon, Jonathan could remove the hiccup and make it look as if it never happened. Or if the recording had a drawn-out spot from slow internet, Jonathan could edit frame by frame. With his video experience and his use of Zoom through our GBA accounts, Jonathan became our video editor and also agreed to be the producer of our conference. For the past few years, we have been creating programs for our con- ferences that were both printed and online, so having our program bro- chure completely online was not new to us. Holly Bayendor, who had done the graphic layouts for our newsletter, created a vibrant program of events. David Tarpy begins his first keynote talk. Screenshot by Jonathan Hayes We put this link in our registration information and sent it out to our reg- out talks and present the videos internet for a good background to istrants in numerous emails the week at the conference with the speaker represent our conference. He found ahead of the event. However, on the on hand to answer questions. You a modern, digital design day of the event, some registrants might think to yourself, “Now that’s and superimposed our 100th year couldn’t find their programs! a great idea,” but our breakout plan logo on it. This symbol of our confer- At our in-person conferences, we was one of the more difficult parts of ence he then added as an intro to each print more programs than the num- our conference. Originally we were of the recorded videos. This way, he ber of attendees because people leave afraid that the speakers would have said, people watching the videos on- their conference schedule on a table or issues with background noise like line would know that they originated in their hotel room. Some in-person lawnmowers or phones interfering with GBA. conferences print a one sheet news- with the audio of their talks. Hope- Jonathan, whose job is in graphics letter every day (the Daily Waggle at fully recording ahead of time would design and technology at Robins Air EAS, for example). A short announce- take care of that. We found modera- Force Base, learned how to edit mov- ment email on event day would prob- tors to play the presenters’ videos for ies during his time working with the ably address the issue of the regis- the conference and held two train- youth group ministry at his church. trants having the schedule for the ing sessions with them to make sure He and the youth group made fun day without having to search through they knew what to do. But in reality, movies for big events using back emails. the moderator hosting the break- screen technology. Jonathan has done What to charge for the conference out room also had to have complete a lot of visual and audio work at his was also an issue. In the fall of 2019, quiet, which didn’t always happen! church running the sound and Pow- our two-day conference cost us about In one breakout session, the modera- erPoint presentations. Because of that $33,000 in expenses. This virtual con- tor’s dogs began fighting, and since experience, he was comfortable with ference, without printing costs, speak- he was the host for the video, he had the process of editing the breakout er travel costs, venue rent, or food to keep his mic live. We will handle speakers’ videos and the recordings expenses, totalled under $6000 to put this differently next time. we made of the keynotes during the on. We wanted to keep costs low as a Jonathan Hayes recognized the conference. If the speaker said, “Uh- gift to our members in honor of our need for branding and searched the oh,” and advanced their PowerPoint 100th anniversary. The GBA Board voted to charge a $15 registration fee to members and nonmembers alike. Our speakers were invited far ahead; we had a good line-up: Cindy Bee, Keith Delaplane, Jamie Ellis, Da- vid Tarpy and Virginia Webb. Most had used Zoom and the two who hadn’t were open to learning. We asked each of our breakout speakers if they were comfortable online. They all said “Yes.” We decided to pay the speakers the same fee that we offer if they come in person. To give a talk to a confer- ence, even if it is a talk already pre- pared, the speaker has to revisit the talk, research their topic, and present. More work is involved if they create The honey show entries begin to arrive in boxes. Photo by Kara Bassett the talk for the first time. We recog-

1334 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1334 11/5/2020 1:12:18 PM nize not only the work involved but the significance of their presence and knowledge. Because we value people who speak to us, we stayed with our usual payment rates. Ahead of the conference we needed to make sure that all of our keynote speakers had access to good internet. David Tarpy and Jamie Ellis, both of whom are faculty at big universities, were set to go. Keith Delaplane, head of the UGA entomology department, was working from home. His inter- net functioned well as did Virginia Webb’s. But Cindy Bee lives in a tiny town in rural Virginia. When she first tested Zoom with Gina Gallucci, her Jonathan Hayes in Mission Control on Day 1. Photo by Gracie Hayes connection was almost impossible to navigate. Perhaps Cindy would have fered a one-page ad free to all of the judge, worked with his committee to to go to the library or to the small col- vendors who usually fill our halls. develop a “virtual” honey show. (See lege nearby to use their internet. Fi- Sticking with our typical conference Brutz English’s “Your honey show nally Gina and Cindy realized that schedule meant that there would be does not have to be a victim of the Cindy did not have the latest version breaks in the day. We wanted to have pandemic,” August 2020 ABJ.) All of of the Zoom app downloaded on her something to engage our participants’ the entries were mailed to arrive by computer. With that fixed, she was interest every minute. Our breaks a deadline date and the rules were good to go. However, we were pre- were filled with everything from a relaxed to accommodate the mailing pared for any speaker’s internet to fail slideshow of forty bee cartoons to a of jars. If your jar had honey on the with a backup video from the GBA video made by our newsletter edi- lid, for example, you were not penal- Library, edited for the conference and tors, promoting the GBA newsletter. ized for that. A pile of boxes showed ready to go if needed. We asked the vendors who usually up in Barnesville, Georgia; they were We anticipated that non-Zoom us- sponsor us to make recorded ads and placed in a donated high school room, ers might have issues getting online. Jonathan put those into a video. Gina and the judging began. We were able To address this, we hired a Georgia Gallucci planned to hold a ten-min- to bring the feel of the honey show to Tech student to be our technical sup- ute yoga stretching class at the end of our event through videos made of the port and emailed his contact informa- the lunch break on the first day. The actual judging. tion to our registrants. To help people crowning glory was Eddie Gwaltney, who might be scared of Zoom, Linda a member who plays piano profes- Day One of the conference Tillman invited our registrants and sionally. He offered to play keyboard On the morning of the event, 344 our members (we might get another at the beginning of each day’s event people had registered for our confer- registrant or two!) to a Zoom hospi- and to play throughout the lunch ence, including people from 22 states tality time on the Wednesday night breaks. We achieved our goal of outside of Georgia. One man attended before the meeting. She opened a avoiding any empty moments. from Palmer, Alaska, where it was 5 Zoom meeting for two hours and was Central to most fall conferences is a.m. when the conference started. available for anyone to sign on who the honey show. Brutz English, our Some people signed up, not planning wanted to practice. Only about ten honey show chair and Welsh honey to attend, so that they could watch the people actually came, but afterward, they wouldn’t need to call technical help on the first day of the meeting. Because we knew that bee meet- ings all over the country were being canceled, we invested in big ads in the bee magazines. Linda, then Presi- dent of GBA, contacted the state presi- dents of nine nearby states to invite the members of their organizations to our GBA event. Several put the event on their Facebook or club webpages. Holding the meeting on a virtual plat- form made it possible for someone to register at the last minute. We left registration open for this online event until the conference was over. We couldn’t have vendors in at- tendance so we published a booklet of ads for them, each with some kind Linda Tillman leads the GBA business meeting on Day 2. of discount for our registrants. We of- Screenshot by Jonathan Hayes

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1335 11/5/2020 1:12:20 PM who left their mics open. Jonathan set the event up with a waiting room. This was a little cumbersome at the beginning as he and all of us were ad- mitting loads of people into the con- ference at the start of each day. But the advantage of having the waiting room was that we could move someone out of the conference and into the wait- ing room to explain to them about the need to quiet their mic if need be. That didn’t happen, but if it had, we were prepared. Our schedule truly went like clock- work. We opened the meeting with a picture of the American flag on every- one’s Zoom view and said the Pledge of Allegiance, as we do in every meeting. Standing for it was a little weird in that suddenly we didn’t see peoples’ faces but saw their beltlines instead! One of the disadvantages of Zoom is that when a speaker shares his/her screen, the clock disappears, The honey show judges, properly protected. From left: Kara Bassett, Keith Fielder, but our first speaker, Jamie Ellis, is Cindy Hodges, Rodney Garner and Steve Nofs. Photo by Brutz English a stickler for timing and always sets his phone to let him know when he is videos in the two weeks following the on it. And he had his phone opened close to the end of a presentation. meeting. We had about 220 people on- to text for our Game Day Text Group, After Jamie’s talk, participants line each day. which included the meeting commit- were moved into breakout rooms. Jonathan’s setup looked like Mis- tee. He was the host for the event and During registration, each of our par- sion Control. He had all of the speak- said his biggest fear for the day was ticipants selected one breakout to at- ers’ videos in two folders — one for unwittingly pushing “End Meeting tend each day. They also had to reg- Friday and one for Saturday — on for All.” ister for the Zoom meeting each day. his main computer. He had another While Jonathan was the meeting Using a spreadsheet of their breakout folder for all of the videos collected to host, the four members of the meet- choices, Jonathan preassigned them show during breaks. He had his iPad ing committee served as co-hosts. The to specific Zoom breakout rooms the Pro open with the program schedule five of us were able to mute attendees day before. If anyone registered af- ter Wednesday night, they stayed in the main Zoom room for the break- out offered there. We put popular topics/speakers in the main Zoom room each day because we had to work around the 200-person limit in Zoom’s breakout rooms. When the moment came, Jonathan pushed a button and suddenly, like magic, everyone was whisked off into the breakout room of their choice. Well, almost. If the person regis- tered for the Zoom meeting with a dif- ferent email address than they used for the GBA conference registration, they did not get whisked away. It was key that we provided a good break- out to hear in the main Zoom room for those who were not transferred to a breakout room. As host, Jonathan could message the breakout rooms to send a time notification so nobody would be surprised if they suddenly were whisked back to the main room in the middle of a sentence. Day Two of the Conference. Upper right on Zoom screen are the leaders from left When we arrived at lunch on the to right: Linda Tillman, then President of GBA; Gina Gallucci, then Vice-President of first day, it felt like the wind was at GBA; and Jonathan Hayes, producer of the event. Screenshot by Kathy Bourn our backs. We could DO THIS. People

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1336 11/5/2020 1:12:21 PM looked alert and aware and all of the talks were going well. Friday ended with the honey show awards. There were 55 exhibits in the GBA show and 155 entries in the national black jar contest. Brutz pre- sented the awards to all the exhibitors who had made the effort to mail in their winning entries.

Day Two of the conference Our second day began with our GBA members’ business meeting, which involved many moving parts. In ad- dition to reports from the president, secretary, and treasurer, we planned to show videos from recipients of our Buzz Fund grants, to announce the Beekeeper of the Year award, to ac- knowledge deaths in our community of beekeepers, and to stay on time. To use time efficiently, Linda had put most of these items into a PowerPoint. She had to stop sharing the screen to Linda Tillman receiving Beekeeper of the Year. Screenshot by Kathy Bourn allow the Beekeeper of the Year to be awarded. Bobby Chaisson, chair of the on the first morning; telling people Jonathan Hayes is a civil servant for the selection committee, announced that to put our distribution email address United States Air Force and a Georgia Cer- in their contacts list. We’ll get more tified Beekeeper. He started keeping bees in he had decided to award this like the 2014 in his backyard in Warner Robins, where Publisher’s Clearing House and was member/club participation to create he lives with his wife Amanda and their four at that very moment standing at the our videos for the breaks by collecting children. Starting with only two hives, he door of the recipient’s house. He was photos from members of their favorite has grown to love honey bees and every- online, sharing this event with our beekeeping masks, T-shirts, beekeep- thing they can do for us. Currently he is the participants through the Zoom app. ing tips, bee-themed gifts, honey la- President of the Heart of Georgia Beekeep- bels, etc. to put into slideshows. ers Association and has served on the board He rang the bell, and Linda, totally of directors since 2015, first as a director and surprised, screamed and ran to her We had very few glitches in the then as Vice President. In his spare time, he door! Jonathan (who was in on this conference itself. One or two pre- enjoys woodworking and making his own plan) recorded the whole event and senters had a pause or two as they bee equipment. was prepared to step in if she could shared their screen. Keeping the key- not recover from receiving this award. notes on time required actual inter- Linda Tillman is a retired clinical psycholo- ruption when needed. We learned gist and a Georgia Master Beekeeper. She This moment of person-to-person con- recently completed two terms as President nection during our online conference that we should present the breakouts of the Georgia Beekeepers Association. Linda really delighted our participants. The live next time. And we are much bet- began keeping bees in 2006 and has bee- video of it was watched 87 times in the ter at mastery of Zoom. Overall, we hives at a community garden and in her back- two weeks after the event. are very pleased and proud of our yard in her intown Atlanta neighborhood. She Because it was the GBA’s 100-year results. has been coping with beekeeping in the pan- Our evaluations were full of rave demic by presenting 14 different virtual hive anniversary, the talks on our second inspections on Zoom for her local club, Metro day were more historical and philo- reviews. People had fun, enjoyed con- Atlanta Beekeepers. In addition to MABA sophical. Keith Delaplane reminded necting with each other and loved the members, the inspections were also viewed us of our long history with a lovely speakers. Others really liked watch- by visitors to her blog: www.beekeeperlinda. overlook of all the ways GBA and the ing the videos after the fact. Our com. When Linda isn’t working her bees, she UGA bee program had intersected. uploaded videos were viewed 3437 is baking bread, quilting or having adventures Cindy Bee shared with us how she times over the two weeks afterward. with her four grandchildren. has learned everything important in We discovered that we could still feel life from her bees and left some partic- connected to each other and enjoy South Florida ipants moved to tears with the twelve our beekeeping friends in an online Bees-N-Honey things she shared. And Virgina Webb format. 18299 Clearbrook Circle offered an overview of our 100-year These are hard times with personal Boca Raton, FL 33498 history, as the conference ended. distance, masks and the pandemic Queens and Nucs making connection with each other available for sale What we have learned difficult. We at GBA are delighted In February we will have another that we were able to achieve this For information and pricing please virtual meeting. Most of our improve- connected conference for our mem- call, text or fax. ments will be about email: encourag- bers and our guests. We look forward Credit cards accepted. ing registrants to use the same email to repeating this great experience Phone: (561) 715-5715 for Zoom that they did to register for on February 20 at our online spring Fax: (561) 423-0304 the conference; emailing a schedule conference.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1339 11/5/2020 1:12:27 PM by M.E.A. McNeil hese traditional honey cakes Skep Cakes come from Eastern Europe Tand are still gifted at Jewish New Year to convey wishes for a sweet year. We beekeepers on any calendar can welcome the senti- ment with these spiced , shaped like little skeps because, well, why not? Several dozen of them were made for a memorable Western Apicultural Society meet- ing at UC Davis years ago, and they are worth repeating.

For a dozen skep cakes: 1 recipe Eastern European Honey A choice between two frostings:

Photography: Jerry Draper Photography: Honey or Honey 1 swarm bees

Eastern European Honey Cake () Preheat oven to 350°F. When honey mixture is at room temperature, beat it into the egg mixture. Add dry ingredients and blend Oil dozen-size muffin tins, one regular (on the well. smaller side) and one miniature. Circles of parchment Scoop batter into an even number of miniature and paper, which can be reused for subsequent batches, larger muffin tins, filling no more than ¾ full. You may ensure that they come out easily. have some extra to put into a loaf pan, which is how this cake was traditionally made. Combine and warm just to blending: Bake about 25 minutes, checking to see that a tooth- ½ cup — coffee pick comes out clean. The miniature muffin tins will ¾ cup — honey (a dark fall honey goes well) bake faster than large ones. ¼ cup +2 T — canola oil Cool cakes. Prepare to stack them in skep shape in 1 tsp — this way: Cut off the rounded tops of the cakes to make them fit when inverted and stacked. Cool to room temperature. Warm in two separate bowls: Combine dry ingredients: ½ cup — jam (or another bee favorite) 1¾ cups — all-purpose flour 6 T — honey (a choice here) ½ tsp — baking powder ¾ tsp — baking soda Spread warmed jam filling on inverted bottom cake, 1 tsp each — ginger, cinnamon, just to the edge, not over. Stack smaller inverted cake on top and spoon Beat until thick, four minutes or so: warmed honey over the two-layer cakes. ¼ cup + 2 T — sugar 1½ — large eggs

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1340 11/5/2020 1:12:30 PM Cinnamon Honey Frosting Marzipan Bees

This is a better match to the flavors of the cake than You can buy marzipan, but it’s easy and far less ex- the cream cheese. pensive to make it. You’ll have some left over for other modeling projects; it freezes well. 6 oz — unsalted butter, room temperature ¾ tsp — ground cinnamon To make marzipan, grind in food processor until fine: ¼ tsp — salt (or use salted butter) 2 cups blanched 1¼ cup — powdered sugar ⅛ cup — honey (dark fall for the straw color of the Add until it sticks together: skep) 1½ cups — powdered sugar 1 tsp — almond extract Beat the butter in a mixer several minutes on high un- 4 tsp — water til fluffy, scraping sides. Add cinnamon and salt and beat until smooth, several minutes. Add powdered sugar and then honey gradually. Beat until fluffy. Spread on cakes and score skep pattern around with a chopstick.

Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream cheese and honey frosting is simple to make. Spread and score the pattern with a chopstick.

Recipe: About ¼ cup honey mixed with 8 oz cream cheese

Knead well into a log. To make bees, kneed color into a golf ball-size piece of marzipan. Divide into small balls and shape into bees. For wings, use white marzi- pan or slivered almonds.

Acknowledgements: To Jerry Draper for photography and washing legions of dishes. To the worms in the worm bin and the microbes in the compost for consuming the failures.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1344 11/5/2020 1:12:41 PM ountless bee organizations have consumption for thousands of years. And don’t overlook the bumble lists of “honey bee facts” that Meliponiculture has a long history bees (Bombus spp). Bumble bee honey Care entertaining, if not exactly wherever stingless bees live, includ- is stored in waxen pots within the factual. Many such lists claim that ing Central and , Aus- brood nest and eaten by the queen, so honey bees are the only insects that tralia, Africa, and . she needn’t leave the nest to find food. produce food that’s eaten by humans. Today, the major honey producers They store it in small quantities — not That might seem true if you’re look- among the stingless bees include Me- enough to harvest commercially — ing only as far as your local grocery lipona beecheii and M. yucatanica, and but the tiny pots have been treasured store, but lots of insects collect nectar sometimes and by brave children for countless gener- or other plant exudates that humans Scaptotrigona mexicana. The honey of ations. Since children are human — at are happy to eat. In addition, some in- other stingless species is sometimes least mostly — we can conclude that sects produce insects that are, in turn, harvested by individuals for family bumble bees do indeed produce food used for food. For example, if a mama or personal use. that is eaten by humans. wax moth lays eggs that grow into larvae that you fry in butter and serve over rice, certainly that mama moth was producing food for humans. It’s all how you think about it.

The honey makers Technically, a honey bee belongs in the Apis. Eight species com- prise the genus, all of which produce honey that humans can eat. While the western hemisphere is home to the imported Apis mellifera, the rest of the world has a wider selection of honey bees, including the Asian honey bee (A. cerana), the giant honey bee (A. dorsata), the dwarf honey bee (A. florea), and others. Aside from Apis bees, lots of other bees produce honey, notably sting- less bees in the tribe Meliponini. Al- though the tribe comprises roughly 500 species, not all produce enough honey to make commercial harvest- Honeypot ants, , store large amounts of honey in their ab- ing worthwhile. Still, many species domens. Here, three repletes hang off the right side of their own swollen abdomens. have been raised or raided for human Public Doman photo by Derrick Coetzee December 2020 1345

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1345 11/5/2020 1:12:44 PM The Mexican honey wasp, mellifica, ranges from Wax moth larvae, like this , make a high-pro- Texas to Nicaragua. Photo courtesy of Francisco Farriols Sarabia tein snack. Public domain photo by Sam Droege

Honeypot ants the Mexican honey wasp (B. mellifica), along with transportation and stor- Let’s not forget . Honeypot lives in North America, while the rest age in . Later, we harvest ants are another group of insects that live farther south. Historically, small it, often unaware we are eating not produce food that humans eat. The quantities of wasp honey, which is plant secretions but insect excretions.3 honeypot ants are grouped into seven similar to Apis honey, have been en- Without these intermediary insects, genera, two of which are found in joyed by native people in and around nothing would be available for the North America. Los Reyes Metzontla, Mexico.1 bee to collect, so you can add aphids, Instead of building cells or pots whiteflies, and similar sapsuckers to in which to store food, specialized Honeydew the list of insects that provide food for workers in each colony act as liv- The bees, , and ants men- humans. ing food barrels. These workers, tioned above are all closely related known as repletes or rotunds, eat vast members of the order Hymenoptera. Confectioner’s glaze amounts of nectar, plant secretions, But let’s look at the bugs that produce Another widely consumed product and honeydew until their abdomens honeydew. Although honeydew does is produced by the Kerria expand like overfilled balloons, ready not meet the definition of honey, it’s lacca. Like the honeydew producers, to burst. The repletes become so un- certainly tasty and sweet enough to these insects ingest from plants wieldy they remain stationary, often be enjoyed by humans.2 and excrete a substance from the back hanging from the ceilings of their un- Although honeydew is collected by end of the digestive tract. The sub- derground nests. honey bees and stored in honeycombs stance, known as , is the source of A replete remains motionless until a like nectar, it is not nectar. Instead, , , and natural . hungry begs for food by stroking honeydew is sap that is secreted by Although most sources list lac as a her antennae. In response, she feeds plants and eaten in impressive quan- secretion, an article in the Journal of it by trophallaxis — mouth-to-mouth tities by certain sap-sucking insects Zoology clarifies by saying, “The lac transfer. Once full, this ant distributes such as aphids and white flies. The of commerce originates as an excre- the food to other colony members just sapsucking insects wound the surface tion (in the sense of excreta) exuded as a honey bee does. of the plant, causing the sap to flow, by the scale from the anal orifice.”4 Unfortunately for the replete, she then eat so much, so fast that the sap This substance dries and forms a pro- usually dies after her food supply goes in one end and out the other es- tective cocoon-like covering for the disappears. After having reached the sentially unchanged. young, which can later be scraped diameter of a small grape, her body The end product — pun intended from the branches where it collects. simply cannot shrink to its previous — is sticky and sweet and highly Traditionally, the lac was harvested proportions. Other workers soon re- admired by honey bees. Being op- and used in varnish, , and place her. portunists, the bees collect the pre- even . However, modern Various human populations in processed sap from the surface of the techniques of filtering and refining parts of Australia have enjoyed the plants, then provide a bit more spit have produced a purified product delicious honeypots. Traditionally, known as confectioner’s glaze or they were harvested and eaten fresh, pharmaceutical glaze that is used to ant and all. Of course, digging for coat candies and pills. It is also used honeypots could foster a voracious to polish raw fruit to keep it shiny appetite, considering the repletes and attractive for the consumer. If could be six feet deep in the soil, usu- you’re squeamish, don’t over-think ally in hot and dry climates. this. Just chase your daily vitamin with lots of water. Honey wasps The wasp genus Brachygastra con- Insects as food tains sixteen species of honey wasps The produced by lac bugs is puri- So far, we’ve looked at many dif- which collect nectar and store honey fied and sold as dry flakes in different ferent insects that accumulate syrups in their large paper nests commonly colors. and saps which mankind has a his- built in treetops. Only one species, Public domain photo by Nuberger13 tory of eating. Just for fun, I’d like to

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1346 11/5/2020 1:12:46 PM also mention some of the bugs we eat every day. What’s that? You don’t eat bugs? Let’s march into your kitchen for a closer look.

Cochineal The scale bug, coccus, is a parasite of the prickly pear . After the female bug eats large quan- tities of the cactus flowers, the fluffy white insect turns blood red on the inside — a trait not so great for her personal safety. Historically, these insects were sim- ply collected, dried, and powdered into the bright red dye called cochi- neal. Later, an enhanced purification process was designed that yielded the dye known as . The rich red color was highly prized by European royalty who were famously short on stable red colorants. Once the Euro- peans learned of the dyes, The scale bug, Dactylopius coccus, eats the flowers of the prickly pear cactus, turning became profitable for traders in Mexi- it red on the inside. Pixabay image by JamesDeMers co and Central America. start by reading your food labels. The My mom, who never ate broccoli, Inexpensive alternatives powdered scale insects may be listed claimed it “has bugs.” According to However, as time passed, cochi- as cochineal extract, carmine, or car- the FDA, she’s right. Insects and mites neal was replaced with cheaper dyes minic acid. In any case, because co- in “broccoli, frozen” don’t trip the made from petroleum distillates. As a chineal is naturally sourced, it is an alarm until they reach “an average of result, the cochineal trade — which is exempt additive, meaning it doesn’t 60 or more aphids and/or and/ labor intensive — all but disappeared. need batch certification.7 However, or mites per 100 grams (3.5 ounces).” In the United States, cochineal was according to the FDA website, “Be- replaced by Red Dye #2. But in the cause of potential allergic reactions Apple cider 1970s Red Dye #2 made headlines af- in some people, carmine/cochineal Due to my backwoods upbring- ter Soviet scientists claimed it caused extracts are required to be identified ing, I’m philosophical about bugs in cancer,5 so Red #2 was quickly re- by name on food labels.”8 food. I once asked my grandmother placed with another petroleum prod- about the squirmy black specks in the uct, Red Dye #40, which is still widely The hidden meal flour canister, and she explained that used in the US. 6 Here in North America, most of the since they don’t eat much, they don’t By then, however, many modern bugs we eat are hidden in plain sight, cause economic loss. My grandfather consumers were suspicious of petro- taking up space on our plates without always joked about wormy , leum as a food item. In a flash, co- our knowledge. If you are in the midst forever asking, “What’s worse than chineal made an unsuspected come- of a Covid-19 lockdown with insuf- finding a worm in your apple?” He back as a natural red dye, and soon ficient entertainment, go to the FDA would then declare, “Half a worm!” began tinting , candy, cake website and peruse the Food Defect and roar with laughter. mix, pie filling, seafood, cosmetics, Levels Handbook. The list contains Aside from being careful about and drugs. “levels of natural or unavoidable de- where I bit, I didn’t worry about fects in that present no health wormy apples until I watched a lo- Not a perfect solution hazards for humans.” Although many consumers pre- The list has three columns that de- ferred cochineal over petroleum, scribe the product, the defect, and the not everyone was happy about the action levels. Keep in mind that noth- switch. In 2012, Starbuck’s yielded ing happens if the product is below to pressure from special interest the action level — those foods get a groups — especially People for the passing grade. Ethical Treatment of Animals — and To illustrate, let’s look at “cinna- removed cochineal from a number of mon, ground.” The defects measured its offerings, including the Strawber- in the product are insect filth and ro- ries & Crème Frappuccino. However, dent filth. The action level for insect other companies continued to use it, filth is an average of 400 or more in- mostly because it is natural, stable, sect fragments per 50 gram (1.7 ounce) and non-fading. sample. Luckily, only something less No matter how wormy the apples, they all If you think you don’t eat insects, than 11 rodent hairs are allowed in go into the cider press. you may need to reconsider. You can each sample — say, for instance, ten. Pixabay image by ski4fd

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1347 11/5/2020 1:12:47 PM cal farmer loading his cider press. pers, , , and wa- cifer lacca. Retrieved from https://zslpub- The apples, including windfalls, ter bugs, but emphasizes that proper lications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ were all thrown together into the species selection and cooking tech- epdf/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1931.tb06194.x 10 5 Yoquinto L. (2013, May 30). The Truth hopper. They were all wormy — to- niques should be followed. Some about Red Dye #2. Retrieved from https:// day we might call them “organically forward-thinking individuals believe www.livescience.com/35905-red-dye-no- grown”— and no one ever explained that insects may one day play a major 2-truth.html where the worm juice went. We drank role in the human diet, especially as 6 Van de Walle, G. (2020, April 29). Red the cider straight from the catch jugs, our population continues to rise. Dye 40: Safety, Side Effects, and Food List. no questions asked, and yet here I am, I list these insect foods not to flip Retrieved from https://www.healthline. alive to tell about it. your lunch but to dispel the notion com/nutrition/red-dye-40 7 Each new batch of a non-exempt color ad- That said, I admit to a certain quea- that we humans, especially in west- ditive needs to be tested by the FDA for siness about canned . The ern societies, can somehow distance composition and purity. Defect Levels Handbook says the ac- ourselves from things we find objec- 8 FDA (2018, January 4) Color Additives tion level of “mushrooms, canned tionable. We should be more open- Questions and Answers for Consumers. and dried” is an “average of over 20 minded and realistic about how far Retrieved from https://www.fda.gov/ or more maggots of any size per 100 the economics of modern food pro- food/food-additives-petitions/color-ad- grams of drained mushrooms and cessing can separate us from things, ditives-questions-and-answers-consum- ers proportionate liquid or 15 grams of like bugs, that are natural and com- 9 Bugs for Beginners (May 12, 2019). Ed- dried mushrooms.” To this day, if I monly found in our environment. ible Insects Recipe: Crunchy need a can of mushrooms for a recipe, Perhaps we should worry less about Ramen. Retrieved from https://www. I open it, rinse them, and bury them a wing here and a leg there, and just bugs4beginners.com/blog/recipe-wax- among the other ingredients without enjoy our food without freaking over worm-ramen/ looking. I would rather eat something the small stuff. 10 WebMD. (undated). Bugs You Can Eat. that walks rather than something that Retrieved from https://www.webmd. com/food-recipes/ss/slideshow-bugs- slithers, so the whole maggot image is Notes and References you-can-eat off-putting. Once they’re buried in the 1 Keck M. (undated) Mexican Honey Wasps. Retrieved from https://agrilifeex- sauce, though, I forget about them. Rusty Burlew has stud- tension.tamu.edu/library/landscaping/ ied agriculture, honey mexican-honey-wasps/ bees, and environmen- Eating Insects on Purpose 2 FDA (February 2018) Proper Labeling of tal science for over 30 So far, I haven’t included any in- Honey and Honey Products. Retrieved years. She is a passion- sects we eat on purpose, knowingly from https://www.fda.gov/files/food/ ate advocate of native and eagerly. But plenty are available. published/PDF---Guidance-for-Indus- bee conservation and Remember those wax moth larvae I try--Proper-Labeling-of-Honey-and- founded the Native Bee mentioned earlier? It turns out they Honey-Products.pdf Conservancy in Wash- are something of a delicacy, having 3 In biology, the word secretion refers to ington State. https://honeybeesuite.com substances released by glands or other or email her at [email protected]. an almond-like flavor when fried and tissues, including , hormones, a pork-like flavor when baked. Aficio- and lubricants. The word excretion refers nados like to toss them in a wok or to biological wastes such as urine and fe- make waxworm tacos.9 ces. In the case of honeydew, the sticky WebMD.com lists many edible in- substance is secreted by the plant but ex- sects including ants, bees, beetles, creted by the sucking insects that ate it. , crickets, flies, grasshop- 4 Misra A. (April 1931). On the Internal Anatomy of the Female Lac Insect, Lac-

In some countries, deep-fried crickets are a popular food item. Pixabay image by SadiaK123

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1348 11/5/2020 1:12:49 PM MITE CONTROL WHILE HONEY IS ON THE HIVE Part 2 Beekeeper-funded Research by RANDY OLIVER ScientificBeekeeping.com

Last month I covered the setup of my field trial of summertime mite treatments, in- cluding experimental extended-release oxalic acid in glycerin. I’ll now share the results.

Due to space limitations, it’s going to take me at least two articles to share the results of this and related field trials, so I’ll combine the results and discussion sections, eventually with a final wrap up of what I’ve learned to date. I’m going to show you at least two graphs of the results for each treatment group. Initial mite counts were taken on June 16-17; due to climbing temperatures we delayed applying the treatments, but once a week had passed, I decided that we needed to treat on June 23 despite the heat. Midpoint counts were taken on July 12-13 (19 days after application of the first treatment, 26 days after the initial counts). We took end point counts 23 days later on August 4-5 (49 days after taking the initial mite counts, 42 days after application of the treatments). For the midpoint assessment, I didn’t want to take mite washes of all 260+ hives, so I selected what I considered to be “representative” hives from each treatment group at each of the seven test apiaries (“representative’ hives being those with bees in both brood chambers, as well as moderate to high starting mite counts).

Notes: For each treatment group I will first show a line graph of the mite counts for only those hives chosen for midpoint assessments, followed by a column graph of the final results for all hives in the treatment group. Explanations for each graph type are at Figures 1 & 2. For this entire series of articles, all “counts” are for the number of mites washed from a sam- ple of a half cup of bees (roughly 315 workers) shaken from a frame adjacent to brood (generally from the upper chamber).

The untreated control group The Control hives were intentionally colonies with starting mite counts in the 10-20 range. Side note: Mite counts can go to shocking levels if a treatment fails — our highest ending count in this field trial was a staggering 274 mites on a half cup sample of bees (not shown, and not in the Control group).

Fig. 1 Instead of more-appropri- ate step graphs, I’m showing line graphs (all to the same scale), since they make it easier to visu- alize the changes in mite counts for a number of individual hives. So keep in mind that the lines represent only the overall change in mite infestation rate from one data point to the next, not what happened in between. In most of the chosen Control hives, the mite infestation rates did not change much during the first half of the trial, but then climbed higher during the last half. Re- member that the counts for these graphs are from only a few of the hives receiving each treatment, not the entire treatment group (which is shown below).

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1349 11/5/2020 1:12:52 PM Fig. 2 Rather than throwing a bunch of box- plots, ranges, statistics, and error bars at you, I’ll give you the straight results for every colony, which allows you to visually pick out patterns for yourself — such as the degree of variability, outliers, and yard effect. All the graphs are to the same scale for easy comparison.

Fig. 3 As you can see, there’s a lot of red in the Control group — indicating that mite counts went up — to slightly over 1½ times their starting counts. The group median value means that half the counts went up more, half less (as opposed to means, which get skewed by outliers). You can see why I limited the Control group to fairly low starting counts, since several of them really shot up over the course of 49 days (although just to confuse things, a few went down). Practical application: Since the mite counts in the Control group went up by a median 58%, this expected increase allows us to later estimate the efficacy of each treatment by comparing its group’s change to that of the Control group.

Formic Pro — 1 strip, repeated after 10 days There are two options for application of this formic acid vapor treatment: (1) placing two strips at once, or (2) ap- plying only one strip, then another after 10 days. We tested both methods. Unfortunately, the weather heated up after taking our initial mite counts, but as with many beekeepers suffering from a warming climate, we still had to deal with mites despite the weather. The daytime temperatures on the day of application were in the 90s F — well above the

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1350 11/5/2020 1:12:54 PM manufacturer’s recommended temperature range. So this was a good opportunity to see what would happen if we applied Formic Pro under hot, low-humidity conditions.

Practical application: The rationale for repeating the treatment at 10 days is that it kills mites that have emerged from the brood.

Scientific note:You can see why it’s important to repli- cate any trial in various yards and under different condi- tions. What I’ve learned from field trials is to expect the un- expected, that there will be anomalies and outliers, location and weather can be important, stuff happens (including screw ups), and that there is always large colony-to-colony Fig. 4 The repeated single-strip treatment with Formic Pro variability that may make it difficult to tease out the signal greatly reduced most of the mite counts. Encouragingly, there from the noise. was little mite increase after treatment. The poor performance of Formic Pro in yard “L” was clearly an anomaly. I have no explanation, but suspect that Again, the lines do not reflect the immediate impacts of treat- it may be related to the fact that it was the first yard to which ment, only the results at two time points well afterwards. treatments were applied, and I had conscripted a small group of visiting beekeepers as helpers to apply them — could it have been some detail during their learning curve?

Fig. 5 Mite control for the repeated single strip option was quite good, except for in the “L” yard, in which the lack of reduc- tion was in stark contrast to that in the rest of the yards (and in contrast to the excellent control in the same yard when two strips were applied on the same day at the same time — Fig. 7). Even including those hives in which the mite count went up, the overall median reduction in mite counts for all hives in the test group was to only 17% of the starting count — very impressive!

Practical application: It’s all in the details. Why would a treatment work poorly in the first yard, but so well in the next six? I wouldn’t blame it on the product, but perhaps upon some detail of how the strips were handled prior to placement, or perhaps since they were applied early in the day (I suspect that Formic Pro would be best applied late in the day). I clearly need to repeat this particular applica- tion method to figure it out.

Formic Pro — 2 strips applied at once, during hot weather Note: In these column graphs, if there is no red visible im- mediately to the right of a blue starting count column, that means that the ending mite count was zero. The median re- duction figures may be misleading, since for both Formic Pro treatment groups the median starting and ending mite Fig. 6 I expected that the intense two-strip application would counts happened to be the same — 20 mites to start, 3 mites result in greater mite kill or sterilization under the cappings, and at the end. thus better efficacy. That did not appear to be the case, since mite counts rose during the second time period. I had two questions about Formic Pro besides its efficacy:

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1351 11/5/2020 1:12:56 PM Fig. 7 Two strips of For- mic Pro gave very good mite control in all but 2 hives out of 33 — for a median reduction to only 20% of the starting count. Why the failure in those two hives I have no idea.

(1) Do colonies recover more quickly from the 2-strip treatment, since it causes only a single brood break, and (2) is the re- peated 1-strip application easier on the queens? Due to space limitations, I’ll need to leave the answers ‘til my next article.

Those danged outliers In Figure 7 there are two outliers — colonies in which mite counts after treatment went way up, instead of down. This oc- curs, regardless of treatment type (including synthetic miticides), in nearly every large apiary or experiment, for unknown reasons. We just need to deal with that fact.

Hopguard 3 Despite the impressive mite knockdown shown in Fig. 8, it was clear by the end of the trial that a single application of Hopguard 3 was inadequate for mite control during summer. I’ve since spoken at length with Fabiana Ahumada at BetaTec in order to clear up my understanding of the label, and plan to repeat the test next season, but with repeated treatment. There is no need to show the results of this test, since because I did not apply retreatments I did not give Hopguard a fair shot. Practical application: Due to the Hopguard’s rapid knockdown of mites, non-contamination of honey, and lack of ad- verse effects on queens (to be shown later), I feel that it can be a viable tool for varroa control (and used it myself later in two other field trials this season). I look forward to testing it again next season.

Extended-release Ox- alic Acid in Glycerin The main purpose for this large field trial was to compare the efficacy of ex- tended-release OA to that of the two treatments cur- rently registered for varroa control while honey is on Fig. 8 Hopguard 3 gave a quick, but inconsistent, knockdown of the mites. Unfortunately, I found the hive — Formic Pro and the label to be unclear as to whether it was recommended or permissible to repeat the application Hopguard. I tested three during the honey flow (as specified for fall treatment). I’ve since confirmed that it’s OK to do so. different application meth- Since the midpoint results indicated substantial effect from treatment, I didn’t reapply Hopguard 3 ods of OA/gly — let’s see strips to any hives. In retrospect, I wish that I had done so. how they performed.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1352 11/5/2020 1:12:57 PM Fig. 9 Similar to my findings in previous trials, there is little reduction in the mite infestation rate from OA/gly towel ap- Fig. 10 For the shop towel application method I intentionally plication during the first few weeks of treatment (despite an picked colonies with starting counts similar to that of the Con- increased mite drop, not shown). Extended-release OA takes trols for comparison in the efficacy calculation. At 42 days post several weeks to attain full efficacy. application, mite counts had dropped to lackluster 38% of start- ing, but from previous experience I would expect them to con- tinue to decline if given more time.

OA/gly — 2 half Shop Towels 1:1 ratio (18 g OA in total)

OA/gly — one 3½” x 8” cellulose sponge (25g OA in total) What I was hoping for is that using cellulose sponges as the delivery matrix for OA/gly might deliver a more con- sistent dose over time than do shop towels. At this point, OA/gly may not seem impressive. But we still have one more application method:

OA/gly — Two 3½” x 8” cellulose sponges (50g OA in total) So what happens if we double the number of sponges ap- plied?

Fig. 11 The single-OA/gly sponge treatment exhibited notably Practical application: it’s not about how much OA is greater initial reductions in the hives with high starting mite applied in the delivery matrix; it’s only the amount of counts than in those with low counts (which may help to explain OA that gets to the mites that makes any difference. Al- the apparent poor performance of the shop towels). But the though the two sponges held 50 g of OA between them, overall reductions in mite counts above were not impressive. only a fraction of that actually got released into the hives

Fig. 12 The most striking observation is that the one-sponge application really brought down most of the extremely high mite counts. But for the low-mite hives, the results were not as impressive. Over- all, the single sponge treatment dropped the mite counts to roughly half their starting number.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1353 11/5/2020 1:13:00 PM (to be covered next month) — at the end of the treatment period, most of the OA still remained in the sponges, never having gotten distributed to a bee or mite. So don’t get hung up on the 50-g dose, since it doesn’t take much OA, properly delivered, to control varroa. Bottom line: The better efficacy of the 2-sponge treatment was due to the amount of surface area of the delivery system, rather than the amount of OA held in the sponges.

Extending the treatment The results from two OA sponges look really good – but had they yet achieved full efficacy? I left the sponges in a number of the hives that still exhibited appreciable mite counts (some from which I’d taken midpoint counts) until Fig. 13 Now we’re talking. Look at those ending counts! I’ll dis- the treatment had been in the hives for 72 days, and then cuss why the difference later (it wasn’t due to the amount of OA). took mite counts again (Figure 15). Practical application: Although the 2-sponge treatment gave decent initial mite knock down, it’s really a long-term treatment, taking some time to reach full efficacy.

Next month I’ll show more exciting data. These results are yet another step in my quest to find the best delivery method for extended-release oxalic acid — I can already tell that it’s not going to be shop towels or the sponges that I used in this trial, nor a 50-gram dose.

Fig. 14 Bingo — that’s a lot of blue! Other than the few outliers, the two- sponge treatment was the best treatment of all, with the median ending counts being only a tenth of the start. Despite the average (mean) starting count for this test group being 25 mites, half the ending counts were of 2 or less — not bad.

Efficacy calculations As always, a researcher can pick and choose methods for calculating efficacy of treatments. I prefer to use the Hen- derson-Tilton formula, since it compares the change in pest prevalence in a Treatment group to the increase in the Con- trol group, setting the Control efficacy at zero. That said, there are different metrics that I can input into the formula. So I calculated efficacy in two ways (Table 1): Sum of mite counts: I added up the totals for each Treat- ment group’s starting and ending mite counts to compare overall reduction in mites for each entire group. Median mite counts: I calculated the median starting and ending mite counts for each Treatment group in order to get a feel for the yard “average” (the median being the mid- point).

Fig. 15 Oxalic acid in glycerin is a long-term treatment, which Note: Technically, since the Control colonies started with just keeps on working when applied in two sponges (red) — lower mite counts than many of the Test colonies, we must note the downward trend of the red lines over the last 30 days. take the efficacy calculations with a grain of salt (other

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1354 11/5/2020 1:13:03 PM than for the shop towels). However, it’s not the absolute values that are important, but rather the comparison of the efficacy values of the various treatments to each other. Both calculated efficacy values are shown Table 1.

Practical application: The OA/gly two-sponge application method clearly kicks butt! But it gets even better, as you’ll see next month.

Cautionary notes: Due to poor weather earlier in the season, the colonies in this trial were not strong — starting at about 8-10 frames of bees. So the absolute values for efficacy of treatment below may not apply to strong colonies

Fig. 16 I compared the increase in infestation rate over the 49 days by its multiple value (“2x” meaning that the mite count doubled), against the starting mite count for each hive. The green dotted line (at a multiple of 1x) indicates no change, so data points below it mean that the count dropped, often to zero. Note that for all groups other than the Controls and two OA pads, that mite counts skyrocketed pretty much only in the less-than-10 count hives, despite treatment.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1355 11/5/2020 1:13:05 PM stacked with honey supers. That said, what I was interested in was the comparative efficacy of the various treatments and application methods.

The odd effect of starting count Just to be sure, I also calculated efficacy values for each group to see whether there was a difference between the half of the hives in each test group with higher starting counts vs. those with the lower starting counts. There was no appre- ciable difference (not shown). But then I noticed that there appeared to be a relationship between colonies in which the mite counts went up after treatment and their starting mite level. So I plotted out scattergrams of the amount of mite increase or reduction vs. the starting mite count (Figure 16). The above pattern seems counterintuitive — that the treatments were not only ineffective in some of the colonies with the lowest starting mite counts, but actually caused the counts to skyrocket. I have no explanation — but I’ll bet that there’s something important to learn!

Practical application: The above scattergrams validate the efficacy estimates for the hives with starting counts above 10. But they still leave me scratching my head!

The label is the law Hold your horses! The extended-release application method is not yet approved by the EPA. Until then, it is not legal to apply OA by this method for mite control, and I do not in any way promote beekeepers doing so. In my next article, Dr. Jay Evans will report upon USDA’s progress toward registration of the application method.

To be continued Next month I’ll cover the effects of treatment upon colony performance and queenrightness (notably the effect of formic treatment in hot weather), as well as more results from this and other trials of OA/gly sponges that we ran this summer, plus some previous-yet-unpublished research of mine on extended-release OA. Stay tuned …

This is beekeeper-funded research Randy sees beekeeping through This field trial was tedious (we took and counted 589 mite washes in the eyes of a biologist. He’s kept all, many with counts well above 50 mites), costly in materials and labor, bees for over 50 years, and with and involved the loss of many colonies due to failure of treatment. My his sons runs around 1500 hives in work is supported entirely by donations from beekeepers, which allows the California foothills. He closely me independence from any company or restrictions by administrators — I follows bee research, engages in some himself, and enjoys sharing work for the benefit of beekeepers alone. You can support our research by what he’s learned with others. donating at ScientificBeekeeping.com. Thanks!

South Georgia Apiaries Quality Italian Queens Queen cells for pick-up only at: 300 Wisteria Ln. Baxley, GA 31513 Tel (912) 366-9022 Fax (912) 367-0012

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1357 11/5/2020 1:13:09 PM 1358 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1358 11/5/2020 1:13:12 PM by Scott McArt

Honey bees recognize their sisters because their gut microbes make them smell similar

Serious question: If you close your For their study, Vernier and col- on the relative proportion of each eyes, can you imagine the smell of leagues first created colonies using CHC. your brother, sister, mother or father? queens from three different sources Similarly, to assess whether the My guess is you probably can, even — Georgia, California and New York. were different among if it’s been a few years since you’ve To assess whether CHC profiles were workers from each colony, the au- thought about it. That’s because each different among workers from each thors collected numerous foragers of us has a characteristic smell, some of the three colonies, they collected from each colony, extracted DNA of which may come from perfume or numerous foragers from each colony from their guts (Photo 2), then am- deodorant, but some of which defi- (Photo 1), then extracted and quan- plified and sequenced the bacterial nitely comes from us. tified 19 common CHCs using gas DNA. This allowed the researchers to What does this have to do with chromatography. This allowed the create a bacterial “fingerprint” of each bees? Well, it turns out bees also have researchers to create a CHC “finger- worker based on the relative propor- a characteristic smell, or more specifi- print” for each individual bee based tions of each species of bacteria. cally, characteristic cuticular hydro- carbons (CHCs). In addition to pro- tecting bees from drying out, CHCs serve as pheromones that help bees recognize their nestmates. Indeed, guard bees at a colony’s entrance can recognize the similar CHCs of nestmates and accept them into the colony, or they can recognize the dif- ferent CHCs of intruders and drive them away. But how do CHCs become similar among nestmates? Are they genetical- ly determined, or are they physically transferred and mixed among all bees in the colony environment? And what about all those microbes that live in and on bees — do they play a role in determining a bee’s CHC profile? These are the topics for our thirty- sixth Notes from the Lab, where we summarize “The gut microbiome defines social group membership in honey bee colonies,” written by Cassondra Vernier and colleagues and published in Science Advances Photo 1 Lead author Cassondra Vernier collecting forager bees at the entrance to an [6:eabd3431]. experimental colony. Photo: Katelyn Marcus December 2020 1359

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1359 11/5/2020 1:13:14 PM whether G. apicola-inoculated bees discriminated against L. quercina- inoculated bees, and vice versa, via intruder assays. Finally, they tested whether unrelated bees could develop similar nestmate recognition cues and be accepted when inoculated with the same microbe. To do this, they inocu- lated resident bees with G. apicola, then tested whether they accepted workers from that colony or a differ- ent colony that were inoculated with either G. apicola or L. quercina. So, what did they find? Are gut microbes different among bees from different colonies? Yes. Among the three colonies tested, the gut mi- crobes of sister bees were similar, but the gut microbes of bees from differ- Photo 2 A dissected honey bee gut. Crop (left), mid-gut, hind-gut, (right). ent colonies were different. Photo: Cassondra Vernier Are gut microbes fixed in a worker Next, Vernier and colleagues tested perimentally altering the microbiota bee, or can they change according whether a causal relationship exist- in two ways — via antibiotics or mi- to the colony in which she’s raised? ed between worker gut microbiota crobe inoculations. For the inocula- The gut microbes could change. Spe- and CHCs. To do this, they first es- tions, they compared the microbiota cifically, if a worker was raised in her tablished whether colony-specific and CHCs of sister bees that either did own colony, she acquired the same microbiota were acquired by newly or didn’t receive inoculations of live microbiota as other workers in that emerged worker bees that were vs. heat-killed microbes, or microbes colony. But if her sister was raised in placed in a different colony. In other from one of two potential colonies. a different colony, that sister acquired words, they took newly emerged Finally, Vernier and colleagues similar microbiota to workers in the workers from a colony, placed half of tested whether microbiota-mediated other colony. In other words, a work- them in a new colony while allowing changes in CHCs led to changes in er’s gut microbiota depend on the the other half to remain in the original acceptance of intruders. To do this, colony in which she’s raised, though colony, then compared the gut micro- they first showed that inoculating they’re also influenced by her source biota in bees that were transferred to workers with two culturable gut bac- colony/genetics. those that stayed (Photo 3). teria — Gilliamella apicola or Lonsdalea What about cuticular hydrocar- The authors then tested whether quercina (Photo 4) — resulted in dif- bons (CHCs)? Do gut microbes alter changes in microbiota led to predict- ferent gut microbiota and associated CHCs? Yes. And here’s where this able changes in CHC profiles by ex- CHCs in sister bees. Next, they tested paper really breaks ground in our understanding of honey bee and mi- crobe biology. It didn’t matter wheth- er Vernier and colleagues treated newly emerged worker bees with an- tibiotics, inoculations of live microbe inoculum vs. heat-killed inoculum, inoculum from older bees from two different colonies, or inoculum con- taining G. apicola vs. L. quercina; each of these treatments changed worker microbiota and led to corresponding changes in CHCs. In short, changing a worker bee’s microbiota always changed its CHCs. Well that’s neat, but why is this important? Do microbiota-mediated changes in CHCs alter recognition between nestmates? Yes. And here Vernier and colleagues’ study breaks ground again. In their intruder assays (Photo 5) the authors found that G. apicola-inoculated bees discriminated against L. quercina-inoculated bees, Photo 3 A frame showing paint-marked bees used in the cross-fostering experiments. but not vice-versa. Since G. apicola Workers from the resident colony are painted green or blue while workers from a dif- is a symbiotic gut microbe while L. ferent colony that were reared in the resident colony are painted . quercina is an opportunistic microbe Photo: Cassondra Vernier (in other words, G. apicola contrib-

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1360 11/5/2020 1:13:15 PM (L) Photo 4 A Petri dish culture of Gilliamella apicola (black arrow) and Lonsdalea quercina (green arrow), two bacteria that are naturally present in worker honey bee guts. Photo credit: Science Advances (R) Photo 5 The laboratory behavioral dish assays used to assess discrimination among workers with different gut microbiota. Photo: Cassondra Vernier utes positively to gut function, while lated with G. apicola accepted work- cial honey bees — nestmate recogni- L. quercina simply exists in the gut ers from their own colony or work- tion. In fact, you might ask who’s in when it’s there), these results suggest ers from the different colony if they charge of this behavior, the bee or its that symbiotic but not opportunistic were also inoculated with G. apicola, microbes? Bees certainly benefit from microbes may allow workers to gen- but they rejected workers inoculated being able to recognize intruders and erate and perceive nestmate recogni- with L. quercina (Photo 6). Wow, that avoid being robbed. But it shouldn’t tion cues. is just neat; changing a worker’s mi- go without notice that microbes may Furthermore, when they tested crobiota caused her to be accepted by also benefit, since keeping novel mi- whether unrelated bees could develop bees from a different colony because crobes out of a colony could reduce similar nestmate recognition cues and she produced similar CHCs and they competition with unrelated microbe be accepted when inoculated with the therefore mistakenly thought she was strains. same microbe, the results were very their sister. On reflection, if I were a bee, I think clear: First, workers inoculated with Overall, Vernier and colleagues’ I’d be happy to help out my gut mi- G. apicola had different CHCs than study shows that gut microbes play crobes, regardless of whether they workers inoculated with L. quercina. a surprisingly influential role in a were making me help them or not. Second, guard bees that were inocu- major behavior exhibited by euso- Until next time, bee well and do good work. Scott McArt

Reference: Vernier, C. L., I. M. Chin, B. Adu-Oppong, J. J. Krupp, J. Levine, G. Dantas and Y. Ben- Shahar, The gut microbiome defines social group membership in honey bee colonies. 2020. Science Advances 6:eabd3431. https:// doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd3431

Scott McArt, an Assistant Professor of Pollinator Health, helps run the Dyce Lab for Honey Bee Studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He is par- ticularly interested in scientific research that can inform man- agement decisions by beekeepers, growers and the public.

Email: [email protected] Lab website: blogs.cornell.edu/mcartlab Photo 6 Guard bees inspect a possible intruder at the entrance of their hive. Pollinator Network: pollinator.cals.cornell.edu Photo: Nathan Beach Facebook: facebook.com/dycelab

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1362 11/5/2020 1:13:21 PM Beekeeping in the United States Ellen Tupper, The Iowa Bee Queen

by PETER L BORST

Editor’s note: This is a continuation of a series, begun in April as “Coming to America: Beekeeping in the New World.” PORTRAIT OF MRS. E. S. TUPPER—Drawn by Aug. Will.—Engraved for the Bee-Keepers’ Journal and National Agriculturist.

hen I first read about Ellen relocated to Calais, Maine. Her father land, when nothing seemed to hold Tupper, right away I wanted was involved with the city’s first news- me to earth but the clinging hands Wto write about her. It seemed paper as an investor and contributor. and loving hearts of my little ones!” like no one had done a full treatment Early on, Ellen showed a talent for (Mielewczik 2019; Tupper 1867) of her life, her career, and the impact writing although it got her into trou- Like so many people living in the she had on people’s lives. Then, this ble when she began writing essays for Eastern United States, Ellen was ad- January, a book-length article ap- other students (Harrison 1870). vised to go west to a healthier climate. peared with a long title: Beehives, In 1843, Ellen married Allen Tupper. In one of her many autobiographical Booze and Suffragettes: The “Sad Ellen’s father Noah Smith and Al- essays, she told the story like this: Case” of Ellen S. Tupper (1822–1888), len Tupper worked in the lumber the “Bee Woman” and “Iowa Queen and shipping business. The wealthy I found courage to join my Bee” (Mielewczik 2019). Tupper family had expected Allen to husband in preparations, and The authors left no stones un- fall in with their extensive business, before my friends had recovered turned in their quest to tell every- but he was leaning toward involve- from the astonishment our crazy thing about this woman’s life and ment in ministry, as well as the Tem- plan caused, we were on the way times. Much of it had to do with perance Movement and the Women’s to find a new home beyond the her involvement in gaining equality Rights and Anti-Slavery movements. Mississippi. “Gone away from for women, and fighting the demon In 1844 the couple moved to the her friends to die among strang- rum. I will focus on her connection northern border between Maine and ers” sighed all who were ac- to the beekeeping world of the 1800s. Canada. Ellen had several pregnan- quainted with the circumstances. She went from having a few hives cies in the ensuing years and lost (Tupper 1867) to supplement the family income, to three of the four children. Only Eliza being an editor of the American Bee survived this bout with tragedy, one Out west Journal. As the above title suggests, of many the Tuppers would have to The growing Tupper family moved there is much sadness in the story, endure. to Brighton, Iowa in 1851, where they but inspiration too. The Tuppers relocated to Newton- purchased 400 acres of land of which ville, a town on the outskirts of Bos- some 80 acres were used for farming Early years ton, Massachusetts. Ellen recounted and raising livestock. Her husband Ellen Smith was born in Providence, many times being told by her doc- invested in timber land and sawmills. Rhode Island in 1822. Her family tor, “one of Boston’s best,” of a heart Mrs. Tupper continued: claimed to be descended from famous condition and the likelihood that her “founding fathers” of New England, “stay on earth would be very short.” In the second summer of our including Captain John Smith and Of those times in Newtonville, Ellen western life came the time that Robert Wheaton on her mother’s side. recalled: “Ah! The weary days and tried men’s souls, both East and At twelve years old, she and her family nights of that last year in New Eng- West. Our little village was not

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1363 11/5/2020 1:13:22 PM on horseback three miles to the school the most pleasant and profitable (Anon. 1872). About this time, Mrs. branches of rural employment; Tupper decided to get into beekeeping: while the ease with which all parts of the labor are performed, At an expense of twenty dollars peculiarly adapt it to females. I purchased in the Spring of 1859 Since the invention of the sew- four hives of bees, of medium ing machine, many a woman strength, and from them secured should be emancipated from the by fall, fifteen good swarms, and necessary thralldom of the [sew- 150 pounds honey in glass boxes, ing] needle which has proved so besides some inferior honey. Such ruinous to the health of the sex. honey sold here readily for 15 (Tupper 1863) cents per pound, and each swarm of bees was worth $5, making a Her articles on beekeeping in the gain of $77.50 from an invest- Burlington Hawk Eye caught the at- ment of $20. This was an unusu- tention of editor William Wilson, and ally good year. The succeeding he hired her to write on a regular ba- year, 1860, was unusually dry, sis on the topic of beekeeping. On and many bees did not swarm at his advice, she was enlisted to write all, yet mine doubled in number, for the “United States Agricultural and I had a quantity of surplus Report for 1865” of which 180,000 honey. I have no doubt that I can copies were printed and distributed. double my number of swarms Then The Prairie Farmer magazine every year, and realize from 20 to hired her as the “special contributor 75 pounds spare honey from each on bee subjects” which she did from hive besides. (Tupper 1861) 1865 to 1869. Tupper began to ex- ploit the exposure she was receiving Bees for women through her articles by advertising But beyond the boon of making Italian bees for sale. money for the family, she immedi- ately saw this as something women In retrospect, some of the ad- could take advantage of. Beekeeping vertisements placed by Ellen S. in those days was primarily a back- Tupper at that time are, even yard craft. To be sure, people like though very short, quite telling. Quinby, Harbison, Hetherington, etc. They show for example that she would turn it into an extensive busi- had no inhibitions about making ness, but beekeeping has also kept grand claims that misled the audi- its role as a supplement to income, ence if she thought them helpful. like chickens or fruit trees. In 1863, For instance, as early as in 1866 she exempt from the scourge. Cholera The Iowa State Agricultural Society advertised her queens in its most fatal form visited us awarded Mrs. Tupper a first prize for as “fully tested” and warranted as and for weeks terror reigned on her essay on bees. This was an exten- “pure” even though there was no every hand. When neighbors and sive treatise, running over ten thou- reliable method at the time to do friends were hourly summoned; sand words. She clearly connected so. (Mielewczik 2019) when he, who to-day assisted with the current sources of informa- at the burial of a neighbor, to- tion. The American Bee Journal had Straying from the path morrow, himself filled the plain just commenced in 1861, but articles By the early 1860s, Ellen Tupper coffin, hurriedly and without about beekeeping had been appearing was widely known and highly re- ceremony borne past our door in the magazines of the times for more spected as an authority on bee cul- to the grave. When weeping and than ten years. It is remarkable to me ture. A later writer would look back lamentation were in every house, how well informed people were in the and declare her “one of the foremost when any hour might make our mid-1800s. Information was widely entomologists of the world.” She was remaining children orphans, we available, and Tupper made clear it a proficient writer, skilled at propa- could little realize the greatness should be used: gating honey bees, and an advocate of our loss. (Tupper 1867) for the newly introduced Italian va- The time is now, however, long riety. However, the question of the In the late 1850s, her husband’s past when ignorance in the mat- purity of Italian bees in the United health became poor and his business ter is excusable, for by the labors States took her down a rocky trail. began to fail. According to an 1872 of Wagner, Quinby, Langstroth The Italian bee had been imported newspaper story, the Tuppers had and a host of others in our coun- into the country and various people to sell much of their land and their try, information is now dissemi- were selling them at a high price. The “wealth melted away like dew be- nated and the whole business so only way to tell the Italian from the fore the sun.” Mrs. Tupper, children simplified that only study, perse- common honey bee of the time was to raise, took a job as a school teacher. verance and energy, such as are the fact that the former had orange Following this same newspaper ac- necessary for success in anything, bands and the latter was black. When count, she and the kids all went daily are needed to make this one of the two were crossed the result was

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1364 11/5/2020 1:13:25 PM variable, and the assumption was that pure crosses should yield golden bees only. It was known at the time that honey bees mate high in the air, so there were few ways that the crosses could be controlled. One way would be to have the Italian hives isolated; placing them on islands in the Great Lakes was tried. Another plan was to confine the bees until late in the day, when black bees had carried out any mating flights, and then release the Italians to breed — if they were so in- Mrs. Tupper claimed, quite controversially, that she was able to mate a queen under a clined. The competition was so fierce wire cloth dish cover such as this. to advertise pure mated bees, that Mrs. Tupper began to claim that she and eventually made a fortune in the In the National Bee Journal issue of had achieved what no one else had real estate business. Annie Savery is January 1, 1872, was this passionate done: getting the drones and a queen best known, however, for her role in description: to couple underneath a wire cloth the Women’s Rights movement, espe- dish cover. cially in Iowa. Mrs. Ellen S. Tupper, also, To beekeepers today, who under- Savery was an invited speaker at honored us with her presence. stand bee biology, the idea is pre- a beekeeping convention in Decem- All were glad to see her; every posterous. It took many decades to ber 1871. She thought she would be hand was put forth to meet the finally perfect the controlled breeding speaking to beginners, sharing her friendly, cordial grasp of her of bees, using anesthesia and micropi- new passion with them, but found hand; every one being anxious to pettes. It remains a costly procedure, herself facing a room full of experi- have her speak upon her favorite generally used only for research pur- enced “bee men.” Sharp witted, she topic — apiculture. To this lady, poses. But Tupper and some of her changed the topic to beekeeping for the bee keepers are under lasting supporters maintained that they had women: obligations for the numerous in- been successful using cages of vari- structive articles she has written ous sorts. How they could have been I bought 23 hives of bees, and upon apiculture. Go where you so misled is a mystery, but eventually went to work to learn something will, Mrs. Tupper’s name among the claims died out. The question was about them. It would be uninter- bee keepers is a household word. discussed endlessly in the journals. esting to you old bee keepers, to Long may she live. (Anon. 1872) One writer averred: state how I proceeded, suffice it to say that I found that every plea- Her ability to write and edit, and The discovery was made by sure had its sting. I think I now her renown, propelled her to the po- Mrs. Ellen S. Tupper, of Brighton, know the meaning of that phrase, Iowa, who, in a letter to me, dated “obtaining knowledge under dif- May 23, 1868, was kind enough ficulties.” … As society is now or- to inform me of it, and who then ganized, there is nothing for girls stated that she had made the outside of marriage, and for this discovery some time previously. the majority of them are totally (Anon. 1870) unfitted. … Nothing will contrib- ute so much, and to develop her But after some years passed, clearer into such a woman as every sen- heads prevailed: sible man must admire, as engag- ing in an employment which will 1885 – Cook, Hiller, Heddon, make her his equal. (Savery 1871) Dadant, Pond, Doolittle, Tin- ker, and Demaree unanimously Advertisements began to appear agreed that mating in confine- in all the trade papers for “Pure Ital- ment is impossible. (Harbo 1971) ian Bees” sold by Tupper and Savery. Ellen’s star was rising. According to The Iowa Italian Bee Company Mielewczik: In November 1871 Ellen S. Tupper and Annie Savery together started In 1869, she became one of the “The Iowa Italian Bee Company.” editors of the “Bee-Keepers’ Jour- They saw beekeeping as a way of em- nal.” She thus was, to our best powering women, and went to great knowledge, the very first woman lengths to promote it. Annie Savery to ever hold an editorial position was born in London, and her husband in an entomological magazine James Savery in New York. In 1862, and perhaps even more general- they moved to Des Moines, Iowa, ly, any magazine on a biological where they built up a successful hotel topic. (Mielewczik 2019)

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1365 11/5/2020 1:13:26 PM sition of editor at the American Bee The Bee Queen’s Temptation. foot up somewhere from fifteen Journal, which she held jointly with Since our last issue, Mrs. Ellen S. to twenty thousand dollars, and W. F. Clarke from August 1874 to Feb- Tupper, long known as a writer perhaps more. (Anon. 1876) ruary 1876. (Her own National Bee on bee culture, has “fallen like a Journal had previously merged with star from heaven.” On the 28th of This was followed by comments ABJ.) In April of 1875, she was ap- January Mrs. Tupper was arrest- such as these : pointed to take charge of Iowa’s hon- ed for forgery. It appears that she ey producers exhibit at the celebration has freely used the names of her “Mrs. Tupper’s proverbial of the “One Hundredth Anniversary relatives and friends, and in addi- philosophy was to forge ahead of the Nation,” to be held at Philadel- tion, forged the names of leading till she gained $11,000. And now phia, Pennsylvania, 1876. She began citizens of various cities of Iowa, comes emotional insanity with by soliciting contributions from the from the name of the governor its uplifted umbrella.” A promi- beekeepers of her state via the Ameri- of the State, down; as well as nent bee-keeper in New England, can Bee Journal. Yet, less than a year the names of leading men in the well known to our readers, re- later, the Journal was to report: Eastern States. Her forgeries will marks in a letter of recent date: “I don’t wish to say much against Mrs. T—, but if swindling, fraud, and forgery, is any indication of insanity, she has been insane, to my knowledge, for ten years, at least.” (Anon. 1876)

Needless to say, her plans for the Centenary evaporated. She was ar- rested in 1877. The American Bee Journal printed a very short note: “Mrs. Tupper was tried for forgery in Davenport, and upon the plea of in- sanity, she was acquitted and is now in Dakota on a farm.” Irate customers and creditors showered the Journal with requests for money they had sent her for queens which had ar- rived dead; and for hives, bee equip- ment and even subscriptions which were never delivered. The publisher, Thomas Newman, was compelled to make it plain that Mrs. Tupper was engaged only as a writer and editor; her debts were her own.

Later years and passing Ellen Tupper disappeared from public view after the debacle. She lived at her husband’s farm in the Da- kota territory, but he died soon there- after, in 1879. According to the news- papers, Mrs. Tupper and her daughter Kate moved to Portland, Oregon. She continued writing, contributing to the periodical “Pacific Rural Press” under the pen name “Pioneer.” She traveled extensively in California and reported to her friend A.J. King on beekeeping in that state. In 1887, she traveled by ship to Alaska and was there for some time and wrote about it, though noth- ing remains of her record. Her travels had taken her from the farthest east- ern portion of the USA to the far west. In the end, it was while she was visit- ing one of her daughters in El Paso, Texas, that she had a sudden heart at- tack and died, in 1888. Largely forgotten are her contribu- tions to the advancement of beekeep-

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1366 11/5/2020 1:13:28 PM ing and especially bee culture as an very high, perhaps beyond the realm Tupper, E. S. (1861). Hints on beekeeping. occupation to increase the self-reli- of what was possible to do at the Hints on Bee keeping. 30th March 1861. ance of women. Many years would time. And yet, seeing the success of The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye. Burl- pass before women would rise again those around her, who would blame ington, Iowa. to prominence in the field of bee cul- her for trying? Tupper, E. S. (1863). Essay on bees. in: SHAF- FER, J.M. (ed.): Ninth Report of the Sec- ture. However, the cause of wom- retary of the State Agricultural Society to en’s rights was taken up by her four Bee Queen References the Governor of the State for the Year 1863. daughters. They appeared together as Anonymous. (1870). The Illustrated Bee Jour- F.W. Palmer; Des Moines. lecturers at the 1894 Woman’s Con- nal. Vol. 1, No. 7. Indianapolis, Indiana. Tupper, E. S. (1867). Why I became a bee- gress in San Francisco. One of the Anonymous. (1872). National Bee Journal. Vol. keeper. Letter I. The Prairie Farmer 9(7): topics was how woman’s plight “is 3, No. 1. Des Moines, Iowa. 100–101. much attributable to her clothes. We Anonymous. (1872). What an Iowa Woman Peter L Borst has published can’t breathe comfortably or sit down Has Done. Letter from Des Moines. In: St. over 60 articles on topics as Louis Globe. diverse as beekeeping tech- comfortably or walk easily. Woman is Anonymous. (1876). American Bee Journal. not physically free.” nique, honey bee genetics, Vol. 12, No. 3. Chicago, Illinois. and the history of beekeep- To be fair, Mrs. Tupper’s path was Cook, A. J. (1875). American Bee Journal. ing. He has presented on strewn with obstacles and it is amaz- American Bee Journal, Vol. 11, No. 4. Cedar these for beekeeping organizations in many ing that she advanced so far. She Rapids, Iowa. states. He is retired from Cornell University, overcame ill health; bore 11 children Harbo, J. R. (1971). Behavioral and physio- and lives in the woods near Ithaca, NY. of whom 6 died; she lost to a house logical aspects of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) mating. PhD Thesis, Cornell Univer- fire 200 hives which were being win- sity. Ithaca, NY. tered in the cellar. Everyone in the Harrison, E. (1870). Biographical Sketch. The business of shipping bees around Bee-Keepers’ Journal and National Agricultur- the country was negatively affected ist 11(1): 1. by the Post Office’s outright hostility Mielewczik, M., Jowett, K., & Moll, J. (2019). to the idea of live bees in the mail. Beehives, Booze and Suffragettes: The Countless Italian queen bees were “Sad Case” of Ellen S. Tupper (1822–1888), the “Bee Woman” and “Iowa Queen Bee.” lost and had to be replaced due to Entomologie Heute [Entomology Today]. neglect or deliberate mistreatment by 31: 113-227. Aquazoo Löbbecke Museum. mail handlers. It’s hard not to draw Savery, A. (1872). Transactions of the North a lesson from this story, but in the American Beekeepers’ Society. Cleveland, end my view is Ellen Tupper great- O., December 6, 1871. Indianapolis Print- ly overextended herself. She aimed ing and Publishing House.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1367 11/5/2020 1:13:30 PM 1368 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1368 11/5/2020 1:13:33 PM Does Locally Sourced Honey Alleviate Seasonal Allergies?

The research is inconclusive by ANDREW BAUER

t starts every spring with the melt- the truth; here is a quick summary of This was a study conducted in Lap- ing of the snow, like an unseen en- these studies: peenranta, , in which 61 par- Iemy swiftly attacking your senso- Our first study (Asha’ari, Z.A., et ticipants took part, with fifty complet- ry organs. If you have never suffered al. 2013), seems to be one of the main ing it. This study split participants from seasonal allergies you may con- sources of information for the “honey into three groups, those receiving sider yourself blessed. With over 19 as a cure” group. In this paper they birch pollen honey (BPH), those re- million people diagnosed with aller- used a double blind study with forty ceiving regular honey (RH), and the gic rhinitis (more commonly known participants. Half of them were given control group which continued their as hay fever) in the United States each one gram of honey per kg of body- normal relief medication. The year (CDC Summary Health Statistics weight while the other half were giv- RH was locally sourced raw honey, 2018), and approximately 10-30% of en a placebo of honey-flavored corn while BPH was local raw honey en- the global population suffering from syrup at the same dose. That would be riched with bee-collected pollen. This seasonal allergies (WAO World Al- approximately two and a half table- study had participants take the honey lergy Organization White Book on spoons a day for someone weighing orally and allow it to dissolve on their Allergy 2011), it is easy to understand about 150 lbs. This was an eight week tongue — starting in November with why people may be looking for the study and for the first four weeks the a small droplet (<1 g) and gradually miracle cure. participants were taking an antihista- increasing dosage every three weeks There are several proven pharma- mine (Loratadine) to relieve their al- to the maximum daily dose of one ceutical treatments for hay fever ap- lergy symptoms while also taking the teaspoon a day (8 g) ending in March. proved for use in the United States, honey or placebo. After week four the Then, during the birch pollen season but there are common drawbacks participants were evaluated on their (April-May) the participants filled out and side effects associated with tak- symptom score, and both groups symptom diaries to track their allergy ing them, most notably drowsiness. showed marked improvement. At this symptoms and need for any medica- So is there a better option? Some be- point the Loratadine was removed tion. Participants who took BPH had lieve there is, in the form of local raw from the test and the participants a significantly lower total symptom honey. But is there legitimacy in these were scored once again at week eight. score during pollen season in compar- claims? It does make sense after all; It appears that the control group did ison to the control group. Although it bees collect pollen and that is the trig- not maintain their improved symp- appears that there was not a signifi- ger to most forms of rhinitis, so eating tom status and quickly went in a de- cant difference in BPH and RH in the a small amount of pollen-laden honey cline after the removal of Loratadine. end findings, the BPH did score high- each day would act like a mini allergy In contrast, the case group showed er on all marks. shot, right? Let’s take a deeper look at continued improved symptoms after Now for the study most commonly this question. week four until the end of the study at cited stating that honey has no effect week eight, with significant improve- on rhinitis (Rajan, T.V et al. (2002): If The information will guide you ment in sneezing, nasal congestion you have heard someone say that sci- A quick Google search on this topic and itchiness. ence has not proved honey works on will leave you bewildered. Some ar- Another scientific study that has allergies it was most likely this study ticles state that local raw honey is the often been cited by the “honey as a that was used. This study was con- golden cure for your seasonal aller- cure” group and has also been criti- ducted at the University of Connecti- gies; yet in the same search you will cized by the “it has not been scientifi- cut Health Center. It involved 36 par- find articles stating just the opposite. cally proven” group for adding pol- ticipants, of which only 23 completed Both camps cite several different sci- len is Saarinen, K et al. (2011), birch the study, so that is over a one-third entific studies to prove their claims, so pollen honey for birch pollen allergy, dropout rate. Participants were split let’s start there and see if we can find a randomized controlled pilot study. into three groups. One group was

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1369 11/5/2020 1:13:33 PM given locally sourced raw honey; the they have never taken honey for their the recognition for a cure. There is second group nationally produced, allergies, while 8.77% stated that they no way to definitively tell whether filtered and pasteurized honey; and have taken honey to relieve their al- an allergy sufferer’s symptoms were the third group a corn syrup imita- lergy symptoms and it did not work. relieved by the raw honey with anec- tion honey as a placebo. Participants Surprisingly, 56.53% of respondents dotal information as there are just too received a five-pound jar of their hon- stated they have used honey for their many variables. ey or placebo and started taking one allergies and it did indeed work for It is possible that locally sourced tablespoon a day on March 15, con- them (Figure 1). raw honey does have a healing effect tinuing for 195 days until the end of on allergic rhinitis. This is likely not the test. Study patients were required Placebo or secret weapon? due to the pollen in the honey act- to fill out a weekly diary, tracking all Though there is not a known num- ing as an immune booster because symptoms and symptom-free days ber on how many allergy sufferers the type of pollen that is most com- and whether or not medication was are using more nontraditional ways mon in allergic reactions comes from needed. According to their findings, of treating their allergies, nontradi- grass, trees and other wind-pollinated there was not a clear correlation be- tional medicine is widely being used plants that the bees do not intention- tween the ingestion of either raw to support conventional treatments ally collect, therefore limiting the unprocessed honey or the national (Kłak et al (2016): 251-57). There are amount of such pollen in the honey brand in alleviating rhinoconjuncti- thousands of people using non-tra- (Rajan, T.V et al. 2002). Honey has vitis. In this study the control group ditional treatments like honey so it is been known as a healing agent since experienced approximately the same hard to believe so many people can ancient times, with antimicrobial, an- results as the case groups. be finding relief in something that ti-inflammatory and wound healing So there we have three scientific does not work. But walking down properties (Mandal, M.D., & Mandal, papers all finding somewhat differ- this pathway is like following the S. 2011), so it may be possible that ent results — two state that there is white rabbit down his hole in “Alice honey will relieve your allergy symp- benefit from taking honey and one in Wonderland.” The farther you go toms by an internal mechanism relat- comes to the opposite conclusion. So the more confused and bewildered ed to its anti-inflammatory properties, how does an average allergy sufferer you will become. Does it work on the but without understanding how those know which study they can trust? At brain and not the body? Is it possible properties work, this is a very difficult this point you don’t, there just has that all these people that are taking topic to study (Hadagali, M.D., Chua, not been enough research with differ- raw honey are finding relief from L.S 2014). ent methods and large enough study their allergies due to the placebo ef- With our love of honey dating back groups to give a definitive answer. fect (Finniss et al. 2010)? If this is the thousands of years we will most likely So what about anecdotal informa- case, is it enough to make the pa- be enjoying and using honey to help tion? Granted, none of this can be tients feel as if their symptoms were alleviate our allergies, coughs, colds, proven, and is more pseudoscience less severe than they had previously cuts and bruises, and whatever else than any sort of a clinical trial, but been? Or is this really mind over mat- ails us for years to come. Although there may be something to all these ter, where the subconscious mind is on rare occasions eating raw honey personal claims that honey helps tricked into making the body believe can cause allergic reactions, that is them relieve their personal allergies. it is no longer under attack (by pol- very uncommon so if you think it will Out of curiosity I wanted to get an len in this case)? Another possible help, and you really enjoy honey, you idea just how widespread the use of scenario is that allergy sufferers are will most likely see some benefit from honey for allergies is, so I asked this taking their honey for the month or it. But (there always seems to be an question to people on several differ- so while the plant they are having a unforgiving “but” with the things we ent social media platforms: “Have reaction to is blooming, and then that love) until we have more rock solid you ever used local, raw honey to re- plant’s life cycle will complete, there- tests to prove the how and why of the lieve your allergy symptoms?” There fore not releasing any more allergens matter it will still be an unproven old were 467 responses to my question into the air, and the patients’ symp- wives’ tale. So keep your trusted anti- and 34.68% of the respondents stated toms disappear and honey receives histamine handy!

“Our treasure lies in the of our knowledge. We are perpetu- ally on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

Endnotes 1 CDC Summary Health Statistics Tables for U.S. Adults: National Health Inter- view Survey, 2018, Tables A-2b, A-2c https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/aller- gies.htm 2 WAO. World Allergy Organization White Book on Allergy. Milwaukee, WI:World Allergy Organization (2011). Available: http://www.worldallergy. org/UserFiles/file/WAO-White-Book- Fig. 1 on-Allergy_web.pdf

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1370 11/5/2020 1:13:34 PM 3 Asha’ari, Z. A., Ahmad, M. Z., Jihan, W. : A Comprehensive Review 10 Mandal, M. D., & Mandal, S. (2011). S., Che, C. M., & Leman, I. (2013). Inges- of Their Biological Actions and Health Honey: its medicinal property and anti- tion of honey improves the symptoms of Benefits.” Oxidative Medicine and Cellular bacterial activity. Asian Pacific journal of allergic rhinitis: evidence from a random- Longevity 2017 (2017): 1-21. Web. tropical biomedicine, 1(2), 154–160. https:// ized placebo-controlled trial in the East 9 Rajan, T.V, Tennen, Howard, Lindquist, doi.org/10.1016/S2221-1691(11)60016-6 coast of Peninsular . Retrieved Richard L, Cohen, Leonard, and Clive, J. 11 Hadagali, M.D., Chua, L.S. The anti- from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ “Effect of Ingestion of Honey on Symp- inflammatory and wound healing pubmed/24188941. toms of Rhinoconjunctivitis.” Annals of properties of honey. Eur Food Res Tech- 4 Saarinen, K., Jantunen, J., & Haahtela, T. Allergy, Asthma & Immunology 88.2 (2002): nol 239, 1003–1014 (2014). https://doi. (2011). Birch pollen honey for birch pol- 198-203. Web org/10.1007/s00217-014-2297-6 len allergy--a randomized controlled pilot study. International archives of allergy and immunology, 155(2), 160–166. https://doi. org/10.1159/000319821 5 Rajan, T.V, Tennen, Howard, Lindquist, Richard L, Cohen, Leonard, and Clive, J. Andrew Bauer is a bee- “Effect of Ingestion of Honey on Symp- keeping cowboy who toms of Rhinoconjunctivitis.” Annals of lives and works on a Allergy, Asthma & Immunology 88.2 (2002): ranch in southwestern 198-203. Web Montana. Animal hus- 6 Kłak, Anna, Raciborski, Filip, Krzych- bandry has always been Fałta, Edyta, Opoczyńska-Świeżewska, paramount in his life, so Dagmara, Szymański, Jakub, Lipiec, in a search for knowl- Agnieszka, Piekarska, Barbara, Sybil- edge he completed the ski, Adam, Tomaszewska, Aneta, and Master Beekeeping program through the Samoliński, Bolesław. “Persons with Al- University of Montana. With his most recent lergy Symptoms Use Alternative Medi- venture, Hazel’s Honey LLC, he has built his cine More Often.” Pneumonologia I Alergo- own queen rearing methodology utilizing logia Polska 84.5 (2016): 251-57. Web management intensive practices to rear lo- 7 Finniss, Damien G, Kaptchuk, Ted J, cally adapted mite tolerant queens. Using his Miller, Franklin, and Benedetti, Fabrizio. wife as a reluctant participant and the energy of their 4-year-old daughter, Andrew seeks “Biological, Clinical, and Ethical Advanc- to further his contributions to the beekeep- es of Placebo Effects.” The Lancet (British ing community through the development & Edition) 375.9715 (2010): 686-95. Web. implementation of research that is applicable 8 Pasupuleti, Visweswara Rao, Sammu- to commercial & backyard beekeepers alike. gam, Lakhsmi, Ramesh, Nagesvari, and Questions for Andrew can be directed to: Gan, Siew Hua. “Honey, Propolis, and [email protected]

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1371 11/5/2020 1:13:37 PM 1372 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1372 11/5/2020 1:13:39 PM Monitoring Honey Bee Colony Activities with a Temperature Sensor Grid Part 3 of 3 by Frank Linton, Anna Stumme, Fig. 1 Egg laying temperatures Brett Padula, Gail Ifshin, Gregory Behrmann to brood, and cooler than brood tem- Splits perature, could indicate the presence This colony was split twice, first of eggs. Unfortunately, Dunham did on March 17, when the sensor grid Recap of Parts 1 & 2: not, apparently, continue to monitor was moved from atop the honey su- In the first installment in this series temperatures in the areas where eggs per to atop the brood box, and again we described the design and con- were laid, and he did not report how on April 6, a few hours after the first struction of our 36-temperature-sen- the temperatures changed over time swarm departed. This second split sor grid and how we installed it over to reach to the standard brood rearing was made using some of the swarm the . There it monitored conditions. cells. Both splits were made with the size and location of the winter Contradicting Dunham’s results, frames from the honey super, so cluster, and the colony’s transition to however, Li, Huang, & Sharma et al. brood reduction due to splitting does brood rearing in early spring. We then (2016), found that for worker brood, not appear in the temperature record, moved the sensor grid to just above average temperatures were higher for but the splits may have affected over- the brood box. eggs than for larvae or brood. They all colony strength. In the second installment we tracked reported these averages: for eggs 35.6 changes in the colony’s brood volume C (96 F), for larvae 35.2 C (95.4 F), and Swarm detection as the colony experienced multiple for pupae 35.0 C (95 F). On April 6, about noon, this colony splits and swarms in the late spring. We examined the sensor locations swarmed. The swarm was then fol- We also reported on the results of our where the colony initiated or reiniti- lowed by two afterswarms; one on investigation into seemingly anoma- ated brood rearing. We graphed the April 20, about 3:50 pm, and another lous readings. We concluded that average daily temperatures for the on April 22 at 1:00 pm. even a two-part temperature-based seven days before brood-rearing Our working hypothesis (Lin- indication of brood, using both tem- temperatures were reached, plus the ton, 2017) was that the swarm event perature and the standard deviation temperature on the first day of brood would appear in the temperature data of temperature readings, may result rearing (Figure 2). Although there was in two ways. First, after the swarm, in an over-estimate of brood volume. much variation from day to day and fewer bees would be in the brood In this third and last installment from sensor to sensor, on average, chamber and this would affect the we will describe our efforts to locate temperatures climbed about 1 F each temperatures there. Second, for bees where the queen is laying at the mo- of the seven days before brood condi- to fly, they must first warm up their ment and swarm detection, both pre- tions appeared, starting from 88 F and flight muscles to 95 F (Seeley, 2003), and post-swarm. reaching 94 F the day before stabiliz- and this warming-up process would ing at brood conditions. be visible in the data as well. Eggs While it would be ideal if data from The first swarm event, Figure 3, With a dense array of temperature this sensor grid could inform a bee- shows up plainly in the data: Fol- sensors in the brood nest, it may be keeper which frame the queen was lowing the swarm; the temperatures possible to determine where the queen on and her approximate location, in the brood box decreased and their is actively laying. In general, we might it appears at this point that the best standard deviations increased. These expect to find eggs at the edge of the that can be done would be to indicate data confirm that the colony had brood nest, adjacent to brood in later which sensors were reporting tem- swarmed. stages of development, or in areas perature increases of approximately The first of the afterswarms (April where brood has recently emerged. 1 degree Fahrenheit per day. As each 20) is not visible in the temperature According to Dunham (1930), sensor covers about 3 percent of the data; it occurred soon after the double queens prefer to lay eggs at 87oF, +/- brood box, even limiting the search peak in the graph below (Figure 4). 5oF. See Figure 1. Assuming this is the for the queen to several sensors might A close-up view of the April 20 tem- case, then areas of the comb adjacent greatly ease the task of finding her. perature data also shows no obvious December 2020 1373

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1373 11/5/2020 1:13:40 PM : pre-swarm indicators Learning that a colony has swarmed is worth something, but beekeepers would much prefer to know when a colony is about to swarm, so that the swarm could be prevented or cap- tured. Swarm preparation may be vis- ible in the data, as the bees warm up their flight muscles — and the hive’s interior — before departing (Seeley, 2003; Zacepins, et.al. 2016). Swarms tend to depart at mid-day, however, when the outside air is also warming, and this outside warming tends to warm the hive’s interior as well, which means that data analysis to detect a swarm warmup must distinguish be- tween the normal daily temperature increases and swarm warmups. Figure 6 makes a swarm event look obvious. This line is the average of six temperature sensors in the center rear of the hive on the day of the first swarm. The colony swarmed when the temperature peaked. Unfortu- nately, if we plot the three previous days on the same axes (Figure 7), you can see that the temperatures rose at the same time on those days as well. Temperatures on the day of the swarm are different, but not that dif- ferent, from the temperatures on the Fig. 2 Temperatures, the days before brood appears. The sloping black line is the non-swarm days. average. Plotting individual sensors, rather than their average, yields the same un- temperature changes around the time To summarize, based on the data informative result. And temperature of the swarm (Figure 5). from these three swarms: This sen- data from the hours preceding the two The third swarm occurred in the sor configuration may reveal that afterswarms is even less predictive. brief interval between the final exte- a swarm has occurred, especially if To summarize, the hypothesis rior temperature peak and before this multiple sensors indicate the presence that swarm warnings could be is- data set was collected; there is insuf- of brood, as with the April 6 swarm. sued based on detecting pre-swarm ficient data to determine whether If brood temperatures are not being warmups is not supported. This out- significant temperature changes took tightly controlled, however, the sig- come is unexpected for two reasons: place around the time of this third nals from the temperature sensor grid first because of reports in the litera- swarm, but it appears that there were do not visibly change with swarm ture that swarms warm up before de- few if any changes. events. parting, and second, because the first

Fig. 3 Temperatures from center-front of hive showing lower temperatures and larger SDs after swarm departure on April 6. Also visible: a brief drop in temperatures immediately after swarm departure; the sensor grid was removed for a colony inspection.

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1374 11/5/2020 1:13:41 PM Fig. 4 Temperature conditions during two afterswarms. These temperature data show little or no evidence of their occurrence.

Fig. 5 Swarm on April 20: Neither warmup nor post-departure temperature changes are visible in the data. author had previously detected a pre- confounded by temperature rises on sive sensor unit comprised of a dense swarm warmup — in an observation other days. array of temperature sensors, each hive. One difference in the latter case measuring temperatures in an area is that the observation hive was kept Conclusion smaller than 3% of the box it is moni- at room temperature, a constant, so This research has shown that a toring, can detect the size, movement, that the pre-swarm warmup was not relatively inexpensive and unobtru- and location of the ; the

Fig. 7 Morning and mid-day temperatures, swarm day and Fig. 6 Temperature peak at the time of swarm departure. the three previous days; normalized on their average morning Average of six mid-hive sensors. temperatures

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1375 11/5/2020 1:13:42 PM start of brood rearing; the quantity of Seeley T, Kleinhenz M, Bujok B, Tautz J brood; and the departure of some, but (2003). Thorough warm-up before take- not all, swarms. To our knowledge, no off in honey bee swarms. Naturwissen- schaften 90:256–260 other colony monitoring technology Zacepins, Kviesis, Stalidzans, Liepniece, system currently in use can monitor and Meitalovs. Remote detection of these colony characteristics as closely. the swarming of honey bee colonies by Although this particular arrangement single-point temperature monitoring. of temperature sensors cannot indi- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystem- cate exactly where the queen is laying, seng.2016.05.012. it can make an informed guess. This work is a step in the process About the authors of developing multi-sensor networks Frank Linton, [email protected], is an that continuously monitor the health EAS-certified Master Beekeeper. He runs the and productivity of honey bee colo- website https://colonymonitoring.com. He nies with great precision. With such has organized or co-organized the four In- networks in place, we expect to en- ternational Workshops on Colony, Hive, and able beekeepers to intervene early to Bee Monitoring held in conjunction with EAS and WAS. address issues while avoiding dis- turbing their colonies with unneces- Anna Stumme is currently an Electrical En- sary inspections. gineer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

References Brett Padula is currently a Mechanical Engi- Dunham. W.E. (1930) Temperature gradient neer at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. in the egg-laying activities of the queen bee. Ohio J Science 30:403–410. Retrieved Gail Ifshin is Co-founder and President of from: https://kb.osu.edu. Everybody Grows, which inspires and equips Li Z, Huang ZY, Sharma DB, Xue Y, Wang Z, people to grow fresh, healthy food by bring- Ren B (2016) Drone and Worker Brood Mi- ing the home garden to everybody in the croclimates Are Regulated Differentially Washington DC area. in Honey Bees, Apis mellifera. PLoS ONE 11(2): e0148740. https://doi.org/10.1371/ Greg Behrmann is Clinical Associate Profes- journal.pone.0148740 sor and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Linton, F. 2017. Monitoring Colony Activ- Programs, in the School of Engineering, De- ity with Temperature Sensors: a Research partment of Biomedical Engineering; Catho- Agenda. Apimondia 2017. Istanbul Turkey. lic University of America.

1376 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1376 11/5/2020 1:13:45 PM December 2020 1377

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1377 11/5/2020 1:13:49 PM E. Suhre Bees Package Bees available April and May

Queens available April through October

For information, pricing or ordering

call Eric (530) 228-3197

1378 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1378 11/5/2020 1:13:52 PM Memphis Medical Startup Heals with Honey Product bioengineered for chronic or acute wound care by JUSTIN STOKES

an honey help heal wounds? Use of Honey in Wound Healing as tendon. I even collaborated on some For students of history, there’s an Anti-bacterial, Anti-inflammatory, vascular and ocular tissue engineer- evidence answering this ques- Anti-oxidant and Anti-viral Agent: A ing projects.” C 2 tion dating back to 3000 B.C.E. Ac- Review.” Isaac says that his goal was to de- cording to the peer-reviewed medi- Combining what historians and sign a material that the body recogniz- cal journal Wounds,1 the ancient scientists know to be possible, sev- es as a part of itself — and not a for- Egyptians used honey as part of the eral companies are in the wound care eign entity — to promote the healing “Three Healing Gestures” process space using honey, specifically ma- process, so that damaged or diseased that included cleaning the site of the nuka honey, in their products. This tissue may repair itself faster. While wound, applying a plaster dressing is exactly what the Memphis, Ten- at the University of Memphis as a made with honey and other materials, nessee-based medical device startup postdoctoral fellow, Isaac comprehen- and bandaging the area. SweetBio is doing. The commercial- sively researched the mechanical and There is also an array of more ready company currently produces cellular properties of tissue regenera- modern examples of honey’s usage tissue engineering products for the tion. As a result, he co-invented what in wound treatments. Many medical management of wounds. These would become SweetBio’s platform studies published by the National products help manage nine differ- technology. Center for Biotechnology Information ent wound-types: 1) full and partial He and his academic mentor, Dr. address the use of honey in wound thickness wounds; 2) pressure ulcers Gary Bowlin, saw that these “scaf- care, including an article from 2013. (stages I-IV); 3) venous stasis ulcers; folds” for the advancement of healing It provides an updated review of 4) diabetic ulcers; 5) surface wounds; had practical potential in everyday published literature addressing the 6) traumatic wounds (healing by use for the medical community, and benefits of honey-based wound treat- secondary intention); 7) surgical wanted to turn the platform technolo- ments entitled, “Evidence for Clinical wounds; 8) abrasions; and 9) donor gy into a business product. However, site wounds. there was a stumbling block: Isaac re- Isaac Rodriguez, PhD, is the co- alized that while he had the scientific founder and Chief Science Officer of background to create a company like SweetBio. A quick study of his bio on SweetBio, he would need help from the company’s website reveals some someone with business experience. impressive credentials, including 15 So, he reached out to his sister and years of experience in the biomedical told her, “We have this product in the field, over 900 citations attributed to lab that could be something. Can it be his work in academic journals, and a business?” inclusion as a keynote speaker for Isaac’s sister, Kayla Rodriguez NASA Langley’s 2017 Hispanic Heri- Graff, provided the initial guidance tage Month Celebration. for the company before signing on as “I earned my PhD in 2013,” Rodri- co-founder and CEO of SweetBio. Her guez tells American Bee Journal, shar- resume includes an MBA from Hult ing that his undergraduate work was International Business School, a front- at the University of Virginia. He later end developer certification, and six pursued his masters and doctorate years as a marketing professional for degrees at Virginia Commonwealth the Target Corporation. After found- University. “And I specifically fo- ing the company in 2015, Kayla was cused on the design and development able to steer SweetBio into different of biomaterials that go into the body, business accelerator programs — in- that biodegrade, and that can regen- cluding the Springboard Enterprises Isaac Rodriguez, Chief Science Officer of erate the different types of tissue — Health Innovation Hub 2019 cohort, SweetBio whether that’s bone, skin, ligament, ZeroTo510, LaunchTN, and Steve December 2020 1379

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1379 11/5/2020 1:13:54 PM the component had been commercial- ly applied in such a way. It was the manuka honey, however, that brought the whole project to- gether. Isaac says that integrating ma- nuka honey was his “Aha! moment” for APIS. This research leveraged his PhD experience and drew inspira- tion from history and other means of treating wounds today. He explains, “Even today if you go to the hospi- tal with a burn, you may get treated with a sterilized and filtered manuka honey gel or paste. This specific type of honey has been proven medically for decades. We wanted to see how Case’s 2018 Rise of the Rest tour — release of growth factors, which has we could use it outside of its messy, to tap into the skills of experts in the been shown to instill balance in the sticky short-term application form. field and move forward strategically. wound microenvironment and prog- Specifically, how can we incorporate Isaac says that part of what Sweet- ress the wound towards healing.” it into a longer-lasting sheet or device Bio is currently doing is to help with Isaac explains the name of the prod- that can be potentially implanted into problems related to both surgical and uct, saying, “We call it ‘APIS’ because the body and last longer?” chronic or hard-to-heal wounds. He ... ‘Apis mellifera’ is ‘honey bee’ in According to Isaac, the wound explains, “Sometimes these chronic Latin … we’re paying homage to the care market as a whole is crowded. wounds, like foot ulcers, are open for bees.” APIS is a solid, flexible, biode- What sets SweetBio’s products apart months to years and do not heal. Our gradable sheet that is applied to the is that they’re a comprehensive, ad- product provides cues to the microen- wound or surgical site to manage that vanced wound care treatment that’s vironment to help get those wounds wound. The sheet degrades within a balance between cost and quality. from a chronic/stalled state into a two weeks. Over that period, the In comparison, products released by progressive state to where the wound product provides an environment that other companies are either too expen- can close.” supports the healing of that wound. sive or are narrowly focused to sup- In terms of the tech used by Sweet- The sheets are synthesized at the port either the early or later stages Bio, the product — which was cleared molecular level and are made from of wound healing. Isaac says, “They by the FDA for use in 2019 — is called gelatin, manuka honey, and hydroxy- each have an important role. The less “APIS.” The website describes APIS apatite. They are shelf-stable at room expensive, lower-end products are as: “An advanced synthesis of proven temperature, usable within minutes known for complementing the early materials … a bioengineered wound (some applications call for hydration stages of wound healing. They help product for the management of chron- in sterile saline prior to use), can be with blood-clotting and managing in- ic and acute wounds. APIS covers and cut to fit specific wound shapes, and flammation. However, they don’t help protects the wound, absorbs exudate, can be applied in any orientation. with the later stages of proliferation and creates a moist wound environ- Isaac says that while gelatin has been and remodeling. If you look at the ment. In vitro data demonstrates used for other wound care products, higher-cost products, they assist with that APIS® reduces bacterial load, the hydroxyapatite added to reinforce the later stages of healing because decreases MMP-9, and triggers the the sheets marked the first time that they deliver growth factors that tell the cells what to do. What is missing is a product that can treat a wound from beginning to end.” As crowded as the market might be for wound care, Isaac says that Sweet- Bio is one of a few companies that can offer an advanced-yet-affordable op- tion for such treatments. “We’re creat- ing a unique category,” he states. “Our next body of work is reimbursement so that we can increase the access of our technology to those who need it most, including Medicare patients.” APIS is currently available in two sizes, a 2.5 x 2.5 cm sheet and a 1.6 x 1.6 cm sheet — ideal for smaller wounds such as surgical sites, diabetic foot ulcers, and Mohs surgery (a pre- cision surgical technique used to treat skin cancer). To date, over 100 patients across the country with a variety of Depending on the wound, the Apis bandage may be hydrated in sterile saline prior to wounds have been treated with APIS. application.

1380 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1380 11/5/2020 1:13:55 PM Isaac jokes that even though the “If that was honey, we could manu- chure and updates related to the APIS sheets are made from gelatin and facture several thousands of products company, visit their website — http:// manuka honey, there’s nothing excit- out of that one can. While a little bit of sweetbio.com/ and social media — ing about the way that they taste. This honey does go a long way, we are pas- https://www.facebook.com/sweet combination of ingredients, however, sionate about exploring ways we can bioco/. does have an advantage over non- give back to the bees and are looking honey-based treatments. Isaac says forward to initiatives in 2021.” References: that they’ve observed that the familiar- Every year offers a new challenge 1 Treadwell, Terry. (2007, September). Honey’s Healing History. Wounds. ity that consumers have with the APIS with different themes for SweetBio. https://www.woundsresearch.com/ components of manuka honey and After navigating FDA regulations, article/7749#:~:text=The%20ancient%20 gelatin makes them more comfortable partnering with other entities to help Egyptians%20used%20honey,been%20 with the product, even requesting it in guide the business, and protecting found%20in%20Egyptian%20 a few cases from their physicians. their intellectual property, SweetBio’s tombs.&text=Although%20it%20was%20 But if APIS is made from manuka itinerary for 2021 includes commer- said%20to,Gestures%E2%80%9D%20 honey, will the current challenges cialization acceleration, new product used%20by%20the%20Egyptians. 2 Yaghoobi, Reza; Kazerouni, Afshin;and to honey bee health adversely affect development, and continued scientif- Kazerouni, Ory. (2013, July). Evidence the company? “Bees play a critical ic and clinical data collection. Already for Clinical Use of Honey in Wound role in our ecosystem,” Isaac shares. making progress on the clinical data Healing as an Anti-bacterial, Anti-in- “Manuka honey comes from bees pol- collection front, SweetBio’s clinical flammatory Anti-oxidant and Anti-viral linating from the wild-growing ma- trial with Vanderbilt University3 using Agent: A Review. Jundishapur Journal of nuka () plant the APIS sheets for Mohs surgery was Natural Pharmaceutical Products. (https:// in New Zealand. We’ve partnered published in September 2020. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC3941901/#:~:text=Honey%20has%20 with a supplier that is conscious of “Having an innovative product and anti%2Doxidant%2C%20anti,content%20 the bee population and is active with being the first to do something in any and%20hydrogen%20peroxide%20 promoting beekeeping. Medical de- industry presents its own challeng- content) vice companies with honey gel and es,” Isaac says. “Our team is uniquely (https://sites.kowsarpub.com/jjnpp/ paste products require a significant equipped with decades of experience articles/18311.html) amount of honey raw material. Since in marketing, operations, research, 3 Wallace, Matthew. (2020, September). En- our products uniquely synthesize ma- and more that will contribute to our hanced Secondary Intention Healing vs. nuka honey with other materials, we ability to successfully navigate these Standard Secondary Intention Healing in Mohs Surgical Defects on the Head and are able to maximize the impact of a potential challenges.” Distal Lower Extremities. ClinicalTrials. smaller amount of honey.” Isaac uses For further information about gov. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/ the example of a soda can, and says, SweetBio, including the APIS bro- NCT04545476

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1381 11/5/2020 1:13:56 PM 1382 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1382 11/5/2020 1:13:59 PM Oregon Master Beekeeper Anna Ashby Brings Honey to Resort’s Table

by DEWEY M. CARON Photo by Sarah Gemmill by Sarah Photo

idden away in the beautiful rolling countryside of successful. So the next spring she enrolled in the beekeep- Yamhill County, 45 minutes south of Portland, Or- ing short course of the local bee association. Through her Hegon, is the 5-star Allison Inn & Spa, a 10-year-old extension Master Gardener activity, she heard of the estab- destination resort. This 85-room luxury hotel and spa at- lishment of a new statewide Oregon Master Beekeeper Pro- tracts vacationers and wine aficionados from far and wide. gram and also started in the 2014 Apprentice class. Befitting its reputation, the resort offers “the finest in din- That next spring the Chef’s Garden apiary restarted with ing” at their Jory restaurant. The menu features farm-to-ta- two new nucs. But then disaster struck. Anna had an ana- ble dishes from their own on-site Chef’s Garden, managed phylatic shock from a on her lip. On her visit to an by Oregon Master Beekeeper Anna Ashby. allergy specialist, it was determined she was allergic to both The 1½ acre garden and 2880 square foot greenhouse sea- honey and bumble bees and yellow jackets. So she began bee sonally grow a wide variety of vegetables and fruits. They sting therapy. This required careful avoidance of a sting, and supply the farm-fresh fruits and vegetables, plus honey, allergy shots every 4 to 6 weeks over the next three years. served daily to guests and an expanding local clientele. As She is now able to take a sting, and in fact gets her “booster” Garden Manager, Anna coordinates closely with the Execu- injection thanks to the bees and occasional yellow jacket tive Chef to supply a wide variety of menu and seasoning stings without an adverse reaction. items, something that she has perfected over the past seven In the interim Anna dressed to protect against getting years. stung and used her growing familiarity with bee care to Anna learned the art of vegetable growing as a youngster improve the apiary and management of the bees. The Ap- in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, helping on her parents’ prentice program includes a mentor and four seasonal large (half-acre) post-depression-era/World war II garden. learning opportunities with a guided instructional course. She continued her interest as a lifelong vegetable gardener. Taking the cue from the information, she improved hive She began teaching others as an 18-year participant in the placement by moving the apiary to the corner edge of the Oregon Master Gardener program. She has logged count- Chef’s Garden. For mite control she used powdered sugar less hours in the county extension office as a phone vol- dusting in keeping with the resort’s organic food produc- unteer responding to horticultural questions, and giving tion dictates. But once again the two nucs, after another numerous presentations at MG events. She is the “go to” small harvest, did not survive the winter. vegetable garden specialist, teaches the winter vegetable garden session to new students in the current MG training Improving success program, was treasurer of the county Master Gardeners for Rather than become discouraged, she decided to contin- 11 years, and was recognized as Master Gardener of the ue her beekeeping education and enrolled in the Journey Year in 2005. level of the Oregon program. For this level, the emphasis is self-study and mentoring of others, perfect as a match Learning beekeeping for Anna who “prefers reading and self-study as a means Producing the honey as Chef’s Garden beekeeper ini- to learn.” And she enjoys helping others, so she mentored tially was a challenge. Her first season, the garden had two a summer intern and a garden assistant. She completed honey bee colonies on the north side of a shed in the shade. the 2-year program and became one of the first students They provided some honey that fall but did not survive the to tackle the Masters level. winter as they were not given any mite treatments. It was She began to teach a portion of the local association’s her introduction to beekeeping and she loved it, but she beginner short course and to work protection of bees and knew she needed to learn a lot more in order to become pollinators into the Master Gardener instruction and her December 2020 1383

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1383 11/5/2020 1:14:00 PM of these hives maintained at the Oregon State University demonstration apiary. She continues her own personal interest in the types of hives used to house our bees. The Chef’s Garden has stan- dard 10-frame Langstroth hives and one polystyrene hive but she “plays” with two horizontal hives in her backyard. She counts as distinct pros (compared to the other hive de- signs) “the benefit of only lifting individual frames instead of entire boxes, the convenience of using an extractor to harvest honey, and the ability to place the hive at a level that is comfortable to work.” She feels that her two hori- zontal hives attract less negative attention from neighbors. She recommends choosing an alternative hive “if it makes it easy to care for the bees and brings joy, then that is the right style for you.”

Nuc hive proficiency The Masters students are required to demonstrate pro- The entry to the Allison Resort. See grapevines in the back- ficiency in two areas. All must master diseases and pests, ground. and then a new (to them) second proficiency. Anna elected to have practical nuc management be this second profi- many garden club talks. She helped organize a new local ciency. She established a goal to make and sell at least two bee group. Anna also upped her game with the garden nucs her initial season and then to double that number the colonies, switching to Apiguard to control varroa mites. next year. Nuc sales would enable her to have funds to pur- The colony number grew to five, and best of all they all chase additional equipment and an extractor for the Chef’s survived the next winter. Garden. She was also interested in exploring the possibility Currently, by alternating formic acid (Formic Pro) and es- of overwintering nucs and utilizing them in spring swarm sential oil thymol (Apiguard), plus oxalic acid after brood control. rearing has ceased (all organic treatments), winter survival So following her review of the literature on nuc mak- continues improved as has the honey harvest. The 2019 ing, she split the four overwintered Chef’s Garden hives season was exceptionally good; harvest was 290 pounds, to establish four nucs of 3 to 3½ frames of brood plus 1½ and the Garden purchased a Maxant 2-frame reversible to 2 frames of nectar and pollen in early April. Two of the extractor. This past winter 7 colonies and 3 nucs succes- nucs received purchased queens, one had a queen from the sively overwintered before COVID-19 spring changed ev- previous year, and the last one had a sealed queen cell. The erything. nuc with the queen cell did not succeed but the other three The virus pandemic closed the resort for 10 weeks. Staff did and were sold in May. Two more nucs were made (with was furloughed with essential staff hours cut drastically. locally sourced purchased queens) in anticipation of over- The Garden needed attention. The bees were split heavily wintering them, but one queen did not take and the other to stave off swarming and to enable sale of four nucs. Fortu- nuc was needed to bolster a weaker hive. nately it was an early spring with March and April weather The following spring was hectic in the apiary. Weather very favorable for bee colony expansion. Unfortunately this delayed but not spring development of was followed by an extremely heavy swarming season. The the colonies. Swarming was elevated. After observing a early splitting paid off as there were few swarms in the Gar- swarm leave (and fly to cluster high in a tree), she divided den apiary, and 215 pounds of honey was obtained. the remaining colonies to establish 5-frame nucs (2-3 brood frames in each). Unfortunately the overwintered colonies Mastering becoming a Master Beekeeper continued to swarm, (half were captured); two additional Anna has found the Oregon Master Beekeeping Program swarms followed the lead of the first and settled high in a to be a great beekeeping learning tool and has become a fir tree. star pupil. The initial Apprentice level helps get beekeep- Part of the reason for the heightened swarming was the ers off to a strong start. The Journey level builds on the first decision to raise queens rather than purchase queens for year with independent guided study and the opportunity nucs to be sold. This meant establishment of nucs was de- to progress in bee knowledge hand-in-hand with bee expe- layed, in concern that mating might not be possible. This rience and put it to use by teaching others. Last fall Anna put the management behind the bees’ timetable. But the was one of the two initial recipients of the final Masters delay paid off; the nucs developed nicely, and homemade level. queens were introduced in all five, which were subse- quently sold as late spring nucs before the end of May. Alternative hives As part of her journey toward completing the OR MB Outreach project Masters, Anna investigated the pros and cons of alternative Masters students must do a project to become certified. hives. She outlined the from ceramic, gum and Projects are either outreach or research. They can be stu- skep hives to wooden hives with 8/10 removable frames, dent-designed or be involvement in an ongoing research/ then focused on the development of modern versions of extension effort. Anna elected to design her own outreach removable frame hive alternatives. She described the Peo- project which she designated “Ask a Beekeeper.” She in- ples (Warre) hive, the Kenya top bar hive, the AZ Slovenian cluded the “Ask an Expert” tab of the Oregon Master Bee- hive (often kept within a bee house), polystrene hives, and keeper Program. Note: The “Ask an Expert” program is to the long (horizontal) hive. She was able to look at many change to “Ask eXtension” later this year.

1384 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1384 11/5/2020 1:14:00 PM bounty of produce. Things have picked up now that the resort has reopened and once again they are hosting spe- cial events (a wedding in early August for example). The restaurant customers are slowly returning. And the gar- den and bees now again have her full-time attention. They have an experienced Master in Anna Ashby to ensure con- tinued success.

Dr. Dewey M. Caron is Emeritus Professor of En- tomology & Wildlife Ecology, Univ. of Delaware, & Affiliate Professor, Dept. Horticulture, Oregon State University. He retired in 2009 and moved to Port- land, OR to be closer to grandkids. Dewey remains active in bee education, writing for newsletters, giv- ing Bee Short Courses, assisting in several Master beekeeper programs and giving presentations to local, state and regional bee clubs.

Fall Bee hive with slatted rack, Vivaldi board and robbing screen Anna had been responding to the “Ask” program as a Master Gardener. She added new tabs to her profile to indicate what kinds of questions she wanted to answer such as “beekeeping,” “bee health,” “pollinators,” “bees,” and “honey bees.” The “Ask an Expert” responses require vetted, research-based information, not personal opinion; Anna researched extension/bee club resources to back up answers. During the first six months she answered 54 queries from beekeepers in seven states and a handful of questions from outside of the U.S. She sought to answer questions the same day or by the next day. As part of the project Anna prepared a 17-page report giving some analysis of what types of questions were asked, where she was able to find resources to include in her responses, and an analysis of responses. She stated that each question required research on her part. The feedback, from 24% of respondents, was all positive. She continues to service the “Ask an Expert” site.

Future growth Anna’s journey from neophyte to seasoned veteran, with a detour to become desensitized to bee stings, was step in step with the growing development of this Master Gar- dener into a Master Beekeeper. While fulfilling program requirements, she has learned how to care for bees and protect them against deadly var- roa mites, and she has reached out to teach others and to try new hives and web platforms. She now supplies income from nuc sales and her last two large harvests have allowed the Allison resort to give out promotional 3 oz. skeps of honey. The gift shop may soon sell their own honey. I won- der if mead is not far behind — it would go well with the resort-produced wines. The spa sources local beauty prod- ucts but the manager has been inquiring about using honey and beeswax from the Chef’s Garden bees for their clientele. Although bee care suffered in this virus year, they have still exceeded expectations and the garden has had a

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ABJ_December_2020.indb 1386 11/5/2020 1:14:08 PM ABJ_December_2020.indb 1387 11/5/2020 1:14:10 PM 1388 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1388 11/5/2020 1:14:13 PM American Bee Journal MarketPlace Semi Load, two deep Colonies on pallets w/ Packages, Nucs, Queens - honey locations, 1000 supers, extracting & Russian/Italian, April, May & Be- miscellaneous equipment. Retiring SW WA. yond, Facebook - Parsons Gold 360-263-2425. Apiaries, Business 419-235-7037, 8,000 Singles for Sale starting January (419) 273-3066. Forest, OH 45843 8th, 2021. The Equipment and Queens 5 Frame nucs in NorthEast Oklahoma. Available are less than a year old. Place your order Late April through Fall. No minimums. Taking now to reserve your ship date. Nucs & orders now for Spring 2020. www.RoarkAcres. Singles are available for the remainder com Roark (918)578-9201 nucs@ of the year. Phone: (561) 261-2599. roarkacres.com New Beekeepers Forklift Trailers: 8000 lb. torflex Retiring. 80 beehives, pollen traps, honey supers, axle, 17.5/16 ply tires, electric brakes, tilt bed, ex- much misc. Medium deep end bar machine. 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Call for quantity and pric- southeast Georgia - $125.00 each Also, 5 frame nucs, $135. California near Stock- ing Jon (208)412-1092 or Sheila (208)863-0855 Available April 2020. (912) 520-8464 or ton. Text 530-574-3274. www.tvbees.com [email protected] 500 10-frame hives, new queens, on 4-way pallets, good equipment in SD. Now or after Two story hives for sale in California, after al- PACKAGED BEES AND 5-FRAME NUCS. almonds in CA. CALL NOW!!! (605) 228-3652. monds. (231) 735-1203. CALL (231) 735-1203. Available hives for sale. Deep and ¾ box, single Queen cells and live queens available Central FL. deep hives on 4-way pallets. New summer of 2020 Will ship at cost to buyer. Royalty Honey Bees st Singles for sale, delivery possible on orders over queens, available October 1 , 2020. Contact John LLC (352) 385-5075. RoyaltyHoneyBees@ 200. For pricing and availability call: 800-736-6205. @ (920) 948-2660. 2000 10-frame hives, new queens, on 4-way pal- Gmail.com For sale: 400 strong, heavy 8-frame doubles on lets, very good equipment in FL. Now or after al- 5 Frame Nucs for sale. Wholesale and retail, call 4-way pallets – good equipment. Before almonds monds in CA. Limited numbers of 4 and 5-frame for availability. Available year round in Florida. $320 – after almonds $160 OBO (949)407-0369. deep nucs. Also available in FL starting in March. Also available in Pennsylvania in the spring. W. 5 Frame Nucs and splits in North Carolina avail- Call NOW!! (262) 689-1000. Fisher Bee Farm 800-736-6205. Ask for Aaron. able in April, $140 each large and small orders 200-300 1 1/2 story doubles, good equipment on O.K. call Tim Holt 336-710-4904. HONEY PRICE UPDATES. Call Honey Hot 4-way pallets. Southern California 714-746-3967. Two 408 loads of double deep hives after 4000 colony, complete turn key operation Line. (763) 658-4193. almond pollination. New Queens, good equipment in western North Dakota. Trucks, bobcats, 231-920-2911. trailers and housing. 120 registered North 700-hive migratory operation for sale. Parsons’ Gold Apiaries - The Dakota locations plus California almond Quality bees and equipment. Successful FL/WI Herbal Solution For keeping contracts in the Modesto area. Brent Woodworth based operation. Serious inquiries only. email: Honeybees Healthy - Safe Around Halliday, ND. 701-290-0175 cell. brentw@ [email protected] Honeybees and Honey - 33 Treat- ndsupernet.com FOR SALE: 800 hives, double deeps on 4-way ment syringe $20.00 Plus S/H $9.00. pallets in California after almonds. (951) 906- Facebook - Parsons Gold Apiaries We specialize in all metal fabri- 4254. cation. We offer quality work & Central Florida Queen Rearing and Honey Pro- Robert B. Parsons, 2092 Town- material with the best competitive duction Operation with excellent home (1316 ship Road 195, Forest, OH 45843. pricing. We build custom Flatbeds, sq ft–2 bdrms 2 baths, with family room, plus a 419-235-7037. Tilt Trailers, Fuel Tanks & any other (3860 sq ft) honey house). Serious inquires only. custom fabrication project you Photos on request: Contact Ed 231-408-7485, For Sale – 3000 10-frame singles. 2015 have been dreaming about. Let us email [email protected], or queens, new equipment. Also, 5-frame help you with your next project! Call Mel Eisele 334-546-5474, email meleisele@ nucs available. Call Chris (941) 720- Brice for quote at (772) 631-0309. me.com. 6025. Cook & Beals Wax-Honey Separator, recondi- Bobcat, Hummerbee and Superbee Trailers cus- tioned and upgraded, 6,500; Cook & Beals Heat tom built. New S450 Bobcat’s, set up with masts Singles for sale SE Texas. Call or Exchanger, Fully Electronic 6,000; Gunness Un- and fifth wheels complete. Fifth Wheels sold text 409-880-9914. capper with 8 ft Extension 6,000; Cook & Beals separately. Used Bobcat’s bought, sold and trade- 2” Myno Pump, like new 2,500. Call or text Ed ins welcome. Custom truck bodies and Custom 1000 singles on four-way pallets. 2020 queens, 231-408-7485; [email protected]. smoker boxes, all built by a beekeeper FOR bee- treated, good condition, ready to pick up in For Sale: Honey drums, open tops - $8.00 each. keepers. www.tropictrailer.com - Eli Mendes Northeast Georgia in Sept. Bob Binnie 706-782- Phone 1-620-365-7919 or email: madelinecooper 239-340-0484, [email protected] 6722. @sbcglobal.net

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: [email protected]. December 2020 1389

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1389 11/5/2020 1:14:14 PM FOR SALE: 8-frame doubles, heavy, 2020 queens, on 4-way pallets. Newer equipment. PROBIOTICS NUCS $330.00 before almonds. $180.00 after almonds. Strong Microbials, Inc. Creator of the ORIGI- $140.00 second week of May. Cottonwood, CA NAL, most effective, most concentrated honeybee NEW! ZipNetBags.com! 36”x26” Sam & Joyce Van Vleet, (530) 347-1987. probiotic on the market: SuperDFM-HoneyBee. double layered net bag w/36” zip- FOR SALE: Two Dadant 60-frame radial extrac- Contact us at: 1-844-MY-MICRO (696-4276) or per to transport NUC of bees. 248-385-3248 www.strongmicrobials.com tors. $600.00 each. Cash only! (530) 347-1987. 281-556-6798, [email protected] Cottonwood, CA. 1 large Cowen uncapper. 2 Dadant & Sons 60- POLLINATION frame radial extractors. 1 Fager wax capping con- Almond Pollination 2021. Wintering yards with WANTED veyer, 1 Fager wax capping combined, 1 honey full service maintenance, feeding and medication. pump, 1 – 300 gallon 55 tank w/strainer on legs, Self-service bee yards available. We have trucks, Honey and Beeswax wanted. All colors and 1 500 gallon 55 milk tank on legs. $25,000 cash forklifts and crew to place hives in orchard. You varietals. Send samples or call Smitty Bee Honey th only. Call Dan 559-474-0037. Voice calls only. are paid 50% on February 25 and 50% April (712) 748-4292. th Full line of beekeeping supplies. Cypress and Pine 20 . Visit: www.almondbeepollination.com Wanted: Plate filter and 400 boxes of drawn woodenware. Great prices, shipping available. for more details. California Almond combs, prefer white. Phone 1-620-365-7919 or Write for price list. Pete Gingerich, 4250 Brooks Pollination Service, Inc. (209) 202-8915 E Mail: email [email protected] Chapel Rd., Dexter KY 42036 [email protected] “Building Relationships for a Better Future” HELP WANTED ChapelHONEY Rd., Dexter, KY FOR 42036 SALE Looking for good beekeepers for Cali- fornia Almond Pollination. Contact us at Full time position available in Oregon. Bee- Excellent honey in drums and light beeswax [email protected] or call keeping experience and CDL required. Contact available. Mark Gilberts Apiaries, (608) 482-1988. 877-970-BEES. [email protected] PO Box 558, WWW.POLLINATIONBOARD.COM Search Milton Freewater, OR 97862 (360)907-0842. U.S. sweet clover, alfalfa, thistle mix, (9 drums of Seasonal and full-time help needed at our migratory black locust-limited supply), white honey, melter pollination jobs and submit price offers directly to farmers. Get pollination contracts. bee operation. We are located in FL and WI. We do honey, filtered, new drums, excellent honey- f.o.b. pollination, queen rearing and honey production. several loads available. Produced by Baldwin BEES AND QUEENS Some experience preferred, team environment, Apiaries, Darlington, WI (608) 776-3700. wages dependent on experience, good opportunity Very nice looking & good tasting Nebraska Pacific Northwest mated queens. Orders of 50 or or advancement. Prior work history and references bottling honey. (402) 319-5125. more only. Availability May through July. Call for required. Contact Gary at (262) 689-1000. pricing Jon (208)412-1092 or Sheila (208)863- CLOVER – Buckwheat, Orange, Tupelo, and Olivarez Honey Bees/Big Island Queens is seek- 0855 www.tvbees.com Wildflower – pails or drums. PURE SWEET ing motivated beekeepers to join our Hawaii QUALITY QUEENS from HAWAII, available HONEY FARM, 514 Commerce Parkway, team! Experience preferred. Self-motivator and year round. Call KARRUS QUEENS (808) Verona, Wisconsin 53593. (608) 845-9601. ability to work in a team environment a plus. 854-5308. Positions are full time, salary based on experience. Clover, Basswood, Wildflower honey available in 3 lb Packages Bees for sale, for pick up in pails and drums in WI. Great tasting! Light bees- Great Benefits Package. Prior work history and Wisconsin. Contact: Mark Gilberts Apiaries 608- references required. Advancement opportunities wax available. Call (262) 689-1000. 482-1988. Honey and beeswax for sale. Clover, Orange available. Submit resume to [email protected] Blossom, Wildflower. Many varietals available. Doubles, singles, brood for sale or Olivarez Honey Bees Inc/Big Island Queens, Smitty Bee Honey (712) 748-4292. year round. FOB Jan-April, Oak- P O Box 847 Orland Ca 95963, Fax: 530-865- QUALITY HONEY, barrels, your buckets. dale, CA. April-Dec., Milton Freewa- 5570, Phone 530-865-0298 Hollenbeck, Kirksville, Missouri. (660) 665-2542 ter, OR. Queens less than 6 months, Need help unloading & loading hives for 2021 evenings. great equipment. Ryan@sweetbee Almond Pollination in CA? We can unload in your honeyco.com (360) 907-0842. $5k min. 55 Gallon Drums & Bulk Honey For Sale - NY/ holding yards or our holding yards. Hives are also purchase. PA Light Summer Honey & Fall Honey - FL Or- needed for 2021 almonds. Services available in the ange Blossom & Saw Palmetto. Call The Bee- Central Valley. Call for info. Miguel (559) 313- keeper’s Daughter Plains, PA 386-383-4051 or WILD SURVIVOR BREEDER QUEENS 6038. Beekeeper/Laborer - Looking for a member of email [email protected] NW Feral Stock - Hardy - Hygienic our beekeeping team. Must reside on the South- Oregon varietal honey for sale. Meadowfoam, Mite Tolerant - Disease Resistant. West side of Hawai’i Island. Full job description at blackberry, , chicory, fireweed. Lebanon, – OLYMPIC WILDERNESS APIARY www.hawaiianqueen.com/careers. Send resume Or. 541-977-8848. Isolated Yards – (360) 928-3125. www. wildernessbees.com and cover letter to [email protected]. Kona Queen Hawaii seeks MAINLAND migra- HONEY AND 2020 Early- pricing – School House Bees. tory beekeeper to lead Stock Testing department BEESWAX WANTED Italian & Russian package bees & queens: based in FLORDIA. Full time, benefits, com- P/U – KY ship-Midwest. 5-frame nucs & single petitive salary. Management experience preferred. HONEY WANTED—Extracted or comb. hives P/U – KY. Pails of Spille’s honey all year. Contact [email protected]. LEIGHTON’S HONEY, INC., 1203 Commerce www.schoolhousebees.com (859) 356-1350. Ave. Haines City, Florida 33844. (863) 422-1773. PACKAGE BEES AND QUEENS for sale Spring MISCELLANEOUS FAX (863) 421-2299 2020. Double deep 10-frame and 8-frame hives. The AMERICAN BEEKEEPING FEDERATION HONEY WANTED– all grades. Also, honey barrels Powell Apiaries, 4140 Co. Rd. KK , Orland, CA for sale. Contact Pure Sweet Honey Farm Inc., 514 has many benefits to offer its members. ABF also 95963. Phone (530) 865-3346. FAX (530) 865- Commerce Parkway, Verona, WI. (608) 845-9601. offers a free Beginning Beekeeping Packet to indi- 3043. viduals starting or looking into beekeeping. Con- HONEY PRICE UPDATES. Call Honey JERRY FOSTER QUEENS quality Carniolan tact AMERICAN BEEKEEPING FEDERATION, Hot Line. (763) 658-4193. and hybrid Italian queens at competitive prices. 500 Discovery Parkway, Suite 125, Superior, CO NUCS and packages also. Jerry Foster Apiaries, 80027, 720-616-4145, email [email protected]. th ROYAL JELLY 937 9 St., Colusa, CA 95932 Phone (530) 458- You can also find out more info about ABF at 4234. www.abfnet.org BEST 100% PURE FRESH ROYAL JELLY. Spring-summer queens @ 20 in 100 quantity or- $75.00 per kilo + shipping. HIGHEST PO- ders. Postage paid and insured. Call Steve 239- PERIODICALS TENCY. LOWEST PRICES guaranteed on large 896-0777 or [email protected] orders. TOP QUALITY. Stakich, Inc. 248-642- ITALIAN PACKAGE BEES, 3# $92.00, cage in- L’ABEILLE DE FRANCE—The most impor- 7023 cluded. Pick up only. 50 minimum. 10% deposit. tant of the monthly publications in France - for all 0 Cottonwood, CA. Sam & Joyce Van Vleet, (530) beekeepers, from the amateurs to the professional. POLLEN 347-1987. Each month: an article for beginners, reports from QUALITY, CLEAN, LOW MOISTURE POL- specialists, a review of the latest information all LEN $6.20/lb. Min. 10 lbs. + shipping. LOW- over the world. Ask for a sample Annual subscrip- EST PRICES guaranteed for large orders. tion: 40$ US. ABEILLE DE FRANCE- 5, rue du Stakich, Inc. Phone 248-642-7023 Copenhague-F 75008 PARIS.

1390 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1390 11/5/2020 1:14:14 PM THE AUSTRALASIAN BEEKEEPER— SOUTH JOURNAL – The Senior Beekeeping Journal of the South- official magazine of the South African Bee ern Hemisphere. Complete coverage of all Industry Organization (SABIO). Published beekeeping topics in one of the world’s largest quarterly in English, with Afrikaans articles, on beekeeping countries. Published by Pender the South African Honeybee sub-species of Cape Beekeeping Supplies Pty. Ltd., “Bilga” 79 Bees and African bees. For enquiries send to Naylor Road, Urila, N.S.W. 2620, Australia. [email protected] or refer www.sabio.org.za Annual subscription paid in advance $160 AUD. ULADAG BEE JOURNAL - Publication of THE AUSTRALIAN BEE JOURNAL— Uludag Beekeeping Association, published Caters to both amateur and commercial quarterly in Turkish (with English titles apiarists. Subscription $120.00 Australian and summaries of all articles) and Eng- currently for all overseas subscribers per annum. lish in all aspects of beekeeping; beekeep- Published monthly. Victorian Apiarists’ ing news, practical beekeeping, and research Association, Inc., P.O. Box 40, California Gully,Vic. articles, and considered a link between Turkish Australia 3556 Ph: 03 5446 1543, Email: beekeeping and the world. Gazcilar Cad. No. 9/2 [email protected]. 16220 Bursa-TURKEY Fax:+90 224 224 3964 BEECRAFT The UK’s leading monthly beekeep- http://www.uludagaricilik.org.tr ing magazine. View a digital copy and subscribe on line at www.bee-craft.com. BIENEN & NATUR, Still being the bee maga- zine with the highest circulation in Germany, bienen&natur greeted readers in 2020 with a new look und structure. Each issue focuses with a spe- cial section on a particular topic to give deeper in- sight and understanding to what keeps bees alive and healthy. It`s a practical guide for beginners, advanced and experienced beekeepers that brings traditional and alternative methods to the table. Monthly publication of 80 pages. Subscription per year: € 53.00 print edition/€ 34.99 ePaper www. dlv-shop.de, www.bienenundnatur.de HIVELIGHTS, National magazine of the Canadian 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 WWWwww.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 Association) is a unique organization established in 1949 for the advancement of bee science and beekeeping. It publishes two magazines: JAR – the Journal 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 ATTENTION LIVESTOCK PRODUCERS— Ranch Magazine is your monthly information guide for Angora, Cashmere and meat goats, as well as sheep and cattle. Comprehensive Breeder Directory. 1-Yr $27, 2-Yrs $54. Foreign & Canada add $36 per yr. postage. Subscribe today! Box 2678-ABJ, San Angelo, TX 76902. Call for free sample. (325) 655-4434 THE SCOTTISH BEEKEEPER—Monthly Maga- zine of the Scottish Beekeeper’s Association. Inter- national in appeal, Scottish in character. View back numbers and Subscription rates at: http://scottish beekeepers.org.uk

December 2020 1391

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1391 11/5/2020 1:14:16 PM LLC

510 Patterson Road • Baxley, GA 31513 Ph: (912) 367-9352 Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours • Over 100 Years of Experience • All Bees are State Inspected

1392 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1392 11/5/2020 1:14:20 PM Volume 160, 2020 INDEX

CONTRIBUTORS Abbott, Caroline – 811 McAfee, Alison – 49, 165, 313, 395, 521, Beekeeping, Past and Present – 37, 169, Abrahams, Andrew – 791 643, 777, 879, 981, 1207, 1327 283, 411, 539, 659, 763, 867, 997, 1115, Antunes, Mark – 415 McArt, Scott – 71, 199, 301, 421, 691, 1219, 1321 Apimondia – 445 787, 891, 1019, 1135, 1237, 1359 Classroom, The – 25, 143, 267, 373, 501, Avitabile, Al – 1047 McNeil, M.E.A. – 549, 769, 873, 1005, 623, 739, 841, 965, 1079, 1191, 1297 Bammer, Mary – 641, 1029 1120, 1223, 1307, 1340 Curious Beekeeper, The – 55, 157, 309, Bargain, Christian – 1269 Metcalf, Jim – 703 431, 509, 673, 753, 853, 993, 1109, Bauer, Andrew — 1369 Miksha, Ron – 279 1213, 1345 Behrmann, Gregory – 1151, 1261, 1373 Milbrath, Meghan – 33, 151, 273, 381, Notes from the Lab: – 71, 199, 301, 421, Bérubé, Conrad – 209 635, 747, 849, 973, 1093, 1199, 1303 691, 787, 891, 1019, 1135, 1237, 1359 Bishop, Stephen – 223 Momany, Cory – 1035 Science Insider – 49, 165, 313, 395, 521, Blomstedt, William L. – 697 Moore, – 815 643, 777, 879, 981, 1207, 1327 Borst, Peter L. – 387, 515, 653, 757, 859, Niño, Elina L. – 187 1097, 1145, 1241, 1363 Oláh, János – 907 Bravo, Melissa – 91 Oliver, Randy – 45, 203, 289, 331, 399, SUBJECTS Burlew, Rusty – 55, 157, 309, 431, 509, 435, 525, 555, 669, 781, 885, 1013, 1127, 1231, 1349 24-methylenecholesterol, in pollen substi- 673, 753, 853, 993, 1109, 1213, 1345 tutes – 435 Bushong, Lee – 1139 Padula, Brett – 1151, 1261, 1373 A Caron, Dewey M. – 305, 459, 575, 663, Pettis, Jeff – 1269 Phipps, Ron – 259, 615, 957 Adee, Kelvin – 1122 1025, 1383 adulteration – 259, 609, 615 Cauble, Lewis – 1255 Rintoul, John – 531 Sagili, Ramesh – 575 Africanized honey bees (AHB) – 625, Chilcott, Ann B – 565 873, 1080 Cohen, Suzanne D. – 695 Sarver, Susan – 543 Schumacher, Eleanor – 1259 agriculture – 1237 Coit, Nissa S. – 187 allergies – 1369 Dadant, Gabe – 61 Schwab, – 1035 Scott, Howard – 101, 217 almond pollination – 129, 1203 Dekker, Sylvia – 465 almonds, self-pollinating – 1181 Diedrick, Worrel – 1139 Sebestyen, Tina – 97, 181, 317, 533, 631, 1149 American Beekeeping Federation – 323 Donihue, Michael – 341, 451 American foulbrood – 741, 841 Duggan, Ryan – 583 Seeley, Tom D. – 565, 801, 901 Sikora, Ken – 453 irradiation – 415 Ellis, Jamie – 25, 143, 267, 373, 501, 623, probiotics for – 71 739, 841, 965, 1079, 1191, 1297 Sorensen, Veldon – 579 Stokes, Justin – 1042, 1379 American Honey Producers Association English, Brutz – 927 – 327, 610 Freeman, Annaka – 111 Stumme, Anna – 1151, 1261, 1373 Stupski, S. David – 319 Amitraz – 331, 1065, 1231, 1297 Fricke, Kris – 103 ankle-biter bees – 242, 247 Frost, Elizabeth – 1203 Sy, Joann – 1269 Takács, Marianna – 907 antibiotics – 151 Gabritsch, Darryl – 587, 799 ants, honeypot – 1345 Georgi, Kristen – 805 Tardif, Etienne – 1251 Thomas, Hans-Ulrich – 895 Apiguard – 1231, Gillard, Grant F.C. – 83, 425 Apimondia – 259, 445, 610 Hale, Piers J. – 985, 1103 Tillman, Linda — 1333 Underwood, Robyn M. – 319 – 377 Haney, Mike – 817, 897 – 465 Hayes, Jonathan — 1333 Webster, Kirk – 75 Woodhouse, Bel – 679 artificial pollination – 15 Hesbach, Bill – 175, 1315 Asian giant hornet – 133, 209, 341, 361, Heywood, Kayla – 319 OBITUARIES 605, 727, 1065, 1069, 1194 Hiatt, Chris – 327 Cole, Willie Robert (Bob) – 729 Aspetuck Land Trust – 950 Hough, Jackie – 219 Diehnelt, Patricia Ann – 1182 Australia fires – 279, Hrusovszky, Carol – 631, 1085 DuBose, Lawrence A. – 248 Ifshin, Gail – 1151, 1261, 1373 Harman, Ann – 730 B Jones, Andrew – 197 Hausknecht, Carl E – 16 Keilty, Peter – 1273 Thomas, Dr. John G. – 1073 bacteria – 313 Keiter, Jacob – 683 back injury, working bees with – 817 Kennard, Ian – 193 DEPARTMENTS Cropscience AG – Kietzman, Parry – 319 Advertising Index – 118, 230, 350, 474, 494, bearding – 219 Kritsky, Gene – 1247 710, 822, 934, 954, 1166, 1278, 1398 bees – Lehr, Sid – 337, 441 Classified Advertising – 115, 227, 345, attracting – 501 Leininger-Miller, Dr. Theresa – 913 471, 591, 707, 819, 931, 951, 1163, black bees – 791 Linder, Charles – 571 1275, 1389 Bond – 1009 Linton, Frank – 1151, 1261, 1373 From the Archives – 469 circulation – 121 Long, Henry Ray – 563 From the Editor – 7, 127, 239, 359, 483, genetics – 967, 1005 Lorence, Karen Nielsen – 323, 407, 1159 603, 719, 831, 943, 1063, 1175, 1287 gentle – 502 Loughran, Gehreig R. – 187 Letter to the Editor – 9, 129, 241, 361, 485, gut microbes – 71, 1359 MacFawn, David E. – 921, 1161 605, 721, 833, 945, 1065, 1177, 1289 honey bee species – 743 Makovec, Eugene — 1085 News and Events – 13, 133, 247, 367, 491, in America – 387 Mahood, Julia – 297 609, 727, 837, 949, 1069, 1181, 1293 larvae – 967 U.S Honey Crops and Market – 23, 255, “lazy” – 571 Mangum, Wyatt A. – 37, 169, 283, 411, 497, 735, 953, 1185 539, 659, 763, 867, 997, 1115, 1219, license plate – 1072 1321 COLUMNS microbiome – 1359 Martin, Stephen – 649 Beekeeping Basics – 33, 151, 273, 381, moving – 359 Masucci, James D. – 685 635, 747, 849, 973, 1093, 1199, 1303 packages – 197

December 2020 1393

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1393 11/5/2020 1:14:24 PM SUBJECTS (CONT.) rescue – 111 C fires – 279, 1066, 1223 respiration – 1213 Cale, C.H., Bud – 1006 fireweed – 521 scouts, nest-site – 801 canola – 981 foundation shipping – 539 capping can – 63 early – 65 postal stamp – 1159 Card, Andy – 1122 gilt-edge – 66 stingless – 679 Carniolans – 1007 foundationless frames – 362 stings – 1195 catalpa nectar – 846 formic acid – 1231, 1350 wild – 111, 565 Certifiable Beekeeper Program – 223 frames - yards, finding – 87 Chevron Pipe Line Company – 14 foundationless – 362 Bee Informed Partnership – 13 climate – 282, 1227 sizes – 144 Bee Campus USA – 815 Cobey, Sue – 1007, 1123, 1308 history – 169, 283, beekeeper, health – 831 cochineal – 1347 spacing – 283, 505 beekeeping colony Fries, Ingemar – 1008 battle scars – 695 loss survey – 459 business – 101, 1161 monitoring – 1151, 1251, 1261, 1373 G clubs, starting – 631 open air – 111 GMOs – history – 387, 515, 653, 757 Coloss – 1294 to combat varroa, deformed wing virus in National Forests – 1066, 1289 comb honey – 157, 486 – 421 old-timers – 703 combining colonies – 1193 genetics – 967, 1005 Patron Saints – 664 Combplex mite zapper – 134, 363 gilt-edge foundation – 66 prison – 130, 683 Condensation – 175 Glenn, Tom – 1121 rooftop – 543 Connor, Larry – 1007 Guinea – 103 teaching – 587 controlled burn – 282, 454, 1227 gut microbes – 1359 treatment-free – 901 corn landscapes – 199 urban – 697, 834 cotton honey production – 37 H beeswax COVID-19 – 483, 643, 927, 1273, 1333 H-2A workers – 609 food wraps – 309 – Hansen, George – 1123 in art – 1042 pollination – 407 Harbison, John S. – 1097 moldy – 502 recipes – 408 Harbison, William C. – 1097 synthetic – 531 CRISPR – 753, 833 Harbo, John – 1120, 1308 beetle, small hive – 624, 1139 cropland acreage and wildlife – 1237 Hawaii – 1120 barriers to larvae – 375 crud – 373 Healthberry Farm – 1293 deterring – 145 cryopreservation (drone semen) – 1307 Hilo Bee Project – 1120 disease vector – 146 hives - trapping – 143 D Aldrich – 171 biosecurity – 1093 Dactylopius coccus – 1347 Berlepsch – 285 birds, as predators – 504 Dadant, Chuck – 1006 Bevan cross bar – 656 Backburn, Henry – 1307 Dadant family history – 61 California – 1098 pollination – 305 Danka, Bob – 1007 Christ – 653 Bond test – 1008 Darwin, Charles – 985, 1103, 1178 Combining – 799 Book Reviews — de Guzman, Lillia – 1008 crowded – 740 Bee Club Basics, or How to Start a Bee Debeauvoys hive – 63 Danzenbaker – 285 Club – 631 Delaney, Debbie – 1308 Debeauvoys – 63 Keeping Bees with a Smile – 632 deformed wing virus (DWV) – for health – 465 Queenspotting – 633 GMOs to combat – 421 Flanders – 170 Raising Honeybee Queens – 633 deadouts – 273 Griffith – 656 Bee People and the Bugs They Love – Hendricks – 170 irradiation – 415 Huber – 655 1085 Disease resistance – 777 Bee Space to Bee Hive – 1086 Huish – 655 Doolittle, G.M. – 1005 Kelsey – 758 Honey and Venom, Confessions of an Double-screen board – 337, 441 Langstroth original – 63, 169 Urban Beekeeper – 1087 Downey, Danielle – 1122 location – 359 A Honeybee Heart has Five Openings, A drone – Massie – 284 Year of Keeping Bees – 1088 congregation areas – 297, 376, 741 Miner – 759 Interviews with Beekeepers – 1089 flight over open water – 1194 monitoring – 1151, 1251, 1261,1373 Complete Bee Handbook, The – 1089 sperm – 165 open air – 504 books – UAVs for tracking – 297 Quinby – 760 A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings dysentery – 45, 203 Souder – 653 – 1088 Staggs – 171 Bee Club Basics – 631 E Wright – 172 Bee People And the Bugs They Love Earth Day – 664 Hive and the Honey Bee – 63 – 1085 education – honey – Bee Space to Bee Hive – 1086 in prison — 683, 833 adulteration – 259, 609, 615 Complete Bee Handbook, The – 1089 Egg laying – 509 bottling – 921 Honey and Venom – 1087 ELAP – 491 buying – 217, 242, 363 Interviews with Beekeepers – 1089 Ellis, James – 1293 comb – 157 Keeping Bees with a smile – 632 encaustic painting – 1042 fraud – 259, 445, 615, 957 Queen Spotting – 633 Raising EPA – 491 floral origin – 268 Honeybee Queens – 633 eucalypts – 144 hunting, prehistoric – 1247 bottling – 921 European foulbrood – 28, 373, 965 microbes – 71 Brother Adam – 1005 evolution – 239, 485, 985, 1103 organic – 1199 Bt moth control – 248 extractor, converting to power – 897 regulations – 603 Buchler, Ralph – 1123 extractors, early – 62, 862 tasting – 549, 927 Buckfast Abbey – 1005 testing – 268, 615, 957 Buckfast Bees – 1005 F uncapped – 1079 bumble bees feeding bees/queens – 722, 945 value to beekeeper – 635 hole-punching – 879 automated – 1035 wound treatment – 1379 business, beekeeping – 1161 Fernhout, Bartjan – 1123 Honey Bee Stock Center – 1308

1394 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1394 11/5/2020 1:14:24 PM SUBJECTS (CONT.)

Honeycomb – Oregon Master Beekeeper – 1383 queen rearing – 633 Building – 966 organic – 1199 in small quantities – 362, 533 from deadouts – 627 oxalic acid – 741 in migratory operations – 181, 363 irradiation – 415 concentration – 376 Nicot method – 425 moving between hives – 1081 dribble – 1259 Quinby, Moses hive – 63 problems building – 411 extended-release – 1231, 1349 removing old – 1081 fogging – 145, 376, 625 R small cell – 267 vaporizing – 269, 376, 968 RNAi – 685, 1315 synthetic – 242, 531, 72, 969 Recipe, skep cakes – 1340 honeydew – 1346 P record keeping – 97, 623 Honey Queen – 133, 367 PMS (parasitic mite syndrome) – 269 regulation, honey — 603, 833 Honey Princess – 367 Pacific Northwest – religion – 239, 485 Honey wasp – 1346 colony loss survey – 459 requeening – 623 Hopguard – 1231, 1352 package bees – research – Hopkins, Brandon – 1307 half-packages – 197 corrupted by funding? – 395, 485, 605 hornet Page, Rob – 1007 Rinderer, Thomas – 1007 Asian giant – 133, 209, 341, 361, 605, paraffin, preserving woodenware – 1303 robber cloth – 64 727, 1065, 1069, 1194 perception and observation – 219 Roberts, W.C. – 1006 Hummingbirds – 1297 pesticide – robotic pollination — 15 in apple orchards – 787 robbing – 145 I regulations – 491 Rodenberg, Jim – 1122 insect apocalypse – 993, 1071, 1177 residues in fields – 301 residues in wax – 844 S J resistance by bees – 1207 SMR – 1010 juniper berries – 267 phenology – 341, 451 save a bee – 55 plantain – 1047 tanager – 1082 K pollen scholarship, horticulture – 729 Kefuss, John – 1008 allergies – 1369 scientific thought – 993 Kerria lacca – 1346 feeding subs – 563, 1327 Sheppard, Steve – 1307 Kulencevic, Jovan – 1007 substitutes – 15, 435, 555, 563, 721 Sherman, Edwin A. – 1098 trapping – 503 Siberian iris – 947 L pollination – Sideline beekeeping, growing from hobby artificial – 15 – 83 Laidlaw, Harry – 1006 Sioux Honey – 13 Lamb, Ryan – 1122 in Northwest – 575 shortfall – 1135 small cell comb – 267 Langstroth, L. L. – 859 small hive beetle – 624, 1139, 1298 Larvae vocabulary – 673 pollinator barriers to larvae – 375 development – 509, 967 deterring – 145 laying workers – 844, 851, 1191 corridors – 57 seed mixes – 91, 363 disease vector 146 LeConte, Yves – 1008 trapping – 143, 1298 license plate – 1072 plots – 58, 453, 837, 950 solar – 728 Smith, Rob – 279, 486 Little Free Pantries – 13 Smokers, keeping them going – 1149, lithium chloride – 503 Postal Service, honey bee stamp – 1159 prescribed burns – 361 1299 lovage – 853 Snelgrove board – 337, 441 prison beekeeping — 683, 833, 945, 946 Snodgrassella alvi M probiotics For AFB – 71, 313 Maine – 305 for AFB – 71 snot brood – 373 Manuka honey – 1089, 1379 propolis – songs and sheet music about bees – 913 Master Beekeeping Programs – 247, 769, in human health – 805 landscapes – 199 1025, 1029, 1383 in colony health – 842 spirulina – 891 Mayan bees – 679 Spivak, Marla – 1121 Mendel, Gregor – 1005 Q splits – 337, 386, 441 mentoring – 317, 747 Queen/Ambassador programs – 583 spring – 641 mite-biter bees – 242, 247 queens State Fair queen – 249 mite washing – 781, 885, 1013, 1127 acceptance – 505 strike, queens – 469 moldy comb – 502 age and honey production – 907 sugar – 722, 945 Morton, Verne – 1145 balling – 659, 763, 867, 997 swarms – banking – 626 attracting – 501 N breeding – 843 catching – 363, 1082 National Animal Germplasm Program – cages, historic – 659 control – 337, 381, 741 1310 cells – 973, 1297 hiving – 846 National Pollinator Week – 663 cells, incubating – 579 late-season – 28, 1321 Native bees – 55 cups, making with beeswax – 193 trapping – 501 Nebraska tourism and bees – 949 fainting – 129, 243, 1192 usurpation – 1321 nectar – grafting – 187 catalpa – 846 introduction – 659, 763, 867, 997, 1115, T nectar flow, effect on behavior – 626 1219 taxes – 101, 362 neonicotinoids “neonics” – 27, 241, 1019, life expectancy – 741 temperature, hive – 1151 1089, 1289 locally adapted – 374 thermal varroa control – 49, 361 newspaper method for combining Midnite – 1006 thermography – 319 colonies – 799 missing – 849 Thomas, David – 1123 – 45, 203, 843, Northern – 75, 129, 361 ticks — 842, 1177 Nuclear magnetic resonance – 958, on strike – 469 tracheal mites – 146, 373 Nucs pheromones – 742 treatment free – 901, 1177 for requeening – 623 Russian – 1009, 1191 Tupper, Ellen – 1363 Starline – 1006 O two-queen hive – 337, 441 U observation and perception – 219 Yugo – 1007 UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) – 297

December 2020 1395

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1395 11/5/2020 1:14:24 PM SUBJECTS (CONT.) TITLES (CONT.) V Revolution – 757; Samuel Wagner and Great-Grandchildren – 769 VFD – Veterinary Feed Directive – 151, the American Bee Journal - 1241 For Today at Least, It is Spring - 641From 1069 Beekeeping Revolution: Langstroth and his the Home Office: A Dadant History from VSH (varroa-sensitive hygiene) – 27, 1010 Hive, The – 859 the Beginning – 61 varroa control Beeswax is Foundation for Nashville Fun with Numbers: Life on the “Lazy interruption – 1082 Encaustic Artist – 1042 Ranch” – 571 drone brood removal – 842, 1080 Bottling Equipment: Helpful Tools to Make Giant Alien Insect Invasion Averted – 209 GMOs – 421 the Job Easier – 921 Gold Rush and the Honey Bee, The – 1097 oxalic acid (see Oxalic Acid) Broadleaf Plantain: A Source of Pollen for Go Native: Wildflower Plots for the RNAi – 685 Honey Bees – 1047 Pollinators and the Planet – 453 rotating treatments – 1083 Building a Small Queen Cell Incubator – Hand Crank Extractor Power Conversion thermal – 361 579 – 897 using their own larval enzymes – 1083 Busting Queen Grafting Myths – 187 Historical Beekeeping Photos – 1145 with supers on – 968, 1231, 1349 Buy Honey or Not?, To – 217 Hive Irradiation: Another Tool to Combat zapper – 134, 363 Certifiable Beekeeper Program, The – 223 Disease in Honey Bees – 415 varroa mites – Coming to America: Honey Bees in the Honey Bee Colony Mortality – Survey Drift – 739 New World – 387; Part 2 – 515 Results for the Pacific Northwest – 459 in deadouts – 374 Condensing Colony, The – 175 Honey Bee Commemorative Envelope: monitoring – 289, 399, 525, 669, 722, Conserving Black Bees (Apis mellifera mel- 40-year Anniversary – 1159 781 lifera) in the Hebrides, Scotland – 791 Honey Bee Pollination in the Pacific over-rated? – 811 Cranberries—Not Just a Thanksgiving Northwest – 575 resistance – 27, in Hawaii 649 Treat – 407 Honey Skep Cakes: An Eastern European sampling – 781, 885, 1013, 1127 Darwin, Design, and the Honey Bee, Part holiday tradition – 1340 varroa resistance 1 – 985; Part 2: The Morality of the How the Fierce A.m. scutellata Became in Hawaii – 649 Hive – 1103 Gentle in Puerto Rico – 873 VSH – 27 Days to Celebrate Bees and Beekeeping How to Combine Weak Colonies Using the veterinarian – 151, 1069 – 663 Newspaper Method – 799 Developing Double-stranded RNA as a How to Raise Queens in a Migratory W New Varroa Control Product – 685 Operation – 181 Wagner – 1241 Disease Triangle: Varroa is Only One Side, International Honey Market Report – 259, Water The – 811 615, 957 Collecting, urine? – 742 Does Locally Sourced Honey Alleviate Isle of Hope! – 1269 Watkins, Lee H. – 1098 Seasonal Allergies? The research is It’s Time for the OA Drench! Here’s How wax moth – 505, 895 inconclusive – 1369 – 1259 Wildfires – 279, 1066 Do You Smoke? How to Keep That Smoker I Keep Bees for Their Wool: An Old-timer’s Wildlife corridors – 57 Going - 1149 Recollections of Hive Openings – 703 windshield effect – 993, 1177 Drones for Drones – A New Way to Find Keeping Time: Using Phenology to Keep winter bees – 33 Drone Congregation Areas – 297 Bees – Part 1 – 341; Using Phenology winter losses – 739 Effect of Queen Bee’s Age on the Extent to Capture a Honey Flow – Part 2 – 451 wintering, in Yukon – 1251 of Brood Area and Acacia Honey Maines’ Down East Wild Lowbush World Bee Day – 663 Production in Honey Bee (Apis mellifera Blueberry Pollination – 305 L.) Colonies in Hungary – 907 Master Beekeeping Programs: Is There One Y Ellen Tupper, the Iowa Bee Queen – 1363 for You? – 1025 York, Harvey – 1007 Fascinating Wax Moths: Not Your Average Memphis Medical Startup Heals with Hon- Cleanup Crew – 895 ey: Product bioengineered for chronic or Feeding Pollen Substitute Without Raising acute wound care – 1379 Z Small Hive Beetles – 563 Mentoring – A Tiered Approach – 317 zinc, in pollen substitute – 435 Fire Siege – 1223 Mind Your Own Beeswax: Let’s Talk About zombie flies – 1083 First Step to a Second Chance: Beekeeping Synthetic Comb – 531 Zoom meetings – 1333 Education in Federal Prison – 683 Mite Control While Honey is on the Hive, Florida’s New Online Master Beekeeping Part 1 – 1231; Part 2 — 1349 Program – 1029 Modern Approach to Producing Beeswax TITLES Fool’s Gold? Mother Lode? Members Queen Cups, A – 193 A Zooming Success in Georgia – 1333 of the California Master Beekeepers Monitoring Honey Bee Colony Activities Almond Pollination: When is the Best Time Program Meet Up with Scutellata’s with a Temperature Sensor Grid, Part 1 – to Remove Hives? – 1203 American Beekeeping Federation Conference Wrap-up – 323 American Honey Producers Conference Wrap-up – 327 Apimondia Statement of Honey Fraud – 445 Astonishing Behavioral Versatility of Nest- site Scouts, The – 801 Australia – Paradise Lost? – 279 Automated Remote Feeding: For Extreme Weather and Hungry Bees – 1035 Autumn Reads: Book Reviews – 1085 Battle Scars of Beekeeping – Wear the Veil!, The – 695 Beekeeper Funded Research: An Experiment to Improve Pollen Sub – Part 1 – 435; Part 2 - 555 Beekeeping in Guinea – 103 Beekeeping in the Time of Corona – 1273 Beekeeping in the United States: A New Century – The 1800’s – 653; The Coming

1396 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1396 11/5/2020 1:14:25 PM TITLES (CONT.) 1151; Part 2 – 1261; Part 3 – 1373 4 – 669 Tasting, Really Tasting Honey – 549 Naturally Mite-resistant Colonies Evolve Refining the Mite Wash Part 1: Treatment Taxes: Should I File or Not? – 101 on Hawaii – 649 threshold and solutions to use – 781; Thermography and Beekeeping – 319 Nicot: The Good, the Bad, and the Possible Part 2: Mite Release – 885; Part 3: Three Things: What to Worry About – 1255 – 425 Dislodgement, Precipitation, and Time Warp: Cryopreservation of Honey Nosema – The Causes of Dysentery in Separation – 1013; Part 4: Comparing Bee Germplasm, Part 1: The drone con- Honey Bees Part 7b of a Series – 45; the Release Agents – 1127 tribution – 1307 The Prevention of Dysentery Part 7c of Revisiting Prehistoric Honey Hunting at Two from One: A Technique to Double a Series – 203 Bicorp, Spain – 1247 the Number of Colonies from Packages Operation Bee Rescue – 111 Running Interference: RNAi and the prom- – 197 Oregon Master Beekeeper Anna Ashby ise of healthy bees – 1315 Up on the Roof: Keeping Bees on the Brings Honey to Resort’s Table – 1383 Sacred World of Mayan Bees, The – 679 Chicago Skyline – 543 Plymouth State University Named New Search of Wild Honey Bees in the Cawdor Urban Beekeeping Survey, An – 697 Hampshire’s First Bee Campus USA – Wood, Scotland, In – 565 “When the Bees Make Honey Down in 815 Sharpen Your Perception: Is That Bearding Sunny Alabam” – Comic Honey Bee Progress Report on Three Years of … or Something Else? – 219 Songs and Illustrated Sheet Music, 1902- Treatment-free Beekeeping, Including a Should I Turn My Hobby into a Business? 1922 – 913 Test of Three Types of Queen: Wild Some Pros and Cons to Consider – 1161 Why Teach Beekeeping? – 587 Colony, Webster Russian, and VSH Small Hive Beetle in North Florida, The Wintering Bees in the Yukon – 1251 Italian – 901 – 1139 Working Bees with an Injured Back – 817 Propolis: Hidden Treasure of the Hive – 805 Snelgrove Method of Swarm Control, The Working With Nature: Local Bees and the Queen Rearing in Smaller Operation – 533 – Part 1 – 337; Method II – Part 2 – 441 Best Way to Utilize Northern Queens Questing for the Wonder Bee, Part 1: Spoon Full of Honey May Heal What Ails – 75 From Brother Adam to Varroa Sensitive You, A – 465 Your Honey Show Does Not Have to Be a Hygiene – 1005; Part 2: The Hilo Bee Spring Flowering Pollinator Mixes that Victim of the Pandemic – 927 Project – 1120 Work for Honey Bees – 91 Questions on Amitraz – 331 State of Honey Queen and Honey Record Keeping: Sure You’ll Remember… Ambassador Programs: An Update, The – 97 – 583 Re-evaluating Varroa Monitoring – Part Summer Reads: Book Reviews – 631Taking 1 – 289; Part 2 – 399; Part 3 – 525; Part Your Hobby to the Next Level – 83

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December 2020 1397

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1398 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1398 11/5/2020 1:14:27 PM March 2018 1399

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1399 11/5/2020 1:14:31 PM 1400 American Bee Journal

ABJ_December_2020.indb 1400 11/5/2020 1:14:34 PM