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November 2015 The Middlesex ee “The men of experiment are like the ; they only collect and use. But the ... gathers its materials from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own.” – Leonardo da Vinci

October 23, MCBA Meeting and Bee Talk

Business Meeting Tom announced that the state’s new inspector President Obama’s national strategy to promote Tom said that there are currently three draft laws would be joining us at the November meeting and other via his Protection filed in the State related to beekeeping, and there (traditionally the day after Thanksgiving). She’s Framework, which encourages State authorities would be a public hearing for comments on Tuesday, making the rounds to all of the county clubs, to to come up with policies. In Massachusetts, this introduce herself and to find out what she can do on responsibility fell to the Massachusetts Department behalf of in the state. Following shortly of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) which then after the November meeting is our holiday party on delegated the legwork to the Farm Bureau (a Contents Saturday December 12th. Tom asked for volunteers private organization which works with MDAR). to coordinate the party, which is a modified potluck The Farm Bureau submitted a framework, and 8 1. October Minutes dinner. The club provides and stuffing, and Massachusetts County beekeeping associations 2. Calendar members bring various courses/side dishes. If you are submitted an alternative framework in response. The 3. New Beekeeping Supplies interested in helping out, please contact Tom Fiore Middlesex County ’s Association (MCBA) 4. Holiday Party at: [email protected] submitted comments to MDAR regarding the Farm 5. MCBA Fondant Recipe Alix Bartsch, the club’s Swarm Coordinator asked Bureau’s framework. A member asked Tom what the 6. The effects of poor nutrition that Tom update the club framework was for? Tom answered that it is a policy 7. Lauri’s Sugar Blocks on the various upcoming framework and not a regulatory document. The idea 15. Stone Age Sweetness State and Federal policies is to the extent that legislative initiatives in the future, 16. MCBA Officers & Volunteers that impact beekeepers. this document would provide a policy framework for 16. Membership Form Tom began by discussing legislators – for any possible future regulations. program may be a target Library Upcoming Meetings and Events of Executive Order Allen Bondeson, our club’s Librarian announced that 562. Absence of that members are encouraged to use our library – it’s a 11/27, 7-9pm, MCBA Indoor Meeting and Bee Talk regulation then creates a great resource. The DVD’s in the collection used to First Religious Society Hall, 27 School Street, Carlisle, MA situation where it could be ‘borrow and return,’ but they are now $1 apiece Kim Skyrm, Massachusetts' new Chief Apiary Inspector become ‘open season’ by and you can just keep the copy that you take. Allen Equipment Auction cities and towns to make also asked that if you have borrowed books from up rules and regulations the library, to please bring them back. Editor’s note: 12/12 (Saturday), 6:30-9pm, MCBA Holiday Party regarding inspection of If you have an item to return and Allen isn’t at the First Religious Society Hall, 27 School Street, Carlisle, MA hives. Tom said that he meeting, please feel free to give it to a club officer. More info on page 4. submitted a comment requesting that a waiver Treasurer’s Report 2016 MCBA Indoor Meetings and Bee Talks be issued for the state’s Lisa B. presented the treasurer’s report (We’re on First Religious Society Hall apiary inspection good footing). You can find a copy of the report in 27 School Street, Carlisle, MA program. the member’s only section of the website. 01/22, 7-9pm Is anyone here 02/26, 7-9pm from Cambridge? Bee Talk 03/25, 7-9pm There is a new Anyone here for the first time? Please tell us your 04/22, 7-9pm, Spaghetti Dinner beekeeping ordinance name, where you’re from, and how many hives you in Cambridge. It is have! unfortunate that things • Larry, North Chelmsford, attended a bee school, got to this point (for and hopes to start next spring 11/17 at 1pm in the Statehouse, at the joint Committee background google • Mira, Bedford, no hives of her own yet, but she’s for Natural Resources in . If anyone is Cambridge, Beekeeping, Neighbors) – however it sponsoring a hive in her yard. She plans on taking a interested in testifying during the hearing, you can could have been worse. There are hearings for this class this winter. sign up to offer prepared remarks lasting no longer ordinance if anyone is interested in following up on • Kelsey & Graham, Waltham: newbees hoping to than 3-minutes. Information will be on the website. that. In addition, something may also be brewing start in the spring. Tom added that the other thing going on at the down in Medway. Alix Bartsch has most extensive • Stephen, Burlington, no hives yet, but comes from State level was Executive Order 562. Earlier this year, contacts with other clubs, and is currently very up to a family of beekeepers. Governor Baker signed Executive Order 562, which date regarding the pending bills working their way • Sonny, Lowell, has 2 hives requires all executive state agencies to review all through the state legislature. • Matt, Carlisle, moved to the country recently, was regulations and to determine whether the regulations There will be a meeting of the state’s beekeeping a longtime chairman of a beekeeper’s association in serve a purpose, and that no Massachusetts State association, Mass Bee, in Philipston, which is out on Britain regulation exceed Federal requirements. State agencies Route 2. While it sounds like it’s way out there, in • Paul G. Stow, has 2 hives should be holding listening sessions for informal reality it’s not that far (maybe 40-45 minutes) and • Jim, from Carlisle, Ernie Huber turned him onto comments on possible regulations.... What concerns if you’re free that day you should make an effort to beekeeping and is interested in getting involved. us most, as beekeepers, is the State Apiary Inspection go. There’s a show, and the agenda is on the • Cindy, Ashland, is a beginner Program – because the Federal Government has no MassBee website. Anyone have any questions, comments, anecdotes regulations in regard to apiary inspections, hence this to share? Sonny said that there’s an advantage to

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 2 getting your package bees early (he picked his up at the end of March) – he got 100-pounds of honey Eng from the hives that he keeps on a second story w lan porch in Lowell. Jen R. made a suggestion to new e d beekeepers: that you should order your bees early N (they often go on sale around January), as they usually sell out well before April and May – it’s easier to cancel an order than to try to start late. Beekeeping Carlisle Honey Tom Fiore (our club president) suggested that new beekeepers take a class this winter. Here in Middlesex www.nebees.com www.carlislehoney.com County, various members of the club partner with continuing programs in Newton, Beekeeping Equipment Extracting Services Tyngsboro, and Acton-Boxboro. Those classes Honey Jars generally begin in January and February – we’ll send out announcements once dates and times are 10 Louis Avenue 978.957.2233 determined. Tyngsboro, MA 01879 Is it too late to feed the bees? My hives are a little light. Mike B. said that it is too late to feed syrup, and that he recommends an end date of October 15th for syrup. He said that with feeder bottles especially, the R. said that she leaves hers open all winter, and that I have a homosote Board, should it go above or syrup can expand or contract too much due to the as long as the bees are dry, then they can take really below my inner cover? Homosote is a sheet of fibrous temperature, and can drip down and cause problems. cold weather. Jen said that she has left her SBB’s open sound proofing available from Home Depot, etc., cut He said that while we’ve had some [unseasonably] for years. Gus S. said that he will close his early in the down to the size of your hive boxes (typically 16.25” warm weather, it’s too late for the bees to deal with spring (February or March) to keep moisture out, and x 19 7/8”) that is used to absorb moisture from the the excess moisture from the syrup (the bees have to to help keep them drier. Tony P. closes his off most hive. Jen R. said that she places her homosote boards condense the liquid down to at least 18% for capping). of the way to prevent an updraft from the wind, but between her inner and outer covers. In addition, Jen If you need to feed, then fondant, sugar bricks / candy he leaves about a 2-3” strip open for ventilation until adds a vapor barrier above the homosote with Fedex/ boards, or plain granular sugar via the Mountain April/May, when he opens it all the way again. As Tyvek envelopes. The homosote does its job and acts Camp method are your only options. Editor’s Note: with all things beekeeping: your mileage may vary. as a sponge, but this can be bad for the wood of the this question came to me via email from a member Should I turn my Inner Cover over, and should I block outer cover so the vapor barrier helps prevent rot. unable to make the meeting. If you have a question, the notch? Do NOT block, or in any way close off the While she tried using trash bags, Jen has found that please email me and I’ll try to answer your question(s) upper entrance. This will allow for ventilation and Tyvek works much better. and/or bring them up at the next meeting and have provide bees an exit/entrance if snow blocks your Bernie M. asked how everyone’s honey harvest was an experienced member of the club answer it – and I’ll lower entrance. Jen R. said that not all inner covers this year? He said with his hives, the early spring print the question & answer in the next newsletter. have a notch, or a rim to do this with – but if yours honey came in like crazy, and by the summer it was I have a screened bottom board (SBB) on my hive, does then the normal practice is to turn it over so that gone. In the Fall, the hives had collected a lot again. should I close it up during the winter or leave it open? the shape/configuration resembles an igloo in the A member said that he didn’t feed as much this This is one of those questions that the adage ask 10 winter (rather than a bowl like swimming pool during year, and that it had been a great year for him. It had beekeepers a question and you’ll get 11 answers! Jen the summer). slowed down for him by the end of August, but that

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 3 he didn’t think his Golden Rod flow was as great this year. Charlotte said that this Gus S. cautioned members to add a stick below whatever stones/bricks that are summer she had checked on a friend’s hives on July 8th, 10 days after the friend had weighing down your telescoping outer cover. The weights on top of the outer cover can extracted the spring honey. She said that the Dearth was so abrupt in her area that act as cold spots where condensation can happen. Sticks or twigs help eliminate this. the hives had starved to death in that short time. Charlotte remarked that there The cold doesn’t bother the bees as long as they’re dry and ventilated. was not much of a second crop of this year. In recent years, she takes honey off in June – but leaves almost enough for the bees to make it through winter. She doesn’t try to do 2 harvests anymore and doesn’t feed in the fall. What about smoker fuel? Pine needles have worked fine for me, but I’ve heard that Sumac bobs work better? If you have them, Sumac bobs work well. These are the pods that fall from the trees around August. Tom said that he collects them and dries them for several weeks on a screen – you don’t want to put them into a plastic bag or storage container until they are completely dry, otherwise they will mold and rot. A member said that he heard that they may be carcinogenic (the )? MCBA Holiday Party Well, for humans, it’s probably carcinogenic to be exposed to any smoke. Don’t inhale! Sumac bobs/pods can be tricky to light, and they don’t burn as well, but 12/12 (Saturday), 6:30-9pm when they do, they produce a cooler smoke. They’re not necessarily better than First Religious Society Hall, 27 School Street, Carlisle, MA pine – use whatever is available. Whatever you use as smoker fuel, you want the smoke to be cool. How cool? The club will provide the main course of turkey, stuffing and gravy and we You should be able to put your hand in front of the smoker opening and the smoke are asking members to help with the rest. coming out should not give off any heat. A member said that it’s always to grab some grass and throw it atop the fire. Tony uses mint (which grows like a weed in If your last name begins with: Please bring: his garden) instead of grass because he prefers that smell. When I looked into my hive last week, there were a lot of small frames with A-G Salad uncapped nectar in the honey supers. Should I remove those frames and/or the super? Leave them for the bees. If you have a still on the hive, you H-N Side dish, or Soft drinks should remove it. Don’t worry about the bees capping the nectar/honey – at this point they won’t, whatever is in there the bees will use one way or another. Why O-T dessert won’t the bees cap the nectar? At this point it’s too cold. You need a nectar flow, and young bees and at this point you don’t have either. U-Z Bread, Why you need to remove the queen excluder: the whole colony needs to be able to travel about the frames, and you don’t want the queen to get left behind when they do. RSVP by December 7th online on the member’s website, or by email: This will really mess things up. In the winter bees will cluster (and form tight ball) with [email protected] if you plan to attend. the queen at the center of the cluster. The natural tendency is for the cluster to move up through the hive throughout the winter. While they do move side to side, you don’t Please also remember to bring your own plates, silverware, glasses and cups! want to have any kind of obstruction to them moving up. If the queen gets left behind then the hive is doomed. It’s a simple solution, just remove the queen excluder now.

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 4 the audience. I try as I talk, to keep that in mind at organism that is so fascinating from evolutionary MCBA Fondant Recipe all times to make sure I’m explaining things fully, not perspective, it’s evolved to have this gorgeous society getting too jargon-y. of individuals that work so well together. But at the 2 cups Water Now, I have been at Wellesley for 7 years, and I’ve same time, there’s this whole other sphere of why they 1/2 Tbl. Vinegar been keeping bees since I was the age of my students are important. They are important because they are 8 pounds Table Sugar at Wellesley, so for almost 20 years. I love it, and I so integrated into our agricultural system. They are 1 tsp. Honey-B-Healthy (opt.) was hooked – it was an undergraduate thesis project integrated to do work in those two spheres, and it’s when I started (I spent a little bit of time in the that integration that I’m going to talk to you about 1. Pour sugar, water, and vinegar into pot. monarch world, with the monarch butterfly) but was tonight. The project that I’m going to describe to you 2. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. quickly drawn back in grad school to honey bees. So is something that I was interested in as a PhD student 3. Cover and boil 5 minutes. as you know they are fairly magnetic, they draw you in . In Tom [Seeley’s] lab at Cornell, I really 4. Insert Candy thermometer, and continue in and keep you, and I’ve enjoyed it ever since. did focus more on communication, to boil uncovered until temperature hits If you are not aware of it, Wellsley is and and the organization of the foraging apparatus in 234º undergraduate college, so we don’t have PhD colonies, and trying to tease apart how genetics play 5. Remove from heat and cool to 200º students; we don’t have graduate students – it’s all a part in shaping the efficient foraging in colonies. I 6. Add Honey-B-Healthy (optional) students getting their bachelor’s degree in the liberal worked in his lab for four years. But then at Wellesley 7. Whip with an electric mixer until mixture arts, and it’s a women’s college. So the students in I had this idea that I wanted to hybridize my PhD begins to turn white with air bubbles my lab are young, some of them started working work on nutrition with my understanding of how the disperesed throughout. with me when they were 18 years old, and some of foraging effort is generated in colonies. This is in fact 6. Quickly pour into molds and allow to cool them stayed in my lab until they were 25, so 4-years mostly a thesis that was done by one of my students undisturbed. of schooling and then a couple of years afterward to that was done in collaboration of me and other work with me. I’ve been really proud to send them off students in the lab over several years, that was really to great labs to start their own graduate work, or to successful, and it got into the NY Times when it was continue their work on honeybees. But for the most published in an open access journal (Heather Mattila The effects of poor nutrition on worker bees part, when they got to me, they were like you in the and Hailey Scofield study in journal PLoS One), we A talk by Dr Heather Mattila, an Associate-Professor audience – they had no idea what going on with the purposely put it there so beekeepers could access the of Biological Sciences at Wellesley College. Dr. big white box behind the shed. So at Wellsley, I also information. Mattila received her undergraduate and doctorate teach about organizational biology, I teach animal at the University of Guelph in Ontario, and did her behavior (that’s my primary interest), and then my What is honeybee nutrition? post-doctorate work at Cornell with Tom Seeley. Her senior seminar is social biology, we think about • Larvae growth development (2 types of processed work involves studies of the organization of animal the evolution of cooperation and how honeybees fit food) societies, insect communication, and the evolution of into that right now. The course that I’m teaching has 1. Honey cooperation using the honeybee as a model. a particular slant regarding the looming agricultural 2. (provides almost all of the nutrients). It is a pleasure to be here, thank you for inviting crisis (that I’m sure you’re all scared of as much as I • Adults nursing physiology. me. It’s great to hear how many of you are newbees am, especially if you’re thinking about the bees role • Stress occurs for many reasons. (brand new beekeepers in their first year), and people in that). that are not even there yet, learning before you get My interest, as Tom Fiore said I’m primarily How do workers compensate? your own hive. So, in that regard, you are my favorite interested in social organization, but the beautiful • Brood/Self Cannibalism audience – I love to have brand new beekeepers in thing about honeybees is that you have this • Known effects of poor Nutrition on workers

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 5 • Long legacy of early stress. flower to flower: some of it is very fat rich, some size (six days later). Basically I read a stat that it’s • Lower Weight and Undersized at emergence from pollen is very protein poor (or vice-versa), so bees the equivalent to having a human baby double in cell need to collect a diversity of pollen to cover all of size twice a day over a six day period. So, if you can • Shortened Lifespan their basic nutrition requirements – which are very, imagine the amount of nutrients that have to go • Less likely to leave the hive very close to the nutrition requirements that we have. into an organism like that, that’s not the mother you • When foragers do leave, it’s earlier than We don’t know so much about the minerals and want to be! But luckily in a honeybee colony they nutritionally sound peers vitamins they need, because it’s difficult work and have hundreds of mothers. They have a workforce of • Don’t forage as long (they are more likely to picky, picky work to figure some of it out. So, some of nurses that can rotate around and visit the cells, and disappear after 1 day) it has been done on important vitamins, but certainly deposit a little bit of brood food. What they do is to • Stressed foragers are less likely to dance, and have there’s a huge dearth of understanding on trace eat the pollen, and their body converts this through imprecise dances. elements of pollen. So pollen especially, provides the hypopharyngeal glands (or brood food glands all of the proteins and fats, and usually we only talk as people call them) in their head. These brood food How does this impact honey bees and our about protein when we talk about pollen, because glands secrete protein and lipid rich food into the use of them? it provides almost all of the protein they need to all bottom of these cells to help this mega-growth that colony members. the larvae go through. So, really, really important to So honeybees eat two types of food (if we exclude So what you have, typically, is the nurse-age bees, larvae growth and development. water). They collect nectar and they collect pollen. the youngest of the adult bees (slightly older than Here is a shot of the hypopharyngeal glands, and They process these things in their hive into really the cleaners, which when they come out of the cell you can see these bulbs which we call cerene, and stable food sources: honey and bee bread. Now honey they first turn around and stick their head back into they are the protein/fat biosynthesis spot in the is of course, extremely important to us, and to the the cell behind them and start cleaning out the area worker’s head. They produce much of this rich brood bees as well. But for most part, if you were to examine where the brood are emerging, but over these days of food, and they pump it down the main channel, and the constituents of honey then it’s pretty much just cleaning they start ingesting a large amount of stored it comes out either side of the bees head, and you carbohydrate rocket fuel. It’s the energy that the pollen that is packed into the comb). This stored can see the openings in the bees mouth, and that is bees need to get to, some of the hardest things for pollen helps them become physiologically ready for how they pass it along to the workers. So, it’s just like the colony to do, which is foraging for food (which the task of nursing, which is the big job that they do mammals, what we’re used to in the human world: is the energy that the bees need to go out and find as young inside bees, before they switch to the more women consume food and they produce food for food), and all of the thermal regulation needs that dangerous outdoor jobs at the end of their bee life. babies (through a different secretory duct, basically). we’ve been talking about in our temperate honeybees So this pollen is primarily consumed by nurses in So the bees are doing this on a grand scale through all to survive a long winter. Honey in many ways is the the colony, and then distributed to everyone else in of these little bodies that are nursing the brood. Coke, or the sugar cookies that you’re eating right the colony through those nurses. They feed it to the Bernie M. had a question: When the nurse bees are now, they’re keeping you awake, and active, and foragers (if the foragers are interested in protein), and feeding it (brood food) to the larvae, is it in liquid form? ready for action. The real meat of their food comes most importantly they provide it to the developing Yes, it is in a liquid form. In the early days it is in from the pollen, which as all of the other nutrients larvae in the colony, so that open brood that you see, liquid form, and as the larvae age the nurses begin to that they require. Which include the 10 amino acids the white little seed-shaped worms at the bottom of mix in – it’s not the raw pollen, at this point it’s bee that we [humans] require for our survival, they are the cell, the stage between the egg stage and pupal bread (like how nectar turns from very dilute liquid the same amino acids that honeybees need for their stage. They’re the ones that eat an enormous amount it gets concentrated from processing, the honeybees survival. The pollen has a high concentration of lipids of food, to grow huge from what they hatch out of pack the pollen into cells when they come home, (fats, essentially), and then vitamins and minerals in (the tiny, little, rice-shaped eggs) to larvae that are and they add some gut regurgitants to I, and those various combinations. Pollen is very different from thousands of times bigger, about 1500-times the regurgitants hold which ferments the pollen

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 6 and breaks it down to I used to freeze the excess frames of pollen, but now Lauri's Sugar Blocks* make the pollen more she just throws the pollen away. You throw them stable, and (this is our away? Yes, I don’t know how long pollen is good for, This recipe is not cooked in any way - the ingredients are dried or assumption, but it’s our I assume that they’re bringing in so much that they dehydrated to form the hard block. long-held belief ) that would prefer to have the current year (fresh pollen). these bacteria make Well, there’s a lot of problems with taking pollen 10 pounds White (Cane) Sugar the nutrients in the frames out and just keeping them to feed the back. 1 Tbl. Citric Acid pollen more readily First of all, Small Hive (SHB) love that stuff. 1/8 tsp. Electrolytes# available. Pollen isn’t The SHB will go through unguarded pollen frames 3 capsules Probiotics readily digestible, most like crazy if they can get access to them. So that’s 1 1/4 Cups real Apple Cider Vinegar (not Cider FLAVORED) organisms when they something that new beekeepers should be aware of, 1 Tbl. Honey-B-Healthy (Optional) consume it, it goes you shouldn’t just keep it in a hive super in the shed right through, so the and hope that it will look like that when you go back. 1. Open Capsules into the Apple Cider Vinegar. honeybees need the The other thing is that pollen can carry diseases, 2. Stir in Citric Acid and Electrolytes into the Apple Cider Vinegar. bacteria to crack the so if you’re transferring frames between colonies it is 3. Add Apple Cider Vinegar mixture to the Sugar and mix together (your pollen open a little bit something that you should be concerned about. But hands work best). to make the nutrition the conventional wisdom from the studies that were 4. Roll out and lightly compress in the pan. You can use any size pan you easier to access). So conducted in the 80’s on stuff like this, show that if want, but be sure your bricks are no taller than your frame extension that Bee Bread, at the you freeze pollen will last way longer than pollen kept under your inner cover. later stages of larval at room temperature (because it loses nutrition over 5. will set up and harden in 1-2 days in the food dehydrator at 30º F , or development gets mixed time). I used to save the pollen frames in the freezer, about 2 weeks sitting out in an unheated greenhouse. in with some of their because I had a dedicated freezer, now I don’t bother, food. For the workers, so now I’m wondering if that’s a good thing to do, * Tony modified Lauri's original recipe by adjusting the ingredient queens are a different and if so how long the pollen would last? I think amounts based on 10# of sugar (for hobbyists that don't need as many story. Queens only most people would say that you could hold the pollen blocks as commercial operations); he also added some additional strains get rich, rich food in frames in the freezer for up to a year before returning of probiotics (based upon the suggestion by Best Bee's Noah Wilson- liquid form, for all of them to a hive, for the pollen still to be helpful. Like Rich at a recent MCBA meeting). their development. For in the springtime, before natural pollen is blooming, workers, they cut it with I can add a frame back and expect it to be helpful? # Available online at ValleyVet.com; Agway has something similar. bee bread later on in Yes, but then you have other people that will say that their life. you’re messing up the hive and the way they want it, Jen R. had a question that it’s difficult to just insert something and hope about the viability that it is going to be in the right spot, and that you’re of pollen, especially not breaking up the cluster when they’re working stored pollen. A lot of those frames. There’s a little bit of playing around times, when there’s an with that. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with abundance of pollen, overtly trying it, and inserting a frame. I think it a hive can sometimes should be frozen, but I don’t think that [a frozen become “Pollen bound.” frame of pollen] 2-3 years out will do you much good.

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 7 I might be concerned about spreading disease, so you out of hiding they may be stuck in some big open put pollen more than 2”-3” away from where they’re might want to label the pollen frame(s) and put back space as a holding area, or getting moved into a high rearing brood (at least in studies that have assessed into the same hives where you found it. competition in some sort of orchard or blueberry this). I’m sure you may have seen something that’s a So, more and more researches (and beekeepers) are barren, or whatever it is. little off from that, but this is the average value from concerned about the nutritional status of our colonies So, stress happens for a lot of reasons. So a lot of people that have sat and watched this kind of thing. – to the point where it is now identified as one of work that has been done before this current wave of Active brood rearing colony not more than 2” the top three research priorities (there’s nutrition, research on nutrition has shown pretty conclusively from brood. This is average value from people sat and , and /pathogens) of the things we care that bees that do not receive enough pollen over watched. Pollen beside near brood nurses consume it about. So nutrition is getting a lot of attention these the course of their lifetime (however you inflict foragers pack back in. When bees are actively rearing days, so it seemed like a good time to jump back into this) tend to be smaller in size, and tend to have brood, they put it beside the brood, and there’s a it. I had some ideas spinning around in my head, and shorter lifespans. Now for the most part, these constant turnover of that pollen. As soon as the everyone seemed to be interested in (especially with experiments have been somewhat artificial in how nurses consumes it, the foragers pack more in. As the Presidential Memo that you heard coming out) they examine this effect. So, I’ve done an exhaustive soon as the nurses consume it, the foragers pack more and the loss of foraging habitat that is directly linked search this past year (basically in preparation for this in. So, in the spring (or anytime you expect the hive to the access that a colony has to good nutrition. publication), and I could only find one publication to be raising brood) if you go in and see no pollen Degradation of the environment is a really big reason where nutritional stress is specifically the focus of the around the brood area, that’s one indication that your that bees can be pollen stressed, another big one is research – and they put bees into cages as adults. bees are stressed. The second thing that they do (and that it could just be a simple bad season (like a lot of So the way that they usually study size and you won’t see this) is that they start to cannibalize you have been talking about this year). Is the golden longevity, is to alter nutrition in some way (by often their own tissues – they start breaking down their rod good? We’ve all know how bad the winter was feeding artificial diets) and then putting them into own fat bodies and their own muscles in an attempt this year, and how much it delayed the onset of a cage of 100 bees and seeing how long it takes for to reclaim nutrients from their own bodies to feed spring, and how much our colonies got into dire them to die. As you know, this is far removed from to their babies. You won’t see that, they’ll just look straits over whether or not they had pollen to bridge the actual life of a bee, where maybe having access to like bees. Step Number 3 you will see, brood that was that gap between what they had stored and when food as an adult would offset that harm. So a big part capped is now uncapped; heads are missing, Larvae they needed to get back outside to get more food. of the work that I was intending to do was to induce that were there are now missing, the youngest brood Another big question mark is how stressful stress in a natural way, not through artificial diets, in your colony are now missing, so now you have management practices are for bees. Maybe not you not through incubating bees, or hand-rearing them a gap – there’s no but now there’s a gap guys, who are lovingly tending of the colonies in – having bees reared by bees, and then putting them in your brood rearing. There’s no young larvae and your back yard (and hoping for the best for them), into fully functional colonies, and then letting them maybe you have some older larvae, and some sealed but for a lot of commercial operators that don’t go out and live their lives (but watch them while brood is starting to be cannibalized. So the workers, have that luxury – who need to move their bees they’re living their lives), and watch for the effect that in an effort to try to save the larvae they’ve put the around a lot, from site to pollination site. stress had upon them. most energy into, will eat younger ones and recycle When they’re doing so, they’re moving them into So, often with bees, when they are stressed – when the nutrients off to the older ones – that’s their last high-density, and their bees are in competition for a a colony does not have enough food – the first thing ditch effort before they give up completely, before single pollen source (and I already talked about how they do is to run out of pollen. I don’t know how they totally stop brood. important a diversity of pollen sources are for bees). many of you have looked in on your colonies and said So there’s a progression in how bad it will get, Then there’s the question of how stressful just the “Whoa, there’s nothing stored in here” sometimes somethings you’ll see and some things you won’t transportation is on the whole system. Shutting bees it’s hard to see it, because it’s under sealed honey. But, notice (or be able to assess visually), but you can track up in for a number of days, and then when they come in an actively brood-rearing colony, the bees don’t and assess the state of your colony when it comes to

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 8 that kind of stress. So when they’re in this situation, colony where it needs to go. So I tried to hybridize tons of pollen around the brood. The third subunit especially the late stages of stress, for the bees that this study of nutritional stress, and then overlay on control as I mentioned had abundant pollen, but it are produced you tend to get these smaller weight top of that an idea of how can early life stress (how was not confined to the nuc for five days, they could workers that are undersized (and we presume don’t can being raised in a pollen-stressed environment free out of the nuc for five days to account for any live as long because that’s what we see in cages). I as a larvae) can impact your performance on down stress from confinement that we were forcing on the have to layer more bad news on top of this, there is the road. So you make it to the adult stage, but then first control. so much concurrent research coming out, showing what? If you had a bad upbringing (your sisters did So the three subunits were stressed (confined and us (even in colonies that are well fed), that if you give the best that they could), but now how can you low pollen), first control (confined and abundant them , it causes nutritional stress. You perform? Especially because foraging is the thing pollen), and finally the second control (unconfined find levels of Nosema in your colonies and it causes that brings pollen back into the colonies. So with and abundant pollen). nutritional stress. Nosema attacks the gut lining of the my work, we’re getting a snapshot of “Brief Stress So we broke the original seven colonies each into honeybee – so they can’t absorb nutrients like they followed by an ‘End Product’.” But now, we’re at the three subunits, and waited for the workers to rear should – so you could give them a lot of food but with stage where we looked at a brief stressor and saw up the brood (that we had given them) through the Nosema they can not absorb the nutrients – they just effects that I’m going to outline; now what happens larval stage. And then we placed the frames into poop it all out. That’s why you get this runny feces all when this is chronic and happening to colonies all of a warm incubator when it was approaching their over our comb. Things like Varroa mites that are plate the time? birthday (their adult birthday) and then we would sized parasites sucking the hemolymph out of your So how we did this: remember we want to have check them daily for who was coming out (when body – imagine you walking around with a backpack- bees stressed and then raised by bees, and live with they emerged from the sealed cell) as part of our sized parasite! This is a huge drain on the nutritional bees thereafter, what we did (with 23 colonies, but experiment. And then we would number them status of workers. So, there are some good studies that only 7 worked) is to ride the line between stressing with little numbers on their backs. Thousands of show if you layer just basic nutritional stress of lack of them out, but not so stressed that they wouldn’t bees, thousands of these tiny marked bees. We had a good food with other environmental stressors, then produce brood. We were pushing them, but trying very dedicated team of students, and every year we you get a cocktail for really bad stress. So, with all of to say “Not that Far” but some of them were like would do this they would come out over the July 4th the new evidence, and with the pesticides, the pests, “Sorry, but we’re over the edge, no brood for you.” weekend. We would spend the whole long-weekend and the pathogens, there’s this emergence of what just So out of the 23 colonies we tried to work with, it in an empty building for 12 hours a day. Weighing basic poor nutrition do? So that we can understand came down to only being able to use 7 colonies. So the bees on their adult birthday and tagging them what happens when these other bad stressors do when for each of those seven colonies, we would break it with a colored disc that would give them an unique they’re layered on top of that. into three subunits; one of the subunits would be identity to us. So then we knew what their adult So, in the best of situations, what do bees do when what we called “Pollen Stressed,” and they would birthday emergence weight was, what treatment they they’re pollen stressed? So what I wanted to do, and have very little pollen (it took us a while to find how came from, what colony they came from (basically I mentioned that when I worked with Tom [Seeley much that is) so they would go in with lots of bees, everything we needed to know). One of my students, – Honeybee Democracy, Wisdom of the Hive], I very little pollen, but lots of brood to rear, and then Haley, is now Tom Seeley’s last PhD student – he’s learned in his lab to do really detailed observational we confined them to the nuc so that they could not retiring soon, but I called him one day and said you hive work , looking at waggle dances, looking at the fly for five days so that meant they had to deal with really need to take her as your PhD student. He told genetics of the colony (which was not part of this what was inside. So the other two subunits (from me he’s retiring soon, but that he would take her as study), but trying to get a sense of who is giving out the original seven colonies) were our controls. The the last student to be trained in his lab. So we would signals, how do those signals get exchanged on the controls had abundant sources of pollen (way more load the bees into an observation hive by spraying dance floor of honeybee colonies, and then how does than they needed), and when the second came out them with sugar syrup, and even though they were that effort build up over time to efficiently tell the of the 5-day confinement to the nuc, they still had not from the host colony they were covered with

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 9 this dilute sugar syrup – by the time they get inside, So when we started monitoring this experiment, Most of the time they did not look different, stressed everyone has spent so much time licking them off we kept track of how long they foraged for. We’ve and unstressed, and we wouldn’t know until we put that they smell like everyone else and there is a pretty also trained bees to find an artificial feeder – we did it onto a scale that measured down to the milligram. high acceptance rate. A member asked if there was this by placing a feeder with sugar water close to the Most of the time, the lighter bees looked totally anything in the sugar syrup to help with acceptance entrance, getting some workers to come out, and then normal to us – so it was unnerving that you couldn’t (vanilla, or anything else)? Nope. I tell my students to slowly moving it farther and farther away. Part of tell just by looking at the bees, and we looked at put in some sugar and add some hot water, and add what we were interested in, was dancing and foraging thousands of them. it to a spray bottle; if, when you spray your hand, you for bees that were allowed to forage naturally, but we Did you anesthetize the bees? Did you chill them? can taste a little bit of sugar, then you are done! You also wanted to say “We know you went to our feeder, No, (I don’t know if you’ve ever handled baby bees) just need a little bit of sugar. we know that you had a standardized experience but on the first day of life, baby bees move very You can open up an observation hive, and if you compared to all of your sisters when it comes to this slowly, and we would always work in lab room that give them a quick spritz (of sugar water) then that feeder, how do you dance compared to her?” So we was always cool. We would put the baby bees into keeps them from flying! They are instantly like “Hey did natural forage assessment, and we also did some a bowl with vaseline along the rim, and they would Sugar!” and they have this reflexive response to start feeder assessment as part of this experiment. walk around the bowl over each other and feed each licking it up from all over the place. It’s a nice way to We would also videotape the dance floor, which other. You could just pick them up and put them on a keep them calm when you’re trying to manipulate was adjacent to the entrance tube inlet. The foragers scale, pick them up and tag them and then put them them in this observation hive. Our observation have a very important job and they have no time into another cage. They were very easy to work with. hives have 2 frames, and a hole to the outside from waste. They don’t live that long and their knowledge Bernie M. asked: When you said that you were which they can fly out to forage (even though the is very specialized, so they need to be able to be out feeding them pollen, you were feeding them pollen colony is inside, they have total access to the outside in the field as much as possible. They come home, from the hive? Yes, the pollen that they have stored environment). With our observation hives, we can dump their food off to younger food handling bees, in their own comb. We gave it back to them. I had see (at any time) what any of these bees are doing at and if they are going to dance then they will do so thought this to be true, and I had no way of knowing any moment of time, unless they’re hiding in one of near the entrance, then they will go back outside and to be true, that a lot of pollen that the bees are the corners. keep foraging. So, by videotaping the dance floor, we bringing in has pesticides and is therefore kind of We attach what we call a ‘Runway Hive Entrance’ can capture all of the signals that they exchange with killing them. Therefore in the spring pollen patty, which has a piece of plexiglass on top and all of each other. We’ll go through these tapes, second-by- I’ve found that when I use a pollen patty (a pollen these baffles, so it takes them a while to wind their second to determine how far away they are going, substitute), that they actually seem to do far better way through the baffles, so have students that and how excited they are about the resource. How than just taking the pollen that’s in there. Have you stand outside and record the comings and goings long they dance tells us how excited they are, how done anything to tell how much is in the during the day, from the day they start foraging far they go is encoded in the waggle run, and we can pollen? Not me, I haven’t done it – but there is work until thereafter. Some people are using the radio tag assess the angle of the waggle run which gives us a that shows that the majority of bee colonies have scanners, or bar code scanners (and I’d love to have sense of the compass direction when they are exiting residues in them. The way you minimize this one of those), but they wouldn’t work for this type of the hive. So we record this recruitment activity and is by turning your comb over a lot, trying to control experiment because at any time you need to look at a decode it later on. a little bit about where your bees are [located], but bee and know here identification number and code, So overall, we know the way that we stressed the you can’t control it [flora] in every direction, so that’s and you can’t visually read those tags as a human. bees were working in a way that was similar to the the most that people can do. Most people would say They work for swiping when people go in and out, way that other, more artificial methods were trying that the substitutes are not as nutritionally complete but we’ve done more detailed work than that – so we to induce experimentally. On average, stressed bees as real pollen. Bernie M. asked whether the pesticides stick with the old colored number tags. were 8-37% lighter [in mass] on their adult birthday. [in the pollen] could be one of the things stressing

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 10 the bees? In this experiment? It’s possible, but in in between) is that nursing and foraging are two of to dedicate energy towards these glands, so it goes to this experiment it would be a routine stress across the most physiological demanding tasks that the other things like flight muscles) but we were seeing all treatments. We try to avoid it, we have bees on bees need to do, and nursing comes first. The length stressed nurse-aged bees whose hypopharyngeal campus, and there’s minimal spraying on campus of time that they can nurse tends to control their glands looked like that as well. – there’s a sustainability initiative that does not longevity, and if they can nurse for longer, then they We don’t have the behavioral data yet, but we have advocate that, so they have very low rates of spraying can live for longer (and if they can’t nurse for as long the physiological data that confirms the thought – but other than that we’re still in a suburban area then their life span is compressed). Kind of like an that this nursing period is becoming constricted (people like their green lawns), so we don’t know. accordion, and nursing determines how wide you in stressed bees. Let’s go back to the foraging, and So we did this over two years with three separate can put your hands. My thought is that likely there is think a little more in depth about the foraging effort. trials, so we repeated the experiment several times. some reduction of nursing ability probably as some As a recap, stressed bees are less likely to be seen The first year we only included two groups: stressed residual result of the original stress. Because even as foraging, they are foraging earlier, and we also see and confined, and free flying – but the results were adults they were in colonies with abundant pollen that the mean number of days that they are observed consistent with our second year so we included those stores, and I hypothesize at this point that there are foraging (so once they begin foraging, how many data as well. On average across our three trials we still some residual effects (of having been reared in a days do we see them at the entrance) are across board found that there was a big decrease in longevity (like pollen-poor environment) which linger into nursing dramatically lowered when the bees are stressed, we would expect from the caged trials) if the bees stage in adulthood. compared to the number of days that the bees are were stressed, so this data shows that our methods That is something we looked into this summer, seen foraging when they are in the control groups. It work, and they are analogous with what we are this compression of the nursing period may explain was really striking to me, that when I was looking at seeing in field trials – so we felt pretty comfortable what we call “Precocious Foraging” – that’s what you this data the thought occurred to me that the average moving forward with the behavioral data. What call bees beginning to forage before the point that for the stressed bees wouldn’t be so low if they didn’t we found through monitoring, in all three trials is they should. The problem with precocious foraging keep disappearing after one day, and then I realized that the stressed bees were far less likely to be seen is that the period of foraging is not that flexible, so that there are a whole bunch of bees in the stressed foraging, 62% versus 80-81% of the two control once you start foraging then it’s all downhill from group that are disappearing. They are foraging for one groups. So to recap they are shorter lived (5-18 days there (you’re basically headed towards the end of day only and then we’re never seeing them again at shorter), they weigh less, and they are less likely to your life). So we still have a whole year’s worth of data the entrance. been seen foraging. transcription to look at, but we do have some section So stressed bees are two-times more likely to When they [workers] were seen foraging, the day data to share with you. If you look at a bee head (this disappear after only one day of foraging – they are that they started foraging (the age of what we call is kind of gruesome, I love bees and we try to reduce twice more likely to disappear from the colony and the onset of foraging, when they started foraging the collateral damage in our lab to deaths that we not reappear after exiting the colony. We did the for the first time), was much lower in two out of the absolutely have to) but in order to assess nursing, nursing work last summer, and next year our focus three trials for the stressed bees. During the middle then you have to examine the brood food glands in will be on homing orientation, and learning ability. trial, all bees started foraging about the same time their head. I haven’t done this before, so this was a What are they doing when they leave the colony (stressed and controls) – but for the other two first for our lab, it’s kind of remarkable to look inside that is not allowing them to come back. Haley has trials the onset of foraging was accelerated if they a bees head, and I had never done this before. We done some preliminary work at Cornell that shows were stressed. One thing I get asked a lot is that the would take a nursing bee, who is younger and actively that basic reflexes is really dull in these bees that are stressed bees are hungry, and maybe they just want in the nursing stage and look at the hypopharyngeal stressed compared to the ones that are not stressed. to go out and get some more food. One thing to glands. In a good nurse, the hypopharyngeal glands Bernie M. asked the normal foraging lifespan of bees think about is that this transition from nursing to are huge – they just fill their head, and they atrophy – isn’t it normally 4-10 days? Yes! That is why their foraging (and all of those little sub-tasks that are when the workers become foragers (they don’t need time is so precious, they have to come in get rid of

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 11 the food and then get back out there. Their brains dancing, they seemed to dance equivalently (just as You probably didn’t know that bees sleep increase when they forage, they have extraordinarily long, seemed to dance for sources that were just as far (probably because they don’t have eyelids), but bees specialized knowledge – they have learn to go away) so they seemed to do a pretty good job if they that do sleep are sleeping on the periphery of the outside, they learn where they live, they learn how to were up for the task. colony, and foragers sleep at night so that they can handle flowers (all flowers are different on how they We videotaped the dances with a camera that forage during the day. The experiment that showed have to be handled) – to they have extraordinarily recorded at 30 frames/second, and upon review we the sleep disruption was very clever, and it was done specialized knowledge that is extinguished like that could advance the recording frame by frame (1/30th, by a friend of mine in Tom’s lab. He put tags on {snapping fingers} because they are hardly doing it 1/30th,etc.) to assess when they start dancing and worker’s backs, and some of these tags were made for any time at all. I mean it’s remarkable that they when they stop dancing – we can also assess the of metal (iron) and some were not. Then he set up are getting anything done, but what they are able to angle that they are dancing while they are executing his observation hive with a rig that has a metal bar accomplish in such a short period of time when it this run. You can look at the precision of a workers with a magnet on it and it would go up and down comes to navigating their environment. waggle run, because she gives the same dances over the observation hive so the bees with the iron were So the other side of this coin (we have covered and over again, and you can see if she is getting constantly being shoved around and the non- getting food) is the part about the whole recruitment sloppy in her message (you can see if she’s not giving metallic tags got to sleep. The bees that were woken effort: telling everyone else where you found that an equivalent waggle run as she dances over and over up constantly performed very badly as foragers and food (how well you tell them, and how much you tell again). So the waggle runs could be fairly precise dancers the next day. So these kinds of stresses that them) – so we also looked at this when we looked at relaying the same information as they are performed you can relate to (nutritional, temperature, sleep) our video tapes. Now we only did this in trial 3 (it run to run to run or they could be far more are impacting bees and the precision of their dances. is very, very labor intensive work) after we were sure imprecise as they are jostled or angled this way or How this translates to problems with actual foraging some stuff was happening, and we filmed over a 32- that, having a high rate of variability, or being much and recruitment we still don’t know. day period when the workers were between 12-45 days longer or shorter because they are just not matching We learned a lot from this experiment, and I just of age (because they don’t come out on the same day their own message from run to run. When we did want to emphasize the fact that I’m pleased that we and there is a span of time and age over this 32-day this, we did find that stressed bees produce more were able to do this with naturally reared bees in real period, and we generated 41-hours of tape. Here’s the imprecise dances (and it was mostly through the colonies which was a big plus for our ability to make thing, everyone can dance, but not every bee opts angle part of the dance) the dancer is going this way, assessments of the active stress on these bees, but we to dance, and we wanted the bees with tags on their and back that way, and the bees that are following saw the typical lower weight and lifespan and we were bag so it was hoping for the best, and that’s why we along are not getting clear signal about what is able to assess all of the problems that come along with marked so many bees (hoping for a good sample size happening out there. The reason we thought this foraging and recruitment for these bees later on in of dancers down the line). Some bees don’t have an was really cool (and was the title of the New York their life. This is bees for, like I said, were stressed for experience that they interpret to be important, and Times article covering this research about honeybees a brief period of time in their development but lived some bees visit a very lucrative source and they still not being good dancers because they’re losing a step. in an apparently healthy colony later on (the colonies will not dance (during their whole career, they’re What’s interesting to us is that you don’t see these were bringing in pollen the entire time), but there just not dancers and there is a genetic component effects in the dances very often: we know it from was a long legacy for them on this early stress, on how to this and that’s what I was doing at Cornell). So of temperature stress during development (if you rear they could perform over the rest of their lives. those 41-recorded hours, we saw 397 dances by 116 bees at temperatures that are not optimal) when We’re really concerned about this, because we put workers. Again like foraging, our stressed bees were they are larvae and pupae then their brains as adults stress on them for 5-days. We don’t know what is far less likely to be seen dancing, only 9% of stressed brains don’t develop as well and they don’t dance happening if this stress is constant – does it persist bees would dance versus 21-24% of the controls. The precisely; we know it that if bees are sleep deprived through adulthood, and how do those foragers (that good news here, is that if the stressed bees did start (sleep deprived bees do very imprecise dances). are supposed to be getting this pollen to feed to

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 12 future workers) are able to deal with this cycle, that is Q&A anybody. Unfortunately the cost of production just a vicious cycle and has the potential to get worse. We What should I do with my bees, regarding feeding didn’t make it feasible. Other than that, I have tested don’t know, and we don’t know how bad it can be. Of them? I’ve been giving them food when I introduce supplements (like BeePro) and when I was doing this course, all of this is critical, for not only fueling the packages (I’ve given them syrup and pollen substitute work a lot of the stuff that people are selling now product of our colonies, but if we are thinking about patties) and in the fall you’re trying to get them ready wasn’t available, but the big one was BeePro – and bees as effective pollinators, what does this mean for for winter and stuff, so I have questions about how we would test BeePro versus colony collected pollen their ability to go out and pollinate our crops(which do I go about improving the nutrition for my couple that was fed back to them (after irradiation so there is a very practical concern for people that are not of hives of bees. What would you recommend that was no pathogen concern even though we were going beekeepers, who like food and/or are growing crops we actually do? I think the #1 thing that you can do back to the same colony), and BeePro did a pretty and trying to make a living at that as well). is to try to place your colonies well. You live where comparable job, but the thing we saw was that if fed We are also doing follow-up studies with nursing, you live, and your your neighbors are your neighbors, them in the spring or in the fall, it all came out the and homing/orientation, more work on these fronts and that’s out of your control. So, I always hope same in the end. That whatever you were doing as a trying to get a better understanding of the impact that people can put their colonies in a place that is little bit of a bandaid in the spring or the fall, four on this work on the bees. I would like to end there, naturally good for the bees. I think it would be great months down the road they were on the same track and thank our sponsors – our funding came from if everyone started growing bee friendly crops and that they were in the first place. This was done in a the North America Pollinator Protection Campaign plants in their yards, but honestly you doing that good environment, a campus arboretum with really (they are very interested in this kind of stress and would only be a drop in the bucket of what a colony good forage around and those colonies were making what it means to be an effective pollinator), we had needs over the course of a year.So you are left with a 200 lbs. of honey a year. In that good environment a local beekeeping group that gave us some funding lot of sub-ideal options: you could harvest pollen and (Ontario, Canada) the poor colonies, if they had a that helped to keep Hailey paid and in a house, with feed it back (but that has its own problems: it loses queen could get over that stress by the end of the food (for a couple of months after she graduated, she nutrient value over time, and there’s the possibility summer. So the question then becomes “How good was able to continue this work before she went off to of moving disease(s) around) – but as a hobbyist it’s are your queens and how good is your forage area?” Cornell). The Wellesley College Summer Research something you can consider because with 1-2 colonies How are you overwintering your hives? Are you Program is really great, and there’s a huge list of it’s something that you can track more closely. People feeding them sugar blocks? We feed sugar in fall, but students that helped (and got a summer stipend on a larger scale have to resort to the easiest/cheapest I don’t keep bees for honey or anything like that, I to work full-time in my lab) that’s supported by option which is using pollen supplements – which keep them for the data. So a lot of the stuff we do scholarships that have been endowed to the college have been notoriously difficult to develop. My to them is very stressful. Splitting a colony up into – and that’s one of the things that makes it so great PhD research looked at the effect of spring and fall subunits and using queen lures in some, and moving to work at Wellesley, my work is summer work and colony buildup so outside of this work I have a lot of them around, and confining them, and then taking they have a strong summer program that gives these familiarity with it. It’s a cheap and easy solution that brood frames out and then putting them back in after students great research experience). We also have a is hard time developing because what you need to put they have cannibalized almost everything, I mean beekeeper that we call an honorary Wellesley student in and what the bees need is what they make under that’s nothing that you would do all summer long and who has been volunteering in the lab basically since ideal circumstances. So my advice is to keep feeding, think that you’ll come out with normal colonies in the week that I’ve got there, and he’s on the list too. but know that it’s not the best solution, but maybe the end. So we often are doing triage in the fall. So I the best thing that you can do. plan, usually, to buy nucs because I know that I am Are there certain kinds of pollen substitutes that you going to have a lot of week colonies that I know will recommend more than others? Well, the best one is have a hard time getting going in the summer. So I’m the Beltsville Bee Diet (that was developed by the not really the person to ask, but we do try to feed in USDA) but it’s so expensive that it was never sold by the fall and do our best, but we still get a lot of losses

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 13 because they’re not always in a great shape. or to bee-poor crops. Yes, but we all know about There is a lot of evidence that shows things like the Is it the case that this selective pollen deficiency the almonds in California, there’s tons and tons of Cucurbits (melons, pumpkin-y things) which people might exist in nature? Are you suggesting that it pollen out there, but it’s all the same type of pollen. in the past have really liked honey bees to pollinate, could explain some otherwise economy of losses? According to your analysis, isn’t an almond grove a there’s a lot of research coming out that honeybees Obviously if the bees were going to die in a place, stressful situation because it’s a monoculture and it are not the best pollinators of these crops, and that they just don’t produce, and you have to give up. If doesn’t provide the range of pollen that the bees need the best pollinators are the wild bees. But, the thing colonies find themselves in a bad place, then to develop adequately? I think it’s possible, but it’s that you can layer upon that is that pretty much they die out. Is there something {garbled: that makes not really what we tested. What we tested was a lack everything we learn about honeybees it’s not too this} a secret explanation for failures? It’s not secret, of actual pollen, and not manipulating the pollen hard to transfer those stresses over to the wild bees. most bee researchers think it’s a big element of the profile. So I think you would have to do this test They’re still bees, they’re not operating in the same problem. This has to do with the balance of floor in again, and say okay, you’ll have abundant pollen, but way, but many of them have very close nutritional the environment? Yes, and access to good resources it’s not going to be the best pollen for you, or it won’t requirements. What kind of pollinators you have, and throughout most of the year. Would this occur if be a poly-floral mix. I think you’re taking this data, what type of crop you want pollinated, has the same bees were taken to areas of pollinators, and there and asking next question – but I can’t answer that issues of habitat loss. The thing about bees is that they isn’t enough pollen? Almost by definition, without question now. have far more individuals and their foraging range is enough pollen the bees would die off, period? Bees There was a study that I read, about the number of larger. Sometimes with wild bees you can make better can withstand a lot, they have a lot of flexibility to try visits commercial hives were making to commercial assessments of local conditions, and be right about to make it through times of dearth. Even in tropical crops (watermelons, apples, etc. etc.), and they were what is happening locally. It’s harder with [honey] environments, there are periods of time when the counting the amount of pollen coming in, and they bees because they have such a large foraging reach. bees shut down brood rearing and it’s a ‘Quiet Phase.’ found the bees were doing a very good job on the Is there anybody looking at nutritional quality [of That’s really what overwintering is, an extension of apples and a few other crops, but not the watermelons pollen]? A lot of work was done at Arizona State, the normal quiet phase that we see in tropical bees. and tomatoes (The Cucurbits), and that’s something I and at the USDA Arizona lab in the ‘90’s by Justin They’ve just been selected through harsh winters – find interesting, because if you take leaf off the plant, Schmidt, who did a ton of work looking at the the ones that survive are the ones that got the most and you crush it you get the sap and if you put that nutritional value of pollen, and comparing it across food. It really comes down to the fact that bees have into a refractometer you get a brix reading, and what crops and looking at how well it supported colony a select protein, a pollen deficiency just in the wrong we find that there’s a cutoff of 7, where the bee will growth. place? It’s one of suite of problems that we think actively go to it if it is above 7, and if it is below 7 they I had questioned Dr. Norman Kerrick about Horse with bees struggling and not thriving essentially. would prefer something else. One wonders whether Chestnut Nectar – I thought it was poisonous to There’s a really interesting study by Dhruba Naug the plants are producing nectar or pollen at level of the bees. I had seen some bees take it in and they out of Colorado State that can make a pretty good value [for the bees]. The question is about a couple fell to the ground! He said no, the alcohol content correlation between colony losses and loss of good of things: first of all it is certainly possible to have is so high that they fall to ground and get drunk. foraging habitat across the U.S. certain crops that are not good for bees, in terms of Well, I can’t comment on that, but I have been in a When you speak of lost foraging habitat, you the quality of pollen they produce? Whether or not neuroscience lab and they were looking at the effect don’t just mean shopping centers, you also mean within a single crop there can be great variability? of alcohol on bee brains and they did show that they monocultures too, don’t you? That is to say large areas Whether they are producing pollen that is as good in react pretty much the same way that vertebrates do. of single type of pollen, that have a lack of diverse this plant as it is in that plant? That has not been the Not so happy when you can’t get up, even though you sources? If I remember the study correctly, he focus of bee research, at least so far. It’s mostly been have six legs! They didn’t look happy to me. included bee-friendly agricultural crops, as a check focused so far on whether this type of pollen from Thank you very much! for good. Assessing loss of habitat to urbanization this type of plant is better than this crop over here?

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 14 Honeybees sweetened life for Stone Age humans

Humans have been using the products of bees for In between, residues were found on Salque said. Humans may also have been using honey nearly 9,000 years, according to the study, published pottery shards in northwest Anatolia dating back and beeswax even before these pots reveal, she said; Nov. 11 in the journal Nature. The chemical to 5500 B.C., and in the Balkan Peninsula between it’s just that earlier people left no record behind. residues on pots that prove this are from beeswax, 5500 B.C. and 4500 B.C. Sites in dating from “We don’t have the pots, so we can’t tell,” Roffet- so researchers can’t say for sure whether Neolithic between 5800 B.C. and 3000 B.C. yielded pots that Salque said. “But we can say that early farmers were people used beeswax alone or both beeswax and once held beeswax. In fact, the Balkan Peninsula was using hive products.” honey. But, it does appear that honeybees and the richest in beeswax, with 5.5 percent of 1,915 Stone humans go way back. Age pot pieces from the region showing beeswax © 2015 LiveScience “It seems that the first farmers in every single biomarkers, the researchers reported. area of were exploiting beeswax from the Stone Age people in today’s Austria and beginning of farming,” said study researcher Mélanie were using bee products by 5500 B.C., the researchers Roffet-Salque, a postdoctoral researcher in chemistry found, and bee products were being used in at the University of Bristol, in the . by the second half of the fifth millennium. Seven The new history of honeybees was a sweet side fragments with beeswax on them were found in REMINDERS project for Roffet-Salque, who has been working southern Britain; the most northerly bee products with University of Bristol biogeochemist Richard were in , about 5 degrees latitude north of 11/27 Auction Evershed on a long-term project analyzing shards of those sites. Have some unused equipment taking up pottery for chemical traces of food, cosmetics and “Above 57 degrees latitude we’ve not found any space in the garage, basement, or shed? other substances. Over two decades of research on beeswax in pots at all, and we’ve tried hard,” Consider donating it to the auction we’re more than 6,400 pottery fragments, Evershed and Roffet-Salque said. “We’ve analyzed something like having at the FAT MCBA meeting. his team have come across a few dozen marked with 1,000 sherds from Scandinavia and Scotland and we the signature chemistry of beeswax. (Honey, a sugar, found lots of lipids and animal fats, but no evidence degrades much faster than oily beeswax and isn’t for beeswax.” Membership detectable.) Most likely, it was simply too cold for bees to thrive It’s never too early to renew! Stone Age people may have eaten honey and above 57 degrees latitude, Roffet-Salque said. used beeswax for cooking, as well as for making “We think it’s the ecological limit of honeybees in cosmetics and fuel, the researchers wrote. The oldest prehistory,” she said. Material Needed! discovery of beeswax-lined pottery dated back to The researchers can’t say whether people were Email pictures, quotes, facts, poems, news the 7th millennium B.C. in Anatolia, or modern- beekeeping or simply hunting honey and collecting articles, notes from seminars, recipes, etc, day Turkey. The sites where this beeswax was found beeswax from wild hives. It’s not very difficult to to: [email protected] are also the homes of the oldest-known pottery keep a , Roffet-Salque said, but there’s no in Europe or Eurasia. Thus, the presence of honey way to prove that Neolithic farmers did so. However, seemed to spread along with the presence of farming, in 2010, archaeologists announced that they’d Roffet-Salque said — from the Near East north and discovered clay at a site in dating back west, reaching the modern-day United Kingdom in 3,000 years. A mural on a tomb in dating to roughly 3500 B.C. 2400 B.C. also depicts hives and beekeepers, Roffet-

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 15 Club Officers Volunteers

President Extractor Tom Fiore Javier Eschavarri 781.863.1788 978.392.9631 MC A [email protected] $15 for 24-hour rental Middlesex County Beekeeper’s Association Vice-President Librarian Rick Reault Allen Bondeson 978.512.9222 [email protected] [email protected] Swarm Coordinator Treasurer Alexandra Bartsch Lisa Blough 781.862.2716 Membership Form 617.678.4318 [email protected] [email protected] $15 Annual dues per individual (or family), payable to MCBA. Please print Website answers below. Clerk John Cheetham Membership Coordinator 781.899.8033 Name (& Spouse / Family Member(s)) Rick Ressijac [email protected] ______978.772.6757 [email protected] Address ______Director Recording Secretary & Editor Telephone Tony Pulsone ______617.930.1019 [email protected] Email ______Director Jen Reed How did you hear about us? [email protected] ______

Mail this form and payment to Rick Ressijac, 7 Coolidge Road, Ayer, MA 01432, or bring it with you to a meeting.

November 2015 • The Middlesex ee • 16