Catch The Buzz™ ® www.BeeCulture.com BiosecurityBiosecurity For BeekeepersBeekeepers AppreciationAppreciation ForFor PollenPollen $4.99 BC_October_2020.indd 1 9/17/2020 6:31:04 PM BC_October_2020.indd 2 9/17/2020 6:31:04 PM Healthy Bees. Healthy Planet. Available through beekeeping supply stores. 866-483-2929 | nodglobal.com | [email protected] @NODAPIARY BC_October_2020.indd 3 9/17/2020 6:31:07 PM BC_October_2020.indd 4 9/17/2020 6:31:09 PM Bee Culture October Features . HIVE MONITORING CONFERENCE 25 Fourth International Conference Goes Virtual. DO BEEKEEPERS LIKE Jerry Bromenshenk SAVING MONEY? 67 Wintering indoors. WHAT MAKES ME HAPPIEST 30 John Miller Besides my husband, dog and bees. Jennifer Berry A CASE FOR PERMANENT INSULATION 68 AMERICAN HONEY PRODUCERS 35 Warmer in Winter, cooler in Summer. Legislative report Bruce Moechnig Eric Silva FLOWERING STRIPS = REGENERON SCIENCE TALENT 38 Meet Raina Jain. INFECTION 71 Raina Jain Mick Kuikowski TELLING THE BEES 46 Keeping them informed of changes. SWARM TEAM CAPTAIN 72 Elsie Czyzowska Stephen Bishop VARROA RESISTANCE 76 BEE VET 50 Is it really possible? Biosecurity for beekeepers. Dr. Tracy Farone Terry Combs OVERWINTERING NUCS 80 PRESCRIBED FIRE 53 David MacFawn It might be just what the bees need. Richard Hines AGAINST THE GRAIN 83 Appreciation for pollen. ZOOMING 56 Dr. Christine Bertz To a bee meeting. Tina Sebestyen WE’LL MEET AGAIN - ONLINE! 84 Charlotte Ekker Wiggins MINDING YOUR BEES AND CUES 58 Part 1: Interpreting fruit scents. EBOLA, COVID-19 & BEEKEEPERS 86 Becky Masterman & Bridget Mendel Richard Godfrey HAVE A BUZZ 61 UP CLOSE WITH A NORTHERN Leah Smith CALIFORNIA BEEKEEPER 89 Ettamarie Peterson 800.289.7668 Executive Publisher – Brad Root Associate Publisher, Senior Editor – Jerry Hayes, [email protected], Ext. 3214 Assistant Editor, Design – Kathy Summers, [email protected], Ext. 3215 Social Media, Event Specialist & Subscription Coordinator – Amanda DeSimone, [email protected], Ext. 3255 Advertising – Jean Newcombe, [email protected], Ext. 3216 Contributors Clarence Collison • James E. Tew • Kim Lehman • Jay Evans Connie Krochmal • Jessica Louque • Toni Burnham • Ross Conrad • Jennifer Berry • Ed Colby POSTMASTER: Send address changes to BEE CULTURE, The A.I. Root Co., 623 W. Liberty St., Medina, OH 44256 Subscription Information U.S., one year, $25; two years, $48. Newsstand price: $4.99. All other countries, (U.S. Currency only), $20.00 per year additional for postage. Digital Edition $15. Send remittance by money order, bank draft, express money order, or check or credit card. Bee Culture (ISSN 1071-3190), October 2020, Volume 148, Issue 10, is published monthly by The A.I. Root Co., 623 W. Liberty Street, Medina, OH 44256. Periodicals Postage Paid at Medina, OH and additional mailing offices. Subscriptions, Book Orders – www.BeeCulture.com • [email protected] Advertising – 800.289.7668, Ext. 3216; [email protected] Published by The A.I. Root Co. Copyright© 2020. All rights reserved. Photo by Dennis vanEngelsdorp October 2020 BEE CULTURE 5 BC_October_2020.indd 5 9/17/2020 6:31:11 PM 6 BEE CULTURE October 2020 BC_October_2020.indd 6 9/17/2020 6:31:13 PM October 2020 BEE CULTURE 7 BC_October_2020.indd 7 9/17/2020 6:31:15 PM BC_October_2020.indd 8 9/17/2020 6:31:15 PM Bee Culture’s Best . FOUND IN TRANSLATION 27 IIn Every Month – Well groomed bees that defeat mites. Jay Evans Honeycomb Hannah 9 Gear up! BOOK REVIEWS 29 Mailbox 10 Swarm Control; Show Me The Honey From The Editor – 14 A CLOSER LOOK – Honey Market Report 20 GREATER WAX MOTH 42 Honey Sales Clarence Collison Next Month 21 What should you be doing? HOME SECURITY 64 Being prepared. BEETALK 24 Jessica Louque Your questions answered by our writers. All Around The Beeyard 36 KID’S CORNER 48 Good ideas from beekeepers. Kim Lehman Calendar 94 LARGE COLONIES CAN CAUSE LARGE PROBLEMS 92 Can you believe I’m complaining? James E. Tew BOTTOM BOARD 96 Long lost friend. Ed Colby 1 7 5 4 2 6 3 October Honey Report. Page 20 Large colonies can cause large problems. Page 92 October 2020 BEE CULTURE 9 BC_October_2020.indd 9 9/17/2020 6:31:17 PM Bee Culture 623 West Liberty St. Thank You Bee Culture they reach foraging age (though wax glands can return to functionality if Medina, OH 44256 Your Customer Service has been there is a need). So there is only a [email protected] so great, I am writing to say Thank brief period during a honey bee’s life You! where they are actually producing From when I sent for a sample wax. Xenobiotic detoxification in copy to now (last month), when I honey bees occurs primarily through needed a replacement copy. I really the conversion of waste and foreign appreciate your service. substances to excretable metabolites I enjoy Bee Culture. I can tell via cytochrome P450 monooxygenases everyone works real hard to get it out and other enzymes and then through each month. transport out of cells in the mid- and I’ve really enjoyed the past few hindgut for excretion. month’s letters to the editor, very I have never used synthetic interesting. wax and have no stake in its use. Neal Cunningham However, I believe it could have a Beek Terminator 2.0 Hillsboro, VA Beek Terminator 2.0? Are you place, including faster package and nuts? The last thing I need is some nuc build up (potential uses which expensive, high-maintenance, new- were noted by Mr. Conrad) as well fangled robot beekeeper contraption Is Ross Conrad as potentially facilitating more rapid that probably can’t kill bees any honey production. faster than I do already, and takes up Misleading?? Although I believe Mr. Conrad’s more room in the basement than my concern about the potential for boomerang let’s-move-back-in-with- Ross Conrad makes some thought unwanted mixing of synthetic and mom-and-dad-after-college offspring. provoking points in his September natural wax is valid, some of his If God had intended us to 2020 article entitled Synthetic Wax – other arguments against the use have robot beekeepers, would she BetterComb and the Demise of 100% of synthetic wax are not consistent have made beekeeping so darn Beeswax, including the potential with what we know about honey bee difficult? Think of what I’d miss if I for its use resulting in undetectable biology and ecology. were replaced by your robot: a chance mixing of synthetic and natural wax. to work outdoors in 60 mph winds However, some of his arguments Greg Shelley and occasional (frequent, actually) against the use of synthetic wax Stroudsburg, PA downpours, a chance to breathe could be potentially misleading to healthy air only lightly tinged with the reader. For example, it is not Ross’s Response oxalic acid fumes and smoker smoke, an established “fact that honey bees and how about the chance to apply have a physiological need to produce Hi Greg, bee venom apitherapy to some really beeswax.” Wax production is up and Thank you for your response to interesting parts of my body? No more down regulated naturally based on the synthetic wax article. I appreciate bench-pressing hive boxes in a cloud need and resource availability. Wax it when someone makes me stop and of irritated bees? No more discovering production is resource intensive. reassess my positions and beliefs. that my hives are a veritable insect Given the choice, I believe honey bees I think you are correct when you zoo of moths, beetles, ants, mites would rather not make wax. say that it is not an established fact and sundry other visitors that I In addition, the notion that bees that honey bees have a physiological never started with? Savoring the need to produce wax in order to need to produce beeswax, if your musky (nasty, actually) odors of detoxify, just like we produce sweat talking about a single bee. We must AFB and EFB? Scratching my head in order to remove toxins is simply remember however that the honey over deadouts that were full of bees untrue. Although there can be toxins bee is a super organism and is not only a week or two earlier? You want released in human sweat, sweat’s capable of surviving long without me to turn over my beekeeping to a primary purpose is to cool the body. the rest of the hive. I believe that the machine? Sweating accounts for less than need for the honey bee as part of the No, no thank you very much! 1% of toxin release in humans – we super organism to produce beeswax If you are so keen to replace some have a liver, kidney, and gut for the is unquestionable. The colony needs occupation with robots, may I suggest rest. Similarly, although honey bees to build comb to raise young, store politicians? do release toxins in wax, it is not a food and communicate, as well as David W. Lewis significant mode of detoxification. cap honey cells when full and ripe, Cheyenne, WY Wax glands develop in the honey and more. I should have been more bee at around 2 weeks of age. About specific to avoid possible confusion. a week later, honey bees begin to Regarding the question of lose the ability to produce wax as detoxification, you are also correct 10 BEE CULTURE October 2020 BC_October_2020.indd 10 9/17/2020 6:31:17 PM that neither the human skin nor the production of or otherwise objectively documented. Science is also beeswax are primary methods of human nor honey bee painstakingly slow. It takes a lot of time, and often money, detoxification. However, this does not mean they may to run experiments and get the results published.