meck bees · 2019-11-23 · on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the...

Meck Bees Mecklenburg Beekeepers Association

Meets the 3rd Thursday of each month at 7 pm at

3100 Selwyn Avenue

(corner of Selwyn and Woodlawn)

Mailing address: 121 Hermitage Rd Charlotte NC 28207

704-358-8075

President -George McAllister

Vice President -Richard Flanagan

Treasurer -Libby Mack

Chaplain -Jimmy Odom

This Month’s Meeting/Program

Tyler Stout a UNCC honor student will be discussing the latest work done on

identifying the behavior between workers and drones. Come and learn the research being done at UNCC that

will benefit all beekeepers.

Remember we meet on

APRIL 28th

The fourth Thursday this month

This months refreshments are provided by

Randall York

April 2011

Bee Manure

The digested pollen needs to be excreted. Bee excretion means releasing a few drops of pale yellow colored fluid resembling a water drop. It is referred to as bee dung.

“The bees normally use an area within a radius of 10-30 meters of the beehive as a toilet zone. It is estimated that an average beehive produces as much as 45-50 kg of bee dung a year, neatly deposited around the beehive as high nitrogenous manure.

“When it rains, this pollen dung gets washed into the soil, breaks down and provides an excellent natural fertilizer.

Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association

This new Bee film was released yesterday in 5 cities in the US and has won many film awards internationally. Queen of The Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us? - Official Trailer [HD] QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us? is a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis from Taggart Siegel, director of THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN. Taking us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, this engaging and ultimately uplifting film weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva. Together they reveal both the problems and the solu-tions in renewing a culture in balance with nature. Official Film Website: http://www.queenofthesun.com

© 2011 YouTube, LLC New Idea for Mars Exploration:

Roaming Robot Swarms With Honeybee Instincts

Forget sending huge, expensive remote-controlled robot probes to Mars--could a swarm of smaller, cheaper units that roam the sur-face using honeybee-like thinking actually do the job better? Just last week, NASA's next Martian Rover. Curiosity got its first taste of Mars-like conditions inside a pressure and atmospheric chamber designed to simulate the kind of environment it'll encounter when it actually lands on Mars's regolith several years from now. It's a huge, complex process to get this huge (9-foot long, 2,000 pound), complex vehicle ready for its scientific mission. But could an alternative plan--landing a fleet of semi-intelligent swarm robots--actually be a better way to explore the Martian surface? New research from the University of Southampton suggests that it may be. The work is from scientist Aron Kisdi, who recently published a paper outlining the plan in the journal Acta Astronautica. The idea is to use a swarm of small robots to cover more ground more swiftly and with more redundancy than is possible with a single large device, with the multiple machines relying on a system called "quorum sensing." This is close to how honeybees decide to act and share information--where individual scout bees navigate a new area, remembering where they went and what they saw, and then fly back to the hive to communicate findings to the main mass of bees, after which point a group decision is made and acted upon. To replicate this kind of activity, a fleet of simple rolling-jumping robots dubbed Jolibots have been constructed and commanded by a dedicated computer program, all to test the principles of how the system would work on Mars. In the real situation, 40 to 60 robots would be released by a lander, and then they'd swarm out over the landscape, recording what they find en route. Robots that found something "interesting" (be it a temperature change in a cave, a region with higher humidity, or similar) would return to the lander by the quickest route and share their findings. Data stored in the lander from all the swarm members findings could then be used to de-termine the next course of action for individual 'bots--including a return to the site to explore in more detail, or a shelving of that particular location because a different robot found more still more interesting data. Think of it as a fleet of Eves (from Pixar's Wall-E movie) that skitter around a huge region looking for scientifically fascinating data. The group behavior would be extremely complicated and emergent--not predetermined, pre-programmed or remote-controlled--although it's likely NASA engineers would keep a close eye on things, ready to override the group's decisions should they determine a conclusion than the one decided by the robots. This idea, versus a mission like Curiosity, is that it could be far cheaper to create, launch, land, and operate, and since you're using multiple cheap robots, it wouldn't matter if several were damaged or rolled into inescapable sand pits or craters--the kind of naviga-tional disaster that's struck the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars over the last year or so. And it doesn't mean there's no place for a larger rover. When the first broad-sweep data is in from the swarm 'bots, then it's a good time to send out the expensive rover--since you'd know more precisely where to look for interesting data, and have some sense of the detailed trickiness of the terrain.


Speakers for 2011 Apr Tyler Stout (UNCC Honor Student) Identify Behavior Of Workers and Drones May Roger Simonds USDA Gastonia Lab research

Beekeepers Yearly Management Calendar for April

Install supers to hives. Periodic checks should be made during the honey flow to see if additional supers are

needed.

http://wildthingsinabox.blogspot.com/2011/02/

learning-about-vineyards-and-nut-trees.html

A great site to learn from a local beekeeper on bees and gardening tips.

We meet this month on April 28th the fourth Thursday in April


HopGuard is a new pesticide designed to kill Varroa mites. Although the product is not yet registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), three states have joined together to request a Section 18 Emergency Exemption to use the product in honey bee hives within the boundaries of those states. The Washington State Department of Agriculture, the Idaho State De-partment of Agriculture, and the Oregon Department of Agriculture submitted the request to the EPA on August 23. Working with the three agencies is BetaTec Hop Products, the maker of HopGuard and a wholly owned subsidiary of John I. Haas, Inc. of Yakima.

Section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) allows an unregistered product to be used in certain regional areas when an emergency pest situation exists and there is no viable alternative method of control. The three states argue that the seven pesticides currently approved for use on Varroa mites in the region are either ineffective or imprac-tical to control the mites in commercial hives.

So what is HopGuard? HopGuard is made from one of the organic acids found in the hop plant, Humulus lupulus. An organic acid is simply a carbon-containing compound with acidic properties. Some of the current Varroa treatments also use organic acids, including ApiLife Var and ApiGuard, both of which contain thymol (found in thyme) and MiteAway II, which contains formic acid (similar to that found in fire ants.)

Hops contain two prominent organic acids, alpha acids—known to brewers as “flavor” hops—and beta acids, known as “aroma” hops. It is the beta acids that have been found to have anti-Varroa properties.

The new formulation is 16% beta acids painted on cardboard strips which will be used in the brood boxes. Two strips per brood box will be used up to three times per year. Since the product contains only “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) ingredients, the manufacturer believes the product can be used in the hives anytime—even during a honey flow.

The manufacturer is seeking registration as a biopesticide (short for biochemical pesticide) which is the EPA term for a natu-rally-occurring pesticide.

Will it work? In my opinion, organic acids are excellent pesticides because of their safety to both bees and the planet. How-ever, in the past they have received only moderate acceptance in the beekeeping community—mostly because daytime tem-peratures and the brood-rearing cycle must be closely monitored. In addition, the hives usually must be made into “fumigation chambers” for the organic acids to work properly. This is time-consuming and hard on the bees.

Will HopGuard be any different? Only time will tell. In my experience the thymol products have worked great. But since I am not a commercial beekeeper, I have the time and inclination to fiddle around with the exacting conditions that allow those products to be effective. If HopGuard is simpler to use, it could revolutionize mite control, but the jury is still out. More data are needed.

For more information on organic acids in general, see Essential Oils and Organic Acids for the Control of Varroa destructor in Honey Bees (Apis mellifera).

Source: honeybeesuite.com

HopGuard: the new Varroa pesticide

http://www.imkerplatform.nl/component/content/article/60-opmerkelijk/333-hopguard-the-new-varroa-pesticide

Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association President’s Buzzz

This year’s North Carolina Beekeepers Association Spring Meeting held in Dallas, NC on March 4 and 5 was another success

with over 500 beekeepers from the two Carolinas coming together to swap stories and further their education. The meeting has

something for all beekeepers regardless of your experience. The more you know about beekeeping the more you realize you

don’t know. Throughout the meeting I wrote down some things I thought were interesting and also jotted down comments

from others around me.

David Tarpy, NCSU Associate Professor and Extension Apiculturist, said 3 multiyear scientific studies came to the

conclusion that small cell foundation designed to encourage the bees to draw an entire frame of small cells has no

impact on varroa mite production. Many people believe a significant number of small cells in a hive will reduce the

varroa mite population.

The North Carolina State Beekeepers Association announced they will purchase local honey for $3.50/pound to sell at the

state fair in Raleigh this October. As you might imagine, there will be a big demand for honey since last year’s

attendance was 1,091,887 people. If you get a chance to attend the fair, the beekeeping exhibit is very impressive.

An interesting bit of swarming information came from Dr. Larry Connor, owner of Wicwas Press and regular contributor

to Bee Culture and American Bee Journal. During one of his talks, Dr. Connor mentioned only 1 out of 6 swarms

lives beyond the first year in the wild. To verify his claim I searched the internet and came up with several studies that

came close to his numbers but in all cases the probability was less than 50%. If your bees swarm, not only do you run

the risk of losing your bees but there is a high probability they will die. Not a good scenario for all involved.

During Dr. Connor’s talk about queens he said it was the length of daylight that stimulated the queen to start laying in

the late winter or early spring. What about outside temperature and food availability? I could not find any research on

the internet backing up his comment but the opinionated consensus on the internet points to the length of daylight as

the predominate factor followed by temperature and food availability.

I was interested in knowing when the honey flow starts in our area. I was afraid I might get 10 different answers from 5

beekeepers. However, after asking about a dozen experienced beekeepers from Mecklenburg and surrounding

counties, the answer was surprisingly similar. The consensus: April 15 plus or minus 3 days depending on the

weather. April 15 is not far off. I hope you are ready.

Lastly, did you know a drone has a mother but no father? However, a drone does have a grandfather.

Have fun with the bees,

-George


A series of great photos from a swarm call that both Carl Albrect and Frank Clements tackled recently.


It’s Harvest Time!

We have the following equipment available for extracting honey:

9 Frame Extractor (manual) • Uncapping tank • Bucket with valve Electric uncapping knife Capping Scratcher

The charge is $5 per day to borrow the extractor with 2 day minimum

You will want to use your own filters and food-grade plastic buckets.

To reserve the equipment:

Go to the club’s website www.meckbees.org and under the “Beekeeping Resources” tab select “MCBA Extractor Reservations”. If you have any questions contact George McAllister at [email protected] or call 704-579-1169 When you pick up the equipment, take an envelope and card to mail in your payment. Return the equipment promptly, clean and dry. Mail your payment in the envelope provided.

With the growth of the club, there is heavy demand for the extractor in the sum-mer months. When you get the equipment, please return it promptly so the next person on the list can get it. Thanks!

meck bees · 2019-11-23 · on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the...

Documents