ommatidia” - mecklenburg county beekeepers association · [noun pl. ommatidia. any of the...
TRANSCRIPT
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JULY 2012
WWW.MECKBEES.ORG! PAGE 1
...a newsletter providing honeybee views, news, & interesting perspectives!
[noun pl. ommatidia. any of the structural elements forming the compound eye of certain insects (i.e. the honeybee), each element a complete photoreceptor in itself, having a lens, pigment, light-sensitive cells, etc.]
President’s Buzzz...- "om George McA#ister, July 2012
People compare themselves to other living organisms all the time. We use these comparisons to point out a similarity that we would not ordinary consider but once revealed highlights a positive or negative trait about ourselves or the animal. These comparisons may not accurately describe the animal, but it does shape our view of that animal. You can tell how people feel about other animals by the type and variety of comparisons made. For example, there are not too many positive comparisons involving snakes.
As a result, many people believe the only good snake is a dead snake even though they serve a beneficial role keeping down the rodent population.
Bees are a common focus of comparison to point out good traits in ourselves or in an attempt to elevate the bee to human status. People will go to extreme lengths and spend a significant about of money “humanizing” the honey bee.
Scientists from the Universite de Toulouse in France and Monash University in Australia several years ago discovered both bees and humans use configural processing to recognize patterns. (continued next page...)
Reminders...
1. Thursday July 19th @ 7pm - next MeckBees CLUB meeting.
2. NC State Beekeepers Association Summer meeting in Lumberton from July 12 - 14. Hope you could attend!
3. SAVE the DATE! Sun, AUGUST 5th, special MeckBees Speaker Event featuring author/beekeeper Michael Bush!4. Extracting season... reserve the extractor now @ meckbees.org
“The Ommatidia”
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JULY 2012
WWW.MECKBEES.ORG! PAGE 2
(... continued from President’s Buzzz on prior page)
Configural processing involves looking at the components of an object like the nose, mouth, ears and eyes to form a unique recognizable shape. The bees in this
experiment, once trained, selected the face having sugar water over the face without sugar water 75% of the time. I guess that moves the bee up a few notches on the evolutionary scale.
What can be said about smart bees and people? Research has shown smart people live longer and this relationship is as strong as that between smoking and premature death. Do smart bees also live longer?
An experiment published in Scientific American magazine in 2010, was designed to see if smart bees live longer based on being able to handle aging brought on by oxidative stress. Dr. Gro Amdam of Arizona State University and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences identified quick learning bees by the number of times it took
to associate a certain odor with sugar water. All the bees in the study were then subjected to a high oxidative stress test to simulate the aging process. The smarter bees actually lived longer under the stress of aging. Unfortunately they only lived 4.2 hours longer on average. Since we are comparing bees to humans, in bee years (like dog years) the extra time equates to about 120 people days.
Summer bees live about 6 weeks. If you don’t want your bees to remember it was you who took their honey, wait until the bee population in the hive has turned over before going back into the hive. Since the smarter bees tend to live longer, you may want to factor that into your decision.
Have fun with the bees,
-George
Community Speakers Needed: Speaking to our local schools and clubs about the importance of bees and beekeeping is one way we educate our community. Our club receives speaking requests on a regular basis. If you are interested in
becoming a speaker please contact George McAllister at [email protected] or 704–579–1169.
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JULY 2012
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PHOTOS from ourSUMMER SOLSTICE PICNIC ON THE LAKE
@GREG CLEMENT’S LAKE NORMAN HOME
JUNE 23rd, 2012
Great weather, great food, & a great time!!! (photos by Johnny Preston!)
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JULY 2012
WWW.MECKBEES.ORG! PAGE 4
2012 Officers: President - George McAllister, (704) 579-1169, [email protected] Vice President -Tom Davidson, (704) 906-8776, [email protected] Treasurer - Libby Mack, (704) 358-8075, [email protected] Membership Secretary - Sam Bomar, (704) 608-7582, [email protected]
(email SAM for any changes to your email, address, phone number, etc.!!!
Newsletter Editor - John Byers, (704) 299-4699, [email protected] - Kevin Freeman, 704-525-3128, [email protected]
Again, A BIG “THANK YOU” to all of our newsletter contributors. I could not do this without the help and support of so many! Here’s how you can help make our newsletter
better: send me your story ideas, “Bits o’ Honey”, hive photos, swarm photos, honey label photos,
interesting links, your honey extraction totals (weight/volume) etc., please feel free to email me at [email protected] for an upcoming newsletter!
Editor’s Note!
The “BEE” Yard Trading Post (items for Sale and/or Trade)
(adding this new section to our newsletter for “bee-related” merchandise. send a short ONE-line description of item for sale, price, contact info. to [email protected])
Put me to work for you! Send an email to [email protected] if you have any “bee stuff” to sell/trade!
FREE stuff works, too!
“Will work for honey!”
JULY 2012
WWW.MECKBEES.ORG! PAGE 5
Upcoming MeckBees Meeting, Thursday, July 19th at 7pm
Russian queen producer Ray Revis will be our special guest on Thursday, July 19, 7 p.m. at Mouzon United Methodist Church, 3100 Selwyn Ave., Charlotte, NC 28209. Ray has been part of the USDA's Russian bee breeding program since 2001. Owner and operator of Revis Russians in Marion, NC, Ray sells Russian queens, nucs and complete Russian hives. He is working with the Honey Bee Lab in Baton Rouge, La., and has a passion for raising bees naturally resistant to pests and disease. He raises his queens from certified DNA stock of Russian breeder queens. Ray also is a charter member and current board member of the Russian Honeybee Breeders Association. Join us Thursday, July 19 at 7 p.m. to welcome Ray and learn all about raising Russian bees.
NEW NC “CERTIFIED BEEKEEPERS”* * *
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE 2012 BEE SCHOOL “GRADUATES” WHO PASSED BOTH THE
NC CERTIFIED BEEKEEPERS CLASSROOM AND FIELD TESTS!!!
DON’T MISS MICHAEL BUSH! Please RSVP at http://meckbees.weebly.com
Date: August 5, 2012Time: 2 - 4 p.m. (Doors open at 1:15 p.m.)
Location: Providence United Methodist ChurchMain Atrium, 2810 Providence Road, Charlotte, NC 28211
Registration: FREE to club members and $5 a person for the general public. General public registration begins June 16, using the form below.
Michael Bush will be joining us August 5th for a special meeting of the Mecklenburg County Beekeepers. Longtime beekeeper and naturalist, Michael is the author of "The Practical Beekeeper: Beekeeping Naturally." A beekeeper for four decades, now, Michael has found through many trials and error how natural beekeeping methods benefit the longtime survival of the honeybee much more than traditional allopathic approaches, especially with all of the complex issues and threats our bees face today. He is a proponent of enlarging the gene pool by promoting survivor stocks that can naturally withstand the stresses, diseases and pests our honey bees face today. Michael will tell us how we can build sustainable beekeeping systems using homeopathic means so that our bee colonies are healthy, happy and honey-ful.
Mark Aug. 5th on your calendar for this not-to-be-missed special MeckBees event!
Hosted by the Mecklenburg County Beekeepers, this is FREE to club members and is also open to the public. Get your spot reserved today and pre-register.
Folks from out-of-town already are signing up so reserve your spot today!
JULY 2012
WWW.MECKBEES.ORG! PAGE 6
CATCH THE BUZZ“American Foulbrood - A
Foul Disease”
(In March 2012, FDA approved LINCOMIX Soluble Powder, sponsored by Pharmacia and Upjohn Co., a Division of Pfizer, Inc. to control American Foulbrood)
By Melanie McLean, DVM, Center for Veterinary Medicine, FDA
When beekeepers utter the three-letter acronym “AFB,” they’re not referring to the closest air force base. Rather, they’re talking about American foulbrood, a serious infectious disease of honey bees. Caused by the spore-forming bacteria Paenibacillus larvae and found worldwide, AFB is one of the most widespread diseases affecting honey bee brood, and the most destructive. The disease does not pose any health risks to people, but it wrecks havoc among bees. Severe outbreaks can weaken or kill entire colonies.
American foulbrood affects the larval and pupal stages of brood development, leaving adult bees safe from infection. Young larvae may die quickly when they are curled at the base of their uncapped cells. Worker bees remove these dead larvae, leaving empty cells. Most often, death occurs after the cell has been capped. By this time, the older larvae or young pupae have stretched out lengthwise and are upright, filling most of their cell.
The capping of a cell that contains a diseased larva is moist and dark. As the larva shrinks, the capping is drawn into the mouth of the cell, causing the normally convex capping to become concave. When they find an infected larva in a sealed cell, worker bees puncture the sunken capping and remove it, along with the sick or dead larva.
If death occurs in the pupal stage, the dead pupa’s threadlike proboscis, or tongue, protrudes from the pupal head and extends across the cell. A protruding tongue can be seen even after the rest of the pupa’s body has decayed. Though rarely seen, the formation of the pupal tongue is one of the most characteristic signs of American foulbrood.
At death, the normally pearly white and glistening bee brood changes to a dull white. The color gradually darkens to light creamy brown, then coffee brown, and finally dark brown or almost black. The consistency of the decaying brood is soft and glutinous. One symptom of American foulbrood seen only in decayed brood is “ropiness.” When a probe is inserted into the body of a decayed larva and withdrawn gently and slowly, the glue-like larval remains will adhere to the tip of the probe and can be pulled out of the cell as a stringy, brown mass or rope. This technique used by beekeepers to assess ropiness is called the “match-stick” or “stretch” test. It’s probably the best-known way to diagnosis AFB in the field. In some cases, however, the larval
remains are rather watery, causing a negative test result.
One month or more after the larva becomes ropy, its remains dry out and shrivel to form hard, dark brown to black scales. These characteristic scales are brittle, stick tightly to the lower sides of the cell, and contain billions of spores that spread easily. The bacteria can produce over one billion spores in each infected larva. Only the spores are pathogenic (disease-causing), and unfortunately, they are very resistant to heat and chemicals. The spores of P. larvae can survive for many years in the dry scales, as well as in honey, beeswax, and hive equipment.
Nurse bees transmit American foulbrood by feeding spore-laden honey or bee bread to young larvae. Larvae can also become infected by P. larvae spores remaining at the base of their cells. “House” worker bees spread the spores throughout the hive when they clean out the cells of dead larvae.
The disease spreads quickly to other colonies in the apiary by:
· Robber bees. Weak, AFB-infected colonies make good targets for robber bees from nearby strong colonies. The robbers steal the contaminated honey or bee bread from the infected colony and bring the P. larvae spores back to their home colony.
· Beekeepers. While working with their hives, beekeepers may expose other colonies in the apiary to contaminated honey or equipment.
· Drifting worker bees or swarms. These bees are in the process of leaving their parent colony to start their own colony in a new location. If the parent colony is infected, the swarm will bring the spores with them to the new location.
A colony infected with American foulbrood has a patchy brood pattern. This irregular, mottled appearance is due to the mixture of healthy, diseased, and empty brood cells within the same wax comb. The healthy cells have slightly protruding and fully closed cappings. The diseased cells may be uncapped and contain larval remains, or still sealed but have sunken and punctured cappings. The empty cells are a result of worker bees chewing away the cappings of diseased cells and removing the dead larvae. The brood pattern is also patchy because the larval remains vary from the initial state of moist ropiness to the final state of dry scales adhered to the lower sides of open cells. A patchy brood pattern alerts the beekeeper that the colony is unhealthy, and while not diagnostic for American foulbrood, it raises the suspicion for this disease.
Controlling American Foulbrood
The traditional control measure for American foulbrood is to kill all bees in an infected colony and then burn the dead bees and hive materials belonging to the colony. Destroying the wax comb is critical because, apart from the bees, combs are the main carriers of P. larvae spores. Burning entire honey bee colonies and their hive materials is expensive, especially considering the high cost of beekeeping equipment.
Larger beekeeping operations often turn to drugs to help control American foulbrood, giving the bees antibiotics in their feed. While the antibiotics don’t kill the spores, they do prevent the bacteria from multiplying.
For decades, the only FDA-approved drug to control American foulbrood was the antibiotic oxytetracycline.4 But in October 2005, FDA approved a second antibiotic, tylosin tartrate, to control the disease. Due in large part to the work of NRSP-7,5 there are now three tylosin tartrate products approved for honey bees:
· TYLAN Soluble, sponsored by Elanco Animal Health (NADA6 013-076);
· PHARMASIN Soluble, also called TYLOVET Soluble, sponsored by Huvepharma AD (ANADA7 200-473); and
· TYLOMED-WS Soluble Powder, sponsored by Cross Vetpharm Group Ltd. (ANADA 200-455).
Both PHARMASIN Soluble and TYLOMED-WS Soluble Powder are generic copies of TYLAN Soluble.
The most recent antibiotic to be added to the beekeeper’s arsenal against American foulbrood is lincomycin hydrochloride. In March 2012, FDA approved LINCOMIX Soluble Powder, sponsored by Pharmacia and Upjohn Co., a Division of Pfizer, Inc. (NADA 111-636). Studies to support the drug’s approval were done by the Bee Research Laboratory, part of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, in Beltsville, Md., in cooperation with NRSP-7. Based on the results of these studies, FDA concluded that LINCOMIX Soluble Powder is safe and effective to control American foulbrood in honey bees w hen used according to the label.
LINCOMIX Soluble Powder is mixed with powdered sugar and applied as a dust inside the bee colony once weekly for three weeks. The bees consume the sugar-lincomycin mixture to clean the hive. During feeding, the nurse bees pass the drug to the larvae.
Similar to other drugs approved for honey bees, LINCOMIX Soluble Powder is fed in early spring or late fall before the main honey flow begins to avoid contamination of production honey. The three weekly treatments should be completed at least four weeks before the start of the main honey flow.
JULY 2012
WWW.MECKBEES.ORG! PAGE 7
We are now an authorized dealer of Brushy Mountain Bee Farm!
•Want to avoid shipping charges?
•Tired of taking a 3-hour round trip to the mountains to pick up equipment and supplies?
•Place your order through us!!!
Convenient delivery schedules with no additional charge to you!
For more information contact: Randall York(704) [email protected]
GREAT NEWS!!!
* * *
Honey & Honeybee TRIVIA...• How many flowers must honey bees tap to make one pound of honey? - Two million. • How many flowers does a honey bee have to visit to gather a load of pollen? - 1500
flowers. • How far does a hive of bees fly to bring you one pound of honey? - Over 55,000 miles • How large an area does a honey bee have to cover to collect a load of pollen? -
Approximately 12 square miles. • How much honey does the average worker honey bee make in her lifetime? -
1/12 teaspoon. • How heavy is a load of pollen? - Approximately 10 mg. • How fast does a honey bee fly? - About 15 miles per hour / 24 kilometres per hour.
JULY 2012
WWW.MECKBEES.ORG! PAGE 8
Beekeeper’s Calendar for July (by Libby Mack)
More on ‘watering your bees” from club member Jimmy Odom:If you don't want complaints from neighbors with pools, you should consider keeping water readily available to them....Everyone of my colonies are taking at least 1 quart of water everyday, and some of the really strong ones are taking almost a half gallon. I have placed a water sprinkler in an area behind the hives, so as not to sprinkle the front entrance, and the girls seem to really appreciate it, & they get a sprinkling at least twice a day when I can oblige them. However, they can still be a bit on the bitter side due to this heat and nothing to forage on most of the day. I was popped 2 times yesterday and i finally had to swat and kill one that buzzed me all the way back to the house.... Besides the sprinkler, I have placed 1/2 gallon feeders (Brushy Mtn plastic type) on each hive and the stronger ones, have 2 of the feeders... I like them because you can see how fast the water goes down.
If you decide to do the above, you will need to be as consistent as possible in providing the water as you will be conditioning them to not having to forage for water..
anyways,,, that's the way I see it today.. Stay cool.. (P.S. see Jimmy’s hive watering photo on the newsletter photo page)
The heat is here and the robbing has begun. Be sure the hives are “bee tight”, with no extra openings where bees (and robbers) can get in or out. Reduce the entrances to make the hive easier to defend. Don’t leave syrup or honey exposed near the hives. As you take the hive apart, cover the individual boxes to keep the bees calm. Expect the bees to be a little more irritable, move extra slowly, and keep the gloves handy. Hot weather can mean “thirsty bees” so don’t forget to have them a water supply! Small hive beetles are showing up, especially in shady yards. Their larvae can destroy a weakened hive in a matter of days, so get traps in before you have a big problem. After the last honey harvest the wet supers can go back on the hive to be cleaned out, or you can stack them outside (with spacers in between). Put them as far away from the hives as possible or you may incite robbing of the hives themselves. Store the dry supers outdoors with spacers (with protection from rain), or, wrap a stack of 5 supers in plastic with a paper plate of moth crystals on top. (Use moth crystals, not moth balls.) If you want to draw new combs, put the new frames in as soon as the honey supers come off, and offer syrup since there will be little nectar available. Your best bet for drawing new wax is in hot weather with a large population of bees. Also offer drone combs – not all hives will lay a whole frame of drones in July, but if they do, pull out the frame of capped drone brood and freeze it to kill a lot of varroa mites. Make plans for the coming months:
- Order queens for requeening or splits- Decide on whether / how to treat for varroa, nosema and tracheal mites before winter- Make sure you have enough equipment, in good repair, to get the bees through the winter
JULY 2012
WWW.MECKBEES.ORG! PAGE 9
Come join us!Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association meets
the 3rd Thursday of each month at 7pm3100 Selwyn Avenue
(corner of Selwyn Ave. & Woodlawn Rd.)Charlotte, NC
(in the Mouzon United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall)
Send us your 2012 extraction news. How much honey did you get?
Hernan Atencio: We have extracted twice for a total of 290 Lbs and we still have to extract two more supers for almost 50 Lbs.
moreSo aprox. 340 Lbs.
Linda Campbell:first time extraction about 30 lbs. or 2.5 gallons from 1 hive. Congratulations Linda!
Eric Johnson:first time extracting, about 40 lbs. or 3+ gallons from 2 hives. Congratulations Eric!
Jim Weeden: 4 colonies harvested, 2 were 2010 nucs, 1 was a 2011 split, and 1 was a 2011 package. Jim had 6, 9-frame shallow supers yielding about 8 gallons so 104 lbs total. Nice job, Jim!
John Byers: first extraction June 23rd weekend for a total of 220 lbs. from 5 hives. This is about 18 gallons. Have several
other hives to extract in late July.
Send us your honey totals!
oz. lbs. oz. lbs. oz. lbs. oz. lbs. oz. lbs. oz. lbs. oz. lbs. oz. lbs. oz. lbs. oz. lbs. oz. lbs. oz. lbs. oz. lbs. oz. lbs.
JULY 2012
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Show us your Beehives, etc.!Many of you have devoted extraordinary efforts to making your
beehives “personalized and special”.WE WANT TO SEE THEM!!! ...
(Please share your interesting hive & other photos by emailing to John Byers at [email protected] and we may include in an upcoming newsletter!
Marc Gray & Katie Tobin’s bee swarm. The long pole is actually a 35-foot surveyor’s rod. (photos by Blaine Barfield)
Here are some of Jimmy Odom’s hives being “watered”. Nice Carolina Blue boxes Jimmy!
Extraction “party” photos June 23rd at John Byers’ showing uncapping with knife, a frame “blowout”, heat gun uncapping, “blowing” off bees, & tilting the extractor to get that last drop of honey!
Bee sting on Debra Nevel’s hand... “better than BOTOX”!
Summer is ----Early morning dewdrops
Blossoming treesGrass growing lush and green
And humming honey bees! (by Debra Nevel)
JULY 2012
WWW.MECKBEES.ORG! PAGE 11
$
“Bit(s) o’ Honey”
1) Foulbrood or Monsanto? http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/07/05/monsanto-roundup-effects-on-honeybees.aspx?e_cid=20120705_DNL_artNew_1
2) Local “do-good beekeepers” make the news!http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/08/3370557/gentle-swarm-removal-saves-residents.html
3) Local “do-good beekeepers” may be needed in California (?)http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/07/man-finds-50000-bees-inside-home/
4) A New Home for a Bee Colonyhttp://dirt.asla.org/2012/06/22/animal-architecture/
5) Having trouble opening our monthly newsletter from the emailed link? You can always go directly to our meckbees.org website. (Of course you won’t think to do this since you can’t even open “THIS” newsletter. LOL!)http://meckbees.org/Newsletters/tabid/81/Default.aspx
6) Old News is good news!http://bees.library.cornell.edu/b/bees/browse/title/6366245.html
7) from MeckBees club member Andrew Thiessen: I put 25# sugar and 3 gallons hot (i.e. very warm) water (~1:1) in a 5 gallon bucket and mix with a paint mixer paddle in my cordless drill. I do this operation in the bath tub for easy clean up w/ the hand shower wand. By the way, that "Stops the Sting" stuff works well for bumble bee stings. I got nailed between the eyes yesterday after I roto-tilled over a ground nest. We ended up working the rest of the day in jackets & veils. We must have been the oddest looking landscape crew in the world to a passersby! But those dang bees were very aggressive and just kept coming after us all day long.
8) Some legal news! http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2012.06.29.11.02.archive.html
9) WHY do bees “beard”?
http://www.countryrubes.com/images/The_Phenomenon_of_Bee_Bearding2_8_17_10.pdf
10) Kelley Bees July 2012 Newsletter:
http://app.newpanda.com/public/sharedimages/4396/1234979276/Documents/July2012kelleybees-newsletter-Large.pdf
11) (send us your bee news!!!)
JULY 2012
WWW.MECKBEES.ORG! PAGE 12
It’s Harvest Time!
We have the following equipment available to club members for extracting honey.
* 9 Frame extractor (manual)
* Uncapping tank
* 5 gallon bottling bucket
* Electric and non-electric uncapping knife
* Capping scratcher
You will need to use your own strainer.
The charge is $5 per day to rent the equipment with 2 day minimum.
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
All the reservation instructions and calendar with available dates are on the website.
With the growth of the club, there is heavy demand for the extractor in the summer months. When you get the equipment, please return it promptly so the next person on the list can get it. Thanks!
New Club
HEAT GUN! In our May MeckBees newsletter we
heard about some beekeepers using a heat gun for uncapping so
you may want to try it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL7vbrJ6Pvw and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eym8rxYeLTc&feature=related
Come join us!We meet the 3rd Thursday of each month at 7pm
3100 Selwyn Avenue (corner of Selwyn Ave. & Woodlawn Rd.)
Charlotte, NC(in the Mouzon United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall)
Reminders...
1. Thursday July 19th @ 7pm - next MeckBees CLUB meeting.
2. NC State Beekeepers Association Summer meeting in Lumberton from July 12 - 14. Hope you could attend!
3. SAVE the DATE! Sun, AUGUST 5th, special MeckBees Speaker Event featuring author/beekeeper Michael Bush!4. Extracting season... reserve the extractor now @ meckbees.org
John W. Byers III
(Meck Bees Newsletter)
2310 Sanford Lane
Charlotte, NC 28211
(this is an extra “mailer” page for printed newsletters only!)