Researchers at the University of Haifa-Oranim have learned that bees are attracted to nectar with microscopic amounts of caffeine or nicotine. Is this evolution’s way of getting bees addicted to certain plants that contain those substances?

Flowers produce nectar, a sweet substance composed of mostly sugars, as a way of attracting pollinators to the plant. But some species of plants produce nectar that contains very tiny amounts of substances known to be toxic. The garden perennial Nicotiana, also known as “flowering tobacco,” for example, has tiny amounts of nicotine in its nectar, and caffeine is present in small concentrations in the nectar of citrus flowers, especially grapefruit flowers.

The research team at the Department of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Science Education of the University of Haifa-Oranim, headed by Professor Ido Izhaki, have discovered that bees actively prefer the “addictive” nectar over “clean” nectar.

While it’s difficult to know for sure whether the addictive substances in nectar evolved as a way to make pollination more efficient, they say, the study does suggest that “the plants that survived natural selection are those that developed ‘correct’ levels of these addictive substances, enabling them to attract and not repel bees, thereby giving them a significant advantage over other plants.” Whether the bees actually become addicted to nicotine and caffeine, however, is still a matter for future study.

Are Honey Bees Hooked on Caffeine and Nicotine? was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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• Maritime Action Forum on Pollination Research: 19 March 2010
• Bee Tour 2010 in New Brunswick
• Good Reading for New Beekeepers

Discover the essential role bees play in the pollination of many Canadian food crops such as blueberries and apples, as well as to the production of honey and many other by-products, while you explore the role and the tools of the beekeeper. Check out the Museum’s live hive arriving in May and try to find the queen among all the workers and drones.

Not travelling to Ottawa?

You can still enjoy Bees, a Honey of an Idea, a new interactive “virtual” exhibit about bees, pollination, and apiculture presented by the Virtual Museum of Canada (VMC) and the Canadian Agriculture Museum.

Don’t miss the Hive Inspection Video, yummy honey recipes, and some great activities for school teachers, parents, and students of all ages… and maybe the rest of us, too!

New Honey Bee Exhibits at Canada’s Virtual Museum & Agriculture Museum was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Maritime Action Forum on Pollination Research: 19 March 2010
• Suspect Named in Canadian Bee Losses
• “Chemical Warfare” Not Working for Many Canadian Beekeepers

Over the past few years, the media have frequently reported deaths of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Most reports express opinions but little hard science.

A recent study of beekeeping history pointed out that extensive colony losses are have occurred at different points in time in many parts of the world. In other words, Colony Collapse Disorder is not the unique event that media attention would lead us to believe — and concern for honey bees has been “magnified by their vital role in agriculture” in the United States, where the $2-billion-per-year California almond industry depends on the pollination services of honey bees. Theories as to the cause of CCD have ranged from mobile phones and genetically modified crops (theories that were quickly dismissed by scientists) to more credible theories that have been the subject of more serious research: pests and diseases, environmental and economic factors, and pesticides.

Although full explanations for these losses are still debatable, the consensus seems to be that pests and pathogens are the single most important cause of colony losses.

There is also growing evidence that the ability of a particular pathogen to kill colonies may depend on other factors, such as the Varroa mire — but it’s not the mite itself that is killing bees, Ratnieks and Carreck point out, but the bee viruses that it carries and passes from one weakened, stressed honeybee to another.

Clarity on Honey Bee Collapse?
Francis L. W. Ratnieks and Norman L. Carreck
Science 8 January 2010: 152-153

Clarity on Honey Bee Collapse? was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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“CCD is an arbitrary name,” Dr. Guzman told the Toronto Star, “designed by U.S. scientists to define a high mortality of colonies that have no explainable reason… Radio waves, even terrorist plots” are among some of the theories.

Certainly, what’s going on in Canada is not the same as what’s been happening in the United States — our bees are not actually disappearing. And that’s the main symptom of CCD cases, that beekeepers don’t find dead bees in the hive. “It’s like they have died in the field and they never came back,” Dr. Guzman says.

“We don’t see that in Canada, I believe, because in the winter they cannot fly out.”

Instead, Canadian beekeepers tend to find piles of dead bees in the bottom of hives when they open them up in the spring.

Heartbreaking for beekeepers, but those sad little corpses actually turn out to be a good thing for us, however — it means that Canadian bee researchers have something to study! And Guzman’s been doing just that. He followed 413 Ontario bee colonies for a year and took a close-up look at the 27 percent of those hives that didn’t make it through the winter.

In a forthcoming report in the journal Apidologie, Guzman blames the varroa mite — that tiny crab-like parasite that sucks the blood out of bees, hopelessly weakening them so even if they aren’t killed outright they become more susceptible to disease –in combination with poor bee populations and low food reserves going into the winter.

Suspect Named in Canadian Bee Losses was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Maritime Action Forum on Pollination Research: 19 March 2010
• New Honey Bee Exhibits at Canada’s Virtual Museum & Agriculture Museum
• “Chemical Warfare” Not Working for Many Canadian Beekeepers

“Automatic hive – no beekeeper needed!” That’s what the man says, and offers an online manual with “detailed instructions for constructing and operating fully automatic hives, for which no bee knowledge is required of any kind, since only open to harvest.”

I’m not sure if this method of beekeeping is (a) legal or (b) wise, in this part of the world — but the theory is certainly sure to get beekeepers thinking and talking!

The website that explains this system is Apicultura Extensiva Natural by Oscar Perone, a professional beekeeper since 2002 and teacher of beekeeping at a college in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The photographs and diagrams are interesting in themselves, and Google will give you an English translation to read to get the details.

Automatic Beekeeping? was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Animated Life of Bees
• What Would Your Garden Look Like Without Bees?
• How to Keep Bees Like a 5 Year Old Kid

Chapters in the book include the following:

• A Short History of Honey
• Honey Elaboration and Harvest
• Honey Technology
• Physical Properties of Honey
• Honey Compostion
• Honey Types
• Honey for Nutrition and Health
• External Application of Honey
• Honey Control
• Honey Trade

The Book of Honey is presented in PDF format, readable with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader (available from http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/, if it is not already installed on your computer).

At the same site, you’ll also find a new book by Surrendra Joshi about honey in Nepal, and a variety of other publications on which Stefan Bogdanov collaborated:

• Honey Authenticity: A Review by Stefan Bogdanov and Peter Martin
• Minerals in Honey: Environmental, Geographical and Botanical Aspects by Stefan Bogdanov, Max Haldimann, Werner Luginbuehl and Peter Gallmann (with permission of IBRA)
• Classification of Honeydew and Blossom Honeys by Discriminant Analysis by Stefan Bogdanov and Michael Gfeller
• HMF, Invertase and Diastase Activity of Swiss and Imported Honey – Analysis with Logistic Regression by Michael Gfeller and Stefan Bogdanov

Bogdanov’s Book of Honey was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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Traditional chemical controls for Varroa are failing to keep the pest below economic thresholds, as the mites build up resistance, and the weakened colonies are more vulnerable to Nosema and other disease. Beekeepers are desperate to find new weapons to keep their colonies alive.

As the Edmonton Journal reports (Bugs, fungus attacking Alberta’s bees: Keepers say chemical warfare not working):

[Alberta] Provincial apiculturist Medhat Nasr said while beekeepers expected losses due to the failure of pest control, they were still taken by surprise by the extent of the problem.

“It was fast, and losses were far above their expectations.”

The effects of Varroa mites and Nosema, combined with a long winter, played a major role in losses, according to a new report from Alberta Agriculture.

Emergency approval last fall of a one-time use of Apivar, a chemical product popular in other countries but not approved here, had some effect on the varroa mite, but new treatments are “desperately needed,” says the report.

Also, traditional antibiotic treatments did not effectively control the new strain of nosema, which gives the bees a form of diarrhea.

Even colonies that survived the winter were severely weakened by the two pests, the report says.

Colony Collapse Disorder, which has so greatly affected bee populations in the United States, is not a factor in Canada — including New Brunswick — according to apiculturists, but many Canadian beekeepers have seen their colonies strugglel under the combination of weather factors, pests and diseases as is the case in Alberta.

“Chemical Warfare” Not Working for Many Canadian Beekeepers was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Maritime Action Forum on Pollination Research: 19 March 2010
• New Honey Bee Exhibits at Canada’s Virtual Museum & Agriculture Museum
• Suspect Named in Canadian Bee Losses

Apivar is a sustained-released product in the form of plastic strips impregnated with the active ingredient Amitraz.

The use of Apivar in Canada is subject to various conditions.

PMRA Approves Emergency Use of Apivar in Canada was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Maritime Action Forum on Pollination Research: 19 March 2010
• New Honey Bee Exhibits at Canada’s Virtual Museum & Agriculture Museum
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• 200 scientists
• 200 exhibitors
• 10 000 delegates
• More than 100 countries represented

The theme this is year is The bee, the sentinel of the environment:

Because the health of honey bee populations is of concern to all, Apimondia 2009 plans include a special welcome for all interested members of the general public — as well as beekeepers and bee breeders, scientists and researchers, policy makers, advocates for the environment, and representatives of agriculture, industry, and governments — with its Apimondia for Everyone venue and program of events.

Meanwhile, the call for papers has gone out to potential presenters at the conference. Scientists and researchers are invited to submit their papers to the Apimondia committee through the website at www.apimondia2009.com. (English, French, German, and Spanish versions of the website are available by clicking on the appropriate flag in the upper right corner of each page.) Program details are also being added to the website regularly, as the details are finalized, so do check back there often for updated information.

For more information:
http://www.apimondia.org/
http://www.beekeeping.com/apimondia/index_us.htm

Invitation to Apimondia 2009 was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

ABSTRACT:
Three almond field trials were conducted during 2003 and 2004 at two locations in central (Fresno County) and northern (Yolo County) California to evaluate the potential effects of commercial applications of Captan on honey bees, Apis mellifera L. Captan was applied at 5.0 kg (AI)/ha during bloom. Hives were evaluated for hive health and brood development parameters for ~2 mo after application. This study showed that the application of Captan was not harmful to foraging honey bees or their brood. No treatment-related effects were noted on hive weights, dead bee deformity, number of dead bees, survival of individual larvae, weight of individual emerging adults, and other hive health parameters.

Reference:
Effects of Captan on Apis mellifera Brood Development Under Field Conditions in California Almond Orchards
R. Everich, G. Schiller, J. Whitehead, M. Beavers, and K. Barrett
Journal of Economic Entomology
102(1): 20-29 (2009)
February 2009

Effects of Captan on Apis mellifera Brood Development was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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The good news is, and we’ve been collecting this for awhile now, is that with all of the fuss and attention, beekeepers are this fall and winter taking much better care of their bees than in the recent past.

Bee nutrition is improving, as are basic management practices such as rotating out old comb for new foundation; and Varroa treatments are settling out into solid protocols, as “those that don’t work are being phased out and those that are somewhat kinder and gentler on the bees are coming of age.”

On the other hand, it sounds like even non-lethal levels of Nosema may have debilitating effects on a colony by making them more vulnerable to pesticide damage and Varroa attacks.

Another item that caught Flottum’s attention — recent research shows there are many many viruses in the environment against which the honeybee must battle. Interestingly, although most of these viruses are spread from bee to bee in ways that make sense to the non-scientists among us, it seems that even the pollen that bees bring back to the hive is almost certain to be carrying one of three different honeybee viruses — transmitted from wild native bees, most likely, or from honey bees that visited the same bloom beforehand.

How all these factors play into the continuing concerns about Colony Collapse Disorder is still unknown, but CCD was still very much in the minds of beekeepers at the annual conference. You’ll want to read all of Flottum’s report (here), but I thought this closing anecdote of his was both interesting and slightly chilling:

On the last day of the conference I asked one of the commercial beekeepers who was there and who had colonies in a holding yard in southern California waiting for almond bloom how things were going. His answer was telling…”Well, he said, it’s been cold in California so far and the bees haven’t been moving…until the middle of the week. That’s when the temperature warmed up and bees could fly…and that’s when they started to disappear. Again.”

For more information, see Kim Flottum’s articles on the American beekeeping industry and Colony Collapse Disorder at TheDailyGreen.com:

• At Annual Beekeeper Conference, All Talk Turns to Colony Collapse Disorder
• U.S. Beekeepers Have More Bees Than Anytime in 3 Years
• The First Full Accounting of Colony Collapse Disorder

Kim Flottum Reports from US Beekeepers Conference was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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The Farmers Guardian reports that the British government will be putting £2.3 million into the National Bee Unit, “to help its efforts to improve beekeeper husbandry and ability to deal with disease,” with a further £400,000 going to bee health research every year for the next five years.

See:
• Bees get £4.3M health boost
  William Surman
  Famers Guardian, 21 January 2009

New Money for British Bee Research was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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In this video of a lively talk given by vanEnglesdorp at the Taste 3 food and wine conference, the “bee crusader” compares CCD to the ‘flu and explains some of the strange and mysterious discoveries about colony health that make CCD such a challenging problem — and what can and should be done about it.

He pins the decline of pollinators on what he calls “Nature Deficit Disorder” (NDD) — for which the iconic image is the sterile “green desert” of lawn that has replaced the diverse ecosystem of the meadow.

The talk is aimed at a general audience, not a bunch of beekeepers, so it’s a great introduction to honeybees, beekeeping, and colony collapse disorder… but there’s lots there for even the most experienced beekeeper to hear and enjoy.

You’d think it might be a depressing talk, but far from it — vanEngelsdorp’s own excitement about the fascinating world of pollination is contagious. In fact, we only wish that all speakers were as entertaining!

Dennis vanEngelsdorp Video: Where have the bees gone? was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

• Animated Life of Bees
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Honey bees are the unsung heros of agriculture — their ceaseless hunt for nectar ensures our food crops are fertilized. In fact, without the honey bee, agriculture would be in a pretty sorry state. The problem is, things aren’t looking good for bees. Over the past few years, two-thirds of the North American honey bee population has mysteriously disappeared, a disturbing phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder. American science journalist Rowan Jacobsen has been following the honey bee decline, and in his new book, Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis, he explores the complex world of the honey bee, our precarious dependence on them, and the frightening consequences if they continue to die out.

This program will air on Radio One on Saturday, 24 January 2009, at 12:06 p.m., with a rebroadcast on Monday evenings at 11:06 p.m. It may also be heard on Sirius satellite radio. Past shows are usually made available on the website, for those who miss the broadcast.

Honey Bees on CBC Radio was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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Following are some highlights from the latest newsletter, available on the group’s “new and improved” website (www.projectapism.org) :

• Project Research — PAm is studying the movement of neonicotinoid insecticides into pollen and nectar, and helping to fund a Bee Diagnostics Center at Washington State University (WSU).
• Follow a 4-Step Program for keeping bees healthy — Dr. Marla Spivak, Apiculture and Social Insect Professor at UMN, promotes a 4-Step Program to keep bees healthy. These four steps include:
  1. Knowledge – know the clinical symptoms of bee diseases and pests and their life cycle as they relate to honey bees,
  2. Prevention – how can YOU, the beekeeper, take control in areas where you can thwart pest and disease transmission (i.e., replace combs, locate colonies in remote areas, feed bees well in times of dearth),
  3. Prevention – what can BEES themselves do on their own to limit pest and disease transmission (use bees selected for resistant traits), and
  4. Control – use chemical controls only as a last resort.
• New virus discovery in US honeybees — Varroa Destructor Virus 1 (VDV-1) has been discovered in US honeybees. This virus was discovered among bees in Europe in 2006. It is carried by both honey bees and varroa mites.

The group’s emphasis is on research studies with “realistic and practical usefulness for beekeeping businesses,” and the News and Research sections will be of some interest to beekeepers in general.

Project Apis m. Funds Honey Bee Research was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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The charter is an initiative of the Union National de l’Apiculture Française (UNAF), and its title echoes the theme of this year’s international apiculture congress, Apimondia 2009.

Why are bees the “sentinel of the environment”?

As the UNAF charter states:

The bee appeared on our planet along with flowering plants some 80 million years ago.

Today, more than 80 % of our vegetation is fertilized by bees, which play a major role in plant pollination.

In this way, about 20,000 endangered botanical species are still protected thanks to the action of the bees in the pollenation process.

Hence about 40 % of our food supply (fruit, vegetables, oleaginous plants) depends exclusively on the fertilizing action of bees.

Furthermore, honey, pollen, royal jelly, propolis and venom continue to be natural products much appreciated by consumers and are the object of extensive research throughout the world for their dietary and therapeutic qualities.

However, today, having survived various climate changes, bees are in danger because of extensive environmental alterations due to inappropriate agricultural practices (excessive use of ever more toxic phytosanitary products, land consolidation, monoculture, silaging…).

Since 1995, about 30 % of honeybee colonies have been disappearing every year in France. In the past 10 years, 15,000 beekeepers have had to stop their activity. From 1995 to 2005, the national production fell by 30 % and imports tripled. It is for this reason that in 2005, the UNAF (Union Nationale de l’Apiculture Française/National Union of French Beekeeping) launched the “Honeybee, Sentinel of the Environment” campaign to bring to the general public’s attention this alarming situation and try to protect the honeybee as well as beekeeping which depends on it.

A growing number of institutions and private firms are coming back to us, aware of the importance of the preservation of this pollen-producing fauna for the safeguard of our crop production and biodiversity.

Together, we want our government as well as governments all over the world, to give this matter their utmost attention, because the situation facing us today in France is the same all over the world.

For more information, or to sign the online charter, please visit www.abeillesentinelle.net and click on a flag image to choose your preferred language in which to read the page.

Honey Bee: Sentinel of the Environment was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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Immediate action is required to tackle the drastic decline in bee colonies throughout Europe and the rest of the world, say Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). The decline in the number of bees poses a threat not just to honey production but to the pollination of plants and hence to food production. Parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday pressing the Commission to take action.

The resolution, adopted by 485 votes in favour to 13 votes against with 5 abstentions, calls on the Commission to use the CAP Health Check to put in place measures encouraging the creation of ecological recovery zones in parts of fields that are difficult to cultivate.

Extensive research needed

MEPs call on the Commission to immediately step up further research into the parasites and diseases, as well as other potential causes such as erosion of genetic diversity and cultivation of genetically modified crops, decimating the bee population, while making additional budgetary resources available for this research.

Research is also needed to establish whether there is a link between the use of pesticides, such as thiamethoxam, imidacloprid, clothianidin and fipronil, on bee mortality, say MEPs.

Finance package for beekeepers in difficulty

Parliament urges the Commission to propose a financial aid mechanism should also be provided for beekeepers in difficulty, and ask that Member States bring forward “immediate support” for the beekeeping sector.

Action on imported apiculture products

In response to apiculture products imported into the EU, MEPs consider that action should be taken to tackle unfair competition from products originating in third countries and that imported honey should be analysed to detect the possible presence of American foulbrood bacteria, a disease that affects honey bees.

Future legislation on bees

The House calls on the Commission and the Council to give due consideration to the health of bees, the possibilities for marketing bee products and the economic impact on the beekeeping sector in all discussions and future legislative steps concerning the cultivation of genetically modified crops in the European Union.

Worrying facts

A report in National Geographic published a few years ago stated that bee numbers had dropped by up to 50%. Three quarters of food production (76%) is dependent on bees and 84% of vegetables grown in Europe depend on pollination.

The threat to bees comes partly from the use of modified and treated seed, which has led to a reduction in pollen and nectar, and partly from the reduction in agricultural set-aside land.

See also:
• Agriculture and Fisheries news from the European Parliament website at www.europarl.europa.eu.

Honey Bee Losses Threaten Food Supply, Says European Parliament was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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New Research will Help Honeybee Breeders out of a Sticky Situation

Prince George, BC — Canadians may have noticed that there were decidedly fewer bees buzzing about their gardens and parks this past summer.

In the past year alone, nearly 36 percent of all Canada’s honeybees died over winter, more than twice the normal mortality rate of 15 percent. The trend in BC is no less severe, with select geographic areas such as Vancouver Island and the Peace River District suffering far greater losses.

According to Paul van Westendorp, BC’s Provincial Apiculturist, these numbers are simply not sustainable for breeders, and pose serious environmental and economic risks, not to mention threatening the Province’s food supply.

“Reduced honey production is only the tip of the iceberg,” he says. “When we look at what bees do in the larger context of agriculture, which is most notable in terms of crop pollination, we are talking about a value of $200 to 300 million a year in BC alone.”

So why are the number of bees dropping at such an alarming rate? It seems that the mites and bacteria, which have plagued them for years, are becoming increasingly resistant to traditional treatments such miticides and antibiotics. The bees are unable to defend themselves, and those without natural genetic resistance inevitably die.

But a new Genome BC research project will soon put advanced genomics tools into the hands of bee breeders, enabling them select only the strongest, most resistant bees for breeding programs.

Dr. Leonard Foster is leading a one-of-a-kind research project entitled Apis mellifera Proteomics of Innate Resistance, announced at the BC Bee Breeders Association annual conference on October 24, 2008.

Dr. Foster (UBC) and his fellow investigators Dr. Stephen Pernal (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) and Dr. Katherine Baylis (UBC) will develop a set of tools to identify disease resistance in natural bee populations.

The researchers will use the bee genome to identify molecular markers of resistance to both mite and bacterial infections by doing proteomic analysis of different bee populations.

“By understanding the traits that make bees naturally resistant to pathogens the long-term hope is that beekeepers will no longer need to use miticides, fungicides, and antibiotics to control them,” says Foster. “We will be able to improve the efficiency of bee breeding by using protein markers to map desirable traits in bee families through generations.”

Michael Campbell, general manager of Campbell’s Gold Honey Farm and Meadery, keeps honeybees that pollinate valuable blueberry, cranberry, and pumpkin crops in BC’s Lower Mainland. “Recently we’ve been hit by mites that are resistant to most miticides. As a result, we have a very poor over-winter survival rate, which weakens the hive and makes it really hard to produce,” he says.

But Campbell remains optimistic about what Foster’s new research will allow them to accomplish. “What everyone is hoping for with this proteomic approach is that we will know what to look for in a disease-resistant bee, instead of guessing. Essentially, it will reduce our dependence on chemicals – something most bee keepers disdain, but are obliged to employ in order to save their hives.”

“Genome BC is very pleased to support such a critical and unique project,” says Dr. Alan Winter, President and CEO of Genome BC. “Honey bees provide immeasurable value both economically and in terms of our food supply. We look forward to the results that this project will yield, within the next two years.”

For van Westerndorp, those results won’t be a moment too soon. “We are running out of time. Our breeders can’t develop bee stock fast enough to keep up with the rate of disease.”

About this Project

The total investment for this project is $2.8 million. The project is also funded by UBC. It is one of a new suite of projects that is part of Genome BC’s Applied Genomics Innovation Program, designed to deliver results within two to three years. More information about the program can be found at www.genomebc.ca.

Photo credit: aussiegall

New Bee Breeding Research in Canada was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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• Colony Collapse Disorder: A Complex Buzz, originally published in Agricultural Research magazine (May 2008)
• Discovery Communications video: Bee Killer Hunted by Scientists (6:00 minutes, 2007). ARS researchers Jeff Pettis and Jay Evans at the ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Maryland explain some of the tactics that agency scientists have been using to try to develop a scientific understanding of colony collapse disorder.

• ARS-produced video: Colony Collapse Disorder (1:54, 2007). Bees are disappearing from their hives in dozens of states across the country—and in other countries. What’s causing it and how can it be stopped? ARS leads a nationwide effort to find answers.
• Disappearing Honeybees: National Public Radio host Diane Rehm and three distinguished guests discuss on-going research into CCD, and what’s at stake for American agriculture. Guests:
  • Dr. Kevin Hackett, national program leader for bees and pollination at the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
  • Michael Embrey, beekeeper and technical entomologist who runs the extension service for beekeeping at the University of Maryland
  • Dennis vanEngelsdorp, acting state apiarist for Pennsylvania’s department of agriculture
• Details of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Colony Collapse Disorder Action Plan are available in PDF (portable document format) at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/br/ccd/ccd_actionplan.pdf

If you know of any other authoritative reports or presentations about Colony Collapse Disorder that might be of interest to beekeepers, please feel free to share them in the comments section.

Round-Up of Reports on Colony Collapse Disorder was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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In recent years, honeybees (Apis mellifera) have been strangely disappearing from their hives, and strong colonies have suddenly become weak and died. The precise aetiology underlying the disappearance of the bees remains a mystery. However, during the same period, Nosema ceranae, a microsporidium of the Asian bee Apis cerana, seems to have colonized A. mellifera, and it’s now frequently detected all over the world in both healthy and weak honeybee colonies. For first time, we show that natural N. ceranae infection can cause the sudden collapse of bee colonies, establishing a direct correlation between N. ceranae infection and the death of honeybee colonies under field conditions. Signs of colony weakness were not evident until the queen could no longer replace the loss of the infected bees. The long asymptomatic incubation period can explain the absence of evident symptoms prior to colony collapse. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that healthy colonies near to an infected one can also become infected, and that N. ceranae infection can be controlled with a specific antibiotic, fumagillin. Moreover, the administration of 120 mg of fumagillin has proven to eliminate the infection, but it cannot avoid reinfection after 6 months. We provide Koch’s postulates between N. ceranae infection and a syndrome with a long incubation period involving continuous death of adult bees, non-stop brood rearing by the bees and colony loss in winter or early spring despite the presence of sufficient remaining pollen and honey. PMID: 18647336 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

It’s worth repeating that healthy colonies near to an infected one can also become infected. Treatment with fumagillin can control Nosema ceranae, but it can’t prevent the colony from becoming infected again after 6 months. And of special interest, perhaps, for our beekeepers who have experienced unusual over-wintering losses in recent years: “Signs of colony weakness were not evident until the queen could no longer replace the loss of the infected bees.”

Nosema Ceranae and Honeybee Colony Collapse was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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“If we want a diet that is more than gruel, we need our pollinators.”
– Dennis vanEngelsdorp (bee researcher, Pennsylvania State University/Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture)

For more information, visit www.vanishingbees.com

The Vanishing of the Bees was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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Nationwide honey bee losses of 35% over the winter of 2007-2008 are up from last year’s mortality rate of 29% of colonies, and more than double the long-term “normal” of 15% that Canadian beekeepers were accustomed to seeing before the arrival of the Varroa destructor mite in this country.

“Successive annual losses at levels exceeding the long-term average are unsustainable by Canadian beekeepers,” CAPA warns, “and are likely to lead to decreased honey production and shortages of colonies available for pollination. Indeed, more demand than supply was evident for pollination in British Columbia during the spring of 2008, where some blueberry pollination contracts were not entirely fulfilled.”

Honey Bee Losses in Canada (by Province) 2007-2008

Above-average losses hit Alberta (44%), British Columbia (38%) and Prince Edward Island (36%), with Ontario not far behind at 33% of colonies lost over the winter. New Brunswick beekeepers reported a better winter than in the past few difficult years, with losses of 29% of managed colonies. The lowest mortality rates were reported in Quebec and Nova Scotia, at 19% and 18% respectively.

These statistics refer to colony losses reported as of 30 May 2008, and they include losses due to spring dwindling as well as those honey bee colonies that died through the winter months. In Alberta, the spring dwindling component (14%) was defined as the number of weak colonies having three frames of bees or less.

“Though high losses for individual producers may occur in any given year, high regional losses are of potentially greater concern,” says CAPA. “Across the country any unusually high losses have been investigated by provincial apicultural specialists. Initial indications suggest that these losses may be attributed to the three principal causes, listed in descending order of importance”:

1. Ineffective control and mismanagement for the parasitic mite, Varroa destructor;
2. Inadequate control of the internal parasites Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae; and
3. Starvation. Inadequate nectar flows and fall feeding in some areas prevented colonies from storing enough nectar or sugar syrup to survive all through the winter.

Comparable 2007-2008 Losses by US Beekeepers

The Canadian experience matches that of beekeepers in the United States, where surveys commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and the USDA-ARS Beltsville Honey Bee Lab recorded a total loss of 36% for managed honey bee colonies in 2008. This represents an increase of 13.5% increase in total losses compared with the US figures for 2007.

“The survey commissioned by the AIA was not able to differentiate between true cases of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and colonies lost due to causes that share the ‘absence of dead bees’ symptom that is typically associated with CCD,” the CAPA report notes.

Interestingly, “at least 71% of all operations had no CCD-like symptoms in any of their colonies that perished, underlying the need for research, not only into CCD, but into pollinator health in general.”

Winter Honey Bee Losses in Canada 2007-2008 was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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A researcher at the institute, Ruchira Tiwari, said: “Using cow urine we have seen that within 7-8 days the breed becomes healthy. The workers work as cleaners and the queen bee lays the eggs. After the urine is sprayed on them, the workers start working more efficiently and then take out unhealthy larva from the eggshells.”

“Sometimes the most bizarre treatments can be used to get great results,” says Independent Television News reporter Lynsey Hooper, who brings this story to video:

Cow Urine for Honey Bees was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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The report is described as an update on the CCD situation “in light of recent discovery of the link between CCD and Isreali Acute Paralysis Virus.” It is available as a PDF file from the News section of the CAPA website, www.capabees.com.

Recent Developments in Colony Collapse Disorder was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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Here’s a quick “summary of the summary” —
For details, please see David VanderDussen’s article at http://www.honeycouncil.ca/users/folder.asp?FolderID=6171.

Dennis vanEngelsdorp:
Update on CCD in America

“The current situation in the US is in flux, but there are reports of up to 90% colony losses in CA in colonies staged for 2008 almond pollination, occurring over a 2-week period,” Dennis vanEngelsdorp reported. “No single factor explains CCD, and multi-factor analysis has been initiated to see which factors in combination may cause collapse.”

He noted that residues of the active ingredients in Apistan® and Checkmite+® (i.e., fluvalinate and coumaphos respectively) can build up in both wax and pollen within the hive, reaching levels where the pollen becomes toxic to bees.

Richard Rogers:
Opportunities for Improving Honey Bee Health

Resistance to Apistan® and Checkmite+® are now widespread, Richard Rogers reported. He identified Varroa control as the key management issue for beekeepers. “Queens have been found emerging with varroa from their cells and with Deformed-Wing Virus.”

Dr. Albert Robertson:
Saskatraz Breeding Project

Dr. Robertson discussed the Saskatraz project, aimed at breeding “productive, gentle honey bees with tolerance to mites and brood diseases” identified by natural selection and monitored for honey production, Varroa levels, and other factors.

One particularly interesting point: “It was concluded that severe varroa infestations can cause CCD symptoms and experiments are under way to test whether severe mite stress can trigger pathogenic virus expression.” The breeding program continues.

Dr. Robert Currie:
Varroa Mite Resistance & Tolerance in Selected Honey Bees – “Environmental Impact”

Dr. Currie discussed mite loads and the thresholds that beekeepers should strive to stay under, as well as the winter activity of Varroa mites and Varroa tolerance indicators for those involved in breeding programs. He emphasized the need for beekeepers to “stay on top of monitoring their mite infestation levels and apply a registered treatment of formic acid (or some other acaricide) early in fall to make sure early or late fall thresholds are not exceeded.”

Dr. Ernesto Guzman:
Alternative Treatment for Varroa Mite Control

Dr. Guzman talked about the process leading to focusing on three methods of applying thymol that will be further assessed this year. He reported the results of thymol test already conducted, and indicated that temperature is a significant factor.

Dr. Stephen Pernal:
Nosema

In Dr. Pernal’s session, following a detailed discussion of both Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae, a question was raised about the effective time frame for FumagilinB after the bees take it up and store it in the hive, when fed as recommended.

Answer: “Based on older work, it is clear that if fumagillin is fed at prescribed doses, any medicated feed stored in the comb retains some activity until the spring…. The activity is no doubt lower than in the fall, but it reinforces the fact that the reason the treatment works is that bees continue to consume the medicated feed throughout the winter.”

Treatments for nosema control being tested at Beaverlodge Research Farm included “various dosages and application techniques” of fumagillin, thymol, albendazole and VitaGold. Of these, fumagillin was most effective in trials.

See:
• Summary of Take Home Messages- CHC — AGM January 2008 — For Mite Control, Nosema, and an IPM Strategy for Canada
  Canadian Honey Council
  2008 Symposium Theme: Colony Health
  David VanderDussen, NOD Apiary Products, Ontario

Mite Control, Nosema, and an IPM Strategy for Canada was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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• New Honey Bee Exhibits at Canada’s Virtual Museum & Agriculture Museum
• Suspect Named in Canadian Bee Losses

Joanne Moran, secretary of the NS Beekeepers Association, told Farm Focus that beekeepers took extra care with management last year, and in preparing their bees for winter. “And the weather co-operated.”

Moran attributes Nova Scotia’s winterkill of 18.4% to starvation, ineffective mite managements, and/or the effects of Nosema ceranae, which has “taken over” from Nosema apis in that province.

See:
• NS Bees Look Good by Heather Jones
  Farm Focus of Atlantic Canada: 8 May 2008

Nova Scotia Bees are Looking Strong was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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Until recently, however, the state of Utah seemed to be successfully dodging CCD.

The Tribune story tells of commercial beekeeper Gary Dutson, whose family has kept bees for more than 70 years. He built up to 4000 hives last fall , then unexplained die-offs cost him half of the colonies. As a result, Dutson says he has had to sell of 500 acres of the family farm.

The replacement cost of the lost colonies is estimated at $130,000 USD, and Dutson says he has just barely enough hives to meet his pollination commitments to the Utah orchards. Any further losses may put him out of business.

The article goes on to look at other recent bee losses in the state, some of which are being attributed to “indiscriminate spraying by irresponsible property owners” who have not caught up to the new laws regarding pesticide use.

Other culprits blamed for bee losses include the stress of long-distance travel for pollination, infestation by Varroa mites that are increasingly resistant to chemical treatments, and viral diseases carried by the mites or more devastating to the mite-weakened bees.

Whatever the cause of unusual bee losses, the effect is considerable: Utah honeybee stock has dropped from 47,000 colonies in 1992 to 23,000 colonies today.

See:
• Utah bee population hit by deadly disease, crops could be affected
  by Dawn House /The Salt Lake Tribune
  05 May 2008
• Utah honeybees in decline
  Associated Press / KUTV.com
  05 May 2008

CCD Blamed for Honey Bee Losses in Utah was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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Please note that these are preliminary averages and the amounts may change as more people are able to inspect their hives.

Winter Bee Losses Down in New Brunswick was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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Urban Honey is a 4-minute documentary video by student filmmaker Matt Fisher, about an unconventional San Francisco man who keeps bees in his urban backyard.

Jon Rolston originally wanted to raise chickens, but thought they might attract rats and rile up the neighbours… so he settled for a hive of bees. Rolston’s approach to apiculture, not to mention some of his beekeeping methods, may raise a few eyebrows among more experienced beekeepers, but the video itself is nicely crafted with some beautiful close-up shots of the backyard hive.

Enjoy!

Thanks to Michael Martine for spotting this video and sending in the link.

Urban Honey: Video was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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“If you can get 50 strong healthy hives on a medium sized truck and get them to a grower who is desperate for bees in his orchard,” says Kim Flottum, “you can make yourself some good money. At $150/colony, that truckload of bees amounts to $7,500 for a couple hours work. Not a bad night’s haul.”

Beekeepers know that it’s a challenge enough to do the rounds of distant bee yards for the normal purposes of hive maintenance and inspection — imagine trying to arrange round-the-clock protection for those hives sent out to pollination, isolated in the middle of enormous orchards where they may rest unattended for days at a time.

Apparently the incidence of hive theft is high enough that some pollination services are hiding GPS tracking devices inside their hives, to track any unexpected movements, while smaller beekeepers pour money into electric fences, motion detectors, and burglar alarms.

This is not the first time that honeybee thieves have made the news.

Back in 2002, honey prices in Great Britain hit a profitable high when tainted honey from China led to a ban on those imports and a national honey shortage. A rash of hive thefts from outlying yards and bakyards, notably in the Devon area of England, were attributed to the increased demand for honey — in short, hive heists were paying well enough to be worth the risk for well-veiled criminals.

A few “off-beat news” reporters have been playing 2008’s “hive heists” for comedy — but what the jokers are missing is that the consequences may be far-reaching and serious.

When hundreds of hives are stolen from an orchard or field at a critical time of blooming, the odds are slim that replacement bees can be brought in quickly enough to complete the pollination — and that is assuming that it would even be possible to locate more bees for hire. Disrupted pollination means lower yields for important food crops, a negative effect on the farmers’ families and communities, and higher food prices for all of us.

See also:

• Bee hive heist [video]
  WCBD-TV / NBC News Channel : San Joaquin, California
  9 March 2008
• Beekeepers get stung by hive heists as California nut trees bloom
  Garance Burke, Associated Press : Herald, California
  6 March 2008

Bee Hive Thefts on the Rise in USA was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.

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