Monsanto’s Mon810 corn, genetically engineered to produce a synthetic version of the insecticide Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), has been banned in Poland following pro- tests by beekeepers who showed the corn was killing honeybees. Meanwhile, commercial beekeepers in the U.S. have filed an emergency legal petition with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to suspend use [...]]]>

Monsanto’s Mon810 corn, genetically engineered to produce a synthetic version of the insecticide Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), has been banned in Poland following pro- tests by beekeepers who showed the corn was killing honeybees.

Meanwhile, commercial beekeepers in the U.S. have filed an emergency legal petition with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to suspend use of a pesticide that is linked to massive honey bee deaths. The legal petition, which specifies Bayer’s neonicotinoid pesticide clothianidin, is backed by over one million citizen petition signatures.

Poland is the first country to formally acknowledge the link between Monsanto’s genetically engineered corn and the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that’s been devastating bees around the world, but it’s likely that Monsanto has known the danger their GMOs posed to bees all along. The biotech giant recently purchased a CCD research firm, Beeologics, that government agencies, including the US Department of Agriculture, have been relying on for help unraveling the mystery behind the disappearance of the bees.

Now that it’s owned by Monsanto, it’s very unlikely that Beeologics will investigate the links, but genetically engineered crops have been implicated in CCD for years now.

In one German study, when bees were released in a genetically engineered canola field, then fed the canola pollen to younger bees, scientists discovered the bacteria in the guts of the young bees took on the traits of the canola’s modified genes. That proves that GMO DNA in pollen can be transferred to bees though their digestive system.

Many bee-keepers have turned to high-fructose corn syrup to feed their bees. High-fructose corn syrup is made from Monsanto’s genetically engineered corn and that corn is treated with Bayer’s neonicotinoid insecticides.

Bee colonies began disappearing in the U.S. one year after the EPA allowed these new insecticides on the market in 2004-2005. Even the EPA itself admits that “pesticide poisoning” is contributing to bee colony collapse.

One of the observed effects of these insecticides is weakening of the bee’s immune system. Forager bees bring pesticide-laden pollen back to the hive, where it’s consumed by all of the bees. Six months later, their immune systems fail, and they fall prey to natural bee infections, such as parasites, mites, viruses, fungi and bacteria. Indeed, pathogens such as Varroa mites, Nosema, fungal and bacterial infections, and IAPV are found in large amounts in honey bee hives on the verge of collapse.

Three recent studies implicate neonicotinoid insecticides, or “neonics” for short, which coat 142 million acres of corn, wheat, soy and cotton seeds in the U.S. alone. They are also a common ingredient in a wide variety of home gardening products. As detailed in an article published by Reuters, neonics are absorbed by the plants’ vascular system and contaminate the pollen and nectar that bees encounter on their rounds. Neonics are a nerve poison that disorient their insect victims and appear to damage the homing ability of bees, which may help to account for their mysterious failure to make it back to the hive.

This was the conclusion of research which came out in the prestigious Journal Science. In another study, conducted by entomologists at Purdue University, the scientists found that neonic-containing dust released into the air at planting time had “lethal effects compatible with colony losses phenomena observed by beekeepers.” A third study by the Harvard School of Public Health actually re-created colony collapse disorder in several honeybee hives simply by administering small doses of a popular neonic, imidacloprid.

Learn How to Protect Your Neighborhood Bees:
http://www.honeybeehaven.org/

The class spans two consecutive Saturdays beginning May 5th at the Dauphin County [...]]]> This year marks the 25th holding of the Capital Area Beekeeper’s Association’s much heralded Short Course on Beekeeping. The 2 day class covers all aspects of beekeeping and includes class-time in an apiary where attendees get to observe many common beekeeper duties.

The class spans two consecutive Saturdays beginning May 5th at the Dauphin County Agriculture & Natural Resources Center; and concludes the following Saturday, May 12th at the Anderson Apiary in Palmyra. Some seating is still available. To learn more and register see the brochure.

Lunch is provided on day one.

Instructors for the class are among the area’s most respected apiarists and researchers including Jim Hoover, Short Course Director, and Pennsylvania’s 2010 Beekeeper of the Year; Maryann Frazier, Sr. Extension Associate, Penn State University, Department of Entomology, as well as master beekeepers from around the Central Pennsylvania region.

Class topics cover bee biology, seasonal hive management techniques, pollination, bee diseases, how-to’s of setting up a hive, harvesting and marketing hive products and much more.

Beginner beekeepers will find the class packed full of practical tips and tricks for making beekeeping an enjoyable hobby and experience for the whole family.

New beekeepers network with experienced beekeepers in their community and enjoy the benefits afterwards through CABA’s Mentoring Program.

Honey bees are abandoning their hives and being turned into “zombies” by a deadly fly parasite in their stomachs. The parasite makes the bees flee their hives and then walk round and round in circles before dying. It also makes them seek out bright lights.

Dead Honeybees

The [...]]]> by Mike Swain, Daily Mirror 4/01/2012

Honey bees are abandoning their hives and being turned into “zombies” by a deadly fly parasite in their stomachs. The parasite makes the bees flee their hives and then walk round and round in circles before dying. It also makes them seek out bright lights.

Dead Honeybees

The parasite lays its’ eggs inside the abdomen of the honey bee. About a week after the bee dies, the pupae emerge from the throats and heads of the dead bees.

Scientists discovered the parasite by accident but they believe it may help them discover what is causing colony collapse disorder which is devastating honey bees in Europe and America cutting some populations in half.

Biology professor John Hafernik, of San Francisco State University, discovered the parasite by accident when collecting bees. Researchers found that after being invaded by the parasite, the bees abandon their hives in what is literally a flight of the living dead to congregate near lights.

“When we observed the bees for some time — the ones that were alive — we found that they walked around in circles, often with no sense of direction,” said Andrew Core, an San Francisco State graduate student from Hafernik’s lab who is the lead author on the study in the journal Plos One.

Bees usually just sit in one place, sometimes curling up before they die, said Core. But the parasitised bees were still alive, unable to stand up on their legs.

“They kept stretching them out and then falling over,” he said. “It really painted a picture of something like a zombie.”

Different theories from a virus to a fungus or the influence of pesticides have been put forward for causing colony collapse disorder. Professor Hafernik believes the parasite, called Apocephalus borealis, may be changing the bees’ “body clocks.”

The scientists don’t know if the bees with parasites are leaving the hives of their own free will or are being thrown by others who realise they have become different.

Bees that left the hives at night were more likely to bear the parasite than those who foraged during the day, the researchers found. Bees are very well studied so scientists believe the parasite is a new threat. It is similar to one being found in bumblebees.

[Ed.Note: Read the study at Plos One. See: "A New Threat to Honey Bees, the Parasitic Phorid Fly Apocephalus borealis]

1. Comply with all homeowner association, local. state. and federal ordinances, regulations. and laws [...]]]> The following list comes courtesy of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and provides a great overview of the apiary practices and precautions that should be employed by all beekeepers, novice and seasoned expert alike. Recommended practices for maintaining honey bees includes:

1. Comply with all homeowner association, local. state. and federal ordinances, regulations. and laws pertaining to beekeeping.

2. Maintain strong, healthy, populous colonies.

a. Remove or securely seal all empty hive equipment.
b. Remove or combine all weak colonies.
c. Treat or remove all disease and/or pest infested colonies.
d. Report disease and/or pest infested colonies to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Office of Plant and Pest Services (Department).

3. Practice proper management and control techniques to prevent colonies from swarming.

4. Maintain all colonies at least 10 feet away from property lines.

5. Place all colonies less than 40 feet from property lines behind a barrier no less than 6 feet in height. Barriers should be of sufficient density to establish bee flyways above head height.

6. Maintain a water source within 50 feet of colonies or less than one half the distance to the nearest unnatural water source, which ever is closest for urban and suburban apiaries.

7. Remove or relocate an apiary that is within 50 feet of any animal that is tethered. penned. kenneled, or otherwise prevented from escaping a stinging incident.

8. Avoid opening or disturbing colonies when neighbors or the general public are participating in outside activities or using machinery within 150 feet of an apiary.

9. Maintain colonies with honey bee races certified as European honey bees (EHB).

a. Purchase queens, packaged bees, and nucleus colonies from certified EHB suppliers.
b. Requeen when making divisions and splits of established colonies.
c. Replace queens in all captured or trapped swarms.
d. Replace queens in all colonies every two years.
e. Mark or clip queens prior to introduction to splits. swarms. and colonies.
f. Replace all unmarked or unclipped queens within 21 days of discovery.

10. Replace queens and destroy all drone brood in colonies exhibiting defensive behavior that may be injurious to the general public or domesticated animals.

a. Report all colonies suspected of being overly defensive or non EHB to the Departments .
b. Collect and submit samples of worker bees from the brood area of suspected nonEHB colonies to the Department.
c. Depopulate within 7 days of notification all colonies determined to be from a pure or hybrid non EHB race.

11. Obtain queens from suppliers located outside of Africanized honey bee (AHB) infested areas or localities adjacent to AHB infested areas.

12. In the event that AHB is shown to occur in a locality where an apiary is located:

a. Annually replace queens in all colonies with queens produced from certified EHB stock.
b. Maintain a copy of EHB certification for all queens purchased.
c. Encourage the destruction of all captured or trapped swarms.
d. Requeen, within 14 days with certified EHB queens, any swarms captured or trapped in localities adjacent or in proximity to an AHB infested area.
e. Maintain and monitor at least one baited trap or hive in the vicinity of each apiary located in an AHB infested area.

Africanized honey bees are prodigious honey-producers [...]]]> We’ve been moving content from the Yahoo pages to the website and came across this great bullet list of things to know about Africanized honey bees. It was gleaned from Ann Harman’s presentation at our Nov09 meeting about her adventures studying and working with “killer bees” around the world.

Africanized honey bees are prodigious honey-producers and out pace European honey bee production by a wide margin. That’s the upside.

The down side of keeping Africanized bees–or stumbling on a colony in the wild–is they attack in overwhelming numbers, literally by the hundreds, often without provocation. For that reason, you’ll recall, Ann suggested Africanized bees be kept widely separate from tethered livestock or pets and children’s play areas.

As you’ll see in this amateur video by an exterminator, at 12ft from the hive opening a swirling cloud of attacking bees forms. Despite the great distance he retreats to escape, swarming bees can be seen attacking and breaching his bee suit…

Yikes!

The good news for Pennsylvania beekeepers is this bee has not been spotted above the 35th parallel. So far, it seems our cold winters help keep Africanized bees well south of us. Ohio State University has a nice fact sheet about this bee if you’d like to learn more.

This is Ann’s list of things to know about apismellifera scutellata (Africanized Honey Bee):

1. Africanized bees are acclimating to temperate zone environments.

2. In as little as 2 generations a hive of Italian bees can be transformed into a colony of Africanized bees.

3. Africanized bees *ARE NOT* “killer bees” but rather “overly defensive” bees.

4. Waving a black cloth with banana scent on it in front of a hive (like TV film crews do) is probably *NOT* a good idea. It’s about pheromones.

5. It is nearly impossible to prevent swarming (perhaps several times a season) of Africanized bee colonies.

6. Honey production is robust and harvesting can often be done right in the bee yard.

7. Africanized hives flourish best when the hive is in and amongst ground cover or overhanging fauna.

8. Be prepared to run at least 1/4 mile (1,320 feet!) before Africanized bees will break off pursuit.

9. Run through bushes and dense brush to dislodge stinging bees and prevent further attack.

10. Africanized queens will exit the hive when it is disturbed making it difficult to find/remove them.

11. Do not tether pets/live stock in the vicinity of Africanized colonies.

12. Complete-coverage bees suits are a must when working Africanized bees. Remember to take duck-tape to patch rips.

13. When working Africanized hives, copious amounts of smoke are necessary. Large-size smokers are recommended.

14. Best gloves for working the bee yard are yellow rubber dish washing gloves. Better fit, more accurate point-of-contact feeling.

15. To cull a hive, prepare 1 bucket warm water mixed with 2 tablespoons of dish detergent. Remove lid and inner cover. Pour solution directly into the hive, drenching all frames. This method allows all wood ware to be reused once dry.

The purpose of the [...]]]> CABA was recently contacted by the Pollinator Partnership, headquartered in San Francisco, and asked to join thousands of scientists, academics, professional and hobbyist beekeepers and concerned citizens across the country, in calling for congress to pass the Highways Bettering the Economy and the Environment Act otherwise known as the Highway BEE Act.

The purpose of the legislation is to encourage state and local governments to save energy and budget monies by not mowing median strips along highways. Instead, the initiative calls for planting of indigenous flora and fauna to help beautify roadways and save money through reduced maintenance costs. More importantly, the Act seeks to address the decline of pollinators generally–including honeybees–by setting aside these roadway areas for the cultivation of natural habitat. Some studies show the problem of CCD, for example, can, in many instances, be linked to the loss of pollinators natural habitat due to industry and urban expansion.

An undeniable consequence of declining pollinator numbers is a marked reduction in yield per acre over the past few years. Growers are forced to employ the use of chemicals and growth promoters in order to achieve acceptable crop yields. Of course this is only a band-aid treatment that doesn’t address the root problem, namely disappearing habitat and over use of herbicides and pesticides. By growing flowering plants along the nations highways it is hoped the population of pollinators can be coaxed upward. Only time will tell.

You can read the Highway BEE Act here. (PDF document)

Our members represent all levels of expertise. We welcome new beekeepers to join us and benefit from the wealth of experience and know-how represented [...]]]> This is web home for the Capital Area Beekeeper’s Association headquartered in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. We serve beekeepers professional and hobbyist alike in Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Juniata, Lebanon and Perry counties.

Bee seeing you soon!