I was fortunate enough to spend my semester interning for the VanEngledorp lab. Throughout my internship I got a firsthand look at how a lab functions and was able to participate. Mainly I would clean and prep samples for the various services this lab provides for apiaries. However, occasionally I would help with checking apiary samples for varroa. What I found to be most interesting to learn from this lab, was the benefits of honey for your body. This Is because I love to learn about how to achieve and maintain a healthy well-being, which is why im majoring in kinesiology. For example in a recent medical case…
Year: 2013
An Intern’s Intro to Honey Bees
This past semester, I have been working as an undergraduate intern in Dr. vanEngelsdorp’s honey bee lab at the University of Maryland. My previous bee knowledge consisted of only a few fun facts learned in intro biology courses and some honey extracting methods learned while working with another professor in the entomology department here at UMD. Needless to say, my expertise in honey bees has vastly grown. I could tell you the differences between a queen, drone, and worker bee and why they do a few of the many amazing things they do. More specifically, I have been working on a Nosema spore project. Along…
European Foulbrood (EFB)
EFB is often found when nectar flows are sporadic or there is an insufficient number of nurse bees to attend brood. How does EFB spread? European Foulbrood (Melissococcus plutonius) is transmitted when the bacteria become mixed with the bee bread, nectar or diluted honey, and then fed to young larvae. The bacteria then replicate in the larvae mid-gut, killing the larvae within 4-5 days. This causes the larvae to die before sealed in most cases. When the larvae dies it is left in a “stomach-ache” position making it look contorted or twisted in the cell. If the larvae are fed a small amount of the…
Apitherapy: Bee Healthy!
People have long venerated bees for their honey production and crop pollination. Few people know that bees can do more than that. Bee byproducts are now widely used as health supplements, and doing something as simple as eating local honey can give you health benefits. This blog will review a few common bee byproducts and their physiological benefits. Honey Besides being a delicious sweetener, honey has been proven to be useful in medicine. One of the proven applications is the use of honey as a wound dressing. In this it has been shown to reduce healing times and scarring when used on wounds, even in…
Using Pollen Traps, and Processing Pollen Samples
Installing pollen traps onto your honey bee colonies can provide many benefits. First off, you can harvest the pollen granules from a hive for human consumption. Bee pollen is marketed as a “Nutrient Rich Superfood,” and is sold at various health stores. While there has not been much research into the potential benefits of taking bee pollen as a nutritional supplement, some people swear that it is a cure for many different ailments. At the UMD lab, I seem to be the only person that has mildly enjoyed the taste. If you do decide to harvest pollen from your bees, make sure that you leave enough for…
BQCV (Black Queen Cell Virus)
So what is a virus? A virus is an infectious agent that parasitizes a host cell to replicate. Viruses can cause clinical symptoms, larvae death, or no symptoms at all. BQCV is caused by a virus in the family Dicistroviridae. BQCV is in the genus Cripavirus, which is different from other viruses like Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV), Israeli Acute Bee Paralysis (IAPV) and Kashmir Bee Virus (KBV) in the genus Aparavirus. Dicistroviruses infect many common insects like ants, bees, flies, leafhoppers, and aphids. The queen production industry is more likely to see this virus (hence its name) but it is still found in smaller…
Blueberry Pollination in Maine Video
Here is a video I helped produce introducing commercial lowbush blueberry pollination in Maine. As part of a Specialty Crops Research Initiative (SCRI) project, this video series comes from the project titled 'Pollination Security in the Northeast' . We interviewed blueberry growers, beekeepers, and the researchers involved in this project to get to the bottom of, how blueberries are pollinated, the challenges, and some of the work this SCRI group is doing to improve pollination security of lowbush blueberry. Native bees are real important in bringing in the lowbush blueberry crop, overall, but commercial honey bees are real important, especially on the large commercial fields.…
Last Minute Winter Prep
As in the courageous worker ant from the fable, we beekeepers know that winter requires preparation starting in the summer. Bees spend their whole year building strong stores to allow a small fraction of their pairs to cluster around the queen all winter long and launch the colony as soon as possible in the following spring. Winter preparation varies according to your region, but in the end, the core of the winter preparation is always the same: check your hives food stores and feed if necessary, reduce the size of the hive to the size of the cluster (you don’t want to give them too…
How dogs’ incredible sense of smell can help beekeepers
Dogs are truly amazing, not only for their loyalty and affection but also for their incredible sense of smell. Hence,make sure that you are availing the best products for the best dog to make it stronger and smarter. Dog Gear Wise can help you to reach out the best dog products you can also visit it .It is common knowledge that their nose easily overpowers our own. In fact, it’s approximately 10,000 times better according to researchers at FSU. If you make use of the affordable dog day training available, they can be more efficient. James Walker describes it well: "If you make the analogy…
Growing Concern Over Chemical Synergism in Beehives
Honeybees are hoarders, they accumulate good things like different types of nectar and pollen, but like hoarders there are some unintended consequences to bringing in all of that forage. That consequence is the accumulation of different pesticides. We also add to their pesticide load when we treat for diseases. A study of hive samples in 2007-2008 found as many as 39 chemical residues in a hive, an average of six residues across hives, and the presence of at least one type of chemical in 98 percent of hives! To me this poses the question: how are the bees coping with these chemicals? We know that…