To many beekeepers who keep a few colonies in their backyard or even for some who have 50 or 100 colonies, moving bees to pollination is not something they would ever consider. Just like reading the Travel section in the paper or travelogues by seasoned globetrotters, arm chair beekeepers can read what happened in almonds this year. Joe Traynor, owner of Scientific Ag. Co. (a pollination service and consulting company) was kind enough to allow us to blog his latest post-pollination letter here (click on link below). The newsletter is like reading a letter from a family member with some back-fence news included. It is…
Year: 2014
2013 Honey Extraction in Oroville, CA
Here is a video I put together a few months ago from a honey extraction. As you can see from the footage, I did not have the best set-up but still was able to extract with the tools available. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlF-_KwSEr0
Food and Farm on America’s Web Radio
Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp talking with Ray Bowman on Food and Farm from America's Web Radio
Oxalic Acid Fogger Demostration
When it comes to Varroa control, beekeepers have always been concerned about mites' resistance to commercial treatments available on the market. It seems the arms race never ends, but changing up treatments throughout the year can help ensure that resistant mites don't get a foothold. There is a lot of interest in alternative mite control methods, and one that may be a useful addition to the beekeeper's toolbox is oxalic acid. Oxalic acid is an organic, naturally occurring compound which can be found in high concentrations in certain plants, notably spinach, rhubarb, and and the aptly named Oxalis. These plants use it as a deterrent…
A “House Moment” in a Bee Lab Continued: Making the Connection
Remember our recent report concerning pesticides? I used a chemical reference database to go through the list and see if I could find any that were lipid-soluble. While many pesticides I looked at were not lipid-soluble, the four chemicals implicated in increasing honeybee vulnerability of Nosema infection in the study above are lipid-soluble. The clearest example is with the fungicide chlorothalonil due to the molecule’s relatively simple chemical structure. The aromatic ring makes the chemical lipid-soluble and the four chlorines make the molecule stable in the environment. Not to offend any honeybees reading our blog, but honeybees have fat! Ya’ll wear it well though ;)…
A “House Moment” in a Bee Lab: Background
The Bee Informed Partnership laboratory at University of Maryland, College Park participated in research to test for the presence of a wide range of pesticides in pollen samples of commercial honeybees. We wanted to know what bees were eating, how many pesticides were present in bee food and at what concentrations, and how pesticide use might correlate to Nosema infection. Nosema is a microsporidian gut-pathogen of honeybees that causes Nosemosis, a bee disease that weakens immune systems and harms colony health. Beekeepers and many in the agricultural community are paying close attention to Nosema due to the recent discovery of a new fungal pathogen, Nosema…