Are you ready for two weeks of fun for a great cause!? We are excited to share that our biggest fundraising event of the year will be LIVE from 12am (EDT) on October 24th through November 7th at 11:59pm! Join BIP for our 3rd annual Virtual Auction to explore and bid on over 100 items that have been generously donated by our friends across the industry to support a great cause! Check out the auction early at beeinformed.org and click “BID FOR BEES!” Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook & Instagram @beeinformedpartnership for details on items and donors! Help us to spread the word…
Category: Announcements
United States Honey Bee Colony Losses 2021-2022: Preliminary Results From The Bee Informed Partnership
Note: This is a preliminary analysis. Sample sizes and estimates are likely to change. A more detailed final report is being prepared for publication in a peer-reviewed journal at a later date. Download .pdf version here Dan Aurell1, Selina Bruckner1, Mikayla Wilson2, 3, Nathalie Steinhauer2, 3, *, Geoffrey Williams1, * 1Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA 2Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA 3Bee Informed Partnership, College Park, MD, USA *Joint last authors Corresponding Authors: nsteinha@umd.edu (NS) & williams@auburn.edu (GW) The Bee Informed Partnership (http://beeinformed.org) is a non-profit organization that works alongside beekeepers to improve honey bee…
Join The 2022 Mite-A-Thon!
Varroa destructor (Varroa), and the viruses it vectors is a significant driver of honey bee colony mortality. Yet, indicators suggest that many beekeepers are not monitoring honey bee colony Varroa infestations and therefore aren’t able to connect infestation to colony loss. Varroa are ectoparasites that breed in the cells of developing honey bees, feeding on bees and transmitting several harmful viruses as they do so. Though it is encouraging to see awareness of these formidable foes growing on all sides of the beekeeping community, it is worrying that recent research results show signs of increasing acaricide resistance in Varroa, and rising virulence of Varroa-vectored viruses.…
Sentinel Signup Now Ending May 1st – Register Now!
That's right! It is your last chance to register for Bee Informed Partnership's Sentinel Apiary Program and be a part of the exciting 2022 season! CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW! The Sentinel Apiary Program is a citizen-science program designed to help beekeepers become better at inspecting colonies, keeping better records, and making timely, data-driven management decisions. Sentinel participants receive educational resources and materials needed to inspect and sample their colonies. They also gain access to a number of online tools, instructional videos, a live webinar series, and more! We’ve also made a number of exciting changes to the program this year, which includes pesticide testing…
Sentinel Apiary Program 2021 Wrap-Up and 2022 Sign-Up
Authors: Rachel Kuipers, Jeri Parrent & Nathalie Steinhauer Here at Bee Informed Partnership, we are excited to announce that registration for the 2022 Sentinel Program is open now through the end of April! Don't delay - register today by completing the quick and easy online registration form here. This past season, there were 92 Sentinel participants who sampled over 500 colonies across 129 unique locations. The University of Maryland Honey Bee Lab processed 2,312 samples from Sentinel colonies throughout the season. That’s a lot of samples—a record for the program! We also reached eight of the nine NOAA climatic regions, as well as the non-continental…
BIP’s 2nd Annual Virtual Auction Happening Now!
Here at Bee Informed Partnership, we are often asked what people can do to help us make a positive impact on honey bees. Well, here is the perfect way for you to support our efforts to improve honey bee health and take home some great gifts to boot at BIP’s 2nd Annual Virtual Auction happening now! Until November 8th, 2021, you can bid on one or more of over 80 auction items and services that have been generously donated by the beekeeping industry and other friends of BIP. This includes a variety of beautiful, handcrafted items, such as encaustic paintings, bags, jewelry and gift boxes.…
This year’s Survey is mostly ‘new hat’!
Consistency is important. Not only in research but also in our daily lives and beekeeping. For example, as beekeepers we should consistently inspect our colonies for disease, for food stores, for adequate space! This is especially important at this time of the year when bees feel the urge to swarm. Another consistent activity we hope is in a beekeeper’s calendar: taking The Bee Informed Partnership’s Annual Colony Loss and Management Survey. As usual, the online survey went live on April 1st. In the first week, almost 2,000 beekeepers have participated. If you haven’t participated taken it yet, please consider doing so here: Take the survey.…
Sentinel Apiary Program 2020 Wrap-Up and 2021 Sign-Up
Happy New Year! The beginning of 2021 marks the end of the Sentinel Apiary Program's sixth successful year—and the beginning of an exciting new one. In 2020, beekeepers with 76 apiaries representing 394 colonies participated in the Sentinel Program. The University of Maryland lab processed almost 2,000 Sentinel samples over the season to monitor Varroa and Nosema! You can see in the map of Sentinel Apiary Locations shown below that we worked with beekeepers from six of the nine NOAA climatic regions (the regions with the most consistent climates across the US). The newly released Sentinel 2020 End of Year Report details 2020's seasonal data…
The Bee Health Collective, A Fantastic New Bee Health Tool
Image: https://beehealthcollective.org/
Are you a beekeeper looking to find or post a job? Are you a student looking for bee-related scholarships? Are you an educator or concerned citizen looking for accurate, up-to-date U.S. honey bee colony health statistics? If you answered yes to any or all of the above, then you should visit the Bee Health Collective’s website https://beehealthcollective.org and have a look around! The Bee Health Collective has designed a “one-stop shop” for all of your U.S. honey bee information needs, presented in a well-organized, easily navigated set of menus. In About Honey Bees you can find recent, accurate, peer-reviewed information on a range of honey…
The NEW Honey Bee Discovery Center in Orland
A few weeks ago, I was invited to the Honey Bee Discovery Center Kick-off and Exhibit Preview in Orland, California. This event was followed by the Queen Bee Festival the day after. The Honey Bee Discovery Center is ‘the first interactive exhibit and museum of its kind’. It highlights the history of beekeeping from hobbyists, sideliners and commercial operators’ perspectives, and features the evolution and breakthroughs in equipment, pollination and art inspired by bees. Inside the center, one can find multiple showcases of vintage bee equipment related to all apicultural activities, complete with an observation hive near the center of the room. All around the new…