Welcome to The BIP Box! The BIP Box is a new feature in partnership with PAm. Here we will give you short updates on our BIP Tech Teams and BIP projects. We look forward to partnering with PAm to help get the word out on BIP activities through their newsletter. Please join us here each month to learn what we are seeing. Honey flows start, supers are going on and that means a bounty of samples The summer field season is hard upon us and all of our tech teams are sampling their beekeepers to complete health assessments before honey supers go on. This means that our…
The BIP Box: May
May showers bring June flowers…and the BIP National Loss Survey results The month of May always heralds the release of preliminary results from our BIP National Loss survey. But before we get into the results and what those mean, May Tech Team sampling resulted in averages of Nosema and Varroa loads across all tech teams at 0.75 million spores/bee and 0.55 mites/100 bees respectively. Our preliminary loss report was posted on May 10th with more than 5,700 beekeepers responding. Colony losses in 2015-2016 inched up to an annual total loss of 44.1% with increases in both summer (28.1%) and winter (28.1%) total losses. You can…
The BIP Box: April
A busy April…and, as always, a challenging month for weather As we wait for the results from the almond bee bread samples taken in February and March, our teams are gearing up for a very busy season. It is always fascinating to follow crop pollination events, find out who is making splits, how queen production is faring and what weather patterns are either cooperating or wreaking havoc. So far in April, both nosema and Varroa loads have remained low, averaging across all tech teams at 0.73 million spores/bee and 0.31 mites/100 bees respectively. Here is the news from our tech teams across the country. Texas:…
The BIP Box: March Madness
Splitting colonies coming out of almonds this year has been difficult for some of our beekeepers affected by the sudden loss of much of the brood raised near the end of almond pollination. The jury is still out, but symptoms look very similar to the bee kill that occurred in 2014 and may be due to fungicides or IGRs (or combination of both). Some of our tech teams have spent the last 2 weeks making the rounds to beekeepers, taking samples from bee bread, pupae, and eclosed bees that just can’t make it out of the cells. We are working closely with the California Department…
The BIP Box: February
It is February 18th as we write this with most of our BIP commercial operations in almonds. The weather has been perfect for sampling and as far as we know, none of our teams have been stuck in the mud. They’ve been extremely busy going through colonies in CA, TX and FL. The Maryland Lab is working on overdrive to process thousands of samples, turning them around in time to be able to make near real time management changes. January averages for varroa were at 0.70 mites/100 bees from all the teams and are holding at 0.51 mites/100 bees thus far in February. Those bees…
The BIP Box: January
Welcome The BIP Box! Our newest feature also being presented on Project Apis m. Here we will give you short updates on our BIP Tech Teams and BIP projects. We look forward to partnering with PAm to help get the word out on BIP activities. Please join us here each month to learn what we are seeing. January found us meeting with our tech teams and holding our first BIP stakeholder meetings at both national conferences. Thank you to all that attended and participated! We are concerned about high mite loads in some areas as well as accompanying high losses with associated risks of not…
Introduction to Megan Wannarka, Senior Laboratory Technician with Midwest Tech Team
As the newest member of the Bee Informed Partnership and Midwest Tech Team, I am learning quickly the ins and outs of the BIP team, sampling techniques, lab diagnostics, and the best part, meeting lots of beekeepers and asking questions. I have been lucky enough to work 4 races (Italian, A. ligustica; Carniolan, A. carnica; Russian, A. caucasica; and African, A. scutellata respectively) of honey bees in 4 different countries (United States, Senegal, The Gambia, and Grenada, respectively) over the past 6 years. Seeing how commercial beekeepers work at a much larger scale is fascinating to me and from what I have seen so far,…
Interpreting and Understanding the Differences in Honey Bee Colony Loss Numbers From Different National Surveys.
Over the last year, and for the first time, the National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS) conducted a survey to monitor colony losses. The Bee Informed Partnership (BIP), in collaboration with the Apiary Inspectors of America, has also recently published preliminary loss data covering the same time period. While the core purpose of these two surveys are the same, to track honey bee colony losses in the US, there are significant and important differences in survey design (questions asked), delivery, data presentation, and the methodology by which loss rates are calculated. These differences mean that dissimilarities in loss rates reported by both surveys are expected. This…
Nation’s Beekeepers Lost 44 Percent of Bees in 2015-16
Summer losses rival winter losses for the second year running Beekeepers across the United States lost 44 percent of their honey bee colonies during the year spanning April 2015 to April 2016, according to the latest preliminary results of an annual nationwide survey. Rates of both winter loss and summer loss—and consequently, total annual losses—worsened compared with last year. This marks the second consecutive survey year that summer loss rates rivaled winter loss rates. The survey, which asks both commercial and small-scale beekeepers to track the health and survival rates of their honey bee colonies, is conducted each year by the Bee Informed Partnership in…
The National Honey Bee Disease Survey: Varroa & Nosema in the US
The National Honey Bee Disease Survey investigates honey bee apiaries throughout the US to see if three exotic honey bee pests are still absent from our shores. Samples collected from 41 states and two territories reveal that we are still free of the Tropilaelaps mite, Slow bee paralysis virus, and the Asian honey bee Apis cerana. If you think varroa is tough to manage, its diminutive cousin Tropilaelaps can reproduce much faster, resulting in many more mites feeding on developing honey bee larvae. We don’t want any of these three exotics as they would add additional stress and pressure to honey bee health. Make a call…