Editor -

Eugene Makovec
Advertising Manager -
Marta Menn
Publishing Department -
Dianne Behnke & Susan Nichols
info@americanbeejournal.com
www.americanbeejournal.com CONTENTS
Volume 159 No. 1 January 2019
DEPARTMENTS
ARTICLESS
Letters to the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . 11
• Eugene Makovec, Our New Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
News and Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 • Honey Bee Emergency Response: A Practical Guide for Responders
Andy Hemken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Classified
Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 • What’s In the Honey Jar?
M.E.A. McNeil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Advertising
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 • Guessing Our Future with Varroa — Part 2: Ways That Bees Can
Manage the Mite
Randy Oliver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

COLUMNS • Robber Bees!

Peter L. Borst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
The Classroom
Jerry Hayes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 • Treatment-free Beekeeping: A Practical Hands-On Approach — Part 2
Terry Combs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Bees and Beekeeping, Past and
Present • Modern Farm Myths
Wyatt A. Mangum . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Charles Linder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

The Curious Beekeeper • The Pesticide Situation

Rusty Burlew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Randy Oliver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Notes from the Lab: The Latest Bee • Integrated Pest Management: Let Nature Do What Nature Does Best
Science Distilled Greta Burroughs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Scott McArt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
• In Praise of the Hive Tool
The Scientific Trenches William Blomstedt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Alison McAfee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
• Bad News for Bumblebees
Christopher Wren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
The American Bee Journal • Bee Phobic to Beekeeper to Beekeeping Grandma!
ISSN 0002-7626 Suzanne D. Cohen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL (ISSN 002-7626)
is published monthly at American Bee Journal, 51
S. 2nd Street, Hamilton, IL 62341. Periodicals Post-
• Keep In Touch with Your Fellow Beekeepers
age Paid at Hamilton, IL and at additional mailing Howard Scott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
American Bee Journal, 51 S. 2nd Street, Hamilton, • My Time as the Essex County Honey Ambassador
IL 62341. In the United States, $28.00 a year; two
years, $53.00 and three years, $75.00. Canada Ryan Duggan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
$45.00 a year; two years $88.00. Foreign $52.00 a
year; two years $99.00. Subscriptions stop at expi- • Uganda Beekeeping Network Continues Expansion
ration date printed on label. Available in microfilm
form at moderate prices by writing to National Katie Coleman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Archive Publishing Co., 300 N. Zeeb Road, P.O.
Box 998, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. ©Copyright
Dadant & Sons, Inc., 2017. All rights reserved,
printed in USA. The Publishers cannot guarantee
ON THE COVER
advertisements in this magazine, but we ask that
any advertising complaints be made known to us,
This small apiary winter scene is typical for beekeepers in many of the
so we can further check the company’s reliability. northern states during the winter months. An additional upper entrance
Opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily
those of the publisher. American Bee Journal, 51 is recommended since lower entrances can become clogged with snow
S. 2nd St., Hamilton, IL 62341. (888) 922-1293. Fax and ice for extended periods.
(217) 847-3660.

January 2019 3
4 American Bee Journal
6 American Bee Journal
 Eugene Makovec, Our New Editor
Kirsten Traynor, our past editor, has resigned and moved on to other beekeeping
pursuits. We wish her all the best. Eugene Makovec, a long-time Missouri beekeeper, is
taking over as our new American Bee Journal editor. Eugene has been a beekeeper and
writer for many years and some of you may recognize his name from his articles in past
beekeeping magazines. We wish Eugene great success as he joins a long line of past ABJ
editors beginning with Samuel Wagner in 1861.

W
e always had bees on the
farm. It was usually about
three or four hives, but at
one point Dad was up to a dozen. I
don’t remember if he ever sold honey,
but between giveaways and 10 chil-
dren he managed to get rid of the
stuff.
Growing up, I thought the bees
were kind of cool. We played base-
ball in the small hayfield behind the
house, where a couple of hives sat in
the corner. If the ball went over there,
you just slowed down some as you
approached. We knew if we didn’t
bother them, they wouldn’t bother
us. Once I was standing out front
watching them when a random bee
bounced off my chest, spun a little
pirouette and then went around. I can
just hear its little GPS saying, “Recal-
culating …”
Throughout my entire childhood I
took only one sting from a honey bee,
and that was when I stepped barefoot
on a dandelion. Now bumbles …. but
that’s a story for another time.
Dad didn’t talk much about his
hobby, and I never had much interest.
I moved to Missouri, got a journalism
degree and ended up in photography
and printing. But if I headed home for
Christmas, or for any other reason, I
My dad’s old uncapping knife and duct-
taped smoker.
packed some empty jars for honey. I
remember using an ice cream scoop
to dispense it, hard granulated, from
one of two 10-gallon milk cans at the
top of the stairs. Now, Dad was one
of the smartest guys I’ve ever met,
but I can’t imagine why – or how – he
would lug that much honey up those
stairs. I guess that was just the best
place he could find to store it.
A combination of poor health and
the one-two punch of tracheal and
varroa mites finally forced my fa-
ther out of beekeeping. The couple
of hives still in the yard attracted the
occasional swarm (likely from the
Amish gentleman down the road),
but the bees didn’t last long.
I soon decided that it wasn’t the
same buying honey at the grocery
store. So in the fall of ’95, a friend and
I took a road trip to Wisconsin to pick Eugene Makovec, our new American Bee
up a few old hives and other miscel- Journal editor.
laneous loot. I ordered a package I bought a fancy (and expensive)
from Rossman Apiaries the following electric uncapping knife soon after I
spring and never looked back. started, but when I lost it in a move
Honey bees have pretty much almost a decade ago, I pulled out
ruled my life ever since. For over Dad’s old original and have been us-
two decades I’ve written, instructed, ing it ever since.
and talked beekeeping to anyone And just this fall, after backing the
who would listen. Along the way car over my smoker – incredibly, the
I’ve headed a local club, produced a only time I’ve ever done that - I dust-
newsletter for the Missouri State Bee- ed off the old duct-taped antique and
keepers, and even passed a state law pressed it into service until I was able
deregulating honey sales. to pick up a new one.
As for the aforementioned road-trip Now it’s time to dust off that jour-
loot, most notable were a galvanized nalism degree. When the folks at
4-frame Dadant extractor from the Dadant asked if I was interested, I al-
‘40s, a rusty smoker with duct-taped most laughed out loud. How could I
bellows, and an uncapping knife that not be interested? This is the American
was still razor-sharp. I ended up get- Bee Journal!
ting some use out of all three. Sure, there will be changes; that’s a
The extractor lasted me about five part of life. But ABJ is an institution; a
years, till I tried to unscrew the rust- hundred and fifty-eight years of tra-
ing spigot and instead busted a hole dition is not to be taken lightly.
in the side of the drum. Dadant had We have a great staff in place, and a
long since upgraded to stainless steel, fabulous group of writers. I can’t wait
and it was my turn to follow suit. I to get started!
later upgraded again to a 12-frame
electric to accommodate the dozen or Eugene Makovec, Editor
so hives I normally run. American Bee Journal

January 2019 7
8 American Bee Journal
January 2019 9
 Send your letters to the editor,
Attn: Eugene Makovec,
Dadant, 51 S. 2nd Street,
Hamilton, IL 62341,
Fax: 1-217-847-3660,
or email: editor@americanbeejournal.com
Due to size and content, we may be unable to publish all information received.
We may also edit your letter to avoid offensive language. Thank You!

HIVE SURVIVES THE

CALIFORNIA CAMP FIRE

On Thursday morning November

the 8th, we woke up to the beginning
of the Camp Fire. Within a very short
time, maybe less than an hour, we
had to evacuate our home with all the
pets we could gather and the clothes
on our back. Sadly, we had to leave
our hive behind as there just wasn’t
time to save them. We lost our home,
my car and the Veterinary Hospital I
worked for also burned. Needless to
say, I was so happy to see them flying
in and out of the hive when we were
finally able to get up there yesterday!
My mother works at the Chico Po-
lice Dept, and we were able to get an
escort up there to retrieve our remain-
ing goats, chicken, one cat and 3 of
my turtles, but there wasn’t time to
get the hive. Not to mention, all of my
and my husband’s beekeeping sup-
plies burned in the house, so even if I Our home and car were destroyed in the fire. Our surviving hive is in the background.
had time I didn’t have the equipment. (Erin Dickerson photos)
This morning I called Olivarez Honey
Bees (OHB) in Orland to see if they there is something to eat. This is still us, we are a 501(c)(3) non-profit orga-
could gain access to my property and a developing story as OHB is going nization responsible for researching
get those ladies to somewhere where to call me back this afternoon with a and collecting a variety of honey bee
plan. I have many pictures of our es- data and making it available for all to
cape out of town, as well as our prop- use.
erty after the fire that I took yesterday. A few of our projects include the
If you are interested in more details Colony Loss Map, Sentinel Apiary
let me know. I’m just so overjoyed Project, the National Management
that they survived, I wanted to share Survey, and supporting and manag-
this good news with everyone! ing the USDA APHIS National Honey
Bee Pest and Disease survey.
Erin Dickerson We house and maintain the larg-
California est honey bee health database in the
U.S. These data are public and free.
We also work closely with a large
PLEASE SUPPORT THE BEE number of commercial beekeepers
INFORMED PARTNERSHIP across the country to monitor colony
health and provide them with near
Bee Informed Partnership would real time data on the overall health of
like to take a moment to thank you their colonies so that they can make
and your club for educating and shar- data driven decisions that help them
ing the love and excitement of bee- support our national food security.
keeping with your community! We We would love to stay focused on
Erin Dickerson’s hive somehow survived happen to be huge fans of honey bees our research and to do that we de-
the devastating California Camp Fire that and of you. pend on your support. We are not a
destroyed so many homes in her area. For those who are not familiar with government organization and we are

January 2019 11

Bee researchers at work for the Bee Informed Partnership
able to remain independent and unbi-
ased in our work; however, we have
an ever growing need for additional
funding to push our efforts forward.
In this, the Season of Giving, we’d
like to ask you for a donation. All do-
nations are greatly appreciated and
are fully tax deductible!
Here are several ways you can
show your support – choose 1 or all!
• Donate via our website at Bee
Informed.org. Select to contrib-
ute as a “One Time” or “Month-
ly” supporter.
• Donate through our Facebook
Page at https://www.facebook.
com/BeeInformedPartnership
• Share this email and our Face-
book Fundraiser page with your
community
• Sign up to receive our Blogs
here at https://beeinformed.
org/newsletter/!
Thank you so much for your sup-
port and please share this with your
friends, family, old classmates, cur-
rent classmates and that nice neighbor
that always pops over the fence to ask
“How are the bees?!”
Karen Rennich
Bee Informed Partnership Executive
Director
University of Maryland
Entomology Department
4112 Plant Sciences Building
College Park, MD 20742
Phone: 443.600.5229
KRennich@umd.edu
PRECISION POLLINATION
This e-mail is in response to the
recent article titled “Precision pol-
12
lination“ in ABJ. The following two
sentences caught my special attention:
- They are able to train bees to for-
age on specific crops more efficiently,
simply by feeding the colonies crop-
scented syrup before moving them
into the fields.
- The idea is that when the research-
ers spike colonies‘ feeders with these
blends, the bees‘ foraging decisions
should be biased towards those crops.
The catchy term “precision polli-
nation“ describes this behavior very
well, however, it is not a new idea.
Did you know that von Frisch pub-
lished in 1947 a 189 page book titled
“Duftgelenkte Bienen im Dienste der
Landwirtschaft und Imkerei“ (= Odor
guided honeybees in the service of
agriculture and beekeeping)? In this
book von Frisch published the results
of his work on odor-guided pollina-
tion of crops, therefore preceding Fa-
rina, Arenas .... by >50 years.
What was the impetus of von
Frisch to start this research? It was
sheer necessity. In the beginning of
World War II Germany was cut off
from the supply of red clover seed,
an important fodder for cows. Honey
bees are bad pollinators of red clover.
Breeding a bee with a longer pro-
boscis, or a red clover variety with
a shorter corolla tube did not show
results fast enough. So in 1942 von
Frisch remembered his odor experi-
ments published in 1919 and hoped
to improve pollination by his idea of
odor guiding bees. He was success-
ful with red clover and increased the
seed yield by 30%. In times of war
and hardship this was a highly wel-
comed result! Later on he extended
his research to other crops and
summed up the results in the men-
tioned book. In there you will find
lists what the gain is for the seed or
honey yield. He even recommended
that the beekeeper gets paid by the
farmer, if the benefit is one-sided.
In my opinion Karl von Frisch
should be given credit for his pio-
neering work in odor guiding bees to
improve pollination. Sadly it got for-
gotten by now.
Hans-Ulrich Thomas
Switzerland
BEE INFOGRAPHIC CREATED
I made a fun and useful infographic
about some bee facts. I would love to
help spread the word about beekeep-
ing and general awareness about the
need to save the bees. Feel free to use
the infographic for blog content or for
your website. You can even link to our
blog post or image.
For more information visit https://
harvestlane.com/blogs/beehive-
blog/how-to-help-save-the-bees
Thanks! Happy Beekeeping! :-)
Kathleen
Harvest Lane Honey
http://harvestlane.com
FERAL COLONY IN WOOD
DUCK BOX
A couple of weeks ago I received a
call from a neighbour. She explained
that mounted 15 feet up in a backyard
tree she had a wood duck box. She has
recently noticed something yellow at
the entrance - something she had nev-
er noticed before. When I saw it, it was
clearly wax comb. I climbed a ladder
to get close to the box and took this
photo.
Just wanted to share!
Gena Karpf
American Bee Journal
Wood Duck box entrance showing comb
and honey bees.

VETERAN FINDS PEACE

THROUGH BEEKEEPING

What I am about to say may seem

ironic to some, after all this is all re-
volving around taking care of a ve-
noumous insect. It’s been difficult
since the day I left the Navy. I guess
to put it in words I felt like I’d lost
a sense of identity. Here’s what I’ve
started to understand through this:
When you are talking about veterans,
you’re talking about a group of people
who more often than not are used to
being put into high-stress situations
with high levels of responsibility. In
my opinion beekeeping gives that
same amount of accomplishment and
gives the feeling of doing the good
that they so desire.
Recently, my good friend Destin
and I got a few beehives and my pen-
chant for this fascinating insect might
truly be life changing for me. I can’t
put my finger on it, but no matter
how bad I’m feeling or how frustrat-
ed life can be, sitting down and sim-
ply watching the girls come and go
gives me peace. I’m in the best place
in my life right now. Apiculture has
and is renewing the confidence I had
lost in myself. I never once in my life
thought I’d say they (the bees) might
have saved my life.

Dylan J. Dingels
Kohala Hives, LLC
Kamuela, HI

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14 American Bee Journal


ROB PAGE RECEIVES
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD
DAVIS--World-renowned hon-
ey bee geneticist Robert Eugene
(“Rob”) Page Jr., who received his
doctorate in entomology from UC
Davis and served as a professor and
chair of the UC Davis entomology
department before capping his aca-
demic career as the Arizona State
University provost, is the recipient
of the Thomas and Nina Leigh Dis-
tinguished Alumni Award.
He delivered the Leigh seminar
on “In Search of the Spirt of the
Hive: a 30-Year Quest” on Nov. 29, 2018 at the Internation-
al House, 10 College Park, Davis.
Page, provost emeritus of Arizona State University
(ASU) and Regents Professor since 2015, continues his re-
search, teaching and public service in both Arizona and
California and has residences in both states.
Page, who plans to move to the Davis area in Decem-
ber, maintained a honey bee breeding program managed
by bee breeder-geneticist Kim Fondrk at the Harry H.
Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis, for 24
years, from 1989 to 2015.
Page focuses his research on honey bee behavior and
population genetics, particularly the evolution of com-
plex social behavior. One of his most salient contribu-
tions to science was to construct the first genomic map
of the honey bee, which sparked a variety of pioneering
contributions not only to insect biology but to genetics
at large.
Page and his lab pioneered the use of modern tech-
niques to study the genetic bases to the evolution of social
behavior in honey bees and other social insects. He was
the first to employ molecular markers to study polyandry
and patterns of sperm use in honey bees. He provided the
first quantitative demonstration of low genetic relatedness
in a highly eusocial species.
He continues to work on how reproductive regulatory
networks are altered by natural selection for division of
labor in honey bees. “It was a controversial proposal when
Gro Amdam (his former postdoc at UC Davis) and I first
proposed it, but I think it is now an accepted paradigm
and has been shown have occurred in different species of
social and non-social Hymenoptera.”
An internationally recognized scholar, the honey bee ge-
neticist has published more than 230 research papers and
January 2019
articles, as well as five books, including The Spirit of the
Hive: The Mechanisms of Social Evolution, published by
Harvard University Press in 2013.
Born and reared in Bakersfield, Kern County, Page re-
ceived his bachelor’s degree in entomology, with a minor
in chemistry, from San Jose State University in 1976. After
receiving his doctorate from UC Davis, he began his career
at The Ohio State University in 1986 and then returned to
Davis in 1989 to accept an associate professor position in
1989. He served as department chair from 1999 to 2004,
when he was recruited to be the founding director of the
School of Life Sciences of ASU. His career advanced to
dean of Life Sciences; vice provost and dean of the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences; and provost.
He considers his most far-reaching and important ac-
complishment the success of his mentees, including at
least 25 graduate students and postdocs who are now fac-
ulty members at leading research institutions around the
world. He also built two modern apicultural labs (in Ohio
and Arizona), major legacies that are centers of honey bee
research and training.
Among his many honors:
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science
• Awardee of the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Sci-
entist Award (the Humboldt Prize - the highest honor
given by the German government to foreign scientists)
• Foreign Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences
• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Elected to the Leopoldina - the German National
Academy of Sciences (the longest continuing academy
in the world)
• Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
• Fellow of the Entomological Society of America
• Awardee of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Fellowship
• Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences
• Fellow, Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation, Mu-
nich, Germany, September 2017-August 2018
The Leigh seminar memorializes cotton entomologist
Thomas Frances Leigh (1923-1993), an international au-
thority on the biology, ecology and management of ar-
thropod pests affecting cotton production. During his 37-
year UC Davis career, based at the Shafter Research and
Extension Center, also known as the U.S. Cotton Research
Station, Leigh researched pest and beneficial arthropod
management in cotton fields, and host plant resistance in
cotton to insects, mites, nematodes and diseases.
In his memory, his family and associates established the
Leigh Distinguished Alumni Seminar Entomology Fund at
the UC Davis Department of Entomology. When his wife,
Nina, passed in 2002, the alumni seminar became known
as the Thomas and Nina Distinguished Alumni Seminar.
THE 4TH INTERNATIONAL CONFER-
ENCE ON POLLINATOR BIOLOGY,
HEALTH AND POLICY
Presented by the honey and Pollination Center and
the California Pollinator Consortium
Date: Thursday, July 18 - Saturday, July 20, 2019
Opening Reception: Wednesday, July 17, 2019
17
Location: University of California, Davis
Theme: “Multidimensional Solutions to Current and Fu-
ture Threats to Pollinator Health”
Early-bee registration: $325 (General), $150 (Student)
After May 15, 2019: $425 (General), $250 (Student)
We invite researchers, educators, beekeepers, policy-
makers, and others with interest in pollinator health to
join us in Davis, California starting on the evening of July
17 for the welcome reception that will be followed by three
days of oral and poster presentations.
The conference will cover a range of topics in pollinator
research, from genomics to ecology, and their application
to land use and management, breeding of managed bees,
and monitoring of global pollinator populations. For each
session we will also develop policy briefs, which will sum-
marize key knowledge on relevant topics and we will offer
suggestions for how these can inform different aspects of
legislation, regulation, and practice to improve bee health.
CORTEVA AGRISCIENCE™,
AGRICULTURE DIVISION
OF DOWDUPONT,
ANNOUNCES CORTEVA GROWS
POLLINATOR HABITAT WITH 4-H
AND PHEASANTS FOREVER
PartnershiP aims to inCrease habitat biodiversity and
eduCate youth on Pollinators.
JOHNSTON, Iowa, Nov. 9, 2018 — Corteva Agri-
science™, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont, today
announced a partnership with National 4-H Council and
Pheasants Forever. The program, Corteva Grows Pollina-
tor Habitat, will support monarch butterfly and pollinator
habitat at Corteva Agriscience locations throughout the
United States. Through this program, Corteva Agriscience
will engage 4-H youth to help increase pollinator habitats
and populations, supporting biodiversity. The program
will also strengthen pollinator education efforts through
Pheasants Forever’s Youth Pollinator Habitat Program.
“We are committed to creating pollinator habitats, now
and in the future, and our efforts are growing with the
help of key partners who share our same vision,” said
Krysta Harden, Corteva Agriscience Senior Vice President
of External Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer. “There
are many things we can do to support bees, butterflies and
other pollinators, no matter where you live. Ensuring they
have adequate habitats and plentiful food sources pro-
vides a strong foundation for pollinators.”
At each location, Corteva Agriscience will provide land
and financial support for the pollinator habitat, which will
be planted and maintained, in part, by the site’s employ-
ees and 4-H youth leaders. Pheasants Forever will provide
expertise and support including habitat seed, site prepara-
tion, planting support and ongoing mowing. In addition
to providing seasonal food supplies and a home to pol-
linators, the sites will be used to educate students on the
benefits of pollinators and their habitats and grow youth
with the awareness, passion and skills to be responsible
stewards of our planet for generations to come. In the
spring of 2019, the first sites will be planted. Additional
site plantings will take place through 2020. The majority of
locations reside along monarch butterfly flyway, the Inter-
18
state 35 corridor between Minnesota and Texas.
“This new partnership is helping to expand critical habi-
tat areas for monarch butterflies, honey bees and grassland
birds, while serving as an outdoor classroom for students
and Corteva Agriscience employees nationwide,” stated
Howard Vincent, President and CEO of Pheasants Forever.
“Our organization has taken a lead role nationally among
conservation groups to promote this specific habitat vari-
ety, helping to boost agricultural production and provide
diverse habitat for a wide host of species. We’re very ex-
cited to contribute to this phenomenal partnership.”
In addition, the Corteva Grows program will equip more
than 30,000 4-H youth with tools and support they need
to understand the importance of pollinators and how to
build habitats in their communities to take action toward
conserving them. Led by 4-H teen ambassadors, the pol-
linator curriculum will be delivered through peer-to-peer
mentorship and direct teaching of younger audiences.
“Agriculture is a vital component to local communities
across the U.S. and to our global economy,” said Jennifer
Sirangelo, President and CEO of National 4-H Council. “By
partnering with Corteva Agriscience on this important ini-
tiative, youth will have the opportunity to learn-by-doing
and grow the skills to pursue their passions and navigate
challenges, especially those facing today’s agriculture.”
Pollinator health isn’t new to Corteva Agriscience™.
Earlier this year, to celebrate National Pollinator Week, em-
ployees at the Johnston, Iowa, Corteva Agriscience global
business center constructed a pollinator demonstration
garden. In 2017, employees led efforts to implement more
than six acres of highly-diverse prairie habitat along a bike
path that runs through the Johnston campus. In total, the
campus has more than 10 acres of pollinator habitat. This
new partnership is an extension of Corteva Agriscience’s
commitment to pollinator habitat expansion.
SUN TRIBE SOLAR AND
WESTMORELAND COUNTY PUBLIC
SCHOOLS PARTNER TO DEVELOP THE
FIRST POLLINATOR-FRIENDLY
SOLAR FARM FOR THE VIRGINIA
PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.
Sun Tribe Solar, Virginia’s leading solar energy com-
pany, announced recently that it has been selected by
Westmoreland County Public Schools to enter into a so-
lar power purchase agreement to meet 100% of the energy
needs of Cople Elementary School. The project pairs solar
with agriculture and conservation efforts using a pollina-
tor friendly approach. The array will produce an estimat-
ed 1,162,644 kWh per year, offsetting the building’s car-
bon footprint by 865 tons of CO2 annually, and saving the
school $3.6 million over its lifespan. The array will require
no upfront capital investment from Westmoreland, as Sun
Tribe Solar will be funding the system through a Power
Purchase Agreement.
The pollinator-friendly approach is a recent effort to
expand the ecological benefits of solar development.
Traditionally, solar farms are positioned along gravel or
turf fields. As an alternative, wild flowers and other host
plants can be planted underneath or around the panels,
offering a multitude of conservational and economic ben-
efits. With increased habitats for pollinator species, bee
and other populations are able to grow, thus benefiting
American Bee Journal

Solar panels with wildflowers planted on the grounds.
surrounding agriculture development. These plants also
offer an improved visual aesthetic of solar infrastructure
for the nearby school. In this project, the flowers will be
positioned right beside the solar array, and Sun Tribe Solar
will be planting several different types of seed mixings in
an effort to better understand the most effective methods.
Sun Tribe Solar has been working with Virginia schools
to provide affordable alternatives for solar energy and is
proud to be working with Westmoreland Schools in offer-
ing unprecedented savings with this first of its kind proj-
ect. This project follows closely on the heels of Sun Tribe’s
1.01 MW project with Middlesex County Schools, which
meets 95% of the electricity needs of two of their schools.
Dr. Michael Perry, the superintendent for Westmoreland
County Public Schools, explains “With no upfront costs to
the school system or county and substantial lifetime sav-
ings, this is a huge win for Westmoreland County Public
Schools. We look forward to integrating this project into
our curriculum and providing the students with hands-
on learning opportunities. This project also symbolizes the
progressive and forward look of our administration and
school board.”
Sun Tribe Solar, in partnership with the NEED (National
Energy Education Development) Project, will offer energy
curriculum materials and training to teachers to bring the
solar system into the classroom. Sun Tribe’s Education
Market Manager, Tony Stephan, states, “The benefits of
clean energy are not only in the savings and carbon off-
set. When you integrate solar into a school system, there
is a vast educational benefit as well. We ensure that teach-
ers are fully equipped to integrate this science into their
curriculum, and that students are able to see the firsthand
benefits of clean energy.”
GLOBAL INVESTORS BACK APISPRO-
TECT TO HELP COMMERCIAL BEE-
KEEPERS MAXIMIZE POLLINATION
REVENUE AND HONEY YIELD
Cork, Ireland and Salinas, Calif. – November, 2018 –
ApisProtect, an Irish agtech innovator using the Internet
of Things (IoT) to monitor honey bee colonies, today an-
nounced the close of a $1.8 million seed round of financ-
ing led by top-tier international venture capital investors
Finistere Ventures and Atlantic Bridge Capital. Radicle
January 2019
Growth, the Yield Lab and Enterprise Ireland also partici-
pated in the investment round.
ApisProtect will use the investment to aggressively ac-
celerate international expansion, opening its first U.S. of-
fice at the Western Growers Association’s WG Center for
Innovation and Technology in Salinas, California.
“Our investment partners offer deep knowledge of the
pollination services market, as well as the agriculture and
IoT technology sectors,” noted Fiona Edwards Murphy
Ph.D., CEO and co-founder, ApisProtect. “This investment
will allow us to accelerate our expansion as we work to
create an extensive global hive health database to power
our machine learning insights. The aim is to help com-
mercial pollinators and growers to optimize pollination.”
Beekeepers no longer need to rely solely on periodic,
manual hive checks that can allow disease, pests and other
issues to deteriorate hive health beyond rescue. ApisPro-
tect helps commercial beekeepers more effectively manage
colonies. Now monitoring the health of over six million
honey bees in hives across Europe and North America,
ApisProtect brings the power of advanced sensors and
machine learning technology into the hive to deliver a
24/7 early warning system so beekeepers can give at-risk
hives immediate attention and improve bee health, giving
beekeepers actionable insights and alerts to help prevent
losses and increase colony productivity.
“With a science-driven, multi-disciplinary leadership
team, ApisProtect is primed to fundamentally change the
way commercial beekeepers around the globe manage
their hives,” added Kieran Furlong of Finistere Ventures.
“Our Ireland Agtech Fund is dedicated to investing in ear-
ly stage agtech companies reshaping the global food and
ag industries. ApisProtect was the prime candidate for the
fund’s first Irish investment. There is a need for technolo-
gies to aid pollination in agriculture, and the ApisProtect
hive monitor technology has massive potential in key
markets like California.”
Alison Crawford at Atlantic Bridge added, “Atlantic
Bridge is delighted to welcome ApisProtect to our grow-
ing portfolio in the University Fund, an $80m Fund, fo-
cused on commercializing cutting edge research from
leading institutions. ApisProtect is uniquely placed to dis-
rupt a global, well-established industry with robust tech-
nology developed by Fiona Edwards Murphy, following
her award winning PhD research at University College
Cork, Ireland. Atlantic Bridge has a strong track record of
supporting Irish companies through key stages of devel-
opment and helping them commercialize their technology
globally through our network in European, the US and
China. We believe ApisProtect has the potential to ulti-
mately help commercial pollinators and growers to opti-
mize pollination.”
HONEY BEE HOTEL
the Waldorf astoria’s rooftoP Garden
and the heart of nyC
By Leslie Day
The tale of Honey Bee Hotel begins over one hundred
years ago, with the Astor family and the birth of the iconic
Manhattan landmark, the magnificent Waldorf Astoria. In
those early days the posh art deco masterpiece had its own
rooftop garden for guests to enjoy. Fast-forward to the turn
19
 of the twenty-first centu- OUR NATIVE BEES:
ry, and we meet executive
chef David Garcelon, the north ameriCa’s endanGered Pollinators
creative genius behind and the fiGht to save them
the idea of restoring the
celebrated rooftop gar- By Paige Embry
den. His vision includ-
ed six hives containing Honey bees get all the press,
some 300,000 honey bees, but the fascinating story of
which would provide a North America’s native bees—
unique flavor for his res- an endangered species es-
taurant’s culinary mas- sential to our ecosystems and
terpieces. Yet Garcelon’s food supplies—is just as cru-
dream was much grander cial. Through interviews with
than simply creating a farmers, gardeners, scientists,
private chefs’ garden: he and bee experts, Our Native
wanted the honey bee Bees explores the importance
garden to serve as a bond of native bees and focuses on
among people. Soon the why they play a key role in
staff of the hotel, the guests, local horticulturists, and bee- gardening and agriculture.
keeping experts formed a community around the bees and The people and stories are
the garden, which not only raised vegetables, herbs, and compelling: Paige Embry goes
honey to be served in the hotel but also provided healthy on a bee hunt with the world expert on the likely extinct
food to the homeless shelter across the street at St. Bar- Franklin’s bumble bee, raises blue orchard bees in her re-
tholomew’s Church. frigerator, and learns about an organization that turns the
Through her meticulous research and interviews with out-of-play areas in golf courses into pollinator habitats.
culinary glitterati, entomologists, horticulturists, and ur- Our Native Bees is a fascinating, must-read for fans of nat-
ban beekeepers, Leslie Day leads us on a unique insider’s ural history and science and anyone curious about bees.
tour of this little-known aspect of the natural world of
New York City. She familiarizes us with the history of the Format: Hardcover
architectural and cultural gem that is the Waldorf and in- Pages: 240 pp.
troduces us to the lives of Chef Garcelon and New York Book dimensions: 6½ x 9 in. (230 x 165 mm.)
City’s master beekeeper, Andrew Coté. Images: 102 color photos, 2 color illustrations
Day, an urban naturalist and incurable New Yorker, tells ISBN-10: 1604697695
us of the garden’s development, shares delectable honey- ISBN-13: 9781604697698
based recipes from the hotel’s chefs and mixologist, and Product code: 689769
relates the fate of the hotel in the wake of the Waldorf’s
change of ownership. During our journey, we learn quite Paige Embry
a bit about apiaries, as well as insect and flower biology, Paige Embry has a BS in geology from Duke University
through the lives of the bees that travel freely around the and an MS in geology from the University of Montana. She
city in search of nectar, pollen, and resin. This absorbing has worked as an environmental consultant, taught horti-
narrative unwraps the heart within the glamour of one of culture and geology classes, and run a garden design and
the world’s most beloved cities, while assuring us that na- coaching business. She has written articles for Horticul-
ture can thrive in the ultimate urban environment when its ture, The American Gardener, and other magazines. Visit
denizens care enough to foster that connection. her at paigeembry.com.

about the author

Leslie Day is a New York City naturalist. The author of OBITUARY
Field Guide to the Natural World of New York City, Field Guide
to the Street Trees of New York City, and Field Guide to the
Neighborhood Birds of New York City, Dr. Day taught envi- DONALD RAY MECH
ronmental science and biology for more than twenty years. June 9, 1932 - October 1, 2018
Today, she leads nature walks, gives talks, and teaches at
the New York Botanical Garden. Highly respected and legend-
ary Maple Valley beekeeper Don
HONEYBEE HOTEL Mech flew away to his heavenly
by Leslie Day home on October 1, 2018. He was
Johns Hopkins University Press 86 years old. Born and raised
208 Pages 5.5 x 8.5 in Harvey, IL, his parents were
14 color photos, 39 b&w illustrations, 2 line drawings Carl (Charlie) and Frieda Mech.
978-1-4214-2624-2 $22.95 hc Brother Howard and sister Shir-
978-1-4214-2624-9 $22.95 eb ley made up the family circle.
Contact: Johns Hopkins University Press Mothered by Martha, their step-
2715 N. Charles Street mother following the death of
Baltimore, Maryland 21218 Frieda at Donald’s birth, they
www.press.jhu.edu were all faithful members of

20 American Bee Journal


This is Don around 1990. The apiary was near a school bus
pick-up location. Kids will be kids. The landowner made this
sign. Gladly it worked.
Trinity Lutheran Church where Don was baptized and
confirmed.
Shortly after his graduation from Thornton High School,
Don joined the Navy and served for four years during
the Korean war. He then enrolled at the Ilinois Institute of
Technology where he earned a degree in electrical engi-
neering. After seeing the majestic mountains in Washing-
ton state, he decided to take the Boeing company up on a
job offer. He worked there for 13 years. Delighted to be in
God’s country, he joined the mountaineers, cllimbing ev-
ery peak in sight! His biggest climb was in 1963 when he
joined the 31st climbing expedition to ever scale the peak of
Mt. McKinley in Alaska. That 1963 was a big year; he also
married Doris. At that time other hobbies included bicycle
riding, flying Cessnas, the Schwinn and later sail planes.
Don and Doris were blessed with a daughter, Deena, in
1966. She married Max Motherwell and brought two amaz-
ing children into the world, James and Grace. The year 1973
marked a major shift in Don’s life. He launched into a new
career in beekeeping. His precise and dedicated work with
the bees was appreciated by honey connoisseurs far and
wide. Over 40 years at Seattle’s famous Pike Place Market,
Mech Apiaries honey spread to countless tables at home
and abroad. In addition, many local stores were supplied.
Thank you Don. You are sweetly remembered.
WORLDWIDE
CZECH CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
HONEY BEE HEALTH
by Daniel Weaver, Erik Österlund, Eliška Hřebenářová
An international conference on enhancing honey bee
vitality and genetic resistance to varroa and viruses took
place in Brno and Pilsen, Czech Republic, at the end of
October. The two-day event was hosted by the Mendel So-
ciety for Bee Research, Brno, and featured guest experts
Daniel Weaver from USA, and Erik Österlund from Swe-
January 2019
den. Additional lectures were offered by leading special-
ists from the Czech and Slovakian Republics.
The main topic of the conference was varroa-resistant
honey bees. Starting with a lecture of Tomas Kott, Czech
Republic, on how important it is to preserve a huge variety
in DNA of honey bees in spite of targeted selection of pre-
ferred honey bee characteristics, the speakers were main-
ly concerned in purposeful breeding of varroa-resistant
honey bees. That is, how might beekeepers initiate and
develop a successful varroa-resistance breeding program?
Both Daniel Weaver and Erik Österlund have demon-
strated great progress in selecting honey bees with desired
complex behaviors and characteristics. Daniel Weaver, a
holder of several patents, showed in his presentations the
methods he employed – described as accelerated natural
selection – to develop varroa-tolerant and virus-resistant
bees. The outcome of more than 25 years of breeding and
selection are the BeeWeaver bees, with their ability to sur-
vive and thrive without mite treatments. Mr. Weaver’s first
presentation described his practical experience in effective
selection of varroa-tolerant bees and research on genomic
markers associated with mite tolerance. He also reported
results of RNA sequencing of honey bees after infestation
by mites or infection with virus. This research revealed
that Bee Weaver bees harbor lower levels of latent viral
infection and exhibit gene expression patterns that differ
from other honey bees when infected by viruses or parasit-
ized by varroa. These research efforts were conducted in
collaboration with leading scientists from several univer-
sities and institutions in the USA.
Erik Österlund works together with several beekeepers
in the local association. In the project area there are almost
1000 colonies. They call their bee Elgon. In the central part
with 350 colonies about 50 were treated in 2018 (those
with more than 3% varroa level). For several years the an-
nual losses have been about 10%. The varroa pressure in
this area is low. In this central part most of the queens are
mated. The milestones Mr. Österlund and his co-work-
ers have reached so far are not far from Daniel Weaver‘s
although Mr. Weaver already achieved his resistant bee
stock several years ago.
Moreover, questions of honey bee colony vitality and
optimal treatment for parasites and disease were dis-
cussed. The speakers addressed how chemical treatments
for mites can affect the behavior, vitality and natural mi-
crobiome of honey bee colonies. For example professor
Jaroslav Petr, Czech Republic, quoted observed effects of
chemicals on changing behavior of Drosophila – which
could be similar to effects on the bee.
Danny Weaver of BWeaver Apiaries gives a presentation at the
Czech Honey Bee Health Conference in October, 2018.
21
 As chemical treatment of all colonies, and even preven-
tive treatment of healthy colonies, is mandated by law in
the Czech Republic, the lectures were dealing with ques-
tions that will remain hypothetical until more flexible
treatment options are available. Specifically, guest lectur-
ers and leading experts in the Czech and Slovakian Repub-
lics noted that genetic selection for varroa mite tolerance
would be more difficult (and certain methods, including
survivor selection, would be impossible) until chemical
treatment of all colonies is no longer obligatory.
REGIONAL
2019 HONEY BEE EXPO
ohio & West virGinia honey bee exPo
saturday, January 26th, 2019
The Mid Ohio Valley Beekeepers’ Association, in con-
junction with the WV Extension Services, will present the
17th annual Honey Bee Expo. This event will be held on
Saturday, January 26,2019, on the campus of WV Univer-
sity Parkersburg, WV (WVUP). Location of WVUP is WV
I-77, exit 174 Staunton Avenue.
This is an all-day event beginning with keynote speech
by Dr. Brock Harpur from Purdue University. Following
Dr. Harpur’s presentation, there will be four breakout ses-
sions for all levels of beekeeping. Lunch will be available
only for those pre-registered.
Cost of Expo will be $20.00 pre-registered (lunch ad-
ditional) or $25.00 at door. Once again vendors will be
present to assist patrons and deliver supplies already
pre-ordered. Additional information will be posted on
MOVBA website www.movba.org once the schedule is
completed.
Doors open at 7:30am for registration and complimen-
tary coffee and pastries, with program beginning at 8:30.
STATES
ALABAMA
The Alabama Cooperative Extension System will hold its
24th Annual Beekeeping Symposium at the Clanton Con-
ference and Performance Arts Center, 1850 Lay Dam Road,
Clanton, AL on February 2. Speakers include Tammy Horn
Potter, Reed Johnson, Charlie Parton, Larry Connor, and
others. For more information or to register, visit www.aces.
edu/home-garden/beekeeping/ or contact Lindsey Tramel
at 334-844-4450.
CONNECTICUT
Where: norfield ChurCh Community room,
64 norfield road, Weston, ConneCtiCut
When: last tuesdays of the month at 7:30Pm
The Back Yard Beekeepers Association (BYBA) has
been educating the public about honey bees and bee-
22
keeping for 20+ years. With over 400 members, our as-
sociation has grown to become one of the Nation’s larg-
est regional clubs for beekeeping hobbyists. Some of our
members are just getting started as beekeepers, and some
have enjoyed this hobby for years. All share an interest in
the wonderful and remarkable world of the honey bee.
This regional club is dedicated to promoting beekeeping
as a hobby, and spreading the good word about the re-
markable honey bee.
For more information check our website for the latest
updates www.backyardbeekeepers.com.
GEORGIA
hoPe to see you at the
2019 younG harris beekeePinG institute!
The University of Georgia offers an annual beekeeping
event at the campus of Young Harris College. The dates the
institute will be held are May 22-25. Our special guest in-
structors will include Dr. Francis Ratnieks, Dr. David Tarpy
and Dr. Wyatt Mangum, plus a whole host of talented and
experienced beekeepers. For more information please visit
www.ent.uga.edu/bees.
ILLINOIS
Will County beekeePers assoCiation. bee PrePared 2019.
• A full day of workshops for all experience levels.
• A sustainable apiary is healthy bees all season long
• Meghan Milbrath, David Burns, Jim Lindau & others
• Bee Curious? Find out if beekeeping fits in your life-
style.
• Already doing it? Hear about the latest research in
IPM.
• Your partner does it but you don’t? There’s something
here for you too.
Saturday March 23, 2019
8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Weitendorf Agricultural Education Center
Joliet Jr. College
17840 Laraway Rd., Joliet, IL 60433
Joliet is just down the road from Chicago. Well worth the
trip. Learn more and register at willbees.org
MICHIGAN
southeast miChiGan beekeePers assoCiation
semba announCes its
81st annual beekeePinG ConferenCe
Several hundred beekeepers are expected to attend the
81st Annual SEMBA Beekeeping Conference, which will
be held on Saturday, March 16th from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm.
This year’s event will have keynote speaker Kent Williams
who will be speaking on the topic Races of Honey Bees, A
year in the Life of a Beekeeper. Other speakers will include
Meghan Milbrath, Jamie Walters, Rich Wieske, Dave Pearce,
Jim Ford, Earl Hoffman and more.
American Bee Journal
 The conference will be held at Wayne County Commu-
nity College, 9500 Haggerty Road, Belleville, MI 48111.
Registration will begin after the first of the year. For more
information go to SEMBABEES.org
MISSOURI
learn to keeP bees in 2019!
A Workshop for Those
Looking to Become Beekeepers in 2019
Three Rivers Beekeepers is offering a Beginning Bee-
keeping Workshop on January 25th and 26th (Friday 6:00
pm – 9:30 pm and Saturday 8:30 am to 5:00 pm). Come
learn about the fascinating honey bee and how to manage
them and their home, the beehive.
LOCATION: University of Missouri Extension Center at
260 Brown Rd. in St. Peters, MO 63376
HOW: Register online at www.ThreeRiversBeekeepers.
com, or mail payment to: Joe Copeland, 14 Cheval Ct., Flo-
rissant MO 63031 For more information, call Eugene Mak-
ovec at 314-703-7650
HOW MUCH: $75.00 per person (Saturday Lunch
Included).
Seating is limited, so reserve your spot right away!
MISSOURI
sPrinG ConferenCe
marCh 15- 16, 2019
Southeast Missouri State University
1 University Plaza, Cape Girardeau, MO
Register online at: https://mostatebeekeepers.org/
The Southeast Missouri State University located in this
scenic, historical town will provide a comfortable setting for
conference attendees while talented guest speakers will in-
clude Dr. Kirsten Traynor, Zac Lamas, PhD candidate; and
Bob Finck, retired Food Chemist for Allen Foods.
Dr. Traynor will be speaking on “American Foulbrood”,
“Halting the Unstoppable Swarm”, and “Simple Smart
Beekeeping”. Zac Lamas will cover “Requeening a Hive”,
“Winter Prep Begins Mid-Summer”, and “Rapid Expan-
sion”. Bob Finck will present on “Moving From Hobby to
Sideliner”.
Breakout session speakers will include the following:
Gregg Hitchings “Local Club Speaker Development” and
“European Foulbrood”; Charlotte Wiggins “Native Plant-
ing for Pollinators”; Bernie Andrews “Setup for A Sideliner
Extraction House”; and Chef Bill Allinder “Cooking With
Honey Part Two”. There will be a group led “Spring Hive
Inspection” if weather permits.
Registration begins at 7:00 am Friday morning with a
vendor hall and Beehive Café with complimentary treats.
There is an evening banquet at 6 pm. Activities begin again
at 8:30 am Saturday and go until 3:30 pm. Lunch will be of-
fered both days at additional cost. For more detailed infor-
mation including meal and registration fees and available
hotel/motel discounts visit the web address for the Mis-
souri State Beekeepers listed above. Bruce Snavely, Confer-
January 2019
ence Chairman, will be available to answer any questions at
brucesnavely@hotmail.com.
MISSOURI
eastern missouri beekeePers to host annual beekeePinG
WorkshoPs and banquet in st. louis on
february 8-9, 2019
Honey Bee Researchers and Education Specialists
to Present Courses for Beginners
and Experienced Beekeepers
The Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association (EMBA)
will offer a full day of professional beekeeping instruction
and honey bee research for beginners and experienced
beekeepers on Saturday, February 9, 2019, at Maritz in
Fenton, Missouri. Registrants are encouraged to attend
the Annual EMBA St. Louis Beekeepers Mardi Gras Ban-
quet the evening before the workshop on Friday, Febru-
ary 8, at Maritz.
Leading beekeeping educators, honey bee research sci-
entists and authors from Agriculture Canada Beaverlodge
Research Farm, Oregon State University, the University
of Minnesota Bee Lab, and Bee Culture magazine, will be
among the visiting faculty leading the workshops.
Instructors will include Kim Flottum, author and Senior
Editor of Bee Culture magazine, Stephen Pernal, PhD., Ag-
riculture and Agri-Food Canada’s lead scientist specializ-
ing in honey bee research, Andony Melathopoulos, PhD.,
extension pollinator specialist at Oregon State University,
Becky Masterman, PhD., University of Minnesota Bee Lab
Team Leader, and Ana Heck, Minnesota Bee Lab Bee Squad
Instructor, The Experienced Beekeepers course will be tai-
lored towards intermediate and expert level beekeepers
and will place special emphasis on hive management and
honey bee health issues.
The Beginners Beekeeping course is intended for novice
beekeepers and persons with no prior beekeeping experi-
ence. The class will cover all aspects of basic beekeeping to
prepare students to start keeping bees in 2019.
Tuition for the workshop is $85 per person if registered by
January 20, 2019. Tuition is $95 per person for those register-
ing on or after January 21. Banquet registration costs $30.
Banquet registration closes February 3rd.
Lunch and refreshments are included with the work-
shop. Registration packets will include course materials, an
authoritative reference book, beekeeping periodicals, and
equipment catalogs.
The Friday evening banquet features New Orleans style
food and music, a cash bar, door prizes, including nucs,
queens and beekeeping equipment, and a keynote speaker.
The cost of the banquet is in addition to the workshop. For
more information, visit www.easternmobeekeepers.com
Equipment vendors include representatives of Dadant &
Sons, Isabees, and others.
EMBA supports beekeepers with a broad program of co-
operative procurement and educational events throughout
the year. Members may obtain complete beginner’s equip-
ment kits, nucleus bee colonies, and queens for delivery in
the spring. The Club also sponsors open hive instructional
workshops and guided colony health monitoring, during
the season, at the Club’s teaching apiary in Creve Coeur,
Missouri.
Registration is available online at www.easternmobee
keepers.com
23
 More information is available by email to info@eastern
mobeekeepers.com or calling 314-669-1828.
OKLAHOMA
The Northeast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association will
hold the Big Bee Buzz on the evening of March 29 and all
day March 30, 2019. The Buzz is one of the largest bee-
keeping conferences in Oklahoma and the region. The
event will be held at Venue 68, located at 6910 S 101st E
Ave Tulsa OK 74134.
There will be plenty of information for beekeepers of all
levels of experience, from seasoned beekeepers to people
who want to give it a try. Two lectures will be happening
almost all of the time, with one talk geared to beginner top-
ics and the other devoted to more advanced subjects.
This year’s speakers include Dr. Dennis Van Englesdorp,
Jerry Hayes, Ed Levi and Katharina Davitt.
The price is $40.00 if you pre-register at a NEOBA meet-
ing or use online registration, which is available at NEOBA.
org. The price will be $50.00 at the door. Pre-registration is
not required, but greatly appreciated and saves you $10.00.
TENNESSEE
marCh 21- 23, 2019
fountainhead ColleGe of teChnoloGy
3203 tazeWell Pike – knoxville, tn, 37918
For more information and to register for this exciting
event please visit www.honeyconvention.com
The HONEY Convention is dedicated to educating all
beekeepers and people wanting to help honey bees. With
over 380 people last year at the convention, we are growing
and will be even bigger in 2019. If you are just getting start-
ed or even thinking about honey bees, we have classes for
you. If you are a beekeeper for a year to 50+ years, we have
classes for you. There will be over 20 speakers and over 60
classes to pick and choose to attend.
There will be a FREE beginners beekeeping class that will
talk about what you need to become a beekeeper. We en-
courage all to come! This class is free and open to the public.
The HONEY Convention is a not for profit, 501C-3 chari-
table organization.
TEXAS
austin 8th annual beekeePinG seminar
Register at https://aabaseminar2019.eventbrite.com
When: Feb. 2nd, 2019
Who: Austin Area Beekeepers Association
Where: Austin Marriott North, 2600 La Frontera Blvd.
Round Rock, TX 78681
Cost: $70
Why: The mission of this daylong seminar is to educate
people of all experience levels in sustainable science-based
bee husbandry and to provide support to worthy bee non-
profits. The majority of the proceeds are donated to the
24
Texas A&M Honey Bee Lab, the Texas Beekeepers Associa-
tion Queens’ Program, the Texas Master Beekeeping Pro-
gram and other bee charities.
Description:
This is a daylong seminar offering five different educa-
tional presentations running concurrently every hour
throughout the day. This newly expanded format will al-
low attendees to select from 35 presentations spread over
seven time slots. This will provide many beginner and ad-
vanced subjects to choose from. A separate beginner track
has been formatted covering a variety of startup topics
for soon-to-be or very-new beekeepers. A beginner bee-
keeper will learn the fundamentals of honey bee biology
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American Bee Journal
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January 2019 25

The Classroom
Q
Hi Jerry,
MITES, QUEEN
CUPS, WORRY!!
For the first time, I went through the
whole alcohol wash with ½ cup bees,
pour out on white bucket lid, count
the mites ritual, chanting Jerry’s man-
tra, “varroa, varroa, varroa”. There
were 2 mites for two of the hives, 1
for one, and none for one. Although I
treated with Mite-Away Quick Strips
in late May, this is hard to believe. I
took the bees from the top super. Was
that my mistake? Should I have gone
down to the brood box? The girls are
kicking the drones out now, which
could have affected the count, but
still…please advise. Also, one of the
hives had a number of small queen
cells, still closed….maybe ½ the size of
the usual…what’s with that? Should I
worry, try to get a new queen, com-
bine that hive with another? All 4 of
my hives seem healthy and produced
a lot of honey. Thanks for your time
and wisdom….
Spirit
Varroa mites
January 2019
A JERRY’S ANSWER
OMGosh Spirit! One question at
a time. :) I am joking as I hope you
know.
Yes, samples of bees should be
taken from open brood area. This is
where the mites are because that is
where they need to be to reproduce.
Mites in supers would be ‘dispersal’
mites that jumped on a bee and are
just riding around for a while until
they can get back to the brood area
which is the varroa nursery.
So, queen cups are not actual queen
cells with a developing queen in
them. Is that right? Open one up if
closed and observe what you can see.
In the colony do you see a function-
ing queen with eggs and young lar-
vae and all the signs she is there in the
colony?
Glad to share my time as honey
bees and beekeepers are super im-
portant. Wisdom is not just past ex-
periences, but rather past experiences
revisited and explored so one can get
better next time and/or pass that in-
sight on. :)
Let me know what you see as you
go back out.
2ND QUESTION
Hi Jerry,
My friend Phil and I went out to
see what we could figure out about
the mite count, taking bees from the
brood box area….and again, only
one or two mites. I don’t under-
stand unless I have miraculously ac-
quired bees that take care of the mite
problem themselves. Having strong
doubts about that, I went ahead and
treated for mites and hope Apivar
won’t hurt them. The instructions
say the strips MUST come out in 56
days, so I’m hoping for a warm spell
to allow that. Three of the hives have
lots of brood and bees. One hive, we
think the one that had odd queen cells
(which we did not find) had very lit-
tle, spotty brood, and lots and lots of
bees. This really worries me. Looks to
me like a failing queen, and too late
in the fall for the hive to replace her.
Any suggestions? In truth, we did not
pull out every single frame, just rep-
resentative ones in the middle of each
super (2 mediums and a deep). May-
be in another 10 years of beekeeping
and I’ll have a better idea of what I
am doing…
Spirit
You may have the honey bees that
will save the industry globally as they
can control varroa or you may not be
close to other beekeepers and the dis-
persal mite issue may not be a con-
tributing problem. Regardless, I think
the take-home message is that you
sampled from an area that in all the
scientific literature indicates you will
obtain the most accurate mite num-
bers from bees in the brood area. That
is great consistency that you need to
continue.
Another consistent action for bee-
keepers of all sizes, shapes, and loca-
tions is, “Take your losses in the early
fall.” Meaning if you have colonies
that you know or suspect of inherent
weakness, except for American Foul-
brood or European Foulbrood at this
late date, combine them with another
colony and call it good.
Ten years is not enough Spirit. Any-
body who says they know everything
about honey bees is a liar.
Q
SMALL HIVE
BEETLE TREATMENT
What are your thoughts on ground
treatment for small hive beetle? I am
getting ready to move some pallets
and thought about a pre-treatment
and then a little later a second ground
treatment. I have also been doing
27
some research on some other possible
ground treatments for the small hive
beetle…..but that might get into a la-
beling issue with chemical companies.
Andy Case
A
Adult small hive beetle
Personally, I think ground treat-
ments are a waste of time Andy. Hav-
ing gone through this when I was in
Florida, treating the ground is an af-
ter-the-fact management decision. By
the time the small hive beetle (SHB)
larvae get to this stage, the colony has
been destroyed already. If the ground
below the colonies is too dry or too
wet, the SHB larvae will crawl 100
yards+ to find a good site to burrow
into the ground and pupate.
I think managing colonies so you
know the level of varroa and other
negative health issues and treating
appropriately to keep the colony
healthy and population from drop-
ping is a much better use of your time
and money rather than losing a colo-
ny and killing just some of the SHB
after. And there are hundreds of adult
SHB waiting for your next colony to
get so weak it can’t defend itself. The
cycle starts again.
SHB is a SECONDARY predator
because the colony is sick. Heal the
sick.
An opinion is like a nose, every-
body’s got one! That’s mine:)
Q
BLACK BEES
Hi Jerry - I always enjoy your column.
I did alcohol washes on my 5 colo-
nies the other day and decided to get
scientific. After the alcohol, I did suc-
cessive washes with water until no
more mites were dislodged (usually
2 or 3 washes). I then saved the sam-
ples and counted them the next day
to determine the accuracy of my 1/2
cup measure. I then looked at 50 bees
through a 40 power magnifier to see
if any mites had not been dislodged.
I found no mites and no deformed
28
wing virus symptoms as well. What
I did see, however, was that 11 of the
50 were completely black on their top
sides. Would this be the result of the
heavy washing, or could it be a sign
of something else?
Best Regards,
George
Alcohol used for testing varroa mite in-
A
festation levels
Great home-centered scientific
experiment. Good job to get a solid
baseline.
I think their appearance changed
simply for the reason you indicated.
Multiple washings changed the hair
structure and visually they appeared
differently as a result. No pest, preda-
tor or disease issue.
Q
DRONE BROOD AS
A VARROA SINK
Given that Varroa destructor ‘VD’
prefer drone brood and that colonies
have a small percentage of the brood
devoted to drones and that one of the
IPM strategies suggested by the Hon-
ey Bee Health Coalition is to destroy
drone brood ... is an examination of
capped drone brood a valid indica-
tion of the degree of infestation of a
colony by VD?
More precisely ... is there some-
where, in the research, a statistical
model that would tell us if we exam-
ined N number of capped drone lar-
vae for the presence of VD and found
X number of cells infested that the
level of infestation is OK or not OK? I
would not look for an exact quantita-
tive relationship between the number
of infested drone cells and the per-
centage of VD to the bee population.
Similarly, I do not suggest not doing
other monitoring for VD. Rather, it
seems that a ¨go-no go” indication
could be made from such a simple ex-
amination of capped drone cells.
A parallel is found in the quality
control of widgets. If N widgets are
examined and zero defects are found,
then one can deduce that the popula-
tion of widgets is in good order. So,
if we were to examine N number of
capped drone cells and find zero VD
could we so deduce that the popula-
tion of VD is acceptably low? If yes, is
the answer to that question then what
is the value of N?
You may have addressed this ques-
tion in the past, but as a faithful read-
er of The Classroom for the past five
years, I do not recall it.
Thanks for considering such a
question.
Fred Berthrong
Providence, UT
28 Colonies - 91% survival winter
of 2017-18
Varroa mites prefer to breed on drone
brood, but in mellifera colonies, they
breed on both worker and drone brood.
A
Here are some things you already
know, but let me just review so we
are on the same page. Varroa was
a ‘good’ parasite on the tropical/
subtropical honey bee Apis cerana in
southeast Asia. Good, meaning that
in the very small Apis cerana colonies,
of only a few thousand bees, varroa
only reproduced on drone brood,
not worker brood. As a result of that
and the aggressive grooming behav-
ior of A. cerana, they didn’t kill each
other outright. Drones take a couple
days longer to develop, so this made
it easier for varroa to complete their
reproduction cycle as well.
Fast forward to our European ge-
netically based honey bees, Apis mel-
lifera, that have huge colonies and
never developed alongside varroa so
they could either kill each other off or
meet some place in the middle as A.
cerana and varroa did. Varroa figured
out how to make the jump from A.
American Bee Journal
cerana to A. mellifera, not only on drone
brood, but worker brood as well. If
they had stayed on drones, we would
not be having this conversation.
Varroa in our A. mellifera colonies
doesn’t selectively pick out drone
brood generally, but takes advantage
of what brood, either worker or drone,
is in close proximity of where they
emerged from reproducing on the
last ‘brood’ of any kind. They don’t
like being exposed too often or too
long as they can be seen/recognized
as intruders and removed, damaged,
or killed. So many times they emerge
from the cell they just developed in
and look for the nearest open brood
cell to enter and start reproduction
again. This is why they love our big
A. mellifera colonies because there is
always soooo much brood. They are
a varroa nursery, because varroa can
develop most successfully in mel-
lifera worker or drone brood and are
not going around searching specifi-
cally for drone brood. They like it, but
don’t need it. As a result, whatever
varroa you may find in drone brood
is not correlative to varroa infestation
throughout the colony.
There is a dispersal phase of varroa
when some varroa select adult work-
ers, force themselves between ab-
dominal segments and hide and ride
around within the colony and outside
the colony to move and spread their
genetics around—kind of like a hon-
ey bee asexual swarm. This dispersal
phase is an expansion of the varroa
species as well.
What has been calculated is the
correlation between dispersal var-
roa that can be removed in an alcohol
wash sample of nurse worker bees in
the brood nest area and the 2/3rds of
the reproductive population behind
capped cells. That number is cur-
rently at 3 mites per 100 bees as the
goal. Anything above that and treat-
ment of varroa to knock the popula-
tion down to 3 or less per 100 bees
is required to keep the colony alive
over time.
Commercial beekeepers are sam-
pling and washing all the time to
keep ahead of varroa. Getting the
rest of us to do this consistently has
been hard. And if varroa gets ahead
of the beekeeper and the colony, that
untreated colony acts as a reservoir
of varroa, spreading varroa to colo-
nies at a great distance around it.
We call that a ‘Varroa Bomb’ as it im-
pacts all the colonies in the range of
flight of workers, with these disper-
sal mites or honey bee robbers from
January 2019
other colonies coming into the colony
that is failing. Varroa mites can sense
that the colony is failing and jump on
these robbers in order to take a ride
back to their colony.
I hope this gives a different picture
of what we need to do and why, Fred.
Q
.
Fumidil-B
No longer available
Good Morning Jerry,
As a beekeeper of some 40 years
and a regular, both spring and fall
user of Fumidil B as a Nosema con-
trol, I was surprised to find it was no
longer available!
At one time, many years ago the
Department of Agriculture here in
Ontario subsidized its purchase. I
was introduced to it by Dr. Farrar
who was the best beekeeper I have
ever had the privilege of knowing!
Is there any American company
or organization that might be taking
over its manufacture?
There is no doubt in my mind that
it is responsible for my success in
overwintering here in Ontario.
John Marsh
Fumagilin-B is no longer available to
treat Nosema.
A
The Canadian Honey Council
(CHC) is working tremendously
hard to fill that gap that beekeepers
need. I would google them up and
shoot them an email expressing your
support.
Q
SMALL H l VE BEETLE
TOURETTE’S
SYNDROME
HI! My name is Samantha, and I
have a disease called hive beetle To-
urette’s. It has been a part of my life as
a new beekeeper since last year when
I first installed my hives. I had no idea
what the heck they were till they had
taken ahold good. I was hoping that
you would be able to give me some
advice on how to rid my hives of
these little SOB’s!!! Any help would
be a great help.
Samantha
Small hive beetle larvae with adults in
foreground. Photograph by Mark Dykes,
A
University of Florida.
So, is one of your more severe To-
urette’s events on YouTube, Saman-
tha? I’d like to see it.
Here is a real quick (for Jerry) in-
sight of what small hive beetle (SHB)
is trying to do. The SHB adult is sim-
ply trying to reproduce and they have
evolved and developed to figure out
how to use the warm, moist, nutri-
tious environment of a honey bee col-
ony to do it in. The adults are small,
round and hard, so honey bees can’t
sting them or grab them and pick
them up and drag them out. The bees
can pester and harass them and drive
them to and fro within the colony, but
that is about all. Pretty good adapta-
tion I think.
SHB adults want to reproduce
and lay eggs, but it’s hard to do in a
populous, strong healthy honey bee
colony where there is a honey bee on
just about every inch of the comb that
could remove these eggs and harass the
adult SHB. They identify colonies that
are weak, with small populations that
are not able to police the colony fully.
They are looking for sick colonies. In
this age that is a colony that has high
levels of varroa mites and the varroa/
virus legacy that comes with varroa
levels above 3 mites per 100 bees. Cer-
tainly, there can be other diseases and
starvation from lack of natural flower
forage and nectar or supplemental
sugar syrup, but varroa is our #1 honey
bee health issue in most circumstances.
SHB are SECONDARY predators tak-
ing advantage of a weak colony. Keep
a colony healthy and robust and you
29
have dealt with SHB and other honey
bee colony health issues well.
There are several SHB trap designs
available through Dadant and other
suppliers. These work reasonably
well, but if your colony is sick and
weak, SHB in the environment rec-
ognize this and move into the colony
anyway and at some time there will
be more SHB than honey bees and
this is when SHB reproduction takes
place. The female SHB can lay hun-
dreds of eggs at a time. And if you
have hundreds of SHB females laying
all in concert, it is a big mess quickly.
The egg is an egg for about a day, then
hatches into a voracious larva that
has yeast (Kodamaea ohmeri) that cre-
ates a slime that helps it to feed and
is a repellent to any honey bees left.
They destroy your colony and your
Tourette’s gets worse.
Having a few SHB in a colony is
no big deal if the colony is big and
healthy. It all changes if you are not a
good beekeeper manager and you al-
low varroa to get out of control. Then,
SHB and other secondary pests, para-
sites and diseases can take advantage
of this perfect SHB ‘nursery’.
I am not a doctor nor have I ever
played one on TV, but to control your
SHB Tourette’s, control varroa and
keep your colony healthy and active.
Hang in there.
Q ABSCONDING
Hi Jerry
This has never happened to me
before and I have been a beekeeper
since 1961.
On September 12 I inspected my
hives making sure the hive weight
was at least 150 pounds. One week
later I was driving through the bee
yard and noticed no bees coming out,
even though there were 5 to 6 frames
of bees in both hives earlier.
I opened the hive and every bee
was gone and I mean every one.
Being that late in the fall, I am sure
the bees that left will not survive.
Any idea what happened? Thanks.
A I am at the Missouri Beekeepers As-
sociation meeting and I was pulled
aside and shared a similar story and
question. This is called ‘abscond-
ing’. This is not ‘swarming’, which is
30
“Every bee was gone.”
asexual reproduction. Absconding is
a survival trait for some bees from Af-
rica. When environmental conditions
get bad—too hot, no flowers, too
many varroa mites, animal or human
predation on the colony—the whole
colony gets up and simply leaves,
looking for a new home.
I asked the beekeeper where his
queens came from and he said they
were a mix from California and
Florida queens.
Having experienced African bees,
this is a genetic trait that African bees
have. African bees are in Florida and
California. When they interbreed with
European bees, sometimes these ab-
sconding genes are active. If the genes
are active in Minnesota, the bees die.
If this happened in the far south, it
may have worked. It is genes doing a
science experiment—ala Darwin
Q NOT
MY HONEY DID
Hello,
GRANULATE
I have a 2 lb. plastic bear 3/4 full
of my first honey extraction back in
1994. I thought it would be kind of
nostalgic to keep it over the years. So,
I have left it in my cabinet, in the dark,
at room temperature for 24 years.
I have, of course, taken it out for a
minute or so just to keep checking it,
never opening it. It is very dark now,
but it started off kind of dark to be-
gin with. It was a fall extraction here
in Boise, Idaho. Does it strike you as
weird that it has not even begun to
crystallize? It would pour right out of
the bear if I took the lid off.
Have you ever heard of such a
thing?
Thanks
A
Mark
Just back from the Beekeepers of
Indiana meeting. Great organization
and meeting.
You are kind of a hoarder....huh? :)
Hang on to your chemistry hat for
a paragraph or so. The final product
of nectar collection is called honey, of
course. Nectar is a sugary liquid that
honey bees collect as a food, bring
it back to the hive, and then process
for long-term storage as honey. The
bees evaporate the water from it so it
doesn’t ferment. It is reduced down
to approx. 80% or so sugars and 20%
water. It is a supersaturated sugar
solution. As a rule of thumb, the two
main sugars in honey are simple sug-
ars (monosaccharides) fructose and
glucose. The ratios of these two main
sugars can vary considerably, de-
pending on the floral source. Gener-
ally, there is more fructose in honey
than glucose. When honey’s glucose
content is higher because the flow-
ers bees are visiting have a higher
glucose concentration in the nectar,
more glucose than fructose, that is
when crystallization begins. Fruc-
tose is more soluble and stable in the
moisture in honey than glucose. The
honey is trying to balance itself, if
you will, in relation to these sugar ra-
tios. They are unbalanced when there
is more glucose than fructose. The
balancing process depends on the
glucose forming sugar crystals to re-
move itself from the honey solution.
This process can be quickened if there
is something for the sugar crystals to
form on and around like other sugar
crystals, dust or pollen.
Your honey from 1994 must have
lots more fructose than glucose. It
may never granulate.
There is a process or recipe for pro-
ducing smooth and creamy crystal-
ized honey called the Dyce process.
You can google it. Most of the rest
of the world prefers crystallized or
creamed honey because of mouthfeel,
flavor and because it doesn’t drip and
run and get sticky all over the place.
It is wonderfully spreadable. Great
product that is under-advertised in
the U.S..
American Bee Journal
Q FREEZE DRYING
POLLEN
I really appreciated your insight
and presentations this weekend at
the Indiana meeting. As a side note,
our current assignment for the Mon-
tana Journeyman Beekeeping class
this week is a review and ranking
of 3 technical peer-reviewed papers
(from about 5 years ago) primarily fo-
cused on pesticides and their impact Freeze-dried pollen
on bees. We have to rank them from am about this. The answer that came
good to poor taking into account the back is that it seems to be a great idea
actual facts presented and the pos- to preserve bee-gathered pollen long
sible bias of the authors - sound fa- term.
miliar? We have 2 days to read and A couple of questions you have to
make our assessment, then the class ask yourself are: 1) Since bees don’t
will discuss their opinions in a forum have chewing, crunching mouth-
for the rest of the week. parts, how can they access the nutri-
But now to the real reason for writ- tion preserved inside this FD pollen.
ing. During your talk, the topic of 2) When FDing pollen from bee-gath-
storing pollen for later use was dis- ered pollen are you also preserving
cussed, including freezing. We have and concentrating pesticides, bacteria
the capability to freeze-dry products and fungi to which this flower pollen
at our new teaching facility and we may have been exposed?
discussed determining if this would Do you know how bees preserve
be a viable option compared to regu- pollen for storage in a beehive when
lar freezing. The process freezes to it is called beebread? Beebread is pol-
-40˚F (about 12 hours) then uses a vac- len that is wrapped up in nectar/
uum pump to remove the moisture in honey, and bee secretions in an anaer-
the chamber while the temperature is obic (no oxygen) system. I wonder if
slowly returned to ambient (another a beekeeper could take pollen pellets
12 hours). (bee-gathered pollen) and store them
In theory, regular produce retains in honey or 80+% sucrose syrup to
a very high percentage of the origi- preserve their nutritional value?
nal taste and nutrition while increas-
ing the shelf life for up to 25 years (if
kept in a Mylar bag with a desiccant).
We’ve just started using this device
and have had decent results so far. I
believe you expressed concerns about
just freezing pollen for later use.
Could the ability to remove the mois-
ture make this a viable option?
Thanks again for your insight this
weekend and I look forward to future
discussions.

Best Regards,
Chuck Dailey

A
Interesting question Chuck.
First thing I did was look up Freeze
Dried (FD) Pollen and how it is used
and advertised now. There are many
links to FD pollen for human con-
sumption as a way to preserve nutri-
tion in fragile pollen grains. I have
seen it advertised as an ingredient
in some honey bee supplemental di-
ets as well. But, I really didn’t know
so I asked some folks smarter than I

January 2019 31
32 American Bee Journal
 Honey Bee emergency response:
A prActicAl guide for responders

pArt i of two pArts

by ANDY HEMKEN, Bee Guy
andy@hemkenhoney.com

Traffic accidents on America’s highways are an everyday occurrence. Vehicles are

damaged, people are injured or worse. Law enforcement comes and directs traffic, the
local fire department extracts people, transports the injured, the tow truck takes away
the wreckage, and the Department of Public Works (DPW) guy with the broom cleans
off the road way. We don’t really pay attention until we are stuck in traffic waiting for
the accident to clear.

W
hen the accident involves
honey bees, suddenly it
makes the national news.
An incident with a truckload of hon-
ey bees will hit the news because of;
1) honey bees are dying off, 2) honey
bees have been in the news, and 3) it’s
a good, sensational news story. In real
life, the response may be a disaster in
itself. Some authorities, in an effort to
open the roadway, my get a skidsteer,
push the bee equipment to the side of
the road, and light it on fire. All this
does is fire up the bees, and they fly
around even more angry. As beekeep-
ers, we recognize how responses may
go wrong, and how they should be
done, if it were up to us.
This is an informal guide for re-
sponders to organize ahead of time.
You may never see such an incident
in your lifetime, or you may not be
so lucky. Hopefully the article will
catch the eye of a county or state bee-
keeping association, to allow them
to more easily organize a response.
This should also be of interest to all
beekeepers, because in an emergency,
you may be called to assist in such a
problem. Better to be prepared, as I
used to tell my Boy Scouts. This also
discusses not only the spectacular
400 hives on a semi rolled over, but
provides some input for smaller acci-
dents and swarm incidents.
As you read this article it will be-
come apparent that I am intending
More common than road accidents are
calls from the public about swarms of
honey bees, especially in the spring.
this not only for you beekeepers, but
also to be passed on to potential re-
sponders. This should help in fram-
ing procedures to follow. Please don’t
yell at me for the extra information
included.
Why Bother?
Why should we be concerned about
someone else losing a load of bees?
Not our problem anyway. Some of us
have an interest in saving as many of
the hives as we can, and to help out
other beekeepers. Who knows, the
next time it might be one of us who
has a problem. As with the commu-
nity that suffers a catastrophe, we
should be pulling together to help.
It also places beekeepers in a better
light, to help our community in clean-
ing up a sticky situation. Positive
publicity can’t hurt. So our goal as
beekeepers should be to minimize the
risk to the community from stinging
insects, save as many hives as pos-
sible, and to help our local respond-
ers. State beekeeping organizations
should be taking the lead on this,
working with the heads of various
responding agencies, developing lists
of county beekeeping groups, as well

January 2019 35
 as individual beekeepers in all areas
of each state.

history
Toward the end of the 2015 at the
Iowa Honey Producers Association
conference, Vice President Mary Wilt-
gen made a presentation on bee emer-
gencies. This was to cover how to re-
spond to bee emergencies across the
state of Iowa. This would take a lot of
work, but could potentially save bee-
hives in various circumstances. She
was looking for volunteers to help in
this effort, and as I looked across the
room full of people, I didn’t see any
hands go up. Following the presenta-
tion, I met up with Mary, outlined my
background, and agreed to help out.
This turned out to be an interesting
endeavor.

My Background
I have been involved in beekeep-
ing for 23 years, professional safety
for 28 years, 11 years in emergency
management, 11 years as a volunteer
firefighter, Wisconsin Honey Produc-
ers President, 15 years county bee
association President, and extensive
municipal committee and project
work. Plus a lot of other activities.
This type of program was right up
my alley. It helps to have this type of
background, because of the variety
of entities we were communicating
with. Experience in writing programs
and procedures, ordinances and other
documents was a plus.

the Process
Starting with the basic information,
I put together a framework of a pro-
gram, including some parameters,
and what we would like to cover. We
were concentrating on the semi-load
of beehives, but to be helpful to lo-
cal jurisdictions, I included beehives
hauled by pickup and flatbed truck,
or smaller trailers. I also included the
honey bee swarm and wasp calls, to
give the dispatchers better guidance.
Also included was some background
information on beekeepers, honey bee
behavior, wasp and hornet behavior,
and Africanized honey bees. The pro-
gram is not complete, but is intended
as a good starting point. When placed
in the hands of a group or agency, it
can be customized to work.
The bee emergency program deals
This was back in 2011. The truck had wrecked a few miles past the town of Quartzsite, with four basic groups: Dispatchers,
Az. I didn't get called out until 3 or so days afterwards. By that time a loader had law enforcement, fire departments
pushed everything into a big pile, but they couldn't complete the clean up with all the and beekeepers. This project has been
bees flying around. I salvaged what I could. Biggest swarms I'd ever seen. It was from put together using the best available
an operation out of texas, the Stroopes. (Photos courtesy of John Brady) information by knowledgeable folks

36 American Bee Journal

and other resources. The intention is
to provide guidance for the mitiga-
tion of honey bee emergencies. The
primary focus is on vehicle accidents
involving trucks hauling quantities of
active beehives. Additional informa-
tion is provided for honey bee/wasp
problems which are minor in nature.
Training of dispatchers, law enforce-
ment, fire departments and others is
critical in the effectiveness of these
procedures.
Why PrePare ahead of tiMe?
Honey bees are transported
throughout the United States, not
only on our expressways, but on
many state and county roads, and
city streets. As a beekeepers if you fol-
low any of the news releases, you can
understand good and bad responses,
problems and mistakes that are made.
Most people may or may not under-
stand the scope of the problem, but
may form a poor opinion of the truck
driver who spilled their “dangerous”
load in the middle of the poor victims
affected.
Planning ahead allows for proper
training of responders, possible stag-
ing of equipment, and a much more
effective response to emergencies.
At our fire department we trained
weekly so that when we roll up to a
fire or accident, we can work more
effectively. When riding with several
southern California fire departments,
I was shown the bee veils stored on
the fire trucks, to deal with calls for
Africanized honey bees. A semi-load
of beehives may also require more
extensive resources to organize and
clean up the mess.
Honey bee emergencies are typical-
ly short term, a matter of several hours
or less. Authorities are usually anxious
to open affected roadways, and reduce
disruptions. Therefore, decisions have
to made quickly. Procedures set up
ahead of time, including training and
information, should help in the deci-
The larger the beekeeping operation, the higher probability for issues. Most beekeepers go to great lengths to minimize problems,
and may voluntarily assist with a honey bee emergency.
January 2019
Hobby beekeepers may be transporting
hives on a small trailer, pickup truck, in-
side a minivan or SUV. In an accident the
result is the same. Bees are on the loose,
agitated, and in close proximity to people.
sion-making process, and shorten the
duration of the response.
eMergency vs. nuisance
Depending on the situation, people
facing stinging insects will call any
beekeeper who they can find on the
Internet, or will call 911 to have the
situation taken care of. Most calls re-
garding honey bees or wasps involve
nests in areas in close contact with
humans; honey bees inside a home
or other buildings, or wasps in close
proximity to humans. Many people
get quite agitated, excited or hys-
terical at this point. This is usually
based on a lack of information. Calls
also come in regarding swarms in all
manner of places. These calls are nor-
mally non-emergency, and might be
referred to an exterminator, or local
beekeeper. Circumstances will dictate
the actual response.
Swarms of honey bees are quite
common, and usually occur in late
spring or early summer in the upper
Midwest. Swarm patterns vary de-
pending on the area of the country.
Swarming is a normal process, where
a hive divides, and half the hive looks
for a new home. The swarm at rest
will form a rough ball about soccer
ball sized. The honey bees are nor-
mally non-aggressive, because there
is no hive to protect. Many swarms
can be handled with little or no pro-
tective equipment by beekeepers.
These swarms typically will not stay
in one place for more than a day or
two, before they move on. The nor-
mal response to swarms is to call in
a local beekeeper to take the swarm
away. In extreme cases where public
safety is involved, the local fire de-
partment can spray the swarm with
fire-fighting foam to kill them. The
fire-fighting foam is a soap solu-
tion, and the soap covers the insects’
breathing holes, suffocating them.
Most people these days regard honey
bees as endangered, and will do a lot
to see that they are saved.
The dispatcher is the contact per-
son for many of these calls. Dispatch-
ers usually have the ability to control
the situation, and to provide informa-
tion and guidance. They can often
advise the citizen of options, or how
to mitigate the situation themselves.
This takes training and guidance for
the dispatchers, to be knowledgeable.
This is the intention of this informa-
tion. Most dispatchers have resource
lists to rely on. I am listed as a bee-
keeper for the village of Mukwonago,
Wisconsin, and have been called to
assist. This is a good way to collect
swarms, and again, to build some
goodwill for beekeepers in the com-
munity.
Who are the BeekeePers?
Of course, most of you reading this
know what we are talking about, but
it is sometimes helpful for responders
and the general public to know how
we beekeepers operate, for a better
understanding.
Hobby beekeepers may have one
to 30 beehives, usually on their own
property.
Sideline beekeepers may have 50-
300 hives, and usually keep bees
as additional income. These hives
37

Beekeepers know the difference between honey bees and other stinging insects. The
general public, however, cannot distinguish between the two. Anything that flies and
stings is either a honey bee, or a wasp, depending on predisposed ideas.
may be spread around several
properties in the area, and this re-
quires the movement of beehives
on local roads.
Commercial beekeepers may have
from 500-50,000 beehives, and this
is their primary income. These
hives are scattered around a wide
area in groups of 30-100 called bee-
yards. Flatbed trucks, trailers and
large trucks will transport beehives
on local and state roads, as well as
expressways.
Migratory beekeepers are usually
commercial beekeepers, and move
their hives around the area, or
country on flatbed trucks, pollinat-
ing a variety of crops.
honey Bees
Honey bees are normally hairy, and
tan and gold colored. Honey bees are
generally non-aggressive, and coexist
with humans in rural, suburban and
urban settings. Some beekeepers work
their bees in t-shirts, usually with a
smoker to calm the bees. Honey bees
may turn more aggressive in defend-
ing their hive, in inclement weather,
and when their hives are overturned
and broken apart in a vehicle acci-
dent. Honey bees usually nest in cavi-
ties; hollow trees, walls or cavities in a
house or other building, or just about
anything with a hollow of about three
cubic feet. Occasionally, honey bees
will build comb on the branch of a
tree, or other object, but this is unusu-
al. Honey bees never build nests un-
derground. Honey bees build vertical
beeswax comb. Each honey bee can
only sting once, and the stinger im-
beds in human skin. The stinger then
pulls out of the honey bee, and they
die. The stinger is normally removed
by scraping the stinger with a credit
card, knife or other tool. Tweezers can
be used, but they typically force more
venom into the skin.
38
Wasp Nest. Wasps make their own
home, while honey bees nest primarily
in a cavity.
action. Exposure to Africanized hon-
ey bees in other areas of the country
is usually from a single hive. Human
fatalities from Africanized honey bees
WasPs, hornets, yelloW Jackets, etc have been few, despite the initial pan-
Wasps, hornets, yellow jackets ic from the influx of the “killer bees.”
and the like are generally aggres-
sive, and can sting multiple times. again, Why Bother?
These are generally identified by a The intention in responding to a
bright yellow and black coloring, al- honey bee emergency is to try and
though bald faced hornets are black save or salvage bees and equipment.
and white. Wasps build paper nests In some cases, this is not practical.
on the branch of a tree, or anywhere Honey bees, wasps and other simi-
outside. The nest is made up of hori- lar insects can be killed by commer-
zontal paper comb, and a grey circu- cial exterminator-type insecticides,
lar, multi-layered covering. It is also or with soapy water or firefighting
common for yellow jackets to build foam. Soap or foam works to form a
underground, or in building cavities, film over the insects' breathing holes,
under decks, etc. Wasp and hornet asphyxiating them quickly.
nests are discarded after one season,
Next month: Procedures in a Bee
and new nests are started each spring.
Emergency
For the purposes of the article, wasps,
hornets, yellow jackets are used inter-
changably. Each does have their own TABER’S on the web...
identity.
africanized honey Bees
These honey bees originated in
South Africa, and can be extremely
aggressive. Africanized honey bee
areas are currently established from
central Texas to central California,
and central Florida. Exposure in oth-
er areas of the country may be the re-
sult of migratory beekeepers coming
from an established Africanized area.
Most beekeepers are very diligent in
keeping Africanized honey bees out
of their operations, which minimizes
Queens & Packages
exposure to the general public. In New USDA Russian
all respects, Africanized honey bees
resemble normal honey bees. When ARS Yugoslavians
provoked, hundreds of Africanized
honey bees may react and sting any-
Free Brochure Call
thing breathing. There are a number
of things that can be done; falling to
the ground with a shirt or jacket held Phone 707-449-0440
over the head, or taking shelter in a
vehicle or building, generally mini-
Fax 707-449-8127
mizing exposure to stinging. African- P.O. Box 1672
ized honey bees will chase anyone
running, for more than a mile, so it
Vacaville, CA 95696
may be better to take some immediate
www.honeybeegenetics.com
American Bee Journal
 What’s in
the Honey Jar?
“There’s no honey police. What can we do?”
Some Texas Beekeepers Have
Come Up with a Plan

by M.E.A. MCNEIL

N
“ o way,” said Chris Moore as he ping the hard part – the labor and the cials.” Their agenda has long included
held up a jar of honey for sale heartache. The problem is that they the problem of country of origin. In
marked “local.” He could tell are labeling the product as though 2001, he said, AHPA brought an anti-
by looking at it. “No way is this local Grandpa is still out in the field har- dumping suit that eventually resulted
honey.” The honey was nearly white. vesting local honey, maintaining his in the Byrd Amendment, which im-
As a commercial beekeeper south of hard-earned name. posed heavy tariffs on Chinese honey
Houston, he’d bottled hundreds of “We have people down the road in fairness to American producers.
pounds of honey from the area – all of selling local honey,” said Moore. “It’s Subsequently, Chinese honey has all
it much darker – light amber to amber not. You don’t know what’s in it. but disappeared from our ports. Yet it
on a guide called the Pfund scale. By There’s a whole, whole lot of decep- still floods in, fraudulently relabeled
that measurement, which uses wave- tion here. There’s no honey police. and transshipped through third and
lengths of light passing through hon- What can we do?” fourth countries -- Thailand in four
ey, the true local honey is 90% darker, It’s not a new question. years increasing its honey exports
and Moore did not need a photometer by 3,900%, for one. And those barrels
to know the difference. “We’ve been dealing with the prob- avoid the testing, required on Chinese
Texas beekeepers have had some lem for years,” said Chris Hiatt, phon- honey for good reason, for contami-
hard years, a string of them, like bee- ing from a North Dakota apiary. He is nants such as antibiotics and lead.
keepers across the country. It costs vice president of the American Hon- “We still have two problems,” said
more to keep bees, with the longevity ey Producers Association (AHPA). Haitt: “Adulteration and avoidance of
of queens decreasing and losses high. “There are so many layers to the saga.” tariffs. Hardly anything coming in is
On top of that, there are those still re- “My dad started 50 years ago with tested.”
covering from the devastation of Hur- 45 cent-per-pound honey. We’ve been That challenge compounds the on-
ricane Harvey. Many depend on the going to Washington DC for years and going problem of colony loss, staved
sale of local honey. Insult to injury, years, meeting with government offi- off, he said, “because we are divid-
this bogus jar.
As president of the Texas Beekeep-
ers Association, Moore had heard an
increasing number of stories from
members about unidentifiable honey
showing up on market shelves. He
was stymied as to what to do about it.
He first decided to trace the origins
of suspicious jars by visiting the busi-
nesses. What he saw didn’t add up.
Where were the bees? The extraction
equipment? One place was run by a
person who did not know what an ex-
tractor is (the spinner used to remove
honey from frames of comb). He
found himself more than unwelcome.
When his friendly inquiry resulted in
a threat of arrest for trespassing, he
hightailed it out. That approach, he
decided, wouldn’t further the goal.
“A lot of second and third genera-
tion honey companies, where cus-
tomers have been buying for 40 years
or more, are buying honey cheaper This photo was taken by an anonymous on-site inspector in a Thailand facility pur-
outside of Texas and bottling it,” said ported to be a raw honey packer. There was no processing equipment, only the blue
Moore. So, the offspring are skip- barrels filled with honey typically shipped out of China.

January 2019 39
ing, dividing, and dividing [colonies]. prices, and no future for honest hard- Moore and his board devised a plan
But look at the honey production. We working beekeepers.” to verify genuine producers. With the
used to produce three-quarters of the help of Dr. Juliana Rangel at Texas
honey for the country and now just Moore knew that he and his state A&M University, they got a Specialty
one-quarter. That’s a direct result of association could not face down the Crop Block Grant through the USDA.
losses of bees.” enormity of the problem, but they They formed a nonprofit in 2017,
The effect of cheap imported honey were still stuck with the results – headed by Harrison Rogers, in order
on the domestic market was summed fraudulent mislabeling and sinking to identify beekeepers who pass a vet-
up by Ron Phipps in his September, pure honey prices as a result of fraud- ting process and provide them with
2018, International Honey Market ulent imports. He came up with an jar seals that label their product as
column in this magazine: “There is idea. The answer was in their apiaries: truly local.
no ceiling to quantities, no floor to Real Texas Honey.
The Texas solution is creative. And
it is an example of a wider cultural
change described by Prof. Michael
Roberts, head of the Resnick Program
for Food Law and Policy at the UCLA
School of Law. Honey is vulnerable to
fraud, the third most exploited prod-
uct behind milk and olive oil; many
food producers are at sea between the
pirates and an elusive armada of gov-
ernmental controls.
“Who has power in food?” he
asked. “Well, farmers have never
had any power. Manufacturers have
had power for a number of years, but
there’s a shift that’s taking place in
the United States -- the rise in retail.
It’s fascinating to watch. More pro-
ducers are creating private standards.
The shift to using private standards to
control food fraud is new.”
He is mindful of the human pro-
pensity to find ways to cheat and
quotes a recipe from an early Roman
An NMR test of an authentic honey, shown by the black line. The profile (quantile plot) cookbook: “How bad honey may be
of a normal model is shown in color: The red band represents the most frequently turned into a salable article is to mix
and blue band less commonly detected signal intensities in authentic samples. First
one part of the spoiled honey with
row, aliphatic (non-aromatic) region; second row, sugar region; third row, aromatic
two parts of good honey.”
region. The NMR spectrum of an authentic honey is expected to be within the colored
envelope. Rules to identify genuine products
have been devised over millennia,
but it was not until the 19th century,
with industrialization widening the
distance between consumer and pro-
ducer, that a food purity movement
began in earnest. “The word ‘pure,’”
said Roberts, meant not only the ab-
sence of adulterants, “but also an old-
er, moral meaning as a synonym for
righteous, honest.”
Credit for that is due Dr. Harvey
Wiley, who in 1883 became the chief
chemist at the Department of Agricul-
ture. He was the son of abolitionists,
used to a fight, and he used the lab in
a crusade for systematic food analysis.
Honey was among the products he
took on. He’d brought a polariscope
from Germany to test sugars, and with
it he discovered widespread honey
adulteration with corn syrup. “[They
would] put the remnants of bees,
This shows the NMR spectrum of a honey adulterated with 10% rice syrup, shown by wings, legs etc to carry out the fraud,”
the black line in contrast to the quantiles of the reference database. Figures provided he wrote. Even honest beekeepers
by QSI (Quality Services International), Bremen, Germany. caused him grief for giving honey a

40 American Bee Journal

bad name, but he left a mark with the
Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906.
Out of that came the 1938 Federal
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which,
with its amendments, said Roberts,
“serve as the foundation of food law.
This foundation, however, has been
ill equipped to deal with the prob-
lems of the modern food system.”
Among the gaps in that law are some
that affect American honey sellers.
US Customs, an agency of Home-
land Security, can deal with tariffs,
but when it comes to defining genuine
honey, they look to the FDA, a divi-
sion of the Department of Health, for
direction. But the FDA can give only
“guidance intended to advise,” not an
enforceable standard of identity for
honey. Power to create a lawful stan-
dard rests with the USDA, which has
not provided one. Helpless without
a legal standard, the FDA suggests
voluntary labeling as an answer. “If
you tried,” said Roberts, “You could
not set up a way to enforce in such a
feeble way.”
There’s some history here. Identity
standards, which are essentially reci-
pes, have proven to be unmanage-
able for the USDA. For example, the
agency was stuck for a decade into
the 60s in the middle of a debate on
the definition of peanut butter. Since
then, the number of products has
proliferated, their ingredients multi-
plied, and supply chains have grown
longer. The agency retreated from the
standards business. They are dealing
with all manner of health dangers,
and they drew the line at food safety.
Transshipped and syrup-adulterated
honey are not food safety issues.
man company, Wolff, was convicted
in 2008 of importing thousands of
pounds of transshipped Chinese hon-
ey, avoiding $80 million in dumping
duties. A significant amount of that
honey was tainted with the antibiotic
chloramphenicol.
U.S. Customs agents raided Wolff’s
Chicago office, indicting ten top of-
ficials in what has been called Hon-
eygate I. But, apart from two young
employees who ran the operation
and were arrested, the perpetrators
escaped trial and remain abroad. The
enterprise disappeared with them into
another Wolff company. By then, so
much low-priced Chinese honey was
being illegally imported that U.S. hon-
ey prices dropped to below-cost levels. The Real Texas Honey logo was on dis-
The flow of illegal and adulterated play at the last Texas State Beekeepers
Association meeting. Left to right, Har-
Chinese honey continued, with some
rison Rogers, chairman of Real Texas
domestic distributors still willing to
Honey; Danessa Yaschuk, beekeeper
buy. One of them was Groeb Farms of and owner of SweetNes Honey; and
Onsted, Michigan, then the nation’s Chris Moore of Moore Honey Farms and
largest industrial honey supplier. The president of the state organization. Photo
company knowingly imported Chi- courtesy of Chris Moore.
nese honey from transshipping sup-
pliers for years until the fraud was
uncovered by an employee in another ey, as well as honey adulterated with
state. Groeb Farms Inc. was fined $2 the antibiotic tetracycline. They were
million. fined $1 million. At least seven shell
A second company, Honey Holding, and front companies were involved.
doing business as Honey Solutions of “It’s an epidemic,” said Mitch
Baytown, Texas, admitted to charges Weinberg. “The way to stop it is to
that it purchased Chinese-origin hon- observe with your eyes and ears and

Beekeepers still needed a govern-

mental standard, and the Ameri-
can Honey Producers petitioned the
USDA for one. They waited two years
for the response, which, when it came,
referred them to Webster for a defini-
tion of honey. Other countries have
long followed the standard in the Co-
dex Alimentarius, a defining document
issued by the World Health Organi-
zation and the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the U.N. Roberts says
a legal standard is “a necessary yard-
stick” for control. “Where there is a
clear case of fraud like honey or olive
oil, it is appropriate,” he said. “It is im-
portant to get authenticity for consum-
ers. Honest purveyors are victims of
EMA (economically motivated fraud).
This is really a fraud on consumers.”
In what has been called the larg- A map on the Real Texas Honey Website shows the verified producers. It is accompa-
est food fraud in U.S. history, a Ger- nied by a locator by eco-region and addresses where local honey is available.

January 2019 41

Dr. Harvey Wiley, the chief chemist at the
Department of Agriculture, pioneered
investigations into adulterated food. He
uncovered added sugar in honeys and
pioneered the first Pure Food and Drugs
Act in 1906, dating this commemorative
stamp at 1956.
nose exactly what’s going on.” His
company, Inscatek, does exactly that.
“We are food spies. I have a network
of undercover intelligence gathering
operatives around the world. We go
right back to the source, follow the
food all the way up the supply chain.”
A disturbing story is told by a
site inspector who asks to remain
anonymous. In trips to several Asian
countries, they found, from country
to country, variations of the same
experience in honey packing facili-
The Codex Alimentarius, a source of standards internationally, contains a definition
and parameters for honey.
42
ties: “There were plants that were not
even hooked up. One plant manager
couldn’t say how it runs. Undersized
equipment that could not possibly
process all that honey. All kinds
of finished goods, no raw mate-
rial. Sometimes the lab report didn’t
make sense. 3000 unlabeled drums
with three that still had Chinese la-
bels. They were just relabeling. It was
all phony.”
The inspector said, “I went to Wash-
ington DC and talked to a room full of
regulators organized by Ron Phipps
-- DOJ, FDA, USDA, US Pharmaco-
peia, Customs. I told my story and I
followed up. Nothing ever happened.
Nobody’s doing anything.”
Perhaps Honeygate III is in the plan-
ning, but until then, container loads of
illegal honey imports pass on in.
“We are not focused on the funny
honey,” said Harrison Rogers, “We
are focused on what we know is real
Texas honey -- the positive aspect, the
real thing.” Applications are coming
in from beekeepers who want their
product recognized as genuine, 71 at
this writing. Rogers, Moore and the
board members are checking out the
operations of each one, assessing a fee
of $20.70 per colony.
Their USDA grant requires collabo-
ration with a university. The beekeep-
ers wanted to build a Texas pollen
database to help create a testing pro-
tocol for their program. Texas A&M is
known for palynologist Dr. Vaughn
Bryant’s work with pollens in honey.
More work was being done there in
the lab of Dr. Juliana Rangel, who
wrote the Real Texas Honey grant;
her graduate student, Pierre Lau was
doing pollen analysis in rural areas. It
was a win-win-win: Honey samples
were collected from Texas beekeepers
for analysis of pollen coefficients for
Lau’s data, the beekeepers got a free
report, and the grant helped pay Lau.
“Most of those suspicious hon-
eys have the pollen stripped out of
them,” said Moore. “One beekeeper
I knew didn’t have any pollen in his
honey. I told him, pollen is our finger-
print. Our customers want pollen in
the honey. He said, ‘That gives me a
reason not to use that filter press. I’ve
had it for 40 years. It was a pain to
run. It’s a good excuse not to use it,
less work for me’.”
The cheaters have kept one step
ahead of technology in a cat and
mouse game. Phipps tells a story of
a series of honey samples tested by
Vaughn Bryant that came from the
same source in Indonesia. The first
result showed Chinese pollen in the
honey. A subsequent sample showed
no pollen at all. The next contained
pollen from Argentina. “Pollen is
not a good telltale sign,” he said. (It
would take another branch of this sto-
ry to explore the nuances of Bryant’s
expertise that remain valuable.)
Chinese have come up with a scam
called resin technology. It actually
launders honey: The intrusion of wa-
ter removes components such as pol-
len and chemicals at a trace level, be-
fore the honey is mechanically dried.
Coloring compounds are removed to
lighten it, making it more valuable,
and the country of origin becomes
undetectable. Phipps found the mo-
bile resin equipment advertised on
Alibaba as a means to get around U.S.
tariffs. Indeed, the resulting product
presents itself as the perfect crime.
Biochemically, honey is a substance
processed from nectar by the bees
with enzymatic conversion into a su-
persaturated sugar solution. Its main
sugars, fructose and glucose, with
a smaller proportion of sucrose and
maltose, vary by nectar source. It also
contains vitamins, proteins and min-
erals. The definition of honey from
the Codex Alimentarius (2001) is “the
sweet substance produced by honey
bees from the nectar of blossoms or
from secretions of living plants, which
the bees collect, transform and store
in honeycombs.” That’s pretty close
to what the Texas people have come
up with. The Codex specifies criteria
such as contents of sugars, moisture,
insoluble matter and enzyme activity
-- creating a prescription for purity.
American Bee Journal

Mitchell Weinberg, CEO of the food fraud
firm INSCATECH that employs under-
cover agents to investigate questionable
suppliers.
Most honey in the world comes
from plants with what is called a C3
fingerprint, an indicator of how the
plant captures carbon dioxide during
photosynthesis to make its sugars.
In contrast, C4 plants are adapted to
intense light, temperatures, and dry-
ness – such as sugar cane and corn.
Because of this evolutionary differ-
ence, these C4 sweeteners have been
detectable in adulterated honey since
Wiley’s spectrometer. But cheaters
have switched to additives from C3
sources, such as beet and rice syrups,
which are more difficult to detect.
NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Reso-
nance) is a test that can detect a mind-
boggling array of components in
honey: sugars (including rice or beet
syrup), pollens, in-hive chemicals, an-
tibiotics, pesticides, foreign enzymes,
microbes, heavy metals. Roberts said,
“NMR detects the addition of extra-
neous sugars and appears to deal
effectively with the other two main
modes of adulteration in the past de-
cade: the employment of ultrafiltra-
tion and resin technology and the use
of vacuum technology to reduce high
moisture content in immature honey.
NMR also detects botanical and geo-
graphical origins.”
The Real Texas Honey program
sent honeys to QSI (Quality Services
International), a lab in Germany, to
do NMR testing. The method has
its detractors, since a sample sent to
various labs did not yield the same
results. But since then, both the soft-
January 2019
ware and the database have been up-
dated, said James Gawenis of Sweet-
water Science Labs in Missouri, and
the same data was accurately pro-
cessed. Phipps called NMR “the most
sophisticated technology with the
largest global database.”
Haitt, of the American Honey Pro-
ducers Association (AHPA) said, “We
are working from the top down and
the bottom up to create pressure for
change. The Walmart shelf has it all.
It goes from top to bottom – regional
honeys on the top shelf, on the next
shelf USA only, on the next shelf
down blends, and on the bottom shelf
a super dirt cheap price for, what
looks like to me, syrup.”
Gawenis’ lab has shown that some
of the bottom shelf stuff is finding its
way to farmers’ markets.
Roberts was called on by AHPA
to write a white paper on the honey
market situation. It was subsequently
paid for by The Honey Board, a mar-
keting and support arm of the USDA.
His anticipated report, “Recommend-
ed Strategies to Address Economic
Adulteration in Honey,” was submit-
ted in June, 2017. Since then, it has not
been distributed by the Agricultural
Marketing Service division of USDA.
“I was asked to call it like I saw it,”
he said.
The paper makes a dozen recom-
mendations. The adaptation of NMR
testing is the first, followed by the
establishment of a honey standard
to test against. In lieu of the unwill-
ingness of the USDA to create a stan-
dard, he recommends working with
US Pharmacopeia, the organization
that produces standards for medi-
cines and food ingredients. He pro-
poses various venues for cooperation:
The silver foil seal given to Texas bee-
keepers participating in a program to
promote local honey supported by a
USDA grant.
Prof. Michael T. Roberts of the Resnick
Center for Food Law & Policy at U.C.L.A.
He is an expert on food fraud and has
written a white paper on the problems
with honey.
testing with US Customs and Border
Patrol, research with a university, co-
ordination with the Europol-Interpol
Food Fraud Task Force. He also rec-
ommends establishing private stan-
dard regimes, which calls to mind a
group in Texas.
The crux of it: The Texas program
is working from the premise that the
informed consumer will buy their
honey. They’re hedging that bet by
including Dr. Debby Delaney of The
University of Delaware in their grant.
She is studying what makes a jar of
honey appealing to a buyer – for ex-
ample the type of jar or label. It’s fair
to say that labeling is the FDA fall-
back.
And once the Texas group com-
pletes the vetting, they plan to go to
local media to spread their message.
“Those guys in Texas,” said Haitt
of the AHPA, “You could make a case
for what the Texas guys are doing.
We may need to have regional groups
like that.”
M.E.A. McNeil, called
Mea, is a writer, organic
farmer, and Master Bee-
keeper, whose work
focuses on beekeeping,
pollination, and other
aspects of sustainability.
She recently completed
an MFA in narrative non-
fiction writing at Mills
College, where she won the Teppola Non-
fiction Writing Prize. She lives in Marin with
her husband and youngest son in a strawbale
house on an organic farm. She has contrib-
uted articles to The American Bee Journal for
a decade.
43

I suspect that our problems with varroa—at least for commercial beekeepers—may
get worse before they get better. But I’d be willing to bet that eventually, we’ll all be
keeping bees that are naturally resistant to the mite. It’s quite clear, that left to its own
means, Apis mellifera is able to force varroa into the position of being a relatively be-
nign parasite. It is only our current beekeeping practices that are causing this natural
evolutionary transition to take so long.
I
n order to work with our bees to turn varroa into a “be-
nign” parasite (as it is in its natural host Apis cerana), we
need to understand what we’ve been doing wrong, and
what we can do better. As I’ve tried to explain in previous
articles, we’re now dealing not just with varroa, but with
the new synergistic coupling of the mite and Deformed
Wing Virus (DWV), which I’m calling The Monster. Of
interest, it’s only in recent years that parasitologists have
started paying much attention to multiparasitism and co-
infection.1
When I think of how varroa has turned DWV into the
problem that it is today, I love the descriptive terms that
Steven Frank2 used to describe competition between
genotypes; as you read the snip below, think of how it
applies to the varroa/DWV Monster, and the evolution-
ary forces upon benign or virulent forms of the parasite
combination:
There is, however, a problem when two or more genotypes occu-
py the same host. If one genotype extracts host resources rapidly
and reproduces quickly, then the host may die in a short time. A
prudent genotype would have relatively low fitness when paired
in a host with a rapacious genotype because, for both genotypes,
the host is short-lived, and the rapacious genotype reproduces
more rapidly than the prudent one [emphasis mine].
Our current beekeeping practices favor the most rapa-
cious genotypes of The Monster by:
1. Maintaining multi-hive apiaries favorable to the
easy dispersal of virus-vectoring mites from collaps-
ing colonies to many other hives, and
2. Then replacing those fallen colonies each year with
more of the same mite-susceptible bee stock.
Direction of evolutionary pressure: it’s not the mites
January 2019
Guessing our
Future with
Varroa
Part 2
Ways that Bees
Can Manage
the Mite
by Randy Oliver
that kill a hive—it’s DWV. DWV has always been pres-
ent in bee hives, existing in numerous strains. The Var-
roa Problem came about when we added varroa to the
equation—DWV was suddenly given a highly-efficient
vector. This created a new situation in which bee colo-
nies (if not treated with effective miticides) were short-
lived, rather than long lived. With short-lived colonies
being the default, evolutionary pressure then favored
the most rapacious strains of the virus. We will continue
to be cursed with The Varroa Problem until we all start
running low-mite, long-lived colonies, which will then
favor the more prudent forms of DWV.
So long as we continue our current hopeless and un-
sustainable farce, which is completely dependent upon
continually-increasing applications of miticides in order to
sustain mite-susceptible bee stock, our dismal rate of 33%
annual colony losses is unlikely to improve3 (Fig. 1).
the long-terM solution
Most of us are not going to keep smaller apiaries, nor
stop replacing deadouts, so the only way that we’re going
to solve The Varroa Problem is by focusing upon the genet-
ics of our bees--that is, we need to start demanding that
our queen producers get serious about selecting for mite
resistance—which would favor the more prudent forms of
varroa and DWV.
Practical application: so long as our queen and pack-
age producers breed from stock that is dependent upon
multiple miticide treatments in order to survive, the
situation is unlikely to improve. Only when they start
breeding only from colonies that have survived for a year
without treatment, will we then stop rewarding the most
45

Fig. 1 The unfortunately all-too-familiar first signs of a colony
entering the death spiral due to the varroa/DWV “Monster.” Note
the bee with deformed wings, and the slumping prepupae. Even
a strong late-season miticide treatment will not be enough to
save this unfortunate colony.
rapacious forms of the varroa/DWV Monster, and start
favoring a more prudent parasite.
The good news is that there are a whole lot of ways that
bees can fight The Monster.
understanding varroa and Apis cerAnA
The first thing that I’d suggest is for every beekeeper to
gain an understanding of how varroa’s natural host, the
Eastern honey bee (Apis cerana) evolved to keep this para-
site in check. It’s only recently, however, that we may have
learned one of its critical tactics. It’s always puzzled me
exactly why varroa doesn’t attempt to reproduce in cerana
worker brood to any extent. Sure, it could be due to the
extreme varroa-sensitive hygiene (VSH) of cerana, but that
doesn’t fully explain why the mites don’t at least try, or
how the nurse bees tell that a pupa is infested.
Three recent studies have greatly helped to clear up the
mystery. Lin4 demonstrated that varroa indeed has the
ability to successfully reproduce on cerana worker pupae.
Page5, showed that the pupae fight back by “social apop-
tosis”—being entirely intolerant of having mites feed upon
them. But the most recent paper was the clincher—Zhang6
discovered that cerana worker larvae appear to cue on a
particular protein in the saliva of the mite, which then trig-
gers the larva to self-sacrifice for the good of the colony.
Amazingly, this cue is specific only to late-instar cerana
worker larvae—it has no, or only slight, effect upon any
other life stage or sex of either A. cerana or mellifera.
Practical application: as far as I’m concerned, the above
is a revelation, and gives us a prime target for selection
in our breeding programs.7
With this understanding, I can take a stab at listing the
set of rules that Apis cerana sets for the mite:
Apis cerAnA’s rules for CoexistenCe with varroa
1. Don’t waste your time trying to reproduce in our
worker brood—our larvae will “just say no,” and
we adults will try to kill you as we remove our self-
sacrificed sisters.
2. But we’ll offer you a carrot, along with a stick. We’ll
allow you to reproduce in our drone brood, under
46
the condition that we’ll maintain a sniffing hole in the
capping, and monitor for any signs of stress to that
pupa. Hurt it, or transmit harmful viruses, and we
will seal you and your bloodline into a waxen grave.
3. And we’ll further restrict your reproduction by rear-
ing drones only from time to time.
4. At all times we are going to make your life miser-
able. We will self-groom and allo-groom (groom
our nestmates) with fervor. That means that every
time you are forced to shift to a younger worker in
order to avoid being carried out by an aging ride
that might not return, you’ll have to run the gamut
again.
5. If you play by our rules by being a “prudent” minor
parasite, we’ll allow you to vertically transmit to the
next generation when we swarm.
By forcing the mites to reproduce only upon the hap-
loid drones (which possess only one allele for each gene),
and since only strong drones can catch up with a virgin
queen, this confers rather intense selective pressure upon
A. cerana genetics, since those colonies that produce a lot of
healthy drones have the best chance at getting the genetics
of their queen (as opposed to those of the drones that she
mated with) into the next generation8 (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2 I shot this photo of a drone comet chasing a queen in
a commercial mating yard. The queen (apparently no longer a
virgin) is at the top left. What appears to be a lucky drone is
tumbling upside down slightly below her and to the right.
Practical application: in order to produce and maintain
mite-resistant queen lines, our queen breeders will need
to shift the genetics of all the drones within flight dis-
tance of their mating yards—something that I’m attempt-
ing to do over a three-year period.9
the natural evolution of bees towards mite resistanCe
Apis cerana has figured out a way to live with varroa.
Apparently natural selection did not find that it was worth
it to eliminate the mite entirely--instead, it relegated the
mite to the status of a minor parasite, similar to how we
humans allow follicle mites to live on our bodies.
Direction of evolutionary pressure: There is strong
natural selective pressure for any wild-living population
of Apis mellifera to also work out a deal with varroa—
we’ve already seen this happen in South Africa, South
America, and in other regional bee populations.
American Bee Journal
 I’d be remiss not to mention varroa tolerance. Honey bees
have always been quite tolerant of high varroa levels, so
long as DWV or other varroa-vectored viruses are not involved.
But some colonies appear to exhibit a high degree of im-
munity to DWV, even at elevated mite levels. This is an
intriguing way for bees to deal with varroa.
Direction of evolutionary pressure: Dr. Eyal Maori has
been on the cutting edge of how bees evolve resistance
to viruses, and has shown that they can confer resistance
via the endogenization of part of the virus genome, as
well as via the jelly produced by the nurses.10 We may
see some bee strains develop better resistance to DWV.
the future of Managed Bee PoPulations
But such natural evolution has been inhibited in our
commercial stocks--due to our reliance upon miticides,
and general lack of hard selection for resistance by most
queen producers. On the other hand, a number of breed-
ers who have allowed Bond Selection to take place now
observe substantial resistance in their stocks—so long as
their bees are kept relatively isolated and away from api-
aries of commercial stock. If not kept isolated, the immi-
gration of mites from surrounding apiaries and swarms of
the non-resistant bees may overwhelm what would other-
wise be an adequate degree of resistance.
This drift problem is exacerbated by the coevolution of
varroa and DWV to create the colony-killing Monster about
which I’ve written in recent articles. The presence of viru-
lent DWV does not allow for “mite-tolerant” bee stocks,
since as soon as their mite level starts to climb, DWV takes
the reins and causes the colony to collapse, thus effecting
Fig. 3 I ran four simulations for typical colonies, with the average number of daughters (mated or not) per foundress ranging from
2 to 0.5 (“normal” is around 1.5). Note the differences in the rate of mite buildup. No mites were killed in these simulations—the only
holdback upon the buildup of mites was reducing the average fecundity of the foundresses, which can be accomplished by any
number of means—several detailed below.
January 2019
dispersal of the most virulent symbiotic strains of varroa
and the virus. I can’t get excited about breeding for “toler-
ance”—we want to breed for bees that by one means or
another, reduce the reproductive success of varroa, at least
in the worker brood.
It’s easy to see that the way we’re headed is a dead end
street—our dependence upon miticides, and our continual
restocking of our apiaries with mite-susceptible stock, fa-
vors the evolution of the varroa/DWV Monster. Our cur-
rent practices are pushing evolution in the wrong direc-
tion. Luckily, a number of forward-looking researchers
and breeders are working towards solutions, and I feel that
the market for queens is about to reach the tip point, where
the buyers will start to demand proven resistant stock. At
that point, the genetics of our managed bee populations
may shift quickly.
Direction of evolutionary pressure: the consumer will
likely place strong pressure upon our queen producers
in the near future. Once proven mite-resistant stock hits
the commercial market, evolution in the bee industry
could occur rapidly.
That said, let’s look at which traits we might expect to
see evolve…
it’s not necessary to kill a single Mite in order to con-
trol varroa
Although we beekeepers generally consider the killing
of mites to be the most important aspect of varroa man-
agement, I suggest that we step back and look at the Big
Picture. As evidenced by Apis cerana, it’s not necessary to
47
actually kill a single mite in order to control varroa—the
mite’s Achilles Heel is its success at reproduction.
Feel free to play with my varroa model11 and use the
“custom” setting to reduce the average number of daugh-
ters per foundress per reproductive cycle in half (from 1.45
to 0.72)—at that point, the reproductive success of the mite
becomes so low that the varroa population in the hive can’t
keep up with its natural rate of attrition (Fig. 3).
Fortunately for us, it’s becoming clear that the bees have
any number of ways for reducing a foundress’s degree of
fecundity or reproductive success—I’ll elaborate further on.
breeding for resistance
Although many beekeepers fancy that they are helping
to breed for resistance, simply withholding treatments is a
far cry from “selective breeding.” Any meaningful breed-
ing program would require:
1. A valid assay for actual resistance. This may be dif-
ficult in many areas, since colonies exhibiting some
degree of resistance may get overwhelmed by mite
drift from other hives.12
2. The breeder needs to control the drone pool, which
can only be accomplished by isolation, the flooding
of the area with chosen drones, or instrumental in-
semination.
3. And then that breeder would need to propagate and
disperse thousands of daughters from the resistant
queen line.
But that certainly doesn’t mean that our bees can’t re-
purpose their existing tools to do so. There are any number
of possible ways that the honey bee can fight back against
varroa—the ones that we’ve already identified are well re-
viewed here.14
Here’s a quick rundown on some promising traits to se-
lect for:
grooming and biting
The first mite-resistance trait that often comes to mind is
grooming/biting behavior. And although it makes us feel
good to imagine our bees crushing mites in their jaws, I find
little compelling evidence that they actually kill healthy
adult mites very often, and suspect that most mites that get
crushed were already too feeble to get away.15 So although
we clearly want bees that groom mites vigorously, I doubt
that grooming alone will be enough to solve The Varroa
Problem.16 So selection for grooming, yes--but along with
selection for other more effective traits.
PostcaPPing duration
Varroa enjoys far greater fecundity (mature daughters
per foundress) in drone brood than in worker brood, due
to the longer postcapping duration for the drone pupae (15
rather than 12 days) (Fig. 4).
Some early research by Büchler18 suggested that select-
ing for shorter postcapping duration might be construc-

Realistically, the best that Joe or Jane hobby beekeeper

can do is to vote with their dollars—by supporting those
breeders who are indeed making a serious effort at select-
ing for resistance.

Practical application: it’s hard for me to get excited

about breeding for mite tolerance—simply because
colonies with a heavy mite load will always be more
stressed. So I feel that we should focus upon selecting
for resistance to mite buildup. We don’t initially need
completely mite-proof bees; partially-resistant colonies
that required only a single treatment a year would be a
big step in the right direction.

That said, I’ve bred bees for certain traits for many years,
and generally found it pretty easy to breed for color, tem-
perament, productivity, and resistance to AFB and tracheal
mite. I was completely surprised by how difficult it’s been
to breed for bees that can handle varroa. I figured that if
Apis mellifera came from an Asian heritage, as has long
been assumed, that it would still possess deep in its ge-
nome some tools for fighting mites—but if that were the
case, it shouldn’t be so hard to tease those resistance traits
back to the forefront. I mean, what gives—it took only
about five years for bees to develop widespread resistance
to the tracheal mite.
A possible explanation for this conundrum has been
recently suggested by Dr. Keith Delaplane, based upon a
revision of the course of migration and evolution of the Fig. 4 The longer postcapping duration of immature drones al-
genus Apis by Kotthoff.13 It may be that our Western honey lows for more daughter mites to successfully complete their
bee actually split off as a sideline of the genus before the development. This allows for a theoretical average emer-
other honey bee species evolved in Asia—where they were gence of roughly 4 daughters emerging from a drone cell vs.
only then exposed to parasitic mites. Thus, Apis mellifera 1.45 daughters per worker cell. The actual number of mated
may have never needed to assemble a toolbox for fight- daughters per foundress, however, may be considerably less,
ing varroa, and was blindsided by the mite when it later especially when more than one foundress invades a cell. Image
jumped host from the bees’ mite-resistant cousin. courtesy Dr. Stephen Martin.17

48 American Bee Journal

tive, and a number of teams have since tried this approach,
but generally not found it to be of substantial benefit.
However, a recent study by Oddie19 found what appeared
to be a slight benefit, which in conjunction with other resis-
tance traits, might help to do the trick.
Biological observation: bee immatures develop more
quickly if broodnest temperature is raised a bit. It’s not
clear whether varroa responds similarly, since the mite
appears to reproduce better at lower temperatures. I see
no reason that Apis mellifera couldn’t use broodnest tem-
perature regulation to its advantage.
Varroa-sensitiVe hygiene
Colonies may differ greatly in the degree of diseased
brood hygiene that they exhibit, which is surprising, since
rapid hygienic removal of sick brood is a very effective
way for colonies to control diseases.20 It’s very easy to se-
lect for strong hygienic behavior by using the freeze- or
pin-killed brood test. This trait will also confer some de-
gree of mite resistance, since mite- or virus-sickened, or
abnormally-developing brood may emit odors that initiate
generic hygienic removal (Fig. 5).
Fig. 5 These bees have uncapped, and are chewing out appar-
ently-abnormal pupae. This lack of tolerance for abnormal de-
velopment or olfactory signals is a well-proven means for bees
to prevent the mite from reproducing.
Even more specific is some sort of varroa-sensitive hy-
giene (VSH). Apis cerana exhibits VSH to the extreme, due
Figure 6. The strong effect of VSH upon varroa reproductive success. (A) A simulation for mite buildup in a colony not exhibiting
VSH; (B) The result of a 50% rate of VSH. I suspect that my model currently underestimates the full effect of VSH, since it does not
yet account for an increase in mortality of the disturbed foundress.
January 2019
to the self-sacrifice of its worker larvae. VSH is a generic
term for any sort of hygienic behavior that by some means
specifically targets mite-infested brood cells or cells in
which mites are reproducing (generally specific to the
worker cells), and is a well-proven trait--a colony that ex-
hibits even 50% VSH can pretty much keep varroa in check
(Fig. 6). The USDA VSH and Pol lines, as well as the Rus-
sian bees all exhibit strong VSH.
Practical application: VSH is a well-proven and effec-
tive trait for mite resistance.
I hesitate to mention specific queen producer names, but
open-mated Minnesota Hygienic queens are commercially
available, and a number of California breeders have also
been selecting for freeze-kill hygiene. Certain breeders of-
fer purebred Primorsky Russian stock (outbred stock may
not perform the same). Dr. Albert Robertson from Canada
is collaborating with U.S. producers to make his Saskatraz
line available in the U.S. Other breeders may also offer bee
stock selected for resistance, but as yet there is no testing
organization to verify their degree of resistance.
Practical application: our industry needs to start an
“All-America” type of organization of volunteer testers
to evaluate stocks with claimed mite resistance.
An exciting development is that the USDA-ARS, Project
Apis m, and Arista Bee Research are collaborating with a
large breeder to make VSH production queens available
on large scale—perhaps by next year. This stock will in-
deed have hard mite-resistance data to back it up.
Along with VSH there is also the uncapping/recapping
trait, which may include the creation of “bald brood”
(Fig. 7)—we are still working on how to better under-
stand this trait.21
other traits that may confer resistance
VSH is effective, but it’s also pretty ugly and wasteful,
since it involves the death and physical removal of the
brood involved. Something that I find fascinating is what
the ARS used to call SMR—Suppression of Mite Reproduc-
tion. SMR appears to be the main resistance mechanism
of the African savannah bee (A. m. scutellata), for which
beekeepers find no need to control varroa. As straightfor-
wardly noted by Nganso.22
…hygienic and grooming behaviors did not significantly dif-
fer between subspecies [African and European] with respect
49

Fig. 7 Many of us have observed “bald brood” in our colonies—
something that we didn’t notice often prior to varroa. Perhaps
such uncapping (apparently sometimes only temporary) may
disrupt mite reproduction, or desiccate the unsclerotized male
or immature female mites.
to Varroa mite-infestation levels recorded, suggesting that
other resistant mechanisms such as suppression of mite repro-
ductive success and/or lower viral prevalence within honeybees
and mites might play an important role in honeybee responses
to mite infestation.
This is also something that appears to have been se-
lected for by some populations of resistant bees in Europe
(well reviewed by Panziera23). We’re watching evolution
in action—and our bees, given the chance, may surprise
us by coming up with different ways to deal with the mite.
Unfortunately, intentional selection for SMR requires te-
dious examination of the brood (Fig. 8).
Fig. 8. I’m removing mature brood one at a time, under a dis-
secting ‘scope (the spotlight is turned off for the photo). Such
dissection can be used to determine whether there was a mite
in the cell, and whether it reproduced. Yes, tedious.
Kairomones and proteins—achille’s heels of varroa
Other potential resistance mechanisms have to do with
olfactory cues used as kairomones by varroa. A foundress
mite must start (and then end) two critical, yet separate
reproductive processes, carefully cued and timed to coor-
dinate with the timing of the development of its immature
bee host. The first step is oogenesis (the creation of the egg
cell), followed by vitellogenesis (yolk formation, which is
also dependent upon the mite’s feeding on the larva’s fat
50
bodies). Oogenesis is triggered by one or more olfactory
cues from the late-instar bee larva.24, 25 And somehow, the
foundress is cued to stop producing eggs five days after
the larva pupates, despite the fact that the pupa still has
four days before it will emerge.
These cues are absolute requisites for successful mite re-
production, plus, the cues must cause the mite’s first egg
to be a haploid male (which in varroa, surprisingly comes
from a fertilized egg).17 The tweaking of any of these cues
by the bees has the potential to mess up successful repro-
duction by the mite.
Now here’s where it gets interesting. Although varroa
has a larger genome than does the bee, it appears to have
given up the ability to produce some critical proteins—in-
stead assimilating them directly from its bee host without
digestion. Although discovered by Tewarson over 25 years
ago27, only recently have molecular biologists started look-
ing into this fascinating aspect of varroa biology, publish-
ing a protein atlas for varroa by McAfee28 and an informa-
tive breakdown by Mondet29, by which we may figure out
some of the mite’s weak spots.
One recently-found possibility is suggested by Conlon30,
who notes that mite vitellogenesis is triggered by the molt-
ing hormone ecdysterone (ecdysis is the scientific term for
molting). He notes that:
[Varroa’s reproductive] pathway is incomplete with only
three of the seven genes from the ecdysone biosynthetic path-
way present in the V. destructor genome... Functional forms of
ecdysone are capable of ingestion by Varroa; suggesting the re-
duced number of genes may be an adaptation of the mite to its
parasitic lifestyle and missing compounds are acquired through
its haemolymph diet. This raises the possibility that the pulse of
prepupal ecdysteroids is not a signal but a necessary physiologi-
cal component for the successful initiation of reproduction in V.
destructor.
The reason that Conlon’s suggestion is of great interest
is that his research suggests that two independent popula-
tions of mite-resistant bees may both be downregulating
their ecdysone-linked genes, thus possibly conferring re-
sistance at the molecular level of the mite’s reproductive
pathway.31
Evolution is not limited by our imagination. And this
is the reason that I’m curious to see what happens if I
simply apply strong selective pressure upon the breed-
ing population of my own operation, based upon alco-
hol wash count monitoring alone (plus them mothering
productive, gentle colonies). Who knows what traits they
might come up with?
acKnowledgements
Thanks to Peter Borst for his assistance in literature
search, to all the bee researchers I’ve spoken with on this
subject, and to my wife Stephanie for her suggestions on
my manuscript.
references
1 Furthermore, the reality, more or less ignored until recently, is that most
parasites co-occur with other parasites. Vaumourin, E, et al (2015)
The importance of multiparasitism: examining the consequences
of co-infections for human and animal health. Parasites & Vectors
8:545 Open access.
2 Steven A. Frank, SA (1996) Models of parasite virulence.The
Quarterly Review of Biology 71(1): 37-78.
3 https://beeinformed.org/results/colony-loss-2016-2017-prelimi-
nary-results/ Early indications are that losses may be higher this year
(pers. comm. from pollination brokers).
American Bee Journal
4 Lin Z, et al. (2018) Reproduction of parasitic mites Varroa destruc-
tor in original and new honeybee hosts. Ecol Evol. 2018:1–11.
5 Page, P, et al (2016) Social apoptosis in honey bee superorganisms.
Nature Scientific Reports 6:27210
6 Zhang, Y & R Han (2018) A saliva protein of varroa mites contrib-
utes to the toxicity toward Apis cerana and the DWV elevation in
A. mellifera. Scientific Reports 8:3387.
7 It would be a relatively simple bioassay or gene for Marker-As-
sisted Selection.
8 Since, other than some recombination, the haploid drones carry
only the genetics of their mother.
9 It’s easy to talk the talk; I’m walking the walk, and openly sharing my
methods, successes, and failures.
http://scientificbeekeeping.com/the-varroa-problem-part-7/
http://scientificbeekeeping.com/the-varroa-problem-part-10/
A spoiler—we’re pretty excited about what we’re seeing so far in our
November mite washes of our “potential breeders” this season.
10 Maori, E., et al (2007) Reciprocal sequence exchange between
nonretro viruses and hosts leading to the appearance of new host
phenotypes. Virology 362 (2): 342-349.
Garbian Y, et al (2012) Bidirectional transfer of RNAi between
honey bee and Varroa destructor: Varroa gene silencing reduces
varroa population. PLoS Pathog 8(12): e1003035.
Maori, E, et al (2018) A transmissible RNA pathway in honey
bees. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/04/12/299800
11 http://scientificbeekeeping.com/randys-varroa-model/
12 This was a problem during ARS’s development of the Primorsky
Russian stock.
13 Kotthoff U, et al (2013) Greater past disparity and diversity hints
at ancient migrations of European honey bee lineages into Africa
and Asia. Journal of Biogeography. 40(10):1832-1838.
14 https://aristabeeresearch.org/varroa-resistance/
15 My varroa model indicates that if the bees were able to increase
the baseline varroa mortality rate from 0.5% a day to only 2% a
day, that varroa would barely be able to survive in the hive. Since
mites can be easily found in colonies selected for “biting,” I must
question whether this trait has substantial effect.
16 Nganso BT, op cit.
17 Published in Munn & Jones, ed (1997) Varroa! Fight the mite.
Conference proceedings, International Bee Research Association.
18 Büchler, R & W. Drescher (1990) Variance and heritability of the
capped developmental stage in European Apis mellifera L. and Its
correlation with increased Varroa jacobsoni Oud. infestation, Journal
of Apicultural Research, 29(3):172-176.
19 Oddie, MAY, et al (2018) Reduced postcapping period in honey
bees surviving Varroa destructor by means of natural selection. In-
sects doi:10.3390/insects9040149
20 The question is, if rapid hygienic behavior is of general benefit to the colo-
510 Patterson Road • Baxley, GA 31513 • Ph: (912) 367-9352 • Fax: (912) 367-7047
• Over 100 Years of Experience •
• All Bees Are State Inspected •
• Get Your Numbers and Order Early. We Are Filling Up Fast! •
May god Bless your endeavors this year
January 2019
ny, we would expect evolutionary pressure to have selected for all bees to
be “hygienic.” Why that’s not so, I don’t know. See:
Al Toufailia, H, et al (2018) Both hygienic and non-hygienic hon-
eybee, Apis mellifera, colonies remove dead and diseased larvae
from open brood cells. 373: 1751.
21 Oddie, M, et al (2018) Rapid parallel evolution overcomes global
honey bee parasite. Scientific Reports 8: 7704.
22 Nganso BT, et al (2017) Hygienic and grooming behaviors in Afri-
can and European honeybees—New damage categories in Varroa
destructor. PLoS ONE 12(6): e0179329.
23 Panziera, D, et al (2017) Varroa sensitive hygiene contributes to
naturally selected varroa resistance in honey bees. Journal of Api-
cultural Research 56( 5): 635-642. Open access.
24 Garrido, C & P Rosenkranz (2004) Volatiles of the honey bee larva
initiate oogenesis in the parasitic mite Varroa destructor. Chemoecol-
ogy 14: 193–197.
25 Frey, E, et al (2013) Activation and interruption of the reproduction
of Varroa destructor is triggered by host signals (Apis mellifera).
Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 113: 56–62.
26 Sabelis, MW & CJ Nagelkerke (1988) Evolution of pseudo-arrhe-
notoky. Experimental & Applied Acarology 4: 301-318.
27 Tewarson, NC & W Engels (1982) Undigested uptake of nonhost
proteins by Varroa jacobsoni, Journal of Apicultural Research 21(4):
222-225. Since unaltered bee proteins are directly utilized by var-
roa, this is a potential way for bees—or beekeepers—to sneak
something disruptive into the mite, such as RNAi or some other
attached chemical.
28 McAfee, A, et al (2017) A Varroa destructor protein atlas reveals
molecular underpinnings of developmental transitions and sexual
differentiation. Mol Cell Proteomics 16(12): 2125–2137.
29 Mondet, F, et al (2018) Transcriptome profiling of the honeybee
parasite Varroa destructor provides new biological insights into the
mite adult life cycle. BMC Genomics 19:328.
30 Conlon, BH, et al (2018) A modified honey bee Ecdysone pathway
inhibits reproduction in Varroa. In Of Mites and Men: The indepen-
dent evolution of host-induced Varroa infertility in the drone brood
of Apis mellifera. PhD Dissertation, Martin-Luther-Universität.
31 Some astute research groups will likely apply to patent varroa-
control products based upon suppressing the production of mite-
required proteins by the bees, or by using those undigested pro-
teins as transporters of a bound chemical.
Randy sees beekeeping through the eyes of a bi-
ologist. He’s kept bees for over 50 years, and with
his sons runs around 1500 hives in the California
foothills. He closely follows bee research, engages
in some himself, and enjoys sharing what he’s
learned with others.
51
ROBBER BEES!
by PETER L BORST
T
he Reverend Lorenzo Lang-
stroth, pioneer beekeeper, au-
thor, and friend of the bees,
wrote the following in 1853:
I shall be obliged, though much
against my will, to acknowledge
that some branches of morals
in our little friends, need very
close watching, since they are
often guilty of making no honest
distinction between “mine and
thine.” Truth obliges me to con-
fess that not unfrequently some
of the strongest stocks, which
have all they would be able to
consume, even if they gathered
nothing more for a whole year,
are the most anxious to prey
upon the meager possessions of
some feeble colony.1
Honey bees are often held up as a
glorious example of industry, self-
lessness, and cooperation. Sad to say,
they can be as vicious, ruthless, and
conniving as any other creature, hu-
mankind included. In this article I
will discuss various features of this
behavior, which was long ago termed
“robbing” — although looting or pil-
laging are more appropriate terms for
this nasty side of the bee.
I happened upon quite an exciting
description of robbing by the bees,
published in 1902 in Scientific Ameri-
can magazine. The incident took place
in Groton, New York, which is about a
forty minute drive from where I live.
It was also home to the largest bee-
keeping operations in the world in the
late 1800s, owned by the Coggshall
family, so I assume the story refers to
them. The author prefaces the story
by saying that when robbing, honey
bees become very angry, attacking
“everything and everybody.”
Evidently, a train car load of honey
was wrecked and some of the honey
was leaked. Soon the broken box car
was abuzz with robber bees. The
crazed bees drove off the engineer,
the fireman, and the whole crew and
January 2019
a beekeeper was enlisted to board
the engine and move the train a mile
away. Our reporter tells us that sev-
eral days passed before there was
“peace and quiet in the apiary.”
Practically every beekeeper can tell
a similar story of honey being spilled
at certain times of year, or doors be-
ing left open to storage sheds, or even
whole apiaries turned to battlefields
by frenzied bees. Robbing rarely oc-
curs when there is adequate nectar
available in the field. Frames with
honey can be left exposed and ignored
for hours under the conditions when
bees are gainfully employed gathering
and producing honey. But, alas, when
times are tough, a careless beekeeper
will soon be reminded of his folly if he
or she drips honey on the ground or
loads supers onto an uncovered vehi-
cle. Langstroth advises that all opera-
tions must be carried out by “careful
and well informed persons.”
roBBing Behavior
People often ask me “how can you
tell if robber bees are trying to get in
the hive?” I confidently describe the
odd behavior of the would-be rob-
ber, nervous and flighty. Hugo von
Buttel-Reepen described their ap-
pearance 100 years ago in his “Natu-
ral History of the Honeybee” as “very
uncertain, timid, and anxious.” He
suggests that somehow they know
they are placing themselves in danger
but that once they have succeeded in
gaining admission, they become em-
boldened and enter poorly defended
hives without the characteristic hesi-
tation. He cites this as an example of
the bees’ ability to learn and modify
their behavior.
In Buttel-Reepen’s book, he at-
tempts to counter the prevailing no-
tion that bees and ants are “reflex
machines.” This viewpoint was per-
petrated by Albrecht Bethe, whose
studies led him to conclude that in-
sects have nothing like the senses
that we have, and cannot adjust their
behavior in any way that could be
called “learning.” Buttel-Reepen, for
his part, described the rich life of the
honey bee colony, and listed seven
different odors perceived by the bees.
These include the odor of the indi-
vidual bees, the queen, brood, the
drones, wax, honey and finally what
he termed the “hive odor” which is a
mix of all of these.
Hugo von Buttel-Reepen was born
in Bremen, Germany, in 1860, the
son of a wealthy merchant. His cir-
cumstances allowed him to travel
extensively; he visited India in his
teens, went to Chile in his 30s, and
ultimately visited Java and Sumatra.
He was the first to describe the Asian
red honey bee, which he named Apis
koschevnikovi in honor the Russian
bee scientist Grigory Aleksandrovič
Koževnikov. Buttel-Reepen wrote ex-
tensively and lived to be 93. Thanks
to E. F. Phillips, his work on bee be-
havior was brought to the English
speaking world and published by the
Root Company. His work shed light
not only on behavior such as robbing
and hive defense, but he pointed to
colony odor as one of the ways that
honey bees might be able to distin-
guish friend from foe.
Beekeepers noticed the tendency
to enter neighboring colonies or to
plunder them is a variable trait, with
some varieties of bees or even par-
ticular colonies showing this trait
more than others. Lloyd Watson, in
“New Opportunities in Beekeeping
Research” (Bee World, 1933) identi-
fied this quality as something that
could potentially be bred out of the
honey bee, much as we have shaped
the qualities of other domestic ani-
mals. So far as I know, no one ever
followed this lead and bees still rob
from each other as they have always
done. We must conclude that such a
quality enhances the ability of some
colonies to survive while others suc-
cumb, and therefore natural selection
55

Severe robbing can weaken or decimate a colony in a short time. Dead bees will litter
the entrance due to the intense fighting among robbers and defenders.
favors those lineages which inherit
this unseemly habit.
drifting
The tendency of honey bees to enter
hives other than their own is termed
“drifting.” This is especially notice-
able in large apiaries where the hives
are placed in long rows and painted
all the same color. Some beekeepers go
to great length to prevent such drift-
ing by using various colors or even
painting designs on the hive boxes.
Apart from placing the hives at greater
distances from one another, it’s ques-
tionable whether such practices have
much effect. Many honey producers
point out that an apiary where drifting
takes place probably yields the same
amount of honey, but drifting and
robbing have other more important
consequences. The principal way that
disease spreads is when bees plunder
the honey stores of an infected hive,
too weak to defend itself.
The most serious pest that affects
honey bees today is the varroa mite.
Researchers watched its progress
from one country to another and
warned that each time it is discovered,
it is usually already too late to slow its
progress. Sakofski, writing in Apidolo-
gie in 1990, cited the various ways the
varroa spreads. They mentioned drift-
ing as a factor, as well as the possibil-
ity that mites can hitch-hike from bee
to bee by lurking on flowers. This was
confirmed recently by Smith and See-
ley. However, as Sakovski asserts, rob-
bing of mite-infested colonies, which
are on the verge of collapse, is prob-
ably the main way they are dispersed.
56
I mentioned how robbing could
lead to natural selection for aggres-
sive behavior, but here we see how
the trait can be harmful, spreading
disease and parasites. One might
suppose that the health benefits of
not robbing other colonies would be
enhanced by selection. However, an-
other explanation was presented by
John Calhoun in his 1962 article in the
Scientific American, titled “Population
density and social pathology.”
In the celebrated thesis of
Thomas Malthus, vice and misery
impose the ultimate natural limit
on the growth of populations.
Students of the subject have given
most of their attention to misery,
that is, to predation, disease and
food supply as forces that operate
to adjust the size of a population to
its environment. But what of vice?
Setting aside the moral burden
of this word, what are the effects
of the social behavior of a spe-
cies on population growth -- and
of population density on social
behavior?2
Tom Seeley and others have veri-
fied that colonies that live in crowd-
ed apiaries are much more prone to
pathologies, and point to the success
of isolated colonies which have been
found living in widely separated hol-
low trees. An isolated tree, hidden in
the deep woods, presents the exact op-
posite of a colony living in a crowded
apiary consisting of hundreds or even
thousands of hives. Even where api-
aries are relatively small as in Upstate
N.Y. where I live — 12-24 hives is the
norm — the actual density of colo-
nies per square mile may be exces-
sive, leading to abnormal behavior. It
is possible that an isolated colony is
simply never exposed to drifting and
rarely develops the habit of entering
other hives.
roBBing as a vector for Mites
Extensive research has looked into
the problem of the re-infestation of
honey bee colonies, following suc-
cessful treatment for varroa. Many of
us have watched our bees go from vir-
tually mite-free to crawling with them
in an alarmingly short time. Even
measures such as removal of drone
brood (to kill reproducing mites) tend
to fail, suggesting mite invasion. Ital-
ian researchers Greatti, et al, reported
in 1992 on the re-infestation of acari-
cide-treated apiaries. They correlated
the lack of nectar flow with an input
of up to 75 mites per day per colony.
In their words:
The coincidence between the
increase in the re-infestation rate
and the scarcity of nectar flow
and the massive importation of
mites, observed especially in Sep-
tember and October, suggest that
re-infestation was mainly caused
by robbing of infested colonies
by the bees of treated colonies.3
So what is it about robbing that
makes it such a problem? Is it even
that useful to colonies, given the huge
cost in fighting, leaving dead bees
and colonies in an uproar? How much
honey can be carried off by robber
bees? A bee can carry only about 60
mg of nectar or honey. It takes many
thousands of trips to raise the hive
weight by even a pound. However,
there is another facet of bee behavior
that contributes to the phenomenon:
when a bee returns with food, wheth-
er ill-gotten or not, it does a vigorous
recruitment dance.
The dances are notoriously impre-
cise. It is certainly doubtful that if a
scout found a tree in the secluded
woods, she could readily lead other
bees to that exact spot. However,
when a bee discovers free eats nearby,
they switch to a different dance which
simply indicates the source is close, and
the bees fan out looking for it. You
may have noticed that when robbing
starts, bees tend to be all over the
property around the hives, causing
trouble if the bees are sited near your
home and family. And, once the re-
American Bee Journal
cruits find the source, the whole thing
snowballs with thousands of bees
from each hive joining the madness.
Robbing behavior can both ben-
efit and harm honey bee colo-
nies. But what about the varroa
mites in all of this? While many
people like to state that parasites
“don’t kill their hosts,” this is not re-
ally true. Certainly some have evolved
to co-exist with the host organism by
not taking too much of a toll, but there
are plenty of examples of the opposite,
hosts killed by pests and pathogens. In
the case of varroa, if a honey bee colo-
ny is isolated, the bees and mites are li-
able to perish together, accounting for
the initial devastation to feral colonies
when varroa arrived in the U.S.
However, in an apiary or high
density situation, mites simply have
to get from the dying colonies to the
thriving ones. As noted, this could
occur with drifting and there is some
evidence that the nervous system of
sick bees is impaired, leading them to
wander into the wrong hives. Recent-
ly, DeGrandi-Hoffman wrote about
varroa dispersal mechanisms and
states that while no hard evidence
connects varroa, viruses, and bee be-
havior, viruses have been implicated
in unusual behaviors in ants and
aphids. Still, it is far more likely that
it is the innate tendency of honey bee
colonies to plunder the hives that are
sick and dying due to massive var-
roa loads: the phenomenon recently
named “mite bombs.”
the gatekeePers
I mentioned the idea of a hive odor
made up from many sources within
the colony. Once I told my dad there
is a certain pleasant odor that a hive
gives off. He asked whether it might
be the honey or the pollen, which
possess potent floral fragrances. No,
it’s something else, the smell of the
bees, I said, to his skepticism. By now,
many of the substances that account
for this have been identified and as-
sociated with colony regulation. For
example, we have identified brood
pheromones, as well as a variety of
chemical signals used for orientation
or alerting other bees.
The exoskeletons of bees and other
insects have what are called cuticular
hydrocarbons. These are analogous
to the oils found on the hair and fur
of mammals; they help to protect it
and prevent drying out. We can eas-
ily distinguish the odor of substances
such as lanolin. Studies by research-
ers such as Falko Drijfhout have as-
January 2019
Using cloth sheets to help prevent robbing in the late summer or early fall when honey
flows have ceased.
certained that various hydrocarbons
can be identified by mass spectrom-
etry coupled to gas chromatography.
He states that “over 1000 different
hydrocarbons have been described
from only 78 species of ants.” How-
ever, only a few have been identified
as being “pheromones” or substances
definitively shown to be associated
with communication.
Do honey bees identify foreign in-
truders by scent or behavior? This is
somewhat difficult to verify. I alluded
to certain behaviors and also specific
odors that could be used to tell nest
mate from foe. In their extensive work
“The Behaviour of Worker Honey-
bees at the Hive Entrance,” Butler and
Free concluded that while scent plays
a part in the recognition of intruders,
it is the behavior of the suspect which
determines the actions taken by the
guard bees towards them.
the dark side of the hive
I would have liked to have used this
title for my article but alas, it’s already
been taken by Moritz and Crewe for
their new book.4 The book covers all
sorts of surprising aspects of honey
bee biology which have resulted from
the fact that evolution is far from being
a perfecting force. Bees possess many
traits which defy easy explanation by
a simple natural selection model.
They clearly state that “the frequen-
cy of colony-level robbing under nat-
ural conditions is not known.” This
is true of many of the documented
features of the honey bee which have
been observed in domestic bees. Some
of these may be rare or non-existent in
the wild, or induced by the very con-
ditions under which the bees are be-
ing observed. They go on to state that
robbing is frequently a direct result of
the actions of the beekeeper, echoing
the admonitions of Langstroth. Still,
they conclude that while robbing “is
clearly a very dark side of honey bee
behavior,” it is a logical consequence
of natural selection where timidity is
so often negatively rewarded. If the
tendency to steal from the weak did
not confer a benefit, the trait would
not be so widespread among beasts
and humankind.
To counter that sour note, I would
like to mention a discovery docu-
mented by Brian Johnson and James
C. Nieh. They found that while honey
bees are able to actively recruit and
promote foraging to resources, they
may also be able to bring a halt to
behavior that may be too risky. They
raise the point that robbing may in-
volve more loss than gain and it would
be useful to be able to warn the colony
not to do something. They refer to this
as “negative signaling” and suggest:
That colonies have both the
capacity for rapid amplification
of effort via positive signaling
and a capacity for the rapid shut-
ting down of effort via negative
signaling makes the honey bee
dance language, already one of
the most complex animal com-
munication systems known, sig-
nificantly more complex than
previously thought.5
57

Some beekeepers use robber screens to prevent robbing of harvested honey supers
on their trucks.
Practical considerations
In the end, we all want to know
“What can I do about it?” Perhaps
until you have the experience of out
of control robbing, you won’t really
think about it all that much. But care-
ful and well informed persons will
take all feasible steps to control and
prevent robbing. The consequences
are far too great to believe otherwise.
Experienced beekeepers know that
once bees succumb to the vice of rob-
bing, it is very hard for them to be
reformed. Probably, those particular
bees will rob until they die. Then the
newer bees will be free from the insti-
gations of robber scouts, which tend
to keep things riled up.
In the apiary, there are practices
which should be avoided. Never
scrape bits of comb from the hives
and toss them on the ground. Maybe
you don’t do this, but it is a wide-
spread practice. I avoid scraping any
more than is necessary, and collect
the bits in a bucket. Pieces of comb
on the ground encourage robbing, at-
tract pests like ants and skunks, and
perhaps worst of all, the wax gets
stuck in my boots. The next thing to
avoid is keeping hives open more
than necessary.
I know it’s a common practice, es-
pecially when searching for a queen,
58
to take all the frames out and lean
them against the hive. It’s a far better
plan to move them into a spare super
and keep them covered up. Plus, you
are less likely to lose the queen in the
grass that way. Another bad habit is
to put sticky supers out to be robbed
clean by the bees. I never do this, no
matter who else does. I like to put
stickies on in the spring, and let the
bees clean them then.
A friend of mine told me about
visiting a brand new bee warehouse
where the owner was bragging about
the skylights which could be opened
to release bees from the building.
My friend was scornful, saying most
of those bees were probably robber
bees and they were going to go right
back and recruit their buddies, to
create more trouble. Better to install
a bug zapper, and finish them off
right there.
One last story that I have heard re-
peated on several occasions. I don’t
know how it got started, but I found
a version of it archived on Bee-L, the
beekeeper’s List Serve hosted by Aar-
on Morris. It’s from 1994:
We used a technique for con-
trolling robbing behavior in
Northern California that worked
very well. When we entered a
yard and knew that robbing was
likely to occur, we went around
to all the colonies and removed
their lids, leaning them alongside
the hive. That put all of the colo-
nies on the defensive, rather than
on the offensive, and we could
work without concern. Neither
did we encounter undue hostil-
ity on the part of colonies — per-
haps they were more on the look-
out for robbers than for us.6
I would never do this. It is true that
when I am putting on supers during
a honey flow, I will remove all the
hive covers, to speed up the work.
But if I thought bees were liable to
rob, I would not do it. This falls un-
der the category of “I’ll take your
word for it.”
references
1. Langstroth, L. L. (1857). A Practical Treatise
on the Hive and Honey-bee. CM Saxton &
Company.
2. Calhoun, J. B. (1962). Population density
and social pathology. Scientific American,
206(2), 139-149.
3. Greatti, M., Milani, N., & Nazzi, F. (1992).
Reinfestation of an acaricide-treated api-
ary byVarroa jacobsoni Oud. Experimental
& applied acarology, 16(4), 279-286.
4. Johnson, B. R., & Nieh, J. C. (2010). Mod-
eling the adaptive role of negative signal-
ing in honey bee intraspecific competition.
Journal of insect behavior, 23(6), 459-471.
5. Moritz, R., & Crewe, R. (2018). The Dark
Side of the Hive: The Evolution of the Imper-
fect Honeybee. Oxford University Press.
6. Wenner, A. (1994). Warding off Robber
Bees. BEE-L Discussion of Bee Biology. Fri,
23 Sep 1994
Peter L Borst has
worked in the bee-
keeping industry
since his first job
working as bee-
keeper’s helper in
Wolcott NY, in 1974.
In the late 1970s
he helped run a
beekeeping sup-
ply store in the San
Diego area, where he served beekeepers of
all levels of expertise.
Peter managed 500 colonies of his own in
the 1980s. From 1999 to 2006, he was Senior
Apiarist at Cornell's Dyce Lab for Honey Bee
Studies. and worked as an apiary inspector
for New York State from 2006 to 2008. He is
currently President of the Finger Lakes Bee
Club, and is retired from Cornell University.
Peter has published over 40 articles on top-
ics as diverse as beekeeping technique, the
composition and value of pollen for bees, and
the history of bee breeding. He has done pre-
sentations on these topics for venues rang-
ing from local elementary schools to bee-
keeping organizations in many states.
American Bee Journal

My apologies to ABJ readers; I
started this article in the August
issue, but was quickly hit with
family and medical issues needing
immediate attention. I am glad to
be back with you and finish this
article before the active season.
I
n the August issue I talked about
my no-nonsense approach to
treatment-free beekeeping, which
requires beekeepers to monitor var-
roa populations and cull any queens
or colonies not meeting the breeder’s
expectations. For me that means elim-
inating any queens when mite levels
consistently climb above 3 to 4 mites
per 100 bees. I will then eliminate the
queen and requeen with a queen from
a resistant colony or combine bees
and brood with another colony. When
I first dispensed with chemicals I was
not doing mite counts. I made my
increase from the most healthy sur-
viving colonies. When mite counts
became popular, I followed Marla
Spivak’s1 threshold of 8 to 10% in-
festation as a guide for eliminating
queens. My initial cut-off point was
10 mites/100 bees. I soon learned that
making increase from those colonies
that had the least percentage of infec-
tion was the best way to go. Presently,
I’ve seen research showing that Var-
roa-tolerant and resistant colonies are
surviving even with higher levels of
Varroa.2,3,5 Varroa is here to stay4 and
infestation levels will vary from sea-
son-to-season even in tolerant colo-
nies. This is the reason for my current
January 2019
emphasis on colony longevity, health
and the bees' ability to thrive in the
face of this parasite and the viruses it
vectors.
In the first part of this article, I dis-
cussed my losses and how I breed
queens from my survivor stock, com-
paring it to breeding a show-quality
fish. So now let me delve into my
process and explain how I used it to
bring about locally adapted, sustain-
able, healthy, varroa-tolerant and pro-
ductive honey bee colonies.
Let’s take a look, step-by step:
1) Set your goals and begin
recordkeeping
Traditional goals for commercial
queen breeders are mainly honey
production, low defensiveness, and
low swarming. These were good
goals back when beekeeping was not
plagued with its current problems.
However, bees are damaged and like
a damaged piece of machinery, they
won’t be able to produce and oper-
ate at peak production and efficiency
while broken. Therefore, my goals
now center on fixing what needs to
be fixed, before returning to goals like
peak honey production and less de-
fensiveness.
C.P. Chadwick, in the April 1936 is-
sue of ABJ, and E.O. Wilson, in The
Ants both emphasize that reproduc-
tion is the goal of all eusocial insects,
and so eliminated any concerns about
swarming for me. It’s how they seek
to reproduce and a possible resistance
mechanism5,6 so I have set different
goals for my selection. Making nucs,
splits, and increase in the spring can
satisfy the swarming instinct. The new
and current goals for my bees are:
a. Sustainability: measured in colony
survival and prosperity over a pe-
riod of years.
b. Adaptation: measured in how the
bees respond and interact with the
local environment, as all beekeep-
ing is local.
c. Colony Health: measured in occur-
rence, economic impact, presence
and effects of diseases, pests, and
anything else affecting bee health.
These all go hand-in-hand and
may need to be tweaked as condi-
tions change. Many of these goals
allow measurable methods of check-
ing where your bees fall, such as sam-
pling for mite counts. When goals are
satisfactorily reached, then we can fo-
cus on additional characteristics like
honey production and gentleness.
One bit of advice on adaptability;
you may see and hear phrases from
queen producers using the words
locally-adapted bees. Unless those
queens have been selected for and pro-
duced in your geographic locality, they
are not locally-adapted bees.
True local stock does not happen
overnight or just by getting a colony
of bees through one or two winters.
Ask your queen supplier how much
testing, evaluating and selection they
use when they tell you they have
queens that are adapted, hygienic,
mite-biting and of a certain subspe-
cies. Also ask where their breeder
59

A late-season ejected drone harboring 2 Varroa.
queens originate; there’s a good possi-
bility that they came from somewhere
other than your locality. Most of them
use “marketing,” as Jerry puts it in
The Classroom in order to make a sale.
Lastly, writing your goals down
is the starting point for your record-
keeping. You can use pen and paper,
computer programs, and/or voice
recordings, as long as you keep ac-
curate records throughout. I also load
up my Yardbook (a journal/note-
book/inspection record the beekeep-
er takes to and from the apiary; mine
is a 3-ring binder filled with blank
and current inspection sheets) with
all other equipment when I head to
the bee yard. Every inspection, even
entrance observations, is a chance to
record something.
2) Selection of breeder colonies for
queen propagation
Although one could start with
bees from anywhere, starting with
bees/queens in your own area (feral
swarms), from a local beekeeper with
survivor stock or your own hives that
are already surviving under local
conditions will put you closer to your
goals much quicker. The queens you
start with as breeders must come from
your best colonies that demonstrate
some measure of the traits you want
to concentrate on in your selection.
The more colonies a beekeeper has to
select from, the more evaluation he/
she can do in finding breeder queens
and the more daughter queens they
can evaluate.
60
In my case when I started, it was
the one colony that had survived
the winter after no mite treatments.
I added into this selection by doing
cut-outs and catching feral swarms.
These are used as drone mother colo-
nies (DMCs) for my maternal survi-
vor line. Exceptional DMCs can be
used to start a separate maternal line
at another apiary; otherwise I start
new DMCs every other year.
Will this eliminate a beekeeper
having, and only wanting, two colo-
nies? Not in my opinion. A healthy
full-sized colony can easily generate
two, or more, nucs early in the season
for evaluating daughter queens (and
also help control swarming, provide
possible income, generate expansion
colonies and provide for requeening
later in the season). The mother queen
can be left with the original colony,
moved to a nuc, or culled immediate-
ly. If only two colonies are wanted, the
mother queens can be eliminated and
after a summer evaluation, the nuc
colonies can be combined with the
originals after culling out all but the
best two queens from the requeened
hives and nucs. My mentor used to
put the original queen in a box with
most of the young brood and leave
most of the sealed brood, along with
a queen cell or frame of young brood
with the original hive to rear a new
queen. (The original queen was later
destroyed and the colonies united.)
He would also obtain a crop of comb
honey as the colony waited for brood
rearing to begin again. Your goal is to
requeen each original hive(s) with the
best young queen(s) produced from
the divisions/requeened hives. Nuc
boxes can then be put in storage un-
til the reproductive season begins the
next spring.
When swarming season comes in
your area, small beekeepers could
also make splits using frames that
have larvae in queen cells. This would
eliminate any need for generating
queens through grafting or walk-
away splits. I have yet to find anyone
with a valid reason as to how worker
larvae converted into queens make
a better queen than those destined
to be one from the egg. If a breeder
colony swarms, do try and hive it.
The original queen usually departs
with the first swarm and will usually
be superseded; those cells are usually
excellent queen sources. Selecting
queens by using the hive’s natural
swarm tendency is better than being
a bee-haver or indiscriminately using
chemicals.
I also feel that beekeepers with
20,000 colonies could do selection for
survivor stock, although they may
have to engage in a different meth-
odology (such as using their winter-
ing apiary sites as queen propagation
yards while their pollination and
honey production colonies are mak-
ing the rounds during the active sea-
son, or starting their selection with
a limited number of hives). The goal
of treatment-free beekeeping as con-
cerns varroa is getting locally adapted
bees off the chemicals and co-existing
with varroa. We need to start working
towards this goal on all levels of bee-
keeping. As Randy Oliver has stated;
“If you’re not part of the genetic so-
lution of breeding mite-tolerant bees,
then you’re part of the problem.”
Once you’ve selected which colo-
nies will become your breeders,
queen propagation can begin using
any one of the many queen-rearing
techniques or by putting swarm/su-
persedure cells to use. Recordkeeping
now becomes of utmost importance;
you’re about to create your own ma-
triarchal line of bees.
3) Select Broadly for Colony Traits
We want bees that function on
multiple fronts. I would thus avoid
zeroing-in on one sole trait, because
our bee researchers have indicated
that concentrating on and enhanc-
ing one specific trait will often have
detrimental effects on others. Bees
have a whole set of behaviors and
genetics they use to combat diseases
American Bee Journal
and pests; we need them to be well-
rounded in their defenses. (See Jost
Dustmann’s article “Natural defense
mechanisms of a honey bee colony
against diseases and parasites” in
the June 1993 issue of ABJ.) Why do
I allow natural selection to guide my
bees? Because there is an advantage
in that “it selects for a host-parasite
equilibrium that may be more sus-
tainable than human selection for a
single characteristic.”7
In my apiary, I select for low varroa
mite levels, winter survival, colony
maternal longevity, health, and adap-
tion to local resources and climate. I
eliminate any queens from my breed-
ing program when mites rise above
3 to 4/100 bees. Using Marla Spi-
vak’s 8 to 10% threshold level; any
colony with consistently more than
10 mites/100 bees would be totally
culled unless the beekeeper would
want to try the Accelerated Bond Test
of John Kefuss.8 (I only recommend
this for the most diligent of beekeep-
ers—he also has a Soft Bond Test).
Mites are now a new part of the se-
lective force affecting bees. See below
for details on how I might cull these
colonies.
4) Drone Mothers
Remember, you could have the best
genetics in your queenline, but if she
mates with 5-30 drones, her charac-
teristics are quickly watered down
by the drones in your area. Thus you
need drone mother colonies that have
desirable traits. The drone sources
must be evaluated and selected just
as rigorously as your queen sources.
If possible, starting more than one
queen line can be beneficial to avoid
inbreeding if a beekeeper maintains
a large number of hives (>100). In-
breeding hasn’t been a problem for
me, nor will it be, as long as other
beekeepers in my area keep bringing
in stock and feral colonies populate
the woodlands. The IBRA Journal of
Apicultural Research article “Honey
bee genotypes and the environ-
ment” in Volume 53, Issue 2, 2014
(Free on IBRA website) also lessens
my concerns about inbreeding and
supports what I’m advocating. The
authors found sufficient diversity
within the bee population and pro-
posed that non-local imported stock
carry maladapted genes that are
not sustainable. Other recent stud-
ies have shown much diversity in
the feral population here in the U.S.,
and propose a possible genetic bottle-
neck in the commercial production
January 2019
2017 Best of Show in light class and 1st in amber.
of queens.9, 10 (All of the research re-
ferred to in this article is easily found
by searching for the paper’s title on
the Internet).
If several beekeepers within an area
collaborated to start a breeding pro-
gram, queens could be mated at fel-
low beekeepers' apiaries. This would
help fix the adaptability of bees to the
area, benefit participating beekeep-
ers through the exchange of desirable
genetics, help avoid inbreeding and
inspire others to participate. As back-
yard beekeepers and sideliners, we
need to collaborate and work to elimi-
nate poor quality queens from our
apiaries. Local beekeeper cooperation
along these lines has been highly suc-
cessful in Ireland11 and Kirsten also re-
lated to me that cooperatives, such as
the Varroa Tolerance Breeding Initia-
tive, can be found in Europe. For those
engaging in treatments; beekeepers in
Israel have had success preventing re-
infestation of mites by using commu-
nity-wide treatment days4.
Stop the Chemical Treadmill
Right now, or when you come
out of winter, is a good place to dis-
pense the chemical mite treatments. If
you’re going to have Varroa-tolerant
treatment-free bees—at some point—
the chemicals have to go. There are
other means of non-chemical control
that can be substituted. When I dis-
pensed with chemical treatments for
mites we were using potent insecti-
cides. The advice then was to expect
a 90% loss and my first chemical-free
winter confirmed that. I was probably
fortunate to have found one colony
with varroa tolerance in my apiary.
What percentage of loss a beekeeper
may experience today is unknown,
but we are using “softer” chemicals
which may lessen the effects of chemi-
cal withdrawal. Natural selection and
the introduction of various behaviors
such as hygienic traits may also have
lessened the original 90% loss expec-
tancy. Considering where I’m at to-
day after starting with one survivor,
I know this can be done. But it takes
time, reasonable expectations, and
active culling of subpar genetics that
don’t meet your breeding standards.
Observations, Measurements,
Testing, and Recording
As soon as your daughter queens
are mated and begin brood rearing,
we can commence observations, mea-
surements, and tests to evaluate their
performance. Once the new queen’s
brood emerges and replaces the adult
bee population, colony-level testing
and measurements can be started.
For Varroa, there are two times that I
consider most critical in Varroa moni-
toring; the early spring build-up pe-
riod, and the fall build-up of the bees
that will rear the winter bees. Varroa
levels may increase some with these
brood-rearing build-ups, but these
are the times you don’t want them
skyrocketing.
You are looking for queens head-
ing colonies that are starting to move
toward your desired goals. As an ex-
61

My Boy Scout beekeeping mentor, Edgar Rench, in early 70s
ample—reduced varroa infestation.
Your mite sampling should show a
progression towards fewer mites and
fewer mite-associated problems (such
as DWV). Total eradication and con-
stant zeros in sampling are not realis-
tic goals; varroa is here to stay.4 I tol-
erate up to 4 mites/100 bees only as
potential queen sources. From 5 to 10
mites / 100 bees I monitor at the lower
end and cull (or treat if you can’t com-
pletely disconnect) at the upper end.
For a colony consistently above 11
mites/100 bees; the queen must be
destroyed and the colony requeened
from another queen source and rig-
orously monitored or used as selec-
tive pressure, with close monitoring,
by dispersing brood frames in Var-
roa tolerant/resistant colonies.8 The
other option for colonies with higher
numbers, especially in late summer,
is to cull the entire colony in order to
prevent any bee and Varroa drift later
in the year. My best advice is to select
only the very best queens from your
longest-surviving colony(s) as breed-
ers.
Acceptable levels of Varroa are hard
to give as they have not been, nor may
they be able to be, set for every given
locale or climate. Honey Bee Health
Coalition12 gives <2% (2/100) as ac-
ceptable, Spivak1 gave 10% (10/100)
as a possible tolerance level. And
who knows what the level would be
if the selective force were to set it? At
some point in the future I hope that
constant Varroa counting becomes a
thing of the past.
As you progress you may notice
other benefits that you were not tar-
geting such as increased honey pro-
duction. Record anything and every-
62
Genetic Variation in Honey Bees from
South Central United States. Conference
Paper at www.researchgate.net/publi-
cation/267888363 Researchers found 25
haplotypes representing all four A. mel-
lifera lineages such as A. mellifera mellifera
“M” lineage and the “O” North Africa/
Middle East lineage which was last im-
ported in 1880.
10 Magnus, R. & Szalanski, A. (2010) Ge-
netic Evidence for Honey Bees (Apis mel-
lifera L.) of Middle Eastern Lineage in the
United States. Sociobiology, 55. 285-296.
11 McMullan, John. (2018) Adaption in
Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Colonies Ex-
hibiting Tolerance to Varroa destructor
in Ireland. Bee World, 95:2, 39-43. DOI:
10.1080/0005772X.2018.1431000
12 Honey Bee Health Coalition, Tools for
Varroa Management, Page 8.
Terry Combs’ lifelong
interest in insects and
spiders led him to the
thing as a result of your observations, Boy Scout beekeep-
measurements, and testing process. ing merit badge in
Testing can be very valuable in de- 1966. He has been a
termining things such as hygienic be- member and officer
havior or mite loads. of several beekeep-
An example of possible traits and ing organizations. He
teaches numerous
how to score them is included in Part beekeeping and insect classes and will be
3 of this article; tailor these to suit adding a course on pollinator protection this
your beekeeping. fall at Kaskaskia College in Centralia, IL. He
recently completed the Journeyman level of
the University of Montana Master Beekeep-
citations (these can Be easily ing program and plans to complete the Master
found using the article title in an in- level in 2019. Terry lives in Keyesport, IL with
ternet search) his wife Debbie, and produces award-winning
1 This refers to an online course Marla of- varietal honey while working on his local strain
fered several years ago. of survivor bees.
2 Brettell, L. E., & Martin, S. J., (2017) Old-
est Varroa tolerant honey bee population
provides insight into the origins of the
global decline of honey bees. Sci. Rep. 7,
45953; doi: 10.138/srep45954 (2017)
3 Locke, Barbara. (2015). Natural Varroa
mite-surviving Apis mellifera honeybee
populations. Apidologie. 47. 10.1007/
s13592-015-0412-8.
4 Sanford, M. T., & Bonney, R. E., (2010)
Keeping Honey Bees, Storey Publishing
5 Seeley, T. D.(2006) Honey Bees of the Ar-
not Forest: a population of feral colonies
persisting with Varroa destructor in the
northeastern United States. Apidologie 38,
19-29
6 Loftus, J. C., Smith, M. L., & Seeley, T.
D. (2016) How Honey Bee Colonies Sur-
vive in the Wild: Testing the Importance
of Small Nests and Frequent Swarming.
PLoS ONE 11 (3): e0150362
7 Yves Le Conte, Gérard De Vaublanc,
Didier Crauser, François Jeanne, Jean-
Claude Rousselle, et al. (2007). Honey
bee colonies that have survived Varroa
destructor. Apidologie, Springer Verlag,
2007, 38 (6), pp.566-572. <hal-00892292>
8 http://www.apimondia.com/congress-
es/2009/Bee-Health/Symposia/Practi-
cal%20varroa%20resistance%20selec-
tion%20for%20beekeepers%20-%20
KEFUSS%20John.pdf
9 Magnus, R., & Szalanski, A., (2008)
American Bee Journal
F
or my thermal photography The past couple of times I ordered Given the cold, late, and wet weath-
work, I had mostly concen- packages, poor spring weather de- er of this past spring (2018), the pack-
trated on top-bar hives. Now layed shipment for about two weeks. ages were delayed two weeks, which
I wanted to extend this new way of Locally I know of new beekeepers was understandable. From Virginia,
seeing to frame hives. For this work, receiving packages even in late May. I watched the weather in the south-
I used five packages. I faced most all With the spring nectar flow ending east, the location of the bee producer.
the current difficulties with pack- usually by the second week of June, I expected the two late notifications
ages, beginning with the expense, the build-up time for a new colony is sent by emails. After all, for the bee
$729 including shipping. Three new extremely brief. That means the new producer, their colonies needed time
colonies had queen problems, re- beekeeper needs to feed the colony to build up and, most critically, their
sulting in big setbacks. The erratic sugar syrup and a pollen substitute, queens required good weather to
spring weather dealt cruel cards too, not only to get its combs built, but mate.
in terms of cold days when new col- also to provide the bees winter stores. The five packages arrived on Fri-
onies needed to grow. Yet from my In locations where a dearth prevails day, April 20 , 2018. I knew the arrival
long-time veteran experience with in summer coupled with a weak fall day from the tracking number pro-
package colonies, I built them into flow, this feeding commitment could vided by the bee producer. However
strong colonies occupying a brood be substantial. While I do not recom- in the postal stream, a critical scan
chamber (deep super) and two or mend this strategy to beginners, I have was missed so I did not know the
three medium supers (eight frame even picked a shipping date in the lat- bees passed through a sorting center
hives). ter part of March, probably when the in Virginia. Usually I meet the bees at
The end-of-season hive weights of weather would not be good for start- the post office, but a postal clerk had
the package colonies were, in pounds, ing a colony at my location. Of course, to call me. Always leave your contact
90, 98, 143, 152, 183, (in kilograms, I am counting on a shipping delay so information at the arrival post office.
40.8, 44.5, 64.9, 68.9, 83.0). While that the bees actually arrive in early April Pick up the bees before they go “out
result is impressive, it took a commit- when I really want them. for delivery,” where the packages
ment to my bees. Let’s begin.
Good shipping dates were still
available when I ordered the bees. I
picked the first week of April for an
arrival date, which is a good time for
Richmond, Virginia. I have picked
that week for package bees since the
1960’s when I began beekeeping.
Back then, my family lived a couple
of blocks from a large postal mail
sorting facility. For packages, more
so for queens in the summer, I went
to the post office everyday begin-
ning just after the shipping day to ask
about my bees.
Of course all the postal clerks knew
me. Once early in the morning, long
before the regular mail delivery, the
mail jeep stopped in front of our
house with a package of bees. For a
ten-year-old kid, that was a big deal, Fig. 1 Acceptable bee losses. Some dead bees in a package are expected, and some
decades before tracking numbers. of the dead might be drone bees depending on how the bees were shook.

January 2019 63

Fig. 2 Scoot over bees, I got to drive.
would ride around, stopping at nu-
merous addresses. I have found over
the years, the postal personnel are
very happy to give up the bees.
The package bees arrived in good
condition. Always check for dead/
lost bees possibly resulting from
leaking feeder cans, or punctures in
the screen of the cages, or unknown
causes–before signing for the bees. If
possible, take a smart phone with you
and photograph any damage from
different viewpoints. The bee produc-
er will want to see the photographs as
evidence of damage. If more than one
package is damaged, make sure your
pictures clearly indicate each particu-
lar package. Photograph each pack-
age on/by a different piece of paper,
like an advertising mail flyer. Follow
the bee producer’s rules and ship-
per’s rules for filing a claim. Roughly
a handful of dead bees on the cage
floor is acceptable (see Figure 1).
64
Fig. 3
The packages
spending the
night.
The morning was chilly when I
picked up the bees. They could have
ridden in the back of the pickup
truck, enduring the wind turning
cold, blowing hard while I drove
along the highway. I could not do that
to my bees. We all squeezed in the cab
(see Figure 2).
This kind of mothering of my
packages reminds me of a far more
extensive “bee package run.” I was
still living at home with my parents
in Richmond, Virginia. To expand
my operation (in ten-frame hives), I
purchased 50 three-pound packages,
which were cheaper in those days.
There was no shipping. I drove my
first fairly-decrepit bee truck to Geor-
gia to pick up the packages, at the
time roughly a 10-hour drive, and
I waited a few hours for the bees. I
was supposed to spend the night in
Georgia, and then drive back the next
day. My grandmother, worried out of
her wits, even gave her bee-crazy boy
money for a motel, but she could not
hive him because of the weather.
That late afternoon in Georgia
Fig. 4
An observation
top-bar hive
with a jar feeder
on a screen at
the top of the
hive.
was hot, even though it was spring.
The package bees were too hot–rest-
less and roaring a loud buzz when I
checked on them. To worry me even
more, the clusters seemed to fill their
cages with loosely packed festoons
of bees. When bees hang in loose fes-
toons, they are releasing their meta-
bolic heat, trying to stay cool. To es-
cape the hot weather, I absconded out
of the state, plunging northward into
the night and another 10 hours of si-
lent driving, navigating with only a
paper map. (The radio in my old pick-
up truck was broken.)
I arrived home very early on a Sat-
urday morning to a sleeping house-
hold. Spring in Virginia had turned
cold enough for scattered frost. The
clusters in the packages had contract-
ed tightly, trying to staying warm–the
opposite of Georgia. Now the pack-
ages looked like they only had two
pounds of bees.
My older brother had mostly moved
out of the house, but he still enforced
his territorial claim on his bedroom,
which was the closest to the front
door. Lucky for me, he decided to stay
elsewhere that night. Thinking like a
kid, I figured, Nobody said I couldn’t
back my bee truck up, across the front
yard, the tailgate touching the porch.
Exhausted I slept–until my surprised
mother found me in the wrong room–
plus 50 swarms.
Now back in 2018, the five package
bees had to spend one night before be-
ing hived up on the following warm
afternoon. The night was too cold to
leave the packages in an unheated
building. The bees could survive that,
but why stress them? Figure 3 shows
my improvised set up. The paper un-
der the packages caught the sticky bits
of trash coming through the screen
and syrup from the spray bottle. I fed
the bees sugar syrup in the standard
way (one part sugar to one part water)
American Bee Journal
 Fig. 6
A frame feeder in
the hive.
Fig. 5 Bees at the jar cap of the inverted
feeder jar.

with a small hand-pump spray bottle.

Sometimes I also paint the syrup
on the screen with a brand new brush
(never used for painting). I brushed
on the syrup with the package tilted
back a little, which helped to slow the
syrup run-off. I can feed a lot of syrup
by painting, but it can be messy un- but critical difficulties. Here are two could have more bee activity on it
less one is a tidy efficient worker. (I main deficiencies: syrup is restricted than out by the entrance. In an ob-
would paint feed the packages out- at the jar cap and the distance of the servation top-bar hive with multiple
side and dilute the spilled syrup with jar from the cluster. Overall, the re- combs (see Figure 4), I fed a grow-
water to prevent robbing.) The cloth sult of the problems is that the new ing colony by an inverted syrup jar,
draped on the back side of the pack- colony may not get enough syrup for which is the same way a Boardman
ages blocked the cold draft from the its early growth. feeder works. From inside the hive,
windows during the night and would In my bee house are observation Figure 5 shows the bees on the jar
shade the bees from any direct sun- hives in different sizes. I see all kinds cap. About 50 bees were taking or
rays in the morning. Storing pack- of bee activity. Some behaviors be- waiting to take syrup at a time. The
ages at room temperature in a quiet come common to me, but are hardly colony’s syrup collection and pro-
place, in the dark without drafts, is a ever seen by beekeepers. Consider cessing capacity, consisting of many
good rule. If the weather is unfavor- looking “inside” a Boardman feed- hundreds to perhaps a few thousand
able, and I need to hold the packages, er–right at the jar cap. Let the feeder bees, is far more than the meager
I will feed them with the spray three jar be even closer to the cluster so it number of bees at the jar cap.
or four times a day.
My plan was to hive up all five
packages in one of my top-bar hive
apiaries with most hives moved to
other locations giving the new frame-
hive colonies less competition. When
I was in high school, I had 125 frame
hives and made honey by the ton.
Those were ten-frame hives. Now
for my frame hives, I am using eight
frames, with a deep super for a brood
chamber and medium depth supers
(6 5/8 inch) for less stress on my back.
Before hiving the packages we need
to confront a critical question: How to
feed the new colonies? The typical way
I see is by the jar feeder at the hive en-
trance, called a Boardman feeder (af-
ter H. R. Boardman, who invented the
device in the 1800’s). The Boardman
feeder is very convenient to use, just
refill and replace the jar. Of course, the
jar is easy to see, to tell when empty, Fig. 7 Inside a frame feeder. All along the feeder, the bees go down into the feeder to
and the beekeeper never has to open remove the syrup. A few minutes before refilling, I loosen the pine needles and smoke
the hive. Most of the complaints I hear the feeder very lightly. I am trying to agitate the bees to leave the feeder, although
about the Boardman feeder concern many will not. Refill the feeder slowly, giving the remaining bees down below time to
robbing from having a rich supply of ascend in front of the rising syrup level. While waiting for the bees, I just rotate around
sugar syrup at the entrance. partly filling other feeders. At this time, the hives have their migratory covers on with
I see more problems with the only the frame feeder exposed (or their inner covers could be in the same position, and
Boardman feeder, subtle out-of-sight, then finish closing in the usual way).

January 2019 65

Fig. 8 Hive 30 after the bees have been
installed.
To make matters worse, the dis-
tance of the entrance feeder from
the cluster is a problem. The syrup
supply shuts off when erratic spring
weather turns cold. Also, routine cold
nights and mornings in the spring
prevent the bees from taking syrup
from the feeder. The distance is a
barrier through cold, and bees in the
cluster are reluctant to cross it. Wax
production depends intimately on
the inflow of nectar, or here syrup, to
quickly build combs for the new col-
ony. With the correct feeding arrange-
ment, the bees could be taking syrup
even on cold nights, even during long
chilly rainy spells. That helps the new
colonies to continue growing even in
poor weather.
Another feeder is the frame feeder,
also called a division board feed-
er. The feeder replaces one or two
frames, depending on its capacity
(see Figure 6). I use frame feeders
open at the top, and I pack them
with clean pine needles to greatly
reduce drowning. With bee access
to the syrup unrestricted, hundreds
and hundreds of bees can crowd into
the feeder (see Figure 7). To keep the
cluster close to the syrup level, where
the bees imbibe the feed, I did some-
thing that at first seems a mistake,
but not for spring weather with tem-
peratures becoming cold.
I did not use the frame feeder for
a deep frame matching the brood
chamber, the size box I used to start
the colonies. Oh yes, I had plenty of
66
that size frame feeder, which I used
for high-capacity fall feeding. Rather
I used a frame feeder for a medium
depth super.
To look ahead after the hiving pro-
cess, Figure 8 shows Hive 30 ready for
a top to close it. The arrow marks the
queen cage one frame from the feeder
(to the right), so the bees will cluster
close to their food source. On the front
of the hive, the outlines are the cross
sections of the cluster and feeder. Of
course, the syrup level can only vary
inside the feeder rectangle. The syrup
level stays relatively close to the clus-
ter because the bees do not need to
walk to the bottom of the feeder as
they would with the deep feeder size.
Remember, if conditions are too cold,
the bees will not cross a cold barrier,
especially down in the bottom of the
hive where it is cold. Also, it is a long
ways down to the bottom of the deep
frame feeder.
The exception is that in chilly
weather sometime enough bees can
form a heat path to a feeder. With my
thermal cameras and top-bar hives, I
have observed heat paths through the
top of the hive; the bees were going to
a rear feeder from fall feeding. Usu-
ally the path was in the upper corner
of the hive, where heat accumulated,
and the bees could easily move comb-
to-comb. The heat might only be the
passive heat from bees on the path,
that is, the bees are not actively heat-
ing the path along the way. As far as
I know, this heating behavior on a
path has not been studied (or hardly
known). On cool mornings when I see
a heat path go from the cluster down
to the entrance, the temperature is just
warm enough for the bees to forage.
With an “undersize” frame feeder
in the brood chamber, I needed to re-
fill it more often. I do not mind that
because I am looking for and trouble-
shooting other bee problems. I like
that the syrup stays fresher. If a cold
spell is coming, I top off my feeders
so the syrup levels will be close to the
top bars of the adjacent frames. The
syrup-fetching bees and syrup level
will be up in the warmth, which helps
the bees continue bringing the syrup
to the cluster.
Here is something to look out for
with my way of feeding packages.
As the colonies were growing, I kept
a watch on the frames adjacent to the
feeders. As the bees finish building
out the foundation on these frames,
the open space under the feeders is
a natural place for their next combs.
These free-built combs, attached to
the feeders, are wasted comb-con-
struction effort.
To help prevent comb built under
the feeder, when needed, just shift
the frames over leaving space for one
frame by the feeder. A frame of foun-
dation seems like the natural choice
for the new frame by the feeder, but
if a frame from the other side of the
cluster has partly built cells with bee
activity, maybe pick that one. A frame
of foundation could recreate a barrier
in the cold, difficult to cross, between
the cluster and the feeder. (Also for
bees, foundation is not very attrac-
tive.) On the other hand, if removing
the frame from the cluster side oppo-
site the feeder exposes brood, subject-
ing it to chilling, then using a frame
of foundation may be the best choice.
In the next article, we will hive the
packages.
acknoWledgMents
The author thanks Suzanne Sum-
ner for her comments on the manu-
script. Visit TBHSbyWAM.com and
BeeChildtheBook.com.
Dr. Wyatt Mangum,
author of Top-Bar Hive
Beekeeping: Wisdom
and Pleasure Com-
bined, is an internation-
ally known top-bar hive
beekeeper, who started
keeping bees at age 10.
He switched all his colonies to top-bar hives
back in 1986, long before it became popular.
He is also an apicultural historian, who blends
his knowledge of beekeeping history with his
study of honey bee behavior. email: wmangum
@umw.edu. www.TBHSbyWAM.com
American Bee Journal
 Modern Farm Myths
F those whose lands we use to take some time and
or the last several years since I rejoined the ranks of
beekeepers, I have been disturbed by the inaccurate
information being spread around regarding “the
problems with farming.” A recent article on organic farm-
ing prompted me to instigate this discussion.
I have puzzled for months, seeking out how to best share
the information you’re not getting. I live in the middle of
farm country in central IL, grew up in Iowa, and have lived
the gamut of agricultural professions from milking cows
to designing combines. Every year my idea of vacation-
ing is to visit different areas and see how farming is done.
From corn in Brazil, peanuts in Georgia, and fruit and nuts
in California the details of what it takes to plant, grow and
harvest crops has been a fascination of mine.
In my youth we kept bees on our place in Iowa, as a
small yet fun hobby. As a “retirement plan,” I once again
engaged in beekeeping. I have since apparently turned pro,
now running around 1,000 hives here in central Illinois.
Slowly but surely, I am recognizing how misinformed we
are and how little is actually known about modern farm-
ing practices here in the U.S., and much of the world. The
realization has been nothing short of an eye-opener. Some
of it is simply related to age—the majority of the younger
generations have not been exposed to agriculture. Add in
the urbanization of our beekeepers and we have a lot of
people with no agricultural background being misled by
biased stories in the press, headline-grabbing articles, and
the campaigns of some organizations.
In the last several months I have come to understand
that the vocal majority of beekeepers do not have a good
understanding of agriculture. Instead they have numerous
misconceptions based on reports that don’t capture the
whole picture. We have to be careful to not believe and
parrot a lot of misconceptions. In doing some research I
have found that only approximately 1-2% of our popula-
tion is directly involved in agriculture production. When
only a small fraction of our population is directly engaged
in agriculture, it’s easy to grasp why there are so many
mistruths floating about.
As beekeepers we are a part of the modern ag-
riculture process. We owe it to ourselves and to
January 2019
By charles linder
become better informed about agriculture.
Why should beekeepers care? First off, we are part of
that picture, a large part, and our future is inextricably tied
to farming. As we all know, beekeepers are very involved
in crop pollination, but our involvement runs deeper than
that. If you take into account the average hive forages on
roughly 8,000 acres, you quickly realize they spend little
time in our own yards in search of forage. The huge major-
ity of beekeepers are dependent on the good agronomic
practices, and the assets of the farmers, ranchers and
homeowners in our areas. There are some areas that are
wild, but most of the continental U.S. where bees actu-
ally thrive, has ag ground involved in their forage areas.
Way more than 90% of the acres bees forage on are farmed,
ranched or owned by someone other than the beekeeper;
my guess is that the total would surpass 99%.
The farmland bees forage on includes row crops, con-
servation reserve program lands (CRP), timber stands and
pasture. In some cases the bees survive on the forage at
field edges, where pollen and nectar rich plants abound.
All that farmland forage is actually owned by farmers and
ranchers, who pay taxes on the property. The vast majority
of us also work on the good will of those landowners when
it comes to our apiary locations. We either set our hives
directly on someone’s farm or ranch, or we are very close
to their property lines, and our bees are definitely access-
ing their ground.
Because beekeepers and farmers are inextricably inter-
twined, my goal is to try to clarify as many details about
modern farming as possible. Many of you will read this
and swear I am wrong, because you have learned other-
wise. But we have to ask ourselves, where did we learn it?
From a real farmer, from our own practical experience, or
are we just repeating what we read somewhere, a sound
bite from the news or one of the many feel-good movies?
As with anything, there are always a few exceptions. I’m
just covering some basics. There are definitely a lot more
details to access, if you’re curious. As one of my old bosses
would say, this is the view from 10,000 feet, not from the
treetops. Please keep in mind, these are averages across the
67
country; there are certainly some areas that are different.
Some are winners in the forage game, some are losers, but
when looked at as the whole, the picture becomes clear.
Bear with me, and I will be sure to explain in the end how
the math for beekeepers shows we need to be supporting
modern ag.
One thing we also need to keep in mind, the goal here
is to feed people on the smallest footprint possible. This
includes both the least amount of land tilled for crops, as
well as the carbon footprint per ton of crop.
disaPPearing fenceroWs
For decades now we have been hearing about the land
use changes. “Farmers are tearing up fencerows and plow-
ing ditch to ditch!” It is a dandy story, and easy to see as
you drive by a big field, but it is a misleading statement,
and fortunately completely wrong.
The real fact is that we have been gaining right around a
million acres of habitat every year. This comes from what
is referred to as the “green revolution,” the ability to in-
crease yields at a fantastical rate. While we hear the “vast
monoculture” statement repeated over and over, the real-
ity is very little has changed in the last few decades, and
the huge majority of those changes have been for the bet-
ter from a beekeeper’s perspective: less tilled acres, more
specialty crops such as sunflowers and canola, and a lot
of CRP. Sure some areas look different, but the USDA sta-
tistics are mapped on a GIS chart to the ¼ acre range. The
data is quite clear should you actually take a look. The re-
duction in farm/tilled ground has been steady. Less land is
farmed today and individual farms are bigger.
Yes, all over the country fencerows are disappearing.
Why? Because farming has changed. About 30-40 years ago
farms were a lot smaller. The average size in 1970, when
I was a kid, was 240 acres and a heck of a lot of 80 to 160
acre farms existed as well. Tractor sizes were also smaller.
If you had an 80 hp tractor and a 6 bottom plow you were a
big deal. Most farms then were vertically integrated. They
had hogs and/or cattle that went into those fields after the
crops, to clean up and capitalize on the spilled grains. Back
then a combine or picker normally dropped 5-10% of the
crop on the ground. Not a big deal, the cattle wintered on it.
To do that we needed to have good fences, everyone had
them to keep their cattle in, or the neighbor’s livestock out.
Fences and gates were common. In the decades since, farm-
ing has changed drastically. Most modern farms specialize;
I do not intend to debate the change, just keep it in mind.
Economic market forces have come about such that spe-
cialization is really the key to success. Instead of raising
cattle, hogs, and grain and battling the problems associ-
ated with each, most farms have become specialized in
cattle, hogs, or row crops. This is a much more efficient
model in most cases. Getting back to land use, as row crops
have developed, two major factors come into play. First
(and my favorite), grain harvesting has gotten much more
efficient. With the advent of the modern combine by Case
in the 70’s, the standard for crop losses out the back of the
machine was set at 1.0%. The other manufacturers soon
followed. That means the grain is in the bin, not on the
ground for cattle. This cut back the need for fences quite a
bit; no livestock in the fields, no need for a fence.
Second is the tillage equipment, which has gotten much
bigger. The average row crop farm is now around 1,600
acres. Farmers do less plowing of fields, opting instead to
conserve the soil with severely reduced tillage practices.
The new norm is 300 hp tractors pulling 60’ wide planters,
68
which plant 24 rows at once, and harvesting 20 acres per
hour. This is the modern norm. While many hate this, the
reality is that the larger machines cover more ground with
less fuel consumption per acre. Trust me when I tell you it
is hard to turn a 24 row planter around, and fences cause
a lot of turning. So now we have no need for fences as we
don’t run livestock, and with equipment that hard to turn,
the simple answer is get rid of the obstacles.
Add the maintenance it takes for a good fence, or the
damage one causes when you hit a fencepost with a com-
bine, or hook the wire with the planter marker and it boils
down to a very simple decision. Just like with our home
yards and gardens, all those shrubs look nice, but slow
down your mowing; same thing with farming. Worse yet,
those doubled up or missed areas where the tractor turns
cost money. Overlap when fertilizing or planting is lost
money. The pretty tree in the middle of that field is a cost
to the farmer. It translates to an acre of lost production as
well as reducing the yields in the ground around it; ground
that the farmer had to pay a higher tax rate on is lost to
production.
The real trick no one seems to note is due to increased
efficiency, the crop area in the U.S. has been on a steady
decline. That fencerow that was ripped out was added
to the margins down by the creek, untilled gateways and
paths got wider, erosion protection areas continue to in-
crease, terraces and buffer strips are everywhere and get-
ting bigger. These are key points! The fencerows we are
complaining about losing were pollinator waste grounds.
These fencerows would get sprayed constantly and flow-
ering plants were nonexistent, mostly made up of fescues
and brushy plants. Many made good bird cover, but that
was about it.
A quick look at the numbers, the continental U.S. is 1.9
billion acres, of which roughly 390 million acres, or 20%
of the US is cropland. If we actually look at the numbers
for crops we call “monocultures” that number drops to
257 million for the eight main crops: corn, beans, wheat,
cotton, other feed grains, and rice. That number has been
steady or declining for 60 years. Here we are in the US,
feeding our entire population, and a very large portion
of the rest of the world, with 13.5% of our ground in row
crops, and it is actually decreasing! That is pretty cool. We
do also import about 30% of our food from other countries,
predominantly Mexico and Canada.
American Bee Journal
 When you look closely at the data and get the real
picture, you start to understand that land use has really
changed little in the last 60 years, but those changes have
actually been for the better. Less wasted fencerow margins
and more specialization has allowed grain farmers to re-
ally and truly produce more, with less, and frankly it gets
better every year. Despite the popular narrative, bee habi-
tats are not vanishing at some alarming rate, though they
are definitely changing at the local level and the concentra-
tion of colonies in good forage areas may be increasing.
Typical waterway, 40 feet wide and a goldenrod Mecca
Note missing fencerow, large patch around some trees, and
wide water way
Typical waterway, this one averages 150’ Wide and is home to
a lot of wildlife.
Key points
• Missing fencerows were added to creek margins
• Fencerows were never “great habitat”
• Large equipment and farms means “small patches”
are hard to farm
• Crop ground use is declining
huge Monocultures
Another complaint we hear constantly is that “huge
monocultures” are ruining our country. It is an interesting
tagline, and more than one university is using the mantra
January 2019
for funding. But the problem is, it does not really fit, and
it is inaccurate when applied to the bee world. The data
clearly show that land use has changed little in the last
70 years. While there have definitely been some regional
shifts, the big picture has not moved much. This applies at
most state levels as well as the national picture. Is a field of
canola or soybeans that provide summer food really worse
than fields of other plants which provide steady but low
volumes of forage?
What is a “vast monoculture”? Is that 100 acres? To a
honey bee that flies 3 miles? A ¾ mile range means that
hive has 1000+ acres in that small forage window. Bees are
well known to work farther than ¾ mile. Maybe a whole
section (640 acres)? While there are a few areas in the coun-
try where there are 100% row crops for a couple of miles,
truth is it’s rare. While we certainly agree that there are
some areas where our hives will struggle to find food close
enough, I also know of many wild hives in areas I would
have said there was no chance they would live. Very few
areas in the U.S. will not support a couple of hives; we just
have to be willing to look a bit for a good location for the
size of yards we want to feed through available forage.
Around 2012 I started seeing all these charts about the
increase in corn acres. Lovely charts showing a huge spike
in 2012. The problem is they did not show the chart with
the loss in soybeans and cotton. It did not fit the narra-
tive. The ethanol mandate did change the landscape a bit.
It raised the price of corn so it was much more attractive to
plant. This caused a shift in crops, not more plowed acres,
but a shift in which crop was actually planted. This change
was short lived as the glut of corn quickly drove the price
back down.
While some would argue that crop diversity has
dropped (it has in regions), I would ask, is this a prob-
lem? Most of the changes in diversity have come from
crops that were never forage crops for pollinators to be-
gin with. While we can say that hay/alfalfa acreages have
vanished, it is not true, they have shifted. In some areas
it has disappeared, but in other areas it is 10 times what
it was. Many areas in Ohio are now dedicated to alfalfa
pellet mills; many ranchers have bigger sections of alfalfa
than ever. The change comes from moving closer to the
Look closely at that chart and remember that pasture and forest
land are still bee habitat, and the cropland generally does pro-
vide quite a bit of value to bees, usually more so than the “other
special use and urban areas” do.
69
cattle operations. More cattle are raised now than ever be-
fore, and cattle do not live on corn alone. Despite what
you have heard, modern beef cattle get much of the en-
ergy from corn and other proteins, but still require a lot
of roughage rich in protein and fiber in their daily feed.
Most of it still comes from hay. I have a beekeeping friend
in Ohio, close to the alfalfa pellet mills, and most years he
averages well over 100 lbs of honey per hive (last season
was 180). Most of his yards are on alfalfa/clover. When
we look at the monocultures we miss the reality that most
of these fields have been the same types of monocultures
for so long, but we also seem to miss the boon to our pol-
linators that some crops generate.
The University of Ohio has some great research that Fields, before corn planting, a wet year means the Yellow Rock-
shows how modern ag’s constant surface soil tillage ac- et gets to bloom longer than dry years, and on bean ground it
tually benefits plants pollinators prefer. (Read Douglas usually gets another 2 weeks of bloom. Image central Missouri
Sponsler’s fantastic dissertation.) The practice of no-till
means not plowing in the fall, which leads to these areas
of monoculture providing two or three rounds of pollen is still a usable food source. Many beekeepers do well on
and nectar in addition to the row crop. soybeans, especially during warm and humid summers
In my own area, these cornfields provide at least two that cause good soy nectar flows. In some areas, aster also
other crops. Winter Annuals are the term we use here. In blooms in late season and provides additional forage, and
Illinois there are 3 big players, in order of bloom, Hen- the edges of most fields are full of goldenrod.
bit, Dandelions, and Yellow Rocket. They are all up and We also overlook the value of crops to us as beekeepers.
blooming in early spring, before corn planting, and all A lot of people complain about too much corn, but what
super valuable honey and pollen plants. It’s really cool to you do not hear are any beekeepers in California com-
see 200 acres of bee forage before corn! In a wet, cool year, plaining about almonds, or Canadian beekeepers lament-
we may get as much as 6 weeks of forage from them. Yes, ing the canola. These are huge monocultures that provide
they do spray just before planting with glyophosate, but a lot of bee forage, so much in fact that we are willing to
2-6 weeks of early forage has been a boon in early pollen move our bees across the country to get some of it, or at
and nectar. These winter annuals cover a huge swath of least be paid for it. How many tons of pollen are harvested
the U.S. from Ohio to Kansas from central Arkansas to at in almonds in February when hives really need it? Rough-
least the middle of Iowa. ly 1.7 million hives moved in at around 15 lbs. of pollen
It is however true to say we have lost some forage from collected by each colony in a 3-week window, which puts
the clover/alfalfa that was previously grown as a cover it at about 25 million pounds of pollen alone.
crop and then just plowed under. While we hate to see Canola in the Great Plains is encroaching hard on wheat,
the forage go, those losses are more than offset by the again a huge monoculture that benefits pollinators. Pro-
increased yields and less tillage damage to the soil. We duction averages of 100 lbs. of honey and pollen per hive,
need to understand; at one time that alfalfa was used to again in a 3 week window, in Oklahoma; Canada gets
fix nitrogen in the soil as it decomposed for the upcoming an even longer time and 200 lbs. per hive is not unheard
corn crop. The use of nitrogen insertion via anhydrous has of; North Dakota is also big on canola. Orange blossoms
changed that practice. As a result that alfalfa is not needed. in Florida and California and the list goes on. When the
The anhydrous method is a much more efficient way in monoculture suits our needs, we tend to be silent.
the terms of cost, and loss of a year’s crop production.
All of this and then corn and soybeans on the same
ground. We shouldn’t forget the University of Ohio shows
around 10% of the pollen in July comes from corn. While
it has a lower protein content than most other pollens, it

That purple tint is acres and acres of Henbit. Notice the width of
the margin here. This roadway ditch contains flowing water, so A key note in the above picture, take a close look at North Da-
the farmer is staying back what appears to be close to 30 feet. kota, 3rd largest portion of cropland, and the highest honey pro-
Not farming right to the edge. Image from southern Iowa duction numbers!

70 American Bee Journal

 Take a look at the chart above. Keep in mind that a lot
of beekeepers travel to North Dakota for summer. Why?
Huge crops of honey. Long days and short bloom period
make it concentrated. Now look at the land use pie chart;
over 60% is considered crop ground, and the state is still
the top honey producer.

Key points
• Land use for crops is declining
• Areas are shifting, but totals are staying the same
• Most “farm ground” can and does provide more than
one forage
• Many monocultures benefit bees/pollinators greatly

We as beekeepers need to look closely at land use, and

keep our eyes open, but before we get alarmed and start
railing against modern farming, we need to really and
truly understand what’s happening and why, as well as
the net effect on all pollinators. We must look beyond our
backyard and look at the big picture. Understanding the
big boon of some crops and the absolute best use of lands
for feeding the world is key. Right now that picture is im-
proving every year, and shows no signs of reversing.

Charles Linder is a commercial beekeeper. Any thoughts and

comments on this article, can be emailed to him at Gm_Charlie@
frontier.com.

January 2019 71
 The Pesticide
Situation
by RANDY OLIVER
ScientificBeekeeping.com
I was asked to write an article focusing on pesticides and bees—a subject on which
emotions run strong—but are often based upon poorly-informed opinions, one-sided
views, or incomplete information. What I hope to do in this series is to help to put
things into perspective.
L
THE EARTH’S BIOSPHERE
et’s begin by viewing The Pesticide Situation from
the perspective of a “Big Picture” view (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 From this distance, what we see is the Earth’s biosphere—
the thin skin on the surface of our planet suitable for life. The
biosphere includes the land surface, the seas, and the lower
atmosphere. Photo credit NASA.1
the huMan PoPulation
We humans are seriously impacting Earth’s fragile bio-
sphere. The sad fact is that there is absolutely no way that
8 billion humans can live in harmony with nature. The
demands of humanity are now exceeding the sustainable
carrying capacity of the biosphere--and our population
continues to increase at the rate of over 200,000 additional
mouths to feed per day.2
We are terraforming biologically-important habitats into
agricultural and urban uses, increasing the carbon dioxide
content of the atmosphere and the seas, and inadvertently
January 2019
shifting our climate to a warmer (and less life-friendly)
temperature. And with regard to this article, we are also
chemically polluting parts of the biosphere—which brings
us to the subject of bees and pesticides.
insect PoPulations in general
Although honey bees are not threatened with extinction
by any means, they seem to have served as a canary in the
coal mine to catch the public’s attention. The reality is that
insect populations in general appear to be declining across
the globe. But their disappearance doesn’t appear to corre-
late well with either of the two usual suspects--habitat con-
version or pesticides. I’ve spoken with entomologists, and
it’s clear that insect species and insect biomass have been
declining for some years (even before the first use of any
neonics). That said, we certainly still need to pay attention
to the effects of pesticides (notably insecticides) upon pol-
linator populations.
the agricultural situation
Less than three quarters of the land surface of Earth is
considered “habitable”—half of which we humans now
devote to agriculture of some sort; about 12% to crop pro-
duction (4.2 million square miles).3 Max Roser and Han-
nah Ritchie have nicely illustrated the breakdown in the
chart below (Fig. 2).
Worldwide, there are currently about 7 million square
miles of land in crop production. Our current human
population is nearly 8 billion, which works out to us us-
ing about a third of an acre of cropland (on average) to
feed and clothe each human being. As we look to the fu-
ture (Fig. 3), keep that third of an acre per person figure in
mind.
All of agriculture is gearing up for the expected in-
creased demand for food as our human population grows.
The ever-expanding middle class calls for more meat, fruit,
and vegetables. Unfortunately, the production of those de-
sirable foods requires more acreage per calorie than for the
73
Fig. 2 We use about an eighth of all the habitable land on earth for row and permanent crops. It is upon that portion of the land—
plus a small amount for urban and suburban area—that most pesticides are applied. In the case of the U.S, roughly one fifth of all
land area is classified as either cropland or urban4—neither of which serves as good habitat for most insect species. Chart by Max
Roser and Hannah Ritchie.5
high-efficiency crops: corn (the most efficient), wheat, rice,
soy, or potatoes.6
Practical application: luckily, none of those high-effi-
ciency crops are dependent upon bee pollination, and,
other than soybeans, are generally not attractive to bees.
Unfortunately, the pesticides used upon these crops can
still drift onto (or into) plants visited by pollinators.
Much of the Earth’s agricultural land is not being
farmed sustainably, and climate change is not helping.
Our current reliance on synthetic pesticides is going to
change, as pests evolve and we run out of new chemistry
options. The big ag companies are well aware of this, and
working on more eco-friendly “biologicals,” breeding,
and other improvements.
Practical application: pest management is always in
a state of change, as pest species develop resistance to
each new class of pesticide. Since the registration of new
chemistries must now take into account their impact
upon pollinators, the future is looking better for bees.
We’re unlikely to go all “organic,” since many farmers
may not find the premium paid to be worth the cost.7 But
states like California are leading the way, greatly reducing
our use of the chemicals of most concern.
74
the value of Pollinators
What I find exciting is that the ag community is starting
to realize that the pollinators are an important component
of the high-value portion of the agricultural landscape.
Practical application: pollinators encompass a small
group of species upon which some of our most favored
foods depend—this gives them an economic value,
charmingly termed “ecosystem services.” It has not gone
unnoticed by activists and fundraisers that this newly-
recognized economic value allows us to use the plight
of pollinators to gain traction to force the ag industry to
start paying more attention to the health of pollinators
and the biosphere in general.
We beekeepers caught the media’s attention with CCD,
and suddenly the honey bee and the monarch butterfly be-
came the poster children for our need to start protecting
pollinators. But we need to ask ourselves…
Who is the real enemy?
The short answer was well put by Pogo creator Walt Kel-
ly: We have met the enemy and he is us (Fig. 4).
We humans are now in a position of needing to decide
our place in the biosphere, and how our practices affect the
survival of the other species on this planet. As far as our
demand for agricultural products, we basically have only
three choices:
American Bee Journal
Fig. 3 In order to meet increased food demand, unless we want to destroy more virgin habitat (thus driving even more species into
extinction), we will need to coax more and more calories and protein out of each third of an acre currently used to feed us humans.
That means that growers will likely be forced to shift to higher-efficiency farming. Chart credit: farmingfirst.org.
our three choices
1. To greatly reduce the human population. This is a hard
sell in the short term.
2. To convert more natural habitat or grazing land into
cropland. At the rate of 200,000 new mouths to feed each
day, converting another third of an acre per additional
human works out to at least 68,000 acres of habitat con-
version per day). This would result (especially in the
rainforests) in driving many species into extinction.
3. To farm existing cropland even more intensively.
Although #3 perhaps sounds distasteful, realistically, it
appears to be the best possible solution, and we beekeep-
ers are likely going to have to learn to live with it. The
question then is whether that even more intensive farming
can allow for the existence of pollinators on that cropland.
Practical application: I’m beginning this series by try-
ing to put things into a realistic perspective (and for us
to stop blaming, and instead start being part of the solu-
tion). All farmers, large and small, are going to be pres-
sured to intensify production. So as beekeepers, the best
that we can do is to accept that fact, and push for prog-
ress in figuring out how to allow for pollinators to be an
integral part of high-intensity agriculture.
Fig. 4 Agriculture responds directly to the demands of the
American consumer. And we give the farmers a clear directive:
we want inexpensive, cosmetically-perfect fruit, vegeta-
bles, and meat. Unfortunately, the cheapest way (in the short
term) to produce such perfect food requires intensive chemical-
heavy agricultural practices. However, we’re learning that many
of our current practices are not sustainable for the long term.
January 2019
One way to help pollinators in agricultural landscapes
is to provide habitat and forage. The other is to minimize
the number of them that are killed by pesticides. And this
takes us to pesticide regulation, which falls under the pur-
view of…
the federal insecticide, fungicide, and rodenticide act
Allow me to briefly summarize the basics of FIFRA.8, 9, 10
Generally, before a pesticide may be sold or distributed in the
United States, it must be registered (licensed) with the EPA. Be-
fore EPA may register a pesticide under FIFRA, the applicant
must show, among other things that using the pesticide ac-
cording to specifications, will generally not cause “any un-
reasonable risk to man or the environment, taking into ac-
count the economic, social, and environmental costs and
benefits of the use of any pesticide.” I’ve highlighted three
critical sections, which give a lot of wiggle room to EPA.
And then EPA leaves it up to the States to enforce pesticide
use regulations, recordkeeping, and reporting require-
ments (some states do a better job than others).
The next subject I’ll explore are the perspectives of the
stakeholders involved, and what, in their opinions consti-
tute “unreasonable risk,” “environmental costs,” and soci-
etal and financial “benefits.”
To be continued…
acknoWledgeMents
Thanks to Pete Borst for his long assistance in research,
and to all the beekeepers, regulators, growers, pesticide
applicators, ecotoxicologists, and bee researchers who
have taken the time to deeply discuss aspects of The Pesti-
cide Situation with me.
references
1 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0304/bluemarble2k_big.
jpg
2 http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock/
3 According to FAO definitions, arable land (row crops) accounts for
28.4% of all agricultural land (10.9% of global land area), and per-
manent crops (e.g. vineyards and orchards) account for 3.1% (1.2%
of global land area).
4 https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/DataFiles/52096/Summary_
Table_1_major_uses_of_land_by_region_and_state_2012.xls?v=0
5 Max Roser and Hannah Ritchie (2018) - "Land Cover". Published
online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: https://ourworld-
indata.org/land-cover
6 And also sweet potatoes, leeks, and parsnips. For some interesting
reads, check out:
75
 When farmland is scarce, will we all eat roots and tubers?
https://slate.com/technology/2012/06/food-security-what-crops-
will-feed-the-world-if-we-run-out-of-farmland.html
In defense of corn, the world’s most important food crop.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/in-defense-
of-corn-the-worlds-most-important-food-crop/2015/07/12/78d
86530-25a8-11e5-b77f-eb13a215f593_story.html?utm_term=.cd-
09b64d0d01
7 My opinion on “organic”: I’ve gardened all my life, and resonate
with the principle that organic agriculture should be based on the
understanding of living ecological systems and cycles, minimal ex-
ternal inputs, improving the soil, and sustainability. In recent years,
however, “organic” has become a marketing term for crop and ani-
mal production that meets arbitrarily-set restrictions on the use of
man-made chemicals or precision-bred crops. Thus, I cannot sell
my honey as “organic” since I use paraffin to waterproof my boxes.
Although I have the greatest respect for growers willing to make
the effort to obtain “organic” certification, I feel that “organic” has
lost its way, and is now simply a marketing term based upon fo-
76
menting fear of “chemicals” and “GMOs”—see 7. As a biologist
and environmentalist, this bothers me greatly. In order to feed hu-
manity, as well as to protect the biosphere, we need to let go of
some of our irrational fear that every chemical is bad (although
some clearly are), and positively promote agroecology, rather than
just being “anti” this or that.
8 https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/federal-insecticide-fungicide-
and-rodenticide-act-fifra-and-federal-facilities
9 https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-federal-food-
drug-and-cosmetic-act
10 http://psep.cce.cornell.edu/issues/risk-benefit-fifra.aspx
Randy sees beekeeping through the eyes of a biolo-
gist. He’s kept bees for over 50 years, and with his
sons runs around 1500 hives in the California foot-
hills. He closely follows bee research, engages in
some himself, and enjoys sharing what he’s learned
with others.
American Bee Journal
 Silence is a powerful thing. I was on my way to the compost bin when I noticed an
enormous mound of dead bees in front of my strongest hive. No buzz issued from the
landing board. No industrious thrum from above. The absence of sound shattered the
morning.
I
was dumbstruck. When I opened
that hive on the previous day, bees
boiled from the top. Beneath them,
rows of glistening cells demanded a
second honey super. The colony had
overwintered without a hitch and
was looking like a winner. But that
was yesterday.
Today the colony was dead. Except
for multiple frames of brood, some
of it emerging as I watched, virtu-
ally no bees were left. Although most
were on the ground with tongues ex-
tended, many had fallen between the
frames, their lifeless bodies blocking
the entrance.
I didn’t need to look further be-
cause I had witnessed this haunting
scene before. Here today, gone tomor-
row. Like the 50,000 bumble bees in
an Oregon parking lot, my bees were
destroyed by the careless application
of pesticide.
The bees in the adjacent hive hadn’t
a care in the world, or so it seemed.
They came and went, darting into the
sky and disappearing from view. Oth-
ers jammed the entrance, heavy with
pollen and purpose. Little did I know
they were next.
January 2019
assigning BlaMe
When people complain about “the
pesticide problem,” they often point
to Big Ag. It’s easy to fault large cor-
porate farms because they are, well,
large and corporate. And because
they are in a nebulous “other place,”
it’s easy and comfortable to assign
blame. While it’s true that many mod-
ern farms use an enormous amount of
pesticide—probably way too much—
they don’t have a corner on pesticide
use. Not by a long shot. In fact, if
pesticides were kept on the farm, my
bees wouldn’t be dead.
I live in a rural area dominated
by forest. Here, enormous trees like
Douglas fir, western red cedar, and
big-leaf maple grow like weeds. No
farms dot the landscape. No animals
graze in planted fields. Instead, most
land that isn’t in trees is zoned rural
residential.
The person who wiped out my
bees was not a farmer but most likely
a homeowner, someone who no-
ticed bugs—maybe even bees—on a
flowering tree or shrub and decided
to “take care” of them. Most people
have no idea that a plant in flower
shouldn’t be sprayed, or why. Most
have no idea that harm may come
from their actions.
hoMe Pesticide use
Not much has changed in the last
30 years. Way back in 1989 I wrote an
editorial about home pesticide use for
the newspaper where I worked. At the
time, much controversy surrounded
government spraying for the Mexi-
can fruit fly in southern California.
Although the city gave plenty of ad-
vance notice and did all their spraying
at night, people were worried. While
I understood their concern, I felt that
the pesticide abuse I saw all around
me was a bigger problem.
Not a week earlier I had watched
a women at the newspaper office
empty an entire can of flying insect
killer on a hapless spider. The rest
of us were left to breathe the fumes
and clean the greasy spot from the
baseboard. Meanwhile, not being an
insect nor capable of flight, the spider
sidled off, damp and annoyed.
To me, the women’s actions rep-
resented the difference between
knowledgeable agricultural use of
77
pesticides and emotional, irrational
use of pesticides by people who don’t
understand their power. The woman
injected all those chemicals into our
environment, not caring what else
might be injured. She didn’t bother
to see if it was the right formula for
the job. She didn’t consider collateral
damage to her officemates. She didn’t
measure the amount, and she didn’t
figure her costs—a few dollars to in-
convenience one spider is ludicrous.
And please don’t think I’m picking
on women. I’ve watched my neighbor
carelessly spray his fence line while
his two preschool children played be-
side him, breathing the fog. The girl
ate a candy bar while the boy shot a
plastic dart into the pesticide-soaked
grass, retrieving it again and again.
The dad probably thought the stuff
was harmless, and maybe it was. But
do you really want to test that theory
on your kids?
Pesticides are exPensive
Conversely, growers who use pes-
ticide have a completely different
mindset. If they don’t consider their
costs, they won’t be able to stay in
business. Not only are pesticides ex-
pensive to buy, but so is the equip-
ment used to spray them, and the
help hired to apply them.
Because the expense is great, grow-
ers are careful to identify what they
are trying to kill. In an effort to con-
trol costs, they use the recommended
rate of application, the optimum tim-
ing, and the proper method of distri-
bution. It is easy to forget that farmers
It’s hard to know what our bees get into, but the sudden appearance of a large pile
of dead bees below the entrance is often a sign of pesticides.
78
have a tremendous financial incen-
tive to use as much as necessary, but
as little as possible. They don’t think
like our spider lady, who operates un-
der the theory that if some is good,
more is better.
We are the eneMy
While it’s true that some tracts of
agricultural land are doused in chem-
icals, people like us—homeown-
ers, building supervisors, and land
managers—are making the pesticide
problem worse than it needs to be.
It seems we have a cavalier attitude
about our own pesticide use while we
view the modern farm as an evil dis-
pensary of poison.
Instead of squashing a bug or pull-
ing a weed, we prefer to spray the
interlopers with something we can’t
see. Something that just “disappears”
after we use it. Except it doesn’t.
If you want some insight into how
much pesticide goes into homes and
gardens, just take a folding lawn chair
into your local home-improvement
store and have a seat in the pesticide
aisle. For a truly spectacular display,
choose the first warm day of spring.
The bags, bottles, and boxes fly off
the shelves faster than the employees
can stock them. Thousands of pounds
go out the door, yet most of the labels
will never be read and most of the
precautions will never be heeded.
Bugs are Bad
No, Big Ag did not kill my bees.
Most likely it was a person who
sprayed a tree in flower. Many people
spray when they see any type of in-
sect, even if they don’t recognize it.
Others spray to avoid getting stung
or bitten. In the meantime, a foraging
honey bee returned to her hive and
reported a rich cache of nectar. Fol-
lowing her instruction, her nest mates
gathered at the site and, by the end of
the day, all were dead.
Although a few people want to
kill anything that moves, I believe
that most simply don’t understand
the consequences of spraying. Even
when the label says, “Must not be
used when plants are in flower,”
many don’t understand why that is
important. One woman told me she
heard that pesticides can make the
flowers wilt, but she tried it and her
flowers are fine. An older man told
me the warnings meant the chemicals
would mask the flowers’ fragrance,
but since he couldn’t smell, it didn’t
matter to him.
I don’t know when we became so
careless about pesticides. Most of us
don’t remember when school children
were dusted with DDT and read Dr.
Seuss cartoons featuring Flit bug kill-
er.1 Nevertheless, I’ve always thought
that selling pesticides in the grocery
store is a bad idea. It makes them feel
safe. After all, we are generally not
fearful of things sold alongside our
food. When we toss a can of insecti-
cide into the cart along with potatoes,
baby food, and pork chops, it seems
harmless. They wouldn’t sell it in a
food store if it were dangerous, right?
the largest irrigated croP
In terms of acreage, the largest irri-
gated crop in America is lawn. People
use weed killers, insect killers, slug
killers, mole killers, fungus killers,
and moss killers to keep it green and
flat. Every season seems to require a
different chemical which someone is
happy to provide. Then we water the
lawn with our ever-diminishing wa-
ter supply, and let it run off into our
increasingly polluted streams, rivers,
and lakes. Then we mow it—powered
by fossil fuels that send carbon diox-
ide into the over-loaded atmosphere.
What a system.
The history of lawns is a fascinating
study of social pressure. Apparently,
lawns developed as a status symbol
in England back when only royalty
could afford such a luxury. Everyone
else needed every square foot to grow
food and graze animals. Because grass
lawns required resources instead of
providing them, they became a dem-
onstration of excess and wealth.
American Bee Journal
 Soon, people all over the world lightening bugs that once charmed references
tried to prove their worth by plant- generations of children. Allen W. 2008. The War on Bugs.
ing lawns. Grass lawns cropped up White River Junction, Vermont: Chel-
everywhere and now cover 40 million We can’t have it Both Ways sea Green Publishing.
acres of the lower 48 states. Accord- Yes, silence is a powerful thing. In Talbot M. (2016. September 30).
ing to the Natural Resources Defense retrospect, I was lucky because I lost More Sustainable (and Beautiful) Al-
Council, US lawns require 3 trillion only two colonies of honey bees. The ternatives to a Grass Lawn. Retrieved
gallons of water, 200 million gallons others, further away, found different from https://www.nrdc.org/stories/
of gas, and 70 million pounds of pes- places to forage and were spared. For more-sustainable-and-beautiful-al-
ticide annually.2 that, I am grateful. ternatives-grass-lawn.
But the table has turned and we’ve But the colony deaths reminded me
become slaves not to the king, but to of the larger problem. We cannot ex- Rusty Burlew has
our lawns. We grow lawns to impress pect commercial growers to operate studied agriculture,
our neighbors—or so I’ve been told— without these powerful products as honey bees, and envi-
ronmental science for
but when is the last time you were long as we demand them for our own over 30 years. She is a
impressed by someone’s grass? How use. We cannot expect changes in pol- passionate advocate of
often do you say, “Mr. X must be real- icy as long as we are unwilling to step native bee conserva-
ly important and successful, because on a spider or pull a dandelion. tion and founded the
look at his lawn!”? No, Big Ag did not kill my bees. Native Bee Conser-
Worse, legions of homeowner as- They were executed by someone not vancy in Washington State. https://honey-
beesuite.com or email her at rusty@honey-
sociations and local governments too different from you and me. They beesuite.com.
mandate that you maintain a lawn were doomed by a person doing what
that suitably represents the commu- he thought was right, using a product
nity. People get fined or cited for not with a label too confusing to decipher.
following the protocol, yet we are I honestly don’t blame the individual.
damaging our environment in ser- Instead I blame a society that encour-
vice of something that has little val- ages short-sighted thinking and de-
ue. How will we ever turn the tide values the natural world.
on pesticide use if perfect lawns are If we stopped spraying the things we
required by law? grow at home, if we stopped planting
lawns or at least decreased their size,
a ProBleM of excess imagine the opportunity for pollina-
Let’s think about one of those tors, beneficial insects, and the magical
homeowners for a moment. He is a creatures of our childhoods. We sim-
law-abiding citizen who just sprayed ply must remember that the best place
his lawn to avoid the wrath of the to begin fixing the pesticide problem
lawn police. Now that he’s done, in right in our own backyards.
what should he do with the pint
that’s left in the bottom of the spray-
er? He thinks for a moment, then
decides to apply the rest. It doesn’t
really matter that he’s already spread
the maximum recommended dose
because, seriously, what else would
he do with it?
If you add together all the extra
pints that are applied because the
homeowner or property manager
doesn’t know what to do with it, that
alone would probably make a tidy
profit for the manufacturers. It’s like
ketchup. The profit in ketchup is stuck
to the insides of the bottle. Even if it’s
only five percent, if millions of people
use only 95 percent of each bottle, the
manufacturer can sell a heck of a lot
more ketchup.
Luckily, more ketchup isn’t hurting
anyone unless you consider all the
extra plastic bottles that end up in the
ocean. But the extra pesticide is proba-
bly hurting something—perhaps your
honey bees. Or maybe it destroys
some beneficial insects, like those that
eat the dead things that would other-
wise pile to the sky. Or cute things like

January 2019 79
80 American Bee Journal
January 2019 81
82 American Bee Journal

I
nsects can seem a blessing or a
curse. You either love them or
hate them. But in reality, insects
are crucial to our survival. One out of
every three bites of food we consume
is provided by pollinators, mainly
insects. Yet most people do not pay
much attention to them, except when
they are a problem. Aphids munching
away on your roses generate a reflex
reaction of grabbing the nearest bottle
of insecticide.
While the battle rages in your yard,
an outright war looms in your lo-
cal city or town where the problem
is multiplied by the large amount of
flora and lawns to keep beautifully
maintained. Most municipalities take
pride in their carefully tended land-
scaping and resort to using copious
A tomato hornworm with parasitoid
wasp cocoons on its almost dead body.
This is an example of biological control
with beneficial insects. (Photo by Ann
Barklow)
January 2019
Integrated Pest
Management:
Let Nature Do
What Nature
Does Best
By GRETA BURROUGHS
amounts of herbicides and insecti-
cides to keep the weeds and pests
away.
But city leaders are awakening to
the realization that overuse of pesti-
cides produces more harm than good.
Through initiatives such as Bee City
USA, they are learning how to reduce
pest outbreaks and integrate natural
methods of pest control while limit-
ing the use of pesticides in their land-
scaping. Allowing Mother Nature
to take charge of the problem saves
time, money and most importantly,
the environment.
As for your roses, the same concept
can be applied in your home garden
to reduce the number of those pesky
aphids.
integrated Pest ManageMent
The Bee City USA initiative was
founded in 2012 by Phyllis Stiles in
an effort to save our pollinators as
well as raise public awareness of the
disastrous effects of pesticides. Bee
City’s commitment to integrated pest
management targets the metropoli-
tan areas and spreads throughout the
community educating and changing
the way we view the surrounding
ecosystem.
As a beekeeper, Stiles witnessed
first-hand the decline of the honey
bee. Her concern for the plight of bees
and other pollinators provided the
incentive for her and some friends to
put words into action.
Stiles remarks, “There is a myth
that pollinator decline is solely due to
large-scale agriculture. But we know
that population growth also brings
development pressures to natural
habitats. Indeed, our landscapes are
being managed to the point where
only about five percent of America’s
landscape can be considered ‘natural’
anymore. There are few places where
pollinators can thrive. That’s why our
urban and suburban areas matter. To-
day, 80 percent of the population live
in cities where pollinators can be good
neighbors if urban landscapes are
managed with pollinators in mind.”
She went on to explain that when a
city agrees to follow the Bee City USA
protocols, the ultimate goal goes be-
yond just planting pollinator habitat.
The entire community benefits from
the knowledge, experience and skills
of local horticulturists and environ-
mentalists as they guide the residents
in planning, planting and caring for
landscapes in an environmentally
friendly manner.
“It is changing the paradigm of the
community with the leadership ad-
vocating an integrated pest manage-
ment approach. Before you grab that
pesticide bottle, you carefully analyze
what the problem is and use every
other tool in your toolbox to deal with
that pest. When you start diversifying
your plant materials, you’re not going
to have as many pests. That’s the key,
diversify, diversify, diversify.”
Breaking the vicious cycle
A couple of years ago, Ann Barklow
came upon a job opportunity that was
right up her alley. The city of Green-
wood, South Carolina needed some-
one to pioneer the way in making the
metropolis more environmentally
83
 the already threatened monarch but- The next crisis the team addressed
terfly population. was the bees. Barklow observed that
Barklow says, “Everyone wants to when they provided for the monarchs
help the monarchs. At the time, mon- and the moths, they also provided for
archs had declined over 90 percent in the many native bees and the Euro-
the past two decades. It was an easy pean honey bees. “We became an af-
sell to prime the pump of changing filiate of Bee City USA in 2017, and
our landscape practices by starting they guided us in how to provide for
with what the monarchs needed.” our pollinators. They helped us see
Another concern she voiced was that habitat loss and pesticides were
for the songbirds. “A chickadee needs killing our pollinators. Now, most of
6,000 caterpillars to raise four of her our plantings provide for butterflies,
babies. Pesticides kill caterpillars and bees, beetles, flies, hummingbirds,
leave the birds without food, or poi- moths and songbirds.”
son the food the caterpillars do eat. As the pollinators returned to
Also, most caterpillars don’t eat the Greenwood, the city noticed an ad-
leaves of non-native shrubs and trees. ditional benefit -- the pest problem
So to provide for the songbirds, we started diminishing. Once the pol-
needed to grow caterpillars; that is linator gardens started popping up
done mostly through native plants.” all over the city, the use of pesticides
Without the use of pesticides, nature The project started small by gradu- had to decrease to prevent harming
provides a balance between beneficial ally introducing indigenous plants the life the flowers and shrubs were
insects and pests. This young boy is into the existing landscaping. Bark- attracting. Any pesticides that were
checking the pest and prey insects on low provided pictures of the flowers used had to be less toxic.
the back of a leaf at one of the pollinator and shrubs she thought would be at- Barklow notes, “These types of
gardens in Greenwood, South Carolina. tractive and beneficial to nature. “It gardens bring in beneficial insects
(Photo by Ann Barklow) was important to help the leaders of that prey on pests. This drastically re-
the city get onboard with the ‘why’ duced our pest populations so spray-
friendly. Her twenty-plus years as an but also to see ‘what’ it would look ing is rarely if ever needed.”
environmentalist and horticulturist like.”
in southern California prepared Bark- She explained that a diversity of Bugs eat Bugs
low to take on the challenge. flowers would provide nectar energy This same scenario can be applied
The original plan of retiring and for the moths and that in turn would anywhere. Stiles comments, “When
taking it easy in her newly adopted produce the caterpillars. “Native we’re thinking about urban pollinator
hometown flew out the window as moths are attracted to native plants conservation and pest management, a
Barklow got to work training the city because they have evolved with and lot revolves around managing pests
employees in ‘going green’. Her first can lay eggs on them for their cater- in lawns. Having a monocrop, such
concern was the use of pesticides and pillar stage to eat.” as a lawn, and using insecticides to
kill the grubs eating the roots of your
grass also kills the parasitic wasps
who love to eat those grubs.
Bee City USA
“You don’t need to use chemicals
More than 70 cities and almost 50 college campuses are now participat-
because bugs eat bugs. They are your
ing in the Bee City USA project. By joining forces with the Xerces Society
best asset when controlling pests.
for Invertebrate Conservation last year, the program inherited an interna-
That’s why Bee City USA preaches
tional platform and the resources to continue their mission of transforming
integrating a diversity of native
our metropolitan areas into pesticide-free pollinator friendly communities.
plants into your landscaping. They
It is not difficult for a college campus or metropolitan area to become an
are well-adapted and you won’t get
affiliate. The primary commitments are to enhance habitat for pollinators
as many pest problems when you
on public and private land by reducing the use of pesticides, introducing
don’t monocrop.”
more native plants into the landscaping and letting nature find its balance.
Nancy Lee Adamson, Senior Pol-
All the information can be found on the Bee City USA website, www.beec-
linator Conservation Specialist at the
ityusa.org
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Con-
servation describes how Mother Na-
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
ture provides the balance in our eco-
Through citizen science projects, business partnerships and events, Xe-
system. “Where there are pests, there
rces works to protect the life around us. According to their website, The
are also predators and parasitoids,
Xerces Society advocates on behalf of threatened, endangered, and at-risk
but it is easy to miss them. Many of
invertebrates and their habitats. From the world’s rarest butterflies, to cad-
them are also pollinators.”
disflies that live solely in one stream, to declining bumble bee populations,
She continues, “Next time you see
the Xerces Society is dedicated to protecting invertebrates and the ecosys-
a wasp in the garden, notice how sys-
tems that depend on them. www.xerces.org
tematically it is searching each plant
For more information on sustainable pest management https://xerces.
for prey to carry back to its young.
org/pesticides/
Many adult predators or parasitoids,
For more planting ideas, visit www.xerces.org, www.wildflower.org, or
particularly wasps and flies, eat pol-
www.sare.org.
len and nectar, while their larvae con-

84 American Bee Journal

sume garden pests such as aphids,
mites and stink bugs. Some stink
bugs are actually predatory and can
be among the most effective control-
lers of pest stink bugs.
“Since many larvae live in their
hosts while they eat them, they are
especially sensitive to pesticides. For
example, a hornworm may have hun-
dreds of parasitic wasp larvae inside,
but only when the larvae spin white
silken cocoons on the hornworm’s
back do we see that the hornworm is
infested.
“Some predators, like ladybug bee-
tles, are predaceous as adults and lar-
vae, but the adults depend on pollen
and nectar when prey is scarce. If we
want predators and parasitoids in our
gardens, we need to start thinking of
pests as prey, and never eliminate all
pests. Just as with wolves and rabbits,
if both predator and prey are elimi-
nated, the prey/pest population re-
bounds much more quickly, leading to
pest outbreaks. Providing pollen and
nectar is vital for the adult predators
and parasitoids.”
Adamson suggests planting peren-
nial native wildflowers (beardtongue,
milkweed, goldenrod), shrubs (hol-
lies, buttonbush, elderberry), trees
(maple, locust, blackgum), herbs
(rosemary, lavender and mint), an-
nual cut flowers (coreopsis, alyssum,
blanket flower) or cover crops (buck-
wheat, clover and alfalfa) to create the
biodiversity that not only supports
pollinators but also attracts predatory
and parasitoid insects.
Barklow admits that the most dif-
ficult part of this type of pest man-
agement is letting the pests grow in
a landscape without reaching for
something to spray. “If the pest pres-
sure gets high enough, so do the ben-
Volunteers are an
essential part of the
Bee City USA initia-
tive in Greenwood,
South Carolina.
Karla Coffey from
the horticulture
team and teacher
Anne Glawe show
volunteers how to
harvest milkweed
seeds. (Photo by
Ann Barklow)
eficial predators. When we intervene
we often interfere with the natural
cycle. Letting nature do what nature
does is sometimes difficult. We do
our best not to have a rush to crush
the pests that are a part of the natural
cycle. Today, we always see predators
and pest activity together on a plant,
so our balance is improving as we do
nothing to the pests.”
Making the transition
If you had driven through Green-
wood, South Carolina a few years
ago, you would have noticed most-
ly evergreen shrubs pruned into
round balls surrounded by mounds
of mulch. Now, the view encom-
passes colorful landscapes alive
with nature.
But is it more expensive and time
consuming for the city to maintain
the pollinator gardens? According to
Barklow, “No, it’s just a different kind
of maintenance.”
She explains that to maintain
shrubs you need hedge trimming
equipment, gas, oil, maintenance of
this equipment, protection equip-
ment such as goggles, gloves and
chaps. You also need blowers, rakes
and lots of employees to do this.
Many of these activities pollute our
air and cause noise pollution.
“The mulching is labor inten-
sive and costly. As the mulch breaks
down, weeds invade the open areas
around the shrubs, so spraying is
done. This involves herbicide costs,
supplies for protection and spraying
such as backpack sprayers and hours
at continuing education seminars for
pesticide licenses.”
She adds, “On the other hand,
the new gardens are maintained
by volunteers so the employees are
no longer spending days pruning,
mulching, spraying herbicides and
maintaining equipment. Volunteers
won’t want to prune shrubs and
mulch beds, but they love playing in
the flowers with butterflies and pol-
linators surrounding them.”
The soil in the gardens is covered
in plants, so it suppresses weeds and
cuts down on weeding and mulch-

The monarch
butterfly
population has
decreased 90
percent over the
past two decades.
By providing
Monarch
Waystations in
metropolitan
and residential
landscapes,
the butterflies
are making a
Pollinator gardens provide the nectar comeback. (Photo
energy needed by beneficial insects. by Ann Barklow)
Pictured are honey bees on a milkweed
plant. (Photo by Ann Barklow)

January 2019 85

Plants such as milkweed and coneflow-
ers in a city landscape not only provide
food for pollinators, but also encompass
the area in nature’s beauty. (Photo by
Ann Barklow)
ing. Any bare areas are mulched with
leaves collected in the city’s leaf truck
during the fall. “Leaves make a much
better mulch than bark,” states Bark-
low. “It’s free and provides habitat
for native bees and butterflies. It at-
tracts lizards and frogs that further
our pest control efforts. It’s also easier
to spread than mulch and volunteers
can do it.”
Another bonus is that the volun-
teers get to take home free plants
that have reseeded, or they can help
divide plants and take home the di-
visions. “They learn, learn, learn and
then they take their knowledge with
them and grow the same gardens at
their homes.”
In Greenwood, South Carolina, they had a Family Fun Day at the city’s art center with
pollinator art displays, live monarch caterpillars, chrysalis and eggs and nesting bee
boxes made by the local woodworking club. (Photo by Ann Barklow)
86
Mother nature’s Pest control
The overuse of insecticides, herbi-
cides and fungicides in commercial
and residential landscaping disrupts
nature’s balance. The chemicals also
seep into our waterways, poisoning
aquatic life, plant life and wildlife.
Barklow says, “Most pesticides are
non-discriminate and will kill insects
good and bad. Relying on nature to do
your pest control is safe and effective
and doesn’t expose individuals, pets
and nature to the toxic effects of these
chemicals. Pollinators provide most of
our food and flowers. Protecting them
by not using pesticides is essential for
our health and well-being.”
Municipalities are learning how to
use integrated pest control by adding
native trees, shrubs and wildflowers
to their landscaping to attract ben-
eficial insects and the results have
been phenomenal. Communities are
joining the green movement as well,
and slowly yet surely, pollinators are
making a comeback.
“It doesn’t take much space,” states
Stiles. “Unlike elephants and other
species that need large areas to sup-
port themselves, pollinators live in
very small spaces. Most never range
more than 300 feet from where they
emerged as an adult.”
“Some of the best families of plants
for pollinators are Aster and Mint,”
says Barklow. “Native plants such
as coneflowers, black-eyed Susans,
sunflowers and mountain mint, and
herbs like basil and thyme are great
additions to the pollinator garden
and will provide nectar for those ben-
eficial predators to prey on the pests.
Include some caterpillar plants like
milkweed for monarchs and parsley
for swallowtail butterflies. To find se-
lections of native plants best for your
municipal setting, consult your local
Native Plant Society.”
Adamson recommends having
various size flowers. “Smaller insects
such as wasps cannot feed from the
same deep flowers as hummingbirds.
Having a selection of small and large
blossoms will attract a nice variety
of pollinators. Also have plants that
bloom at different times of the year –
spring, summer and fall.”
“Many municipal and residential
landscapes have become senseless re-
petitive chores – mowing, trimming,
hedging and blowing – filling our envi-
ronment with noise and air pollution,”
Barklow observes. “If we focus more
on gardening, you not only see nature
and the flowers it brings, but you hear
and experience it. Pick a small area
of your lifeless landscape and plant a
garden there. You will discover the dif-
ference from having to force yourself
to work in your landscape to want-
ing to be in your garden. A garden is
a place to just be to unwind from the
pressures of life. We need this connec-
tion. They feed our souls.”
Greta Burroughs has
worked as a freelance
writer since 2005. She
enjoys learning new things
by researching and writ-
ing about interesting top-
ics many of us may not be
familiar with. Whether it is
health-related, historical, human interest or
an environmental issue, Greta is on the look-
out for the stories begging to be discovered.
You can usually find her typing madly away at
her home in South Carolina where she resides
with her husband and three dogs.
American Bee Journal
 Notes
The Latest Bee Science Distilled
The “Controversy” Surrounding Pesticide Risk to Bees
T
his month’s “Notes from the
Lab” is a bit different than usu-
al. Because the focus of the Janu-
ary issue of ABJ is on pesticides, we’re
going to highlight a topic rather than
a single recent study. And whether
you know it or not, it’s the topic that’s
causing much of the “controversy”
surrounding pesticides lately. This is
the topic that many of those studies
published in top journals, then inter-
preted for you via the popular press,
often face criticism over.
The topic – pesticide risk to bees – is
actually two topics. This is because any
risk assessment for pesticides must
take into account both exposure (i.e.,
how much pesticide bees are exposed
to in the field) and effects (i.e., the im-
pact of that pesticide on bees). Unfor-
tunately, it’s very hard to address both
exposure and effects in a single study.
Thus, more often than not, individual
studies are published that assess ei-
ther exposure or effects, then make as-
sumptions about the other.
So, what’s the problem? Can’t ef-
fects studies trust the exposure litera-
ture (and vice versa)? This approach
does work well sometimes. For ex-
ample, hundreds of studies have
been conducted over the past ~15
years regarding exposure to and ef-
fects from neonicotinoids (particular-
ly imidacloprid, thiamethoxam and
clothianidin). Thus, we have a good
understanding of both neonicotinoid
exposure to bees and effects of those
neonicotinoids on bees across a range
January 2019
from the Lab:
of environmental contexts. New stud-
ies therefore have a broad knowledge
base to tap into when designing ex-
periments and making inferences
about pesticide risk.
But, unfortunately, this broad
knowledge base isn’t available for all
pesticides. In fact, it isn’t available for
most pesticides. Researchers know
this and are very good at discussing
the results from their studies appro-
priately. But most people read the
popular press, not the original stud-
ies, and the popular press often ex-
tends inference beyond what a single
study is capable of inferring. This is
what can cause the “controversy” re-
garding pesticide risk to bees.
Our goal here is to illustrate how
such controversy can occur using
two examples that you’ve likely seen
in the news lately. We are in no way
critiquing the excellent science con-
ducted in these studies (which we do
believe is excellent). Instead, our goal
is to point out that individual stud-
ies rarely assess pesticide risk, even
though the popular press would have
you believe they do. Thus, while the
studies are very important contri-
butions, they should be considered
discussion starters, not discussion
enders. In other words, each study
finds very important results, but how
those results should be interpreted re-
garding pesticide risk to bees requires
further study.
“Common weed killer linked to
bee deaths.” This is the title of one
by Scott
McArt
& Dan Wixted
popular press article highlighting the
study titled “Glyphosate perturbs
the gut microbiota of honey bees,”
written by Erick Motta and col-
leagues and published in the journal
Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences [115:10305-10310 (2018)].
It’s quite an attention-grabbing title
for a newspaper. Clearly, you might
think, we’ve found that the weed kill-
er glyphosate (an ingredient in most
RoundUp products) is responsible
for the unsustainable losses of honey
bee colonies currently experienced
throughout the world. But what does
the study really show?
Motta and colleagues conducted a
pesticide effects study, showing that
laboratory-based exposure of indi-
vidual bees to 5-10 parts per million
(ppm) glyphosate for 5 days (or 169
ppm glyphosate for 2 days) alters
the bacterial communities in honey
bee guts and can cause the bees to be
more susceptible to a bacterial patho-
gen, Serratia marcescens. These are
very interesting results and the level
of mechanistic detail in the study is
spectacular. At the same time, it’s
important to point out that inference
regarding risk to bees depends on
whether the exposure levels utilized
for the effects assays (i.e., 5-10 ppm
glyphosate exposure for 5 days, or
169 ppm exposure for 2 days) could
be expected in the field.
What do we know about glypho-
sate exposure to bees in the field?
Not much, unfortunately. Glyphosate
87
(L) Bees being exposed to experimental treatments in the laboratory. (R) Erick Motta and Kasie Raymann marking experimental
bees in the laboratory. (Photographer: Kim Hammond, from Motta Study)
levels are rarely assessed in bee prod-
ucts (i.e., honey, pollen, wax) because
the analysis is expensive (hundreds
of dollars per sample) and requires
different methods than standard
multi-residue pesticide analyses. The
study containing the best exposure
data is titled “Evaluating exposure
and potential effects on honeybee
brood (Apis mellifera) development
using glyphosate as an example,”
written by Helen Thompson and col-
leagues and published in the journal
Integrated Environmental Assess-
ment and Management [10:463-470
(2014)]. In this study, the authors
found that glyphosate concentrations
in nectar and pollen could be near the
range manipulated by Motta and col-
leagues: >5 ppm in nectar collected
3.5 days after spraying, and >300 ppm
in pollen collected 2 days after spray-
ing. But it’s worth pointing out that
Thompson and colleagues’ study was
conducted in a greenhouse where the
bees were restricted to foraging only
on treated plants in full bloom, and
field conditions that could reduce
concentrations in nectar and pollen
(e.g., precipitation, exposure to UV
light) were minimized or absent. It’s
also worth pointing out that Thomp-
son and colleagues went on to con-
duct effects assays using concentra-
tions of glyphosate that were even
greater than those used by Motta and
colleagues; they found no effects of
glyphosate on brood survival, de-
velopment, or mean pupal weight.
In contrast, Motta and colleagues fo-
cused on adult bees, which may be
more susceptible to perturbations in
microbiota, since gut bacteria are ac-
quired from nurse bees in the hive in
the first few days after adult emer-
gence. Finally, the pH of the technical
88
grade glyphosate that Motta and col-
leagues used in their assays is more
acidic than field spray mixes; this
may be a confounding factor since di-
etary pH is well-known to affect the
gut microbiome of animals.
So, what does this mean? Does
glyphosate pose a risk to bees or
not? Hopefully the paragraphs above
should tell you two things. First,
the evidence from effects assays to
date is mixed: there’s some evidence
that glyphosate may harm bees, and
some evidence that glyphosate may
not harm bees, at doses that may or
may not be experienced in the field.
Second, we need more data, espe-
cially regarding field exposure of
bees to glyphosate. In toxicology,
there’s a famous saying: anything is
toxic at a sufficient concentration.
Yet we have virtually no knowledge
of the concentrations of glyphosate
that bees commonly encounter, or
what they sometimes encounter in the
field. Thus, it’s difficult to design ef-
fects bioassays that accurately assess
risk from glyphosate. In other words,
Motta and colleagues’ study is a very
important conversation starter. Now,
let’s fill in the missing data so we can
determine whether, where, and/or
when glyphosate exposure poses a
risk to bees.
The second study we’d like to high-
light is titled “Sulfoxaflor exposure
reduces bumblebee reproductive
success,” written by Harry Siviter
and colleagues and published in the
journal Nature [561:109-112 (2018)].
In this study, Siviter and colleagues
document that exposure of bumble
bees to 5 ppb sulfoxaflor for 14 days
resulted in fewer males produced
(and reproductive females produced,
though sample size was low) over the
colonies’ lifetime. This study is simi-
lar to Motta and colleagues’ study in
that the authors conducted an effects
assay and used the literature to make
assumptions about exposure. It’s a
very nice study, and is important due
to the current political and regula-
tory climate throughout the world.
Specifically, usage of certain neonic-
otinoid insecticides (imidacloprid,
clothianidin and thiamethoxam) was
banned from agricultural use outside
of permanent greenhouses in the Eu-
ropean Union in spring 2018. Thus,
there’s great interest in determining
which insecticides can potentially re-
place neonicotinoids as an effective
crop protection tool while minimiz-
ing risk to bees. The popular press
wasted no time latching onto Siviter
and colleagues’ study, with the title of
one article claiming, “New pesticide
may harm bees as much as those to
be replaced.”
So, does sulfoxaflor pose as much
risk to bees as neonicotinoids such
as imidacloprid, clothianidin and
thiamethoxam? We need to answer
this question in two ways. First, simi-
lar to glyphosate, we know very little
about sulfoxaflor exposure to bees in
the field. A single study, conducted
by the U.S. Environmental Protec-
tion Agency (EPA), shows that pollen
and nectar contains > 5 ppb sulfoxa-
flor at least 5 days post-spray on cot-
ton plants that were in bloom during
spraying. Thus, this study suggests
that Siviter and colleagues’ manipu-
lation of 5 ppb sulfoxaflor exposure
for 14 days may be reasonable.
However, second (and more im-
portantly), how and when is sulf-
oxaflor actually used? This is critical
information for assessing potential
exposure. In their paper, the authors
American Bee Journal
write, “To avoid a situation in which
pesticides such as neonicotinoids are
replaced by products that are simi-
larly contentious, regulatory bodies
should move towards an evidence-
based approach that assesses both the
lethal and sub-lethal consequences of
novel insecticides such as sulfoxaflor
on non-target organisms.” We agree,
and note that in the United States,
the EPA has done just that. In 2016,
the EPA amended the registrations
of products containing sulfoxaflor by
limiting their application to crops that
are 1) not attractive to bees, 2) har-
vested prior to bloom, or 3) attractive
to bees but can be treated only post-
bloom (US EPA, 2016). The amended
registrations also require buffer zones
around treated areas under certain
conditions to protect bees from pesti-
cide drift. These restrictions appear on
pesticide labels for sulfoxaflor-based
products in the U.S. Thus, unless pes-
ticide applicators break the law and
spray sulfoxaflor-based products on
bee-attractive plants during bloom
(which are exactly the exposure data
that Siviter and colleagues based
their effects assay upon), the EPA con-
cludes “exposure of bees on the treat-
ed field is not expected. Therefore, the
potential for risk to bees potentially
foraging for pollen and nectar on the
treated field is considered highly un-
likely.” We agree with the EPA’s as-
sessment at this time.
This said, the EPA has recently
granted a large number of emergency
exceptions for sulfoxaflor usage to
control specific cotton and sorghum
pests. While the EPA must address
risk to bees when granting such ex-
emptions, there is concern that the
protections provided in the exemp-
tions are insufficient. Furthermore,
sulfoxaflor is available in ~42 coun-
tries worldwide, and many countries
have weaker regulatory frameworks
than the EPA for agrochemicals and
Bombus terrestris queen rearing chambers (where the wild-caught queens started
colonies and the sulfoxaflor treatment was initiated). (Photos courtesy of Elli Lead-
beater, from Siviter Study)
January 2019
Full colony placed into a field for the lat-
ter part of the experiment (Photo courte-
sy of Elli Leadbeater, from Siviter Study)
less effective means to enforce risk
mitigation measures. In the absence
of such measures, advice on product
labels in other countries may not be
sufficient to mitigate against environ-
mental risk, for a variety of reasons
listed in a report recently presented
to the United Nations Human Rights
Council (United Nations Human
Rights Council, 2017).
So, what does this mean? Does
sulfoxaflor pose a risk to bees or
not? Similar to the glyphosate exam-
ple, hopefully the paragraphs above
should tell you that we need more
data, especially regarding field expo-
sure of bees to sulfoxaflor. Further-
more, while regulatory steps have
been taken in the U.S. to minimize
risk to bees from sulfoxaflor, this is
not true everywhere. We suggest
regulatory agencies in other countries
follow the EPA’s lead. However, the
large number of exceptions granted
by the EPA for sulfoxaflor usage in
the U.S. need to be monitored to see if
they result in substantial risk to bees.
Finally, as a systemic and environ-
mentally persistent insecticide, sulf-
oxaflor certainly could pose a simi-
lar risk compared to neonicotinoids,
regardless of usage restrictions. For
example, our own data show that thi-
amethoxam contributes the greatest
risk to bees during apple pollination
in New York (McArt et al., 2017), yet
thiamethoxam is not sprayed in apple
orchards during bloom. Thiamethox-
am exposure must therefore occur via
other mechanisms, perhaps via con-
taminated wildflowers or persistence
in apple blossoms from applications
prior to bloom. Neonicotinoid persis-
tence and contamination of wildflow-
ers in field margins is a well-known
source of exposure to bees (e.g. Botias
et al., 2015). Until we understand
these potential types of exposure to
sulfoxaflor in the field, it’s difficult
to determine all potential routes of
exposure and risk from sulfoxaflor
usage. Therefore, we wholeheartedly
agree with Siviter and colleagues’
key statement, yet we recommend
broadening it: To avoid a situation in
which high-risk pesticides are used in
a high-risk manner, regulatory bodies
need to robustly assesses both field
exposure and lethal and sub-lethal ef-
fects on non-target organisms.
In other words, similar to Motta
and colleagues’ study, Siviter and
colleagues’ study is an important
conversation starter. Now, let’s fill
in the missing data so we can deter-
mine where and/or when sulfoxaflor
exposure poses a risk to bees. There’s
nothing like good, hard data to take
the controversy out of a topic.
Until next time, bee well and do
good work,
Scott McArt & Dan Wixted
references:
Botias, C., A. David, J. Horwood, A.
Abdul-Sada, E. Nicholls, E. Hill and
D. Goulson. 2015. Neonicotinoid resi-
dues in wildflowers, a potential route of
chronic exposure to bees. Environmen-
tal Science & Technology 49:1231-12740.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/
acs.est.5b03459
McArt, S. H., A. A. Fersch, N. J. Milano, L.
L. Truitt and K. Böröczky. 2017. High pes-
ticide risk to honey bees despite low focal
crop pollen collection during pollination
of a mass blooming crop. Scientific Reports
7:46554. https://www.nature.com/articles/
srep46554
Motta, E. V. S., K. Raymann and N. A. Mo-
ran. 2018. Glyphosate perturbs the gut
microbiota of honey bees. Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences 115:10305-
10310. http://www.pnas.org/content/115/
41/10305
Siviter, H., M. J. F. Brown and E. Lead-
beater. 2018. Sulfoxaflor exposure reduces
bumblebee reproductive success. Na-
ture 561:109-112. https://doi.org/10.1038/
s41586-018-0430-6
Thompson, H. M., S. L. Levine, J. Doering,
S. Newman, P. Manson, P. Sutton and G.
von Mérey. 2014. Evaluating exposure and
potential effects on honeybee brood (Apis
mellifera) development using glyphosate
89
 as an example. Integrated Environmental
Assessment and Management 10:463-470.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ieam.1529
United Nations Human Rights Council.
2017. Report of the Special Rapporteur on
the right to food. A/HRC/34/48. https://
www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Food/Pages/
Annual.aspx
United States Environmental Protection
Agency. 2016. 2016 Addendum to the
Environmental Fate an Ecological Risk
Assessment for Sulfoxaflor Registration.
Retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/
pesticide-science-and-assessing-pesti-
cide-risks/ecological-risk-assessment-
pesticides-technical
Scott McArt, an As-
sistant Professor of
Pollinator Health,
helps run the Dyce
Lab for Honey Bee
Studies at Cornell
University in Ithaca,
New York. He is par-
ticularly interested in
scientific research that can inform manage-
ment decisions by beekeepers, growers and
the public.

Email: shm33@cornell.edu
Lab website: blogs.cornell.edu/mcartlab
Pollinator Network: pollinator.cals.cornell.edu
Facebook: facebook.com/dycelab
Dan Wixted is an Extension Support Special-
ist  with  Cornell University’s Pesticide Man-
agement Education Program (PMEP). He is a
pesticide safety educator who trains applica-
tors and serves as a resource for researchers,
regulators, and the general public.

90 American Bee Journal

January 2019 91
92 American Bee Journal
 News outlets are adept at grabbing our attention with shock and awe, but what we
need are thoughtful solutions.

O
ne afternoon on my way home ulate equally sweeping, simplistic so- Take, for example, the recent work
from the lab, I stopped to check lutions, if any. from Dr. Nancy Moran’s lab, which
on the colonies at our small I can understand why news stories detailed their new finding that glypho-
apiary in Southlands, Vancouver. My covering bee health and agrochemi- sate (the active ingredient in the herbi-
jaw dropped at what I found. Thou- cals take on an alarmist tone. It’s an cide, Roundup) could indirectly affect
sands of our bees were on the ground issue that tugs at our heartstrings and honey bee health through perturbing
outside their hives, writhing and makes us mad – I was certainly up- their gut bacteria.1 If you aren’t fa-
trembling in piles. It was heartbreak- set when my colonies were the ones miliar with the research, head over
ing and sudden – it was the first and suffering. The collective alarm makes to Scott McArt’s column, Notes from
only time I witnessed a pesticide kill. us feel like we have a common cause the Lab, where he discusses the pa-
We never tested for pesticide resi- to band around. Bees are always the per in this issue. Very briefly, glypho-
dues, but it’s the most likely explana- victims. Agrochemicals or their pro- sate was not thought to be harmful
tion for such acute symptoms. South- ducers (like Bayer or Syngenta) are to animals; rather, it kills plants and
lands is an affluent neighborhood always the villains. We are usually bacteria by inhibiting an essential en-
where $5 million mansions are the the implicit heroes, energized to fight zyme. Honey bees have a core bacte-
norm, with fancy dressage horses in for change. But I think this simple rial community in their gut, as I have
the yard. There is little agriculture, but story construction is doing us a dis- written about previously,2 which is
a lot of landscaping. Our best guess is service. So often, it means the story important for immune stimulation
that someone in the vicinity sprayed stops there, the facts are likely to be and nutrient digestion. Thus, Moran
pesticides on a decorative, attractive misconstrued, and the path forward and her colleagues logically showed
forage source, at a concentration too is left up in the clouds. that glyphosate could have unex-
high, at the wrong time of day.
Thankfully, acute kills such as this
are rare in an agricultural setting to-
day. We have less risky application
methods, better education, and a bet-
ter understanding of when, where,
and how a pesticide should be ap-
plied to minimize risk to pollinators.
We are learning from past mistakes,
like the previously unappreciated
risk of pesticide exposure from drift-
ing seed dust. Now, the problems
we’re grappling with are subtler – the
chronic, sublethal effects we are only
beginning to understand. But the way
these subtle effects are announced in
the media is typically through over-
stated, sweeping, fear-generating
headlines. And those headlines stim-

January 2019 93
pected consequences for honey bees,
not by harming the bees themselves,
but by disrupting their gut microbes.
They showed that feeding bees with
sugar syrup spiked with 5-10 mg/L of
glyphosate for several days changed
the bees’ gut microbial community,
and made the bees more susceptible
to an emerging opportunistic patho-
gen, Serratia marcescens. This dose is
higher than what bees should be ex-
posed to in the field, but their findings
warrant further investigation.
Some scary headlines followed this
article. “Roundup weed killer may
play role in widespread bee deaths,
study finds” (CBS News). “Study:
Roundup Weed Killer Could be
Linked to Widespread Bee Deaths”
(NPR). “Common weed killer—be-
lieved harmless to animals—may be
harming bees worldwide” (Science).
Sure, the headlines include qualifi-
ers like “may” and “could,” but the
phrases are not sending a message
of doubt, nor is that how we tend to
interpret them. The titles are far re-
moved from real-world context, and
don’t accurately reflect the results
that the researchers actually found.
Consider swapping “Roundup”
with “fumagillin,” and swapping
“weed killer” with “fungicide,” and
you have a headline that would actu-
ally be just as accurate. Fumagillin, a
fungicidal agent widely used to treat
for Nosema, increases honey bee mor-
tality in cage trials, as Johan van den
Heever has shown.3 Yet many bee-
keepers continued to apply annual,
prophylactic fumagillin treatments to
their colonies. Prophylactic treatments
are not best practice, but my point is,
we have no more evidence of glypho-
94
sate being responsible for “widespread
bee deaths” than fumagillin.
Aside from being outright mislead-
ing, the fear-generating headlines
tend to stimulate equally reactionary
solutions. Reasonable readers might
deduce that the offending agro-
chemical should be banned: problem
solved. Of course, it is not that simple.
Banning particular agrochemicals is a
conceptually simple fix, but a grossly
incomplete plan.
Glyphosate isn’t the only agro-
chemical which has been scrutinized.
Neonicotinoid pesticides, such as
clothianidin, imidacloprid, and acet-
amiprid, have taken a lot of heat as
well. As Dr. Ben Woodcock, author
of a prominent Science article on
neonicotinoids,4 succinctly stated in
an interview for Horticulture Week,
“It’s easy to say ‘ban neonics,’ but
you’ve got to take into account what
the alternatives are.” He continues
to describe how “there needs to be a
sensible acknowledgment [by Bayer
and Syngenta] that there is a problem
so we can work out a solution that
best serves society and the natural
environment.” The very same senti-
ment applies to glyphosate, too, if
it’s shown to cause substantial harm
in field trials (which have not yet
been conducted). In a press release
from the University of Texas, Austin,
Erick Motta (the lead author on the
glyphosate study) touched on what
is probably the most important point
of all, but which is overshadowed by
the headlines. Motta says, “We need
better guidelines for glyphosate use,
especially regarding bee exposure,
because right now the guidelines as-
sume bees are not harmed by the her-
bicide.” Moran echoes this in one of
her interviews: “There really is a lot of
[glyphosate] in both agricultural and
urban areas. At the moment, there are
no guidelines that you should avoid
spraying glyphosate on or near bees,
since it’s considered completely in-
nocuous.” This is the right perspec-
tive to have, although before any
guidelines are instated, we first need
to show that glyphosate poses a real
risk to bees in the field.
In an email exchange, Moran her-
self was quick to point out that their
work does not prove that glyphosate
is causing bee colony declines, nor
does it prove that the microbiota dis-
ruption they observed is a substantial
problem for bees in the field. She and
her research team hope to investigate
that in the future (indeed, they have
already begun) and they encourage
others to do so, too. This is very dif-
ferent than the tone set by many me-
dia reports, where the villain-victim
construct leaves little room for the
bigger picture.
Contrast the media coverage of
this glyphosate study with the stories
about lithium chloride that made their
rounds almost a year ago. In January
2018, Bettina Ziegelmann et al. pub-
lished research showing that an unex-
pected compound, lithium chloride,
could kill Varroa destructor mites while
causing minimal mortality for honey
bees5 (this paper was also covered
by McArt in an earlier issue). The re-
search showed that short-term (1 d)
lithium chloride exposure was suffi-
cient to kill varroa, and had no mea-
surable effect on worker bee mortality.
This story could have easily taken
on the classic construction of “the un-
derdog to the rescue,” but beekeepers
recognized that, while interesting and
perhaps exciting, this research was in
its infancy and a better understanding
would be needed before treating their
colonies like cute rodents from the
Andes (i.e., the guinea pig). Some bee-
keepers pointed out that while short
term lithium chloride exposure was
not harmful, long-term (35 d) expo-
sure killed significantly more honey
bees than the control treatment, indi-
cating that the treatment may not be
entirely innocuous. Sublethal effects,
like whether lithium chloride inter-
feres with social immunity behav-
iours6 or workers’ ability to navigate,7
have not been investigated, which are
precisely the kinds of things that neo-
nics take heat for.
Clearly, most beekeepers wanted
more evidence before making sweep-
American Bee Journal
ing changes to their own operations
(even when that change had the po-
tential to be highly beneficial). Un-
derstandably, farmers that rely on
glyphosate probably also want more
evidence before changing their opera-
tions. Field studies must be conduct-
ed to move forward with the weight
of evidence backing our solutions.
And solutions are what we should
focus on. Maybe that will mean edit-
ing the rulebook for responsible use
of glyphosate. Maybe that will mean
altering the agrochemical approval
process to include sublethal indica-
tors, rather than just acute toxicity.
Or maybe that will mean making no
change at all, if field studies demon-
strate that the real risk to honey bees
is sufficiently low. Indeed, the lat-
ter scenario is still entirely possible;
while the Moran study reports using
a field realistic dose, that might still
be too high. Other researchers have
found that bees could be exposed to
even higher doses, but only when for-
aging on weeds that have been treat-
ed at the highest dose recommended
on the label and when the weeds are
in full bloom (which is not how it’s
likely to be applied in practice). And
even that dose quickly decreases with
time. So, whether the bees’ gut bacte-
ria will be affected at all in the field is
still a wide open question.
If the bees’ gut microbes are per-
turbed in realistic field trials, and if
that disturbance causes a decrease in
fitness, some changes to the glypho-
sate status quo may very well be
needed. But we should not be at war
with the agrochemicals; rather, a
better understanding of the system
through incremental research will
help us improve application meth-
ods, guidelines, and education, so
that those agrochemicals can be used
as responsibly as possible. It’s possi-
ble that in some cases, responsible use
could mean not using that chemical
at all. But such extreme cases should
also come with viable, improved al-
ternatives which are well-researched
and promoted in their place, lest the
food producers who depend on the
chemicals are left hanging.
The way the media frames stories
has a profound influence on policy,
attitudes, and public opinion, not
only regarding pollinators and pes-
ticides, but virtually every other hot-
button issue. Unfortunately, the way
the media frames stories is itself in-
fluenced by what best grabs people’s
attention. But we can push back. Bee-
keepers and bee-bloggers did a fan-
January 2019
tastic job, in my opinion, of diffusing
premature enthusiasm over lithium
chloride treatments and effectively
reframed the story of “the underdog”
with a respectful, cautionary recom-
mendation. Those recommendations
illuminated the real context of the
situation, exposing the sea of uncer-
tainty, benefits, and trade-offs that
live behind every punchy headline.
The more we can illuminate, via any
platform we can, the more we can
augment the snappy news cycle with
solutions that “best [serve] society
and the natural environment.”
references:
1. Motta EVS, Raymann K, and Moran
NA. (2018). Glyphosate perturbs the gut
microbiota of honey bees. Proceedings of
the National Academy of the Sciences. DOI:
10.1073/pnas.1803880115
2. McAfee A. (2018). Who’s got the guts?
The microbes living in bees. American Bee
Journal. 8(4).
3. van den Heever J et al. (2016). The effect
of dicyclohexylamine and fumagillin on
Nosema ceranae-infected honey bee (Apis
mellifera) mortality in cage trial assays.
Apidologie. (47)5: 663–670.
4. Woodcock BA et al. (2017). Country-
specific effects of neoniotinoid pesticides
on honey bees and wild bees. Science.
356(6345):1393-1395.
5. Ziegelmann B et al. (2017). Lithium chlo-
ride effectively kills the honey bee parasite
Varroa destructor by a systemic mode of ac-
th erN Cal ifo rN
tion. Scientific Reports. 8(683).
6. Tsvetkov N et al. (2017). Chronic expo-
sure to neonicotinoids reduces honey o r
N PaCkage Bees ia
bee health near corn crops. Science. aCkage ees
356(6345):1395-1397.
QuAlity itAliAn And
7. Fischer J et al. (2014). Neonicotinoids in-
terfere with specific components of naviga- CArniolAn Queens
All bees fed Fumagilin Fall & Spring
tion in honeybees. PlOS One. 9(3): e91364.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone
.0091364.
Powell APiAries
8. Thompson HM et al. (2014). Evaluating 4140 Co. Rd. KK
exposure and potential effects on honey- Orland, CA 95963
bee brood (Apis mellifera) development us- Phone: 530-865-3346
ing glyphosate as an example. Integrated
Environmental Assessment and Management.
Fax: 530-865-3043
10(3): 463-70. Package Delivery Available
Member:
California Bee Breeders Assoc.
American Honey Producers Assoc.
Alison McAfee has a
PhD in genome science
and technology from
the University of British
Columbia, where she
studied mechanisms of
hygienic behaviour in
honey bees. She is now
a post-doc at North
Carolina State University in David Tarpy’s
lab, and studies what keeps honey bee
sperm alive. Email her at alison.n.mcafee@
gmail.com.
95
96 American Bee Journal
January 2019 97
98 American Bee Journal

T
he hive tool is a beekeeper's
best friend. Every beekeeper
will have one in the back pocket
of his or her work pants, and if it isn't
there, you can probably see the indent
from where it usually hangs. Without
it, a beekeeper is helpless. Approach-
ing a hive without one is like a base-
ball player coming to the plate with a
roll of wrapping paper.
A simple piece of steel, hour-glass-
shaped to fit in the hand, tapered on
both edges, often with a small 90° leg
on one end, it is an endlessly versa-
tile tool. Hammer? With the flat part
you can strike anything. Nail puller?
It has a notched hole in the center.
Scraper? The sharp, flat edges can
take wax off wood or paint off metal.
Shoehorn? I've tried it and it works.
Spoon? Used to deliver medicines
into the hive and honeycomb in my
mouth, hopefully not without a good
cleaning in between. Backscratcher?
Gets to those hard to reach places.
Knife? I have heard of a beekeeper
pulling it out at the dinner table to cut
a steak. Crowbar? Ah, this is its main
job, and it is perfect for this purpose.
Inspecting a colony requires a few
steps. After a few puffs of smoke to
quiet the bees, you must take off the
lid, then the supers, before getting
into the deep, brood box where the
queen hangs out and all the inter-
January 2019
In Praise of the
Hive Tool
by WILLIAM BLOMSTEDT
esting stuff takes place. But lifting
the top can be hard—it feels a little
stuck—and taking off the super with
only your hands can be impossible.
The bees often seal every crack and
crevice in their hive with propolis: a
sticky substance made from plant res-
in. This also essentially glues the hive
together. But shove a hive tool into the
seam, lift slightly, and the top super
cracks off to reveal the next layer of
the colony. Inside the super are nine or
ten tightly-packed frames, also glued
in with propolis. Fingers on their own
are also worthless here, but slipping
the tip of the hive tool under the top
of the outer frame, the super's edge
becomes a fulcrum, and with a small
push downward, the frame pops out.
With one frame missing, small flicks
of the wrist let the hive tool separate
the frames, and suddenly the world of
the colony is accessible. Archimedes
would be pleased.
I received my first hive tool in Tex-
as. It was shiny and new, with part
of it painted red so it could easily be
spotted in the grass. Over the course
of a season, vigorous work beat all
other equipment into ruin—gloves
developed holes, boots fell apart,
suits and veils tore—but the hive tool
stayed strong. It lost its shine and the
paint chipped off, leaving it an entire-
ly dull gray, but I grew accustomed to
its shape, and, if I may say, its spirit. It
became an extension of my hand as I
sped through one long row of pallets,
popping off supers with the crack of
splitting wood, the flick of my wrist
pushing frames around the box, lift-
ing supers with it still tucked into my
palm. When I forgot my hive tool,
either back at the shop or at home,
the day automatically turned sour.
Perhaps someone else had a hive tool
that I could borrow, or worse, I would
have to make do without one. A flat-
head screwdriver is an uncouth solu-
tion in a jam, and I have even used a
fork to get through a yard with some
embarrassment, but without the right
tool everything slows down, and the
reunion becomes joyous when that
familiar piece of metal is back in my
hand.
After the start of my commercial
beekeeping career, I brought my hive
tool everywhere. It sat in the pocket of
my passenger door as I drove around
the U.S. When traveling abroad, it
was tucked in the top pocket of my
pack so if I spied a beehive some-
where and the owner wasn't around,
that and a small net veil would allow
me to pop inside to see what the bees
in this corner of the world looked
like. It was also a kind of professional
handshake. Once when I had a few
days to kill in Oregon before a flight,
99
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An Assortment of hive tools available from Dadant & Sons, Inc., www.dadant.com

I knocked on the door of a beekeeper,
showed him my hive tool, and spent
the next few days camped out in his
back yard, scraping boxes for a few
bucks an hour.
Barry from North Dakota once
showed me his grandfather's hive
tool which he still sometimes used,
and I vowed that one day I too would
pass mine to the next generation.
There were points when I lost the
tool, sometimes for weeks at a time,
but with a careful enough memory
recall and thorough searching around
the bee yards, it reliably showed up
every time.
Until one day in Slovenia. The hive
tool that I had developed such a re-
lationship with just disappeared. I
only had one yard, and one shop, and
didn't believe it could be anywhere
other than those two places. Or may-
be it could. There had been more than
one incident in Texas when we ar-
rived at a yard to find my tool resting
on the flatbed, exactly where I had
left it while tying down the ropes.
One solid bump over that twenty-
minute drive could have sent the
hive tool forever into the unknown,
but luck was on my side those days.
Not so in Slovenia. I still shuffle
through the leaves and grasses sur-
rounding my bee yard hoping to kick
it loose. Perhaps the tool and I are just
on an extended break. I bought a new
hive tool, promptly lost that one, and
then purchased a third and even a
backup fourth. I'm not working with
it as much as I did during my com-
mercial days, so at the end of the first
season, it still has its paint, and the
shine is only muffled. By most means
of observation, it looks and feels like
my old hive tool. But in my heart, I
know it is not.
Editor's Note: This story is from Will
Blomstedt's new book, "Foraging
Afar - Tales from a Decade of Bee-
keeping Across the World." You can
buy a copy from: www.wicwas.com,
Wicwas Press, LLC, Kalamazoo,
Michigan. ISBN 978-1-878075-51-2
William Blomstedt
is a beekeeper and
geographer. He has
had fiction published
in Ambit, The Miss-
ing Slate and The
Alarmist, has been
nominated twice for
a Pushcart Prize and
is a columnist for the
American Bee Journal. He lives in Ljubljana,
Slovenia.

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100 American Bee Journal

 Bad News for Bumblebees
I
came across a deformed bee while doing a monthly
bumblebee survey for the UK’s Bumblebee Conser-
vation Trust (www.bumblebeeconservation.org) (Fig
1). It was a newly emerged queen red-tailed bumblebee
(Bombus lapidarius) and was crawling around in the veg-
etation at the base of a hedgerow, unable to fly. The reason
was obvious as it had no wings, just shrivelled stumps
where they should have been - an appearance very similar
to that seen in deformed wing virus infection in honey
bees. Fig 2 shows a normal Bombus lapidarius queen.
Deformed wing virus is familiar to most beekeepers
when its effects are seen in the presence of infestation with
the parasitic mite Varroa destructor (Fig 3).
Deformed wing virus was endemic in honey bees before
the arrival of varroa and was presumably transmitted by
close contact between bees. It was present at low levels
and had little effect on the bees.
Fig. 1 A queen red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) with
severely deformed wings.
January 2019
by CHRISTOPHER WREN
Since varroa has become widespread the effects of de-
formed wing virus have become much more severe. This
is thought to be because the virus can accumulate and/or
replicate inside the varroa mite and is injected directly into
the larvae.1
Until recently deformed wing virus was confined to
honey bees but that picture is changing. In 2006 Gen-
ersch et al reported wing deformities in Bombus pas-
cuorum and Bombus terrestris affected by deformed
wing virus.2 More recently Fürst et al found deformed
wing virus to be present in 11% of British bumblebees,
with evidence of virus replication in one third of those,
suggesting active infection.3 Very little is known about
the incidence of wing deformities in bumblebees. Af-
fected bees cannot fly and presumably die quickly so
they will not be detected by standard surveillance meth-
ods. Bumblebees are not affected by varroa but they visit
Fig. 2 A queen red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) with
normal wings.
101
Fig. 3 A worker honey bee (Apis mellifera) with severely de-
formed wings and a phoretic varroa mite.
the same flowers as honey bees and may acquire the in-
fection that way.
Honey bees share flowers with other pollinators, includ-
ing bumblebees and solitary bees. Singh et al demonstrat-
ed the presence of honey bee viruses in pollen and in hon-
ey and showed the possibility of transmission of viruses
from honey bees to bumblebees and vice versa.4 They also
detected honey bee viruses in 11 other pollinator species,
including bumblebees, solitary bees, social wasps and soli-
tary wasps.
I suspect nothing at all is known about the incidence
of wing deformities or the prevalence of deformed wing
virus infection in solitary bees, although a similar wing
deformity has recently been observed in a Colletes soli-
tary bee.5 Most responsible beekeepers treat their bees to
help control varroa infestations, and thus reduce the levels
of deformed wing virus, but there is little or nothing that
can be done to prevent infection of bumblebees and soli-
tary bees.

references
1. Wilfert L, et al (2016). Deformed wing virus is a recent global epi-
demic in honeybees driven by Varroa mites. Science 351:594-597.
2. Genersch E, et al. (2006). Detection of Deformed Wing Virus, a
honey bee viral pathogen, in bumble bees (Bombus terrestris and
Bombus pascuorum) with wing deformities. Journal of Invertebrate
Pathology 91:61-3.
3. Fürst MA, et al (2014). Disease associations between honeybees and
bumblebees as a threat to wild pollinators. Nature 506(7488):364-
366.
4. Singh R, et al (2010). RNA Viruses in Hymenopteran Pollinators:
Evidence of Inter-Taxa Virus Transmission via Pollen and Poten-
tial Impact on Non-Apis Hymenopteran Species. PLOS ONE 5(12):
e14357.
5. Garrido C (2017). Bee health – interconnected between species and
populations. www.bee-safe.eu
* Christopher Wren
Address: Oakwood Cottage, Sandy Lane, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE35EL, UK.
Contact: drcwren@me.com

102 American Bee Journal

January 2019 103
104 American Bee Journal

Suzanne tending her first hive on her back roof
in Greenwich, NY, last winter.
O
ver the past year and a half,
I worked full time, with fre-
quent overtime, gardened
and made jam from the berries, cher-
ries, and rhubarb from our backyard,
made grape juice from our grape
vines, and took care of our “petting
zoo,” as my sister Ellie describes our
myriad of pets. Wait, it gets better! I
also worked Sundays as a ski instruc-
tor at nearby Willard Mountain, my
tenth season teaching beginner to
intermediate skiers, and meanwhile
I had applied for and received a size-
able arts grant, and produced and
appeared in my original musical, El-
eanor, about the life of Eleanor Roo-
sevelt...oh, AND I became a grand-
mother. I did all that and more, and
I still managed to keep my first hive
healthy and alive through an extra
long, extra cold winter, and was then
able to make my first split this spring.
Some of my success can be attributed
to asking a lot of questions. Some can
be attributed to perseverance. Some
can certainly be attributed to dumb
luck. But, whatever has worked for
my bees and me so far, I can person-
ally attest that however hectic your
life may be, it is still possible to have
a hive or two...or three, with some
hope of success. Obviously, I am a
very busy person. I thrive on staying
busy, in fact. I’m 58 years old and not
exactly built for the heavy lifting in-
volved in beekeeping. But, I’m doing
it, and my hives are thriving. And,
did I mention, I’m a grandma now?!
As my second winter as a beekeep-
er approaches, I am still in wonder
that I am doing this at all; this bee-
January 2019
Bee PhoBic to
BeekeePer, to
BeekeePing grandma!
By SUZANNE D. COHEN
keeping thing. And if you are a new
beekeeper, I’m sure you also have
friends and family members who just
can’t fathom why you would do this.
DON’T you get STUNG?! Or, if they
at least recognize that our bee popu-
lations are in crisis, or if they’re really
grateful for the honey you give them,
they nonetheless shake their heads
and say, “Cool. But, BEES!”
My older son, and the father of my
first granddaughter, Isla, is justifiably
terrified of bees. He had a bad reaction
to a hornet sting mowing grass, years
back, and carries an EpiPen wherever
he goes. He does, however, love hon-
ey; so, that makes his momma happy!
And yes, despite his fear and the fact
that she is only 5 months old, I already
bought a little child’s bee jacket for my
granddaughter...for when she’s older.
Her parents will probably never actu-
ally let me take her out on the roof to
my hives, but she can at least put it on
and watch from the upstairs window
with Dennis.
My younger son, while still home
(he’s now away at graduate school),
shows the typical aloofness of male
offspring with regard to anything his
mother is involved with. It wasn’t
until the first time we were get-
ting ready to extract, and I was car-
rying a pail of frames full of honey
supers through the house and I told
him what they were, that he sud-
denly became alert and oriented, got
a look of total panic on his face, and
exclaimed, “Oh, no! Are there bees
in there?!” When reassured that the
bees were left safely back on the roof,
he returned to his usual disinterest.
But, that’s okay. Beekeeping is my in-
terest. He has his own.
So, what words of wisdom do I
have to impart, with now two seem-
ingly healthy hives going into the
winter of 2018? What have I learned?
Well, speaking to the “newbees,”
there are three main things I think
you need to be aware of if you are
contemplating becoming a beekeeper
of any scale. I’ll call these “The Three
Bee’s of Beekeeping.”
First, Bee expecting to spend a lot
of money. Beekeeping is very expen-
sive. And there is no getting around
that. There are hive components,
smokers and hive tools, protective
clothing, mite treatments, other pest
management, extracting equipment
and honey containers, buying the
packages or nucleus colonies (“nucs”)
of bees themselves, including replace-
ment queens as needed, and more.
The joke goes,
“So, you’re thinking about
becoming a beekeeper? Take
$100.00 out of your wallet. Okay,
set it on fire. There, now you are
ready to become a beekeeper.”
Second, Bee expecting it to be hard
work. Beekeeping requires a lot of
hard, hands-on work. Yes, the bees
themselves do by far the hardest part
of the work involved. But, as respon-
sible beekeepers, pulling our hives
apart during hive inspections and to
apply treatments, and processing any
surplus honey, can be very messy and
difficult. A ten frame super full of hon-
ey weighs a LOT. And, although bees
105

do tend to be fairly docile, YOU WILL
GET STUNG and IT WILL HURT...
and sometimes swell up and itch like
heck for days! But, as with any job,
having the right tools, and knowing
some basic do’s and don’ts, makes a
huge difference. Like, DO keep Bena-
dryl in your medicine cabinet at all
times. DON’T open your hives when
your neighbor is cutting grass, as bees
hate lawn mowers...and weed wack-
ers. Just take my word for it.
Third, Bee ready to study and to
ask a lot of questions. There is much,
MUCH to learn to be a successful bee-
keeper. Take classes, join a local bee
club, read. And, like a medical doc-
tor, even when you think you’ve got
a pretty good grasp of things, you
will need to keep up with the latest
research and available products. You
will never stop learning about your
bees. Treating your bees for varroa
mites, and monitoring, and moni-
toring, and monitoring, and deal-
ing with other pests and diseases, is
ongoing. You may have discovered
already that for every beekeeping
question you ask, you will get at least
three different answers. I apologize if
you’ve already heard this an annoy-
ing number of times, but the truth is
we have a lot of decisions to make.
And there may be two or three ways
to do something, and they may all be
acceptable approaches. Beekeeping
demands gathering all the informa-
tion you can, weighing the value of
often conflicting advice, adding your
own judgment, and then taking the
plunge, hoping your decision is a
good one.
2018 seems to have been a particu-
larly good year for honey production,
at least here in Upstate New York.
Dennis and I extracted a total of just
over 130 pounds of honey, spring,
summer, and fall, from that one hive
I started from a nuc last spring! Our
106
The cast of Eleanor.
That’s coworker
Tom Wells’ daughter
Rachel on the left,
coworker Tim Ban-
field on the right,
and I’m the elderly
Eleanor Roosevelt
in middle of the
back row!
first batch was very light, and Dennis
attributes that to the four Linden trees
in close proximity to our home.
I planned to make my first split in
early spring, this year. Meanwhile,
following casting and a few months
of evening and weekend rehearsals,
I was producing my show in three
venues over three weekends the end
of April and the first weekend of May.
Then my granddaughter Isla was
born two weeks early, on May 11th,
the second to last night of Eleanor!
But, I made my first attempt at a split,
a walk-away split, that following
week. My first hive is a BeeMax poly-
styrene hive, so I chose an 8 frame
wooden hive for my second, for the
sake of comparison. I had at least two
or three dates marked on my calen-
dar when people said I should check
to see if there was any evidence of a
new queen having been created by
the new hive. I knew that enough
time was needed for her to emerge
and go on her mating flight, and then
hopefully begin laying. And I knew
that anything could go wrong. For in-
stance, the queen could emerge but
then meet her demise due to contact
with anything from a car, to a lawn-
mower, to a heavy drop of rain.
Well, I was impatient, so I am sure
I began looking for eggs and larvae,
the telltale signs of a laying queen,
earlier than I should have. Nothing.
And then a week after that I checked
again. And then again. Consulting
with the experts, I was pretty sure my
walk-away split was a dismal failure.
So Joe Cali, one of our owners at Bet-
terbee, sent me home from work with
a couple frames from a nuc contain-
ing several queen cells. Hope! I again
had multiple dates on my calendar
that beekeepers told me were the
absolute soonest I should check for
signs of a laying queen. And again I
waited and worried impatiently. And
again, anything could go wrong on
her mating flight. “Her” being which-
ever queen had emerged and duked
it out with the others until she was
the sole survivor. I checked the hive,
probably too early, and became even
more anxious. Nothing. But then,
when I checked it again after another
week or so, EGGS and LARVAE! YAY!
A successful split...with a little help
from my friends.
My next hive inspection, after dis-
covering my split was a success, was
my dream hive inspection. I had not
actually seen a queen in either of my
hives ever, just the telltale eggs and
capped brood indicating she must
be in there somewhere. I did a very
thorough inspection of both hives,
and as luck would have it, I found
the queen in each! The queen in my
original hive still proudly wore her
white spot, and she was on one of
the center frames of my upper brood
box. The queen in my new hive stood
out clearly from her hive-mates with
a very long, orange abdomen. Dennis
and I proudly photographed them
both before carefully, very carefully,
sliding those frames back into their
hives. And I haven’t seen either of my
queens since!
Here was my marked queen in my origi-
nal hive, down toward the bottom right
of the photo.
Yes, every beekeeper has a differ-
ent opinion, even among the experts.
Especially among the experts! And
bees can be quite unpredictable. One
of my coworkers, Tim Banfield, is a
successful, long-term beekeeper here
in Greenwich, New York.. A talented
new actor with a vaudevillian flair,
Tim played multiple roles in Eleanor,
including that of Eleanor Roosevelt’s
beloved uncle, President Theodore
Roosevelt. Dennis and I were having
a backyard cast party following the
show, in mid-May, and the two hives
American Bee Journal
were visible from where we all sat
under a canopy. Dennis was barbe-
cuing chicken on the porch, directly
below my hives, which are up on our
back roof. We had noticed a number
of times before that my bees get very
agitated whenever Dennis is grilling.
One thought I’ve had is that maybe
the bees equate the smoke from the
grill with that of my smoker during
hive inspections, causing them to go
on high alert. But...I’m not sure. So,
as Dennis barbecued, the bees were
going absolutely wild, forming a fre-
netic cloud above my BeeMax hive. I
was glad that at least they stayed up
on the roof, and didn’t disturb our
guests. Tim, with every good reason
to do so, looked up at my roof and
loudly proclaimed, “They’re going to
swarm! Your hive is about to swarm!”
All eyes went to the wild cloud of
bees swirling around a few feet above
my roof. Tim even had me convinced,
even though I had seen this behavior
before. I remember saying to one of
our guests, “Oh, well. Swarming is a
natural occurrence, anyway.” Fortu-
nately, they left Dennis alone too, this
time. I bought Dennis a protective
jacket and gloves, but for some rea-
son he just doesn’t want to wear them
when he’s cooking out! As a result, he
has been stung a few times barbecu-
ing, with complete lack of provoca-
tion on his part.
And then, what actually happened
was the bees didn’t swarm. As soon as
the chicken was ready the bees were
back to normal. The cloud was gone.
They were just hanging out as usual,
bearding down at the front entrance,
the equivalent of their front porch.
Any other experienced beekeeper
would have judged the situation just
as Tim did. But, this just happens to
be a weird thing my bees do! Bees can
be quite unpredictable.
Going through my first winter as a
beekeeper, I frequently found myself
on pins and needles. So many ques-
tions! So many unknowns. I had con-
fidence that my polystyrene hive was
keeping my bees well insulated and
free of excess dampness. But, had I
done the right thing treating with
formic acid (Formic Pro) that one last
time going into the winter? The sales-
man had said a lot of mites drop off
for quite a while after each treatment,
so had my post-treatment varroa
mite count been at all accurate? And
were my bees really still in there?! I
discovered you can’t hear anything
putting your ear up against the side
of a polystyrene hive, and you can’t
January 2019
even see inside with an infrared cam-
era, had I borrowed one. I mostly
just had to wait. And I think we’ve
already established I’m not good at
that. I would occasionally crack open
the outer cover briefly to peer inside.
I overwintered my bees with two
deeps and two full honey supers. I
know that’s excessive, but they lived.
I was always greatly relieved to see
that there were still plenty of live bees
inside when I peeked in.
At some point, late in the winter
or very early in the spring, I saw that
my bees had eaten through enough
stores that they were up at the top
of the frames in the top super. So, I
placed a few pounds of winter patties
on top of those frames. I was afraid
of crushing the bees, so I placed them
around the outside of the cluster. I
should have placed them right smack
dab in the middle, on top of the clus-
ter, to ensure the bees were in contact
with the food. I knew that! A cluster of
bees can starve to death being just a
few inches below food, not recogniz-
ing it is there unless they are touch-
ing it. Beekeeping, there have been a
number of times I knew something in
theory, but then did something differ-
ent when I was actually working my
bees. Everything feels different than
you had imagined, when you are ac-
tually doing the hands-on work. It is
like that odd feeling an actor has step-
ping on stage and delivering her lines
for the first time with a real audience
present.
So, to my joy and relief, as the long
and very cold winter came to an
end, I found my first hive to be alive
and well, and in fact bursting at the
seams. Many hives had been lost in
the area. I attributed my hive’s sur-
vival to regular varroa mite counts
and mite treatments, and to imme-
diate and ongoing winter feeding
as needed. Of course, I am a lowly
hobbyist beekeeper. Having just one
or two hives to dote on is a lot easier
than a hundred! And my hive is on
our back roof, above a fenced in yard,
so (knock on wood) I haven’t had any
issues with predators save for a few
pesky ants and hive beetles.
Fast forward to mid-September of
2018, winding down on my second
season as a beekeeper to what I am
calling “The Night of the Bees.” I had
treated both hives with Formic Pro
in early July, but I had high enough
mite counts again that I planned to
put two Formic Pro pads in each of
my two hives on a Thursday evening
after I got home from work. That af-
ternoon I had observed my coworker,
Tom Wells, showing a customer how
he installs the pads. Tom has been a
beekeeper for many years, so I have
learned a lot from him. Tom was ex-
plaining and acting out how he just
grabs the top deep with one hand,
cracks open the hive, places the two
pads across the frames, and then clos-
es the hive right back up. One smooth
action. I made a joke about my own
lack of physical strength. But, by the
time I got home I was determined
that when I got out on my roof I was
going to do the same. Crack open the
hive, apply the pads, close ‘er up. Just
like that! Just like Tom.
Dennis watched from the window,
as is his custom. From there he can
safely photograph and videotape
anything worthwhile, and call 911 if I
ever take a dive off the roof! I haven’t
even come close to having that hap-
pen, although I did discover that the
roof gets pretty darn slippery when
wet! Anyway, from the moment I
crawled out on the roof I knew my
bees were in an ornery mood. Den-
nis said he could tell, too. As I lit
my smoker, an increasing number of
honey bees had come over to circle
around and even land on my veil; not
a norm. My only goal for this inva-
sion was to apply the pads. I wanted
to do that as quickly as possible and
get the heck out of there. I kept talk-
ing to my girls with my usual calm,
friendly chatter.
I had fun arranging these shelves for
honey sales out of our living room. I
decorated them with a mini hive I paint-
ed with acrylics, a mini smoker, and the
golden hive tool I won at EAS in Canada!
I have a “Honey For Sale” sign hanging
on our front porch.
107

Isla!
I used way more smoke than usual
as I approached my BeeMax hive,
now in its second season. Having
done our 3rd and final extraction the
week before, it consisted of two deep
hive bodies and two medium supers
of mostly uncapped honey. I removed
the two heavy honey supers, and was
in quite the cloud of bees. I opened
the Formic Pro container with my
hive tool, and shouted to Dennis to
get me scissors. I always forget some-
thing, which is another reason it’s
nice having him inside when I’m on
the roof. He told me to use my hive
tool to break open the clear plastic
bags around the pads and damn it,
he was right! Easy peasy! I set the
pads down within reach of the hive
and cracked the closest two corners
with my Hitchhiker hive tool. Then
I grabbed the hand hold of the back
of the hive and lifted...and it barely
budged an inch. What?! I braced my-
self and lifted again. I strained to no
avail. Same thing. Grrr!
Seemingly millions of angry bees
were pouring out of the hive and
whirling around me. I puffed more
smoke and shoved my hive tool in
the opposite two corners of the bot-
tom of the top hive body. I tried lifting
from the hand hold on the back of the
hive. I felt the same threatening tug
on my lower old lady back, with very
Here I am showing the foam board I
placed in the galvanized outer cover
of my 8 frame wooden hive, to prevent
moisture build up during the winter. Not
necessary with polystyrene hives.
108
little movement. I was sweating, and kept some of the last batch in larger
becoming a little nervous. Suddenly containers, so if need be it will be
a particularly unfriendly honey bee easier to liquefy. I am selling my bees-
stung my thumb right through my wax candles at a local shop, and may
leather glove on my right hand. Com- be able to sell comb honey there next
pletely giving up on the Tom Wells year. I plan to try out the Hogg Half-
move, I turned around and tried lift- comb super I have tucked away in
ing the entire deep off, as I normally our bee room in the spring. I’m bring-
would, and I’ll be darned if it was still ing a whole mess of little three ounce
somehow stuck! It took me another mini half skep jars of my honey to put
try or two to see the problem was that out at my 40th high school reunion
two inner frames in the bottom deep next week! And maybe I’ll sell a few
were propolized to the complimen- jars out of my trunk…
tary frames in the upper hive body. Three hives is the maximum we
There’s a first time for everything. think we can have on our back roof,
But, of all times! I gradually loosened so I am definitely what is called a
them and was able to lift the entire hobbyist beekeeper. More than three
hive body aside. I carefully placed the hives and Dennis is afraid I will find
two pads across the bottom deep and myself standing in our kitchen in a
closed up the hive, placing one heavy pile of roof bits! But, hey, did I men-
box spilling over and under with tion I’m a grandma now?!
frantic bees on top of the next.
Dejected, I didn’t even attempt * I especially want to thank my bee-
Tom’s method on my second hive, keeper friends, Dr. Carl Jurica and
despite it being the lighter, eight- Kathryn Gulick, for encouraging me
frame wooden hive. Being used to the to write a follow up to my last article.
slight give of the polystyrene BeeMax Suzanne Cohen has
hive, I felt awkward getting my hive been a hobbyist bee-
tool to dig in between the propolized keeper since the
wooden boxes. I was just glad when spring of 2017, and is
the treatments were in, the hives a customer service
representative at Bet-
were back together, the smoker was
terbee in Greenwich,
plugged, and I could go make sup- New York. She is a
per. I climbed down the ladder with retired secondary Eng-
a couple bees still sticking with me as lish teacher and social
I rounded the side of the house. They worker, and is a singer/songwriter/play-
were letting me know I was being run wright/poet...among other things.
out of town and they didn’t want to
see me back any time soon!
Later that night, when Dennis put
Señor Funk, our chihuahua, out be-
fore we were headed to bed, the bees
were apparently still riled up. Poor
Señor got stung in the foot before he’d
even left the porch! It was the second
time he had been stung; they got him
in the ear last summer. I got the sting-
er out of his paw, we gave him an ap-
propriate portion of a Benadryl tablet,
and he was okay by the morning.
The last thing I want to write about
is the eventual “problem” a hob-
byist beekeeper has of what to do
with more honey than you can pos-
sibly give away for housewarmings,
birthdays, and holiday gifts. I mean,
I know it will ebb and flow from year
to year, but we had 130 pounds of hon-
ey from just one hive this year! The
solution for me is still in the works.
But I hung a “Local Honey For Sale”
sign on our front porch, and made a
cute set up on shelves between our
living room and the room that houses
our rabbit and chinchilla. I only put
labels on the first batch of honey and
American Bee Journal

W
e beekeepers tend to be solo
operators. We might go to
club meetings occasionally
or even attend state workshops once
in a while, but basically we’re out
there in our apiaries doing our own
thing. This article suggests that we
should reach out to the bigger world
of beekeepers.
Here is a letter I received from a
beekeeper friend in Denmark a few
months ago:
“I’ll just add a short report
from the beekeeping front. We
now have nine families [colo-
nies]. And 2017 turned out to
be our best year so far. Our bees
made a little more than 400 kilos
of very tasty honey. We harvest
the honey in the beginning of
June and again later in August.
Our families consume a nice
part of the production, but we
also sell a lot. And this time
we sold all that we had in two
months, despite the fact that we
produced more than ever before.
This means that we now have
ambitions for buying an electri-
cally powered honey extractor,
possibly next year.
Our bees are fine and healthy.
We still have to fight varroa mite.
This is part of the job. And we
have had a couple of swarms. But
we took two of them back to our
own apiary. If all goes well, they
will grow and produce a nice
amount of honey for us this year.
So all in all everything is fine,
January 2019
Keep in Touch
with Your Fellow
Beekeepers
and we are happy to have this
hobby. It provides a lot of plea-
sure and an adequate amount of
work and duties.”
What can we say about this letter?
It is obvious that it wasn’t written by
an American. The phrases (we now
have ambitions), the nomenclature
(400 kilos), and even the tone are
most un-American. With the common
use of “we,” the Scandinavian tone is
obvious.
Second, these are skillful beekeep-
ers, which is in short supply around
here. For my money, any hobbyist
who has nine out of nine colonies
survive is a miracle worker. As to the
question of honey production, 400 ki-
los translates to 880 pounds of honey
(1 kilo = 2.2 pounds). That means
each hive averages about 100 pounds
per hive. These days, almost any bee-
keeper would be happy with these
numbers. Plus catching swarms is a
skill that most of us don’t have. Either
we don’t have the time or patience.
Frankly, most of my club members
don’t even try to recover swarms.
They figure the loss of bees is just part
of the process. The Danes caught two.
Third, you can see that my Copen-
hagen friends really appreciate the
activity. They speak about it lovingly
(‘happy to have this hobby’). They
are willing to put in the required
work (‘provides an adequate amount
of work and duties’). They are mod-
est in their goals (‘hopefully, we’ll
buy an extractor, perhaps this year’).
They are delighted in having such a
by Howard Scott
popular product (‘sold out in two
months’). But at the same time, they
are not greedy (‘consume a nice part
of production’). Quite typically Scan-
dinavian.
So what’s the point of this? The
point is that we should strive to stay
in touch with beekeepers all over the
country and indeed, the rest of the
world. We should cultivate active cor-
respondence, because it will give us
a ‘feet on the ground’ feel for what’s
going on in other parts of the world. It
quickly becomes clear that conditions
are not the same everywhere. We
should correspond because it shows
that there is more than one way to do
things. For example, the Slovenian
beekeepers operate out of a large hut,
with twenty or so beehives facing the
front. We should keep in touch be-
cause one can always ask questions of
other beekeepers. Finally, we should
keep in touch because it feeds our cu-
riosity and interest about the activity.
From this letter, many questions
emerge. Is our plague, CCD, not
prevalent in Denmark? Or if it is, how
do some beekeepers, like my friend,
avoid it? Is 9 out of 9 overwinter-
ing the rule in Denmark, or are my
friends exceptional? In my club, our
very best beekeeper still loses 30% of
his hives every year. What about the
Danes' treatment for varroa? What do
they use? How come they can harvest
in early June, when our hives are just
building up in June and their weather
is similar to ours in the Northeast?
Is 100 pounds harvest per hive the
norm? Is ‘families’ the term used for
109
 Bjarne Lottrup, of Skovlunde, Denmark, looking into one of his hives. Note Bjarne’s Danish insignia, which is their flag.
colonies in Denmark? If so, that ex-
pression is very ‘hygge,’ which is the
Danish expression for getting cozy,
a kind of a lifestyle statement. Are
many folks who take up beekeeping
retired in Denmark? My friend is a
retired college teacher and his wife a
retired librarian. Is there a higher per-
cent of beekeepers in Denmark than
in the United States? Certainly not
in absolute numbers, for Denmark’s
population is only 5.6 million people.
In my next letter, I will try to find out
some of the answers.
How can one make friends? Attend
regional and national conventions.
There, you will meet beekeepers from
every state in the country. For in-
stance, we have Mass. Beekeepers As-
sociation meetings which take place
in the middle of the state, and I try to
attend at least two a year. When you
travel, make sure you look up a bee-
keeper and try to visit him/her. You
could go to the local tourist stand and
ask to meet a beekeeper. You could
go to the Chamber of Commerce (or
equivalent organization abroad) and
solicit names and contact informa-
The author, sitting at his desk, writing a
letter.
110
tion. Typically these individuals are
excited to meet you, because they are
curious about your beekeeping prac-
tices. You might meet such apiarists at
fairs. Hang around the booth and ask
questions. Tell them that you would
like to look at their bee yards. In a
store, look for local honey bottles and
read the address off the label. Make a
call and introduce yourself as a fellow
beekeeper.
When I was in Ireland, I contacted
the local Chamber of Commerce, and
she gave me the name and phone
number of a beekeeper. I called him,
and he invited me to his house, where
we shared many stories over his home-
brew mead. I also sampled his excel-
lent white honey. Years later, we still
email back and forth. I met the Danish
beekeeper (his letter appears above) at
a fair, where he was selling honey.
As for the language barrier, pretty
much you’re limited to someone who
speaks English. But fortunately, most
people under 40 in western countries
speak English. If there is a problem,
sometimes a son or relative can trans-
late. In Greece, I meet a handsome
Greek beekeeper in his bee yards, but
we had the hardest time communicat-
ing because he spoke no English and
I spoke no Greek. Of course, there is
a chance that you are multilingual,
and speak conversational Spanish,
French, German, and Russian, just
for fun. In that case, you will have no
problem making friends.
If you don’t travel, the Internet is a
perfect vehicle to meet people. Go on
international beekeeper websites and
get involved. Join a beekeeper chat
site. Connect with a bee organization
in a distant land. If you think someone
is knowledgeable and someone who
speaks your language (I don’t mean
speaks English, but someone you’re
sympatico with), then make yourself
known. Some very shy people are
most loquacious on the Internet. But
keep in mind the purpose of this new
friendship: to learn about practices
of other areas and to assess how they
will work for you, and to pit their un-
derstanding against what you know
about beekeeping, and to figure out
how new insights can change your
comprehension. In other words, your
purpose is to learn, not to exchange
Internet jokes.
Just to offer a starting gambit, pre-
pare a list of questions in advance and
ask away. Everyone loves questions,
and that begins an open-ended con-
versation.
When I was deciding whether to
go with MiteAway Quick Strips for
varroa control, I emailed a half-dozen
beekeepers in different areas who I
knew were using that treatment ask-
ing for their experience. Some were
negative, but most were positive.
Digesting their comments, I decided
that MiteAway would work for me. It
is now what I am using.
Another example of something
I’ve learned from my Danish bee-
keeper friend is that their hives are
smaller than ours. Their frames are 12
X 10 inches (30 X 25 cm.) while ours
are 17.5 X 9 (45 X 23 cm.). Their size
makes it easier to harvest, especially
for old timers. As a result of this in-
sight, I use nine frame hives, using
the appropriate spacing bars. When I
harvest, I never carry more than five
frames filled with honey. I also do
more with nucs.
As a conclusion, let me share a love
letter—yes a love letter—I once re-
ceived:
“There is a beekeeper named How-
ard living on a hill north of here. I
keep his address in my journal next
to blades of grass and a to-do list.
Howard was a boy before he built
those honey-shrines, filled with the
pious sounds of wing against air, wax
against water. I’m not sure how to tell
him that I imagine him red-haired
and suntan, born a few months be-
fore me and just a little taller. I’m not
American Bee Journal
sure how to say I think I might have
been happier down south, where the
ocean sings late into the night and
leaves breakfast waiting just above
the waterline every morning. I would
take him as a lover maybe, but he is a
man of chaste religion and I have not
learned to pray. There are too many
January 2019
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111
112 American Bee Journal
 My Time as the
Essex County
Honey
Ambassador
by RYAN DUGGAN

Ryan at the fair with interested observer.

S
everal years ago studying Nat-
ural Resources Management
at an agricultural high school,
I realized my deep interest in en-
vironmental science which I went
on to continue studying in college.
Throughout my education on the
Earth and its systems, teachers have
always provided snippits about the
importance of bees and other pollina-
tors at least here or there throughout
the curriculum. Their vast benefits
to the world and to our food system
fascinated me, to the point where
thinking about it sparked the idea
to become a beekeeper. It only made
sense, why wouldn’t I want to support
a species that helps plants thrive and
that make their own wax and honey?
Being a kid living at home, I was then
faced with the challenge of convinc-
ing my parents. A hive full of roughly
50,000 insects- that can sting- living in
the backyard? Imagine that conver-
sation. “We can’t have bees, we live
in a cape” was always their go to an-
swer, claiming there wasn’t room in
the yard. However, as I attended “bee
school” for beginners and we joined
our local beekeeping association, the
dream began to seem more and more
attainable.
One day when my mom was pok-
ing around online learning about the
Essex County Beekeepers’ Associa-
tion (ECBA) we had recently joined
and the local Topsfield Fair, she stum-
bled upon a write-up about one of the
previous Essex County Honey Am-
bassadors. When I heard the phrase
“Honey Ambassador”, I was hooked.
I had to do it, even if at that point in
time I had absolutely no idea what it
actually meant. As I learned the du-
ties associated with the role, educat-
ing people about bees and represent-
ing the Essex County Beekeepers’
Association, it only sounded better.
I’m a large proponent of education,
and having already jumped on the
“Save the Bees” bandwagon this was
the perfect chance to get involved.
I applied, and the ECBA decided I
was qualified enough to teach people
about bees. You know Dr. Suess’s Lo-
rax who speaks for the trees? Well, as
of now, I’m that guy but for the bees.
At home this is what I feel tipped
the scales and made my mother fi-
nally agree to get a hive, so I ordered
a package before my dad got the
chance to say “No”. You may be say-
ing, “How can a first-year beekeeper
teach people about bees if he doesn’t
know anything yet?”, but that is part
of the beauty of this role. One doesn’t
have to be an expert to be an ambas-
sador, but only be someone who’s
willing to learn. The ECBA had me
attend their own beekeeping school
to gain more knowledge, and being a
first-year beekeeper only further em-
bodied the idea that anyone can start
up the hobby. Whenever I told people
Ryan and American Honey Queen Kayla Fusselman at the Topsfield Fair
I’d only physically had bees at home
for so many months, it made it clear
that you don’t have to be a lifelong
beekeeping master to support honey
bees. The Honey Ambassador role is
based on education, not on expertise.
To me that’s very important, as it puts
the educator and the student at the
same level to create a more comfort-
able space to have conversations peo-
ple can take something away from.
Even if you just learn a little and plant
some flowers, in my book you’re do-
ing your part.
As the Essex County Honey Ambas-
sador, the biggest event one attends is
the previously mentioned Topsfield
Fair. Our Bee Building has several ac-
tivities for fair-goers including look-
ing at observation hives, making your
own beeswax candle, taking in a mul-
titude of displays, and buying some
delicious, local honey products. The
Ambassador position may come with
glamour, but as I was told, you have
to work for that sash. In my opinion,
this “work” was all fun. I got to inter-
act with visitors at each of these sta-
tions throughout the fair. Honestly, is

January 2019 113


there any better way to spend a day
than answering questions about bees
and being surrounded by beekeeping
paraphernalia?
This year the Topsfield Fair was
graced with the presence of not only
the Massachusetts Honey Queen De-
siree Gracie, but the American Honey
Queen Kayla Fusselman. It was only
fitting that we should have visiting
royalty, as the Topsfield Fair is home
to the largest Beekeeping and Honey
Show in all of North America. To-
gether, we did the rounds manning
the stations of the Bee Building to
promote positive visitor experiences.
When you see someone wearing a
sash, it’s pretty hard not to get excit-
ed. When people are excited, they’re
more open to having a learning expe-
rience with new information. Even if
they don’t take away anything new, it
still helps people to have more fun. At
the Topsfield Fair, that’s a big part of
why we do what we do.
For those of you that haven’t done
it before, let me tell you: Hanging out
with other beekeepers, talking on
and on about bees, and competing
to see who can sell the most twelve-
pound jars of honey is one heck of a
good time. For those of you who have
done it, I’m sure you agree. However,
the positive memories made weren’t
limited to volunteering in the build-
ing. The superintendents and admin-
istrators of the fairgrounds work to
get Ambassadors and Honey Queens
around to the highlights of the fair.
We were able to ride the Morrisville
Equine College 6-Horse Hitch, par-
ticipate as judges in the Cock Crow-
ing Contest (yes, it exists), see the
Canadian Royal Mounted Police,
attend special guest performances,
and throw goodies to excited families
while riding in parades (I only had
to apologize about six times for ac-
cidentally hitting people in the head
with honey candy). These are some
114
Ryan talking
about honey
at the
Topsfield Fair
of the perks that came with the role,
but each of the numerous memorable
events are difficult to describe fully in
the richness they deserve.
On the county level, it’s my job to
stay local and teach people about how
awesome bees are in my area. On the
state and national level, Desiree and
Kayla are in charge of educating and
advocating in their respective re-
gions. In the past, Essex County had
a “Honey Queen”, but the title was
changed to “Honey Ambassador” to
open the opportunity up to all gen-
ders. As of now, the state and national
levels are only open to females. I’m
immensely thankful that my commu-
nity has done away with the gender
limitation, as this has been an amaz-
ing opportunity that I’ve gotten a lot
out of. Working alongside the Ameri-
can Honey Queen, I learned some of
the things I didn’t know about bees
(did you ever realize they have five
eyes?). I got to see my local fair from a
perspective I never could have imag-
ined. I met so many people, not only
beekeepers but folks around the fair-
grounds from various attractions that
I never would have gotten the chance
to make friends with on a personal
level had I not served in this role. It’s
unique, and it lifts your spirits be-
yond cloud nine when you’re able to
be a part of something as amazing as
the Topsfield Fair, or any form of bee-
keeping education. I may not be able
to advance beyond my county, but I
would imagine the state and national
level are equally as rewarding.
Looking back, I feel this role truly
does help to to make a difference.
Talking to a young woman at an
observation hive, I explained how
drones are kicked out of the hive for
the winter. Then, as someone she
didn’t even know approached, the
woman started teaching the stranger
about all she had learned just mo-
ments before. She did a darned good
job, and I couldn’t help but smile.
This demonstrated that what she
learned would stick with her, and
that she was starting to look at bees
as more interesting than frightening.
Even outside of the fair, I’ve seen my
family beginning to change. From not
wanting bees at all, my mom now
comes out with me every time I open
the hive so that she can take pictures.
My dad asks questions, and is no lon-
ger afraid to use a leaf blower in the
yard. My older brother, despite being
stung, no longer tells me he’s going to
set the hive on fire. Even my extend-
ed family and friends are interested,
wanting to learn more about the bees
(“Do they hibernate in the winter?”),
and being taken aback when they
hear something new (“Jeez Ry, there’s
THAT many of ‘em?”). I’m confident
that the Honey Ambassador role has
taught a lot of other people, who I
do and don’t know, a lot more about
bees. I believe that the more people
there are out there who know how
great honey bees are, the more people
will support local beekeepers (thus
supporting the hives) and step up to
help “Save the Bees”. Personally, I’m
looking forward to more opportuni-
ties to teach people about bees, and
can’t wait for next year’s Fair.
Ryan Duggan is twenty
years old and is currently
enrolled at North Shore
Community College in the
Environmental Studies Pro-
gram. After earning an Asso-
ciate’s Degree he plans to
then pursue a Bachelor’s, and ultimately
become a park ranger or conservationist.
American Bee Journal
Uganda Beekeeping Network Continues Expansion
S
andra Ejang, an entrepreneur
from Uganda, grew her bee-
keeping business from ten hives
at her apiary in the Kiryandongo Dis-
trict to a network of 500 farmers all
across Uganda. The network expand-
ed rapidly after Ejang underwent
business training and networking
in 2017 through the Mandela Wash-
ington Fellowship for Young African
Leaders. It funds emerging business
leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa be-
tween the ages of 25 and 35 to study
leadership, business strategies and
management practices in the U.S. and
is sponsored by the U.S. Department
of State.
After returning to Uganda from the
fellowship Ejang quickly grew her
business by about 90 percent with
the expansion of the network to 500
farmers. She runs The Honey Shop
and with her brand Asali Wa Moyo,
Swahili for sweetheart. She employs
six fulltime farmers and sells infused
field honeys like cinnamon, garlic,
clove and rosemary. She also harvests
bee venom from hives and mixes
them with propolis and honey to sell
at the local market.
Mostly women and youth between
the ages of 13 and 45 have joined the
network, farmers who can support
their crops and make extra income
through small-scale beekeeping.
Many are poor with little opportu-
nities, but Ejang works to empower
them through free training. She or-
ganizes them into groups of 30 and
microfinances their business with
Kenyan topbar hives built with cut
lumber and nails.
“I offer fair prices and ready mar-
ket for their beekeeping products. I
January 2019
am also planning on starting candle-
making lessons and wax processing
lessons for those that want to do more
than beekeeping,” Ejang said.
These farmers pay Ejang back with
30 percent of their honey production.
This business model has afforded
those who are very poor with little
to no education the chance to start a
small-scale beekeeping business.
“The cost of living in Uganda is very
high. The banks charge too much on
interest rates for loans and it is almost
impossible to live off a salary. Most of
the people in rural areas live off about
$300 annually,” Ejang said. “Beekeep-
ing would significantly boost their in-
come by up to 60 percent, more kids
would be able to attend school. There
Sandra Ejang in Uganda
by KATIE COLEMAN
should also be a reduction in gender-
based violence because I realized that
poverty is one of the major causes.”
Ejang lives in Namanve, Mukono
with her three children and husband.
Her beekeeping operation started five
years ago to make extra income for
their family, and is now dedicated
to improving the lives of small-scale
farmers in Africa through beekeeping.
Initially they purchased a package
of ten hives, an extractor, and two to
three months of training, ensured that
beekeeping would reap a quick profit.
Year one, they had no honey harvest.
Year two, still no harvest. After three
years, Ejang quit her engineering job
to be a fulltime beekeeper, and finally
after three and a half years had their
first honey harvest.
Before the fellowship Ejang had
decided to involve the community in
her work and had ten farmers start
the network. Around this time was
when she heard about the Washing-
ton Mandela Fellowship Program on
social media and applied.
“I didn’t think I’d get in. I was
pregnant and about to have a baby
in six weeks. I got a call for an in-
terview and eventually got in. Two
weeks later I was at the University of
Iowa and spent eight weeks learning
how to run and scale up a business,”
Ejang said.
Iowa State University is one of the
partner schools that implements the
fellowship and is overseen by their
Institute for International Business.
Director Dimy Doresca continues to
work closely with Ejang in helping
her grow the network.
“We have 75 fellows across Africa,
three in Uganda. I communicate with
115
(L) Honey and other bee products sold in the Honey Shop. (R) Part of Sandra's team at the Honey Shop in Uganda. Sandra is
wearing the red dress.
them every week,” Doresca said.
“The Mandela Washington Fellow-
ship program has been great for the
University. It helps us build ties with
the future business leaders of Africa.
They are true ambassadors and it has
a great impact on students, cultivat-
ing a global mindset.”
During the fellowship Ejang laid
out her business plan but needed help
planning the implementation when
she went home. They helped with
networking and funding that Ejang
secured from winning a pitch contest.
“She pitched that she would pro-
vide a market for her network of
farmers. I would say she has sur-
passed that and is extending her part-
nerships. She is really doing exactly
what we’d like to see, and we stay
engaged with her and help with her
project,” Said Doresca, who is going
to Uganda in the spring to strategize
continued growth and funding for
the network.
John Engel, lecturer at the Univer-
sity of Iowa, connected Ejang to Justin
Engelhardt, a small-scale beekeeper
in Sioux City, Iowa, during her time
studying in the U.S.
Kenya top-bar hives under construction
in Uganda.
116
“I got a phone call from her profes- year, and beekeeper’s earnings con-
sor who asked if Sandra could see tributed only seven percent to their
my bee yard and how a small-scale household income.
bee operation runs,” Engelhardt said. “Small scale farmers would need
“We harvested some honey together more support in terms of protective
and I could tell she was very knowl- clothing and equipment and ongoing
edgeable and completely at ease with practical training and support,” the
the bees. That was probably the most article said.
fun I’ve ever had beekeeping.”
With a hand-crank extractor in his
kitchen they harvested from 50 Lang- Katie Coleman had
stroth hives. He taught her how he her first introduction
bottles honey and makes lotions and to bees last year while
chapsticks from wax. living at an apiary
As part of the fellowship Ejang can in Wilton, California.
apply for funding to bring someone She is a writer from
over to Uganda to help with her proj- Buffalo, NY with a fo-
cus on journalism and
ect and she emailed Engelhardt invit- poetry. She spends as
ing him a year after visiting his bee much time as she can
yard in Sioux City. in nature and is inter-
“It’s so inspiring and I’m looking ested in farming and
forward to helping in any way I can,” living a conscious, sustainable life.
Engelhardt said.
Since the network doesn’t have
modern equipment he is working on
securing donations to ship to Uganda
to accelerate its expansion.
“A lot of these farmers don’t neces-
sarily know much bee biology or have
moveable frames. Many times they’ll
find something with a cylinder shape
and will put wax inside to attract a
swarm,” Engelhardt said. “When
they harvest, they smash the hive and
it kills the bees. If we can teach them
to use moveable frames we can have a
huge impact. It’s so much more pow-
erful to gives tools for people to cre-
ate their own wealth.”
Studies have reported that there is
a lot of untapped economic poten-
tial in Uganda for honey production.
ScienceDaily published a study, “Un-
tapped Potential for Ugandan bee-
keepers,” that reported that Uganda
only harvests about one percent of a
potential 500,000 tons of honey per
American Bee Journal

MarketPlace
FOR SALE
1000 hives 10-frame two-story on 4-way pallets,
new outfit & queens, excellent condition, available
in May in California. (530) 671-6188.
FOR SALE: Singles and 1 1/2 story hives for sale.
1000 available. Call for Pricing, Jon@(208) 412-
1092 or Golden @ (208) 250-8420. www.golden
beeinc.com
Five frame NUCS for sale mid-April through Fall.
Price dependent on season and quantity of order.
Minimum order of 24 NUCS. No frame trade,
only return of our boxes. Call early to secure your
order. FOB Lewistown PA or Dade City, FL.
Please call W. Fisher Bee Farm for more infor-
mation. 1-800-736-6205. Ask for Aaron.
Cowen Heated top and bottom bar cleaner with
extra SS tub and hot water supply unit purchased
in 2009 less than 40 hours, asking $6000.00.
Item available for pickup in Lewistown, PA or
Dade City, Florida. For more information call
800-736-6205.
Singles for sale, delivery possible on orders over
200. For pricing and availability call: 800-736-6205.
2000 10-frame hives, new queens, on 4-way pal-
lets, very good equipment in FL. Now or after al-
monds in CA. Limited numbers of 4 and 5-frame
deep nucs. Also available in FL starting in March.
Call NOW!! (262) 689-1000.
Make your own Honey Sticks. Complete sys-
tem to start putting your honey in your own
sticks for pennies per stick. Keep the profits
for yourself. www.honeystickmachine.com
Strong, healthy 5 frame Nucs (deep or medium)
available in South Florida starting in April of
2018. Limited quantities of mated queens are also
available. Call Joseph at (561) 715-5715 to place
your order.
HONEY PRICE UPDATES. Call Honey Hot
Line. (763) 658-4193.
PACKAGED BEES AND 5-FRAME NUCS.
TAKING ORDERS NOW FOR 2018. CALL
(231) 735-1203.
For Sale: 200 5-frame nucs and 400 single hives
in Florida. (772) 633-1134.
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING-Net price $1.00 per word per insertion. Initials, letters as in street address, counted as individual words. No advertisement accepted for less than 10
words. Payable cash in advance. Blind Classified 10% additional. (A blind ad is one in which responses are addressed to the ABJ and then forwarded to the advertiser.) Extreme care
always is exercised in establishing the reliability of all advertisers, but the publishers do not guarantee advertisements. Orders close the 20th of the second month preceding cover
date. Send typed copy to : Advertising Dept., American Bee Journal, 51 S. 2nd St., Hamilton, IL 62341 or FAX to 217-847-3660 or e-mail to: abjads@dadant.com.
January 2019
American Bee Journal
PARSONS’ GOLD SOLUTION - The Only
Solution For Keeping Your Honey Bees
Healthy! Herbal Treatment Oil & Jelly
- Bee Grooming Stimulant - Train The
Bees To Do The Work - Healthy Bees
Year Round. No Negative Effects On
Bees, Queen, Wax or Honey. Business
(419) 273-3066; Cell (419) 235-7037.
www.parsonsgoldhoneybees.com #33
Treatment Loaded Syringe - $20.00
plus $8.00 S/H. Checks, Money Orders,
Credit Cards. Parsons’ Gold Apiaries,
c/o Robert B. Parsons, 2092 Twp. Rd.,
195, Forest, OH 45843.
For Sale – 3000 10-frame singles. 2015
queens, new equipment. Also, 5-frame
nucs available. Call Chris (941) 720-
6025.
Bobcat, Hummerbee and Superbee Trailers cus-
tom built. New S450 Bobcat’s, set up with masts
and fifth wheels complete. Fifth Wheels sold
separately. Used Bobcat’s bought, sold and trade-
ins welcome. Custom truck bodies and Custom
smoker boxes, all built by a beekeeper FOR bee-
keepers. www.tropictrailer.com - Eli Mendes
239-340-0484, eli@tropictrailer.com
5 frame Nucs, 10 frame single hives on four-way
pallets, doubles, and story and a half hives, avail-
able year round in large and small quantities. Lo-
cated in the Florida Panhandle. Call for pricing,
Ryan Faircloth 850-510-4627.
FOR SALE: Deep extracting supers, 9-frames per
super. (308) 470-0177.
5 Frame nucs in NorthEast Oklahoma. Available
Late April through Fall. No minimums. Taking
orders now for Spring 2018. www.RoarkAcres.
com Michael Roark (918)578-9201 nucs@
roarkacres.com
Hundreds of boxes with drawn comb. Deeps
+ shallows. Phoenix, Arizona (480) 206-8740.
ATTENTION BEEKEEPERS!!! OUT OF BUSI-
NESS SALE IN CALIFORNIA!!! REDUCED
PRICING!!! TRUCKS DO NOT MEET CALI-
FORNIA CARB REQUIREMENTS. 2 - 2007
Freightliner Flatbeds, 10-Wheelers 23’x8’
bed $30,000 each. 2006 International Flatbed
6-Wheeler 23’x8’ bed $15,000. USED IN BEE-
KEEPING OPERATION. ALL IN EXCEL-
LENT SHAPE. CALL FOR DETAILS - ANNE
661-805-0058.
New Beekeepers Forklift Trailers: 8000 lb. torflex
axle, 17.5/16 ply tires, electric brakes, tilt bed, ex-
panded metal treads. $6,500.00 For photos E-mail:
gcamfab@yahoo.com 269-685-1000 (cell/text).
MITE MEDICATION FOR SALE! ALL
TYPES, BEST PRICES, AND MORE! CALL
OR TEXT 909-800-2695 TODAY
FOR SALE: SEMI-LOADS OF DOUBLES - IN
OCTOBER - MIDWEST 308-470-0177.
BUSINESS FOR SALE! 600 PLUS HIVES,
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HIVES FOR SALE! DOUBLE DEEPS, GOOD
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Top quality cut comb honey. Comb in the jar,
and extracted star thistle, basswood, Florida or-
ange and melaleuca free pepper honey. 10 frame
singles and 5 frame nuc’s available for almonds.
Call Larry at 231-735-1203 or email debbie@
hilbertshoney.com
For Sale: 1000 hives; 10-frame doubles or singles
on 4-way clipped pallets, available after Almond
Pollination 2019. Very good condition. 5-frame
nuc’s available May 24th. Call (559) 974-4042,
Madera, CA.
For Sale: 1000 singles, 500 1 1/2 story on 4-way
pallets available after almond pollination in
CA. Very good condition. Also, 300 5-frame
nucs with new 2019 queens available April/
May. Contact (510) 731-7801.
Located in North Alabama, Madison County:
North Alabama Variable honey for sale, in 5-gal-
lon, food grade buckets. Call: Henry Rollins---
(256) 859-1747.
New 700 --6 5/8 supers w/foundation, painted,
ready for bees. $30 each. (360) 263-2425.
For Sale- 400 strong, heavy 8-frame doubles on
4-way pallets - good equipment. Before almonds
$320 - after almonds $160. OBO (949)407-0369.
FOR SALE: Good bees in newer equipment. Dou-
ble deep 8-frame hives and 1 ½ -story 10-frame
hives available after almonds in California. Call
Mark McCoy (561) 723-2921.
FOR SALE: 8-frame doubles, heavy, 2018
Queens, on 4-way pallets. Newer equipment.
$315.00 before almonds. $175.00 after almonds.
$140.00 second week of May. Cottonwood, CA.
Sam & Joyce Van Vleet, (530) 347-1987.
Supers for sale in California. 6 5/8 supers 10-
frame, 6 5/8 feeders with wooden tops. Cedar
lids. (909) 286-8288.
Bees and equipment for sale. 10-framer before
and after Almonds, new store bought queens. Pick
up 50 miles north of Bakersfield in Terra Bella,
CA. Call mornings: Fred Jones 559-719-9734.
BEES FOR SALE - After Almond Pollination,
10 Frame Double Deep, (951) 906-4254.
28-frame Cowen extractor, 1 season of use.
Tables and extractor only, $8,500.00-pickup
location: Grand Island, NE. Phone (402) 726-
2455, am-honeybees@outlook.com
For Sale: Used deep and shallow bee boxes w/
frames. Asking $10.00 each. Contact Arthur at
Dakota Gunness, Inc 701-553-8393 or 888-553-
8393.
Telescoping, insulated covers, screened bottom
boards. Used, good shape. Michael Gearig (989)
289-2000.
500 five frame nucs for sale late April-early May.
Lots of 100 -$125.00 each - Discount for whole.
520-730-8884. garden88@cox.net
Supers for sale 9 5/8, and 6 5/8 good equipment -
$22.50, truckload lots. Bees for sale, singles end
of April $125.00. Downsizing - call Paul Godlin
(559) 804-8678.
117
FOR SALE: 1000 telescoping lids - $4.00 each,
Kelley wax melter - $600.00, 170 8-frame hive
body with screen bottom boards - $8.00 each, 250
3-lb. empty package cages - $1.00 each. All in
good condition- (301) 416-0486.
4-way clip pallets, hive lids, empty hive boxes,
gallon feeder jars and extracting equipment
(209)324-6873.
KAPTARLIFT manual beehive lifter used
twice - $1250.00. You pick up. (989) 834-3026.
Semi-load of double deeps on 4-way pallets for
sale after almonds. Good bees – Good Equip-
ment – 2018 queens. Call Joey McCoy (561)
723-3170.
1000 Bee Hives for sale after al-
mond bloom. Strong hives. 10 fr.
equipment. New or near new equip-
ment. Sold as singles or doubles.
(530) 476-3211, (701) 226-6202.
5-frame nucs for sale in May - $125.00. 100 or
more $120.00. Bees are state inspected. Nice
equipment. Moses Stoltzfus, W12235 Spring
Creek Road, Black River Falls, WI 54615.
West central North Dakota beekeeping opera-
tion. Currently running 4000 plus story and
a half colonies. All 6 5/8” honey supers. 9000
square foot warehouse with employee living
quarters. Cowen 120 system, Cook and Beals
spin float and heat exchanger. 120 plus regis-
tered North Dakota locations and California al-
mond contracts. Complete turn key operation
with trucks, trailers, bobcats or partial sale.
All past production records available. Contact
phones: 701-938-4647 or 701-290-0175. Email
contact: bon@ndsupernet.com
FOR SALE: 5 SEMI LOADS of 1 1/2 story
beehives in excellent shape with new queens.
Available in March after the almonds in Cali-
fornia. Contact Bill Rhodes, 352-516-1134.
Single hives after almonds. 209-600-9905.
2500 10 Frame hives, 5 frame nucs.
Available in CA and CO. 970-856-6710
irishtemperbees@yahoo.com Will fill equip-
ment.
Retiring. 75 colonies, 120 Cowen Decapper De-
boxer, Auger, Spinner, Pump, 1000 6-5/8th Su-
pers, Lids, Pollen Traps, Drip Boards 6-5/8th
End bar machine, Much misc. 951-694-5319
HONEY FOR SALE
Excellent clover honey in drums and light beeswax
available. Mark Gilberts Apiaries, (608) 482-1988.
U.S. sweet clover, alfalfa, thistle mix, (9 drums of
black locust-limited supply), white honey, melter
honey, filtered, new drums, excellent honey- f.o.b.
several loads available. Produced by Baldwin
Apiaries, Darlington, WI (608) 776-3700.
Very nice looking & good tasting Nebraska
bottling honey. (402) 319-5125.
CLOVER – Buckwheat, Orange, Tupelo, and
Wildflower – pails or drums. PURE SWEET
HONEY FARM, 514 Commerce Parkway,
Verona, Wisconsin 53593. (608) 845-9601.
Clover, Basswood, Wildflower honey available in
pails and drums in WI. Great tasting! Light bees-
wax available. Call (262) 689-1000.
Honey and beeswax for sale. Clover, Orange
Blossom, Wildflower. Many varietals available.
Smitty Bee Honey (712) 748-4292.
QUALITY HONEY, barrels, your buckets.
Hollenbeck, Kirksville, Missouri. (660) 665-2542
evenings.
Viet Nam, Indian and Brazilian
honey for sale in bulk. Beeswax and
bee pollen in bulk. Please call 908-
967-1484. Email: info@Sarahimpex.
com
118
Premium Michigan Honey from blueberries,
wildflowers and thistle. Selling by truck load.
Call Cory at 269.217.4404.
Premium Florida honeys for all your pack-
ing needs: gallberry, mangrove, pepper,
orange blossom, call Ed 231-408-7485 or Steve
239-896-0777, email: edeisele@gmail.com or
seisele007@gmail.com.
Barrels ND white honey by the drum or truckload.
Call 701-650-0200. mackrillhoney@hotmail.
com
HONEY AND
BEESWAX WANTED
HONEY WANTED—Extracted or comb.
LEIGHTON’S HONEY, INC., 1203 Commerce
Ave. Haines City, Florida 33844. (863) 422-1773.
FAX (863) 421-2299
HONEY WANTED– all grades. Also, honey bar-
rels for sale. Contact Pure Sweet Honey Farm Inc.,
514 Commerce Parkway, Verona, WI. (608) 845-
9601.
Round comb, Fresh, good tasting
Pollen, Varietal Honeys. 800-678-1226.
tasty@zspecialtyfood.com
HONEY PRICE UPDATES. Call Honey
Hot Line. (763) 658-4193.
ROYAL JELLY
BEST 100% PURE FRESH ROYAL JELLY.
$65.00 per kilo + shipping. HIGHEST PO-
TENCY. LOWEST PRICES guaranteed on
large orders. TOP QUALITY. Stakich, Inc.
248-642-7023 X 301
POLLEN
QUALITY, CLEAN, LOW MOISTURE POL-
LEN $5.50/lb. Min. 10 lbs. + shipping. LOW-
EST PRICES guaranteed for large orders.
Stakich, Inc. Phone 248-642-7023 X 301
Fresh 2018 Northern California raw bulk pol-
len available. Available raw uncleaned and
semi-dried and cleaned. Call for pricing at
(916) 224-2211.
Fresh California pollen. Spring blend of wild-
flowers. Selling in bulk and shipping available
to 50 states. Cleaned, dried and frozen or raw.
Call for pricing (916) 956-8869.
Irradiated fresh pollen guaranteed from Cali-
fornia. We have irradiated fresh bee pollen for
sale. For inquiries or to place an order, please
email us at: backroadbeekeeping@gmail.com,
or call 916-716-0302. You can also visit us at
our website at backroadbeekeeping.com
POLLINATION
Bees wanted for the Almonds. Art Harris, 6301
Victor St. #63, Bakersfield, CA 93308 (661) 444-
1470.
Almond Pollination 2019 - We are looking for
over 4,000 additional hives for the 2019 season.
Wintering yards with full service maintenance,
feeding and medication. We have trucks, fork-
lifts and crew to place hives in orchard. You are
paid 50% on February 25th and 50% April 20th.
Visit:www.almondbeepollination.com for more
details. California Almond Pollination Service,
Inc. (209) 202-8915. E Mail: steve@almondbee.
buzz
WWW.POLLINATIONBOARD.COM
Search pollination jobs and submit price offers
directly to farmers. Find pollination contracts.
BEES AND QUEENS
JERRY FOSTER QUEENS quality Carniolan and
hybrid Italian queens at competitive prices. Nucs
and packages also. Jerry Foster Apiaries, 937 9th
St., Colusa, CA 95932. Phone (530) 458-4234.
Pacific Northwest mated queens. Orders of 50 or
more. Treasure Valley Idaho. Call for Pricing, Jon
@ (208) 412-1092. www.goldenbeeinc.com
QUALITY QUEENS from HAWAII, available
year round. Call KARRUS QUEENS (808)
854-5308.
3 lb Packages Bees for sale, for pick up in
Wisconsin. Contact: Mark Gilberts Apiaries 608-
482-1988.
Let us put bees into your equipment with enough
time to feed them up for the almonds. May be
willing to do the feeding. Also, willing to fill your
equipment in the spring. Call Rick Riggs (661)
204-2631.
Doubles, singles, brood for sale
year round. FOB Jan-April, Oak-
dale, CA. April-Dec., Milton Freewa-
ter, OR. Queens less than 6 months,
great equipment. Ryan@sweetbee
honeyco.com (360) 907-0842. $5k min.
purchase.
Marked Queens - 25 minimum order, tested on
full size deep frames - Breeders selected from
our most productive hives-$28 per queen + UPS
overnight. outwestapiary@gmail.com (530) 908
1311.
WILD SURVIVOR BREEDER QUEENS
NW Feral Stock - Hardy - Hygienic
Mite Tolerant - Disease Resistant.
– OLYMPIC WILDERNESS APIARY
Isolated Yards – (360) 928-3125. www.
wildernessbees.com
Taking orders for spring 2019 Russians Nucs! Call
today for pricing. (601)-433-9108.
NOW BOOKING FOR 2019 SEASON FOR
MN HYGIENIC QUEENS, BROOD, OR
FILL EQUIPMENT OUT OF OUR DEEP
EAST TEXAS LOCATION! FOR PRICING
AND SCHEDULING , CONTACT DARREL
@ (612) 325-1203.
2019 Early-bird pricing–School House Bees.
Italian & Russian-hybrid pkg bees & queens:
P/U–KY ship-midwest. 5-Frame Nucs, Single &
Double Hives P/U–KY. Pails of Spille’s honey all
year. www.schoolhousebees.com (859) 356-1350.
ITALIAN PACKAGE BEES, 3# $90.00, cage in-
cluded. Pick up only. 50 minimum. 10% deposit.
Cottonwood, CA. Sam & Joyce Van Vleet, (530)
347-1987.
HAWAIIAN QUEEN BEES
AVAILABLE JANUARY-APRIL.
971-808-3223. LIMITED QUANTI-
TIES - SCHEDULE YOUR DELIVERY
TODAY!
PACKAGE BEES AND QUEENS for sale spring
2019. Also, 10-frame singles and some double
deep 10-frame and 8-frame hives. Powell Apiar-
ies, 4140 Co. Rd. KK, Orland, CA 95963. Phone
(530) 865-3346. FAX (530) 865-3043.
Package Honey bees FOR SALE
in Ohio and eastern Indiana
www.olddrone.net
American Bee Journal

WANTED
Honey and Beeswax wanted. All colors and
varietals. Send samples or call Smitty Bee Honey
(712) 748-4292.
Wanted: A Halls Hoist. Dead or Alive!
rguntren@yahoo.com. 712 299 0486, Iowa
Beekeeper w/bees needed for 2019 North Da-
kota Honey Season. Serious inquiries only.
Contact: BumblebeePalace76@outlook.com
Wanted: Kelley round capping melter, wax sepa-
rator and stand. Call Bill (585) 352-4838.
HELP WANTED
Full time position available in Oregon. Bee-
keeping experience and CDL required. Contact
Ryan@sweetbeehoneyco.com PO Box 558,
Milton Freewater, OR 97862 (360)907-0842.
Seasonal and full-time help needed at our migratory
bee operation. We are located in FL and WI. We do
pollination, queen rearing and honey production.
Some experience preferred, team environment,
wages dependent on experience, good opportunity
or advancement. Prior work history and references
required. Contact Gary at (262) 689-1000.
Olivarez Honey Bees/Big Island Queens is seek-
ing motivated beekeepers to join our Hawaii
team! Experience preferred. Self-motivator and
ability to work in a team environment a plus. Po-
sitions are full time, salary based on experience.
Great Benefits Package. Prior work history and
references required. Advancement opportunities
available. Submit resume to info@ohbees.com
or Olivarez Honey Bees Inc/Big Island Queens,
P O Box 847 Orland Ca 95963, Fax: 530-865-
5570, Phone 530-865-0298
MISCELLANEOUS
The AMERICAN BEEKEEPING FEDERA-
TION has many benefits to offer its members.
Send for a membership packet of information
today! We also offer a free Beginning Beekeeping
Packet. Contact the AMERICAN BEEKEEPING
FEDERATION, 3525 Piedmont Rd. NE, Bld. 5.
Suite 300, Atlanta, GA 30305-1509, Phone (404)
760-2875, Fax 404-240-0998, or email info@
abfnet.org.
PERIODICALS
L’ABEILLE DE FRANCE—The most important
of the monthly publications in France - for all
beekeepers, from the amateurs to the professional.
Each month: an article for beginners, reports from
specialists, a review of the latest information all
over the world. Ask for a sample Annual subscrip-
tion: 40$ US. ABEILLE DE FRANCE- 5, rue du
Copenhague-F 75008 PARIS.
THE AUSTRALASIAN BEEKEEPER—
Senior Beekeeping Journal of the Southern
Hemisphere. Complete coverage of all bee-
keeping topics in one of the world’s largest
beekeeping countries. Published by Pender
Beekeeping Supplies Pty. Ltd., “Bilga” 79 Nay-
lor Road, Urila, N.S.W. 2620, Australia. Annual
subscription paid in advance $160 AUD.
THE AUSTRALIAN BEE JOURNAL—
Caters to both amateur and commercial
apiarists. Subscription $120.00 Australian
currently for all overseas subscribers per annum.
Published monthly. Victorian Apiarists’ Asso-
ciation, Inc., P.O. Box 40, California Gully,Vic.
Australia 3556 Ph: 03 5446 1543, Email:
vaa@vicbeekeepers.com.au.
BEECRAFT The UK’s leading monthly beekeep-
ing magazine. View a digital copy and subscribe on
line at www.bee-craft.com.
DIE BIENE – ALLGEMEINE DEUTSCHE IM-
KERZEITUNG (ADIZ) – IMKERFREUND The
Bee magazines with special publications in bee
January 2019
science and management for the hobbyist as well
Sanders Honey
as for the sideliner and professional beekeeper.
Three regional titles but same content today for
Germany except partly Imkerfreund for Bavaria.
Queens
Monthly publications with 64 pages. Subscription
Euro 44.50 per year – Deutscher Landwirtschafts-
For Sale
verlag GmbH, Postfach 870324, 13162 Berlin, Tel.
+49(0)30/293974-87, Fax +49(0) 30/293974-59,
www.diebiene.de
HIVELIGHTS, National magazine of the Cana-
dian Honey Council. Published quarterly. Free
sample on request, write to Canadian Honey
Josh Sanders
Council, Suite 236, 234-5149 Country Hills 7288 Perdie Lee Rd
Blvd. NW, Calgary AB T3A 5K8, CANADA.
Subscription information available at www. Nicholls GA 31554
912-399-8480
honeycouncil.ca.
HONEYBEE NEWS, The Journal of the New
South Wales Apiarists’ Association, Inc., Inter-
national Subscription AUS$50.00 (Airmail) Bank
Draft, Visa or MasterCard payable to NSW AA.
Published bi-monthly—For more information
contact: The Editor, PO Box 352, Leichhardt
South Georgia Apiaries
NSW 2040 Australia. E-mail: honeybee@
accsoft.com.au
IBRA (the International Bee Research Associa-
tion) is a unique organization established in 1949
Quality Italian Queens
for the advancement of bee science and beekeep-
ing. It publishes two magazines: JAR – the Jour- Queen cells
nal of Apiculture Research, for scientists, and BW
- Bee World, for beekeepers who want broaden for pick-up only at:
their horizons by learning about other beekeeping
traditions, other bees, other ideas. Members chose
300 Wisteria Ln.
which magazine(s) to include in their membership. Baxley, GA 31513
IBRA is a vital bridge between the local (hive)
and global concerns. IBRA is registered under UK Tel (912) 366-9022
charity law (Office: 91 Brinsea Road, Congresbury, Fax (912) 367-0012
Bristol, BS49 5JJ, UK) www.ibrabee.org.uk
IRISH BEEKEEPING—Read An Beachaire
(The Irish Beekeeper). Published monthly. Sub-
scription $50.00 per annum post free. Dermot
O’Flaherty, Journal Manager, Rosbeg, Westport,
Co. Mayo, Ireland
ATTENTION LIVESTOCK PRODUCERS—
GOT WAX? GET PAID!
Ranch Magazine is your monthly information
guide for Angora, Cashmere and meat goats, as
It’s that simple!
well as sheep and cattle. Comprehensive Breeder Light and dark.
Directory. 1-Yr $27, 2-Yrs $54. Foreign & Rendering services available.
Canada add $36 per yr. postage. Subscribe today!
Box 2678-ABJ, San Angelo, TX 76902. Call for
free sample. (325) 655-4434 BEE EXCELLENT
THE SCOTTISH BEEKEEPER—Monthly Maga-
zine of the Scottish Beekeeper’s Association. Inter- Phone (218) 776-3593
national in appeal, Scottish in character. View back
numbers and Subscription rates at: http://scottish Fax (218) 776-3502
beekeepers.org.uk E-mail bexcel@gvtel.com
SOUTH AFRICAN BEE JOURNAL—The offi- Global inquiries welcome.
cial organ of the S.A. Federation of Bee Farmers’
Associations. Published Bimonthly in English and
Afrikaans, primarily devoted to the African and
Cape Bee races. Subscriptions incl. postage (six
copies). All subscribers outside of South Africa
R100-00 surface mail, payment to be made in
S.A. Rands. NB. Sample copies only available
on receipt of a donation. P.O. Box 41 Modder-
fontein, 1645, South Africa.
ULADAG BEE JOURNAL - Publication of
Uludag Beekeeping Association, published quar-
terly in Turkish (with English titles and summa-
ries of all articles) and English in all aspects of
beekeeping; beekeeping news, practical beekeep-
ing, and research articles, and considered a link
between Turkish beekeeping and the world. Gazci-
lar Cad. No. 9/2 16220 Bursa-TURKEY Fax:+90
224 224 3964 http://www.uludagaricilik.org.tr
119
 LOHMAN APIARIES
since 1946
Quality Queens and Packages
Old World Carniolan
for Over-wintering and Honey Production
Dennis Lohman Apiaries
6437 Wagner Road
ARBUCKLE, CALIFORNIA 95912
530-476-2322
Member of California Bee Breeders Association

120 American Bee Journal

 E. Suhre Bees
Package Bees available April and May

Queens available April through October

For information, pricing or ordering

call Eric (530) 228-3197

Borntrager Bee Farm

4036 Gaitan Lane
Beeville, TX 78102
361-362-1408
(Let ring during business hours) or
361-362-3283
Italian & Carniolan Queens 2018 Prices
1-9 10-24 25-99 100+
$25.00 $23.00 $21.00 $20.00
Virgins $10.00
Ask for cells and nucs

January 2019 121


A.N. Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
A & O Forklift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Acorn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
American Bee Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
American Honey Producers . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Bastin Honey Bee Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
BeeCulture.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Bee Excellent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Bee Hive Thermal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
BeeInformed.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Beekeepingins.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Beeline Apiaries & Woodenware . . . . . . . 120
Beelite Wax Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
BeePros.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Bee Smart Designs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Betterbee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Blue Ridge Honey Company . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Blue Sky Bee Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Bordelon Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Borntrager Bee Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Brand New Industries, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Brown Honey Co. Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Browning Cut Stock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Brumley Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Bucko Gloves, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Buzz’s Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
CC Pollen Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Complete Bee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Contract Pros Mfg.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Cook & Beals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Cowen Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Dadant & Sons, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 80, 97,
120 & Back Cover
Dakota Gunness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Draper’s Super Bee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Ernst Seeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
East Texas 10-Frame Singles for Sale . . . . . 98
122
Advertising Index
Globalpatties.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Hardeman Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Hawaiian Queen Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Heilyser Technology Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Heitkams Honey Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Hilbert’s Honey Bees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Hogg Halfcomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Honey B Healthy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Honey Land Farms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Horace Bell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Jester Bee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
JJ’s Honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Koehnen, C.F. & Sons, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Kona Queen Hawaii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Lohman Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Mann Lake Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26, 53, 72
Maxant Industries, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Meyers, A.H. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Miller Bee Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Mother Lode Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Nod Apiary Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Old Sol Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Olivarez Honey Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
OxaVap.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Park-Burris Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Pierco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Plastic Packaging Concept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Pollination Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Powell Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Queen Right Colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
QSI Honey and Food Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
R.M. Farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
RealTexasHoney.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Roberts Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Ross Rounds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Rossman Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Sanders Honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Selby Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Shastina Millwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Sherriff, B.J. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Simpson’s Bee Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Southeast Bee Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
South Florida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
South Georgia Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Spell Bee Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Stan’s Pure Honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Stayers Quality Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Strachan Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Strong Microbials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Suhre, Adam Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Suhre, E. Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Sunshine Honey Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Superior Bee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Swienty Beekeeping Equipment . . . . . . . . . 13
Taber’s Honey Bee Genetics . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Texas Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Tree’s for Bees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
T.R.S. Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
VitabeeHealth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
VMVaporizer.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
VP Queen Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Weaver, R. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Western Bee Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Wicwas Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Wilbanks Apiaries Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Winters Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Wintersun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Wooten’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Z Specialty Food, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
American Bee Journal
March 2018 123
124 American Bee Journal