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Volume 158 No. 2 February 2018
Contents
Email
[email protected]
Web
www.americanbeejournal.com
Editor-Kirsten Traynor Advertising Manager-Marta Menn
Publishing Department- Dianne Behnke & Susan Nichols
Hygeniec Behavior and the

Scent of Death — 183
● Props for Beekeepers

Howard Scott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163
● Modeling the Effect of Mite Treatments

Randy Oliver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169
Articles
An Engineer Takes on Varroa — 215

● How to Avoid the Crowds
Caroline Abbott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Departments
● The Ancient Honey Bees Rome Letters to the
Fausto Ridolfi and Susan Cobey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Newsnotes . . . . . . . . . 137
● The Whole Food Diet of Bees
Stephanie Pain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 U .S . Honey Crops
and Markets . . . . . . . . 147
● Treatise of Practical Bee Management Beekeepers: The Next
Susan Holliday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Generation . . . . . . . . . 224
Classified
● An Engineer Takes on Varroa Advertising . . . . . . . . . 233
Charles Linder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Advertising Index . . . . 236
The Classroom
Columns Notes from the Lab: The Latest Bee Science Distilled
Jerry Hayes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Scott McArt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
A Quick-Start Guide to Honey Bee Antennae The Insider’s Perspective

Rusty Burlew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Alison McAfee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
February Cover Picture Bees & Beekeeping, Past & Present

Wyatt A. Mangum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
This incredible headshot of a bee was taken by photogra- For the Love of Bees and Beekeeping
pher Jonathan Willner. He found this little bee resting in Keith Delaplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
the morning on a wooden post in a community garden in
town. To capture this incredible detail, he used a very cus- American Bee Journal ISSN 0002-7626
tom ‘’home made ‘’ set up using painters tape and gorilla AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL (ISSN 002-7626) is ing to National Archive Publishing Co., 300 N. Zeeb
tape. It involved 3 macro extension tubes with an 85mm published monthly at American Bee Journal, 51 S. Road, P.O. Box 998, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106.
1.8 lens mounted on the tubes and a 50mm 1.4 lens liter- 2nd Street, Hamilton, IL 62341. Periodicals Postage ©Copyright Dadant & Sons, Inc., 2017. All rights re-
ally taped on backwards to give a macro effect. Jonathan Paid at Hamilton, IL and at additional mailing offices. served, printed in USA. The Publishers cannot guar-
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to American antee advertisements in this magazine, but we ask that
Charles Willner - Photographer @ ArtofJCW Bee Journal, 51 S. 2nd Street, Hamilton, IL 62341. In any advertising complaints be made known to us, so we
Email : [email protected] the United States, $28.00 a year; two years, $53.00 can further check the company’s reliability. Opinions
(661) 309-7628 and three years, $75.00. Canada $45.00 a year; two expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the
years $88.00. Foreign $52.00 a year; two years $99.00. publisher. American Bee Journal, 51 S. 2nd St., Hamil-
www.Facebook.com/ArtofJCW Subscriptions stop at expiration date printed on label. ton, IL 62341. (888) 922-1293. Fax (217) 847-3660.
Instagram @ArtofJCW Available in microfilm form at moderate prices by writ-
February 2018 127

128 American Bee Journal
Dear Readers,
The days are getting longer again.
The big winter beekeeping confer-
ences are behind us and commercial
beekeepers are already in full swing.
Backyard beekeepers in more temper-
ate climates often use this time of year
to catch up on mending boxes and to
prepare equipment for the spring.
They heft hives for weight to make
sure the bees have enough to eat.
I like this time of year, because it
forces me to slow down and reflect
on the spring that lies ahead. Plan
for what I want to achieve with my
bees. It’s also a time for catching up
on reading. I very much enjoy long-
form science articles. The Guardian
published an excellent one entitled Some of my honey bee queen cells. I always feed my colonies when rearing queens, and make
‘A different dimension of loss’: inside the sure the cell builders are full of young bees, which results in light wax and well-mottled cells.
great insect die-off:
Black, executive director of the Xe- scribes how honey bee antennae work
About 2m species of plants, ani- rces Society for Invertebrate Conser- in her column The Curious Beekeeper.
mals and fungi are known to sci- vation in Portland, Oregon. “But it is We have some exciting articles in
ence thus far. No one knows how a visceral reaction when you realize the works from new and regular con-
many are left to discover. Some put you don’t see that mess anymore.” tributors. As always, I encourage you
it at around 2m, others at more than to reach out and let us know what top-
100m. The true scope of the world’s Myriad factors underlie these insect ics you would like to read about. Per-
biodiversity is one of the biggest and losses. While we don’t often notice sonally, I would love to see some more
most intractable problems in the sci- insects, except when they’re buzzing on micro bee breeders and how they
ences. … But even as thousands of us at a picnic or feasting on us at twi- adapt their operations to rear queens.
new species are being discovered light, they are the foundation blocks As I am always thinking a few months
every year, thousands more seem to ahead, I would enjoy receiving articles
of our entire food chain. As the insects
be disappearing, swept away in an
disappear, the larger animals that feed on methods of how to boost honey
ecological catastrophe that has come
to be known as the sixth extinction. on them go hungry. production, while minimizing swarm-
…We live in an invertebrate Nutrition definitely underpins ing. Tell us what has worked for you
world. Of all known animal species, honey bee health. Well-nourished or what failed miserably.
less than 5% have backbones. About bees can fend off other stressors much Wishing you a very successful bee-
70% are insects. Fewer than one in more easily. Check out this month’s keeping season! Happy Reading,
every 200 are mammals, and a huge article on pg XXX by Stephanie Pain
proportion of those are rodents. on “The Whole Food Diet of Bees,” Kirsten S. Traynor
Looked at from the point of view of which delves into the latest research. [email protected]
species diversity, we mammals are The bees of backyard beekeeper Car-
just a handful of mice on a globe full oline Abbott flourished in her home Endnotes
of beetles. apiary until a large-scale operation 1 https://www.theguardian.com/environ
ment/2017/dec/14/a-different-dimension
moved in nearby. Suddenly her bees -of-loss-great-insect-die-off-sixth-
While honey bee colony losses con- were competing for forage with 75 extinction
tinue to be high, our European honey new colonies. The next year that grew 2 h t t p : / / w w w. s c i e n c e m a g . o r g / n e w s /
bees Apis mellifera are not in danger to 144. She needed to act, but what 2017/05/where-have-all-insects-gone
of extinction. But their less social and could she do? Learn how she used
solitary cousins—the bumble bees, technology and sleuthing to find a
the mining bees, the sweat bees, and safe spot for her bees.
all the bees we have not yet named— There has been much talk about
are at much greater risk of vanishing. the glycerin and oxalic slow release
Many people have noted the wind- varroa mite treatments. Randy Oliver
shield phenomenon, described beau- released an update in last month’s
tifully in a Science article: issue on his own trials. This month,
“If you talk to people, they have Charles Linder, an engineer by train-
a gut feeling. They remember how ing, investigates how oxalic actually
insects used to smash on your wind- kills varroa mites.
screen,” says Wolfgang Wägele, di- This month’s cover is by photog-
rector of the Leibniz Institute for rapher Jonathan Willner, who I dis-
Animal Biodiversity in Bonn, Ger- covered through a Facebook group
many. Today, drivers spend less posting. The close-up detail on the One of my young mated Carniolan
time scraping and scrubbing. “I’m a honey bee head seemed a perfect fit queens with an excellent retinue of
very data-driven person,” says Scott for this issue as Rusty Burlew de- attendants.
February 2018 131

Letters to the Editor
Send your letters to the editor, Attn: Kirsten Traynor, Dadant, 51 S. 2nd Street,
Hamilton, IL 62341, Fax: 1-217-847-3660, or email: [email protected]
Due to size and content, we may be unable to publish all information received. Thank You!
MAY 20TH DECLARED WORLD lamation of World Bee Day to the business community and civil society.
BEE DAY UN in response to an initiative of the Awareness of the vital importance of
Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association – saving the bees must reach every in-
Dear beekeeping colleagues, expressed his satisfaction at the out- dividual. And we must do more than
The 20th of May was declared as come: “After three years of efforts, just talk – we must undertake concrete
World Bee Day on the 20th of Decem- we have succeeded with this initia- activities to increase care for bees and
ber, 2017 at the General Assembly of tive. Bees and other pollinators finally promote the development of beekeep-
the United Nations in New York! have the place they deserve in view ing – everywhere, including in devel-
From now one every year on this of their importance for the world and oping countries.”
day, the attention of the global pub- for humanity. The proclamation of Carla Mucavi, Director of the Food
lic will be drawn to the importance of World Bee Day proves that the will and Agriculture Organization of the
preserving bees and other pollinators. to take action does exist. I am happy United Nations (FAO) Liaison Office
People will be reminded of the impor- that realization of the importance of in New York, commented: “Bees play
tance of bees for humanity and invited bees for sustainable development and a crucial role in increasing crop yields
to take concrete action to preserve and the future of humanity in general has and promoting food security and nu-
protect them. The resolution was co- (been) reflected in the consensual trition. Without them, we could lose a
sponsored by 115 UN Member States, support to the resolution.” variety of food such as potatoes, pep-
including the USA, Canada, China, Mr Židan also took the opportu- per, coffee, pumpkins, carrots, apples,
the Russian Federation, India, Brazil, nity to thank all countries for their almonds, tomatoes, just to name a
Argentina, Australia and all the Euro- support, but ended with a warning: few. In short, without bees, FAO can-
pean Union Member States. “This is just the beginning of the dif- not achieve a world without hunger.
Dejan Židan – head of the World ficult process of the protection of bees World Bee Day recognizes the impor-
Bee Day project and Deputy Prime and other pollinators. In order to be tance of these tiny helpers and will
Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, successful, we must bring on board increase awareness of the need to
the country that proposed the proc- the governments of all countries, the protect them.”
February 2018 133

“I believe we all agree that every ence and research, that will never hap-
human being on this planet deserves pen. This new beehive on the grounds
food every day. We have to produce of the Naval Observatory is nothing
more food every day, and every day more than window dressing. NOTICE: PHOTOS WANTED
more food is dependent on pollinators EnclosEd ApiAriEs
– with honey bees in the lead. To talk Michael Benich Does your apiary have an enclosure
about reducing global hunger without to keep it separate from humans? ABJ
ensuring conditions for the survival of is researching an article on apiary
bees and other pollinators, is simply enclosures, particularly for urban en-
throwing sand in people’s eyes! It is vironments. Please send your image
time for everyone to listen to bees, (minimum 1200 pixels on the short
in particular leaders and those who edge), with photographer credit, to
make decisions,” said Boštjan No, pro- [email protected] by April 30th.
moter of the World Bee Day initiative By sending you are consenting to po-
and president of the Slovenian Bee- tential publication in a future issue.
keepers’ Association, adding: “From
today on, 20 May will be a worldwide
celebration of bees and beekeepers. I
believe that with the proclamation of
World Bee Day, the world will begin
to think more broadly about bees, in
particular in the context of ensuring
conditions for their survival, and thus
for the survival of the human race.”
With Best Regards,

The Slovenian Beekeepers Association
REGARDING THE ARTICLE:

THERE’S A NEW BUZZ IN DC
For real? A new buzz? Did the
author forget that in 2015 Michelle
Obama put a bee hive on the White
House grounds? I would also take
Mrs. Pence’s reported concern about
CCD more seriously if her husband
didn’t serve in an administration that
has effectively dismantled the EPA, re-
sulting in the loss of hundreds of val-
ued senior scientists. This is the same
agency that has the power to imple-
ment restrictions on the use of the very
chemicals that certainly play a role in
CCD. But without scientists and with
new EPA leadership dismissing sci- Example of a utilitarian bee enclosure
This bee enclosure blends in with the landscape The fencing can make a perfect backdrop for wildflowers

February 2018 135
Honey bees, a principal pollinator in agriculture and
natural environments, have suffered from colony declines
in recent years. The gut bacteria in bees and their pollen-
rich diet are known contributors to honey bees’ health,
and understanding the functions of the various bacteria
could have implications for colony health as a whole.
News
“We took advantage of the key characteristics of the
bee gut microbiota: its simplicity.” says lead author
Philipp Engel. “Contrary to human gut microbiota, the
bee gut is composed of only a few bacterial species. This
Notes
makes analyzing each member separately and determin-
ing its contribution to the overall metabolite changes in
the gut feasible.”
“We have identified many exciting metabolic functions
of bee gut bacteria. The next step is to understand how
these functions impact colony’s health so that one day we
can apply our findings in apiaries.”
HOW HONEY BEE GUT BACTERIA The original research paper is freely available in
HELP TO DIGEST THEIR PLOS Biology: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/
POLLEN-RICH DIET article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003467
The honey bee gut is colonized by specialized bacteria

that help digest components of the floral pollen diet and NEW MAPS SHOW SHRINKING
produce molecules that likely promote bee health. In a
recent study published in PLOS Biology, a group of re- WILDERNESS BEING
searchers from Switzerland uncovered which bacterial IGNORED AT OUR PERIL
species perform which specific digestive functions in the
bee gut. by thE WildlifE consErvAtion sociEty
The authors measured the repertoire of simple chemi-
cal compounds - the so-called “metabolome” - from bee
guts. They then compared the gut metabolomes of bees
colonized with each bacterial species individually and in
combination. This let the team identify what each bacte-
rial species contributes to the bee.
They found one Lactobacillus that digests specific plant
compounds called flavonoids - abundant in pollen and
recently linked to the health of mice and humans through
their breakdown by the gut microbiota. Another bee gut
bacterial species, Bifidobacterium asteroides, triggered the
production of bee hormones that can modulate the im-
mune system and behavior of its host.
Credit: James Allan UQ

Humans have transformed the landscape to an amazing
degree. We are losing our wild places, where much biodi-
versity of insects still awaits undiscovered. Many species
of bees live in these untouched areas, pollinating a great
diversity of plants. A new study shows how much of our
wilderness areas we have lost since 1993.
These maps of our most important wilderness areas
are now freely available online following a University of
Queensland and Wildlife Conservation Society-led study.
The authors have made the maps available to assist re-
searchers, conservationists and policy makers to improve
wilderness conservation.
UQ School of Earth and Environmental Sciences PhD
student James Allan said these wilderness areas were
strongholds for endangered biodiversity and critical in
the fight to mitigate climate change.
“These ecosystems play a key role in regulating local
climates, sequestering and storing large amounts of car-
Scientists have uncovered which bacterial species in the bee bon and supporting many of the world’s most culturally
gut allow them to digest their pollen-rich diet. diverse - but politically and economically marginalized
Credit: Bob Peterson, Flickr communities,” Allan said.
February 2018 137

The maps show that the majority of remaining wil- While some organic pioneers are bemoaning what they
derness areas are in the deserts of Central Australia, the perceive as the ongoing degradation of a brand founded
Amazon rainforest in South America, the Tibetan plateau in an ideological movement, others see this as a time to
in central Asia, and the boreal (snow) forests of Canada, critically reassess what organic really means, and how that
Alaska, and Russia. ancient model of agriculture fits into the bigger picture of
“Despite their importance, wilderness areas are being de- feeding and fueling 7.6 billion people in the 21st century.
stroyed at an alarming rate and need urgent protection with
almost 10 per cent being lost since the early 1990s. Their
conservation is a global priority,” Allan said.
Wildlife Conservation Society and UQ Associate Pro-
fessor James Watson said he anticipated the maps would
be important for identifying places where conservation
actions must occur. “Environmental policy almost com-
pletely ignored wilderness conservation but this has to
change. National governments and multilateral environ-
mental agreements such as the World Heritage convention
need to step up and protect wilderness before it is too late.”
WORLD BEE DAY

Image by CNBC
The industry has long grappled with internal philo-

sophical fissures. But these recently turned into a very
public split when the US Department of Agriculture ruled
that hydroponic and aquaponic farms, which grow crops
in nutrient solutions, and frequently indoors, could con-
tinue to display the economically valuable organic seal.
Organic pioneers were outraged, claiming the Nov. 1
decision undermined the founding principles of a move-
ment dedicated to soil health and regeneration. “They did
The resolution declaring May 20th as World Bee Day incalculable damage to the seal,” lamented organic tomato
was adopted at the plenary session of the United Nations farmer Dave Chapman in an interview with the Washing-
General Assembly on December 20th, 2017. See the Letter ton Post. “It’s just going to take them a while to realize it.”
to the Editor. Some of the reaction was grounded in the organic move-
Bees and other pollinators are extremely important ment’s general disdain for large agribusiness firms, such
when it comes to ensuring the global safety of the food as Driscoll’s, a conventional and organic grower that has
supply chain. Every third spoonful of food depends on used hydroponics to capture a significant share of the fresh
pollination. By pollinating crops, bees also provide a sig- berry market. A similar uproar occurred earlier this year
nificant source of jobs and income for farmers, which is around claims that certain producers, most notably “in-
particularly important for developing countries. An inter- dustrial” dairies, weren’t meeting the spirit —and perhaps
national study of IPBES estimates that the annual global not even the legal requirements —of the organic brand.
food production which depends on pollination is worth Though big business doesn’t dovetail with the bucolic,
between USD $235 and $577 billion. In addition, bees also small farm image that the organic brand trades on, it’s
have an important role in nature conservation. Studies of part and parcel of the actual workings of the industry.
UN Agencies and the International Union for Conserva- Indeed, many organic food companies have already sold
tion of Nature show that bee populations and the popu- out to multinational corporations like General Mills, Post,
lations of other pollinators have significantly decreased, Smuckers, Coca Cola, Miller-Coors, Nestle, Perdue Farms,
making them more and more endangered. Kellog’s and Hain-Celestial.
Therefore, the Republic of Slovenia, on the initiative And some hydroponic growers, such as those repre-
of the Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association, initiated pro- sented by the Recirculating Farms Coalition, are in fact
cedures in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the small, eco-friendly farmers who staunchly defended their
United Nations in 2015 to declare World Bee Day, and practices. Following the ruling, Marianne Cufone, the Co-
proposed a resolution which would emphasize the im- alition’s executive director, issued a statement that read,
portance of bees and other pollinators. in part:
“By siding with current science and recognizing that
existing law purposely leaves the door open for various
farming methods, the NOSB is sending a critical message
IS “ORGANIC” GOING THROUGH AN that sustainability and innovation are valuable in U.S. ag-
EXISTENTIAL CRISIS? riculture.”
Still, as National Public Radio pointed out, the fight re-
by Joan Conrow ally seems to be grounded in market share, since hydro-
Though it’s too early to tell whether it’s imploding — or ponic operations are already dominating organic tomato,
merely suffering growing pains — the $50 billion Ameri- pepper, lettuce, cucumber and berry production. That
can organic industry is going through some serious soul- economic reality may explain why the National Organic
searching. Standards Board (NOSB) accepted hydroponics and aqua-

culture, but rejected aeroponics, a related practice that has sumers Association helps to fund the anti-GMO movement,
yet to attract the same consumer base. which associates with anti-vaccine activists and health
quacks. This year, two documentaries — Food Evolution
and Science Moms — brought the anti-GMO movement’s
cognitive dissonance and scientific silliness to the screen.
Meanwhile, researchers have begun challenging the in-
dustry’s claims of environmental superiority, noting that
organic growers do use pesticides and typically engage
in more tillage than conventional farmers, a practice that
contributes to erosion, topsoil loss and carbon emissions.
Organic farmers also rely on animal fertilizers, and the
livestock industry has been taking a beating for its contri-
bution to climate change.
Other studies have questioned whether organic agri-
culture can produce sufficient quantities of food to meet
global demand — without requiring everyone to go veg-
etarian and/or expand farming into wild areas.
Nutritionists fret that pesticide fears stoked by the or-
Hydroponic lettuce. Image by Inhabit.com ganic industry are causing people to shy away from eat-
ing conventionally grown fresh fruits and veggies, even
And despite Cufone’s optimistic assessment, the NOSB
though samples consistently show they contain only trace
appears to have ignored sustainability, innovation and
residues. Others object to the way that organic marketing
science in its treatment of biotechnology, which is poised
has contributed to food elitism and romanticized — some
to deliver crops that can survive on minimal water and
would say impractical — notions about farming.
produce high yields without the use of chemical fertiliz-
As a result, some media sources have been looking more
ers. These applications and others now being developed
critically at core consumer assumptions about the organic
by public sector researchers certainly appear compatible
brand, notably its claims to be pesticide-free and more nu-
with the environmental and populist visions of the or-
tritious than its conventionally grown counterpart.
ganic movement.
And though the industry has been wildly successful
Nevertheless, the Board last year reaffirmed its com-
at marketing, it’s now facing challenges in that arena —
plete rejection of gene editing and synthetic biology with
again from within its own ranks. The Detox Project re-
the dubious claim that “every organic stakeholder is clear
cently launched its “glyphosate residue-free” verification
that genetic engineering is an imminent threat to organic
and labeling project with the ominous warning that “even
integrity.”
organic isn’t enough” to ensure that a product is free of
However, at least two organic farmers, Raoul Adam-
the widely used— and heavily demonized — herbicide. In
chak and Amy Hepworth, see value in GE. They’re at the
the opportunistic world of marketing, it seems someone is
forefront of an effort to make organic farming more in-
always ready to up the ante.
clusive, which could mean growing crops genetically en-
This new public scrutiny underscores a widening rift
gineered to ward off insects without the use of pesticide
within the industry itself over what organic really means
applications — synthetic or organic.
today, some 70 years after the movement first began to
“The organic movement was successful in changing
take hold. Although some organic pioneers are threaten-
the way the agricultural industry operates,” Hepworth, a
ing to pack up their marbles and go home, other farm-
seventh-generation family farmer who grows 400 acres of
ers and researchers are questioning whether the original
certified organic vegetables in New York, told the Alliance
practices and philosophy can — or should — endure in-
for Science. “But the time has come to release ourselves
tact in the face of climate change and science-based agri-
from the tyranny of the label — taking its valuable lessons
cultural innovations.
and evolving beyond organic to create the safest, most eco-
logically, economically, and socially-just agricultural system
Published by Joan Conrow
possible. Advances in biotechnology are a natural fit to meet
Writer. Thinker. Multimedia communicator.
the demand of the population for sustainably grown food.”
Adamchak, who teaches organic farming at the Univer-
This article originally appeared on her website blog
sity of California-Davis, has proposed a new certification
https://joanconrow.net on Dec 5th, 2017. Visit her website
program for “sustainable agriculture” that would include
to read the article with extensive links to sources.
GE crops. “I think there can be improvements made to
organic agriculture that are science-based,” he said. “It’s
a time when we need all the tools possible.”
Dan Blaustein-Rejto, The Breakthrough Institute’s agri-
cultural analyst, is taking it one step further. He’s begun TOXIC COMBO: PESTICIDES
arguing that organic production is a luxury we can’t af- AND POOR NUTRITION
ford to indulge in this era of increasingly erratic weather DAMAGE HONEY BEE HEALTH
patterns and a burgeoning population:
Rather than focusing on organic production, we ought The combined effects of pesticides and a lack of nutri-
to promote any production method that minimizes land tion form a deadly one-two punch, new research from
use and farming’s other environmental impacts while biologists at the University of California San Diego has
providing enough healthy food for everyone. shown for the first time.
Biotech isn’t the only area where the organic industry has In a study published Dec. 20 in Proceedings of the Royal
found itself on the wrong side of science. The Organic Con- Society B, Simone Tosi, James Nieh and their colleagues
February 2018 139

Declines in honey bee health have caused global con-
cern due to the insect’s critical ecological role as a major
pollinator. Bee health has been closely watched in recent
years as nutritional sources available to honey bees have
declined and contamination from pesticides has increased.
Using honey bees as model animals, the researchers
found that combined exposure to pesticide and poor nu-
trition decreased their health. Bees use sugar to fuel their
flights and work inside the nest. Pesticides decreased their
hemolymph (“bee blood”) sugar levels and therefore de-
creased their energy stores.
“These findings should cause us to rethink our current
pesticide risk assessment procedures, which, based upon
our findings, may underestimate the toxic effects of pesti-
cides on bees,” said Tosi.
In addition, Nieh, a professor in the Section of Ecology,
Behavior and Evolution, noted that their results “may
have even broader implications beyond honey bees, be-
Credit: Simone Tosi, UC San Diego
cause prior studies have not demonstrated a negative syn-
ergistic effect of pesticides and poor nutrition in animals.”
used honey bees due to their important role as agricul-
tural pollinators and “bioindicators” of environmental
quality. The researchers studied how honey bees fared
with exposure to neonicotinoids—pesticides broadly used OBITUARY
in agriculture—along with limited nutrient sources, sce-
narios that are commonly found in agricultural areas. PHIL MAY - SUNNY HILL HONEY COMPANY
The scientists studied two common neonicotinoid pes-
ticides, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, which are used An icon in the beekeeping industry recently passed
worldwide in vegetable, fruit and grain crops. However, away on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2017 at the
after these pesticides are applied to crops they remain in age of eighty-three. The May family has been in beekeep-
the environment and can be found in nectar, pollen, water ing and honey production since 1934 and were owners
and soil. of May’s Honey Farm and the producers of Sunny Hill
The researchers were surprised to find that bee deaths Honey.
increased by up to 50 percent more than they expected Phil was born in Chicago in 1934 to George and Alvina
compared with the individual effects of pesticides and May. Phil and his father George got hives from an aunt
poor nutrition. Surprisingly, no previous studies have who moved to Palatine in 1948. There were two hives on
tested for such “synergistic” effects, where these threats her property which they purchased. They kept expand-
combine and amplify the negative impacts beyond the ing, buying more and more equipment—new and used.
sums of the individual factors. They would extract honey in their garage on the north-
“We tested the effects of different neonicotinoid pesti- west side of Chicago and sold to bakeries and on street
cides, because of a growing concern and evidence about corners. In fact, George would drop Phil and his sister
negative effects of these pesticides on pollinators,” said off on street corners with a chair and honey and expect
Tosi, a postdoctoral researcher in UC San Diego’s Division them to sell.
of Biological Sciences. “Our results provide the first dem- In 1964, they bought an old school house in Marengo and
onstration that these stressors can synergistically interact transformed it into an extracting facility. It was remodeled
and cause significant harm to animal survival.” and is a high-tech facility used to this day. George was
thrifty, but Phil kept expanding until they had about 1,400
hives in the ‘70s. They never sent hives out to almond pol-
To measure energy levels in honey bees, researchers ex-

tracted their “blood” (hemolymph) using a microcapillary
tube. Credit: Riccardo Cabbri

WORLDWIDE
3RD AUSTRALIAN BEE CONGRESS
Hosted by the
Australian Honey Bee Industry Council Inc.
June 27th – 30th, 2018
Theme of “Pollination and Beekeeping

for the Future”.
www.australianbeecongress.com.au
www.australianbeecongress.com.au
REGIONAL
lination, but do pollination for apples, pumpkins, cukes,

and vine crops within sixty miles of home.
The last twenty-five years, they have been packing and
selling everything to stores. Sunny Hill Honey is cur-
rently sold through over 150 retailers in the Chicago area. Conference (Aug 15-17) Speakers Include:
Phil was really good at going out and getting accounts. (subject to change)
He loved selling more than working bees! He really en- • Celia Davis, NOB (National Diploma in Beekeep-
joyed getting out and meeting the people! ing, UK)
Phil kept right on working to the end. A year ago, he • Dr. Jamie Ellis, University of Florida
was still extracting. More recently he could be found la- • Randy Oliver, Scientific Beekeeping
beling and bottling several days a week. • Mike Palmer, French Hill Apiaries, Vermont
Phil was active in the American Beekeeping Federation • Freddy Proni, North Carolina Grown
for sixty years. He was twenty-three when he started and • Sammy Ramsey, University of Maryland
went to almost all of the conventions. He also enjoyed at- • Dr.Juliana Rangel, Texas A&M
tending and speaking at the Northern Illinois Beekeepers’ • Dr. Jennifer Tsuruda, Clemson University
Association and Cook DuPage Beekeepers’ Association. • Dr. Kirsten Traynor, American Bee Journal
According to his son Tim, Phil’s greatest pleasure came in • Michael Young, MBe, Institute of Northern Ireland
sharing his knowledge with other beekeepers. Beekeepers and many others
In addition to his late father George, Phil’s sons Tim
and Tom as well as grandson Colin work in the business. Short Course (Aug 13 & 14) Topics Include:
Phil’s wife Jeannine and family welcomed guests at his • Beginners Track
funeral in Woodstock, Illinois. • Intermediate Track
• Apiary Track
• Electronic Hive Monitoring
• Excellence in Honey & Hive Products
• Queen Rearing
Special Events:
• Beekeepers’ Beach Bash
• Tea with Celia Davis
• Queen of the Sun Film Screening
• Honey Show and Awards Banquet
• Silent Auction and Dinner
• Trip to historic Jamestown, entry point for honey
bees into North America
• Trip to St. George’s Brewery and Apiary
February 2018 141

YOUTH SCHOLARSHIP TO ATTEND EAS STATES
Ages 18-25 ARIZONA
Win $1000 scholArship to Attend entire Week At 11th Annual Organic Beekeepers Conference is now ac-
eAstern Apiculture society conference cepting speakers and attendees for the March 2-4, 2018
conference, held at Triangle YMCA Ranch in Oracle, AZ.
Applications due by April 30, 2018. Registration fee is $240 per person and includes 2 nights
Details at EAS website, click “Master Beekeepers”, se- lodging, 6 catered meals, all refreshments during confer-
lect “scholarship”. http://www.easternapiculture.org/ ence, and free vendor space.
master-beekeepers/youth-scholarship.html Topics include chemical free beekeeping, bee breed-
ing, field hive management, and apitherapy. Contact Dee
Lusby to register at [email protected] or by phone in
the evenings 520 748 0542.
HEARTLAND APICULTURAL SOCIETY
to host 16th AnnuAl Beekeeping Workshop
At WAshington university in st. louis on CALIFORNIA
JULY 11-13, 2018
uc dAvis Beekeeping clAsses
Beekeeping Extension Specialists and Scientists
to Present Courses for
Beginners and Experienced Beekeepers
Program to feature Lectures, Labs, Queen Rearing, and
Classes, Field Trips to Sites of
National Significance, and Social Events
Planning continues for Heartland Apicultural Society’s

annual conference – HAS 2018 - to be held July 11-13, 2018
at Washington University, in St. Louis. HAS is an annual
conference focused on discussing the latest research and
methods in beekeeping. Established in 2001 by several
professional entomologists, the conference rotates through
the Midwest to make it easier for Midwest beekeepers to
attend the sessions. The conference was last held in Mis-
souri in 2012. “We are excited about the opportunity to
bring this conference back to Missouri,” said Bob Sears, Are you ready to become a beekeeper…or are you ready
Heartland Apicultural Society president, and a St. Louis to learn more about the bees you’re keeping?
area beekeeper. Sears is among several volunteers pulling Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the Univer-
together the organizational structure that will support the sity of California, Davis, and her lab have announced a
three-day conference featuring both keynote speakers as series of short courses for the new year--and folks can reg-
well as concurrent break-out sessions and evening events. ister now and/or purchase gift certificates. All will take
Among the speakers confirmed to date: place at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Fa-
cility on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis campus.
• Bee Squad, a collaborative, beekeeping instructional
and public outreach team at the University of Min- • Planning Ahead for Your First Hives: Saturday,
nesota Bee Lab, directed by Rebecca Masterman, March 24
PhD • Working Your Colonies: Sunday, March 25
• Jennifer Berry, Apicultural Research Professional and • Queen-Rearing Techniques Short Course: Saturday
Lab Manager for the University of Georgia Honey Bee and Sunday, April 21-22 course; Saturday and Sun-
Program day, April 28-29 course
• Dr. Keith S. Delaplane, MBE Professor, Walter B. Hill • Bee-Breeding Basics: Saturday, June 9
Fellow & Honey Bee Program Director University of • Varroa Management Strategies: Saturday, June 16
Georgia
• Samuel Ramsey, University of Maryland, PhD candi- For more information, visit: https://elninobeelab.ucda-
date and researcher vis.edu/courses.html.
• Marla Spivak, PhD, Distinguished McKnight Univer-
sity Professor, Apiculture /Social Insects, University
of Minnesota CONNECTICUT
• Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Assistant Professor, Uni-
versity of Maryland connecticut Beekeepers AssociAtion
More details will be posted as they are finalized at http:// The February 17, 2018 meeting of The Connecticut Bee-
www.heartlandbees.org. keepers Association will be held at the Connecticut Agri-
cultural Experimental Station, 123 Huntington Ave, New
Save the Date: July 11-13, 2018 Haven, Connecticut.

Speaker Doctor Jack Rath, Co-Owner of Betterbee • Bee Learning
Meeting begins at 9;00 A.M • Bee Nutrition
Morning talk: “Your First Year of Beekeeping - Make it • Colony Collapse Disorder
a Success”--- the critical things new beekeepers need to do • Pesticides & Bees
in their first year to be successful. • Pollination
Afternoon talk: “Nuc Production and Queen Rearing • Sting Allergies
for the Backyard Beekeeper” on how to produce your own • Swarm Control
nucs and queens. • Wintering in the Midwest
INSTRUCTORS: Prof. Gene Robinson, Prof. May Beren-

CONNECTICUT baum, and Members of the University of Illinois Bee Re-
search Facility staff
bAck yArd bEEkEEpErs AssociAtion
GUEST INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Tammy Horn Potter, Ken-
Feb 27 – Kirsten Traynor, editor of American Bee Journal, tucky State Dept of Agriculture
Winter Losses below 5% using Intensive German Beekeep-
ing Techniques LOCATION: Bee Research Facility and Carl R. Woese In-
stitute for Genomic Biology—both new, state-of-the-art
Each month we have timely weekend hands on inspec- buildings. The Bee Research Facility has specially designed
tion workshops, bee school, mentor program and more. flight cages that will allow us to do hands-on bee work in-
Please check our web site for the dates and locations or doors regardless of the weather. Those choosing to partici-
more information at www.backyardbeekeepers.com pate in the hands-on activities must bring and wear their
own protective veils, suits, or gloves. Non-participants can
Back Yard Beekeepers Association 2017 Speaker Schedule: view from outside the flight cages.
Mar. 27 - Christy Hemingway ~ Top Bar Hive Beekeeping
April 24 - Roberta Glatz ~ The Biology of Swarming FEE: $100 includes course materials, refreshments and
lunch
REGISTRATION OPENS JANUARY 2, 2018: Email:

[email protected] Phone: (217) 265-7614
Or mail your check (made out to: the University of Il-

linois) to:
Tish Cundiff, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Bi-
ology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1206
W. Gregory, Room 2414, Urbana, IL 61801 (include your
name, address, phone number, and email address)
To pay by credit card, watch Facebook for link informa-
FLORIDA tion: https://www.facebook.com/IllinoisBeeShortCourse/
thE univErsity of floridA honEy bEE rEsEArch And
ExtEnsion lAb hosts: LIMITED TO 50 PARTICIPANTS,
SO REGISTER EARLY!
2018 pAnhAndlE bEE collEgE
blountstoWn, fl Sponsored by:
MArch 23 & 24, 2018 Department of Entomology
School of Integrative Biology
Panhandle Bee College is a two-day event offering train- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
ing for beekeepers of all experience levels, gardeners, natu-
ralists, county agents, and anyone with an interest in bees.
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/honey-bee/extension/bee- MISSOURI
college/
Eastern Missouri Beekeepers To Host Annual
Beekeeping Workshop and Banquet in St. Louis on
ILLINOIS
February 10, 2018
univErsity of illinois bEEs And
bEEkEEping short coursE Beekeeping Education Specialists
April 7, 2018, 8:30 AM – 5:00 pM to Present Courses for
Beginners and Experienced Beekeepers
Lectures, hands-on workshops, and informal discus- The Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association (EMBA)
sions on: will offer a full day of professional beekeeping instruction
for beginners and experienced beekeepers on Saturday, Feb-
• Bee Anatomy ruary 10, 2018, at Maritz in Fenton, Missouri. Registrants
• Bee Breeding & Genetics are encouraged to attend The Sixth Annual EMBA St. Louis
• Bee Diseases, Parasites and Pests Beekeepers Mardi Gras Banquet the evening before the
• Bee Health workshop on Friday, February 9, at Maritz.
February 2018 143

Leading beekeeping educators, and honey bee research who want to give it a try. Two lectures will be happening
scientists from the University of California, Davis, De- almost all of the time, with one talk geared to beginners
partment of Entomology, the University of Minnesota and the other devoted to more advanced subjects.
Bee Lab, and Oregon State University Honey Bee Lab, This year’s speakers include Dr. Keith Delaplane, Dr.
will be among the visiting faculty leading the workshop. Clarence Collison, Adrian Quiney, Ed Levi, and Grant
Instructors will include Elina. L. Nino, PhD., apiculture Gillard.
research and extension, UC Davis, Becky Masterman, The price is $40.00 if you pre-register at a NEOBA meeting
PhD, University of Minnesota Bee Lab Team Leader, Ana or use online registration, which is available at NEOBA.org.
Heck, Minnesota Bee Lab Bee Squad Instructor, and Ra- The price will be $50.00 at the door. Pre-registration is not
mesh Sagili, PhD, 2017 EAS Hambleton Award Winner, required but saves you $10.00.
Oregon State University, College of Agricultural Sciences,
Honey Bee Lab.
The Experienced Beekeepers course will be tailored to- OKLAHOMA
wards intermediate and expert level beekeepers and will
place special emphasis on hive management and honey oklAhoMA stAtE bEEkEEpErs AssociAtion
bee health issues. spring convEntion
The Beginners Beekeeping course is intended for novice
beekeepers and persons with no prior beekeeping experi- MArch 3rd
ence. The class will cover all aspects of basic beekeeping to
prepare students to start keeping bees in 2018. southErn oklAhoMA tEchnology cEntEr,
Tuition for the workshop is $85 per person if reg- 2610 sAM noblE pArkWAy in ArdMorE, oklAhoMA
istered by January 21, 2018. Tuition is $95 per person
for those registering on or after January 22. Banquet Registration begins at 8:30 am with the convention start-
registration costs $30. Banquet registration closes ing at 9. Lunch will be provided. A fund raising auction
February 4th. held in the afternoon. Speakers will be from the Noble Re-
Lunch and refreshments are included with the work- search Institute and Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture. We
shop. Registration packets will include course materials, are adding nationally recognized speakers and updates
an authoritative reference book, beekeeping periodicals, can be found at OKBEES.ORG.
and equipment catalogs.
The Friday evening banquet features New Orleans
style food and music, a cash bar, door prizes, includ-
ing nucs, queens and beekeeping equipment, and a VIRGINIA
keynote speaker. The cost of the banquet is in addi-
tion to the workshop. For more information, visit www. The Northern Virginia Beekeeping Teaching Consor-
easternmobeekeepers.com. tium is offering Practical Beekeeping for Beginners in
Equipment vendors include representatives of Dadant & several counties throughout Virginia starting in January,
Sons, Kelley Beekeeping Co., and others. 2018. The class is intensive, meets weekly for approxi-
EMBA supports beekeepers with a broad program of co- mately 2 months, and is designed primarily for people
operative procurement and educational events throughout who want to keep honey bees. Classes are open to adults
the year. Members may obtain complete beginner’s equip- and children (age 10 + accompanied by a paying adult).
ment kits, nucleus bee colonies, and queens for delivery in Classes are taught by experienced beekeepers and in-
the spring. The Club also sponsors open hive instructional cludes information on buying equipment & obtaining
workshops and guided colony health monitoring, during bees. See full listing here:
the season, at the Club’s teaching apiary in Creve Coeur, https://tinyurl.com/y88vbe34
Missouri.
Registration is available online at www.eastern
mobeekeepers.com WEST VIRGINIA
More information is available by email to info@
easternmobeekeepers.com or calling 314-669-1828. WEst virginiA bEEkEEpErs AssociAtion
spring confErEncE 2018
OKLAHOMA MArch 23 & 24
tulsA, oklAhoMA The 2018 West Virginia Beekeepers Association’s Spring

thE bEE buzz – Conference will be hosted by the Raleigh County Beekeep-
ers Cooperative Association and the Appalachian Bee-
fEbruAry 23-24, 2018 keeping Collective. This event will be held at Tamarack
Conference Center in Beckley, WV on March 23 & 24, 2018.
The Northeast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association will Featured speakers will include Dr. Debbie Delaney, Associ-
hold the Big Bee Buzz on the evening of February 23 and ate Professor of Entomology for the College of Agriculture
all day February 24, 2018. The Buzz is one of the largest and Natural Resources at the University of Delaware and
beekeeping conferences in Oklahoma and the region. Dr. Parry Kietzman, Head Beekeeper/Researcher for the
The event will be held at Venue 68, located at 6910 S 101st Appalachian Beekeeping Collective.
E Ave Tulsa OK 74134. For more information please visit www.raleighcounty
There will be plenty of information for beekeepers of all beekeepers.com to register for the conference. Questions
levels of experience, from seasoned beekeepers to people can be directed to Mark Lilly at (304)860-9638.

February 2018 145
normal. The crop throughout the
regions has fallen short and so
“packers are trying to stock up.”
Southeast—Florida was hit hard
by the hurricane season, which im-
pacted the fall nectar flow. Report-
ers note that compared to last year,
the size of this year’s crop is 80%
overall, with beekeepers harvesting
85% for orange, 150% for palmetto,
and 50-60% for pepper. “Hurri-
cane Irma caused a lot of flooding
throughout FL. Many hives were
lost. Many orange groves were
damaged as well by the wind and
H
United States California. Beekeepers foresee an flooding.” In Georgia, Galberry
oney production is down increased demand in queens for was down substantially, with col-
in a large part of the the spring. Killing frosts arrived onies only producing 40% of last
United States due to se- early in some parts, surprising year’s production. Most colonies
vere weather events. Most honey beekeepers who still intended to are prepped and ready for the
has sold briskly and uncommit- combine weak colonies. New York southern winter, with enough food
ted stores are hard to find. This enjoyed an unseasonably warm stores. In Alabama harvests were
increased demand is driving October, which helped salvage up 20%, though state yields were
up prices across the board. The honey production. Varroa levels reported at only 38 lbs per colony.
Southeast and Southwest experi- appeared manageable this year. Colonies are entering the winter
enced lower than average honey A Pennsylvania reporter notes in poor to good condition, depend-
harvests. Colonies are coming into that there is “Good demand filling on location. Losses are expected
California a bit bedraggled from ing lots of beekeeper’s buckets, and operations predict running
extreme weather events. “We can because of a short crop in this part only 70%-90% of the same number
only do so much in our efforts to of the country. This year PA & NY of colonies in the following spring.
bring weak colonies back,” one beekeepers experienced “one of Package bees and queens are ex-
beekeeper said. “Over pushing the worst honey crops in years. pected to be at the usual demand.
seems to cause queens to fail a Just too wet.” “Bees seem to be smaller clusters at
lot sooner. The bees need a rest.” Mideast—Colonies are entering this time this year compared to last
Many beekeepers have moved to the winter in fair to poor condition year. The mite count seems harder
warmer climates and bulk fed to in the Mideast, with colony num- to control this year.” Beekeepers
try and make up numbers for al- bers down 5-50% compared to the are still concerned about the dif-
mond pollination contracts. previous year. Bees are hungry and ficulty in obtaining antibiotics.
Northeast—In the Northeast, are requiring more than normal Frequent discussions were held at
beekeepers are expecting colony feeding. The movement of colonies the county level during October in
numbers to be down 5-30% after from the Mideast over the winter order to become more familiar with
the winter. Colonies entered the varies greatly by state, with only the revised regulatory mandates.
winter in fair to poor condition, 10% estimated to be moved further Because of the severe weather
requiring more than normal feed- south or to California from Ten- events, honey crops are down and
ing. Winter stores varied greatly nessee and Virginia, but 90% from prices have increased, especially at
by location, as the northeast ex- West Virginia. the retail level. However, imports
perienced sporadic flows this fall. There is a shortage of good from foreign countries slow sales
The majority of colonies stayed in quality, light honey, so remaining on most honey except orange blos-
PA over the winter, with only 15% stores are selling well at good re- som. Though one reporter notes
estimated to be moved south or to tail and wholesale prices. Harvests that “buyers do want good clean
from Tulip Poplar were down sig- USA honey.”
nificantly in Tennessee, with lower Southwest—The Southwest
“Do you wholesale and or has been struggling with a dearth
overall production. What has been
retail your honey?
harvested is lighter in color than and then the aftereffects of Hur-
Would you like a free subscription to ricane Harvey. Honey crops were
American Bee Journal? Northeast reported down 10% compared to
Intermountain
We are looking for U.S. Crop & Market West West Central East Central last year. Despite the poor weather
Reporters, especially in the West, Inter-
mountain, Southwest (outside of Texas),
conditions during the summer,
Northeast and Mideast regions. We send colonies are entering the winter in
out monthly short questionnairs and in good shape with adequate stores.
return offer reporters a few subscrip- In Louisiana colonies produced
tion to the magazine. First come, first Mideast 90 lbs, with beekeepers increasing
serve basis! Send an email to editor@ colony numbers by 5%.
americanbeejournal.com or write us at Southeast
East Central—Overall beekeep-
51 S. 2nd St. Hamilton, IL 62341. ers report that colonies are entering
Southwest
February 2018 147

U.S. HONEY PRICES FROM OUR REPORTERS HONEY MARKET FOR THE
North- Mid- South- South- East West- Inter- MONTH OF NOVEMBER 2017
east east east west Central Central Mountain West
In volumes of 10,000 pounds or greater
Wholesale unless otherwise stated
White lb. Blk.$2.00-$3.00 $2.00-$2.90 $1.60-$2.50 $1.95-$2.30 $1.70-$2.60 $2.08-$3.30 $1.60-$2.60 $1.75-$2.50 (Courtesy November 2017
Amber lb. Blk $1.80-$2.50 $1.95-$2.25 $1.50-$2.25 $1.90-$2.25 $2.00-$2.60 $1.95-$2.80 $1.50-$2.50 $1.60-$2.35 USDA National Honey Report)
1 lb. CS 24 $ 60.00- $ 55.00- $ 60.00- $ 80.00- $ 80.00- $ 84.00- $ 60.00- $ 58.00- Prices paid to beekeepers for extracted, unprocessed
$115.00 $100.00 $120.00 $120.00 $134.00 $104.00 $150.00 $115.00 honey in major producing states by packers, han-
dlers & other large users, cents per pound, f.o.b. or
2 lb. CS 12 $ 60.00- $ 60.00- $ 60.00- $ 90.00- $ 60.00- $ 60.00- $ 57.00- $ 60.00- delivered nearby, containers exchanged or returned,
$ 85.00 $ 88.80 $ 108.00 $ 120.00 $ 82.00 $ 85.00 $ 110.00 $ 84.00 prompt delivery & payment unless otherwise stated.
5 lb. CS 6 $ 72.00- $ 60.00- $ 60.00- $ 58.00- $ 87.00- $ 84.00 $ 60.00- $ 60.00- -Report includes both new and old crop honey-
$105.00 $102.00 $ 100.00 $ 98.00 $115.00 $101.00 $103.00 $104.00
Retail (# Some in Small Lot — +Some delayed pay-
Jars 8 oz. $ 2.50- $ 2.40- $ 2.50- $ 2.50- $ 4.00- $ 3.00- $ 2.00- $ 2.25- ments or previous commitment)
$ 4.00 $ 4.00 $ 4.00 $ 4.50 $ 6.00 $ 4.00 $ 4.00 $ 4.00 Arkansas
Squeeze $ 3.50- $ 3.00- $ 3.69- $ 2.80- $ 3.00- $ 4.25- $ 3.50- $ 3.25- Soybean Light Amber $1.68
Bear 12 oz.$ 4.90 $ 4.99 $ 5.00 $ 4.75 $ 6.00 $ 4.90 $ 4.85 $ 4.95 California
Avocado Extra Light Amber $1.80 - $2.08
Jars 1 lb. $ 3.95- $ 3.55- $ 5.69- $ 6.00- $ 4.00- $ 4.69- $ 3.75- $ 4.00- Alfalfa Extra Light Amber $1.65
$ 12.00 $ 8.25 $ 7.00 $ 12.00 $ 8.25 $ 8.25 $ 8.00 $ 9.00 Alfalfa Light Amber $1.55
Jars 11/2lb.$ 5.50- $ 5.25- $ 5.50- $ 5.45- $ 6.00- $ 6.65- $ 4.75- $ 4.75- Buckwheat Light Amber $1.80
(Pint) $ 13.00 $ 10.00 $ 9.70 $ 10.00 $ 12.00 $ 9.50 $ 10.00 $ 10.25 Cotton Extra Light Amber $2.08
Jars 2 lb. $ 7.99- $ 6.95- $ 6.79- $ 7.00- $ 6.50- $ 7.25- $ 6.25- $ 6.50- Cotton Light Amber $1.80 - 2.08
$ 15.00 $ 10.50 $ 12.00 $ 18.00 $ 12.00 $ 10.50 $ 11.25 $ 11.50 Sage Light Amber $1.65
Jars 3 lb. $ 9.50- $ 8.95- $ 8.79- $ 8.25- $ 10.00- $ 11.50- $ 8.10- $ 8.00- Orange White $2.40
(Quart) $ 25.00 $ 22.00 $ 18.00 $ 21.00 $ 24.00 $ 22.00 $ 23.00 $ 25.00 Valley Extra Light Amber $2.08
Jars 4 lb. $ 10.00- $ 10.00- $ 11.00- $ 18.00- $ 10.00- $ 10.00- $ 11.00- $ 10.00- Wildflower Extra Light Amber $2.08
$ 35.00 $ 30.00 $ 29.75 $ 30.00 $ 30.00 $ 30.50 $ 28.50 $ 32.00 Wildflower Light Amber $1.80
Jars 5 lb. $ 16.99- $ 15.00- $ 15.50- $ 16.25- $ 14.00- $ 15.75- $ 16.00- $ 16.50- Dakotas
$ 40.00 $ 39.50 $ 35.50 $ 32.00 $ 40.00 $ 35.00 $ 33.25 $ 35.00 Alfalfa White $2.08
Creamed $ 5.50- $ 5.50- $ 5.49- $ 5.25- $ 6.00- $ 3.95- $ 4.75- $ 5.25- Alfalfa Extra Light Amber $2.08
12 oz. $ 7.50 $ 7.00 $ 6.95 $ 6.99 $ 9.00 $ 7.25 $ 7.00 $ 7.25 Buckwheat Extra Light Amber $2.08
Buckwheat Light Amber $1.60
Comb $ 6.00- $ 5.50- $ 5.25- $ 5.50- $ 8.00- $ 5.50- $ 5.50- $ 5.75-
Canola White $2.08
12 oz. $14.00 $13.00 $13.25 $13.50 $15.00 $14.50 $13.75 $13.50
Canola Light Amber $1.60
Round $ 5.00- $ 4.50- $ 4.50- $ 4.00- $ 5.00- $ 4.00- $ 4.25- $ 4.50- Clover White $1.92 - $2.08
Plas. Comb$ 8.50 $ 8.50 $ 7.50 $ 8.25 $ 10.00 $ 7.50 $ 7.00 $ 8.50 Clover Extra Light Amber $2.08
1 Gallon $ 76.00 $ 56.99 $ 45.00- $ 36.00- $ 36.00- $ 23.00- $ 24.00- $ 25.00- Sunflower White $1.65
$ 50.00 $ 100.00 $ 96.00 $ 45.00 $ 50.00 $ 50.00 Wildflower Extra Light Amber $2.08
Wildflower Light Amber $2.08
60 lb. $180.00- $130.00- $175.00- $140.00- $160.00- $140.00- $140.00- $140.00- Florida
$225.00 $200.00 $220.00 $200.00 $360.00 $220.00 $225.00 $230.00 Brazilian Pepper Light Amber $1.70
Mangrove Light Amber $1.75
The above prices are not meant to provide a realistic picture of prices in all states of the
Georgia
particular area. They are intended merely to show what a few beekeepers are receiving
Cotton Light Amber $1.75
for their honey and we realize prices may vary tremendously, even within individual
Tupelo Extra Light Amber $1.75
states. The bulk prices for honey are stated per pound, delivered buyer’s warehouse,
Wildflower Extra Light Amber $1.75
containers exchanged or furnished by buyer, unless otherwise noted. Where prices are
not shown, insufficient data were available.
Idaho
Wildflower Amber $1.60
the winter in good condition with moved their colonies south or to Hawaii
fair to adequate winter stores, with California for the winter. There is Brazilian Pepper Light Amber $1.80
beekeepers feeding to bulk up colo- an expected increase for package Minnesota
nies when necessary. Reports from bees for the spring. Beekeepers are Basswood White $2.08
Michigan attest that the honey joining the local initiative of spe- Basswood Extra Light Amber $2.08
Buckwheat Light Amber $1.80
harvest is down substantially com- cialty marketing “Indiana Grown”, Canola White $2.08
pared to last year, though colony an as members can use the trade- Clover White $2.08
numbers are up 5-10%, while In- marked logo on their honey jars. Clover Extra Light Amber $2.08
Clover Light Amber $2.08
diana reports a 10% increase in Honey prices are down somewhat, Sunflower Extra Light Amber $2.08
harvest. The majority of the bees though sales are brisk because of Wildflower Extra Light Amber $2.08
have been moved out of the state to a shortage in honey. During the Mississippi
Soy Light Amber $1.75
southern climates for the winter. In winter months honey sales are Tallow Light Amber $1.60
Wisconsin, there was a late honey traditionally slower than during Montana
flow that provided extra honey. the summer. Because of strong Clover White $2.08
Clover Extra Light Amber $2.08
Indiana reports that bees are en- demand “some beekeepers are al- Knapweed White $2.08
tering the winter in good condition most sold out; never enough honey Wildflower Extra Light Amber $2.08
with adequate honey stores. Flows available.” New York
Basswood Extra Light Amber $2.35
were good with colonies averag- llinois reporters note that colo- Nebraska
ing 110-130 lbs over the season. “A nies are in good shape for the Clover White $2.08
good year, lots of nice good quality winter with adequate stores. Op- Clover Extra Light $2.08
Spurge Light Amber $1.60 - $2.08
honey.” Varroa populations have erations are planning to increase Wildflower Extra Light Amber $2.08
been monitored and assuming in size through extensive splitting Washington
normal winter losses, colony num- in the coming spring. The winter Alfalfa Light Amber $1.80
Alfalfa Amber $1.80
bers next year should be similar or stores are currently adequate, with Wildberry Light Amber $1.80
increased by 25% compared to last few bees being moved out of the
year. About 30-50% of beekeepers state. Honey prices are stable, with

“colony health is much improved ing required. Overall the bees look
Prices paid to Canadian Beekeepers for unpro- over last year. But that may be due good.
cessed, bulk honey by packers and importers in U. S.
currency, f.o.b. shipping point, containers included
to the fact that most of our colonies By the end of October or first part
unless otherwise stated. Duty and crossing charges are 2 years or younger. We struggle of November, many commercial
extra. Cents per pound. to get colonies past their 3rd year. beekeepers moved their bees to
Canola White $1.03 - 1.25
Basswood White $1.03
We’ve tried multiple formic acid California or other Southern States
treatments, oxalic treatments, split- for the winter. Others were still
Prices paid to importers for bulk honey, duty paid, ting hives in the spring, resistant planning to place their bees into
containers included, cents per pound, ex-dock or
point of entry unless otherwise stated.
genetic sotck! Things that used to potato sheds in November prior
work are not working anymore. It to taking them to California in the
Argentina is getting frustrating.” early spring for the almond pollina-
Mixed Flowers Extra Light $1.39
Mixed Flowers Light Amber $1.39 Reporters attest that honey har- tion. Of course this time of the year,
Brazil vests are down 20-22% in South beekeepers also utilize their time to
Mixed Flowers Extra Light $2.10 - $2.16 Dakota with colony averages of 56 take care of maintenance issues on
ORGANIC Extra Light $2.27
ORGANIC Light Amber $2.10 lbs, down 25% in Kansas averag- supers, top and bottom boards and
India ing 84 lbs per colony, down 25% in frames.
Mixed Flower Extra Light $0.94 - $0.98 Iowa with colony averages of 80 lbs, West—We had no individual
Mixed Flower Light Amber $0.92 - $0.99
Mustard Extra Light $0.89 - $1.07 but match or exceed by 10% har- reports from this region. The na-
Mustard Light Amber $0.89 - $1.07 vests from the prior year in the rest tional USDA report notes that hot,
Vietnam of the region. From Nebraska we dry weather in California persisted
Mixed Flower Light Amber $0.86 - $1.15
Mixed Flower Amber $0.82 - $1.07 learn that an “unusually strong fall into late October with temperatures
flow augmented surplus and laid in soaring into the low 100s. Such heat
Ukraine winter stores,” leaving “colonies in means bees continue to struggle.
Mixed Flower Extra Light $0.89 - $1.24
Sunflower White $0.89 - $1.07 great shape for winter.” Beekeepers are doing their best to
Sunflower Extra Light $1.07 Due to adequate supply, honey bulk up hives to get them strong
prices are stable, and low avail- enough for almonds.
only fair movement in the whole- ability in many other parts of the California hives have been hurt
sale market. country is driving brisk sales in this summer, shrinking in some
In Wisconsin, one reporter pre- both the retail and the wholesale cases from 9 to 10 frames down to
dicts that demand for packages and market. “Small packers and small 4 to 5. A beekeeper noted that there
queens will be down 25% and 10% beekeepers are looking hard for was a steady stream of trucks re-
respectively. Also, as the state is Kansas honey to fill their orders.” turning bees to California to settle
in a fire ant free zone “Brokers are A shortage in honey availability is for the winter. Bees that had been
now taking any strong hive from driving large packers to offer price placed out of state also have suf-
1-1,000. They are letting hobby bee- increases. Bulk honey prices are fered, especially those that were in
keepers piggyback rides or trucks to thus rapidly rising. “Honey is sell- hurricane-hit states like Texas and
California. ….There will be a major ing well everywhere.” Very little Florida, where many colonies were
demand for queens in March and uncommitted stores remain. Every- lost or damaged and forage was re-
April if all those bees come back one wants “Local, local, local.” duced.
home strong and need to be split.” Intermountain—This region re- In many cases in California and
Due to lower harvests than in prior ports varied honey crops. Beekeep- elsewhere, beekeepers will make
years, the region as a whole reports ers now have supers pulled and extra efforts to rebuild colonies with
strong to heavy demand for honey honey extracted. Honey produc- extra artificial feeding. California
in both the wholesale and retail tion was around average in Utah almond trees begin their bloom in
market. One reporter notes that and Idaho and below average in mid-February, and growers want
there is “more public demand for Colorado. October was cool with bees in the orchards by the first of
local honey.” varied precipitation. the month. In order to secure crop
West Central—In this region bees Colony health is very varied, insurance, growers need a mini-
are entering the winter in fair to depending on the location. Some mum of two hives per acre. Typical
good shape with adequate to good colonies that looked great in Sep- rates for an eight-frame colony have
stores, especially in North Dakota. tember took a turn for the worse in ranged recently from $170-190.Bee-
Assuming normal winter losses, re- October. The problem is scattered keepers will learn the survival rates
porters in Kansas note that they will in nature, with some yards experi- for their hives in mid-late January.
be running larger operations next encing minimal loss while others As November approached, bee-
year, while in the Dakotas they es- have almost total loss. Beekeepers keepers anticipated seasonal rains
timate running similar numbers or suspect either the mite popula- ahead, which could mean mustard
decreasing by 5%. About 70%-95% tions were larger than anticipated and willow blooms for the bees to
of commercial colonies are expected or some of the treatments failed. forage on by mid-December. Euca-
to move south or to California for Many beekeepers moved their col- lyptus will start later in the month.
the winter. Colony numbers are onies south to warmer climates. Beekeepers say the fires in Cali-
down in South Dakota, with 16% In Nevada harvests doubled fornia’s Sonoma Valley had limited
loss reported from set out to super- compared to last year, with colo- impact on bees, since few if any
ing and 20% loss from supering to nies averaging 46 lbs. Good flows commercial beekeepers are in the
shipping. mean the colonies have good stores area, though some hobby hives may
A reporter from Iowa notes that going into winter, with no feed- have been hurt.
February 2018 149

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venience of the field bees returning
with nectar?
Once again, any help you could pro-

vide would be greatly appreciated.
Hope all is well,

Hal
Connecticut
A
Hello Hal, more questions are good.
1) Entrance should be above the

brood chamber. My question is why
are you adding another brood box to
expand the brood nest? Honey bees
anticipate and plan forward for col-
ony size based on the volume of their
nest cavity. If more (bees) is better for
our beekeeper goals, then giving the
Mites, mites, mites inch of water. The sugar will dissolve colony early indications of what they
A Comment from Wil in Alabama instantly and the mites are visible have to work with is something to
making them easy to count. consider.
Hi Jerry, I just read your reply to Remember you have only tested 2) Honey supers go above the en-
Mac in Maine in the December issue. for the phoretic mites not any trance. And place them early as well.
I totally agree with you that a sticky under capped brood. But this IPM A long time ago there was some re-
board is a not too accurate estimation process should give you enough search that indicated a 10% bump in
of mites in a colony. I have been tell- information as to the status of your honey crop if bees knew early how
ing other beekeepers to do the follow- mite population. much room they had.
ing: Take a pint jar and mark, with 3) If we are duplicating nature then
a permanent marker, a line up 1.5 Sincerely, Wil Montgomery no. And one reason is that there are
inches from the bottom. Then install Southside, Alabama lots of potential pests and predators
a circle of 1/8th inch hardware cloth that could potentially benefit from
(same material in a screened bottom
board) into the ring of a canning jar
lid so it can’t fall out.
Take a frame from the brood nest
Q TOP ENTRANCE….
WHAT DOES THAT
REALLY MEAN?
A month or so ago I emailed you
more entrances/exits that are hard to
defend.
I hope that helps.
and collect a few bees by holding the MORE FROM HAL

frame in one hand and gently scrape it about the viability of using Lang- I’m a little confused. If you have
upwards from bottom to top and tap stroth equipment to build a hive with time perhaps you can help me under-
the jar on a hive lid to settle what you a top entrance instead of a standard stand your answers to my questions.
have down. Set the jar lid upside down bottom entrance. Your reply at that
on the jar so the bees can’t escape. time was extremely helpful and an- 1. I understand the entrance should
Take a second brood frame and repeat swered a number of questions I had. be above the brood chamber. What is
the process until you have bees up to As would be expected, answered unclear is your recommendation for
the 1.5 mark. This should be very close questions have led to new unan- the number of brood chambers. Two
to 300 worker bees. But be sure you swered questions. Perhaps you could brood chambers (deep supers) have
do not have the queen. Find her frame once again help me with questions always been the recommendation for
first of all and set it in an empty box that have arisen. wintering hives in CT to ensure ample
for safe keeping until you’re through food is available.
with this IPM procedure. 1. When adding a second brood 2. I understand that the honey su-
Now with the jar lid on dump 2 to chamber to my top entrance hive pers should be placed above the brood
3 heaping spoonful’s of powdered should it go above or below the first chambers. I don’t understand why the
sugar into the jar. Just one spoonful at brood chamber? honey supers should be placed above
a time. You will need to press some 2. When adding honey supers the top entrance as you suggest espe-
of the powdered sugar down into the should they be place d above or below cially if it is the only entrance.
jar with the palm of your hand. Fi- the brood chambers? I’m guessing 3. I understand. One entrance only
nally shake the jar violently with both above the brood chambers because at the top.
hands, one on top and the other at the bees place their honey stores above Hope I am not being a pest and tak-
bottom. their brood. ing up too much of your time.
Lastly dump the sugar out into a 3. Should I add a second entrance
white plastic container, the kind whip for the bees between the brood cham- Thanks again,
cream or margarine comes in with 1/2 bers and the honey supers for the con- Hal
February 2018 153

FROM JERRY Rising atmospheric CO2 is reducing cellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis
Hey Hal, the protein concentration of a floral pollen (CEBRA) at the University of Mel-
On #1, I wasn’t very clear was I. I source essential for North American bees. bourne. In his essay in the Journal of
guess what I was asking is how come Ziska LH, Pettis JS, Edwards J, Han- Economic Entomology, he outlines an
you are adding a brood chamber cock JE, Tomecek MB, Clark A, Dukes array of human-driven factors that
when it should already be on…. 2 JS, Loladze I, Polley HW. Proc Biol Sci. have enabled the spread of honey bee
generally. 2016 Apr 13;283(1828). pii: 20160414. pathogens:
On #2, if you put the entrance at the doi: 10.1098/rspb.2016.0414.
top of the 'brood chamber' area it al- • Regular, large-scale, and loosely
lows the pollen foragers to go directly I urge you to benefit your readers by regulated movement of bee colo-
in and down where it is needed for sharing this important information. nies for commercial pollination.
feeding larvae along with nectar col- (For instance, in February 2016
lectors and then surplus nectar to sim- Ross Conrad alone, of the 2.66 million managed
ply go up to honey supers. Distance Middlebury, Vermont bee colonies in the United States,
traveled is shorter and more trips can 1.8 million were transported
be made into the field. JERRY’S RESPONSE to California for almond crop
If you didn’t do this, it would be no Thank you Ross for sharing this re- pollination.).
different than an entrance at the very search. • Carelessness in the application
bottom. Bees would have to traverse I will include in The Classroom. of integrated pest management
the whole length of the hive just like I appreciate it. principles leading to overuse of
from a bottom entrance. pesticides and antibiotics, result-
ing in increased resistance to them
Q
This make more sense?
WE HAVE SEEN among honey bee parasites and
FROM HAL: THE ENEMY AND pathogens such as the Varroa de-
Thanks for the clarification Jerry. THEY IS US structor mite and the American
Foul Brood bacterium (Paenibacil-
Makes perfect sense.
I have been a beekeeper for about 5 lus larvae),
Hal years. It is tough to keep honey bees • The international trade in honey
alive and environmentally aware bees and honey bee products that
with sampling and treatments and has enabled the global spread
Protein in Pollen more treatments and the bees still die of pathogens such as varroa de-
or never produce any honey. Was it structor, tracheal mite (Acarapis
COMMENT FROM easier years ago or is this the way it woodi), Nosema cerana, Small Hive
ROSS CONRAD has always been? Beetle (Aethina tumida), and the
fungal disease chalkbrood (Asco-
Hi Jerry, Marcus A. Illinois sphaera apis).
In the November 2017 classroom • Lack of skill or dedication among
A
answer to a question regarding the hobbyist beekeepers to adequately
protein content of pollen, you state inspect and manage colonies for
that you don’t believe “the nutritional disease.
value of fresh pollen is less nutritious
than in the past.” Plants exposed It was easier Marcus. A beekeeper Owen offers several suggestions
to higher CO2 levels produce more didn’t have to be much of a beekeeper, for changes in human behavior to im-
starch and sugar but less protein. more of a BeeHaver with this insect prove honey bee health, including:
Scientists have consistently found this that basically just tolerated us because
trend—diminished protein content we provided a free home, some free • Stronger regulation both of global
with increased CO2 levels—in studies food and they could reproduce freely. transport of honey bees and bee
of human food crops. In fact, it is Since the introduction of tracheal products and of migratory bee-
precisely the trend in food crops that mites and varroa mites, honey bees keeping practices within countries
prompted the recent study below that are no longer wild animals that can for commercial pollination.
showed that the pollen protein levels survive on their own generally. They • Greater adherence to integrated
in Goldenrod have declined by up to are animals like our pets or livestock pest management practices among
a third since the 1850s, when atmo- or zoo animals that require manage- both commercial and hobbyist
spheric CO2 levels began rising, and ment or they die prematurely. beekeepers.
that the most serious declines have I copied and pasted the review ar- • Increased education of beekeepers
occurred since 1960, when CO2 levels ticle below from Science Daily. on pathogen management (per-
began rising dramatically. To mimic Link is https://www.sciencedaily. haps requiring such education for
the effects of climate change over the com/releases/2017/04/170406121535. registration as a beekeeper).
past 150 years, they exposed golden- htm. • Deeper support networks for
rod growing in chambers of undis- Looks like the enemy is us. And so hobby beekeepers, aided by scien-
turbed soil in Texas to graduated levels we have to fix it. tists, beekeeping associations, and
of CO2. To get a historical perspective, government.
they analyzed goldenrod pollen from Robert Owen is author of The Aus-
across the United States collected as tralian Beekeeping Handbook, owner of “The problems facing honeybees
far back as 1842 and stored at the Na- a beekeeping supply company, and a today are complex and will not be
tional Museum of Natural History. Ph.D. candidate at the Centre of Ex- easy to mitigate,” says Owen. “The

role of inappropriate human action Thank you for The Classroom. Good porization. The temperature is in the
in the spread of pathogens and the re- stuff. 40’s. Do I have nothing to lose or take
sulting high numbers of colony losses my chances by not doing anything?
needs to be brought into the fore of Bill Abell Tough call. Thanks.
management and policy decisions if Lexington, VA Also, why do some bee yards
we are to reduce colony losses to ac- swarm so much while others swarm
ceptable levels.” very little and produce a lot of honey.
The yards that swarm a lot produce
a lot of mites and bees, but that is
about it.
I want to dissect varroa mites and
identify organs. Can you help me
with more information about this?
George Ruble
A
Q WAX MOTHS….OFF
LABEL “BT”
I found a BT (Bacillus thurigiensis)
Yikes, 1991!!!
The problem I had with the Hop-
kins method was that if I didn’t
destroy the cells with appropriate
aged larvae and leave room for the
product from a company XenTari that cells with appropriate aged larvae
I want to use to protect my combs that I did want, queen cells would
A
from wax moths. Can I? be clumped together and not sepa-
rate and movable. Like a cluster of
Leonard grapes, ugh. It can produce lots of
queens.
Leonard, Everything else is the same as It is a tough call George. It is prob-
Here is the response from the man- many other queen producing meth- ably too late to make much of a dif-
ufacture of this product that I asked ods so that you biologically provide ference in overwintering colonies in
about for you: the best queen rearing opportunity. I a temperate climate north of the Ma-
like it because there was no mechani- son-Dixon line. The bees created to
Thank you for your inquiry about cal manipulation of the individual go into winter are physiologically dif-
XenTari for control of bee wax moth larvae. ferent than short lived summer bees.
and I’m very sorry that it took this I have to admit that I only tried the Winter bees raised in Aug/Sept have
long for you to get a response! Cloake board method once. Maybe I more fat bodies and other differences
The active ingredient, Bacillus am lazy or maybe something else but that allow them to live 6-8 months in
thuringiensis subsp. aizawai is known I thought there must be an easier way. comparison with 6-8 week summer
to have activity on wax moth larvae. After separating boxes and turning bees. But, they have to be healthy
Unfortunately, wax moth is not them one way, closing this entrance and relatively virus free to live that
currently on the XenTari label and and opening another, placing queen long and that means varroa control in
VBC cannot condone this use. excluders and Cloake boards, then Aug/Sept.
coming back and opening a different Let’s assume they are compromised
All the best, entrance, moving frames around, put- health wise George. If they are de-
Daniel ting metal sheets in and taking them signed to live let’s say 20 weeks in a
out, then closing a different entrance
Q
perfect world to get thru winter and
and more, I convinced myself there early spring that is the colony goal.
RAISING QUEENS must be an easier way. And if they can only live 19 weeks
Not that Cloake won’t work, but oh because of this Varroa/Virus legacy
my, it is fairly involved. the colony will die in the late winter
Hi Jerry, Thank you for The Classroom com- or in early spring as many do, because
I have read your article from May pliment of this Varroa/Virus legacy issue. All
1991 on raising queens using the that to say you can experiment and
Hopkins Method. I plan on doing this Have fun. Jerry see how it goes. Let me know.
next year coupling it with the Cloake Swarming is reproduction. Asexual
Board for the cell builder and finisher. reproduction. Hard to stop reproduc-
Q
I wonder if you still use the Hopkins TREATING FOR MITES tion. If the bees that swarm are suc-
method and/or if you could relate AND SWARMING cessful for themselves and survive,
some of your experiences with it and/ that is really the only honey bee goal.
or the Cloake Board. I did a Google They don’t really care about you or
search to see if you had written any- I apparently did not treat several honey production or anything else.
thing on it since May 1991 but came hives for mites and wondered if it Some are more successful in multiple
up empty. would be alright to use oxalic acid va- swarms and people collect them and
February 2018 155

keep the trait going which is passed
down to those drones that contrib-
ute to your local Drone Congrega-
tion Area (DCA). Those successful
doesn’t seem quite right to be a red or
confused flour beetle. I’d love to take
a closer look at some actual specimens
if you’re up for sending some to me
Q HONEY BEE
MOUTH PARTS
Hi Jerry, I enjoy the classroom and
swarming drones and those success- (the more the better). had a question about your response
ful swarming queens mate and voila http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/ to the bees eating blueberries ques-
you have more successful swarming urban/beetles/red_flour_beetle.htm tion in the Nov. issue of ABJ. You
colonies. state in your response "honey bees
Everything you wanted to know Lyle do not have biting, piercing, chewing,
about Varroa is in link below. Hope it
Q
crunching mouthparts".
answers your questions.
HIGH VARROA I’m a first year beekeeper but I’ve
observed my bees chewing wood-
Take care. Jerry COUNTS enware as well as chewing through
nylon window screen used as robbing
http://caes2.caes.uga.edu/bees/ Hello Jerry, screens. How do they do it if they
documents/JARstandardmethods I am one of the long time readers of don’t have the proper mouthparts?
forvarroa.09.pdf your articles on the Classroom and a How also do the "ankle biter" Purdue
Q
beekeeper for over 12 years in Spring- bees chew legs off mites or the "Mite
BEETLE ID field, MO handling over 100 colonies.
I truly appreciate and value your
Mauler" Italian redline bees chew
chunks from the mites?
opinion.
I need your idea about the problem Thanks for all the info,
Jerry, hopefully you, Jamie, or
that I am facing. 3 weeks ago I used Josh
someone you know, can ID the beetle
oxalic acid vaporization on all of my
recently found in 2 of my hives. I have
hives as directed. My varroa count
heard of the Australian Sap Beetle
A
was way higher than the threshold,
being in the western US, but not in
indeed most of the hives contained
my area. It does bear a resemblance
some brood at the time of applying.
to ASB, but I’m no beetle expert. As
Two days ago I rechecked my var-
you can see from the photos, it is 1/4”
roa count via alcohol washing and
in length, a reddish-brown color and Great question Josh. Honey bees
was very surprised. The mite level
narrower than SHB. I found 2 of them have sucking, smoothing, shaping
was over 10 varroa per 100 bees. Now
and a couple of SHB herded on top mouthparts. Honey bees obviously
the question is, should I go ahead and
of the inner cover by the bees. Also, suck up liquids like water, nectar and
use again the oxalic vaporization or
I don’t recall seeing this particular honey using their straw like mouth
other chemicals like ApiVar or else?
beetle in any of my hives before. parts. The honey bee has spatula like
Or just leave them alone???
Please advise me at your soonest mouth parts that are used to primarily
Terry grab and take up and shape the bees-
possible time, I do appreciate it.
You have a blessed day. wax flakes that bees produce in wax
glands on the underside of their abdo-
David and Paula men into the complex shape of honey
comb. They also use these spatulas to
access and manipulate beebread and
propolis.
These unique structures are not bit-
ing, chewing or piercing, but can be
used to smooth out and rub and wear
down wooden hive parts or to rub,
A
rub, and rub some more to scrub, buff,
wear away over time harder surfaces.
FROM JAMIE ELLIS TO On mites the bees can grab the
A Beetle Expert smaller mite and pull it forcibly off
another bee, sometimes damaging
Hey Lyle, (Dr. Lyle Buss UF, Insect Yes, it does happen with oxalic as it it. Or have a tug of war with it and
ID Lab) doesn’t get all the mites reproducing another bee etc.. pulling legs or other
Do you know what the first beetle behind capped cells. When the bees mite parts off.
is? Is it a scarab? It’s similar to what emerge, so do the mites. But no biting, chewing, crunching,
I called a “Christmas Beetle” when I Short answer is that it may be too snipping. I hope this makes sense. If
lived in South Africa. late for the ‘winter bees’ who are sup- not give me another try. Thanks for
posed to be long lived, so cross your The Classroom compliment.
Thanks. fingers as you apply ApiVar a soon as
Jamie Ellis, PhD possible.
In your prayers, say one for a short
FROM LYLE warm winter.
The beetle is in the family Tene-
brionidae, maybe one of the flour Hang in there,
beetles in the genus Tribolium. But it Jerry

E
very few weeks a photo of a fly omones, and chemicals which can af- a much shorter segment that has a
lands in my inbox, always ac- fect the social structure of the entire rounded appearance. These two seg-
companied by the same ques- colony.3 ments together are responsible for the
tion: “What kind of bee is this?” The way the antenna moves. The pedicel
answer is simple. If your insect has Basic antenna structure fits within the end of the scape to form
short, stubby, barely visible antennae, The basic structure of antennae an elbow-like joint that allows easy
it is not a bee. is the same for all bees. The base of rotation in many directions. If you
On the contrary, a bee antenna is each antennae sits in a bowl-like look at a bee whose antenna is flexed,
long, graceful, mobile, and insanely depression in the bee’s head, some- the bend you see occurs between the
cute. But beyond that, the antennae times called the antennal socket. Four scape and the pedicel.
are a bee’s major data collection tools, muscles extend from the base of the The third major section of the an-
containing receptors for touch, taste, antenna into the bee’s head to control tenna is called the flagellum. The
and smell. Antennae can also detect antennal movement. flagellum is especially interesting to
temperature, humidity, and carbon The antenna itself is divided into bee taxonomists because it can often
dioxide, along with gravity and wind three main parts. The first part, which be used to determine bee sex. The fla-
speed.1 Much of what a bee “knows” rises from the antennal socket is called gellum is divided into sub-segments
arrives through those two slender the scape. It is the longest single seg- called flagomeres. In nearly all species,
filaments. ment of the antenna. Attached to the including the honey bee, females have
The word antenna is derived from distal end of the scape is the pedicel, 10 flagomeres and males have 11. In
the Latin antemna. On Roman sailing
ships, an antemna was a type of hori-
zontal mast-mounted spar designed
to spread square-rigged sails. With
a little imagination, perhaps you too
can envision your bees with rigging.
Sail ho!
Centralized data collection

The importance and complexity
of antennae is not limited to honey
bees. Bees of all types have similar
antennae that collect the information
needed for survival. But eusocial
bees2—those that live in organized
groups—need more information
than solitary bees, so their data col-
lection is more complex. Not only do
they need details about food sources,
weather conditions, and mates, but
they also need to communicate with
other colony members. Social bees Many flies mimic bees in their coloring. If you’re unsure whether you are seeing a
have receptors that can perceive bee or a fly, check the antennae. Flies have short and stubby antennae, whereas bee
queen pheromones, behavioral pher- antennae are long.
February 2018 157

has roughly 3,000 chemoreceptors, lum. This sensor is able to detect
whereas a queen’s antenna has only vibrations and slight changes in an-
about 1,600. But drones, whose job is tennal position. For example, in flight,
to find virgins queens in midair, have bending of the antenna due to airflow
an estimated 300,000 chemoreceptors.1 helps the bee to determine her speed
The distribution of sensors on the through the air.5
antennae is very specific. For example, In addition, the Johnston’s organ
the honey bee uses a tuft of sensory is responsible for the bee’s ability to
hairs at the very tip of the flagellum “read” dance language even in the
to determine surface texture. Tem- dark. It works like this. The danc-
perature sensors are found on the last ing bee causes sound waves to travel
six sub-segments, and the majority of through the air. These waves deflect
olfactory sensors, called pore plates, and vibrate the flagellum of a “listen-
are distributed over the last eight sub- ing” bee. The vibrations are transmit-
segments of the worker’s antennae.4 ted from the flagellum to the pedicel
The gustatory sensors, far fewer in where they bounce into a tight mem-
number, are thread-like chemorecep- brane that separates the pedicel from
tors with a pore at the end that can the scape. You can think of this inter-
perceive sugar concentrations as low segmental membrane as being simi-
as one or two percent.3 Other sensors, lar to an eardrum. When it vibrates, it
This sweat bee, Halictus rubicundus, is not as well understood, can detect stimulates sensory cells in the pedicel
pulling one antenna through his antenna pheromones, humidity, carbon diox- which then send nerve impulses to
cleaner. ide, gravity, and shape. the bee’s brain.6
The inside of the antenna contains a Since the Johnston’s organ detects
some species, such as the long-horned nerve that leads from the receptors to sound vibrations, it is sometimes
bees, the male’s sub-segments are the antennal lobe of the brain. It also called the “bee’s ear.” But unlike a
much longer than the female’s, giving contains two additional muscles that typical ear, the Johnston’s organ is
him a noticeably longer antenna. are independent of those found in the able to detect extremely slight deflec-
scape, and which pull the flagellum tions, such as those caused by both
The sensory receptors up and down. The nerve and antennal magnetic and electric fields.7 For ex-
The outer surface of the flagellum muscles receive oxygen through small ample, Greggers demonstrated that
is covered with different types of re- tracheal tubes and hemolymph via electric fields are created when bees
ceptors, each type having a special the bee’s circulatory system. The an- move, and these fields cause small but
purpose. The receptors can be identi- tennae are so important that they have perceivable antennal movements in a
fied by their shape and are often de- auxiliary hemolymph pumps, one at receiving bee.8
scribed as plates, pits, pegs, and hairs. the base of each antenna, which help
In general, peg organs are chemore- pump bee blood through the organ. How bees use their antennae
ceptors used for smelling, sensory Bee antennae are in constant mo-
hairs are mechanoreceptors used for The Johnston’s organ tion—touching, reaching, bending,
tactile functions, and plate organs are An additional receptor, known as and seeking. With so many receptors
both chemo- and photoreceptors. Esti- the Johnston’s organ, is found inside of different types, a seemingly endless
mates vary, but each worker antenna the pedicel at the base of the flagel- stream of environmental data flows
into the bee’s brain. What does the
bee do with it all?
The ability to “hear,” taste, smell,
and feel are essential to every part of
the bee’s life. For example, the bee’s
ability to detect surface texture helps
a forager find her way into a flower.
As we know, many flowers have vi-
sual patterns on their petals known
as nectar guides that help a bee see
her way to the nectaries. But in ad-
dition to visual clues, many flowers
have tactile clues as well. The surface
of some flower petals is texturally
unique in the area leading to the nec-
tary, a difference bees can detect with
the tips of their antennae.9
The bees’ sense of smell is especially
attuned to odors associated with food.
This heightened sensitivity allows
workers to find flowers and other
potential food sources, including
This honey bee is drinking water. Her antennae are bent so she can examine the neighboring hives and hummingbird
surface of the leaf. feeders. Since a bee has two antennae,

she can compare the relative strengths
of the two signals to guide her to the
source. She uses this comparative
analysis to fly in the direction that’s
slightly stronger, continually adjust-
ing her flight as she follows the odor
stream.
Since bees are extremely sensi-
tive to sweetness, they can decide
whether a certain nectar is worth
collecting. Nectar with a very low
sugar concentration could be a waste
of time for honey bees to harvest, so
after a quick taste with their anten-
nae, a forager can reject the source
and search for something better. Al-
though bees also have taste receptors
on their mouth parts and feet,7 the
antennal taste receptors often make
the initial contact.
Communicating in the dark Certain types of pollen stick to a bee’s antennae, forcing her to stop and clean.
Antennation is a process in which
bees use their antennae to commu- alarm pheromone. The antennae even activity the bees stand on the exterior
nicate with each other. For example, perceive substances such as ethyl ole- of the hive and rock back and forth,
the antennae are very active during ate, a primer pheromone11 that regu- rubbing the surface with their man-
trophallaxis, the transfer of food from lates the development of foragers. dibles. As they rock, their antennae
one bee to another. Observers believe An increasing level of ethyl oleate is are in constant motion, frequently ex-
that bees, both givers and receivers, a signal from the active foragers that amining the surface.10 Washboarding
signal their readiness to begin food the work force is large enough. As a is a fascinating behavior we still don’t
transfer by using their antennae.6 In result, the rate of transition of nurse understand, though it’s usually done
addition, the antennae help them bees into foragers slows down and by young adult bees.
align their bodies for the transfer. Like bees prolong their nursing phase.3
nearly everything else a honey bee When the workforce drops, ethyl ole- Keeping it all clean
does, trophallaxis usually happens in ate levels decrease, and the rate of Antennae are vital to bee life, so it is
total darkness, so bees must rely on maturation from in-hive bees to forag- not surprising that bees have unique
tactile clues to get the job done. ing bees returns to normal. But if lots ways to keep them spit-shined and
Honey bees also use their tactile of foragers are lost, then bees will ac- polished. Each of the forelegs of all
sense to build wax combs.10 Although celerate development and transition bees are equipped with an antenna
the hive interior is dark, the bees can to foraging precociously. cleaner. The antenna cleaner is made
detect comb dimensions with their Bees even use their antennae while of two parts: a notch in the basitar-
antennae. The shape of the cells, as washboarding. During this strange sus, which is outfitted with a ring of
well as the thickness and depth of the
wax walls, are determined by using
the antennae.
Because sensors on the antenna can
detect small changes in carbon diox-
ide levels, bees can take corrective
action. As carbon dioxide in the hive
rises, bees may increase fanning to
aid ventilation and lower the carbon
dioxide concentration.4 The ability to
detect carbon dioxide may also as-
sist with colony defense. Sometimes
spikes in carbon dioxide levels are
due to the exhalation of a threatening
creature, such as a beekeeper.
Colony regulation
The antennal sensors also help
maintain the colony as a cohesive
unit. They allow the workers to moni-
tor the queen by tracking her phero-
mones, they enable the bees to “hear”
queen piping, and they allow the bees The semicircular antennae cleaner is clearly visible on this foreleg from a honey bee
to “read” messages of danger, such as drone.
February 2018 159

Now that I think about it, I wonder
how those flies manage to find their
way around from day to day.
Notes and References

1. Sammataro D, Morse RA. 1998.
The Beekeeper’s Handbook. Ithica
NY. Cornell University Press.
2. Eusocial bees are those that live in
cooperative groups characterized
by shared brood rearing, overlap-
ping generations, and a division of
labor. Both honey bees and bumble
bees are considered eusocial.
3. Southwick E. 2015. Physiol-
ogy and Social Physiology of the
Honey Bee. In JM Graham (ED.)
The Hive and the Honey Bee (pp. 183-
202 ). Hamilton IL. Dadant & Sons.
4. Snodgrass RE, Erickson EH, Fahr-
bach SE. 2015. The Anatomy of the
Some male bees, such as this Eucera, have especially long antennae. Males have an Honey Bee. In JM Graham (ED.)
extra subsegment in the flagellum and each subsegment is longer than the female’s. The Hive and the Honey Bee (pp. 183-
202 ). Hamilton IL. Dadant & Sons.
stiff hairs, and a corresponding spur can trigger repeated antennal clean- 5. Winston ML. 1987. The Biology
on the tibia. According to Mattingly, ing. Honey bee drones tend to clean of the Honey Bee. Cambridge MA.
“To use the antenna cleaner, the [bee] their antennae before going in search Harvard University Press.
raises her foreleg over her antenna of virgin queens. Often they can be 6. Kevan PG. 2007. Bees: Biology &
and then flexes her tarsus. This action seen on the landing board polishing Management. Cambridge ON. En-
allows the spur to close the notch and their antennae in advance of the big viroquest Ltd.
form a ring around the antenna.”9 As event. On the other hand, species such 7. Caron DM, Connor LJ. 2013.
the bee pulls each antenna through as Halictus rubicundus clean their an- Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping.
the circular enclosure, the bristles re- tenna constantly. In fact, after an after- Kalamazoo MI. Wicwas Press.
move debris such as pollen and dust noon of watching them, I wonder how 8. Greggers U, Koch G, Schmidt
which otherwise might interfere with they get anything else done. V, Dürr A, Floriou-Servou A,
the sensory organs of the antenna. Piepenbrock D, Göpfert MC,
Some bee species tend to clean their A sensory bundle Menzel R. 2013. Reception and
antenna more frequently than others. Besides containing the equivalent learning of electric fields in bees.
Worker honey bees don’t clean after of nose, fingers, ears, and taste buds, Proc. R. Soc. B 2013 280 20130528;
every flower, but they clean frequently the antenna functions as a protractor, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0528.
after visiting blooms containing espe- hygrometer, thermometer, speedom- 9. Mattingly, RL. 2012. Honey-Maker:
cially heavy or sticky pollen. Squash eter, direction finder, and CO2 sen- How the Honey Bee Worker Does
and hibiscus blossoms, for example, sor. What could be more convenient? What She Does. Portland OR. Bear-
grass Press.
10. Gary N. 2015. Activities and Be-
havior of Honey Bees. In JM Gra-
ham (ED.) The Hive and the Honey
Bee (pp. 271-308). Hamilton IL.
Dadant & Sons.
11. A primer pheromone causes long-
term changes in both physiol-
ogy and behavior. In contrast, a
releaser pheromone causes rapid
changes in behavior.
Rusty Burlew has

studied agriculture,
honey bees, and envi-
ronmental science for
over 30 years. She is
a passionate advocate
of native bee conser-
vation and founded
the Native Bee Con-
servancy in Washington State. You can visit
her website at https://honeybeesuite.com or
This queen, just returning from her mating flight, is antennated by three workers. email her at [email protected].

SAVE EXPENSE HARDEMAN APIARIES 2018
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25-UP $18.75 NO NUCS THIS SEASON
QUEENS “RUSSIAN HYBRID QUEENS & PACKAGES”

1-9 $23.00 PKGS. 1-9 10-24 25-99 100-UP Marking
10-24 $21.25 #3 $84.00 $82.00 $80.00 $78.00 $2.25
25-UP $21.00 #4 $99.50 $97.50 $95.50 $93.50 Clipping
NO NUCS THIS SEASON $2.25
WE WILL START TAKING ORDERS IN DECEMBER
PICK-UPS ARE WELCOME. YEARLY INSPECTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
PACKAGE AND QUEEN PRICES DO NOT INCLUDE POSTAGE. ALL SHIPMENTS MUST BE PAID IN
FULL BEFORE WE SHIP. NO PAYMENT MAY CAUSE DELAYS IN YOUR SHIPPING.
ALL POSTAL CLAIMS ARE TO BE MADE BY CUSTOMER. HARDEMAN APIARIES
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WE WILL NOT SHIP PACKAGES TO ZONE 5 AND UP, NO EXCEPTIONS. POSTAL SERVICE WILL NOT
INSURE PACKAGES PAST ZONE 4. ZONE 5 AND UP PACKAGE CUSTOMERS SHOULD TRY YOUR
LOCAL BEE CLUBS TO SEE IF THEY MAY BE PICKING UP PACKAGES. QUEENS CAN BE SHIPPED
AND ARE INSURED TO MOST UNITED STATES CUSTOMERS.
February 2018 161

F
or most small-scale beekeepers, corrupted product, even if the taste dart from one bottle to the other.
selling their honey direct is a approximates honey. You’re buying Typically, he gets quiet. But, with the
simple transaction. The seller junk. You could also buy supermarket visualization, his mind is whirring
has what the customer wants, and or store honey, which is priced between and he will most likely never buy
the buyer is willing to pay for it. my honey and this fake Chinese ver- cheap honey again. Chalk up another
But for the last few years I have sion. But it is batched honey col- victory. Of course, I could let him
used props to help inform people lected from several beekeepers. And it’s sample both bottles, and that would
and increase sales. These interactive heated for filtering, which kills all the cement the conversion. Then I make
props provide buyers with a sense of healthy enzymes. So, even with store the sale. Or make the point. Or teach
quality, cementing our relationship honey, you don’t know what you’re a lesson.
for a long time. I also use my prop buying. You are getting a poor substi- I use my prop in other ways also.
any time I talk about honey varietals. tute instead of the real thing. Whenever I give talks, I bring the prop
A prop is some physical object and discuss the difference between
that the listener can look at and During my fulmination, the cus- the real McCoy and imitations. It
touch, something that adds validity tomer stares at the prop. His eyes helps to be holding something up
to one’s assertions. My prop is a box
divided into two compartments with
my honey jar set in one compartment
and a jar of blended Chinese honey
set in the other compartment, with
its price ($1.55) clearly marked on the
lid. Seems silly, you say. Everyone
knows that Chinese honey is a poor
substitute for the real thing.
Well, actually most people outside
the beekeeping industry don’t know
this. And besides, seeing it first-hand
underscores the reality. Whenever I
receive a price objection, I hold up
the box, showing both honeys, and
say something like this:
You’re right. Local honey is expen-

sive. But at the other end of the
spectrum, here’s what your buying,
Chinese honey. See the ingredients:
honey, syrup. In other words, you’re
buying sugar syrup laced with honey.
See the price $1.55. You’re buying a
February 2018 163

product. Use any thin board for a
back plate. Paste heavy cardboard
signs above each compartment.
One sign says ‘Real.’ The other says
‘Fake.’ Then insert the bottles. To
make semi-permanent, secure bottles
with a hot glue gun. Voila, you have
your prop box.
You can purchase the jar of Chinese
honey at most Asian supermarkets.
In our neck of the woods, there
are Chinatown sections in Boston,
Cambridge, and Quincy. It might not
be labeled Chinese Honey. It might
be called Honey or Honey Syrup.
The important thing is that the ingre-
dients are labeled ‘honey and syrup,’
and that the jar says ‘product of
China.’ The kicker is the price tag. If
there isn’t a price tag on the bottle,
place one there. A 10 oz. jar might
run anywhere from $1.25 to $2.00.
A 16 oz. jar might range from $2.00
to $3.00.
This is just one prop you can use.
For the more artistic or creative bee-
keeper, there are a lot of possibili-
that everyone can see. Depending but are totally different. One is the ties. If you own a large lathe, cre-
on the crowd, I might pass the prop real thing and the other is a fake. ate a four-foot high honey dipper.
around, so people can get a closer I conclude by suggesting that one Imagine how that would create a
look. If it is a small audience, I might must be careful, lest he is tricked. stir—no pun intended—at fairs or
bring popsicle sticks and let every- When not in use, I keep my prop speaking engagements.
one come up and sample both items, on the mantle above the fireplace in Create a hexagon wall, using 5”
side by side. Their expressions range my office. Looking up at it from my wide boards pasted together. Glue a
from anguished disgust to bitter gri- desk gives me a confidence. Along piece of plywood as a background.
mace when tasting Chinese honey. with my bees, I am creating some- Place your assorted products—liquid
Being able to see and touch and even thing special, something that can honey, comb honey, candles, pollen,
taste something is, as they say, worth be imitated, but never reproduced. wax blocks—in each of the hexagon
1,000 words. Furthermore, my product is local spheres. Such a prop makes an excel-
My prop is a handy device to because my bees gathered the ingre- lent backdrop at speaking engage-
have around. When someone asks dients from within flying range of ments. It would also work in your
me to explain why local honey is my particular location. As such, my honey store, where customers come
so special, I whip out my prop and honey is the embodiment of local to buy product.
make my points. I compare the natu- nature. Its DNA, if you will, is com- Decorate a column of wooden
ral healthiness of local honey to the pletely unique. And with all kinds of package boxes with assorted colors
gooey stickiness of fake honey that is lesser items in the marketplace, such of wax. Let the wax drip on the top
essentially fructose syrup. I discuss as this Chinese honey, I am—dare I and screens. Using colored candles
the healthy enzymes in local honey say—offering something real, some- can create interesting effects. Another
that are blasted out of existence when thing special that blows all the others option is to purchase encaustic wax
heated in the Chinese product. When away. blocks available at art stores. Use
a neighbor asks about buying my True confession: I did not make the column as an art object when
honey, I take out my prop and point my prop box. I had the perfect box giving talks. Give out a few boxes to
out that you get what you pay for, in the basement. But for those who attendees who give the right answer
especially with honey. It helps to aren’t so lucky to find the proper to a quiz you’ve devised. The sort of
have such a gross product alongside. size, the prop can be made simply. questions you might ask are the fol-
When someone complains about my It’s a wooden box with a divider. My lowing: How many honeybees are in
high price, I once again rely on my box’s measurements are 8 ½” high a hive? Why is the hive made of wax?
prop. I ask her to look at the two by 10 ½” wide by 2 ½” deep. Insert Make a honey factory out of blocks
bottles and suggest that they look a divider and you have a two-sided and vats. Use this prop to describe
quite alike. Then I offer her to sample box. how the bees make honey. Point out
both items. That does it. My point is One 7/16” five-foot-long pine that on the vertical combs each cell
made. The customer eagerly makes board would do for making your is tilted upward, so honey won’t run
the purchase. own. Figure out the measurements. out. These cells become vats. Explain
When I do a bee school presenta- Cut up the board with your electric the many steps in making honey:
tion for my club, I use the prop. I saw and bond one edge to the next gatherer bees bring nectar from flow-
insist that both items look identical, with Gorilla glue or some similar ers into the hive. At the entrance,

in-hive bees take the honey and share
it between many workers. Drop by
drop, the bees deposit the nectar in
a vat. While the vat is filling, worker
bees fan their wings to reduce the
liquid content. Certain bees engaged
in nectar storage check the density to
determine when it has the right thick-
ness, typically when the water con-
tent falls below 18%. At that point,
the nectar is now honey. When a cell
is filled, construction bees cap the cell
to prevent the honey dripping out
and to insure it remains unadulter-
ated. Wouldn’t it be easier to explain
the process using this prop?
If you are not handy or creative,
be on the lookout for props at thrift
stores, yard sales, and ‘take it or
leave it’ shops at the town dump. I
have discovered innumerable boxes,
unusual shaped objects and just plain
funny items that I have found useful.
Props make your bee stories more
entertaining and alive. Make it a pri-
ority to get some soon.
Scott is a 35-year beekeeper. The

Pembroke, Mass. practitioner is
the author of the best-selling BEE
LESSONS. He has published over
185 articles for ABJ. Contact him
at [email protected].
February 2018 165

February 2018 167
We beekeepers are nearly blind as to varroa. Yes, we see the occasional mite on a bee,
or in torn drone brood. And the more diligent beekeeper may even perform occasional
alcohol washes or stickyboard counts. But few beekeepers have anything but a remote
grasp of how varroa is actually living and dying in the hive.
A
ll that changed for me when I ing any specific recommendations really be sure unless you confirm it by
started mathematically model- garding hive management. That said, checking. In order of reliability, I’d
ing varroa population dynam- I can share some of the pros and cons suggest alcohol wash, sugar shake,
ics. This required me to account for of the various choices of treatments accelerated mite drop1, or sticky-
every aspect of varroa life and death. used for mite management. board natural drop, in that order. If
In this article, I’m going to focus upon you don’t deal with mite-infested
the death part of the equation—that EARLY-SEASON colonies early, when they inevitably
which the beekeeper causes when he/ MITE MANAGEMENT collapse later in the season they may
she applies a mite control measure or In order to help your colonies avoid overwhelm any truly varroa-resistant
miticide treatment. being forced to deal with a varroa/ hives with an influx of mites. A quote
My modeling of mite population virus epidemic during midsummer, from the Cookeville Beekeepers per-
dynamics suggests that if you keep it’s important to reduce their mite lev- haps says it best: Treatment Free bee-
bees in an area in which your colo- els early in the season. This is also the keeping and just hoping for the best
nies rear brood for at least 6 months time of year that the greatest propor- while doing nothing are NOT the
of the year, that you’ll need to reduce tion of the mites are in the brood— same thing.
mite levels by 90% at least once each which creates both problems and
season; if there’s 8 months of brood opportunities for management. Brood Removal
rearing, this will require two reduc- As colonies approach swarming sea-
tions per season, and if more than BIOTECHNICAL METHODS son, my modeling suggests that some
10 months with brood, likely at least 80% of the mites may be hidden—and
three reductions over the course of the Use Resistant Stock actively reproducing—in the worker
season. In this article, I’ll quickly hit a For beekeepers who run truly mite- and drone brood. Although this makes
few points on early- and mid-season resistant stock, varroa may not be a miticide applications less efficacious,
management, and then focus upon serious problem, so long as the bees it does allow for the physical removal
late-season treatments, especially ox- themselves are able to keep the mite of mites from the hive. Removal of a
alic acid vaporization. from multiplying to levels that allow single drone brood trap frame can po-
In my previous article, I presented a viruses to run rampant. tentially remove 15-20% of the mites.
graphic of a varroa management strat-
egy that my sons and I successfully Practical application for those Practical application: removing
use in the California foothills. But as using mite-resistant bee stock: it’s 15% of the mites certainly helps, but
Maine beekeeper Bill Truesdell is fond sooo easy to delude oneself—just a more realistic target would be to re-
of pointing out, “All beekeeping is because you “believe” that your duce the mite population at this criti-
local.” Thus, I studiously avoid mak- stock is mite resistant, you can’t re- cal time by 90%.
February 2018 169

Miticides
Again, due to the majority of the
mites being in the brood in the spring,
for good efficacy you need to apply ei-
ther a time-release miticide, or formic
acid—the only miticide that kills mites
under the cappings
Time release treatments: Apivar®
(amitraz) strips, or perhaps back-to-
back treatments with Hopguard® can
work. Extended-release oxalic acid
treatments show considerable promise,
and we’re working hard to get the ox-
alic/glycerin formulation registered for
use. Thymol treatments (Apiguard® or
ApiLife Var®) could be used, but have
the disadvantage of suppressing brood
rearing during the course of the treat-
ment. Note that of all the registered
treatments above, only Hopguard can
be used during a honey flow.
Formic acid: Due to the typically
lower temperatures at this time of
Figure 1. By placing all the sealed brood into one (or more) queenless splits, you can
year, formic acid (MAQS or other
obtain high-efficiency mite reduction with carefully-timed oxalic acid treatments even application methods) can be very ef-
in springtime. The timing is critical in order to hit the mites when they aren’t hidden fective, and MAQS has no restriction
under the cappings. If the splits are forced to rear their own queens, then you’d get against its application during a honey
even better mite control by waiting 24 days ‘til you treat. flow.
Splitting to take advantage of the brief window Practical application: due to its
When a swarm issues from a colony, of opportunity when there would be lack of residues, proven efficacy, and
it may reduce the subsequent buildup no sealed brood in the split in which relatively brief brood rearing inter-
of the parent hive’s mite population varroa could hide. This occurs around ruption, formic acid has a lot going
by up to 50% over the rest of the sea- 18-24 days after the split is made.4 By for it as a spring treatment. Small-
son.2 On the other hand, a natural or applying an oxalic dribble or vapor- scale beekeepers can protect the
shook swarm will start with a much ization during this window, one can queen by setting her aside during
lower mite infestation rate than the achieve a 95% reduction in a hive’s treatment, either in a tiny nuc, or in
remaining parent hive, since the pho- mite population. a queen cage in the house. Tip: use
retic mites that it carries would con- a pair of 7.25” stainless steel medi-
stitute only about 15% of the parent Practical application: my sons and cal bandage scissors5 to open MAQS
hive’s total mite population. The re- I have now used the above method wrappers—the angle of the handles
moval of shook bees or brood for nucs for six years, on thousands of nucs and the blunt ends makes opening
can also set mite buildup in the parent each spring, with great success. the packs a breeze.
hive back substantially.3
Unfortunately, such an oxalic treat- MID-SEASON
Practical application: The low ment would be of little help to the MITE MANAGEMENT
starting varroa burden gives a queenright split, since that hive never While you’ve got honey supers on
swarm a leg up on the mites, com- gets a brood break. the hive, you’re really limited as to
pared with the parent hive, which mite treatments. Formic acid is likely
got stuck holding most of the bag. A Clever Option for Small-Scale Bee- the best choice, although repeated
But keep in mind that if that swarm keepers sugar dusting is an option. During hot
is successful at establishing itself, it For those willing to locate the queen weather, in order to avoid queen loss,
will still likely eventually succumb and swap around the brood frames, some apply only a single MAQS strip
to varroa. The last thing you want there is an option that not only reduces for a mite “knock back” until they can
is for your escaped swarms to later the varroa population in both the parent pull the honey. What I’ve observed is
be sending their mites back to your and split by 95%, but also suppresses that even with a strong formic treat-
hives as those swarm colonies inevi- swarming, requeens at least one of ment in hot weather, it is usually only
tably collapse. the pair, and allows you to make an already-failing queens that get lost,
increase only if desired (Fig. 1). and the colonies typically successfully
Dividing a hive equally into replace them.
two,results in each split starting with Sugar Dusting, Heat Treatment, Etc.
only half of the original mite popula- I couldn’t in good conscience recom- LATE-SUMMER
tion (I’ll let you figure out the math mend sugar dusting in the spring, due MITE MANAGEMENT
by yourself). Even better, if you start to its low efficacy at that time. And I This is the most critical time for
the splits with queen cells (or make have no experience with heat treat- mite management—you want to get
walkaway splits), you would be able ment or the new sonic mite killers. the mite count down close to zero at

least six weeks before the colony rears
the last rounds of brood destined to
become its winter bees. As a general
rule, figure mid-August treatment at
the latest. If you need to wait, buy
time with MAQS or a formic flash.
If your mite levels are high, slow-
release formulations such as Apivar
or Hopguard may not do the trick
quickly enough. Although I’m aware
that some beekeepers are still getting
good results with off-label amitraz,
I’m not going to discuss illegal treat-
ments here.
Practical application: a glar-

ing problem faced by many is the
amount of mite immigration com-
ing into managed hives in late sum-
mer and fall. I’ll be writing at length Figure 2. The flow chart for the simplified basic model. The outputs can then be
about this in an upcoming article, checked against stickyboard counts and alcohol washes for validation of accuracy.
but suffice to say, that even if you
completely control mites in your treatment. But when I started get- ally settling on, or sticking to, surfaces
own operation, some of your hives ting questions about how to input two with which they come into contact—
may still be invaded by hundreds to oxalic acid vaporizations within one such as comb surfaces or the bodies of
thousands of mites from neighbors 15-day time period, I needed a model the bees (Fig. 3).
and collapsing feral colonies. This that calculated on a daily basis. Such Keep in mind that unless that fog of
makes late-season mite management a model is unwieldly, since one must crystals actually penetrates the cluster
very difficult in some areas with input daily values for the bee and to make contact with the bees inside,
large numbers of beekeepers. This brood areas. Anyway, I’m developing it likely won’t have much effect upon
mite influx may call for an additional a simplified model that takes into ac- varroa. When using a slow vaporizer
“clean up” treatment. count daily immigration and emigra- such as the Varrox®, the cluster may
tion of mites, as well as the number of open up enough to allow the warm fog
THE “FORMIC BLAST” foundresses entering a cell each day, to be carried inside by the convection
It’s difficult to turn a “varroa bomb” and the number of daughters emerg- current, resulting in better penetra-
around this late in the season. The ing (Fig. 2). tion of the acid into the cluster. In cold
virus epidemic is entrenched, and With a model such as this, I may be weather, however, when the bees are
without immediate kill of all the mites able to answer questions about the in a “hard,” relatively airtight cluster,
in the hive, the colony is more of a optimum spacing of short-term oxalic it may require a forced air stream to get
threat to the rest of your hives than acid treatments. the fog into the cluster.9 I question how
it’s worth. So in our operation, we The safest and simplest way to well the 20-second blasts from some of
simply break our mite bombs down apply oxalic acid is as a dribble, but it the “fast” vaporizers touted on the in-
into singles, and apply 300 mL of 65% is truly effective only when applied dur- ternet actually penetrate the cluster—if
formic in a time-release plastic bag (or ing a natural or induced brood break. And you have checked bees from inside the
3 MAQS) in a rim on top. as evidenced by Buddy May’s recent cluster under a ‘scope after such a va-
field trial7, repeated dribbles may be porization, please let me know.
Practical application: this harsh tough on the colony. Oxalic vaporiza-
treatment kills all the mites in the tion (sublimation) may get around Practical application: later in the
brood, but not the sealed brood itself, this problem, as it appears to be a bit season, as the colony is reducing its
nor the adult bees (but does kill some gentler on the bees. It’s also attrac- broodnest, 40-50% of the mites may
queens, whose genetics we don’t re- tive to beekeepers who want to avoid be phoretic at any time, making ox-
ally want anyway). After treatment, opening their hives to apply a treat- alic vaporization a reasonable can-
we then place the now mite-free box ment. Anyway, oxalic vaporization is didate for mite reduction. That said,
of bees and brood on top of a strong a hot topic among beekeepers, many confirm that your application method
nuc with a fresh queen with very of whom may not quite understand is actually getting to all the phoretic
good success. We love the hard for- the details. mites—perform an alcohol wash a
mic blast—quick, cheap, no residues, few days after your vaporization.
no mite drift; a fresh start. THE BASICS OF OXALIC
VAPORIZATION The second thing to keep in mind is
A DAY-BY-DAY MODEL In the first place, you can’t see oxalic that oxalic acid, whether applied by ei-
I created Randy’s Varroa Model6 vapor—it’s invisible, and being pro- ther sugar dribble or vaporization, ap-
to be user friendly by limiting it to duced at around 350°F, it would cook pears to be quickly groomed from their
calculate changes in the mite popula- any bee that it came into contact with. bodies by the bees, and thus exhibits a
tion only twice a month. This works It’s only the cooled fog of condens- relatively short-term effect upon the
fine when one can input the overall ing oxalic micro crystals that you see. mites—typically for only a few days.10
mite reduction from an occasional Those crystals float in the air, eventu- There is surprisingly little data avail-
February 2018 171

Practical application: note also
how any sticky board count (solid
black line) taken a few days after
treatment could be misleading, since
it can drop to near zero despite there
still being plenty of mites left in the
brood. The same would apply to an
alcohol wash count.
It appeared that each of Donald’s

treatments typically resulted in around
70% overall kills of the phoretic mites pres-
ent at the time.15 This is close to the kill
rate found by Radetski16 for colonies
with “some” brood, but less than that
determined by Enzo or Al Toufailia17—
both in hives free of brood.
Practical application: a single

carefully-applied OA vaporization
may be all that’s needed for a brood-
less colony. On the other hand, if a
colony’s got a fair amount of brood,
you can’t realistically expect an ef-
ficacy (as far as reduction of the ex-
pected mite buildup) of greater than
25-50% from a single vaporization
Figure 3. A bee covered with microcrystals of oxalic acid. Surprisingly, bees toler- (as indicated by the steps in the solid
ate such exposure with minimal adverse effects—perhaps because there is no sugar red line)—you need to keep hitting
involved to encourage them to ingest it. On the other hand, the mites are apparently the hive until you’ve purged all the
killed by the absorption of oxalic acid from crystals with which their sticky tarsal pads mites in the brood and killed them
come in contact.8 before they could reenter. This is ex-
Photo courtesy of Chamblis, Wikimedia Commons. actly the reason that I’m enthusiastic
about the extended-release OA/glyc-
able on daily mite drops following ei- tions of mites on the bees or in the erin treatment.18
ther of these treatments—if you have brood. Note how the treatments re-
some, please send it to me! Below (Fig. duced the number of phoretic mites The question then is what is the best
4) is one data set shared with me by stepwise with each treatment (blue interval for repeated vaporizations?
beekeeper Donald Aitken of Edmon- dashed line)—after which they’d
ton, Alberta11, who took the time to slowly rebound as more mites exited THE OPTIMAL INTERVAL FOR OA
count his dropped mites when he did a the brood. Compare that to the red VAPORIZATION TREATMENTS
series of vaporization treatments start- dashed line indicating the number Beekeepers have been asking me
ing at the end of August, following the of mites in the brood, which was in- how to use my mite model in order
end of his main honey flow. stead reduced slowly and steadily. to determine how frequently to apply
I used the daily mite model de-
scribed above to attempt to duplicate
Donald’s mite drop counts, hoping
to back-calculate the daily kill rates
resulting from his OA vaporization
treatments. I started by inputting
values for his colony.12 And then by
trial and error I estimated a starting
mite count that would result (from
treatment effect plus natural varroa
mortality) in a total stickyboard mite
count that matched Donald’s actual
total count of ~17,000 fallen mites
(yes, there can be a lot of mites in a
hive)—the model also suggests that
Donald’s hive’s starting alcohol wash
count would have been in the ball- Figure 4. Donald treated this hive by oxalic vaporization six times (red triangles). Each
park of 60 mites in a half cup of bees. treatment consisted of roughly 2 g of oxalic acid vaporized under a screened bottom
The output of my best13 simulation is board. The hive was fairly well sealed for 15 minutes after each application. Note that
shown in Fig. 5. mite drops were only elevated for about three days after each treatment. I asked
In the following graphs I included Donald why the first peak was lower than expected; his notes suggest that he may
dotted plots to indicate the propor- not have allowed enough time for a full vaporization of the OA on that initial treatment.

oxalic vaporization to best effect. So
I ran quite a bunch of simulations in
order to see.
For these calculations I ran all the
simulations for a mid-latitude colony,
starting mid-August, and running
through the end of September. The
modeled hive starts with 15 frames
of bees, dropping to 12, and 4 frames
of brood, dropping to one half frame.
I started with an arbitrary 3,000 mites
(a 13-count alcohol wash), with a 300-
mite overall immigration, peaking on 5
September. The expected ending mite
population (absent any treatments)
would be 6,523 mites (a 46-count al-
cohol wash). I set the total kill rate for Figure 5. A simulation to match Donald’s mite-drop data (the black line). His mite drop
each oxalic vaporization to result in an counts suggest that with his six oxalic vaporization treatments, he obtained 98% ef-
overall 90% mortality of the phoretic ficacy overall.14 I then hand inserted daily varroa kill rates to match the model’s mite
mites present during the time of each drop curves to those of his recorded counts (those daily kill rates are in boldface
treatment.19 Here’s a simulation for a above the mite drop curve). At only one time point did the daily kill rate of phoretic
single oxalic vapor treatment (Fig. 6). mites reach as high as 50%, but of interest is that there appeared to be an extended
Each simulation also calculates the slightly elevated kill rate for some time after each treatment.
overall efficacy of the treatment(s),
comparing the ending varroa popula-
tion (in red) to the 6,523 mites which
would have been expected without
any treatments. In the above case,
despite the mite population increas-
ing slightly, it was less than half what
would have been expected—thus the
calculation of 52% efficacy.
I’ve also included the expected al-
cohol wash counts (mites per ½ cup
of bees) in the blue squares. Note how
this count, after the treatment, went
up even more rapidly than did the
total mite population. This was be-
cause of the reduction in the amount
of brood present—forcing more of the
mites out onto the adult workers. As I
type these words, I just checked back
Figure 6. The effect of a single oxalic vaporization was not impressive—over the
to find that this iteration of the model course of the 47-day period, the colony’s mite population went from 3,000 up to 3,131
is suggesting that nearly half the mites (compare this ending mite population to that in the following simulations). And re-
would still be in the brood on the last member that I’m using (in this and subsequent simulations) an optimistic kill rate
date. I suspect that that is an overes- better than that achieved by Donald Aitken.
timate, so I will continue to fine-tune
this daily model. Until then, please
take the results of any of these simula-
tions with a grain of salt.
In any case, it appears that a single
vaporization isn’t likely to do the
trick. So let’s try five treatments, each
a week apart (Fig. 7).
But do you really need to do five
treatments? How about only four?
(Fig. 8).
Not bad, you say—so how about
only three treatments, one every other
week? (Fig. 9)
I’d heard some experienced Euro-
pean beekeepers recommend repeating
the vaporizations at shorter intervals--
every 4 days—in order to prevent any
mites from exiting and reentering the Figure 7. Five weekly vaporizations, on the other hand, resulted in an overall efficacy
brood between treatments. This sounds of 97%, dropping the mite population (solid red line) pretty quickly to only 213 mites.
February 2018 173

compellingly sensible, but lacking hard
data, I wondered whether this would
be worthwhile. So let’s run the num-
bers (Fig. 10).
Practical application: I’ve run the

numbers—you decide what to do.
Let me be clear that the above simu-
lations were run on a simplified and
preliminary daily model, which still
needs to be validated and fine tuned
by comparison to hard mite count
data from the field. If you’re willing
to take such daily mite drop counts,
please let me know.
Thymol
Figure 8. Skipping one of those treatments, and spacing them further apart, still Now I was curious about running a
resulted in 96% overall efficacy, partly due to killing late-immigrating mites. Ending simulation for the mid-August treat-
mite population of 268 mites. ment with Apiguard thymol gel that
we’ve been using in our own opera-
tion. When I’ve opened brood cells
during strong thymol treatments, I
don’t observe any mite kill beneath
the cappings, so I assumed for the
simulation that the treatment would
kill only a percentage of the phoretic
mites, and not affect the reproductive
success of the remaining mites (al-
though I strongly suspect that it actu-
ally does). From this I hoped to be able
to again back calculate the daily addi-
tional mortality of the phoretic mites
due to treatment.
At this time of season, due to lack
of forage, my colonies are already de-
creasing in strength, and the thymol
treatment only accelerates that pro-
cess as the bees reduce brood rearing
Figure 9. We’ve saved quite a bit of field time here, yet still obtained a decent efficacy and move the broodnest away from
of 91%. However, mite levels remained a bit high for the first two weeks, allowing for the fumes. So I ran a simulation to
a degree of deleterious virus transmission to continue. The ending mite pop of 562 match (we feed pollen sub immedi-
mites is higher than that of the two previous simulations. ately after treatment, so that the now
low-mite colonies can build up for
winter).
In order to validate the output of
my model, it needed to match field
data for both overall efficacy of the
treatment, as well as for mite counts
from stickyboards. I knew from ex-
perience that we obtain roughly 90%
efficacy with the Apiguard treatment,
which matches that of other pub-
lished trials. I then reviewed pub-
lished studies in which researchers
had recorded mite drop data during
late-summer treatment. I converted
the mite drop data from summer and
autumn trials by Floris and Leza 20
in Italy and Spain, respectively, to
proportionally match the modeled
results of a starting mite population
Figure 10. Four back-to-back treatments certainly dropped the mite level quickly, of 4,000 mites—an expected number
but there was then enough mite increase after treatment from reproduction and im- for a hive that had not been treated
migration to drop the overall efficacy to only 91%, with an ending mite population of in the springtime (if you’re surprised,
576 mites. compare to Donald Aitken’s 17,000

counted mites). I then again back
calculated the daily kill rates of the
phoretic mites required to match the
field data (Fig. 11).
In order to match the field data, the
model suggests that treatment with
Apiguard kills roughly 25% of the
phoretic mites every day for about a
week (the small percentages above
the triangles).21 This rate of slow at-
trition resulted in an overall modeled
efficacy of 90%. But note that the mite
population reduction is not as steep as
with repeated oxalic vaporizations.
Practical application: note that in

the above simulation an efficacy of
90% was obtained. That would be Figure 11. A simulation for two applications of Apiguard thymol gel, applied 14 days
fine if you started with an alcohol apart (red arrows). Note how the model’s output (purple bars) is close to that of Floris’
wash count of say 8, which would and Leza’s proportional hard data. This simulation is based upon a colony starting at
have ended with a count of less than 15 frames of bees--dropping to 13, with 4 frames of brood--dropping to 2 due to the
2. But if you started with a count of suppression of brood rearing due to the thymol fumes; it also assumes a daily immigra-
20, you’d still be going into the win- tion of 10 mites.
ter with an unacceptable number of
mites in the hive (likely over 1,000). ENDNOTES mellifera: Untersuchung der Toxizität, der
Take home message: your required 1. Accelerated by the application of a quick- Pharmakodynamik, des Verhaltens und
treatment efficacy must be figured acting miticide or a sugar dusting. der Lebensdauer, sowie der Rückstände
relative to your starting mite infes- 2. Since only 20%-25% of the mites would auf Bienen und Beutenmaterial. Doctoral
tation rate—high-mite hives need be phoretic at this time of season, assum- Dissertation, Freien Universität Berlin.
stronger treatment. ing that 70% of the adult bees left with 11. Shared here by permission.
the swarm, the swarm would carry only 12. I guessed that it started at the end of Au-
about 15% of the total mite population. gust with 15 frames of bees, dropping
FALL-WINTER The rest of the reduction (from the poten- linearly to only 10 frames by 11 October
MITE MANAGEMENT tial buildup) would be due to the lack of (remember, that it was highly infested
Once a colony’s gone broodless, mite reproduction during the period be- with mites). I also assumed that it started
mites are much easier to kill (even fore the new queen begins laying. with 4 frames of brood, an amount that
sugar dusting may produce adequate 3. Maucourt, S, et al (2017). Comparison dropped steadily until the hive went
results). But you want to make sure of three methods to multiply honey bee completely broodless by 26 September.
(Apis mellifera) colonies. Apidologie DOI: Because his bees enjoyed good flight
that any treatment given at this time is weather through 11 September, I includ-
10.1007/s13592-017-0556-9 See their Fig. 4a.
not too stressful on the bees. Although 4. At 20 days, all the original worker brood ed a mite immigration count from other
there’s no temperature restriction on will have emerged; by 24 days, any drone hives of 20 per day during that period.
Apivar, I’ve seen no reports on winter brood. The earliest that brood from the 13. I ran dozens of simulations figuring out
treatment, nor for Hopguard. A gentle new queen coming from an inserted cell how to do this. During this process I’d
formic treatment can be effective. Thy- will be receptive to mites is typically recognize some error or another in the
mol may be both stressful and ineffec- around Day 20. See http://scientificbee- model, and then start all over again. But
keeping.com/simple-early-treatment- I’m finally getting more comfortable with
tive due to temperature. the utility of the daily model. However,
of-nucs-against-varroa/
Beekeepers worldwide have good 5. Amazon: “Prestige Medical Bandage at this time, it is not a done thing!
success with a single oxalic acid drib- Scissor with One Large Ring” 14. Calculating efficacy as 1-(final mite pop/
ble or vaporization. In some countries, 6. Updated regularly at http://scientificbee- expected final mite pop of 13,186).
beekeepers are substituting glycerin keeping.com/randys-varroa-model/ 15. For example, a kill of 45% the first day,
for the sugar in the dribble. This is for 7. May, RC (2017). The effects of repeated 30% the second, then 15%, 5%, and then
two reasons: (1) the bees have an aver- summer application of oxalic dribble. 2% daily over the next week results in
ABJ 157(10): 1123-1125. an overall kill of 72%. The 17 September
sion to glycerin, so aren’t tempted to treatment suggested an 80% kill.
8. Papežíková, I, et al (2017). Effect of
lick up the acid, as they do when sugar oxalic acid on the mite Varroa destruc- 16. Radetski, T (2001). Vaporisation of oxalic
is used, and (2) the glycerin maintains tor and its host the honey bee Apis mel- acid in a field trial with 1,509 colonies.
acid residues on the bees’ bodies for lifera, Journal of Apicultural Research DOI: http://www.honeybeeworld.com/di-
much longer than with either sugar 10.1080/00218839.2017.1327937 ary/files/__www.mellifera.de_engl2.pdf
dribble or vaporization.22 My sons and 9. Dr. Medhat Nasr has investigated this pret- Back calculating from Radetski’s tables,
I are currently testing this method; I’ll ty thoroughly for Canadian application. and adusting for natural mite mortality
10. Al Toufailia, H, et al (2015). Towards in the control group, his mite reduction
let you know the results. appeared to be roughly 77%.
integrated control of varroa: 2) compar-
ing application methods and doses of 17. Enzo, N, et al (2004). Oxalic acid by Var-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS oxalic acid on the mortality of phoretic rox® to varroa control control in central
Thanks as always to Peter Borst Varroa destructor mites and their honey Italy. Apiacta 39: 39-43.
for research assistance, and to all the bee hosts, Journal of Apicultural Research Al Toufailia (2015) op. cit. Enzo’s kill rate
dedicated and hard-working bee re- 54(2):108-120. was around 80%; Al Toufailia’s about 95%.
Schneider, S (2015). Subletale Wirkun- 18. Refer to my “Extended-release oxalic
searchers from whose publications I acid progress reports” in this journal, and
gen von Oxalsäure in Kombination mit
draw useful information. Zuckerwasser oder Glycerin auf Apis at my website.
February 2018 175

19. A series of daily kill rates of 75%, 45%, 20%,
5%, 2%, 2%, 2%, 2%, 2%, 2%. This 90% total
phoretic figure may be overly optimistic.
20. Floris, I, et al (2004). Comparison be-
tween two thymol formulations in the
control of Varroa destructor: effectiveness,
persistence, and residues. J. Econ. Ento-
mol. 97(2):187-191.
Leza,M, et al (2015). Comparison of the
efficacy of Apiguard (thymol) and Api-
var (amitraz) in the control of Varroa de-
structor (Acari: Varroidae. Spanish Jour-
nal of Agricultural Research 13(3): 1-5
21. Assuming that it does not affect mite re-
productive success. If it indeed does so,
then the daily kill rate would be lower.
22. Schneider, S (2015). op cit..
Randy sees beekeep-

ing through the eyes
of a biologist. 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 en-
joys sharing what he’s
learned with others.
rN C alif o
rt he
N PaCkage BeesrNia
o
aCkage ees
QuAlity itAliAn And
CArniolAn Queens
All bees fed Fumagilin Fall & Spring
Powell APiAries
4140 Co. Rd. KK
Orland, CA 95963
Phone: 530-865-3346
Fax: 530-865-3043
Package Delivery Available
Member:
California Bee Breeders Assoc.
American Honey Producers Assoc.

O
n a sunny spring day in April were completely empty — robbed realized they could never survive
of 2005, I set up my first bee- clean. I found 45 more hives a mile the competition of 144 hives. Time
hives in the lovely little part down the road and there was my an- to move. But where? How could I be
of the world I call my home in south- swer. There had been plenty of forage sure that the new location was free
west Michigan. They found them- for five to seven hives, maybe even and clear of the competition?
selves living in a bee paradise with ten to fifteen, but definitely not for I used two tools – one old and one
lots of forage, abundant water, wild 80. Well, ever the optimist, I figured a new. First, I traveled the roads all
areas, hay fields and a lawn filled new year would be better and cheer- around and looked very carefully for
with white clover. They rewarded me fully fed enormous amounts of sugar signs of beehives. The previous year I
year after year with honey harvests to the remaining hives to help them hadn’t noticed the 45 hives because of
ranging from 60 to over 100 pounds through the winter. tree cover. I learned to look very close-
per hive. Even in a poor year they av- Spring arrived, so did the com- ly at any potential location. I knew
eraged around 50 pounds per hive. mercial beekeeper. This time with that for a location to be attractive to
I kept around five to seven hives in 144 hives. I only had one hive left the commercial beekeeper, it had to
groups of three or four per location by spring. It went queenless just as have good access for his large trucks
scattered throughout my property my four new queens arrived. I des- and had to be a vacant piece of land
and my neighbor’s. perately split it into four and placed that was not under active agricultural
Suddenly that all changed. My new queens with each split. I quickly cultivation. The other method was to
hives struggled. For the first time
ever I saw a hive decrease its honey
stores from one inspection to the next.
A swarm collected in May never in-
creased in size at all, even though the
queen was always present at every
inspection. By fall, two hives were
so light I almost knocked them over
when I went to staple winter wrap on
them. What could have happened?
It wasn’t as mysterious as it sounds,
although it took me a lot longer than
it should have to recognize the prob-
lem. A large commercial beekeeper
placed 30 hives right near my proper-
ty line. I contacted him and requested
he move them, but he was unwill-
ing. He cryptically stated that he had
more hives near me than I knew. I
didn’t really think about that at the
time, but these extra hives added a lot
of competition for the same forage.
By the time I finally did notice my Getting Started: The author and her daughter install their very first packages in April
light hives, I discovered that they 2005
February 2018 177

study Google Satellite Maps of our
area. There is a feature on those maps
that allows me to measure distance to
determine how far one point is from
another. This is very useful when de-
termining apiary locations, as you can
calculate foraging range.
I first had to determine what was
desirable to the commercial beekeep-
er. He needed a location that would be
undisturbed throughout the growing
season. That rules out any cultivated
fields. From a satellite view I can see
what is farm land and what is vacant
land. I knew one of his locations was
a gravel pit. Those are very easy to see
on a satellite map.
I could pinpoint where his hives
were located and measure a three mile
radius around them. His hives were
located in two locations that were one
quarter to one mile from my hives.
Home Apiary: The yellow x’s indicate the three locations on my property where I had
I then used the Google Maps tool to
my hives. The red circle indicates where the commercial beekeeper placed 30 hives
measure distances from the commer-
that first year, then 72 the following year.
cial beekeeper’s hives to three other
nearby beekeepers, all of which were
new beekeepers with only one or two
hives.
I knew a friend of mine had an
appropriate piece of property for
colonies, in fact bees had been kept
there in the past very successfully. I
asked my friend if he had seen any
evidence of commercial beekeeper ac-
tivity nearby. He had not. He owns a
large area of land – another plus, as it
would provide a buffer of protection –
I knew that was a safe area.
Home Apiary: This shows the apiary location of the author’s hives that are closest
The Google Map revealed what I
to her home the year the commercial beekeeper moved into the area with his bees.
could see from the road – a lot of culti-
vated farm land, also a gravel pit, but
it was far enough away that it would
not be an issue even if a commercial
beekeeper did keep bees there. We
moved the bees to my friend’s farm,
which was located around 2 ½ miles
from the commercial beekeeper’s api-
ary.
Due to the stress of a hard start,
only one hive really built up nicely,
although under the circumstances, I
should be happy with that! Two oth-
ers survived, but stayed small and
didn’t really build up. There was no
evidence of any disease or parasites in
any of these hives. I combined the two
weak colonies in the fall and will see
what spring brings this year.
I know now to act fast and move my
hives without hesitation when I notice
signs of stress. It is never normal for
me to have to feed my hives. I have
Nearby Apiary: This map shows where the commercial beekeeper set up a second api- installed new packages with no sugar
ary just 1.3 miles down the road. The yellow x’s again indicate my hives, while the red water and they built up fine as long
circle shows where the other 72 hives (45 the first year) were located. On both of those as the dandelions were blooming. If
pictures the number inside the circle indicates the distance between the two points. my hives can’t feed themselves, either

they have lost their queen, or there lots of wild areas for forage and it is managed areas so there are plenty of
isn’t enough forage for them. I have best to preserve what we can of wild “weeds” for our bees and other pol-
found in my operation that a well fed spaces and limit use of herbicides on linators to use for forage.
bee is a happy and healthy bee. A hive
full of these bees is productive and
pest-free.
I used old and new information
and technology to find appropriate
locations for good forage and to avoid
large concentrations of beehives in
one area. If you are using this method,
remember that honey bee hives them-
selves will rarely appear on satellite
maps, because commercial colonies
are moved seasonally and most satel-
lite images are taken when there are
no leaves on the trees, which is usu-
ally early spring in our area. At that
time commercial hives are either not
even in the state, or they are busy pol- New Location: The author’s hives were relocated to the area indicated by a yellow
linating commercial crops. Satellite x, which are 2.6 miles away from the commercial beekeeper’s second location. Note
images are static images that are only that the overall landscape around the new location shows much more wooded, non-
updated once a year or even less fre- agricultural land, which is prime for bee forage. A small year-round creek is also near
quently, so you can use them to deter- the new apiary.
mine appropriate locations, but not to
locate actual hives.
It has been my observation that
commercial beekeepers in our area
have been drastically increasing the
number of hives they are keeping.
This means they need more places
to place their bees during the sum-
mer months, which in turn leads to
increased competition with small bee-
keepers. At the same time, backyard
beekeepers are increasing in number
and many are increasing the number
of hives they are keeping.
This trend appears to be based on
the idea that more hives make more New Apiary: The hives relocated to their new apiary location surrounded by much
honey. Another reason both commer- more forest land.
cial and backyard beekeepers are in-
creasing hive numbers is to make up
for potential losses, both in the sum-
mer and over the winter. The problem
is that the forage in any given area has
a limit and once that limit has been
exceeded, the bees will experience
stress, malnutrition and eventually
disease and death.
I have been cautioning backyard
beekeepers to only keep as many hives
as they really need for their personal
use or small sideline business. For-
age is decreasing rapidly due to de-
velopment and modern agricultural
practices. When that is coupled with
an increasing number of colonies, the
bees will inevitably suffer. No crea-
ture can be healthy without adequate Ready for Winter: The two vertical Langstroth hives are wrapped for winter. The one
nutrition. So watch your bees, make on the left is the one remaining strong hive that built up nicely and stored plenty of
sure they are well fed, and if they honey for winter. The one on the right is a combination of the original vertical hive
have to move, use the tools you have in that location and the bees that were in the horizontal hive adjacent to it. The blue
to place them where they can have horizontal hive lost its queen just after the move, so it had previously been combined
plenty to eat! Spread the word among with the white horizontal hive. Thus, going into winter, both horizontal hives were
beekeepers and others that bees need empty and both vertical hives were wrapped and prepared for winter.
February 2018 179

February 2018 181
H
ygienic worker bees have a buhler ever imagined. Spivak’s
demanding job. They are key foundational work also showed that
players in the hive’s social im- bees’ sense of smell is indispensable
mune system, detecting and remov- for completing hygienic tasks. brood cells and added small amounts
ing sick and dying brood before the In the March issue of American Bee of the different odorants with a pi-
pathogens and parasites they har- Journal,3 I described two odorants pette (including a control treatment of
bor can spread. Evolutionarily, this emitted from dead brood which we hexane), replaced the frame and came
makes sense; hygienic behavior prob- think are involved in hygienic behav- back 3 hours later to see how many
ably evolved because in the face of ior – β-ocimene and oleic acid. At the were removed. The hexane treatment
brood diseases, the hygienic colonies time, I had not actually done any be- acted as a reference point to compare
were more likely to fight off the dis- havioral experiments – we just knew β-ocimene and oleic acid to, since
ease and survive. But from the indi- that these were strong signals com- we know that it’s bad at inducing
vidual bee’s perspective, what exactly ing from dead pupae, and the roles hygienic behavior. It’s important to
is going on? How are they able to tell these chemicals play in other contexts include treatments like this because
who’s sick and who’s healthy? We lends them probable cause. Hungry even the simple act of uncapping a
are closer than ever to zeroing in on larvae emit β-ocimene like a volatile cell and adding something – anything
the link between the genes hygienic flag, waving to attract the attention of – can induce low levels of hygienic
honey bees express and their ability workers and alert them that the larva behavior, even if it’s not a death or
to detect dead brood. But it turns out, is starving. Oleic acid, on the other disease odor. In total, we uncapped
we might be untangling just one of hand, induces necrophoretic behavior about 3,000 brood cells spread over
many potential ways that bees can be (i.e., transport of corpses away from 10 different colonies, with each cell
hygienic. the colony) in ants and termites, and cap individually picked away with
Scientists have been studying hy- avoidance behavior in cockroaches tweezers (I’m very grateful to have
gienic behavior since at least the and crickets. Together, this led me to had the diligent help of another stu-
1960’s, when WC Rothenbuhler, at hypothesize that β-ocimene probably dent that summer!).
Iowa State University, started work- attracts hygienic workers, while oleic The results? Hygienic colonies in-
ing out the genetic basis of this trait.1 acid is the determinant death cue. deed removed β-ocimene- and oleic
By observing how different inbred Now, I have behavioral data to back acid-treated brood more often than
lines of honey bees responded to that up.4 hexane-treated brood, and they were
dead brood (back then, they killed To be clear, these odorants are not better at removing brood than non-
the brood with cyanide gas – now, likely responsible for all hygienic be- hygienic colonies. These results told
we use liquid nitrogen, which is havior – just that which is induced by us we were on the right track, but it’s
much safer), Rothenbuhler deduced freeze-killed brood. Other diseases arguably not a very realistic experi-
that there were probably two genes and parasites (chalkbrood, Ameri- ment. In reality, workers need to sense
controlling the trait – one gene for can foulbrood, and Varroa destructor) the odor through the wax cap, without
uncapping, and one for removing. could easily stimulate hygienic be- being in direct contact with the brood.
About 40 years later, Marla Spivak havior with different odorants, and What’s more, since oleic acid is so oily,
showed that this model was too sim- some work by Spivak and Olav Ruep- I doubted that it could become suffi-
plistic.2 In reality, there are at least pell suggests that is the case. Study- ciently airborne for its odor to pen-
seven locations on the genome that ing freeze-killed brood, though, is a etrate the cap in the first place.
control the trait – probably many useful model to begin with, because I wanted a better behavioral test.
more – suggesting that hygienic be- it’s a simpler system than one that in- One that allowed me to add odorants
havior is more complex than Rothen- volves real pathogens. It’s also much to a brood cell without breaking its
safer than cyanide. integrity. Without uncapping, with-
We started with a quick and dirty out puncturing the wax, and with-
* Address: 436-2125 East Mall, Vancouver, behavioral test. We simply uncapped
BC, CAN, V6T 1Z4 out harming the pupa inside. I was
February 2018 183

also induces hygienic behavior. As
far as I know, they haven’t tested it in
combination with other, more volatile
odors, so whether my attractor and
death cue hypothesis holds true for
detecting varroa remains unknown.
I haven’t come across any volatile
odors that are emitted by varroa-in-
fested brood in the first place, actually
– the only other candidates I know
of are Z-6-pentadecane, brood ester
pheromone (a blend of many differ-
ent compounds that normally acts as
a contact pheromone), and possibly
oleic acid itself – all of which are non-
volatile chemicals. Perhaps varroa
detection involves a different mecha-
nism altogether, which would in part
explain why the varroa-sensitive
hygiene trait only partially overlaps
with hygienic behavior.
Interestingly, Wagoner and Ruep-
pell are currently developing a
modified-hygienic test that involves
spritzing their varroa compound on
brood comb with an airbrush device
(although this information is still not
published, to my knowledge). Until
now, we’ve always thought that the
A worker honey bee caught in the act of engaging in hygienic behavior. She is chew-
hygienic behavior-stimulating com-
ing away the wax cap to expose the brood underneath, which is destined for removal.
pounds must be volatile in order to
permeate through the brood cap. The
stumped. And when I’m stumped, I into a queen cup. No grafting tools fact that at least two oily compounds
talk to Heather. necessary. However, if the larvae are are definitively involved in hygienic
Heather Higo has been in the busi- allowed to develop into pupae, then behavior at all is changing the way
ness of bee science since before my odorants can be added through the re- we think about this trait. The most ex-
own supervisor – now a full professor movable plugs and sealed again like a citing part of our research, though, is
at the University of British Columbia trap door, maintaining perfect integ- seeing how the odorants interact with
– had even finished his undergrad. rity of the wax cell cap on the other the bees’ odorant binding proteins.
She’s also one of the leaders for the side. It was a simple, brilliant idea. Odorant binding proteins are pro-
selective breeding project I wrote After testing five colonies by this duced in the bees’ antennae, and one
about in the article “Breeding a bet- method, I concluded that oleic acid of their jobs is to grab odorant mol-
ter bee: Three social immunity traits, was indeed detectable even through ecules out of the air at the antennal
one massive experiment.”5 In 2016, the brood cell cap. This was a surpris- pores and transport them to recep-
she received the Fred Rathje Memo- ing result, because at the same time, tors on the olfactory nerves. This
rial Award – a prestigious recognition we also know that oleic acid is bad at initiates the cascade of events that
for her contributions to improving the stimulating the nerves in bees’ anten- leads to the perception of smell. You
Canadian beekeeping industry. Not nae – hygienic or otherwise – when might remember that odorant bind-
surprisingly, Heather instantly came applied as a puff of air over an odor- ing proteins (OBP16 and OBP18) are
up with a solution to my odor-intro- soaked paper strip. Even at warmer, two of the nine biomarkers that we
duction problem. “Can’t you just use a hive-realistic temperatures, the anten- have determined can accurately pre-
Jenter set?” she asked, as if wondering nae are stimulated just barely above dict a colony’s hygienic score6 – the
why I hadn’t thought of that before. baseline. To me, this suggests that the more of the OBPs in the antennae,
In case you’re not familiar, a Jenter workers must be extremely close to the more hygienic the workers tend
set is a contraption normally meant oleic acid in order to sense it. Intrigu- to be. For years, I’ve been trying to
for queen rearing. It includes square ingly, the treatment that induced hy- manipulate how much of these OBPs
queen cages, complete with artificial gienic behavior most consistently was are produced in the antennae, with
comb cells. What’s special about them not oleic acid, but the odorant blend, my pinnacle goal being to see if this
is that they have removable plugs that supporting the notion that the two changes the bees’ sensitivity to certain
make up the comb cell bottoms. This chemicals are working together as an odorants. Thus far, I have been unsuc-
set-up is meant to allow bee breeders attractor and death cue team. cessful; however, with the help of re-
to do graftless queen rearing – that Kaira Wagoner (at Olav Rueppell’s searchers in Florence, Italy, we did the
is, the queen is caged in the artificial lab in North Carolina) recently found next best thing.
comb, she populates it with eggs, then that a different, highly viscous com- Immacolata Iovinella and Paolo
the hatched larvae are popped out pound (even more so than oleic acid) Pelosi specialize in producing, puri-
(still stuck to the plugs) and inserted emitted from varroa-infested brood fying, and characterizing OBPs. They

trick bacteria into producing large possible) for there to be a single uni- 3. McAfee, A. (2017). Mechanisms of hy-
amounts of these proteins, then they versal mechanism. Martin Beye – a gienic behavior: It’s all about the necro-
isolate the OBPs using specialized researcher at the Heinrich-Heine Uni- mones. American Bee Journal. 157(4).
4. McAfee, A. et al. (2017). Death phero-
analytical techniques. After that, Iovi- versity of Duesseldorf, and discoverer mones triggering hygienic behavior in
nella and Pelosi can test, for example, of the honey bee sex-determination honey bees (Apis mellifera L.). BioRxiv.
how strongly a particular OBP binds locus – was among the first to bring Submitted to: eLife. DOI: https://doi.
a particular odorant. The rationale for to my attention how peculiar it is org/10.1101/231902.
these experiments is that the better an that there is so little agreement be- 5. McAfee, A. (2017). Three social immunity
OBP binds an odorant, the better it tween the many differential expres- traits: One massive experiment. American
probably is at getting small amounts sion studies that have been done on Bee Journal. 154(11).
6. Guarna M. M. et al. (2017). Peptide bio-
of the odorant to stimulate the olfac- hygienic and non-hygienic bees. That markers used for the selective breeding of
tory nerve and elicit a perceivable is, many research groups have looked a complex polygenic trait in honeybees.
smell. When we tested how well for differences in genetics and gene Scientific Reports. 7, 8381. DOI:10.1038/
OBP16 and OBP18 bound β- ocimene, expression between hygienic and s41598-017-08464-2
oleic acid, and hexane, we found that non-hygienic colonies, but very few 7. Swanson J. A. et al. (2009). Odorants that
their affinities closely match what we of the differences they identified over- induce hygienic behavior in honeybees:
observe behaviorally. That is, OBP16 lapped from study to study. This lack Identification of volatile compounds in
chalkbrood-infected honeybee larvae.
binds β-ocimene, OBP18 binds oleic of overlap suggests that each selected
Journal of Chemical Ecology. 35(9):1108-16.
acid, and neither OBP binds hexane. population may have arrived at the DOI:10.1007/s10886-009-9683-8
So, the odorants that strongly interact same solution – hygienic behavior – 8. Mondet, F. et al. (2015). Antennae hold a
with at least one of the OBPs induce through modifying different genes. key to Varroa-sensitive hygiene behavior
hygienic behavior, but the one that Considering OBPs alone, while we in honey bees. Scientific Reports. 5, 10454.
doesn’t bind to either OBP doesn’t in- found that OBP16 and OBP18 were DOI:10.1038/srep10454
duce hygienic behavior. Coincidence? abundantly produced in hygienic 9. Dell’Orco, F., Facchini, E., Cilia, G., Rizzi,
R., and Mortarino, M. (2016). Candidate
Maybe, but the results of one more workers, Mondet found OBP3 and
molecular markers of hygienic behav-
odorant are convincing me otherwise. OBP14,8 and Dell’Orco found OBP49 . . ior in honeybees: An expression study.
The last odorant we tested was . and that’s just the first page of Google International Journal of Health and Ani-
phenethyl acetate. This molecule results. Of all these studies, ours has mal Food Safety. 111(1) DOI: https://doi.
comes from chalkbrood mummies, the biggest sample size by an order org/10.13130/2283-3927/7096.
and it’s important because years ago, of magnitude (or two) and we were
Spivak found that it was a very good careful to include a wide variety of Alison McAfee
hygienic behavior inducer for their genetic lineages, so I still think OBP16 began researching
bees.7 I included it in my behavioral and OBP18 are (on average) the most honey bees in 2013 as
experiments, thinking it would be a robust hygienic behavior predictors. a biochemistry under-
good positive control (that is, a refer- But this disagreement between stud- graduate student at
the University of Brit-
ence point for what a ‘good’ hygienic ies suggests that OBP16 and OBP18 ish Columbia, where
inducer looks like). alone are probably not going to be ap- she is currently pur-
What I found, though, was the plicable markers in honey bee popu- suing a PhD. She be-
exact opposite: it wasn’t a good in- lations around the world, and there came enchanted with the little ladies and is
ducer at all. In fact, it induced similar could even be local populations that pursuing a degree in genome sciences and
levels of hygienic behavior as hexane have taken a different evolutionary technology, specializing in hygienic behavior
(the negative control), which was trajectory to become hygienic. and its underlying mechanisms. In 2017, she
received the Canadian Association of Profes-
much lower than the other two odor- It could simply be that all those sional Apiculturists Student Merit Award – a
ants. Based on my enthusiasm, you OBPs have some affinity to different recognition that honors outstanding achieve-
might predict what the outcomes of death or disease odors and all are ap- ments in honey bee research and extension.
the binding assays were: phenethyl propriate avenues to enable hygienic Email her: [email protected] and
acetate was a bad binder to the two behavior, given a specific set of condi- check out her blog: www.alisonmcafeeblogs.
OBPs we tested – again, very similar tions. Answering this question, how- wordpress.com
to hexane, and consistent with the ever, would likely require another
idea that OBP16 and OBP18 help bees PhD (or two). For now, I accept that
sense odorants that induce hygienic while we may be one step closer to
behavior. identifying the mechanism behind
So why does our behavioral data this hygienic behavior, there may be
not agree with previous studies? many other hygienic pathways to in-
Our contradictory results don’t mean vestigate in the future.
that either study was wrong; rather,
it suggests that hygienic bees in dif- References:
ferent places, with different genetic 1. Rothenbuhler, W. C. (1964). Behavior ge-
lineages, are sensitive to different netics of nest cleaning in honey bees. IV.
odors – adding to the complexity of Responses of F1 and backcross generations
to disease-killed brood. American Zoologist.
an already complicated trait.
4, 111-123
I am not the first one to postulate 2. Lapidge, K. L., Oldroyd, B. P., and Spi-
that there are probably many routes vak, M. (2002). Seven suggestive quantita-
for bees to become hygienic. Reflect- tive trait loci influence hygienic behavior
ing on this, for such a multi-faceted of honey bees. Naturwissenschaften. 89(12),
trait it would be surprising (although 565-568.
February 2018 185

T
hroughout history honey bees have been revered artworks. A visit to the museums, the monuments, street
and used to symbolize industriousness, dedication, plazas, and the empire ruins of Rome is an exploratory
eloquence and power. Found in Stone Age cave adventure of ancient times and a rich culture. Among
paintings and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, today bees these masterpieces the symbolic ancient bees are found
continue to be subjects of art across the world. Prominent everywhere.
figures, religious leaders, and authors used bees to Our goal was to explore the city of Rome in search of
emphasize their programs, ideas and as protagonists. ancient bees. The occasion was the annual convention
During the early Christian ages, the beehive was of Professional Italian Bee Keepers Association held in
interpreted as the community of believers, a devoted Vasto, Italy Feb. 2017, when Susan Cobey was invited as
clergy, while honey served as a metaphor for the sweetness a guest speaker. After the meetings, Fausto Ridolfi, queen
of the divine word. breeder and beekeeping history buff, well recognized
Rome is a city of ancient bees. It holds an impressive for his extensive knowledge and collection of historical
heritage of honey bees in its paintings, sculptures, and beekeeping in Italy, took Sue to Rome. Passes to the city
sites were provided by the Associazione Laziale Produttori
Apistici, who hosted Sue as their guest in Rome.
Palazzo Barberini
Exploring the magnificent Palazzo Barberini, which
houses the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, National
Gallery of Ancient Art, the symbolic bee motif is found
throughout. The palace served as the urban house of the
Barberini family in the 17th Century. The Barberini family
coat of arms was three golden bees with a blue background
(Fig.1). The Barberini family rose to prominence when
Cardinal Maffeo Barberini was elected to the papal throne
in 1623, and reigned as Pope Urbano VIII until his death
in 1644. Pope Urbano VIII loved the classical arts and
literature which he lavishly supported.
Pope Urbano VIII commissioned the artist Gian
Lorenzo Bernini to create his magnificent works with the
symbolic three bees. Bernini was the official artist of the
Pontifical Court and specifically for the Barberini House.
The Bernini name and family is linked to many artistic
accomplishments that we continue to admire today
among the churches, fountains, palaces and statues.
Supported by Papal Rome, Bernini was an advocate of the
Baroque artistic revival and contributed to the amazing
creativity, grandeur and testimony of Christianity at
the time.
Fig. 1 Barberini family coat of arms, three golden bees. This The Palace, designed by Carlo Maderno and Francesco
marble base supports the altar of the Basilica of St. Peter in Borromini and Gian Lorenzo Bernini in baroque
the Vatican. architectural style, features honey bees everywhere.
February 2018 187

The symbolic bees are found in the windows, the pillar
headstones, sculptures and among the decorative
architectural structural support blocks (Fig. 2 a and b.).
Walk into the aristocratic grand salon of the palace, and
the painting - The Triumph of Divine Providence, stuns
visitors. This fresco covers the ceiling with incomparable
magnificence and features the family symbol of three
bees in the centre (Fig 3). Painted by Pietro of Cortona in
1632 to 1639, the fresco is complex and full of activity, the
decorative backdrop for formal meetings and banquets
held by the Barberini family. Exiting into the courtyard,
on top of the impressive fountain are honey bees (Fig. 4).
To our excitement this was a new find of the ancient bee
motif for Fausto.
Fig. 2a. Statues of Plazzo Barberini featuring symbolic bees.
Fig. 2b. Columns of Plazzo Barberini featuring symbolic bees.
Fig. 4. Courtyard fountain of Plazzo Barberini with bees.

The illustrious Pope Urbano VIII was also noted for his
prosecution of Galileo Galilei, who he ordered to deny
his discoveries. Galileo, “Watcher of the Skies” improved
the telescope to explore astronomy and proposed the
controversial theory that the earth and planets revolved
around the sun. His telescope is pictured (Fig. 5). Galileo
also made a microscope which was used to view, for the
first time, the anatomical structures of bees. Bees were
chosen as a subject by these early microscopists to gain
Fig. 3 The fresco “The Triumph of Divine Providence” in Palazzo favor of the cardinal, the future Pope Urbano VIII, and to
Barberini avoid early microscopy being declared heretic.

The Vatican, Canopy of St. Peter
The Vatican’s magnificent artworks celebrated the
center of Christianity with the well represented Barberini
signature of three bees. The first important public work
Pope Urbano VIII commissioned of the artist Bernini,
then 26 years old, was to create the canopy for the altar
of the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican. The Baldacchino
of St. Peter, a canopy of sculptured solid-bronze columns,
towers over the main altar. It stands 96 feet tall and took
10 years to complete (Fig 6).
In Bernini’s exquisite masterpiece, the symbol of three
bees appears in the top canopy and in various places,
scattered in the columns, twisted in the middle of the
fronds. At the base of the columns, the thee bees are carved
in the white marble support pedestals (Fig. 1). Towering
above the Baldacchino, the ceiling dome is an impressive
452 feet in height. The intricate frescos and murals on the
ceiling and walls are mosaics, made in meticulous detail
of tiny glass pieces.
Among the many historical museums of the Vatican,
the Geographic Gallery houses a seemingly limitless
number of bees in the maps, on the ceiling paintings,
above the exit doors, elaborating the Barberini signature
of three bees. Painted on the maps of Italy, bees are
represented in a unique style (Fig 7). Past the Gallery
and into the Sistine Chapel, the astounding and complex
frescoes cover the walls and ceiling displaying their
stories and mythology.
Fig. 5. Galileo’s telescope.
Fig 7. Stylized bees in historical maps.

Along the pathway of the Vatican museums, stands
the statue of the ancient goddess Artemide of Ephesus,
Mother Earth. A symbol of fertility, she is represented with
18 breasts, a diversity of animal heads and bees carved
along the sides of her statue (Fig 8).
Fountains of Rome
Rome is a city of many fountains, the water flows
directly from the springs of ancient Roman aqueducts.
The aqueducts have been restructured and most of the
water is potable. Walking to the central plaza, Piazza
Barberini and via Veneto, the street shared with the
American Embassy, is the Fountain of Triton (Fig. 9).
Another Bernini masterpiece, the fountain is intricately
carved with the motifs of the dolphin, the shell, and the
three bees papal symbol with a skep shaped tiara.
Crossing to a street corner, is the Fountana delle Api,
The Fountain of Bees. In 1644 Pope Urbano VIII requested
Bernini create this fountain as a watering station for
horses (Fig 10, a and b). The lore of this fountain purports
that people against the Pope’s policies asked Bernini why
the bees came to the water. They were hoping for some
Fig 6. The Canopy of St. Peter in the Vatican ammunition against the Pope. Bernini avoided conflict,
February 2018 189

responding simply that the water was sweet and very the boat shaped Barcaccia Fountain (Fig. 11). Designed and
welcoming to bees and horses. built by father and son, Pietro and Gian Lorenzo Bernini
On to the Spanish Square. Climb the famous cascading in 1628, the elaborate fountain is decorated, bow and stern,
stairway of the Spanish Steps. At the foot of the stairs is with suns and the thee bee Barberini symbol.
Fig. 8. Goddess Artemide of Ephesus, Mother Earth.
Fig. 10 a. Sue drinking from Fountana delle Api, The Fountains

of Bees
Fig. 9. Fountain of Tritone Fig. 10 b. Fountana delle Api , The Fountains of Bees

Fig. 11. Sue at Barcaccia Fountain.
The Egyptian Obelisks

Among many of the street plazas of Rome, Egyptian
obelisks with their bee hieroglyphs are found (Fig. 12 a
and b.) The Egyptian obelisks were brought to Rome to
decorate the plazas during the Imperial age, a time of great
expansion of the Roman Empire’s political and cultural
influence.
Fig. 12 b. The Egyptian Obelisk, closeup showing details of bees
The honey bee represents an Egyptian royal symbol of

the Pharaoh and is commonly engraved in the hieroglyphs
of the obelisks. The bee hieroglyphs can also be admired in
the paintings and sculptures of the Egyptian section of the
Vatican Museums.
Symbolic Bees among the Paintings and Sculptures

Exploring the various sites with a close eye, you will see
and admire many paintings and sculptures with symbolic
honey bees. Bees are also found among the artwork and
buildings in the Castel S. Angelo, the Pantheon, and the
museum of Villa Borghese. Prominently displayed as well
as obscured by the artworks, it is an adventure to discover
the many ancient bees of Rome.
Castel S. Angelo, the Castle of the Holy Angel, was built
in 123 AD and towers over the Tiber River, as a symbol of
Imperial power. The castle served as a mausoleum, later
a prison and papal fortress, and now a museum. Fausto
is pictured in the Castle with a headstone featuring bees
(Fig 13).
Built about the same time, The Pantheon, is a splendour
of early Roman architecture. The ancient pagan temple for
“all the Gods”, later served as a Church of Christianity.
Also, a must see, is the Galleria de Borghese with 20 rooms
of Roman sculptures and paintings. Collected by the
Borghese family, the leading painters and sculptors of the
time are well represented.
A Long Lasting Symbol

Presented here is just a taste of the ancient bees of Rome.
Found among the monuments, paintings, fountains and
masterpieces in this City of Eternity, we gain appreciation
for how prominent and important the symbolic honey bee
Fig. 12a. The Egyptian Obelisk was in these ancient times. Throughout history right up
February 2018 191

Fig 13. Fausto in the Castel S. Angelo
Fig. 14. Fausto & Sue at the Colosseum
to our present day, the contributions of honey bees and

our fascination with them is ageless. Worldwide, the need
to conserve and protect the health and diversity of bees
and their habitats is critical to our future. Multifaceted
stressors increasingly threaten the complex and fragile
natural world. The habitat and forage of our bees must be
protected, as well as the precious artefacts of our culture
and history.
Acknowledgments
Many special thanks with sincere appreciation to
the Associazione Laziale Produttori Apistici and the
Professional Italian Bee Keepers Association.

A balanced menu makes for healthy, productive bees — but the loss of
wildflowers means that many fail to find the kind of nutrition they need.
A
s I walked into Jeri Wright’s bee would feed a study of how honey bees allow room for the rise and fall of a
lab on a mid-October morning, balance their diet. bee’s breathing body. Each tube also
two things were bothering me. Across the lab, orderly rows of flew a thin pennant of duct tape: part
The lab, where Wright and her team slim plastic tubes stood waiting. Each of a bee harness.
investigate bee nutrition, is in the far would soon be occupied by a single I’d never harnessed a bee, so I was
north of England, part of Newcastle bee, held firm, snug and ready for keen to learn how it’s done. You take
University’s Institute of Neurosci- tests on the ability to learn which a sleepy bee and maneuver it gently
ence. The bees live on the roof and flowers offer nutrients that the bee until its head and first pair of legs
the tail end of Hurricane Ophelia most needs. The tubes were lovingly emerge at the top of the tube. Flip the
was about to blow through. So would hand-sculpted for comfort, with a sticky strip over its “shoulders” and
there be any bees to see, or would bee-sized neck rest on one side and secure it, then wrap a second strip
they be tucked up warm and safe for a plunging neckline on the other to over the back to prevent escape. It
winter? And if there were bees still ac-
tively helping Wright’s team unravel
the complexities of a bee’s diet — how
to avoid being stung?
It didn’t look promising. There
were no bees yet — so while we
waited, the team happily shared their
expert knowledge of bee stings. The
trick, they said, is to choose a friendly
sort of honey bee, such as the carnio-
lan subspecies (Apis mellifera carnica)
— and catch them young, before their
stingers are rigid. If you must handle
older bees, put them on ice until they
are chilled and drowsy.
And then, bang on cue, the bees ar-
rived. A new brood had just chewed
their way out of their pupal cells in-
side one of the laboratory’s hives.
Wright’s team leapt into action,
marshalling batches of bees into see-
through boxes and spooning gloopy
mixtures of pollen, fats and sugars These adult worker honeybees are in an experimental rearing cage being fed with a
into feeders. What these mini-colonies chemically defined diet to study how they regulate their intake of protein, carbohy-
chose to eat over the coming weeks drate and minerals. Photo Credit: Raquel Teixeira de Sousa
February 2018 193

best, the domesticated honey bee (Apis
mellifera). The basics go like this:
Bees feed on nectar and pollen col-
lected by foragers — older worker
bees with beefy flight muscles. Some
foragers gather nectar, which they
store in an elastic pouch in the gut
known as a “honey stomach”; others
collect pollen grains, packing them in
“baskets” on their rear legs. Loaded to
capacity, foragers return to the colony
where nectar-carriers pass their load
to “receiver bees” to store as honey,
while pollen-bearers offload their
hauls into cells to form what’s known
as bee bread. “Nurse bees” draw on
both to keep the colony fed, and have
the job of transforming pollen into
royal jelly, which they feed to larvae
and to the queen, drones and older
worker bees.
Today, a much fuller picture of the
bee’s needs is emerging, thanks to a
global network of researchers investi-
gating what constitutes a healthy diet,
how bees achieve it — and what hap-
pens when they don’t.
Basic energy requirements are met
by nectar (essentially sugar water),
which provides the carbohydrate bees
need for activities such as flight and
keeping the colony warm. Pollen pro-
vides everything else a colony needs
to thrive: proteins, fats and lipids plus
an assortment of micronutrients in-
cluding essential sterols, vitamins and
minerals. “All these nutrients are im-
portant for different reasons at differ-
ent times in the growth of the colony,”
sounded tricky, but these experts can tives and a raft of research programs says Harmen Hendriksma, a Dutch
get 60 done in no time to tackle the issue. entomologist currently working in the
Wright’s team spends its days prob- What’s to blame? There is no single Toth Laboratory of Integrative Insect
ing the honey bee’s gastronomic hab- suspect: All the evidence points to a Sociobiology at Iowa State University.
its for good reason. Bees, both wild combination of interacting stresses To complicate matters, bees need
and domesticated, are in serious trou- — exposure to insecticides, the mys- carbs, proteins and fats in specific
ble and there’s an urgent need to un- terious colony collapse disorder but shifting proportions according to
derstand what’s gone so badly wrong and infection by novel pathogens season and what’s happening in the
for them. The past few decades have and parasites, including the aptly hive. As larvae, they require more
seen bee populations plummet alarm- named destructor mite (Varroa de- protein and fat; as adults, their wants
ingly. Some of the thousands of spe- structor). And piling on the pressure shift towards carbohydrates. Feed-
cies of wild bees have gone extinct, is malnutrition — not just failure to ing experiments show that they try to
while in North America and Europe, get enough food, but also lack of the achieve the right balance by control-
stocks of managed honey bees have right mix of food, which bees need ling what foods they collect and eat. If
fallen dramatically. just as we do. Too much of one thing caged nurse bees are offered a choice
Three-quarters of all food crops and not enough of another makes for of two foods (one carb-heavy, say, and
— together providing a third of the unhealthy bees, more vulnerable to another overly rich in protein), they
world’s food supply — depend on pests, pathogens and poisons. “It’s sample both in a proportion that helps
pollination by insects, mostly bees. more and more accepted that poor them reach an optimal ratio.
Their services are also crucial for nutrition is an important player in Last year Hendriksma published
maintaining the diversity of the the decline of bees,” says Wright. “So work showing that when a colony is
world’s wild plants and the stability it’s important to know more about suffering a dietary deficiency, forager
of ecosystems. The scale of bee loss what bees need.” bees try to remedy it. He and Sharoni
has led to fears of a global pollination Shafir of the Benjamin Triwaks Bee
crisis in which crop yields begin to Providing for the family Research Center in Rehovot, Israel,
fall as demand for food rises, prompt- Most research into bee nutrition allowed free-flying honey bees to for-
ing international and national initia- focuses on the bee species we know age for a week on artificial diets that

lacked one of the ten essential amino
acids bees need. When the week was
up, the researchers offered the bees a
trio of foods: one exactly the same as
before, one new but still missing the
vital amino acid, and one containing
the missing ingredient. They assumed
bees would eat from all three, picking
up at least some of the amino acid in
the process. Instead, foragers more
often made a beeline for the food with
the missing ingredient, and collected
measurably more of it. “Somehow,
bees know when their food isn’t up
to par and show a preference for food
that counters the deficiency,” Hen-
driksma says.
Just how they know it and how
they pick the best food is the subject
of considerable head-scratching. For-
ager bees don’t eat the food they col-
lect, so they may be getting feedback
from those that do. New evidence
suggests that when a colony is suffer-
ing a nutrient deficiency, nurse bees the hive, they either failed to perform and in pollen, very different amounts
signal their approval when foragers the waggle dance that points other of protein and a mixed bag of amino
return with more-suitable pollen — bees to a good source of food, or gave acids, lipids, minerals and other nu-
by doing the characteristic bee wag- hopeless directions. trients. But this once-extensive menu
gle-dance more enthusiastically. “We has shrunk. Land that once offered
don’t know much about this yet, but Scratched from the menu bees a smorgasbord of nectar and
it’s a hot topic among bee research- For many millions of years, bees pollen, with a succession of new of-
ers,” says Wright. satisfied their dietary needs by feed- ferings from spring through fall, has
One thing they do know is what ing from a variety of flowering plants, been replaced by brick and concrete
happens when bees can’t manage each offering nectar and pollen made or crops grown in monocultures, kept
their diet. Malnourished bees are to its own recipe: different types and free of weeds and pests with liberal
smaller and weaker, less fertile and concentrations of sugars in nectar, applications of herbicide and insecti-
shorter-lived. “If they don’t get the
right nutrients, they stop produc-
ing brood and eventually the colony
dies,” says Wright. Experiments sug-
gest that malnourished bees succumb
more readily to viral infections, carry
more parasites and are less able to de-
toxify insecticides. Without the right
sterols, bees can’t make the hormones
responsible for molting, and if they
don’t molt, they can’t grow. Deprived
of omega-3 fatty acids, they can’t
learn properly, a disaster for forager
bees that must learn the scent or color
of food flowers and provide fellow
workers with precise coordinates of
their location.
The impact of poor diet stretches
down the generations, as honey bee
ecologist Heather Mattila of Welles-
ley College in Massachusetts recently
showed. Mattila looked at the fate of
worker larvae that had been raised
by pollen-starved nurse bees. The
larvae grew into underweight bees By offering bees a choice of “dishes”, researchers can find out more about their dietary
that went on to become poor foragers. preferences. Here, honey bees in an enclosure are free to pick from five artificial diets
Some were never seen foraging at all; consisting of pollen with different amounts of added protein. By counting the number
some managed one day’s work before of times bees visit each dish and weighing what’s left of the food at the end of the test,
dying. Those that did forage made a researchers can tell what proportion of protein bees prefer.
poor job of it: When they returned to Photo Credit: Harmen Hendriksma
February 2018 195

“For us, the more foods you have on
your plate, the better balanced your
diet. It’s the same for bees.”
Some crops do produce plenty of
bee food, but the quality varies, the
diet is monotonous and stocks usu-
ally run out after a few weeks, leav-
ing bees at risk of starving. In the US,
where provision of pollination ser-
vices for agriculture is big business,
beekeepers transport their colonies
all over the continent to pollinate one
major crop after another. “In early
spring they’ll go to California for the
almonds. There are almonds as far as
the eye can see — and nothing else,
not even weeds,” says Wright. Job
done, maybe it’s off to Maine for the
blueberries and then on to Florida to
pollinate citrus flowers.
At each stop, there’s just one dish on
the menu and often not a healthy one.
“Apple orchards, for instance, pro-
duce lots of nectar and pollen,” says
ecologist Bill Kunin of the University
of Leeds in England. “But the pollen
is nutritionally very one-sided. Of the
ten essential amino acids insects need,
two are present in huge amounts, one
A honey bee sips artificial nectar (sugar solution) from an artificial flower (a fine glass in an OK amount and seven are ter-
tube) in an artificial “meadow” of tubes. In nature, plants produce nectar with an array rible. A bee couldn’t raise a brood just
of minor ingredients including amino acids. Tests like these show whether bees are on apple pollen.”
attracted to nectar containing particular amino acids.
Photo Credit: Harmen Hendriksma “A bee couldn’t raise a
brood just on apple pollen.”
cide. “Once, a farm would have pas- in the last century, the United King-
ture, orchards and a vegetable patch, dom has lost 97 percent of its flower- Bill Kunin
and there would be weeds among the filled meadows. “The nutritional
crops,” says Hendriksma. “All that’s diversity is just not there for the bees,” It doesn’t take an Einstein to work
disappeared.” says Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman, re- out that a landscape minus its flowers
In the United States, around 99 per- search leader at the US Department equals fewer flower-feeding insects,
cent of flower-rich prairie has van- of Agriculture’s Carl Hayden Bee including bees. “You pretty much
ished since European settlement, and Research Center in Tucson, Arizona. don’t have to do the experiments,”
says Wright. But scientists did. Last
year, Kunin and colleagues in the UK
showed how the long-term decline
in pollinators mirrored the shrinking
supply of nectar, a task that required
crunching 80 years’ worth of data. As
part of the UK Insect Pollinators Ini-
tiative, they measured the amount of
nectar produced in a year by the vast
majority of the UK’s flowering plants.
Then they scrutinized national veg-
etation surveys carried out since the
1930s to see how the abundance and
diversity of wildflowers had changed.
They found that from the 1930s to
1978 — a period of rapid agricultural
change — national nectar production
fell by 32 percent, then stabilized and
rose again slightly. Diversity of nectar-
producing flowers declined through
the entire period. Today, half of all
Two honey bees in the hive feeding from a droplet of honey. Photo Credit: Ludwig nectar in the UK is produced by just
Eksteen four species.

Ashley St. Clair (Grad Student, left) and
Zoe Pritchard (honors student, right)
from Iowa State University checks the
health and performance of bees that have
been foraging on prairie flowers, to com-
pare them with ones that have foraged
at soy fields. To evaluate colony perfor-
mance, researchers weigh the hives,
count the bees and brood, and check
for the presence of the queen. They also
assess bees on the presence of viruses
and parasites. This project is run by Ran-
dall Cass (Contact info: 515.294.5976,
[email protected] for questions)
and supported by a USDA-NIFA grant.
Photo Credit: AMY TOTH
And if the shortage of wildflowers ing the protein. “There’s nothing in a to bloom. Thanks to so much research
doesn’t make a foraging bee’s life dif- protein supplement diet that a bee eats into the nutritional value of different
ficult enough, modern agriculture ex- naturally,” says DeGrandi-Hoffman. sorts of pollen, such schemes may
poses it to another hazard that makes “And it’s difficult to build strong, soon be able to tailor seed mixes to
it still harder to find good food. Pes- healthy colonies on such diets.” best meet bees’ needs. “At Newcastle,
ticides are strongly implicated in the New, improved recipes that include we’ve analyzed the nectar and pollen
decline of pollinators, particularly ne- pollen could help. “But we don’t of most of the UK’s wildflowers and
onicotinoids, the world’s most widely know the minimum amount of pollen will soon be able to recommend what
used type of insecticide. These nerve needed to make it work,” DeGrandi- to plant to provide the best forage,”
toxins find their way into nectar and Hoffman says. “The type of pollen in says insect physiologist Dan Stabler,
pollen, and even low-level exposure an artificial diet also needs to be tai- a member of the Newcastle bee team.
interferes with bee learning and mem- lored to the season. The needs of the Providing more wildflowers makes
ory, disrupting their ability to forage. colony are very dynamic. They are instinctive sense. But how much of an
There’s still much to learn about the different in spring when the colony is impact can such measures have? Re-
nutritional challenges facing bees, but growing than when they are prepar- searchers in Iowa are beginning to get
with each shock announcement about ing for winter.” a good idea. The state was once cov-
the disappearance of insect pollinators ered by flower-filled prairie. Today
— October’s headline-grabber was Bigger buffet, better bees 90 percent of it is farmland, mostly
news of a 75 percent fall in Germany’s A better strategy is to add more planted with corn and soybeans. Over
flying insects in the past 27 years — healthy options to the bees’ menu by the last decade, each winter has seen
the clamor to do something grows providing greater diversity of natural the death of around 60 percent of Io-
louder. And one way to ease the pres- forage. There are already many initia- wa’s honey bee colonies.
sure on bees is to improve their diet. tives to do just that: sowing wildflow- Since 2007, a team from Iowa State
Commercial beekeepers already ers in unused patches of farmland, University has been measuring the
feed their bees protein supplements around field boundaries, along benefits of planting strips of prairie
when nectar and pollen are scarce. But hedgerows, in urban backyards and vegetation amid corn and soy crops.
supplements are no substitute: They other green spaces; and cutting back The recently published findings are
lack essential compounds peculiar to on mowing in parks and along road- hugely encouraging. By replacing 10
pollen, and bees have trouble digest- sides to give wildflowers the chance percent of the cropland with prairie
February 2018 197

strips, they bumped up the number of
pollinators 350 percent, and the diver-
sity of insects 260 percent.
Now the team is testing whether
honey bees living in Iowa’s soyfields
can be restored to good health with
a “holiday” among prairie flowers.
“Once soy stops providing nectar,
honey bee colonies start to lose a lot
of weight, and have a slim chance of
surviving winter,” says Hendriksma.
“Already, we’ve seen that bees that are
moved from soyfields to prairie habi-
tat start growing into healthier bees.
It was as if they had a second youth
— and they have a better prospect of
surviving winter.”
From a windswept lab in the north
of England to Iowa’s rolling farmland,
bees are sending out the same mes-
sage: They need a varied and balanced
diet, and that means being able to for-
age among the profusion of flowers
that existed before humans so radi-
cally altered the landscape they live
in. “We need to grow pollinator plants
in the landscape, and we need to do
it urgently,” DeGrandi-Hoffman says.
“If we want to preserve our pollina-
tors and keep commercial beekeeping
alive, we have to act now.”
The article is reproduced with permis-
sion from Knowable Magazine
https://www.knowablemagazine.org/
article/sustainability/2017/whole-
food-diet-bees
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Notes from the Lab:
The Latest Bee Science Distilled
by Scott McArt
W
hile there may be some fluffy So the bees from feral colonies are population in your neighborhood,
white stuff on the ground different than the bees I manage in which in turn will be spread back into
outside your house right my hives? your hives when you make splits, etc.
now, astute beekeepers know that Sort of. While the authors found So choose your bees well if you care
spring is just around the corner. And they were slightly different, the mag- about having good genes in your
each spring, I often hear two things nitude of difference was small. In neighborhood!
from beekeepers regarding the new other words, drones and queens from
bees they hope to acquire: 1) they the feral colonies are mating with Promiscuous queens and genetic
hope to catch a swarm from a feral each other, but they’re also mating a diversity… why should I care?
colony, and 2) they hope their new bit with the drones and queens from Some excellent work has been done
queen was mated by many drones. managed hives that are in your apiar- on this topic over the past couple
So what is it about feral colonies ies, and vice versa. decades and it mostly boils down to
that’s so special? And why do we This interbreeding may be inter- this: When virgin queens go on their
want promiscuous queens? These are esting to consider when choosing mating flight(s), they mate with any-
the topics of our third “Notes from the where to obtain your bees, whether where between a few and a few dozen
Lab”, where we highlight “Higher im- it’s a package from Florida, your local drones. If it’s only a few drones, her
munocompetence is associated with nuc producer, or the swarm you find colony is likely to be more suscep-
higher genetic diversity in feral honey in your neighbor’s yard. It turns out tible to disease, have a smaller worker
bee colonies (Apis mellifera)”, written some of the genes from your new bees population, forage over a smaller area,
by Margarita Lopez-Uribe and col- are likely to spread into the feral bee build less comb, store less food (in-
leagues and published in the journal
Conservation Genetics [18: 659-666
(2017)].
The authors collected foragers
from 35 honey bee colonies (14 feral
and 21 managed) in North Carolina
and looked at their genetics and im-
munocompetence (essentially, how
good they are at combatting disease).
What they found was really interest-
ing. The bees from feral colonies – the
ones inhabiting tree cavities – were
genetically different from the bees in
managed hives, but the managed bees
were genetically more diverse (i.e. the
queens had mated with more drones).
Yet despite being more genetically di-
verse, the bees from managed hives
were less capable of mounting a good
immune response when challenged
with disease compared to the bees
from feral colonies. Entrance to a feral honey bee hive. Photo by Margarita Lopez-Uribe.
February 2018 203

cluding honey), be less able to main-
tain nest temperature, and less likely
to survive winter compared to if she
mated with a dozen or more drones.
In other words, you should care a
great deal about the promiscuity of
your queen and genetic diversity of
your colony!
Wait, the bees from feral colonies
are less genetically diverse but better
able to ward off disease than the bees
I manage in my hives? What gives?
One major difference between feral
and managed colonies is of course
management. This means that weak
feral colonies will die in nature when
there’s lots of disease, but weak man-
aged hives can be hobbled along with
good disease management in your api-
ary. Thus, natural selection will settle
on strong disease-resistant feral colony
genetics, whereas our interference can
allow weak managed colony genetics
to persist in our apiaries. So managed
colonies might have greater genetic
diversity (as the authors found in this
study), but if the genes are crummy to
begin with, it won’t matter.
BUT WAIT… before you set off
and decide to mismanage your hives
so “only the strong survive,” please
know that as those weak colonies
become sick and fail, your bees are
spreading disease to the whole neigh-
borhood of honey bees and wild na-
tive bees. A lot of work is being done
on this topic currently and the results
are pretty scary… But that’s a topic for
another Notes from the Lab.
Until next time, bee well and do
good work,
Scott McArt
Reference:
Lopez-Uribe, M. M., R. H. Appler,
E. Youngsteadt, R. R. Dunn, S.
D. Frank and D. R. Tarpy. 2017.
Higher immunocompetence is as-
sociated with higher genetic diver-
sity in feral honey bee colonies (Apis
mellifera). Conservation Genetics
18:659-666.
Scott McArt, an
Assistant Professor of
Pollinator Health, helps
run the Dyce Lab for
Honey Bee Studies at
Cornell University in
Ithaca, New York. He is
particularly interested
in scientific research that can inform manage-
ment decisions by beekeepers, growers and
the public.
Email: [email protected]
Lab website: blogs.cornell.edu/mcartlab
Pollinator Network: pollinator.cals.cornell.edu
Facebook: facebook.com/dycelab

I
n Virginia, the summer of 2017 was To check for beetles in the groove, multi-comb glass observation top-bar
a difficult time for dealing with I had an open clear plastic bag ready hives. See the crack in the exterior
small hive beetles (hereafter just by the hive entrance. After gently boards where they do not quite meet.
called beetles). I had heard others had removing the device (see Figure 2), I After seeing beetles crowded in a
trouble with beetles in newly made quickly put it in the plastic bag and saw crack from Figure 2, notice the
colonies (splits), something I had seen closed it, even with some adhering crack in the boards by the entrance
when I had bees in North Carolina bees. Shaking the bag and the device pipe. It is full of beetles. The beetles
years ago. While some of my apiaries will help liberate the beetles from were mostly motionless, not soliciting
had no extra problems with beetles, the groove. Cover a corner of the food from bees. Even after I killed the
in a couple others I witnessed new bag to give the beetles a dark spot to beetles and cleaned out the crack, it
behaviors, which I report here with hide. This causes the beetles to settle refilled with beetles by the next night.
photographs. down, and I can remove the trapping I repeated the process for a few nights.
By late July 2017, beetle invasion device and release the bees, who seek Apparently, these were immigrating
pressure was intense in two apiaries. light, while the beetles hide in a dark beetles taking refuge before trying to
To demonstrate that invasion pressure corner. If needed, cooling the bag in immigrate into the observation hive.
on my strong frame-hive colonies an ice chest or refrigerator makes the This entrance pipe evidence and my
with bee coverage at the entrance, I beetles easier to count after spreading simple device demonstrated beetle
made a simple beetle-catching device. them out in the bag. invasion pressure could be intense
It was a short length of top bar cut A similar situation, beetles hiding this past summer in two of my
from my top-bar hives with a saw near a hive entrance, occurred at apiaries.
groove cut in its side. A large nail my bee house that holds numerous Now let’s look inside the hives,
in the top of the bar functioned as a observation hives. Figure 3 shows beginning with the single-comb
convenient handle. I barely pushed the pipe entrance to one of my large observation hives in the bee house.
the grooved side into the end of the
hive entrance leaving just a little gap
at the end of the entrance, a crack for
the beetles to enter (see Figure 1).
In summer heat and given local sun
exposure of the hives, be careful about
over-restricting air ventilation. (My
research apiaries are in the shade.)
The bees could easily corral beetles
in the side groove of the device.
Those beetles could be entering the
hive. Or they could have been in the
hive, moving about, and the bees
forced them to remain in the groove.
I checked the groove in 24 hours or
48 hours, but I do not recommend
leaving the device in the hive longer
than that. This device is for short-
term use only. Even then, it gives
only a rough number of beetles that
might be trying to enter the hive. If
no beetles are in the groove, they still
may have entered the hive without Figure 1. The beetle-catching device on the alighting board, its grooved side into the
being stopped by the bees. hive.
February 2018 205

bees were dragging older worker
larvae (late instar larvae or propupae,
which I’ll just call larvae) around in
the brood nest. There were about a
couple of dozen of these larvae (at
least the ones I observed). Plenty of
capped honey was in the hive so this
was absolutely not brood eviction due
to starvation, which is really where
the brood is partly consumed as a
resource. I wondered if these dragged
larvae were because of the agitated
bee behavior, and the bees failing to
cap the brood cells at the proper time.
Without a capping, the larvae (ready
to spin their cocoons) would partly
Figure 2. The groove turned up to expose numerous beetles. The bees restricted the come out of their cells, and the bees
movement of the beetles. I could easily catch 20-30 beetles at a time in some hives might remove them.
while from other hives (in the same apiary) I caught few or none. Figure 4 shows Colony #14 late that
night. First notice the bees covered
In some summers leading up to the bees–no beetle larvae were in these the comb. Therefore, adult beetles
summer of 2017, adult beetles could be hives. (They appeared later after the gaining access to exposed comb
a problem with my single-comb hives. bees absconded, leaving the hive because the colony was weak does
As reported earlier, adult beetles undefended.) not apply here. The area enclosed by
contaminated the pollen band, which At the end of July, I introduced the orange boundary was where the
apparently halted brood rearing. The two queens in a couple of single- bees were particularly agitated. Late
rims of the cells seemed coated with comb observation hives. Dearth at night, the bees in the brood nest
a material, presumably accumulating conditions existed at the time in my should be calm, mainly just tending
there as the beetles repeatedly location. Both queens were accepted brood. I denoted some of the larvae
crawled in and out of the pollen cells without difficulty. On their first brood dragged by the bees on the glass.
(going over the cell rims). The colony, cycles, both colonies experienced Figure 5 shows a closer view of the
including the laying (physogastric) severe difficulties with adult beetles. larvae. I have not seen numerous
queen would cluster on the outside The first colony (Colony #14) had larvae treated in this manner. Figure 6
of the hive. After a few days, during sealed brood. At about 2:30 a.m. on shows larvae clumped together found
which time the physogastric queen August 12, I checked this colony and later on the floor of the hive, a new
would become light enough to fly, observed some strange behaviors. condition for me too.
the colony absconded. Remarkably The brood nest bees were moving Returning to Figure 4, the wire
only adult beetles caused the erratically, which prompted a closer mesh brackets hold small pieces of
eviction and absconding of the examination. To my surprise, the pollen substitute. The bees consumed
the right patty normally. The edges of
the patty appeared as it did originally,
indicating no beetle damage. The
beetles have compromised the left
patty in Figure 4. Notice the edge has
a shiny appearance. Figure 7 shows a
closer view. The bees have rejected the
slimy edge as a food source. The adult
beetles have most likely contaminated
the pollen substitute edge with a yeast
they carry (for a recent review on the
yeast see Cuthbertson et al., 2013).
While surprising, this colony as
seen in Figure 4 absconded in the
morning without clustering at the
entrance as other observation colonies
had done in past years. I froze the
comb in a large plastic bag and later
counted 42 beetles that I shook from
the comb, although the empty hive
could have gained or lost beetles
during some of the morning while the
hive entrance was open. In addition,
the frozen comb showed some
Figure 3. Beetles on hold. The beetles are in the vertical crack at the right. The brood caps had been opened and
entrance pipe is at the left. The bees are no fortress against the beetles. At night, I the contents removed, more brood
watched the beetles, one by one, a few at a time, enter the pipe. removal (possibly propupae).

The other single-comb observation
colony (Colony #10) absconded in
the same manner, except right before
sealing its first round of brood and
with no apparent larval dragging/
eviction. While working in the bee
house, I heard this colony launch.
The bees bolted out of the entrance
pipe and were airborne, including
the queen, before I could stop them.
I could see the bees, as a small swarm
hovering over the tree canopy. I
immediately froze their comb and
later counted 49 beetles I shook from
the comb, as the number of beetles
at the time of absconding, at least
one count of this rarely-measured
variable. This colony did not have
a pollen patty and only a very thin
pollen band numbering some dozen
cells.
The above absconding by small Figure 4. Colony #14 at 2:30 a.m. on August 12, 2017. This colony absconded that
colonies caused by adult beetles morning.
seems a natural analogue of the
experimental work done by Ellis et website, TBHSbyWAM.com, and In late September 2017, I saw bees
al. (2003). Briefly, they had six queen- choose the link “Small Hive Beetles” clustered outside (see Figure 8).
right colonies, each on three deep- and scroll down.) After seeing strong colony evictions
frames, called nucleus colonies. The The most photogenic case of a by adult beetles from the summer,
small colonies were dosed with 100 strong colony eviction by just adult I knew the cause of the clustering,
beetles per day (at dusk) for two beetles was a colony in a large top-bar particularly since local weather
weeks. Two colonies absconded on observation hive. This colony covered conditions did not warrant that
day eight. The other four colonies did about the same comb area as a frame many bees at the entrance. The glass
not abscond. After freezing the four hive with a 10-frame brood chamber side of the hive showed the partial
colonies (on day 17), they had from and about half of a shallow super. destruction as seen in Figure 9. The
253-905 beetles in them. Interestingly This colony had the entrance shown entrance end of the hive is to the
these colonies had no pollen reserves earlier in Figure 3 with the intense right, towards the wall. The left side
(bands). With their larger size, these beetle invasion. is the back end of the hive. Notice
colonies seem to have had a higher
threshold for absconding than my
smaller observation colonies, and
their four colonies without pollen
bands did not abscond. That is
intriguing, especially because I look
to the pollen bands for the initial
overt signs of a colony’s demise
due to adult beetle invasion. In
addition, Ellis et al. (2003) observed
the four colonies had begun aborting
brood as evidenced by cannibalized
larvae and pupae found at the hive
entrance. Perhaps I was observing
the beginning of that behavior in my
observation hives, or maybe brood
eviction due to severe stress.
Now for the big question–can the
presence of only adult beetles evict a
strong colony of bees? My answer is
yes from this past summer. Again, for
early signs of trouble, the locations
in the hive to watch are the pollen
bands. Just by luck, I managed to
save one strong colony by removing
its two beetle-infected pollen bands,
which were just beginning to appear
unhealthy. (For photographs of Figure 5. A closer view of the dragged larvae. The bees do not appear to be consuming
unhealthy pollen bands, see my the larvae as in a starvation condition.
February 2018 207

Figure 6. Discarded unconsumed larvae.
the entrance end, which is where the

brood nest is located, appears dark and
with fewer bees. That is because the
combs have been lightly slimed, and Figure 7. The slimy edge of the pollen substitute patty, now taken over by the beetles.
the bees tend not to walk on them. The
rear of the hive, which is the region easily several hundred. The colony in the summer, now when I see
of honeycombs, remained largely could not recover at this point. The bees clustered on the outside of the
intact with plenty of bee coverage. bees must abscond provided the hive from a strong colony, I need to
I observed many older larvae and queen can exit the hive. consider eviction by beetles, and give
white pupae on the floor of the hive, Now I have revised my diagnostics a closer check. The observation hives
presumably removed from the comb. about bees clustered on the front of suggest a brood nest inspection would
I could not obtain an accurate beetle the hive. Bees clustered on the outside be the most revealing, especially if
count in the hive, but the number was of the hive could mean the colony was other symptoms such as leakage of
hot. The clustering could be a cooling slime indicated more severe internal
mechanism, something even seen on comb damage. However considerable
a hot spring day, like its more typical comb damage in the brood nest can
appearance in the summer. Or the occur by just adult beetles without
bees could be crowded in the hive much liquid slime.
and the colony could be preparing Colony diagnostics are becoming
to swarm in the spring. Ignoring the more complicated with beetles. I am
complications concerning usurpation working on a set of thermal images
Figure 8. Clustering out of normal

context. A strong colony being evicted
by numerous invading adult beetles. The
other strong colonies were not clustering
in this manner, making this one look odd, Figure 9. Internal destruction. This hive was packed full of bees, but they provided little
and suspicious. protection against the beetles.

with beetles damaging colonies as
shown above. Hopefully those images
will be helpful. Stay tuned.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Suzanne Sumner
for her comments on the manuscript.
Visit TBHSbyWAM.com.
References
Cuthbertson AGS , Wakefield ME, Powell
ME, Marris G, Anderson H, Budge GE,
Mathers JJ, Blackburn LF, Brown MA
(2013). The small hive beetle Aethina
tumida: A review of its biology and control
measures. Current Zoology 59 (5): 644–653.
Ellis, JD Jr, Hepburn R, Delaplane KS, Elzen
PJ, (2003). A scientific note on small hive
beetle (Aethina tumida) oviposition and
behaviour during European (Apis mellifera)
honeybee clustering and absconding
events. Journal of Apicultural Research 42(1–
2): 47–48.
Author bio:
Dr. Wyatt Mangum,
author of Top-Bar
Hive Beekeeping:
Wisdom and Pleasure
Combined, is an
internationally 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: [email protected].
www.TBHSbyWAM.com
February 2018 209

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A
s often happens, when re- the Revolutionary War and later set Finally, on June 29, 1792, humans
searching one thing we run up his medical practice in Plymouth, were invited to the wedding—and the
across something totally Massachusetts. Unfortunately, deaf- honey moon, as Thacher reports “one
unexpected. So it was while read- ness caused by the War forced him to copulation is sufficient for (the) queen
ing Doyle’s description of Sherlock give up his practice and take up bee- to lay eggs for two years!”
Holmes’ retirement years spent as keeping. (Presumably one does not The author continues listing the var-
a beekeeper, I noted this 1829 book need to hear the bees in order to study ious uses for the honeycomb, the life
listed in the bibliography. Curiosity them!) This book is his account of bee- stages of the bee, and duties within
led me to the internet and—Voila!— keeping practices in the U.S. in 1829. the hive. Interesting is the early re-
there it was in its entirety: The Practi- The book is organized into IX Chap- port of the differences among drone,
cal Treatise on the Management of Bees ters, preceded by an introduction worker and queen larvae cocoons.
by Dr. James Thacher. It has the rather to the physiology of Apis mellifera, It was observed that when a queen
long subtitle And the Establishment of including details of the functions of eliminated rival queens still enclosed
Apiaries, with the best method of Destroy- eyes, mandibles, probiscus, abdo- in their cells, the worker bees assisted
ing and Preventing the Depredations of men and claws (referred to then as by chewing off the tops of the cells—
The Bee Moth. “fangs”). After seven pages of formal presumably in order to prevent the
Before reading, I tried to predict writing, Thacher entertains the reader queen from getting her stinger caught
what was known in 1828 about Apis by using a metaphor in his descrip- in the silken cocoon threads: interest-
mellifera, questions such as: tion of the bee’s antennae, deprived ing conclusion considering the crude
of which “they are lost, can no longer research tools available to scientists at
• What beekeeping practices were recognize objects; and like Sampson, this time.
popular almost 200 years ago? after his locks were shorn, they are It is not difficult to imagine Thacher
• What types of hives were used? feeble, helpless, and soon perish.” as a caring and sensitive medical doc-
Straw skeps, tree trunks? Such creative literary elements are a tor when he condemns the beekeep-
• Was the Bee Moth the only nem- welcome surprise to an otherwise for- ing practice of suffocating bees (by
esis? What methods were used to mal treatise. burning sulphur) in order to take
mitigate its effects? Chapter I describes what was then their honey. Most bee hives were
common knowledge about the three simple straw skeps or wooden boxes
Readers are advised to keep in types of honey bees: the queen laid the without removable frames. Apiarists
mind the rudimentary research tools eggs, the workers cared for the young, caught swarms, kept them until they
available then compared to today’s the drones were basically useless. produced honey, then killed the bees
sophisticated equipment, such as This was based on the observation to easily extract the honey and wax.
high-powered electron microscopes by Swiss naturalist Francois Huber Thacher also credits the bees’ “unri-
and slow-motion video cameras. that the queen did not mate inside the valled industry” as their most impor-
The author, James Thacher, M.D., hive. Until then, no one had actually tant trait. To illustrate their industry,
began his career as a surgeon during seen a queen take her nuptial flight. he cites an example of a single swarm
February 2018 213

out of reach of mice and other intrud- ows and forests, all major contribu-
ers. Interestingly, the floor is inclined, tors to increasing habitat loss and
to help the bees clean their home and malnutrition. Only by eliminating or
rid it of debris. Advantages of this reducing these practices, will our 21st
hive include that it is easier for bees to century honey bees have the same
defend themselves from robbers, and chance to fight the varroa mite as the
the moisture or “perspiration of bees 19th century bees had against their
is conveyed off at once, without being nemesis, the wax moth.
absorbed by the boards”.
Two thirds into the book, Thacher Resources:
explains the rest of his title, The Bee Practical Treatise on the Management
Moth, or Wax Moth, Galleria mellonella, of Bees; And the Establishment of
the biggest threat to the survival of Apiaries, with the best method of
honey bees in 1828. After explaining Destroying and Preventing the Dep-
the life cycle of the moth, he lists its redations of The Bee Moth
habits: James Thacher, M.D., copyright 1829,
the University of Wisconsin Library,
a) nocturnal Madison, Wisconsin
b) arrives mid-end of April until https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id
September =wu.89098880107;view=1up;seq=7
c) spins web inside hive and feeds
on bees until hive completely de-
stroyed or bees vacate
or hive that collected 80-100 lbs. of The author goes on to explain vari-
honey in one season! When explaining ous methods for eliminating the pest.
that bees actually reduce the entrance Because moths do not lay eggs in the
to their hive themselves when moths ground, one suggestion was to either
attack, he asks the reader, “Who can set the hive directly on the ground or
withhold his admiration of the inge- cover the floor board with a layer of
nuity and judgment of the bees?” He soil. (Another example of non-poison-
believed that honey bees are capable ous, simple solutions available 200
of reasoning, which entices them to years ago.)
care so diligently for their young. Besides the bee moth, diseases such
Fortunately, one prediction I was al- as dysentery afflicted the honey bees.
most certain was true when the book As treatment, Thacher emphasizes
was written, turned out to be false: the importance of nutrition, includ-
that beekeeping was strictly a man’s ing flowers such as crocus and white
world. Thacher introduces Mrs. Mary clover (lucky for bees, hybrid flowers
Griffith, experienced apiarist, horti- were not yet popular), crops: buck-
culturist and writer. She was one of wheat and mustard, and trees: maple,
the first beekeepers to count the num- walnut, chestnut and elm, which are
ber of bees in an average swarm (or today still some of the best sources of
hive): 19,499 are neuters or worker nectar and pollen. This important in-
bees, 500 drones, and one queen or formation, while not new to most bee-
mother. I can imagine her peering keepers, is always worth remembering.
down into the hive and studying the Apiarists (experienced and nov-
entrance, abacus in hand, as the bees ice), biologists, horticulturists, and
fly in and out. historians in general should find this
Although I’m no fan of eBooks and book interesting. For most beekeepers,
prefer printed books in order to write chapters addressing information such
in the margins, one advantage to read- as bee physiology or types of bees can
ing online (besides the book being be easily skimmed, while focusing
gratis) is that it’s easy to look things one’s attention on historical chapters
up as you go along. For example, one dealing with types of hives, apiaries
click on Mary Griffith sends you to and pests that existed in the early 19th
the North American Review dated June century.
1828. In their description of bee hives, James Thacher and his colleagues
Griffith is credited with her new in- have inspired me to continue asking
vention she called “Charlie’s Hope my two hives what’s best for them—
Hive” predicted to “supersede every in the short and long run. If given a
other [hive] now in use”. Thirteen choice, I think bees of 2018 would
inches at the top, the hive decreases gladly trade places with the bees of
in width toward the bottom, so that 1828, before the use of pesticides and
the base is actually narrower than the herbicides, monoculture agricultural
top. Hives are suspended on joists, practices, mass destruction of mead-

F
irst off, let me start by apolo- So far the results have been mixed at OA, or increased the water in the so-
gizing in advance. I normally best. The method holds promise, but lution; others tried cardboard for the
try to write interesting stories we are missing some key elements. shop towels. Basically, whatever op-
with a timeline that have a beginning, The current system is outlined well in tions may spring to mind; I would
middle and end. This article is hard Randy’s articles, but is basically OA/ call it firefighting. Throwing things at
for me as it’s a collection of facts and Gly soaked on blue shop towels and it hoping one works. My goal was to
random thoughts, all headed towards placed in the hive in the middle of the refine that a bit.
a goal. Please forgive the apparent broodnest. While I will go into more Towards that I have to add, I have
randomness, and read carefully, as I detail, the main point of this article is been using vaporized OA for several
attempt to present a lot of information not that method, but things I learned years quite successfully. While it has
in no particular order. If it seems dis- to help further it. its limitations, in my area the bees are
jointed, I warned you. After several apparent failures and broodless in November, so it is perfect
I have to thank Randy Oliver, a a whole lot of discussion on what was for a super knockback of mites. Be-
friend who has been working and going on, I decided it was time to start cause of my faith in this treatment, I
writing on this regularly, for prompt- applying some engineering principles had done quite a bit of research into
ing me to write this. His work at to the problem. I think it’s important how oxalic actually works. Unfortu-
finding some controls for varroa has to understand a bit of the differences nately, there is not much information
encouraged me to share this publicly. in science vs. engineering. Most sci- out there. The basic concept is that
While I offered it up as proprietary ence is about a hypothesis and testing 2 grams of OA vaporized in a hive
info, he is insistent that it’s shared it to see if it is valid. Engineering is leaves micro crystals spread through-
with everyone, in the hopes someone different in that it takes what we know out the hive, and covering the bees.
else can use it and build on it. and tries to build on it, as opposed to These tiny crystals are the key to mite
As many of you know there has understating what we don’t know bet- death. Many discussions have been
been a fairly new treatment concept ter. My background is engineering, so had about the mode of action, and to
floating around for a year or two for this one I decided to apply basic date there are two theories that I have
now. The basis of the treatment is ox- problem-solving principles. heard that actually make sense. Both
alic acid (OA) mixed with glycerin In engineering, we would look at were posted in discussions with some
(Gly) and placed in the hive. I believe the towel issue a bit differently. Suc- German researchers over the last cou-
the original work came from South cessful problem solving is about ple of years.
America, where they used a solution identifying the problem. In this case
of 10 g of OA mixed with 20 mL of I broke the towel issues down to two 1. The crystals somehow burn the
glycerin soaked into cardboard and things—the pesticide (poison) or feet of the mites and then they are
placed in the brood nest. Randy has the delivery. The towel is both these unable to hold on to the bees
been working on it, and many others things, and sometimes it worked 2. The mites absorb some of this
have been trialing variations of it for and sometimes it doesn’t. So, for my acid through the feet and die from
a while now. thinking the goal is twofold: 1) to de- that exposure.
Note: use of experimental methods termine if the poison is the issue or 2)
on a hive requires a special permit whether the problem was the deliv- Some other theories about OA ac-
and a lot of caution. My tests have ery system. This question was based cumulating in bee hemolymph or fat
been done as bench tests on mites on having run several different trials bodies have been explored and may
alone, not in colonies. that varied elements: some used more also have some merit, but are unlikely
February 2018 215

as so far vaporization shows no OA I settled on Elmer’s non-toxic glue. The first trials with OA were set at 5
level change in the hemolymph/fat A tiny dab placed on the mite’s cara- minute and 15 minute exposure times,
body of brood. This is in contrast to pace and then allowed to semi dry; I 5 mites in each group and a control.
the dribble method, which has been could then touch them with the head So each mite was held on its back and
shown to elevate OA levels in bees. of a pin, pick them up and flip them allowed to handle a crystal OA for the
I would like to add a comment here: over. Once the glue has dried be very allotted time period and then I would
we have assumed that varroa is a tick careful with the mite, since if the mite wait. It turns out that after handling
type creature feeding on hemolymph is allowed to touch anything, it will OA the mites are all dead within about
like a tick would, but it turns out mites cleanly break loose from the glue. 6 hours, while the mites in the control
are more like a spider, feeding on the Once flipped over, I handed the group survived about 30 hours or
fat bodies of the bee. One thing I did mites OA crystals. Pure OA like I more.
observe in the microscope that has use in my vaporizer. The crystals are I also tested the theory that the
been hard to catch in a photo is that larger, and finer than a salt crystal, but mites burned their feet by placing
some varroa are in fact quite engorged. relative to a mite’s legs, the crystals them back on bees. It seems the mites
A quick look in the microscope shows are huge. The visual equivalent would have no trouble holding on right up
they are thicker and look a lot like be one crystal held in mite legs is like until death. So the theory of burned
an overinflated water balloon, all the a basketball in human hands. What’s feet causing problems adhering to a
seams stretched, this dissipates with interesting is when you hand one to a bee is incorrect. There is a method of
time and after a day or so you don’t mite; she rolls it around like a basket- lethality, but it appears to be through
notice it. This engorgement does not ball pro getting ready to make a slam absorption through the feet. It should
appear to affect the mite’s ability to dunk. The mite will roll the crystal be noted that the amount absorbed
move or cling to bees at all, but may around while she tries to “walk”. is not noticeable via a dissection mi-
be a method of survival until a host croscope. I half expected to be able
is found. The engorgement may come Mite Feet to see “footprints” or small crystals
from feeding on the host, to enable it I need to add some observations disappear, like a child with a sucker,
to survive until it enters a capped cell. here: first off, mite feet. You may be but there is no visual indication of
I am unsure when this engorgement aware bees have both tarsal claws any change to the crystal visible, even
takes place, but I speculate by color as well as a sticky padlike arolium. with as long as 30 min exposure.
and hardness of the carapace of the This part of the foot can be selected
mite that it is newly emerged mites on honey bees, they have a choice of
with this feature. which part they use, and they switch
So back to the problem at hand: back and forth, which is why some-
There have been spotty results with times bees can walk on glass and
OA on towels and I disagreed a bit other times not. The arolium is like a
with some of the experimental direc- wet pad that adheres to a surface. It
tions as they seemed completely ran- seems mites have not much of a claw,
dom. In talking to Randy the one thing but a proportionally large foot called
that kept sticking out was the fact we the empodium.
didn’t know how OA/Gly worked:
ingestion, contact or anything else.
I got this bright idea to test some Figure 2. Varroa mite rolling an OA
crystal with its feet. Notice the pin it’s
mites. The concept seemed simple.
glued to in the backdrop. The crystal is
Catch some mites and expose them to
blurry as the mite never stops moving it.
OA for different amounts of time, and
see the effects. This first trial was pretty interesting
While this sounds easy, trying to to me, as it turned out that there was no
capture enough mites for experi- noticeable difference in the death rate
ments proved trickier than I thought. and survival time between the 5 min
Early season hives had been treated group and the 15 min group. This leads
and mite counts were low. Running me to the need for more experiments
around trying to “capture phoretic Figure 1. Close-up of varroa empodium for shorter periods to see what the bot-
mites” took several hours. I painstak- I would say it’s as big as a bee’s, tom line of exposure may actually be.
ingly searched bees looking for mites which when you realize a mite is But the real question is: How does that
to capture. much smaller, it’s out of proportion. relate to in-hive exposure? As of yet,
The first round ended up being It’s much like a big, wet floppy glove this remains a huge unknown and I
tricky. I had no real plan, just a goal that sticks to things. The second inter- will address it again a bit later. Bottom
to see how long the mites needed to esting observation to me is that mites line is, how long do the mites actually
be in contact and what happened to have eight legs and two pedipalps contact the OA via feet? There is no
them. So after playing around a bit, (mouth parts), but even though the apparent grooming behavior or avoid-
I settled on a method. For those who front two legs are visually the same as ance indicating the mites are not “ad-
have never captured a mite, they are the other six, they don’t seem to use verse” to the acid contact and visually
very active. Trying to pin one down them at all for mobility. Only the rear the mite doesn’t seem harmed by it.
for any length of time is about im- six were used to manipulate the OA While I am not sure if they are even ca-
possible. Right after capture, they are crystals. I watched closely to be sure pable of any grooming, they also don’t
super active and cling to anything the mites did not touch the OA with seem to attempt to discard the crystals.
touched. After much trial and effort, their mouthparts. In discussion of these results, Randy

and conversation, and the plan to test
the solution on the carapace. I have to
admit, I was not real keen on this test
as I assumed it was a complete waste
of time. The mite’s carapace looks
much like that of crabs, and seems to
be an impenetrable protective shell,
but at this point I didn’t have much of
a new plan.
A new batch of mites, which is no
easy task, but getting easier with prac-
tice, and I was on my way. As it turns
Figure 3. Shell of glue after mite is out, it’s actually pretty simple to place Figure 4. Droplet of OA/Gly on mite
dislodged a microdot of the OA/Gly on the cara-
pace. No need to restrain the mites at the proper words for. In this experi-
asked about OA contact with the cara- all just set the timer and wait. Turns ment I always had controls of non-ex-
pace. I assumed that would be a non- out they are also pretty easy to clean posure, but with the last trial I added
issue, but tried it anyway, and as sus- off, just touch with a piece of paper glycerin only as an additional control.
pected it was a complete non-issue. towel and tada! Pretty darn dry. Within There is some lethality in mites treated
No change in expected life span when 30 minutes a batch of 5 mites were with GLY only, but without the paral-
dry OA was applied to the carapace. done, but here was the winning lottery ysis. Mortality with 5 min exposure
Dry crystals anywhere but the feet ticket. As I finished up the last one, I was around 40% in the same 6 hour
seem to be no problem for varroa. took a look back at the first mite I had window, so significantly less than
Randy informed me afterwards that treated. Within 30 minutes the mites with the OA/Gly combo. The sample
this is also what Papežíková observed. are pretty well paralyzed. They sit up size on the control lots was 10 mites,
on their back legs and tremble. This so this test needs to be rerun with a
Additional Experiments is quite different than anything I ob- larger group.
The next step really was to dial down served with foot contact (I did go back In this I observed that the glycerin
the time, but curiosity being what it is, I and rerun that test to see if I missed alone cleaned off the carapace com-
decided to switch to the OA/GLY solu- it) and within the same 6 hour time pletely, BUT the OA/Gly solution
tion and see how that worked out. My frame, the mites treated with OA/Gly seems to have some surfactant value
plan was to keep the exposure to the 5 were all dead. While the end result was associated with it. While it does clean
min level and see how it compared in the same, the partial apparent paraly- off, it leaves a small residue, much like
lethality. In due course mites and time sis was astounding to say the least. drying a wet dog. The majority is good
were procured, and I ran into problem Within about 30 minutes mites and dry, but you can observe that
one. It’s practically impossible to create treated with OA/Gly on the carapace slightly wet clump here and there. It
a droplet small enough for the mite to for as little as 5 minutes were effec- may be from the acid etching the cara-
handle, or to limit their contact. If you tively dead. The significance of this pace and hairs on the mite’s back or
try to touch a foot, in a millisecond they is astounding. While with feet I ques- some other detail I can’t yet explain,
are completely engulfed in the droplet tioned how long it would be on them, but removal is not 100%. I would say
due to leg movement and surface ten- I am reasonably confident that the so- 95% as an estimate, but I lack the skills
sions of the solution. So this presented lution anywhere on the body would and tools to define or refine it. I do re-
a huge problem—the test to compare be there for a while. alize glycerin is not known as a sur-
dry crystals to wet OA was not going A note from Randy: A German re- factant, but the OA/Gly mix seems to
to work. searcher, Saskia Schneider, also found have less surface tension and the abil-
Sometime while pondering how to that OA in glycerin adheres to bees’ bod- ity to make smaller droplets.
overcome this problem, I decided to ies for many days, thus exposing varroa
soak a towel and let the mite walk on to extended exposure. The glycerin acts as
it for 5 minutes. Turns out, it doesn’t a humectant, which apparently increases
work. No early deaths, so I upped the penetration of OA through the mite’s
the time to 15 min, and no noticeable cuticle. Charlie’s findings suggest that the
change either. In thinking about it and simple act of a treated bee drawing its con-
looking close at the towel through the taminated leg across the carapace of a mite
microscope, it actually makes sense. might be enough to expose it to a lethal
The towels absorb the OA into the fi- dose. This explains a plausible mechanism
bers, and the mites are actually walk- of delivery from the towels to the mites
ing on top of the fibers, much like a Mite grooming skills are fairly
spider on a web. The capillary attrac- nonexistent; they are completely un-
tion of the towel keeps the solution off able to reach their carapace to clean
the feet much like a doormat does in it, meaning it’s going to be there a Figure 5. Mite with OA/Gly residue
our homes, helping keep the mite and while. Now I am comfortable with
those feet up and away from the active that 5-min exposure. Back to the Drawing Board
ingredient. At this point I was too astounded,
Experimental Controls and had to regroup my thinking a bit.
The Winning Lottery Ticket I need to divert here a bit and de- So I headed back to the thought pro-
This problem led to more thought scribe something I know I don’t have cesses so far. Everything I had seen
February 2018 217

about OA/Gly trials seemed to be at- the hive. I must caution you; this is not slick. It did a fair job of knocking out
tempting to jam in more OA and so as easy as it sounds. It turns out honey the bees and mites. Although the mites
raise the level of OA in the towels. At and pollen glow under UV light, and seemed drunk from the CO2, they
this point it seemed, based on what I quite a wide spectrum. Not as easy as were not out long. The big problem
just learned, it was intuitively obvious picking out one color that’s different. with the CO2 gun was that it didn’t
to me, and this was the wrong direc- As of right now I don’t have anything seal well and uses a special screw neck
tion. Dry OA is harder to move around to share, it turned cold and I didn’t cartridge. Unfortunately, the cartridge
the hive, and increasing the ratio made learn anything valuable. Randy men- ended up being a one and done deal
the towels harder to work with. tioned that other researchers are using as it was leaked empty by the next
A note from Randy: I found that in- different tracers and CAT scans to ex- day. Cartridges were unavailable lo-
creasing the ratio made them easier to plore this same avenue. cally, so this plan was abandoned.
work with. But the main reason is that I did in this experiment collect some The last method was to use the
in my preliminary experiments, bees ap- mites that seem to have died from Swienty shaker with powdered sugar.
peared to be repelled by high-glycerin tow- their exposure to the towel. I have This method seemed to work much
els. I reduced the amount of glycerin in to say the image is quite startling. better. A few spoonfuls of powdered
order to get the bees to touch the towels. There are some startling differences in sugar and allow the bees to frolic in
The total amount of oxalic applied to the the appearance of dead mites from a it, over and over, and a fair mite drop
hive also appeared to make a difference— treated vs. an untreated hive. This is was achieved. Mites in powdered
which is why we went from a single towel very preliminary and turns out to be sugar are seemingly stuck in quick-
to 1.5 towels per dose. really hard to photograph. It seems sand. They are unable to move around
It seemed to me it was critical to that digital images process UV dif- much but try like crazy. It was fairly
determine if it was the dose or the ferently than human eyes, so images simple to find them and place them on
application method that’s giving us that were super cool and surreal in the a towel for cleaning.
inconsistent results. So while it’s not microscope and in the hive, did not It sounds simple to clean sugar off
chemically correct, I decided to play turn out and photograph well enough a mite, but it’s not as easy as it looks.
a bit with what I had. I wondered at to share. I will keep working on that.
what level the acidity of the solution If you have any tricks on UV digital
started to change. OA in itself is a very photos I would love to learn them.
strong acid, so I took the 80% solu- At this point the need to treat for
tion I had been using and tested the mites and winter weather has set in.
pH level. I reduced the OA levels and I have had to suspend testing for the
tried some new tests. It turns out that time being due to cold and trouble
you can drop to a 5% OA solution be- procuring mites. I am very eager to
fore you start to see much of a change start up again come spring!
in the pH level. It is a crude indica-
tion that the 5% solution was as acidic Mite collection
Figure 6. New batch of mites pulled from
as the 80% solution. As it turns out, it For these experiments I played
the sugar awaiting cleaning
seems the 5% solution works just fine. around with many methods of mite
I know from a chemistry point this is collection. It’s harder than one would My first trial was with a wet paper
not related to the saturation level, a bit think to collect 30 live healthy mites at towel. I figured the water would ab-
more work in this area is warranted. one time. First off, I had to wait until sorb the sugar quickly. Turns out mites
Even at the 5% OA level the mites later in the season when counts were can and do drown very fast on a wet
are paralyzed in about 30 minutes, and climbing. With a mite level of only 1 or paper towel. One batch of mites was
dead in the same 6-hour time frame! 2 mites per 300 bees it takes forever to completely wasted. I need to add here
The implications of this are actually collect enough mites. I ended up wait- that I met with a representative from a
pretty cool. It means we can refocus ing until mid September to find a few Finnish company in CA this fall, and
a bit. It’s seemingly not about how with really high counts that had not he showed images of them rinsing
many grams of OA are in the towels, been treated. mites under a sprinkler head in a re-
but how we get the solution onto the My first attempts were visual. Tak- ally fine honey sieve of the metal type.
mites. While increasing the volume ing frames of bees and watching for I have not tried it yet, but he swore it
may have an effect, it seems to me, quite a while to observe that phoretic worked fine. Randy mentioned that
fussing about the ratio seems to have mite on a bee, then placing that bee in this method has a high premature
very little real effect. I believe this will a collection jar. As it turns out, spot- mortality rate via other researchers.
allow us to focus on delivery methods ting mites is akin to seeing deer in the In the end I found just letting them
and not worry so much about the OA woods. Even with cheater glasses for walk on a towel and then flipping
levels. grafting they are hard to spot. They them over a few times cleaned them
are there, but seldom do we actually off well enough to work for my test.
Mode of Delivery see them. Even hives with super high
The next question in my head is numbers do not produce a lot of vi- What’s next?
delivery, so I set out to track how this sually obvious mites. The second at- The $64,000 question is where do
solution moves around the hive. I or- tempt was through a friend. He had we go from here? As an engineer, my
dered some UV fingerprint dye, and purchased a new Swienty unit that thought process is to be able to quan-
mixed up a 20% solution (no science, uses CO2 to knock out the bees and tify how much OA the mites are actu-
just a stab) and soaked a towel in it. the mites, and a perforated disk below ally getting in them via contact meth-
The towel was placed on a hive with the bees for mites to fall through and ods. It seems to me with our capabili-
the goal of tracking the dye through capture. The system itself was fairly ties we should be able to determine

Figure 7. A mite fresh from the sugar
PPM or some measurement. If we can

do that, then it seems to me we can
start to seriously evaluate the different
delivery methods without long drawn
out trials. If we can measure PPM of
exposure in a given time frame, and
compare one method against the other
in a quicker time frame, that should
allow us to dial into the best deliv-
ery method. Basic problem solving
requires a measurement system. This
is something that’s been lacking as far
as I see it. If we can master this, we
can evaluate several delivery changes
with just small samples instead of
waiting until the season’s end to de-
termine success.
So far I have not found a lab that
is able to help me determine PPM.
Any suggestions would be appreci-
ated; please feel free to email me at
[email protected].
As far as experiments, I have con-
tacted some friends who are also
doing towel trials; this next season
will see us testing lower OA levels
percentage-wise compared head to
head with the standard 80% levels to
see if there is a difference. The goal is
field confirmation to determine if it’s
the delivery or the dosage that’s in
need of fine tuning.
While I suspect that lower OA lev-
els will make it easier to focus, there is
also a possible downside. Right now,
we suspect chewing and removal by
the bees is at least a small portion of
the delivery. Lower levels may reduce
the taste enough that bees actually
ingest more OA directly, which could
be bad. I have been advised that bees
do not like the taste of glycerin, and
they cannot be forced to eat it even
when directly applied, but it is a big
unknown to me if the level of acid to
glycerin ratio may affect the process.
I will also be doing a lot more work
with the UV dyes. Hopefully I or oth-
ers will be able to get a better handle
on how and why the OA/Gly solution
makes its way around the hive and
onto varroa, which after all is the key
to future success.
February 2018 219

February 2018 221
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February 2018 223

Beekeepers
the Generation
next
Almonds: One of America’s Favorite Snacks
F
ebruary for commercial
beekeepers often means
almond pollination. Eat
an almond almost anywhere in
the world and good chances are
it was grown in California. This
one state produces over 80% of
all the almonds grown world-
wide.
How many acres do you think

are used for growing almonds?
1) 150,00 acres
2) 550,000 acres
3) 1,110,000 acres
4) 5,550,000 acres
5) 15,150,000 acres
T
o produce 80% of the
world almond supply
requires lots and lots of
trees. These almond trees help
clean the air and capture green-
house gas. Can you guess how
many almond trees are currently
producing in California?
1) 20 million trees
2) 53 million trees
3) 85 million trees
4) 130 million trees
5) 245 million trees

A A
Above: California almond orchard in bloom
mericans eat most of the almonds lmond trees (Prunus dulcis) are related to
grown in California. According other fruit trees like peaches and plums. The
to the California Almond Board, almonds we eat are technically not a nut at
we chow down and use 593,000,000 lbs. all, but actually the seed inside a drupe. According
of almonds in the United States ever year. to the website seriouseats.com “A drupe is a type of
Another 1,352,000,000 lbs. are exported to fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell
countries around the world. Here are the (what we sometimes call a pit) with a seed inside.
five biggest buyers of California almonds. Some examples of drupes are peaches, plums, and
Can you guess which one buys the most? cherries—but walnuts, almonds, and pecans are also
Try matching the country to the number of drupes. They're just drupes in which we eat the seed
lbs. it buys. inside the pit instead of the fruit!”
E
1) China 1) 201 million lbs. very year beekeepers transport about 1.7
2) Germany 2) 142 million lbs. million hives to California for almond pol-
3) India 3) 126 million lbs. lination. So the next time you grab a handful
4) Japan 4) 103 million lbs. of almonds, thank a honey bee for her pollination
5) Spain 5) 61 million lbs. efforts and realize you’re actually snacking on seeds!
Answers
Japan = 61
India = 126 , Germany = 103
Spain = 201, China = 142
Question 3:
130 million trees

Question 2:
1,110,000 acres
Question 1:
February 2018 225

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February 2018 227

Honeybee Biogeography: The Traditional Southeast Asia Model
B
iogeography is the study of the tions of breeding individuals. But populations – early humans and
distribution of species through even in a modern species with a vast Neanderthals participated in such
place and time. It is closely range and populations, its beginning Romeo and Juliet trysts! But these
allied with another science – phy- was more modest – a few closely-con- matings often result in non-fertile
logeny, the study of lines of descent nected breeding populations located offspring so that there is selection
and relationships among species or in a specific place and time. against individuals who engage in
groups. At the beginning of this series such matings, a phenomenon called
I made a point of saying that evolu- Speciation: The Making of the “Wallace effect” in honor of Al-
tion is, as a matter of course, a process A New Species fred Russel Wallace, the undersung
rooted to place. If I may broach the Which brings us to another point contemporary of Charles Darwin.
comparison, evolution is like politics, about the preeminence of place in Wallace independently worked out
it’s always local. evolution – and that’s the role of ge- the theory of natural selection in its
A breeding population is physi- ography in the birthing of new spe- essentials, yet lost the all-important
cally located somewhere, and it’s cies, a process called “speciation.” In prize of publication priority and has
the natural conditions existing there animals especially – less so in plants – thus languished in relative obscurity
– average temperature minima and geography plays a direct and crucial ever since.
maxima, average rainfall, elevation, role in spawning a new species off a
soil type, food availability, nesting parent species. Cataclysmic Isolation & Speciation
resources, admixture of other species, Here’s one way it works: imagine Another way geography propels
and so forth infinitely – that provide a breeding population of species X, speciation is the more dramatic in-
the selective forces to which that pop- one of whose populations at the edge stance of a cataclysm that abruptly
ulation responds. If there is enough of its range encounters natural condi- separates populations. Imagine a
genetic variation in the population, tions significantly different from the large freshwater lake in glacial times
then over time the genes favoring home range. Natural selection never that suddenly loses a huge fraction
survival in that habitat are preserved, stops working, so the local popula- of its water – an ice dam bursts, let’s
while those genes “unfit” for the tion becomes better and better at say – and the end result is a series of
habitat drop out of the population as surviving in its new habitat, even to smaller disconnected lakes, each de-
their possessors fail to reproduce. the extent that it succeeds in pushing fined by varying depths compared
At any time, random mutations deeper into the new habitat and fur- to the original. Populations of a for-
may arise, and these too will be ther away from the home range of the merly widespread species, a fish for
preserved or dropped to the extent species. To the extent that these popu- example, suddenly find themselves
that they help their possessors sur- lations become physically separated, isolated in a particular lake and
vive and reproduce. In this manner, there is no longer any intermixing of thereafter subject to the natural se-
a habitat literally shapes a species, genes: the populations are essentially lection idiosyncrasies of that smaller
morphologically and behaviorally, so cut off and subject to different selec- natural range. Absent the possibility
that the species becomes “adapted” to tion pressures. Lacking any selection for cross-mating with populations
that habitat and ones like it. If the spe- for maintaining inter-fertility, these similarly restricted to their own lakes,
cies possesses the genetic resources to increasingly separated populations each population now pursues its own
survive a wide range of natural con- may lose defining characters that cru- evolutionary course and over time di-
ditions, then it has a good chance of cially tied them to the parent species: verges to the point that it is no longer
expanding its range accordingly. for example, their copulatory organs inter-fertile with its former range-
In this manner, some species, such as may no longer fit, or their courtship mates: each population has speciated
honey bees, white tailed deer, coyotes, behaviors may diverge. – become a new species. Biology is
great white sharks, and humans, have At the very cusp of this process rich with examples of this.
sprawled over vast natural ranges and there may still be an occasional mat- This tight coherence of evolution
possess large and numerous popula- ing between members of diverging with place is the reason why species
February 2018 229

distribution is not geographically ran- a complex branching family tree – for better penetration of an enemy, or an
dom or capricious – zebras don’t show tree is in fact the metaphor of choice. alteration to a cuticular protuberance
up with equal likelihood in Zimba- Medieval cosmology was inclined that helps one clean her antennae bet-
bwe, Germany, or Nebraska. Popula- to think of natural hierarchies in ter. Whatever it is, the change will be
tions must be physically connected in terms of ladders, with “lower” mat- small at the population level, but suc-
order to interbreed and to genetically ter at the bottom and “higher” enti- ceeding lineages may build upon the
respond to local conditions, and new ties at the top. We thus had minerals innovation until it is quite large and
species that radiate off older lineages and metals at the bottom of creation; distinctive.
must do so contiguously from geo- nobles, princes, kings, the moon, the It is these innovations that phy-
graphic points of origin or else be re- stars, and God at the top; and plants, logenists look for when they are try-
stricted in their ranges by geographic trees, animals, and “commoners” ing to reconstruct lineages. It works
constraints that make historic sense somewhere in the middle. Such linear like this: an investigator surveys the
relative to the parent group. imagery fails to capture the concept known members of a group – we
For instance, a species may be wide- of shared descent, or genetic legacies, might as well stick with honey bees
spread across an archipelago, but that are a structural feature of life on – and tries to distinguish characters
local variants show up on particular this planet. shared universally across the group
islands. Our understanding of specia- from characters that occur only in a
tion would lead us to presume that Adaptation in Evolution subset of the group.
the widespread species is the parental The imagery of a branching tree, In our case, the possession of
stock and the variants local popula- coupled with the concept of specia- branched body hair, a pollen-carrying
tions each responding to conditions tion, also leads us to the means by apparatus, and beeswax comb nests
unique to its island. As long as these which modern day phylogenists re- are shared across the group, and there-
local populations remain inter-fertile, construct evolutionary relationships. fore none of these characters is useful
we can still consider them members First, let’s reflect on the fact that for discriminating one subset of bees
of the parent species. We may call speciation constitutes the innova- from another. Universal shared charac-
them “subspecies” or “races” if their tive cutting edge of evolution. When ters like these are considered ancestral.
differences are sufficiently distinc- a breeding population confronts a They are products of earlier specia-
tive and consistent, but it’s also true novel challenge, in whatever form, tions and divergence events, at earlier
that such populations are beginning and if the population possesses branches of the tree, if you will, closer
the earliest stages of speciation. What enough genetic variation to winnow to the main trunk, and they are inher-
these points highlight is that geog- out maladapted genes, or if it has fa- ited by all descendants of that diver-
raphy plays a crucial role in piecing vorable mutations that help it with- gence point (unless some lines lose the
together the evolutionary history of stand the novelty, then it has a good innovation for their own local reasons).
any lineage. chance of emerging from the chal- The literature refers to shared char-
Armed with an understanding of lenge intact – yet genetically altered. acters across a group as “ancestral” or
how speciation happens, we can next It will have become “adapted” to the “basal.” But let’s say our investigator
reflect on the fact that any new spe- new situation. Innovation has oc- also notes that some members of the
cies becomes raw material for the curred. Something is new. It may be honey bee group possess the habit
process to repeat itself. Some species a shift in the timing of ovulation, or of nesting in cavities with multiple
may fail to give rise to another, and the frequencies of genes encoding for combs while the rest nest in single
when they go extinct they constitute detoxification, or a change in behav- combs in the open. Now the investi-
genetic dead-ends. Others may be ioral tolerance toward an invading gator has something to work with: he
rich in divergent potential and even- parasite. It may be morphological – a or she has identified a more recent in-
tually take their place as a member of lengthening stinger barb that permits novation that marks its possessors as
Figure 1A. Family tree of species in the honey bee genus Apis derived from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA analyses from nine
recognized species.10 It is highly congruent with a slightly earlier and independent analysis of ten species*, similarly using mito-
chondrial and nuclear DNA11 and even earlier studies employing morphology.12, 13 1B. Owing to poorly resolved relationships to the
right of the tree, for general understanding it is possible to condense the table to this simpler form.

part of a newer branch “downstream”
of the more ancient divergence points
that established “bee-ness.”
Phylogenists call such newer inno-
vations derived. These derived charac-
ters, assuming they are in fact under
genetic control and passed on by de-
scent, mark new points of divergence
from the parental form. They are new
lineages – the “cavity nesting honey
bees,” in our case.
But, once again, these new lineages
are themselves subject to future pop-
ulations diverging into new forms,
populations for whom the character
“cavity nesting” would now be con-
sidered the ancestral form! Thus, we
see that characters of interest in recon-
structing a taxonomic tree are always
“ancestral” or “derived” relative to
the group being discussed and its po-
sition on the overall tree.
The Messy Data-Driven

Jumble of Phylogeny Figure 2. The natural ranges of the eastern honey bee Apis cerana (shaded in blue)
My examples to this point have been and western honey bee Apis mellifera (shaded red). Apis nigrocincta diverged from
deceptively simple in the interest of de- A. cerana and today is restricted to the islands of Sulawesi, Mindanao, and Sangihe;
scribing the principles and practices of a similar event occurred for A. nuluensis which today is restricted to the mountain
phylogeny. But the fact is, phylogeny is regions of Borneo. An unresolved mystery is the distant range and lack of overlap
a tedious, difficult, and data-dense sci- between the natural ranges of A. mellifera and the rest of the genus.
ence, and its literature is rife with com-
peting hypotheses. It can be difficult These old data sets are not always ranges spray across Africa, the Middle
to distinguish derived characters from congruent with trees built with molec- East, central Asia, and Europe, there
ancient, and the number of characters ular markers, but many hit close to the have been protracted and conflict-
used in tree reconstructions can be mark – including ones initially used in ing studies struggling to make sense
huge – especially since molecular ge- the 1970s to establish the many races out of what is admittedly a confusing
netics has opened up whole genomes of modern Apis mellifera. But my over- natural history. That story must wait
for consideration by phylogenists in arching point here is that phylogeny until a later month.
their never-ending search for ancient examines many inherited characters The preponderance of professional
and derived characters. The computer in a group, establishes which are an- opinion places the origin of the genus
demands alone are staggering for cal- cient or derived relative to a subset Apis squarely in southeast Asia. This
culating probabilities of association of interest, and uses many streams region is home to the natural ranges
among millions of genes and sorting of evidence – geography, statistical of all members of the genus but one –
them into probable lines of descent. analysis of shared derived characters, the western honey bee Apis mellifera,
Molecular science has also provided fossils, known ranges of modern or the world’s most prolific honey pro-
new tools, such as “molecular clocks” extinct species, comparative behavior, ducer and chief interest of readers of
which are attempts to establish geo- and molecular clocks – to come up American Bee Journal. For most of us, it
logic dates of divergence events using with the best reconstructions of natu- is our bee. Evidence for an Asian ori-
known rates of gene mutation. ral lineages. gin of the genus is rooted to principles
The results of phylogenetic analysis I mentioned earlier – the relevance of
may vary according to the characters Origins of Ancestral Honey Bees geography to the birthing of new spe-
used for comparative analysis – mi- Biogeography of the honey bees, cies; it is typical to assume that regions
tochondrial genes, nuclear genes, al- members of the genus Apis, is in of richest species diversity in a genus
lozymes, comparative behavior, or relatively good shape, yet not free of constitute the ancestral home range of
good old-fashioned whole-animal controversy. By this I mean that most the genus.
morphology. The best reconstruc- workers in the field have converged
tions attempt to accommodate many on a family tree that seems to opti- A Close Look at the Apis Tree
characters, including molecular, be- mally assign shared derived charac- Members of the genus Apis have tra-
havioral, and morphological. And it’s ters and accommodate modern social ditionally been partitioned into three
worth noting here that modern phy- behaviors to arrive at a plausible fam- groups: the dwarf open nesters, the
logenists owe much to the traditional ily tree for the nine (or ten) recognized giant open nesters, and the medium
taxonomists of the pre-molecular era: species. sized cavity nesters. Recent DNA re-
individuals who sorted out phylog- However, the biogeography of the constructions of the family tree have
enies with the only means they had western honey bee Apis mellifera in supported this traditional grouping
– examining morphological features particular is another matter; for its and put them in relational context to
under a microscope. numerous subspecies, whose natural one another (Fig. 1).
February 2018 231

Examining Figure 1A gives us an away in central Europe. This story has 8 ARIAS, M., TINGEK, S., KELITU, A.
opportunity to point out some of the its own compelling arguments – and & SHEPPARD, W. 1996. Apis nulensis
principles we discussed above. The challenges – and it deserves its own Tingek, Koeniger and Koeniger, 1996 and
its genetic relationship with sympatric
tree is read from left to right, with coverage next month.
species inferred from DNA sequences.
more recent events to the right. The Ibid.27, 415-422.
first stem is the most recent common 9 DAMUS, M. & OTIS, G. 1997. A mor-
Endnotes
ancestor of the genus. This ances- 1 TATTERSALL, I. & SCHWARTZ, J. H. phometric analysis of Apis cerana F and
tral genus was of course comprised 1999. Hominids and hybrids: The place Apis nigrocincta Smith populations from
of very Apis-like species, but not yet of Neanderthals in human evolution. Pro- Southeast Asia. Ibid.28, 309-323.
possessed of the derived characters ceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 10 RAFFIUDIN, R. & CROZIER, R. H. 2007.
that came to define true Apis. This 96, 7117-7119. Phylogenetic analysis of honey bee be-
2 ARTHUR, W. 2014. Evolving Animals, havioral evolution. Molecular phylogenet-
divergence is estimated at 30-40 mil- ics and evolution, 43, 543-552.
lion years ago4 (abbreviated hereaf- Cambridge University Press.
3 LOVEJOY, A. O. 2011. The great chain 11 ARIAS, M. C. & SHEPPARD, W. S. 2005.
ter mya). The next divergence event of being: A study of the history of an idea, Phylogenetic relationships of honey bees
separated the dwarf honey bees, sub- Transaction Publishers. (Hymenoptera: Apinae: Apini) inferred
genus Micrapis, from all the rest, and 4 RUTTNER, F. 2013. Biogeography and tax- from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA se-
then we see the cavity nesting bees onomy of honeybees, Springer Science & quence data. Ibid.37, 25-35.
(sub-genus Apis) and giant open- Business Media. 12 ALEXANDER, B. A. 1991. Phylogenetic
5 CULLINEY, T. W. 1983. Origin and evolu- analysis of the genus Apis (Hymenoptera:
nesters (Megapis) diverging from one Apidae). Annals of the Entomological Soci-
another. At about 6-9 mya, the mel- tionary history of the honeybees Apis. Bee
World, 64, 29-38. ety of America, 84, 137-149.
lifera lineage split off from the rest of 6 ENGEL, M. S. 1998. Fossil honey bees 13 ENGEL, M. S. & SCHULTZ, T. R. 1997.
the cavity nesters.,9 At the terminating and evolution in the genus Apis (Hyme- Phylogeny and behavior in honey bees
branches of this tree we find our mod- noptera: Apidae). Apidologie, 29, 265-281. (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Ibid.90, 43-53.
ern extant species. 7 CORNUET, J. & GARNERY, L. 1991. * Arias and Sheppard (2005) recognize A.
In the full form of the tree (1A) the Mitochondrial DNA variability in hon- binghami, while Raffiudin and Crozer
authors have tried to resolve relation- eybees and its phylogeographic implica- (2007) retain it as a subspecies of A. dor-
ships at the level of these existing spe- tions. Ibid.22, 627-642. sata.
cies. We see, for example, the mellifera
lineage branching away from the rest
of the cavity nesters, who then engage
in their own downstream history of
divergence events. At this level the
statistical analyses were complicated
by a relative lack of genetic variation
in the samples – which is another way HERE WE GO WITH, TWO MORE BUCKETS!
of saying the species were too closely
related (ie., too few unique deriva- P.O. BOx 280
tions) for computations to reliably dis- MOreauville, la 71355
criminate ancestor from descendant. (318) 201-5379 (318) 964-2592 — e.J. BOrdelOn Owner
Specifically, in spite of the DNA tree
(Fig. 1A), it is highly unlikely that cer- Prices fOr 2017 Queens — MinnesOta Hygienic italian
ana diverged from a “nuluensis like” 1-9 10-24 25-99 100 Up
common ancestor, but rather the exact Queens $22.00 $21.00 $20.00 $19.00
opposite: nuluensis from a cerana-
like common ancestor. The authors
themselves point this out – based on QUEENS SHIPPED PRIORITY OR EXPRESS MAIL ARE INSURED,
knowledge from biogeography. It is UPS OVERNIGHT IS NOT INSURED.
common knowledge that Apis cerana is ALL POSTAL CLAIMS ARE TO BE MADE BY CUSTOMERS.
dispersed across southeast Asia (Fig. 25% DOWN PAYMENT TO BOOK ALL ORDERS.
2), whereas A. nigrocincta and A. nu-
luensis appear to be originally popula-
tions of A. cerana isolated on islands,
who subsequently underwent specia-
tion, and to this day retain relatively
small ranges. This is a good example
of how multiple streams of evidence
are necessary to piece together reliable
ancestries. Because of the poor resolu-
tions at the right side of the tree, for
practical purposes it’s sufficient to use
its condensed form at Fig. 1B.
All this is presumed to be happen-
ing in southeast Asia, but there is a
shockingly alternative, and recent,
hypothesis which places the origin
of the genus Apis about 5,000 miles

American Bee Journal
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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
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February 2018 233

400+ double deep hives for sale immediately after 7 5/8” SUPERS WITH 9-FRAMES DRAWN
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and Sons. Also will have 1000 queen mothers, 3 Olivarez Honey Bees/Big Island Queens is seek- Australia 3556 Ph: 03 5446 1543, Email: vaa@vic
story with 11,000 queen nucs - feed cans -new ing motivated beekeepers to join our Hawaii beekeepers.com.au.
pallets, $300,000. 530-515-4522. team! Experience preferred. Self-motivator and BEECRAFT The UK’s leading monthly beekeep-
Bee operation for sale in South Dakota. 90 loca- ability to work in a team environment a plus. Po- ing magazine. View a digital copy and subscribe
tions – alfalfa, clover, Swinger lift trucks, honey sitions are full time, salary based on experience. on line at www.bee-craft.com.
supers, extracting equipment, shops. Call Arrow- Great Benefits Package. Prior work history and DIE BIENE – ALLGEMEINE DEUTSCHE IM-
smith & Sons - 530-515-4522. references required. Advancement opportunities KERZEITUNG (ADIZ) – IMKERFREUND The
3 lb. Packages and Nucs. 2018 Hawaiian Queens. available. Submit resume to [email protected] Bee magazines with special publications in bee
Shipping begins April 1st. (805) 616-0187. bee- or Olivarez Honey Bees Inc/Big Island Queens, science and management for the hobbyist as well
keepermike.com P O Box 847 Orland Ca 95963, Fax: 530-865- as for the sideliner and professional beekeeper.
Hawaiian Queens – March $35 lots of 10 or more 5570, Phone 530-865-0298 Three regional titles but same content today for
only. 805-616-0187. beekeepermike.com Looking for a beekeeping unit manager to oversee Germany except partly Imkerfreund for Bavaria.
a crew of 10 located in California doing pollina- Monthly publications with 64 pages. Subscription
Minnesota Hygienic Italian Queens tion, queen rearing and honey. Full-time position. Euro 44.50 per year – Deutscher Landwirtschafts-
for sale. Proven 2018 laying queens. Motivating salary. Driving license and social verlag GmbH, Postfach 870324, 13162 Berlin, Tel.
Call for pricing and availability – Mark security required. Write ABJ, Box 150, Hamilton, +49(0)30/293974-87, Fax +49(0) 30/293974-59,
Gaspard, PO Box 366, Moreauville, IL 62341 www.diebiene.de
Louisiana 71355. (225) 718-1378. Email: McCoy Honey Co. is looking for motivated in- HIVELIGHTS, National magazine of the Cana-
[email protected] dividuals to work in a large commercial opera- dian Honey Council. Published quarterly. Free
tion. Applicants should have some experience, sample on request, write to Canadian Honey
RUFER’S DEEP EAST TEXAS QUEENS LLC a valid driver’s license, and be willing to travel. Council, Suite 236, 234-5149 Country Hills
-- Now booking for 2018 season for MN Hygienic McCoy Honey Co. has operations in MI and MS Blvd. NW, Calgary AB T3A 5K8, CANADA.
Queens, Brood, or fill equipment out of our Deep and pollinates in CA/MS/ME/WI. Pay is based Subscription information available at www.
East Texas location. For pricing and scheduling, on experience and queen grafting is a major plus. honeycouncil.ca.
contact: Darrel at (612) 325-1203. McCoy Honey Co. is a family business and a team HONEYBEE NEWS, The Journal of the New
Cisneros & Sons Honey Bees is now taking or- environment. Applicants should contact Ryan at South Wales Apiarists’ Association, Inc., Inter-
(989) 550-3111. national Subscription AUS$50.00 (Airmail) Bank
ders for 2018, Italians and Carniolan queen bees. Draft, Visa or MasterCard payable to NSW AA.
Available April to September. Call or email David
Cisneros (530) 592-7762. alex-cisneros@live. LABELS Published bi-monthly—For more information
contact: The Editor, PO Box 352, Leichhardt
com Custom Labels. FREE BROCHURE. NSW 2040 Australia. E-mail: honeybee@
SINGLE-BOX BEEHIVES AVAILABLE LATE (319) 759-0161 leave message or accsoft.com.au
MAY. PICKUP SW MISSOURI. SIX FRAMES [email protected] IBRA (the International Bee Research Associa-
BEES/ FIVE FRAMES BROOD/ ITALIAN tion) is a unique organization established in 1949
QUEEN/NEW HIVE BODY, MIGRATORY LID BEE TRANSPORTATION for the advancement of bee science and beekeep-
AND BOTTOM. 5@$220. 10@$215/20@$210 Are you tired of mobilizing to California? Let ing. It publishes two magazines: JAR – the Journal
EACH. THESE WILL MAKE YOUR HONEY!! us place and remove your bees for you. We have of Apiculture Research, for scientists, and BW
(417) 882-8008. ALSO 4-FRAME NUCS - $145 trucks, trailers and forklifts. Our crew leaders - Bee World, for beekeepers who want broaden
EACH. have had 6 plus years of experience. Call Ben at their horizons by learning about other beekeeping
5 frame nucs Italian Queens ready mid April 2018 traditions, other bees, other ideas. Members chose
435-272-7239 or [email protected] which magazine(s) to include in their membership.
in South MS. Large order discount. call/text 601-
IBRA is a vital bridge between the local (hive)
788-7717. Queen cells available. MISCELLANEOUS and global concerns. IBRA is registered under UK
Singles for sale out of MS available in April Semi charity law (Office: 91 Brinsea Road, Congresbury,
Load or pick-up only. All hives on a 4 way pal- The AMERICAN BEEKEEPING FEDERA-
TION has many benefits to offer its members. Send Bristol, BS49 5JJ, UK) www.ibrabee.org.uk
let with lid and a feeder. Price is $185 deposit IRISH BEEKEEPING—Read An Beachaire
required on semi loads. Contact McCoy Family for a membership packet of information today! We
also offer a free Beginning Beekeeping Packet. (The Irish Beekeeper). Published monthly. Sub-
Apiaries LLC at (989) 550-3111. scription $50.00 per annum post free. Dermot
BUTTE BEES – Italian hybrid queens selected Contact the AMERICAN BEEKEEPING
FEDERATION, 3525 Piedmont Rd. NE, Bld. 5. O’Flaherty, Journal Manager, Rosbeg, Westport,
for overwintering and honey production. Queens Co. Mayo, Ireland
available April to September. Packages pickup Suite 300, Atlanta, GA 30305-1509, Phone (404)
760-2875, Fax 404-240-0998, or email info@ ATTENTION LIVESTOCK PRODUCERS—
2nd week April. Call for pricing (530) 713-4725. Ranch Magazine is your monthly information
YUBA CITY, CALIFORNIA. abfnet.org.
guide for Angora, Cashmere and meat goats, as
HONEY BEE INSEMINATION SERVICE well as sheep and cattle. Comprehensive Breeder
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Honey and Beeswax wanted. All colors and ized Equipment, Consulting, Training, Custom Canada add $36 per yr. postage. Subscribe today!
varietals. Send samples or call Smitty Bee Honey Service honeybeeinsemination.com scobey@ Box 2678-ABJ, San Angelo, TX 76902. Call for
(712) 748-4292. mac.com Tel. 360-969-9441. free sample. (325) 655-4434
February 2018 235

Advertising Index
A.N. Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211 Dadant & Sons, Inc. . . . . . . . .129, 152, 181, 223, 226, Queen Right Colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202
A & O Forklift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128 236 & Back Cover QSI Honey and Food Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211
Acorn Beekeeping Equip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135 Dakota Gunness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201
American Bee Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .226 R.M. Farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209
EAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132 Roberts Bee Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .228
American Honey Producers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181
Ernst Seeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211 Ross Rounds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136
Applewood Seed Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200
Australian Bee Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132 Geneva Bee Conference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132 Rossman Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200
Avant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .162 Globalpatties.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .212
GloryBee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167, 220 Sanders Honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202
Avoyelle’s Honey Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .232 Sasse’s Apiary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
Hardeman Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161 Selby Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165
Bastin Honey Bee Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .226 Hawaiian Queen Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222
Bee Box Wraps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198 Shastina Millwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130
Heitkams Honey Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222 Sherriff, B.J. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202
Bee Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145 Hilbert’s Honey Bees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165
BeeCulture.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146 Simpson’s Bee Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
Hogg Halfcomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .226 Smith Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152
Bee Excellent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202 Honey B Healthy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211
Bee Hive Thermal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151 South Florida Bees-N-Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .223
Honey Land Farms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209 South Georgia Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
BeeInformed.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .192 Horace Bell Honey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210
Beekeepermike.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219 Spell Bee Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227
Beekeepingins.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239 Jester Bee Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .192 Stayer’s Quality Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .192
Beeline Apiaries & Woodenware . . . . . . . . . . . . .161 JJ’s Honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .226 Strachan Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180
Beelite Wax Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .226 Koehnen, C.F. & Sons, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150 Strong Microbials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .223
Bee Smart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176 Kona Queen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201 Suhre, Adam Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211
Bee Well Honey Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214 Suhre, E. Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222
Lohman Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222 Sunrise Feed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .223
Beta Tec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209 LorAnn Oils and Flavors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222
Betterbee, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166 Sunshine Honey Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202
Mann Lake Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .186, 238 Superior Bee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201
BL Plastic Containers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202 Maxant Industries, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .223 Swienty Beekeeping Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198
Blue Ridge Honey Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .204 McKenna Boiler Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176
Blue Sky Bee Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .182 Medivet Pharmaceuticals Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181 Taber’s Honey Bee Genetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152
Bordelon Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201 Meyers, A.H. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180 Texas Insurance & Financial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
Borntrager, David. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151 Miller Bee Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .168 TreatVarroa.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219
Brand New Industries, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214 Miller’s Beekeeping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201 Tree’s for Bees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .232
Brown Honey Co. Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151 Mother Lode Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .168 T.R.S. Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202
Browning Cut Stock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .226
Brumley Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151 Naked Bee Hives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176 University of Montana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180
Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .162 NMC Super Bee Forklift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150 Vidalia Apicultural Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201
Butte Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202 Nod Apiary Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221
VP Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152
Buzz’s Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167 Old Sol Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185 Weaver, R. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198
Olivarez Honey Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136
CC Pollen Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210 Western Bee Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126
OxaVap.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210
Carbolineum Wood Preserving Co. . . . . . . . . . . . .152 Wicwas Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199
Chinabeeworld.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151 Park-Burris Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .228 Wilbanks Apiaries Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .204
Complete Bee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210 Pierce Beekeeping Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200 Wintersun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222
Contract Pros Mfg.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227 Pierco.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .237 Wooten’s Queens and Bees, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165
Cook & Beals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .204 Plastic Packaging Concept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
Cowen Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227 Powell Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176 Z Specialty Food, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222

February 2018 237
February 2018 239

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What is the publication about?

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What equipment is being advertised?

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Hygeniec Behavior and the

● Props for Beekeepers

● Modeling the Effect of Mite Treatments

An Engineer Takes on Varroa — 215

A Quick-Start Guide to Honey Bee Antennae The Insider’s Perspective

February Cover Picture Bees & Beekeeping, Past & Present

February 2018 127

February 2018 131

February 2018 133

With Best Regards,

REGARDING THE ARTICLE:

134 American Bee Journal

The honey bee gut is colonized by specialized bacteria

Credit: James Allan UQ

February 2018 137

WORLD BEE DAY

The industry has long grappled with internal philo-

138 American Bee Journal

February 2018 139

To measure energy levels in honey bees, researchers ex-

140 American Bee Journal

Theme of “Pollination and Beekeeping

lination, but do pollination for apples, pumpkins, cukes,

February 2018 141

Planning continues for Heartland Apicultural Society’s

142 American Bee Journal

INSTRUCTORS: Prof. Gene Robinson, Prof. May Beren-

REGISTRATION OPENS JANUARY 2, 2018: Email:

Or mail your check (made out to: the University of Il-

February 2018 143

OKLAHOMA MArch 23 & 24

tulsA, oklAhoMA The 2018 West Virginia Beekeepers Association’s Spring

144 American Bee Journal

February 2018 147

148 American Bee Journal

February 2018 149

BEE HIVE THERMAL South Georgia Apiaries

February 2018 151

Queens & Packages

152 American Bee Journal

Once again, any help you could pro-

Hope all is well,

1) Entrance should be above the