American Bee Journal • October 2016 Vol. 156 No. 10 • Newsnotes

Bacteria in the gut of young honey bees may provide clues about the impact parasites have on bee health. That and other experimental findings were published by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Because young honey bees don’t have gut bacteria, entomologist Jay Evans and post-doc Ryan Schwarz at ARS’ Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, and University of Texas at Austin professor Nancy Moran conducted tests to determine the impact different combinations of a common bacterium and a common parasite had on honey bee health. The scientists hypothesized that increasing the gut bacterium would make the bees more resistant to the parasite, but introducing a second round of parasites to those same bees lead to surprising results.

“This was 180 degrees opposite of our original hypothesis,” said Schwarz. “We suspected introduction of the bacterium would promote a resistance to the parasite, but the opposite occurred.” Other findings from the research include,

• If the gut of the young bees were colonized by parasites and/or by an unusually large number of the gut bacterium, they would have a much different gut make-up (microbiome) in later life than normal bees.

• Bees treated with combinations of the bacterium and/or parasites showed greater key detoxification gene activity when placed in a stressed (low-protein diet) condition. This is significant as these genes affect a bee’s ability to breakdown foreign molecules, including insecticides.

• Bees with greater parasite infestations might spend more time in the hive as workers and thus increase the likelihood of parasite transmission within the colony and impact the ability of the bees to gather food.

These results highlight how shifts in the bees’ gut make-up might play a crucial role in the health of the honey bee colony.

“Beekeepers need to be more mindful of what goes into their hives whether antibiotic, probiotic, or parasite,” said ARS entomologist Jay Evans. “Eight types of bacteria usually inhabit a bee’s gut. It’s clear that more research is needed in order to gain a better understanding of these microbes and their impact on bee health.”

Pollinators are critical to the nation’s economy, food security and environmental health. Honey bee pollination alone adds more than $15 billion in value to agricultural crops each year and helps ensure that our diets include ample fruits, nuts and vegetables. As part of the National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators, USDA and other federal agencies conduct science-based research to understand and find solutions for the causes of honey bee losses, to increase pollinator habitat and raise awareness about better bee management.

USDA’s research and outreach agencies are working in many ways to contribute to the President’s National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honeybees and Other Pollinators. For example, the U.S. Forest Service is also conducting research on pollinators while restoring and improving pollinator habitat on national forests and grasslands. Over the past six years, the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service has invested more than $82 million in cutting-edge pollinator research and over the past decade has published nearly 200 journal articles about pollinators. USDA’s People’s Garden Initiative has launched a number of efforts to expand pollinator public education programs, including a bee cam that gives real time insight into the 80,000 bees who live on the roof of USDA’s Headquarters and pollinate the surrounding landscape.

The fact sheet: Research and Outreach at USDA Keeps Pollinators Buzzing contains more information about USDA’s work to keep pollinators buzzing and contributing to a diverse domestic and global food supply.

Researchers from New Zealand’s University of Otago have discovered the molecular mechanism by which queen honey bees carefully control worker bees’ fertility.

It has long been known that worker bees have a very limited ability to reproduce in a hive with a queen and brood present, but in their absence, a third of them will activate their ovaries and lay eggs that hatch into fertile male drones.

It is queen pheromone that represses worker bee fertility, but how it achieves this has remained unclear.

Now, Otago genetics researchers have identified that an ancient cell-signalling pathway called Notch, which plays a major role in regulating embryonic development in all animals, has been co-opted to also constrain reproduction in worker bees.

In research newly published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, Professor Peter Dearden and colleagues Drs Elizabeth Duncan and Otto Hyink demonstrated that chemically inhibiting Notch signalling can overcome the effect of queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) and promote ovary activity in adult worker bees.

Professor Dearden says they were surprised to find that Notch signalling acts on the earliest stages of egg development in the ovary, perhaps even on the stem cells that make the ovary, and that in the absence of QMP the Notch receptor in a key region of worker bee ovaries becomes degraded.

“Without active Notch signalling taking place, the worker bee eggs are now able to mature. This contrasts with its role in fruit fly reproduction in which the signalling is vital for fertility,” Professor Dearden says.

He says it is not yet clear whether QMP works directly on ovaries or is acting via signalling between the brain and antennae.

“However it is acting, the outcome is that Notch signaling’s fundamental role in the ovary has been modified and transformed in honey bees into social control of worker bees’ reproduction,” he says.

COLLECTIVE ‘INHALATION’-’EXHALATION’ CYCLES MAY KEEP THE INTERIOR OF HONEY BEE NESTS COOL, FRESH

Asian giant honey bees may use synchronized movements to ventilate and cool their nests, according to a study published August 3, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Gerald Kastberger from the University of Graz, Austria, and colleagues.

The Asian giant honey bee, Apis dorsata, builds its large single-comb nests out in the open, making them potentially vulnerable to extremes of temperature that may threaten survival. Colonies are known to create an insulating ‘bee curtain’ of five to seven layers of bees covering the single central comb. Researchers had also previously observed ‘cool nest regions,’ small areas on the nest surface that are cooler than neighboring areas, appearing briefly in the bee curtain. To investigate colony cooling mechanisms, the authors monitored the changes in surface temperature and slow horizontal movements of the bee curtain throughout the day using an infrared camera and vibrometer in several bee nests in Nepal.

The researchers observed that certain bees in the curtain appeared to act as “fanners” during the hottest part of the day, seemingly aligning their bodies to funnel air towards the cool nest regions. They suggest that curtain bees may also move in synchrony to ventilate the nest with a mechanism analogous to mammalian inhalation.

The researchers hypothesize that the inner bees stretch their limbs against the comb, expanding the inner nest area, lowering internal pressure to draw cool fresh air through the funnels from the ambiance. When the curtain bees relax the nest interior contracts by gravity, pressing the warm stale air from the center out diffusely through the meshwork of the bee curtain, completing the ventilation cycle. While the authors did not directly observe the internal mechanism, this may be a previously unknown collective respiratory movement for nest cooling in giant honey bee colonies.

Honey bees are able to wiggle their abdomens in a variety of ways. Now new research published in the Journal of Insect Science shows how they are able to do it.

In 2015, a team of researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing used a high-speed camera to observe how honey bees curl their abdomens while in flight and under restraint, confirming that bees can manipulate the shape of their abdomens, but only in one direction -- down, toward the bee’s underside.

Now the same team has identified the mechanism behind that movement. Specialized membranes that connect a honey bee’s abdominal segments are thicker on the top of the abdomen than on the bottom, allowing curling in just one direction.

Honey bee abdomens contain up to nine overlapping segments that are similar to little armored plates. A thin, flexible layer of cells called the folded intersegmental membrane (FIM) connects the tough outer plates, allowing each concentric segment not just to attach to its neighbor, but to slide into the next one. The authors call this movement “telescoping.”

“Our research on the ultrastructure of the FIM is of great significance to reveal the bending and flexing motion mechanism of the honey bee abdomen,” said Professor Shaoze Yan, one of the co-authors. “During nectar feeding, a honey bee’s abdomen does high-frequency respiratory exercises and assists the suction behavior of mouthparts to improve the intake efficiency.”

In this experiment, the researchers looked at forager honey bees using the same combination of high-speed videography and scanning electron microscopy as they did in 2015. The engineers recorded the abdominal wiggling of live honey bees and the internal shapes of dissected bee abdomens. The flying videos were shot at 500 frames per second, and the dissected abdomens were imaged in thin slices.

The microscopy showed that the membranes along the top of the honey bee’s abdomen are two times thicker than those on the bottom. This asymmetry allows the segments to lengthen on top and contract on the bottom, resulting in the unidirectional curling the researchers observed in the bees they filmed.

It’s a design that the paper’s authors suggest is ripe for exploration by more engineers, perhaps for use in aircraft design or other applications.

Véto-pharma, the makers of Apivar for varroa mite control, have released a new Varroa Guide. Interested beekeepers may download and print the new guide at www.Veto-pharma.com.

Pesticides beekeepers are using to improve honey bee health may actually be harming the bees by damaging the bacteria communities in their guts, according to a team led by a Virginia Tech scientist.

The discovery, published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, is a concern because alterations can affect the gut’s ability to metabolize sugars and peptides, processes that are vital for honey bee health. Beekeepers typically apply pesticides to hives to rid them of harmful parasites such as Varroa mites.

“Although helpful for ridding hives of parasites and pathogens, the chemicals in beekeeper-applied pesticides can be harmful to the bees,” said Mark Williams, an associate professor of horticulture in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and lead author. “Our research suggests that pesticides could specifically impact the microbes that are crucial to honey bee nutrition and health.”

For the project, the team extracted genomic data from honey bees that lived in hives that were treated with pesticides (three different kinds) with those that were not. Samples were pulled from hives in three separate Blacksburg locations.

Honey bees from chlorothalanil-treated hives showed the greatest change in gut microbiome, said Williams, who is also affiliated with the Fralin Life Science Institute.

Looking ahead, the team plans to investigate the specific changes in gut microbiota activities that affect honey bee survival. Honey bees are the foundation of successful high-value food production.

“Our team wants to better describe the core microbiota using bioinformatics to help best characterize the microbes that support healthy honey bees and thus stave off disease naturally,” said co-author Richard Rodrigues, a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State University and formerly a graduate student in Williams’ lab.

Other authors include Troy Anderson, a former assistant professor of entomology at Virginia Tech; Madhavi Kakumanu, a postdoctoral scientist at North Carolina State University and former Virginia Tech graduate student in Williams’ lab; and Alison Reeves, a former graduate student in Anderson’s lab.

In Virginia, the approximate rate of hive loss is more than 30 percent per year, and continued losses are expected to drive up the cost for important crops that bees make possible, such as apples, melon and squash.

Since concern about widespread honey bee colony losses began ten years ago, there have been surveys carried out to assess winter losses in North America and many European countries. So far, the picture in China, the largest beekeeping country in the world, has been unclear. Now for the first time, information about winter losses from a large-scale survey carried out from 2010-13 has been published.

In this new paper published in the Journal of Apicultural Research, Zhiguang Liu and Wei Shi from the Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing and colleagues, report on a three year survey using standard questionnaires developed by the international COLOSS Association. In total, they received 3,090 responses, including 485 from part-time beekeepers, 2,216 from sideline beekeepers, and 389 from commercial beekeepers. Between them these beekeepers managed some 140,000 colonies, that is about 2.4 % of China’s six million colonies.

The results showed that colony losses were generally low (on average 10.1%), compared to published results from Europe and the USA. There were however variations between years (ranging from 8.5 to 12. 0 %), between provinces (ranging from 2. 5 to 19.0%), and between different sizes of beekeeping operation (ranging from 7.6 to 12.1%).

The authors speculate that reasons for the lower losses compared to those of other countries may be due to a high genetic diversity in their honey bees, regular replacement of queen bees by the beekeepers, and because the average size of beekeeping operation is small, meaning that beekeepers can pay close attention to their hives, in particular to the way they control the parasitic varroa mite. The authors also discuss why losses may be consistently higher in certain regions.

IBRA Science Director Norman Carreck says: “For the first time we now have a good picture of honey bee colony losses in China, the world’s biggest beekeeping country. Further studies of why losses there appear to be relatively low may assist our understanding of widespread colony losses elsewhere.”

Norman Carreck, Science Director, IBRA +44 (0)791 8670169 Email: carrecknl@ibra.org.uk

Exposure to neonicotinoid seed treated oilseed rape crops has been linked to long-term population decline of wild bee species across the English countryside, according to research published today in Nature Communications.

The research, led by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology using data provided by Fera Science Ltd and the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Scheme, examined changes in the occurrence of 62 wild bee species with oilseed rape cropping patterns across England between 1994 and 2011 - the time period spanning the introduction of wide-scale commercial use of neonicotinoids.

The scientists found evidence suggesting that neonicotinoid use is linked to large-scale and long-term decline in wild bee species distributions and communities.

The decline was, on average, three times stronger among species that regularly feed on the crop such as Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) compared to species that forage on a range of floral resources, indicating that oilseed rape is a principal mechanism of neonicotinoid exposure among wild bee communities.

Neonicotinoids are a group of insecticide which can be applied to seed prior to planting. The active compound is expressed systemically throughout the growing plant so can lead to potential ingestion where pollinators feed on the pollen and nectar of treated crops.

These findings add to previous small-scale and short-term exposure studies which have identified negative effects of neonicotinoids on honeybees and a limited number of commercially-bred wild bee species.

For five of the species investigated, including the spined mason bee (Osmia spinulosa) and the furrow bee (Lasioglossum fulvicorne), neonicotinoid use was equivalent to at least 20% of local population extinctions of wild bees

According to the researchers, the data suggest that neonicotinoid use is correlated with wild bee biodiversity losses at a national scales and has implications for the conservation of bee communities in intensively farmed landscapes. The results add to an extensive body of evidence that will inform the review of the risks neonicotinoid pesticides pose to bees being undertaken by the European Food Standards Authority and anticipated to be complete by January 2017.

Lead author, Dr Ben Woodcock said, “As a flowering crop, oilseed rape is beneficial for pollinating insects. This benefit however, appears to be more than nullified by the effect of neonicotinoid seed treatment on a range of wild bee species.

Dr Woodcock added “Although we find evidence to show that neonicotinoid use is a contributory factor leading to wild bee species population decline, it is unlikely that they are acting in isolation of other environmental pressures. Wild bees have undergone global declines that have been linked to habitat loss and fragmentation, pathogens, climate change and other insecticides.”

RICHLAND, Wash. – While neonicotinoid pesticides can harm honey bees, a new study by Washington State University researchers shows that the substances pose little risk to bees in real-world settings.

The team of WSU entomologists studied apiaries in urban, rural and agricultural areas in Washington state, looking at potential honey bee colony exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides from pollen foraging. The results were published in the Journal of Economic Entomology (http://jee.oxford journals.org/content/early/2016/01/19/jee.tov397) this spring.

After calculating the risk based on a “dietary no observable adverse effect concentration” – the highest experimental point before there is an adverse effect on a species – of five parts per billion, the study’s results suggest low potential for neonicotinoids to harm bee behavior or colony health.

“Calculating risk, which is the likelihood that bad things will happen to a species based on a specific hazard or dose, is very different from calculating hazard, which is the potential to cause harm under a specific set of circumstances,” said co-author Allan Felsot, WSU Tri-Cities professor of entomology and environmental toxicology.

“Most of what has dominated the literature recently regarding neonicotinoids and honey bees has been hazard identification,” he said. “But hazardous exposures are not likely to occur in a real-life setting.

Felsot said the study shows that the risk of bee exposure to neonicotinoids is small because bees aren’t exposed to enough of the pesticide to cause much harm in a real-world scenario.

Lead author Timothy Lawrence, assistant professor and director of WSU Island County Extension, said many sublethal toxicity studies, whether at the organism level or colony level, have not done formal dose-response analyses.

“The question we posed focused on the risk of exposure to actively managed honey bee colonies in different landscapes,” he said.

With the cooperation of 92 Washington beekeepers, the team collected samples of beebread, or stored pollen, from 149 apiaries across the state.

Throughout the one-year trial, neonicotinoid residues were detected in fewer than five percent of apiaries in rural and urban landscapes. Two neonicotinoids, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, were found in about 50 percent of apiaries in agricultural landscapes.

Although neonicotinoid insecticide residues were detectable, the amounts were substantially smaller than levels shown in other studies to not have effects on honey bee colonies. The WSU researchers referenced 13 studies to identify no observable adverse effect concentrations for bee populations, which they used to perform a risk assessment based on detected residues.

“Based on residues we found in apiaries around Washington state, our results suggest no risk of harmful effects in rural and urban landscapes and arguably very low risks from exposure in agricultural landscapes,” Felsot said.

While exposure levels were found to be small, Lawrence said it is still important to be careful with use of neonicotinoid insecticides and follow product label directions. For example, insecticides should not be used during plant flowering stages when bees are likely to be foraging.

“While we found that bees did not have chronic exposure to adverse concentrations of neonicotinoids, we are not saying that they are not harmful to bees – they are,” he said. “People need to be careful with pesticide use to avoid acute exposure.”

Other researchers on the study included Elizabeth Culbert, WSU Food and Environmental Quality Lab (GEQL) research technician; Vincent Hebert, WSU associate professor of entomology and laboratory research director; and Steven Sheppard, WSU professor and department chair of entomology.

by Arne Dübecke2, Cord Lüllmann2, Gudrun Beckh2 and Lauren Fleming1 1Columbia Food Laboratories Inc., 12423 NE Whitaker Way, Portland, OR 97230

The United States is flooded with cheap fake honey from China. Most recently in June 2016, special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) seized almost 60 tons of illegally imported Chinese honey.1 Chinese honey of very low quality ends up on the shelves and eventually in American kitchens as there is often no information or false information on the label. The consumer today may see the lack of quality daunting, or to feel that the quality of honey is decreasing.

But that’s not true! U.S. beekeepers know very well how to produce top quality honey!

The team at Quality Services International (QSI) in Bremen, Germany, made it their goal to provide a method to prove the quality of honey. You are asking how? Well, we are using the latest technology combined with a worldwide unparalleled dataset on honey: HoneyProfiling™.

The technology behind HoneyProfiling™ is called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (NMR) combined with chemometric analyses. Don’t worry, “nuclear” in this case only refers to the “core” of an atom (nucleus). The technique uses a magnetic field, but has nothing to do with radioactivity.

A great advantage of HoneyProfiling™ lies in the ability to detect many substances simultaneously creating a chemical “fingerprint” or profile of your honey.(2, 3) We then compare the fingerprint of your honey with the fingerprints of the authentic honeys in our database (fig. 1). Our database already contains several thousand reference profiles. To ensure authenticity of our reference samples, we performed more than 50,000 additional analyses to test for general quality parameters and markers for adulteration.

Based on that foundation of comprehensive data of HoneyProfiling™ we are not only able to extract information on geographical and botanical origin from the NMR-profiles, but they additionally provide information on adulteration, such as with sugar syrup.

HoneyProfiling™ can be used to prove adulteration of, for example, imported honey or to verify the purity of your own product.

Did we spark your interest in our work? Please get in touch with us if you have any questions or remarks.

1 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “HSI Chicago seizes nearly 60 tons of honey illegally imported from China”, 2016, https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/hsi-chicago- seizes-nearly-60-tons-honey-illegallyimported- china-0; last accessed 07/12/2016.

2 A. Dübecke, NMR-Profiling of Honey – The New Approach in Honey Authenticity Testing, eFoodLab International, pages 14-16, 3/2015.

3 S. Schwarzinger, F. Brauer, P. Rösch, B. Schütz, B. Kämpf, G. Beckh, C. Lüllmann, A. Dübecke, Authentic food – Why a single analysis parameter is not enough, q&more, pages 36-43, 1/2016.

Over the past 60 years, they have lost much of their natural habitat and are under assault from pesticides and intensive farming. We rely on bees and other insects to pollinate the majority of our fruit and vegetables and, without them, our environment and economy will be in crisis.

The Business of Bees provides the first integrated account of diminishing bee populations, as well as other pollinators, from an interdisciplinary perspective. It explores the role of corporate responsibility and governance as they relate to this critical issue and examines what the impact will be on consumers, companies, stock markets and ultimately on global society if bee populations continue to decline at a dangerous rate.

The book considers the issue of global bee population decline from a variety of perspectives: historical, ethical, scientific, economic, and financial and brings together the perspectives of academics in accounting, science, classics and humanities with those of practitioners in the finance industry. The chapters explore the impact of the rapid decline in pollinator populations on the natural world, on corporations, on the stock market and on accounting. They frame the discussions within a historical context, exploring the age-old relationship between bees and humans from historical, philosophical and ethical perspectives. The Business of Bees will be essential reading for those in academia, business and finance sectors and anyone invested in the future of our planet.

PART ONE: THE HISTORICAL, SCIENTIFIC, CULTURAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT OF BEE DECLINE

2016 CSBA ANNUAL CONVENTION November 15th -17th, 2016 Kona Kai Resort & Spa – San Diego, CA

Come join us for the 2016 annual CSBA convention in beautiful San Diego, California! Learn about the latest research, trade ideas with fellow beekeepers, and explore innovative products at the Tradeshow.

Come early and stay late to take in all that San Diego and the luxurious Kona Kai Resort & Spa has to offer. There are plenty of activities for the whole family to enjoy. Special Convention rates will be available.

For more information or to register, contact the California State Beekeepers Association’s website: www.californiastatebeekeepers.com.

The West Sound Beekeepers Association is bringing in Michael Palmer to speak. This is a great opportunity for beekeepers and bee friendlies in our area to hear from a well traveled beekeeper. Michael will be speaking at our local high school auditorium in Silverdale, WA and will be covering topics like: building a sustainable apiary, over wintering nucs, queen rearing and bee/queen genetics. As a community outreach we are also making 25 tickets available to high school science/biology students and their teachers at no cost.

The Oregon State Beekeepers Association will hold its annual fall conference on October 28, 29 & 30 at the Oregon Garden in Silverton, Oregon. The theme for this conference is “Beekeeping Out of the Box”. Other topics such as honey bee health will be covered as well. Speakers include Dr. Tom Seeley, George Hansen, Dr. Ramesh Sagili, Dr. John Skinner, Dr. Elina Nino, Dr. Judy Wu, Miksa Queens and more.

There will be a beginning beekeeping class running concurrently with the main meeting on Saturday. Oregon State University will have a bee lab on site to analyze bee samples for attendees. For more information go to www.orsba.org For information about the Oregon Garden, go to www.oregongarden.org.

Plaza Hotel & Convention Center, 1900 Ken Pratt Boulevard, Longmont, Colorado, 80501 (303) 682-2114 or www.PlazaConventionCenter.com for reservations (Mention that you are a participant in the CPBA meeting to receive room discount @ the Plaza Hotel)

Friday Evening – 7:00 p.m. (In the hotel) Informal Roundtable Discussion with featured meeting speaker Randy Oliver of http://ScientificBeekeeping.com & CPBA President Lyle Johnston discussing current & historical issues concerning pesticides and honey bees (usually runs for about 1 to 2 hours)

Saturday – 9:00 a.m. until noon (in Conference Center across from hotel) at time of this writing exact titles of presentations TBD. However, Randy will speak on what sustainable beekeeping requires – why mite treatments are mandatory for successful beekeeping – and his latest research on hot weather mite and Nosema treatments.

CPBA will also have speakers from CSU Extension, Colo. Dept. of Agriculture and regional colleges & universities providing up-dates & information relating to honey bees and beekeepers.

12:00 Noon until around 1:00 p.m. – Buffet lunch in the Conference Center (included in admission price). Our traditional CPBA raffle will be held and door prizes given out shortly after lunch.

1:00 p.m. till around 4:00 p.m. – further talks and presentations by Randy and other speakers.

After the formal meeting, attendees and speakers often get-together at a nearby restaurant for dinner, libations and friendly conversation. All attendees are welcomed to participate.

Further questions? Contact CPBA Secretary Jacy or Webmaster Matt at Email address: cpbeekeeping@gmail.com.

The North Dakota Beekeeper’s Association Convention will be held at the Ramada in Bismarck, North Dakota on October 7 and 8, 2016. For reservations call Ramada 701-258-7000.

The meeting will focus on honey bee colony health and will include a seminar on Saturday, October 8 for beginning beekeepers, and those interested in obtaining more information on starting and maintaining honey bee colonies.

• What Every Beekeeper Should Know-research and management updates for beginners and advanced backyard beekeepers.

• MiteCheck-managing and reporting the honey bee enemy #1 using citizen science for beekeepers.

• Bee Policy-cities and community organizations supporting bees and bee education.

• Food for Bees and Other Pollinators-who, what, where, why and how of planting food for our pollinators.

• Jerry Hayes, Missouri beekeeper and writer for the American Bee Journal’s “The Classroom”, and head of Monsanto’s Beeologics.

• Clint Otto, Research Ecologist, USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Jamestown, ND Danielle Downey, Executive Director for Project Apis m.

For more information contact Bonnie Woodworth 701-290-4647 or email bon@ndsupernet.com

Clarion Hotel & Convention Center 525 33rd Avenue SW Cedar Rapids, IA 52404 (319) 366-8671

The IHPA Annual Meeting will be held Friday, November 11th and Saturday, November 12th at the Clarion Hotel and Convention Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

(Friday and Saturday ~~ Registration: 8:00 am ~~ Conference/Annual Meeting: 8:30 am)

Room rates for the IHPA members are $72 plus taxes with reservations made by Thursday, October 27th.

The IHPA Conference and Annual Meeting is our yearly opportunity to get together and discuss the wonders as well as mysteries of beekeeping. This meeting is open to anyone interested in beekeeping or honey bees. We have a variety of guest speakers from across the United States come to speak on their expertise in the beekeeping world.

For current beekeepers this is a great time to hear what is new in beekeeping or ask questions of those with a greater number of years’ experience. Those who are thinking about getting started in beekeeping will have numerous chances to ask, ‘What’s it like to keep bees?” There will be no shortage of answers! Beekeepers love to share the stories, fun, and enjoyment they have found in beekeeping.

James Tew, Jennifer Berry, Charlotte Hubbard, Andy Joseph, Andy Hemken, the Iowa Honey Queen and more!

In The Buzz Newsletter and website (www.iowahoneyproducers.org) will include cooking, photo, hive body, and mead contest rules, plus luncheons and banquet information.

Join your fellow beekeepers at one of Missouri’s favorite vacation destinations! Scheduled speakers will be:

• And a number of local experts who will be discussing your favorite honeybee subjects.

This is your chance to show your skill at Cooking and Bee Art. Entry form will soon be available online. There are three categories:

Come visit your favorite vendors and see what is new in bee supplies. Place orders early and pick them up at the Conference.

There will be local associations to talk to about what is going on in their parts of the state.

Come see if the Flow Hive worked, as we will have Missouri beekeepers talk about their experiences with this highly talked about item.

Don’t forget to register for the Awards Dinner and Auction on Friday night. This is always one of the highlights of the Fall Conference. If you have not been to the Awards Dinner and Auction, this will be your chance.

The Conference will be held at the Lodge of The Four Seasons. Rooms can be booked any time directly with the Lodge. Call tollfree at 888-265-5500 and let them know you are with the Missouri State Beekeepers Association.

The 7th annual fall meeting of the Illinois Queen Initiative (IQI) will be held Saturday, October 29, 2016 from 9 am to 4 pm at the Asmark Institute Agricenter, 14171 Carole Drive, Bloomington, Illinois; Doors open at 8:30. The IQI is an organization of volunteers dedicated to educating Illinois beekeepers on rearing queens, with an emphasis on locally-adapted, disease and mite resistant stocks. Our featured speaker is Dr. Meghan Milbrath, a researcher at Michigan State University and coordinator of the Michigan Pollinator Initiative who also runs 200 of her own colonies. She will be presenting her study comparing different nuc box designs and methods for overwintering nucs. Additional presentations include Dr. Stu Jacobson’s on “Honey bee breeding as if varroa mattered” and Jim Landau’s on his comparison study of different methods of introducing virgin queens. This is the 2nd year the IQI has brought Indiana mite biter queens into Illinois and Scott Martin will report on the progress of this project. Beekeepers are invited to bring and show gadgets of their own making that are used in raising queens or producing nucs. There also will be as honey bee plant and seed swap.

Cost of reservation is $30 for paid IQI members and $45 for non-members; registration includes lunch. Non-members may register and join at the same time for $55. Dues for 2017 are payable at the meeting. Paid members receive discounts on classes and future meetings. Make checks payable to the IQI and send to: Tim Lindley, 1222 Airport Ave., Greenville, IL 62246. Direct questions about reservations to Tim at (618) 780-3772; for questions about the program contact Stu Jacobson at (217) 498-7223.

The Annual Convention this year features: General Sessions Friday morning through

The USDA Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Laboratory and the Louisiana State Beekeepers Association will hold the 20th Annual Field Day on Saturday, October 8, 2016. The event will be held at the laboratory, located at 1157 Ben Hur Rd. This is near the intersection of Nicholson Drive (Hwy 30) and Brightside Dr., which is about two miles south of the LSU football stadium.

Gates will open at 9:30 a.m.; activities are scheduled from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. A nonrefundable pre-registration fee of $30.00 is required for attendees 12 years of age and above. Children eleven and under, must stay with their parents at all times. You must preregister (and submit payment) by Sept. 30, 2016. You may register online at labeekeepers.Org and pay through PayPal or credit card or you may mail your registration form that is located on the labeekeepers.org web site and your check payable to the Louisiana Beekeepers Association to: David Ferguson, P. O. Box 716, Brusly, LA 70719. Registration fees increase to $40.00 per person on Oct. 1, 2016.

The registration fee covers expenses including coffee, pastries and a great catered lunch that includes boneless chicken in gravy, white rice, snap beans and potatoes, a medley of tomatoes, baby lima beans, okra and corn with sausage, and garden salad with choice of 4 dressings, fresh baked honey wheat rolls, banana pudding and coke products.

The Field Day will include courses for beginners and more experienced beekeepers as well as workshops for those interested in a variety of topics. The beginning beekeeper course will begin with how to get started for those who do not yet own bees, then will progress to how to manage a few colonies. Topics will include equipment needs for the beginner, nectar producing plants, maintenance of colonies, pests, safety and etiquette in beekeeping, and hands-on training in an active colony. The intermediate beekeeping course was a hit again last year and it will be offered again with a variety of topics focused on the beekeeper with a moderate amount of experience who is now ready to take it to the next level. Topics will include making splits, preparing colonies for winter, bee breeds, followed by a final “field” session examining open colonies. This session will address the major problems in colony health and include discussion and guidance on the primary pests and pathogens affecting honey bee colonies. There also will be a 2 hour focused workshop on queen rearing for those (typically the more advanced beekeepers) not attending the intermediate courses, followed by a final session on breeding basics. These workshops will represent both the USDA-ARS Bee Lab’s research and beekeeper experiences.

For additional information please contact Dr. Lanie Bourgeois (225-767-9299), Sandra Hineman (225-767-9280) or Joe Sanroma (318-346-2805). For questions regarding online registration, please contact David Ferguson (225-726-1664) or Robert Taylor (985-386-4647).

Alabama Master Beekeeping program (AMBP) will be having its annual certification classes and testing to become an AMB, February 9-11-2017 at the Performing Arts Center in Clanton AL. The classes are geared to the educational development of beekeepers. It is to set a standard of beekeeping that is useful for beginning Beekeepers through a Master Craftsman Beekeeper level, in an open-minded, hands-on learning and training beekeeping program. Anyone over the age of 12 can enroll and learn to become a beekeeper. It takes a minimum of 5 years to obtain the Master Craftsman level. Go to Alabamamasterbeekeepers.Com to register and get a list of all the requirements and program schedule or call Gerry Whitaker program chairman (334-494-0136) or David Kelton program adviser (256-523-4767)

The Florida State Beekeepers Assn., 2016 conference is Oct 20-22 at the Hilton UF Conference Center in Gainesville FL.

• Les Crowder co-author of Top Bar Beekeeping Organic Practices for Honey Bee Health

• Florida Association of Property Appraiser- Beekeeper round-table discussion on establishing State guidelines for agricultural property tax exemptions for beekeeping operations

Bob is an extremely knowledgeable and dedicated beekeeper. Bob is known to many in the beekeeping community for the quality of his bees and hive products. Bob has shared his knowledge in many national and international forums.

Bob and Suzette own and operate The Blue Ridge Honey Company! Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from Bob about his passion of beekeeping! Visit The Blue Ridge Honey Company website for Bob’s bio!

Delegate Richard P. Bell from the 20th District in the Staunton, Virginia, area was honored with the 2016 Legislative Award from the Virginia State Beekeepers Association (VSBA). A plaque was presented to Delegate Bell by Lannie Ballard, VSBA Legislative Chairperson, in Staunton on August 16th.

The award was presented to Delegate Bell who introduced a bill to amend the Code of Virginia relating to limited liability for beekeepers. The House Bill (HB535) was introduced to relieve Virginia beekeepers from frivolous law suits. HB535 passed the Virginia General Assembly and on March 30th Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed into law ‘HB535 Beekeepers: Limited Liability Legislation.’ Virginia is the second state in the nation to have such protection for its beekeepers. West Virginia was the first to pass such protection about four years ago. Delegate Bell’s Legislative aide, Savanna Funkhouser, and his staff were also thanked for their efforts in assisting Delegate Bell in getting this legislation passed.

Friday and Saturday, November 11 & 12, at the Days Inn, State College. The theme is Audacious Ideas for the Future of Beekeeping and the keynote speakers will be Mark Winston and Keith Delaplane.

The Western PA Beekeeping Seminar will be held on February 17 & 18, 2017 at the Doubletree by Hilton, Monroeville, PA. 15146.

Dr. Roger Hoopingarner, Professor Emeritus of Entomology, Michigan State University, Elizabeth (Izzy) Hill, Director of the Center for Urban Bee Research and Mid- Atlantic Apicultural Research and Education Consortium (MAAREC) as well as local garden talk-show host and Post-Gazette garden writer, Doug Oster will headline the seminar.

Along with break-out sessions on habitat for pollinators, bee nutrition, chemical-free disease and pest control, a Beginning Beekeeping workshop will be offered in tandem with the Seminar on Saturday (limit 75 participants).

Seminar registration is $55; Beginning Beekeeping cost is $75. Registration opens at the beginning of December, 2016 at Penn State Extension, Beaver website: http://extension.psu.edu/beaver or call 724-774-3003.

Richard Fell PhD - Department of Entomology Virginia Tech Peter L. Borst - Former Senior Apiarist at Cornell

Kristen Traynor and Michael Traynor - Authors of Two Million Blossoms and Simple Smart Beekeeping

• Honey themed banquet and auction, breakout beekeeping D I Y sessions with seasoned beekeepers,

• Save on shipping, order your beekeeping supplies from our nation’s top beekeeping supply companies and pick up your order on site at meeting.

Mid-State Beekeepers hosts the NJBA State Meeting at the Ramada Inn 1083 Route 206 Bordentown, NJ 08505

Guest Speaker is Dr. Jim Tew, beekeeping specialist for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Auburn University and emeritus professor, The Ohio State University. Dr.Tew is also the author of Beekeeping Principles, Backyard Beekeeping, Wisdom for Beekeepers and the Beekeeper’s Problem Solver.

Each month we have timely weekend hands-on inspection workshops, bee school, mentor program and more. Please check our website for the dates and locations or more information at www.backyardbeekeepers.com

2016 Western Apicultural Society Conference Ala Moana Hotel, Honolulu, Hawaii October 12 - 15, 2016 www.westernapiculturalsociety.org