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Apis Information Resource News
Dear Subscribers: The Apis Information Resource News is published today, May 27, 2019
See the complete newsletter at the Patreon site. Check out Memorial Day Musings published one year ago.
Our drought is back with a vengeance. And the heat that’s been promised has also arrived for a record Memorial day forecast to be in the dreaded “triple digits.” These conditions reveal themselves in the suffering of plants turning brown in the Florida sun. Time to get the watering devices out or risk losing what’s been gained by the landscape group of our new community. Fortunately, most of us here at Gainesville Cohousing have gone with “florida-friendly” plants, which require less water, although we’re still stuck with patches of St. Augustine turf. And then there’s the heat; yet another record for May here at 99 degrees F. and pushing even higher today and tomorrow. Those of us who are “heat stricken” might get some solace by reflecting on colleagues at Kiwimana in New Zealand, who are now publishing information on wintering honey bees.
The nectar flows are now history in north central Florida....
It’s now less than a week before the Kickstarter project, developed around the Bee Heath Guru smartphone application, comes to an end. See the recent Beekeeping Today Podcast featuring the app here. The Montana developers hit their goal early on and are now reaping the fruits of their advertising campaign, almost doubling what they asked for, now at $24,326 from 546 backers with three days left. This is an exciting project, but not without its detractors. It is possible to see some of the recent debate concerning the possibilities of this “accoustic app” on the Bee-L discussion list. Contributor Ron Miksha is a fan it looks like, given his recent post on the Bad Beekeeping Blog.
The beekeeping journals this month have some articles that deserve attention. Bee Culture features the accoustic app mentioned above, “Decoding the Songs of Bees,” which provides a little more complete background on the workings of the app, than the American Bee Journal effort, which I wrote "If Bees Could Talk," although there’s much more to this than both of these contributions can cover adequately....
The Bee Culture article on True Source Honey is a must read ...
A special case is honey adulteration of manuka found in New Zealand by an oufit called Evergreen: “Demand for honey, which is believed to have health and cosmetics benefits, has been growing globally, especially for manuka honey, collected from the flowers of plants native to New Zealand and Australia....
Ross Conrad describes the Africanized honey bee as perhaps a savior of beekeeping in North America in the May Bee Culture. At first, this seems outlandish, but is an idea that is gaining steam, given the bee’s now well-known attributes, including collecting lots of propolis, quickly adjusting population levels to localized conditions, and employing “absconding” as a way to decrease potential environmental stresses and disease and pathogen levels. All these behaviors have a potential downside, however, which must be taken into account, less potential honey production. The May American Bee Journal also has an article by Wolfgang Ritter and crew entitled, “The African Way,” which adds evidence to Mr. Conrad’s beliefs concerning this honey bee's behavior in its native habitat....
Peter Borst takes up the concept of “ethical beekeeping” in the May American Bee Journal. The idea here is not to mistreat or even “kill” bees, but attempt to work with them considering the following question: Do insects feel pain as humans do? “We may not know if insects feel pain as we do, and we may never know,” Dr. Borst concludes, but “there are reasons for treating them as if they do.” This is part and parcel of a new flavor of beekeeping that is more in tune with honey bee behavior, called "Apicentric.” It turns out that some humans may also no feel pain as we know it, making the whole realm more complex. For example, there’s something in humans called congential insensitivity to pain. The May issue of the Smithsonian contains an article about an Italian family that doesn’t feel pain; research here is looking at the roots of “chronic pain.” And the Smithsonian museum itself has several exhibits....
May 20, 2019 is World Bee Day as noted in the March edition of the Apimondia Newsletter:....
. as Ron Miksa reveals in his Bad Beekeeping Blog, concluding: “World Bee Day is immensely important\......
A recent release reveals that the U.S. EPA has canceled registrations for 12 neonicotinoid pesticides. It appears to be following the European lead here. Read about the history of these and related controversial substances......
The season is nigh for the three regional beekeeping societies to have their meetings. The newest kid on the block, Heartland Apicultural Society (HAS), meets in Bowling Green, Kentucky July 8-10 at Bowing Green University. The Western Apicultural Society (WAS) meets July 12-14 in Ashland, Oregon, and the grandaddy of them all, Eastern Apicutural Society (EAS) will be held in Greenville, South Carolina, July 15-19. These meetings are some of the best and most complete in the country. As an example read about the 50th Anniversary of EAS at Kent State University in 2005.
Bee Scientifics Australia recently put out a newsletter discussing among other topics a queen-breeding relationship brewing with Purdue University, The Ohio State University and the Baton Rouge USDA honey bee laboratory:.....
I have always been interested in beekeeping in Yucatan since the time I visited the peninsula conducting research for masters degree in Geography in 1973. The place had changed a lot in twenty five years since, as I wrote in 1998....
More and more podcasts are out there catering to the beekeeping crowd. Contributor Ron Miksha likes....
Check out the May 2019 Bee-L discussions. This list has changed its format, and unfortunately, it has become more complex and less useful than the previous version. Annoying! Welcome to the continually shifting World Wide Web, sometimes not for the best.
As always, see the latest extension efforts at the Bee Health Extension site. ....
One hundred and seven units of Storey's Guide to Keeping Honey Bees, second edition were sold April 22 through May 19, 2019. Pittsburg and Tacoma, WA led the pack in sales.
>From the editorial endorsements:
“Written in a readable style, this book blends sound scientific information about honey bees with practical information about beekeeping and is suitable reference for beginner to serious beekeeper. It has been selected as the text book for the University of Montana’s Online Beekeeping Certificate, Apprentice Level Course.” — J.J. Bromenshenk, Bee Alert
Malcolm T. Sanford
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