Buzz Briefs
A place for beekeepers (and wanna-bees) to get breaking news
and up-to-date information on our favorite subject
How queens are created by honey beesLast summer, I wrote a Buzz Brief on “Purchasing a queen and getting her to you in good condition.” Because of the complexity of the topic and the time of year (most queen orders are placed before June), I concentrated on the subject of getting a queen delivered to your house in good condition and promised a future article on how to purchase quality queens. I’m finally getting around to writing it but find that the remaining material is still too much to be covered in a single brief. This article will deal with how queens are produced in nature. Subsequent briefs will consider how beekeepers produce queens and how to find and purchase a quality queen. December is a good time to think about buying queens since the queen and package bee producers and vendors are already taking orders. If you’re planning to purchase queens for early nuc making (early meaning April), you need to get your orders in soon. The same goes for ordering packages for April delivery or pickup. Those dates – especially early April dates – go quickly. January is not too soon to place orders, and waiting until February will limit your choices. For a beekeeper to purchase a quality queen, someone first must rear a quality queen. What does that process involve? Let’s first look at how bees rear queens in nature or in our hives, since the process is the same in both situations. It starts with queen cells The first stage in the queen process is the creation of a special cell in which the queen will be reared, called a queen cell. There are three different kinds of queen cells, which are classified based on why the bees are producing new queens (and they rarely try to make just one queen at a time). These are: swarm cells; supersedure cells; and emergency cells. Swarm cells and supersedure cells are both the result of the planned production of queens due to the hive preparing to swarm or sensing a need for a new queen because the current one is failing. These cells are made by the bees for the sole purpose of rearing a queen and in the beginning are called “queen cups.” The queen lays eggs in these cells and, from the start, the larvae hatched from these eggs are destined to be queens. The cells are a signal to the nurse bees to feed the larvae within the diet of royal jelly, which will cause them to develop into queens. Emergency cells are the result of the hive suddenly losing a queen or of the queen being no longer capable of laying fertile eggs. In this case, the bees choose a very young larva in a worker cell, expand the cell, and start feeding her large amounts of royal jelly. How young the chosen larva is when a queen diet is commenced will greatly affect the quality of the queen reared. While it is possible for very good queens to be produced from emergency cells, this is not always the case. Beekeepers whose goal is to yield superior queens will mimic conditions that produce swarm or supersedure queens. Placing frames of eggs into a queenless hive will result in emergency queen cells and is not a method by which to attempt to consistently rear high-quality queens. Feeding of the larvae For the first two days after hatching, larvae destined to be queens and those that will become workers are fed the same diet. At that point, those in queen cells are fed larger amounts of food, more frequently, and of a special kind – royal jelly. Both royal jelly and the food fed to workers contain secretions from the worker bees’ mandibular glands, but royal jelly contains a much higher concentration of these secretions. Larvae become queens as a result of this special diet and the larger quantity of food consumed. This transformation of eggs containing exactly the same genetic material into two very different insects truly is one of the wonders of nature. Pupae development and emergence The queen cells are capped about five to six days after hatching as compared to seven to eight for worker larvae. Change from larvae to adults occurs over a period of about seven days during the pupal stage. At that point, the new queens eat their way out of the cells and emerge as virgin queens. Mating New queens will instinctively seek out and destroy other queens, including those still in their cells. Hence, when rearing queens, it is very important to separate queen cells prior to emergence or risk losing all but one queen. About four days after emerging, new queens will make one or more orientation flights. Mating flights (one or more) occur about 10 days after emergence. Mating must occur within about three weeks after emergence; after that, the new queen may commence laying eggs without benefit of mating and will lay only unfertilized eggs (drones). It is thought that queens that do not mate within about 14 days of emerging will be inferior. Queens may mate with about 10 to 15 drones on the mating flights, but numbers reported by scientists vary. An additional important factor that influences the success of a honey bee colony’s production of queens is the season of the year. While bees may produce queens during any month with warm daytime temperatures (in Kentucky, this is from March or early April through October), their success rate is much higher April through June – the same time of year when swarm cells are most likely to be produced. During these months, we see warm temperatures, good nectar and pollen flows, and strong colony populations. All these conditions are also those that are optimum for swarming. Posted by Phil Craft December 12, 2011, at 10:40 a.m.
Dumping of honey into the United States - busted!A lot of you have likely heard how honey imported into the United States affects the price of honey here and the issue of “honey dumping.” The culprit is most often honey from China, but Argentina has been found guilty of this violation as well. Honey dumping is the sale of honey below cost to gain control of a market by driving down the price. This activity has resulted in the levying of special “anti-dumping” duties or tariffs on honey imported into the United States from China and Argentina. It is not unusual to read about container loads of barrels of honey being seized at U.S. by customs or other officials. Another issue that has also arisen from these actions is the shipment of honey from China to another country (like Vietnam or Thailand) and then re-shipped here as if the honey originated from the intermediate country, thus avoiding import duties. There also have been cases in which such smuggled honey from China contained residues of antibiotics that are illegal for use in honey bees or other livestock due to their toxic effects on people. I’m attaching a link to a recent article concerning a recent “honey bust” of such smuggled honey. In this case the honey (over 4,500 total barrels, or almost 250,000 gallons) was shipped into the U.S. labeled as rice fructose syrup and then re-labeled as honey once it arrived and was warehoused. The article is part of a blog from Groeb Honey Farms, a commercial beekeeping company. But it largely contains the indictment papers issued by Homeland Security Agent Scott R. Kraich. This affidavit details Agent Kraich’s laborious investigation, reveals the complexity of such smuggling, and discusses the legal issues involved. Such dumping into the U.S. of foreign honey and honey imports in general has a great influence upon the price of bulk honey (honey sold in barrels but also honey by the five-gallon bucket) and prices paid to large commercial beekeepers, who most often sell most of their honey by the barrel. These prices help set the prices of honey from the big bottling companies on grocery shelves or generic bottled honey. However, these actions have less impact on prices received by Kentucky beekeepers for their honey. Beekeepers here for the most part bottle and retail the honey directly to their customers (or wholesale it to grocery stores in bottles). Kentucky beekeepers selling honey by the barrel is the exception, though some sell part of their crop in five-gallon buckets. In addition, they are not just selling honey; they are selling “local honey” and thus receive a premium price for their honey. When I conduct marketing talks, I always tell beekeepers that they are not competing with mass-produced honey in the large chain grocery stores or box stores; their honey is a rarer commodity and should bring a much higher price. Someone once showed me a large bottle of honey he had purchased at a large box store and commented at the low price. I turned the bottle over and pointed out the “product of China” notation on the back label. The good stuff from Kentucky costs more! Posted by Phil Craft December 7, 2011, at 3:20 p.m.
Honey, filtering, and ultra-filteringI’ve been getting a lot of emails from beekeepers, and I suspect that you have been emailing each other, regarding a recent article in a web-based newspaper called Food Safety News. This article reported that testing recently conducted at Texas A&M University revealed that over 75 percent of honey samples taken from honey on the shelves of large grocery stores (such as Kroger and Safeway) and box stores (like Walmart and Target) contained no pollen. Furthermore, it reported that 100 percent of samples taken from other stores and individual serving containers of honey (such as honey served at restaurants) and tested contained no pollen. The article went on to allege that this absence of pollen indicated that the tested honey, and most of the honey sold at these stores, is what is called “ultra-filtered” honey. Ultra-filtered honey appeared in our beekeeping radar in the last few years as honey that went through a highly processed filtering system in overseas countries, including China. This ultra-filtering process is designed to remove all contaminants, including illegal antibiotics that resulted in Chinese honey being banned from the United States, and results in a honey that “is no longer honey.” This process is not simple filtering but a much more industrial process. When I read this article, I thought it was not quite accurate. It is common knowledge in the beekeeping and honey industry that most large commercial honey packers in the United States (I’m talking about companies that bottle thousands of tons of honey and supply the chain grocery stores) filter their honey to remove all pollen. This is not NEW news. But I’ve never heard anyone say that this filtering is ultra-filtering. We also know the large honey packers heat their honey to remove any honey crystals from their honey. They do this to prevent (or reduce) their honey crystalizing in the jars. They want a uniform product on the shelves, without jars full of crystalized honey. Beekeepers know the problem of having honey crystalize in the jar before selling it – I know because they often contact me to ask how to get it back to liquid without destroying their plastic jars or their labels. So as Paul Harvey used to say (the old folks like me remember Paul Harvey), here’s the rest of the story. This is a more recent article on the National Public Radio webpage saying pretty much what I just said but in a lot more detail. This article is entitled “Relax, folks. It really is honey after all.” If you read the story in Food Safety News, and especially if you have passed that story on, I urge you to read the NPR story, which I think gives a more accurate picture of the situation. Beekeepers can use these stories to point out the ultimate truth: The consumer really doesn’t know where the food (or honey) in that jar may have originated. That is, UNLESS it is purchased at or near the source, as from a local beekeeper. Local beekeepers do not finely filter their honey, so all the nutrients and the other stuff that is good for you, like pollen, are still there. Most Kentucky beekeepers deal with the issue of crystalized honey in the jar and on the shelves of their local stores the way I do: by stopping by and checking the honey and switching out any that starts to crystalize – a hands-on approach, not an industrial process. We also often put labels on the honey jars with instructions for the consumer to liquefy honey that crystalizes after purchase (ever see those labels on honey packed by the big producers?). Many consumers thus, and perhaps rightly, consider the fact that their honey crystalized at some time after purchase to be an indication that it really was locally produced. So let’s not downgrade the honey sold by the large companies but point out that we have a different product. Honey that is not over-processed, not all mixed up to produce a uniform taste – pure honey with nothing removed. Local beekeepers have the nearest thing to “right from the hive.” Posted by Phil Craft November 29, 2011, at 12:51 p.m. Kentucky beekeeper and author Tammy Horn has a new bookDr. Tammy Horn, Harlan County native and beekeeper from Lexington, wears many hats, so to speak. One of those hats supports a bee veil. She first started keeping bees with her grandfather and is now keeper of his hives in central Kentucky. She used to wear a hat as a professor of English at Berea College - hence the title doctor, which indicates a Ph.D. degree. Her academic hat is now one that represents Eastern Kentucky University, where she is part of EKU’s Environmental Research Institute. Her section of the institute is the Coal Country Beeswork Project. I’m sure that many of you have heard Tammy speak about that program at some of the beekeeping schools around the state in recent years. She also wears a hat as author; her 2005 book Bees in America is an excellent resource on the history of American beekeeping.
I’ve often been a proponent of beekeepers sitting in front of the fire with a good book when the weather gets too cold for outside beekeeping chores. Well, the season and Tammy are providing us with the perfect combination! Tammy will be present at a special book signing, with copies available for sale, at 6 p.m. EST before the Bluegrass Beekeepers Association’s December 12 meeting at the Fayette County Extension office in Lexington. Additional information about upcoming book signings can be found at Tammy’s webpage. Posted by Phil Craft November 21, 2011, at 9:25 a.m.
More bee videosMore videos on the Web, but these are about Kentucky beekeeping. I ran across the first of these clips recently, then looked for and found the second. Many of you likely have seen these when originally broadcast on Kentucky Educational Television (KET) several years ago. But they are fun to see again and to share. In 2004, Kentucky beekeeper Ken Garman was featured on an episode of KET’s “Kentucky Life.” This is the episode that I first ran across. For many years, Ken has been one of our limited number of commercial beekeepers, selling most of his honey in bulk (five-gallon buckets). Ken is also active with the Green River Beekeepers and has always been very generous with offering advice to other beekeepers. I was happy to discover that we can go online and watch this video. It offers some real insight on what is like to be a Kentucky commercial beekeeper. Discovering the episode with Ken made me hunt for another “Kentucky Life” episode highlighting Kentucky beekeeping. This 2003 episode was filmed at the Walter T. Kelley Company in Clarkson and features Earl King, vice president of the Kelley Company; Hardin County beekeeper Tamara Heskett, and host Dave Shuffett. Incidentally, the hives we opened that day at Kelley belonged to Ken Garman (the Kelley company now has its own hives at the factory). (Viewing tip - Once the video starts, if you right-click on the video image and then click “zoom,” you can view the clip on “full screen” on your monitor. You also need to click “full screen.”) On April 21, 2012, a new beekeeping segment will air on “Kentucky Life” featuring host Dave Shuffett, Louisville beekeeper and Kentuckiana Beekeepers Association president Lori Jacobs and her husband Ted (also a beekeeper), and other Louisville-area beekeepers in an episode emphasizing urban beekeeping. If I don’t end up on the cutting-room floor, I expect I’ll be in the piece as well. I’ll do a promo for this show as we get closer to April. Posted by Phil Craft November 10, 2011, at 5:00 p.m. Video - "The Beauty of Pollination"Recently a colleague sent me a link to a short video called “The Beauty of Pollination” that had been placed on youtube.com. I have never before passed along a similar link to more than just a few people, but this one moves me to do so. Though honey bees are only part of the video, and it is even more than insects, it reminds me that I’m in the right profession. And it also evocates some of what I love about beekeeping – the sights, sounds and even smells in the bee yard. This short (4.5 minutes) video is footage from a longer, newly released documentary film entitled “Wings of Life” by filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg and produced by Disney Nature films. This film is said to follow in the footsteps of Disney founder Walt Disney’s 1948-1960 series of nature films (I’m old enough to recall watching some of those as a youngster). This film was released in France earlier this year, but I can find no information as to when it will be released in the U.S. The link above is from the TED website and is preceded by comments from the filmmaker at a TED (TED is a nonprofit corporation) conference. The TED website looks like an interesting site as well. Enjoy! Posted by Phil Craft November 7, 2011, at 5:00 p.m.
Final fall preparation and combining hivesWinter is almost upon us again. I hope your bees are ready. At this point, there is not too much that we can do. It is almost a case of “Ready or not, here it comes.” But there are a few things we can still do to help our hives better survive the winter. Today I’ll talk about combining hives. If you have procrastinated and not combined weak hives with stronger ones, you can still do that in Kentucky if you act soon. I’ll also talk about mouse guards and emergency winter feeding. Why combine weak colonies with stronger ones? If you have colonies that do not appear to be strong enough (sufficient bees) or have adequate food stores for the winter, these can be combined with stronger colonies to conserve the bees and food stores. You can also make marginal colonies more likely to survive. But avoid combining two weak colonies and ending up with one still-weak colony that is still not likely to make it through the winter. This will not do you much good. If you have multiple weak colonies, it may be better to combine them with multiple strong colonies and not to each other. To combine two hives, we use the newspaper method. To learn more about the “how to” of combining hives using the newspaper method, see my combining hives handout. If you have not installed mouse guards, now is the time. Those mice are looking for nice warm places to winter, and your hives are nice locations. We also call these entrance reducers since, by reducing the size of the entrance, mice cannot get into the hive. And yes, the bees will tolerate the mice even as they destroy comb and frames in the hive. You can use the wooden entrance reducers that often come with purchased hives or bottom boards, or buy various types from suppliers. And remember, their purpose is to keep mice out of the hive, not seal the hive for winter. If we think our bees do not have enough stored honey or sugar syrup to survive the winter, we still can do some feeding in Kentucky. As long as the feed is near the brood box, not outside in entrance feeders, during warm periods through the winter bees will continue to take sugar syrup. But as many of you have heard me say before, this is emergency feeding, with the negative side of adding moisture inside the hive during cold weather. We can also make “bee candy” or fondant for winter emergency feeding. (If you’re from further north, this is likely your only way of doing any winter feeding of bees.) See my handout Tips on winter feeding of honeybees elsewhere on this webpage for more information. Posted by Phil Craft November 3, 2011, at 5:00 p.m.
2012 Kentucky beekeeping school datesBetween January 21 and March 10, six regional, one-day beekeeping schools will be held in various locations in Kentucky. These schools will all include multi-session classes with topics of interest for all levels of beekeeping experience, including beginner classes for new and potential beekeepers. Beekeeping vendors will display and sell beekeeping equipment at all the schools. Additional information on these schools, including programs, pre-registration forms, directions, lists of vendors present, etc. will be added to this webpage in the coming months. • January 21: Eastern Kentucky Beekeeping School, Hazard • February 4: Allen County Beekeeping School, Scottsville • February 11: Southeast Beekeeping School, Whitley City • February 25: Northeast Kentucky Beekeeping School, Morehead • March 3: Audubon Bee School, Henderson • March 10: Bluegrass Beekeeping School, Frankfort Posted by Phil Craft November 1, 2011, at 11:40 a.m.
"Ooh, ooh that smell!" (In your beeyard?)Do you smell a funny smell in your beeyard? This time of year, I always get calls about a funny, funky (the smell of dirty socks?) odor detected in beekeepers’ beeyards and hives. So what’s that smell? It is most likely the smell of goldenrod nectar. While ripened goldenrod honey may be described as “strong” and so less preferred by some, it would not be considered a bad-tasting honey. But its raw nectar often produces a sour, perhaps unpleasant odor in the hive, which can even be detected throughout the apiary. This time of year, I always get calls and emails from panicked beekeepers who are convinced their hives are infected with American Foulbrood (a very serious honey bee disease) due to this smell. This year I’m observing, and beekeepers from across Kentucky are reporting, a particularly strong goldenrod nectar flow, and so I’m receiving more inquiries on this topic than normal. So are you smelling goldenrod nectar in your hives, or might you have a problem with this very serious disease called American Foulbrood (AFB)? The answer is in your hive. AFB (see http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=2882) is a disease of capped brood, and the simple observation that the capped brood in your hive is healthy brood will tell you that you do not have an AFB problem. Plus, it would take a very severe case of AFB to make smell an issue that would be detected outside the open hive (actually, I don’t know if I have ever smelled that AFB odor from outside an unopened hive). So most likely, this time of year that “smell” is goldenrod nectar. That’s indicative of a good thing, that your bees are putting lots of nectar into the hive. But if you have doubts, contact me. But I’m going to first ask you: “What does it look like INSIDE the hive?” Posted by Phil Craft October 14, 2011, at 3:00 p.m.
Varroa mite controlA recent BUZZ BRIEF discussed a new varroa control product (HopGuard) now available for use by beekeepers in Kentucky. This discussion will address the general topic of varroa control and different products available for this control. The seriousness of the problem of varroa cannot be overemphasized, and the learning curve of monitoring makes the decision not to treat our hives to control varroa in the fall a decision that is made with some risk. A number of years ago, beekeepers had very limited options when it came to chemical control of varroa mites, and there was great concern that varroa mites would become resistant to the only available chemical controls at that time (which they eventually did). In addition, there were concerns about detrimental effects on honey bees, including sub-lethal cumulative effects, as a result of long-term usage of these miticides. Hence, an emphasis on monitoring ensued, and beekeepers were urged to ONLY apply miticides to their hives if monitoring determined that treatment was necessary. Today, we have SEVEN products labeled for varroa control in Kentucky, which include several that I classify as low-toxicity chemicals, including thymol. Thymol is derived from the herb thyme, which we consume in our diet regularly. Thymol is also referred to as a naturally occurring chemical or a soft chemical. Negative effects on our honey bees are not considered an issue with thymol or other of this new generation of varroa control products. The concern about the development of varroa resistance to these products is also much lower due to their general mode of action upon the mites. My advice today is to urge beekeepers to consider a fall treatment for varroa mites UNLESS they have a monitoring program for varroa in place AND ARE CONFIDENT that their hives do not have a varroa mite problem. I further suggest that newer beekeepers treat in the fall for varroa since their inexperience makes monitoring difficult. Fall is the best time of the year to treat our hives for varroa due to the temperature requirements of the newer products. Fall treatment also allows our bees to go into the winter with reduced varroa numbers, which will aid in winter survival. For more information on these products, see my varroa control products handout. Posted by Phil Craft September 30, 2011, at 10:20 a.m.
Fall management: Helping our bees make it through the winterWhile it is possible for bees to prepare themselves for winter without the intervention of a beekeeper – feral colonies have been doing so for eons – with good management, beekeepers can make hives better prepared for the hardships of winter. And by doing our job as beekeepers, we can improve on the survival rates of managed colonies over that of unmanaged colonies (feral). So what can we do? The areas that experts agree are critical in honey bee colonies surviving through the winter are:
Details on these issues: Having a queen-right colony (having a viable queen) Do not worry about seeing the queen. The presence of eggs or even of young larvae is sufficient. They tell us that the queen was there and laying eggs very recently, and that is good enough. Seeing all stages of brood (eggs, larvae and pupae) is also an overall indication of colony health. Unhealthy colonies cannot easily rear lots of new bees. This time of year, I want to see a lot of brood in my hives. Having a strong colony population Having sufficient food stores
Most beekeepers in Kentucky maintain colonies in hives using two deeps as brood boxes. It’s easy to see from the above figures that a hive, with the top deep full of food stores, has close to sufficient food for the winter in the top box alone. But to know if your hive is increasing its food stores or has sufficient food stores, you MUST LOOK in your hives. On a recent check of my own hives in central Kentucky (early September), I saw an indication of the possible start of a good nectar and pollen flow. But conditions may vary, even over fairly short distances. So you MUST check your hives. Having healthy bees (as disease and parasite free as possible) We have a number of products available for the control of varroa mites (seven in Kentucky at this time). Varroa mites have developed varying degrees of resistance to two of these products: Apistan and CheckMitePlus. For this reason, I advise avoiding these products. There is a newer generation of varroa control products that are effective and safer for our bees. Contact me for more information on this topic. Fall is an excellent time of year to treat for varroa, but be wary of nonconventional treatment methods that are generally less effective. If you do attempt to control varroa by a method other than the application of a commercial varroa control agent, you must actively monitor varroa levels, both before and after treatment, to ensure that your varroa numbers are down. Nosema is a disease of the honeybee’s digestive tract caused by a micro-organism. It is controlled by the antibiotic fumigillin (now sold under the trade name Fumigillin-B), which is purchased in powder form and fed in sugar syrup. Treatment is accomplished by mixing one teaspoon of the antibiotic in a gallon of syrup and feeding it to our colonies. Feed one to two gallons depending on hive strength. Do not mix it in hot syrup, and avoid leaving the syrup in sunlight or using in an entrance feeder outside the hive because fumigillin degrades when heated. Fall feeding it is an excellent opportunity to control potential outbreaks of this disease. Fumigillin is the only proven way to control Nosema. Posted by Phil Craft September 12, 2011, at 11:25 a.m.
Read past Buzz Briefs posts. |
Tammy’s newly released book,
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