Meck Bees Mecklenburg Beekeepers Association

Meets the 3rd Thursday of each month at 7 pm at

3100 Selwyn Avenue

(corner of Selwyn and Woodlawn)

Mailing address: 121 Hermitage Rd Charlotte NC 28207

704-358-8075

President -George McAllister

Vice President -Richard Flanagan

Treasurer -Libby Mack

Chaplain -Jimmy Odom

This Month’s Meeting/Program

Roger Simonds from the Gastonia USDA lab will come and talk about his work there at

the lab and how it impacts the knowledge we have about honey bees and CCD. It promises

to be an interesting evening.

This months refreshments are provided by

Libby Mack

May 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmosfUrmkL4

Here is a quick 30 second you tube of a local bee hive in the warm spring day . Take a look at it and stop by

http://wildthingsinabox.blogspot.com/ to see more updates on the happenings at one of our club members hives.

Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association

An elderly Texas couple were killed by bees this week after they apparently tried to remove the insects from a fireplace in a house on a remote ranch, the Valley Morning Star reported Wednesday.

William Steele, 90, died Monday in the house on a ranch outside Hebbronville, Texas, about 100 miles west of Corpus Christi. His wife, Myrtle Steele, 92, died Tuesday after she was flown to a Corpus Christi hospital, the couple's daughter-in-law, Judy Steele, told the newspaper.

Judy Steele told the paper that the bees swarmed when her father-in-law sprayed a hive the insects had built in the small home's fireplace.

Her husband, Richard Steele, was with his parents when the attack occurred, Judy Steele, told the Morning Star. He was also stung but was able to drive several miles to the nearest phone to call emergency ser-vices, she said. There is no cell phone service in the remote area, she said.

Jim Hogg County sheriff's deputies responded and told the paper they were able to get Myrtle Steele out of the house.

“We were getting stung in the process, but we were able to place a blanket over her and take her to an awaiting ambulance – we did what we could,” the paper quoted Deputy Reyes Espinoza as saying. Wil-liam Steele died inside, Espinoza said.

Judy Steele said her mother-in-law was stung more than 300 times.

Espinoza told the paper the species of bee involved in the attack had not been identified and the hive had yet to be removed from the house

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/20/swarming-bees-kill-elderly-texas-couple/?hpt=T2

Swarming Bees Kill Elderly Texas Couple

Visit our club’s website to see a mapping of swarms that local members have recorded

on a Google map

Go to www.meckbees.org click on the swarm list and see a detail of locations and

info on the swarms found.

Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association

Speakers for 2011 May Roger Simonds USDA Gastonia Lab research June—Samantha Gilbert Vibration Signals on the Nest site selection process July Wes Voight Marketing of Honey

Beekeepers Yearly Management Calendar for May

Install supers to hives. Periodic checks should be made during the honey flow to see if additional supers are

needed.

Astonishing Bee Facts

A normal honeybee colony will make up to four million flights a year, where about 100 flowers are visited in each flight. (Source: FAO.org)

In Northern Europe, it is estimated that 75 percent of all wild blooming plants depend upon insect pollination, and most of the flowers are pollinated by honeybees and bumblebees. (Source: FAO.org)

Lack of bees for pollination can mean a loss for the farmer of maybe 75 percent of the crop. (Source: FAO.org)

Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association

Honeybee Blues tells the story of the worlds disappearing honeybees and the efforts of Australian scientist Dr Denis Anderson to save them from annihilation. From the native bush and orchards of Australia to the industrial farmlands of the United States and the highlands of Papua New Guinea, Honeybee Blues is a scientific detective story that tells a 21st century cautionary tale. The European honeybee, or Apis mellifera, is used for commercial honey production and by a global pollination industry worth up to $100 billion. Without it we would lose a third of the worlds food supply. But honeybees are under threat from all directions. Industrial agriculture and habitat destruction have taken a toll but the biggest threat is a deadly parasitic mite which Anderson discovered and called Varroa destructor. It has decimated bee populations everywhere except Australia which is now the only country that still has European honeybees living in the wild. While in Papua New Guinea, Anderson discovers another lethal mite, Varroa jacobsoni, that adds to the threat to the worlds honeybees. Denis Anderson believes the solution to eradicating the Varroa mite lies in the genes of the honeybee. He is trying to switch off the honeybee gene that tells the Varroa mite to reproduce. If he succeeds, he could save the last of the worlds wild European honeybees from extinction. The film features observational sequences and interviews with biosecurity officers, bee exporters, pollinators and honey producers. Combining macro photography of the insect world, a lively blues soundtrack and animation sequences, Honeybee Blues tracks the incredible journey of the worlds oldest domesticated animal and its predators around the globe.

Honey Bee Blues http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF__ezaP3-0

For the past few years, there has been plenty of talk about Colony Collapse Disorder, a drastic and sudden depletion in the number of honeybee colo-nies in North America. In 2010, for example, the USDA estimated total honey bee losses to be about 34%, an astounding number. What is currently a huge headache for beekeepers could have an out-sized impact on the food chain if left unchecked. Honeybee populations affect crop yields because the insects are responsible for the pollination of hundreds of the items you expect to see at the supermarket, from apples to zucchinis. The economic impact has been frequently estimated to be as high as $15 billion annually.

Whether it's naturally occurring diseases, the effect of insecticides, the result of the monocultures necessitated by agribusiness, or something else altogether, attempts to arrest the colony collapse has become a readily employable metaphor for our unscrupulous stewardship of the environment on which we depend. Just in time for Earth Day, two films in about the issue offer the opportunity to learn more about the issue. The Vanishing of the Bees, screening as part of the Do Something Reel Film Festival at the Gene Siskel Film Center on Sunday, follows two commercial beekeepers as they struggle to maintain their bee populations and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S, with narration by Ellen Paige. In Queen Of The Sun: What Are The Bees Telling Us?, opening April 29 at the Music Box, The Real Dirt on Farmer John director Taggart Siegel lines up a host of experts and interested parties for a frank appraisal of the crisis and optimistic look forward.

The Earth Day Buzz:

Two Films About Bees

Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association President’s Buzzz

With swarm season in full force, I started reading Honeybee Democracy by Dr. Thomas Seeley an entomologist at Cornell University. The

book is based on many years of research by Seeley and others on what goes on when bees swarm. Since we are in the middle of swarm season,

chapter 3 caught my attention because Seeley describes what scout bees are looking for when evaluating a new home for the swarm. I don’t want to

lose a swarm coming from one of my hives, so if know what type of home is appealing, I might be able to lure the swarm into a box and save it. Who

knows, I might even attract a swarm from some distant colony.

When a swarm leaves the hive, they have no idea where they are going to ultimately reside. Once outside the hive the bees cluster and

begin the process of finding a permanent home. The bees must balance two conflicting interests; locate the best home and do it fast before starving.

How do they do it?

Initially, up to 300 scout bees leave the swarm to evaluate possible home sites. Each scout bee working independently and instinctively ex-

plores several possible locations. After exploring the landscape up to 5 miles away, the scout bees come back to the swarm and report their findings

using the wiggle dance. Other bees follow up on the recommendations and fly out to the potential sites and then report back to the swarm. Once

enough bees have evaluated the possible sites, the bees in the swarm come to a consensus and fly to their new home. All of this is done within a day

or two.

Since identifying the ideal home is so important to the survival of the swarm, what are the bees looking for? In one 1975 experiment Seeley

dissected 21 existing bee trees under the assumption that given a choice bees will select the best site available. Seeley wanted to see if there were

any similarities in the sites bees chose.

Seeley discovered bees did not prefer any particular tree but there was a preferred cavity size. The average nest cavity was 42 quarts in

volume with an average diameter of 8 inches and 60 inch height. This size is one-fourth to one-half smaller than the typical volume beekeepers provide

their bees living in Langstroth hives. By comparison, a Langstroth deep brood box has a volume of roughly 44 quarts.

Nest entrance configurations showed similarities in both size and location. There was typically one entrance located near the bottom of the

cavity with an opening between 2 to 5 square inches. The bees preferred to be high in the trees with entrances 21 feet off the ground on average. Most

entrances faced towards the south.

Potential home site characteristics that did not impact site location were the shapes of the cavity and entrance. Drafty and damp conditions

were not an issue if the bees determined these issues could be easily resolved.

To test preferred home site characteristics, Seeley built 252 plywood boxes and varied the preferred characteristics to see which locations

swarming bees selected. Besides designing swarm boxes based on nest volume, distance from the ground and entrance opening, direction and loca-

tion, Seeley added wax comb to several of the boxes. He distributed the plywood boxes in a county wide area and measured the results for two years.

Each year over half of his 252 plywood boxes attracted a swarm. Yes, it’s worth repeating; over 50% of his boxes attracted a swarm. This study using

252 plywood boxes supported Seeley’s 1975 findings with the addition of wax comb as an additional attractant.

Years after the studies mentioned were conducted, scent lures that mimic the pheromones scout bees secrete to mark a desirable home site

have appeared on the market. A recent study done by the US Department of Agriculture found a swarm box with the scent lure is 5 times more likely to

attract a swarm.

Now that I know what swarms are looking for when choosing their ideal future home and the success Seeley had with his swarm boxes, I

plan to hang one of two swarm boxes in my yard. I had rather the swarms come to me rather than have to chase them around the neighborhood or not

be around when a hive swarms. Just another project to add to my list.

Have fun with the bees,

-George

Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association

Close-up photo of one of my black Russian queens James Henderson Commercial Beekeeper Golden Delight Honey, LLC.

One of our newest members to the Mecklenburg County Beekeepers

Perhaps the most significant of all the single crops affecting honeybees in the United States is the California almond. California is the world’s largest producer of almonds, and it takes 1.3 million beehives — each populated by tens of thousands of bees — to pollinate them, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Migratory beekeepers, who move truckloads of hives from state to state to pollinate seasonal crops, converge in California every year in early spring. Oregon State University honeybee researcher Ramesh Sagili believes that’s a problem. He is studying bee nutrition, and preliminary results show drastic effects when bees are restricted to just one type of pollen at a time — specifically, almond pollen. There’s no question that almonds need bees. “Without bees, there are literally no almonds,” Sagili said. But the enormous almond crop may be harming bees. Honeybees, Sagili said, ordinarily will gather some six or eight different types of pollen in any one season. Bees require 10 different amino acids, he said, and if one is lacking from one particular type of pollen, they rely on getting it from another. The hive workers that forage for pollen don’t eat it. They take it back to the hive, where it is consumed by nurse bees, who process it into food for the larvae. Rich in protein, pollen plays an essential role in larvae development. In California today, the almond crop covers hundreds of thousands of acres. There is nothing else for either the honeybees or native pollinators to gather. “There’s nothing else in bloom. Maybe a few weeds,” Sagili said. “So we are restricting the diets of honeybees, and several other types of bees as well.” To test that theory, Sagili took a couple of hives to the California almond fields, fitted out with a mesh the bees had to climb through that knocked the pollen off their legs and into a drawer below. “We collected 20 pounds,” he said. He brought it back and fed it to a hive enclosed in a flight cage, to ensure the bees had no access to any other pollen source. In another cage, he fed a control hive a more typical honeybee diet. He then took samples from each hive, over several weeks, and dissected them. The results were dramatic. Bees from the diet-restricted hive produced a less protein-rich food for the larvae and had substantially reduced immune systems. The colony grew more slowly than the control hive. “It was a huge difference we saw. These bees which are feeding on a single pollen source are not doing very well,” Sagili said. Further studies are planned, he said, and he plans to look at other pollen sources as well, including pollen from Oregon’s blueberry crop.

How California Almonds May Be Hurting Bees

Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association

It’s Harvest Time!

We have the following equipment available for extracting honey:

9 Frame Extractor (manual) • Uncapping tank • Bucket with valve Electric uncapping knife Capping Scratcher

The charge is $5 per day to borrow the extractor with 2 day minimum

You will want to use your own filters and food-grade plastic buckets.

To reserve the equipment:

Go to the club’s website www.meckbees.org and under the “Beekeeping Resources” tab select “MCBA Extractor Reservations”. If you have any questions contact George McAllister at geomcallister@hotmail.com or call 704-579-1169 When you pick up the equipment, take an envelope and card to mail in your payment. Return the equipment promptly, clean and dry. Mail your payment in the envelope provided.

With the growth of the club, there is heavy demand for the extractor in the sum-mer months. When you get the equipment, please return it promptly so the next person on the list can get it. Thanks!