Last
week 4 beekeepers sued the EPA for the agency’s lack of action against
insecticides that are linked to CCD. From the increasing twitter on social
media about neonicotinoids and bee loss, it seems this lawsuit has been a long
time in the making. Interestingly, around the same time these insecticides
started gaining attention, Bayer came out with a program to support bee health.
Bayer produces the neonicotinoids which currently
coat a majority of all corn seed planted in the U.S. Personally, I think it
will be quite interesting to see what happens in this lawsuit.
In many places around the world, especially the Middle
East and China, honey that is sold is often not 100% pure. Because honey is so
sweet, many honey sellers in these areas will add corn syrup or another similar
ingredients to dilute pure honey to make a larger profit. Because honey is so
sweet, added ingredients are easily masked by honeys’ sweetness. Last year (I
believe it was in Saudi Arabia) several honey packers were outed for these
practices. Many consumers in the Middle East purposely look for U.S. honey
because they know they are getting pure honey.
The frame is what holds the honeycomb in the body of the
hive (the hive body is what beekeepers call “supers”). They are simple wood
constructions, many times bought as 4 pieces of wood that the beekeeper can
easily put together. The frame is the part of the hive that is movable. The
frame can be removed from the hive so the beekeeper can check for disease or
mites on the bees or remove excess honey. Hives without ‘movable” features like
frames are illegal in the U.S. since there is no way to inspect the health and
wellness of the bees.
Urban beekeeping is a growing trend in many populated areas. It is a
debated topic because many people fear bees, but also I have read articles
suggesting that putting bees in cities is bad because there are not enough
pollinating plants for the bees to survive off of. When I talked to Davey about
this, his answer was quite simple. He explained that bees will eat whatever
they need to survive. They really aren’t around to be pests, they are simply
trying to get some free food (kind of like a lot of people I know!)
Now that pollination season is underway, there have already been reports of hive thefts. Beekeepers take their bees into orchards to pollinate crops and their hives go missing. Hive theft is a big problem that has gone on for years and unfortunately with the large bee losses that are occurring, it seems they might get even more common. Even hives that are clearly marked have been stolen. Some beekeepers have GPS chips in their hives to track them if they go missing, but that is another expense that beekeepers must consider. It seems like this might be the only way to recover lost bees.
Introducing a new queen can be a
challenging task. Naturally, when a hive feels it needs a new queen, they
simply create one. The “virgin queen bee” will kill the current queen and take
her spot. A ‘hive-created’ queen bee will have less pheromones than an imported
bee a beekeeper buys, making it simpler for the hive to adapt and accept her.
When a beekeeper transplants a new queen bee in a hive, the beekeeper may
separate her from the worker bees so that they gradually adapt to her foreign
scent. Also, a beekeeper can use peppermint oil in the hive which helps to
dilute the pheromones of the new queen so the hive will adapt to her better.
