Vermont Beekeepers Association

Apiology

Apiology – (from Latin apis, "bee"; and Ancient Greek -λογία, -logia) is the scientific study of honey bees.

Queen cells acceptance rate and royal jelly production in worker honey bees of two Apis mellifera races

Royal jelly (RJ) is an acidic yellowish-white secretion of worker honey bee glands, used as food material of worker bee larvae for the first three days and queen bee larvae for the entire life. It is commercially used in cosmetics and medicinal industry in various parts of the world.

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Making honey without bees and milk without cows

It's not unusual for vegans to miss certain foods. What is unusual, though, is Mr Mandich's solution: to create a type of honey, identical to the natural kind in every molecule, but produced without involving any bees at all.

More: VeganHoney

Early-life experience affects honey bee aggression and resilience to immune challenge

arly-life social experiences cause lasting changes in behavior and health for a variety of animals including humans, but it is not well understood how social information ‘‘gets under the skin’’ resulting in these effects.

More:Early Life

Altering social cue perception impacts honey bee aggression with minimal impacts on aggression-related brain gene expression

Gene expression changes resulting from social interactions may give rise to long term behavioral change, or simply reflect the activity of neural circuitry associated with behavioral expression.

More:Social Cue Perception

A model of infection in honeybee colonies with social immunity

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) play a significant role in the pollination of various food crops and plants. In the past decades, honeybee management has been challenged with increased pathogen and environmental pressure associating with increased beekeeping costs, having a marked economic impact on the beekeeping industry.

More: Infection

Testing the effect of pollen exine rupture on metabarcoding with Illumina sequencing

Pollen metabarcoding has received much attention recently for its potential to increase taxonomic resolution of the identifications of pollen grains necessary for various public health, ecological and environmental inquiry.

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A Look into the Cell: Honey Storage in Honey Bees, Apis mellifera

Honey bees, Apis species, obtain carbohydrates from nectar and honeydew. These resources are ripened into honey in wax cells that are capped for long-term storage. These stores are used to overcome dearth periods when foraging is not possible.

More:Honey Storag

Beekeeping in Vermont

In Memory of Bill Taft

Longtime Vermont beekeeper Bill Taft died on December 21, 2020. Bill Taft at the South Yard

For close to 40 years, Bill was an accomplished and committed beekeeper, and he would help anyone at any time.

When the South Yard workshops were revived seven or eight years ago, Bill was co-instructor, and his beekeeping experience and wisdom had a positive effect on hundreds of students.

Above all, Bill was a quintessential Vermonter, somewhat of an endangered species these days; and he will be missed.

Details: Last Updated: 23 December 2020 23 December 2020

The Potential of Propolis in the Fight Against Covid-19

(A version of this article first appeared in the November 2020 issue of Bee Culture)

As I sit down to write this article some 900,000 people have died world-wide as a result of Covid-19. The disease is associated with the development of pneumonia, serious breathing problems as the lungs fill with fluid, and heart failure.

The United States leads the rest of the globe in Caronavirus related deaths, with the American death toll at 190,000 and climbing. We have less than 5 percent of the world’s population but have experienced over 20 percent of the world’s Covid-19 deaths despite being the country with the most expensive and supposedly best health care system in the world.

In the midst of this dire situation comes a review of the healing properties of propolis and its potential use in treating Covid-19 that appears in the November issue of Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy. We already know that propolis ramps up the immune response of honey bees when they are exposed to pathogens, but now it appears increasingly likely that propolis may be able to do something similar for us humans.

Details: Last Updated: 31 October 2020 31 October 2020

The Beauty of Black & White

Black and white photography can force you to focus on the subject without the distraction often brought by color.

Details: Last Updated: 20 October 2020 20 October 2020

Winners Announced

Jarvis

VBA members attending our first virtual annual meeting last Saturday were eligible to be entered into two contests.

in the random drawings, Jim Jarvis won a one-year extension to his VBA membership for his honey label. (We requested members submit labels to share their designs. They will be posted in a gallery on the website shortly. Jim's label is at the right.)

Judith Graves is the winner of our other contest. She receives a pair of VBA beer mead glasses which will be shipped to her.

Congratulations to both winners!

Details: Last Updated: 19 October 2020 19 October 2020

VBA Updated By-Laws Approved

Members attending the Vermont Beekeepers Association's virtual "summer" meeting this past Saturday, October 17th, approved changes to the organizations by-laws to include, among other things, a new Member-at-Large director seat. That seat is being filled by new-to-the-board Laura Johnson.

The updated by-laws are available online for review.

The VBA's new leadership roles are being fulfilled by these volunteers:

President: Andrew Munkres

Vice President: Jeff Battaglini

Treasurer: Richard Roy

Recording Secretary: Fred Putnam

Membership Secretary: Darci Benoit

Director At Large: Laura Johnson

Immediate Past President: Jack Rath

State Apiculturist: Brooke Decker

Advisory Board Members: Bill Mares, Mike Palmer, Chas Mraz, Samantha Alger, Greg Smela, Kim Greenwood

Details: Last Updated: 19 October 2020 19 October 2020

Meet Darci Benoit

Darci Benoit is VBA's new Membership Secretary seat. She was nominated to replace outgoing secretary Scott Wilson.

I started beekeeping in 2013 and made many many mistakes. Thankfully I learned from those mistakes by listening to the successful and helpful beekeepers around me in the bee clubs. I currently operate a small apiary at my home which partially supplies my bee themed gift shop - Bees on Broadway which I run part time when I am not working my "real job" as a paralegal. I live in Swanton with my husband of 15 years, our daughter, dog, 3 cats, 8 chickens and many bees.

Details: Last Updated: 17 October 2020 17 October 2020