Apiology

The study of honeybees...

The behavioral regulation of thirst, water collection and water storage in honey bee colonies

This study investigated how a honey bee colony develops and quenches its collective thirst when it experiences hyperthermia of its broodnest..

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Home sick: impacts of migratory beekeeping on honey bee (Apis mellifera) pests, pathogens, and colony size

Honey bees are important pollinators of agricultural crops and the dramatic losses of honey bee colonies have risen to a level of international concern. Potential contributors to such losses include pesticide exposure, lack of floral resources and parasites and pathogens.

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Population growth of Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae) in honey bee colonies is affected by the number of foragers with mites

Varroa mites are a serious pest of honey bees and the leading cause of colony losses. Varroa have relatively low reproductive rates, so populations should not increase rapidly, but often they do.

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Busy Bees Take a Break During Total Solar Eclipses

The 2017 North American eclipse gave researchers an inside look at how bees respond to light—with the help of a few hundred elementary-schoolers.

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Pollen trapping and sugar syrup feeding of honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) enhance pollen collection of less preferred flowers

Honeybees are well adapted to collect and transfer pollen and thus are the most commonly used crop pollinators.

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Catch the Buzz

General Beekeeping News...

Beekeeping in Vermont...

Draft Guidance for Industry: Declaration of Added Sugars on Honey, Maple Syrup, and Certain Cranberry Products

The purpose of this draft guidance is to advise food manufacturers of our intent to exercise enforcement discretion related to the use in the Nutrition Facts label of a symbol immediately after the added sugars percent Daily Value information on single-ingredient packages and/or containers of pure honey or pure maple syrup and on certain dried cranberry and cranberry juice products that are sweetened with added sugars and that contain total sugars at levels no greater than comparable products with endogenous (inherent) sugars, but no added sugars.

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New Zealand's highest rate of colony loss

South Canterbury beekeepers have faced a challenging summer with drought and the varroa mite impacting hives.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) released its Bee Colony Loss Survey report for 2017 on March 16, which sampled 30 per cent of New Zealand beekeepers to determine the rate of hive loss and the main reasons for it.

MPI aquatic and environment health manager Dr. Michael Taylor said a severe drought for the middle of the South Island last year was the leading contributor to the jump in colony loss.

The drought's main impact was causing nectar and pollen sources to deplete, leading to bees dying from starvation, Taylor said.

For the middle of the South Island, encompassing Canterbury and the West Coast, the loss was 11.4 per cent compared to 7.2 per cent in 2016.

Pleasant Point Apiaries beekeeper Paul Bartrum said, however, the varroa mite - a parasite that attaches to bees and sucks fat from them - has been the main killer of his South Canterbury hives because the mites are gaining a resistance to treatments.

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CATCH THE BUZZ : 16 Grants to Address Declining Pollinator Health.

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2018 -The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, a nonprofit established through bipartisan congressional support in the 2014 Farm Bill, today announced 16 grants totaling $7 million for research to address declining pollinator health, an ongoing threat to agricultural productivity in the United States. The FFAR awards are matched by more than 50 companies, universities, organizations and individuals for a total investment of $14.3 million toward research and technology development.

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CATCH THE BUZZ: Why Do Bees Sting?

Researchers have unraveled the neuro-molecular mechanism of defense by honey bees when exposed to the sting alarm pheromone that they release in the face of a threat.

The team of researchers led by Prof. Martin Giurfa from the Universite de Toulouse in Toulouse, France has found that smelling isoamyl acetate, the main component in the alarm pheromone, increases the level of serotonin and dopamine in their brains, which, in turn, increases the stinging behaviour in bees and thus repels a threat. By itself, the alarm pheromone does not behave as a stimulus but increases the likelihood of bees guarding the hive to repel a threat by stinging.

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What's bugging our bees?

There are approximately 20,000 bee species in the world and 1,600 species in California. Despite this diversity, honey bees are still arguably the most important managed pollinator, and this brief overview willfocus on issues plaguing this charismatic insect. However, many of the same stressors are certainly affecting other pollinator populations. In agriculture, honey bees are used for pollinating numerous food plants that make our diets more exciting and nutritious, including many fruits, vegetables and nuts, and they are a crucial contributor to healthy ecosystems.

However, beekeepers in the past decade have been reporting annual honey bee colony losses that have reached 45%, which is more than double the acceptable loss deemed by beekeepers.

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Effects of oxalic acid on honey bee larval development

In 2015 oxalic acid was approved by the EPA for use as a pesticide for mite control in the United states (Reinhold, D). The mite Varroa destructor feeds on the hemolymph of immature and adult honeybees causing deformed wings in developing bees and reduced lifespan in adult bees (Ellis, J. 2010).

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