Apiology

Apiology – (from Latin apis, "bee"; and Ancient Greek -λογία, -logia) is the scientific study of honey bees and is a look at recently published articles curated by Vermont Certified Beekeeper Scott Wilson.

Influence of Pollen Nutrition on Honey Bee Health: Do Pollen Quality and Diversity Matter?

Honey bee colonies are highly dependent upon the availability of floral resources from which they get the nutrients (notably pollen) necessary to their development and survival. However, foraging areas are currently affected by the intensification of agriculture and landscape alteration.

Pollen Nutrition

One Health, One Hive: A scoping review of honey bees, climate change, pollutants, and antimicrobial resistance

Anthropogenic climate change and increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) together threaten the last 50 years of public health gains. Honey bees are a model One Health organism to investigate interactions between climate change and AMR.

More:OneHealth

Effect of comb age on cell measurements and worker body size

The honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) mainly use beeswax (comb) for brood rearing and food storage. Changes in the color and cell dimensions occur due to repeated food storage and brood rearing in the comb.

More:Cell Size

Giant hornet (Vespa soror) attacks trigger frenetic antipredator signalling in honeybee (Apis cerana) colonies

Asian honeybees use an impressive array of strategies to protect nests from hornet attacks, although little is understood about how antipredator signals coordinate defences.

More:MURDERHORNETS

Honeybee Social Distance in Colony to Combat Parasitic Attack; Study on Ectoparasite Varroa Destructor Exposure Shows Anti-Transmission Behavior

Honeybees experience a threat every day when they reside in an uncontrolled environment. Very much like what humans do today, the bees perform a social distancing whenever they detect an incoming parasite and the risk it brings.

More:SocialDistance

Epidemiology of Nosema spp. and the effect of indoor and outdoor wintering on honey bee colony population and survival in the Canadian Prairies

The epidemiology of Nosema spp. in honey bees, Apis mellifera, may be affected by winter conditions as cold temperatures and differing wintering methods (indoor and outdoor) provide varying levels of temperature stress and defecation flight opportunities.

More:Canadien Winter

Evaluating toxicity of Varroa mite (Varroa destructor)-active dsRNA to monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) larvae

Varroa mites (Varroa destructor) are parasitic mites that, combined with other factors, are contributing to high levels of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony losses.

More:Varroa Toxicity

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.

More:Royal Jelly

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

Beekeeping in Vermont

Beekeeping in Vermont

If You Missed our Mite Management Workshop...

VBA Recording Secretary and Certified Beekeeper Fred Putnam presented a Zoom workshop on mite management techniques yesterday. Despite some technical difficulties we recorded it and have made it available on the VBA website. The workshop included a pre-recorded video at one of Fred's apiaries demonstrating an alcohol wash. We've edited the recorded workshop to include the original video so the replay is of a higher quality - we encourage you to view it if for no other reason than to learn how to do an alcohol wash.

The documentation mentioned in the workshop is also available at www.vermontbeekeepers.org/mites.

VBA Statement on American Foulbrood

VBA Recording Secretary Fred Putnam wrote the following document that describes how the Vermont Beekeepers Association is addressing American Foulbrood in Vermont.

We want to address concerns about American Foulbrood (AFB) in two ways:

The broader perspective about AFB in Vermont along with what is being done specifically.
Provide information to help you identify AFB in your own colonies.

Read more ...

AFB Reported in Bristol

Brooke Decker
Pollinator Health Specialist
State Apiculturist
Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets

American Foul Brood Announcement

August 12, 2020

American Foul Brood (AFB) Paenibacillus larva has been confirmed at an apiary located in Bristol, Vermont.

The multiple hives and associated equipment have been destroyed by fire by the beekeeper. The remaining colonies are under quarantine and enhanced inspection protocols.

Beekeepers should remain diligent in their hive inspections. Weak, declining, or dead-out hives should be closely examined for scale and clinical symptoms of AFB, before being reused.

Samples of comb, bees, brood or larvae can be sent to the USDA Beltsville Laboratory in Maryland, for analysis.

Enhanced cleaning protocols should be adopted after inspections of colonies suspected of any disease or pathogen, especially AFB. Regularly sterilizing your hive tool, gloves, smoker, and clothing is a recommended best practice for all beekeeping operations.

Any suspect findings of AFB must be reported immediately to Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets-

Brooke Decker
Pollinator Health Specialist / State Apiculturist
802-272-6688

Extracting Your Honey Crop

You're finishing your first successful beekeeping season and now it is time to learn how to harvest your honey crop! Join VBA Vice President Andrew Munkres, of Lemon Fair Honeyworks as he shares his expertise. We suggest you register early as this is a popular workshop.

Note: We are still working out details on how we present this workshop. It may be a live video program on Zoom or part of it may be pre-recorded then presented by Andrew who will take questions during the Zoom call. In any event, we will announce details as they become known. Since this workshop is being arranged on short notice we wanted to give you the opportunity to register for it as soon as it was scheduled!

Last Night's AMA Online

We've posted the recording from last night's AMA Zoom meeting where we discussed AFB and how it is being managed, along with a number of interesting topics. Take a listen (login required) and sign up for the next one...

AFB Reported in Hinesburg

Brooke Decker
Pollinator Health Specialist
State Apiculturist
Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets

American Foul Brood Announcement

July 30, 2020

American Foul Brood (AFB) ) Paenibacillus larva has been confirmed at an apiary located in Hinesburg, Vermont.

The multiple hives and associated equipment have been destroyed by fire. The remaining colonies are under quarantine and enhanced inspection protocols.

Vermont Bee Lab is Open

The Vermont Bee Lab is happy to announce that we are now open and ready to receive samples. We are currently offering tests for Varroa mites and Nosema.

Samples can be dropped off or mailed.

For more information on collecting and submitting samples, check out our FAQs on our website and view our video: