BeeLines State Apiarist Dr. Tammy H. Potter Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Ryan F. Quarles, Commissioner

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1 BeeLines State Apiarist Dr. Tammy H. Potter Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Ryan F. Quarles, Commissioner July 2016 JULY 1: ENTRY DEADLINE for the Kentucky State Fair Please look over the updated categories. If you are entering in the culinary categories, please keep in mind that all recipes have to be turned in with the product, and those recipes need to indicate how honey is used (ingredient, decorative glaze, etc.). People who want to sell honey at the Kentucky State Beekeepers Association booth have plenty of time to renew their membership and contact KSBA President Ray Tucker Jr. at KSBA president Ray Tucker extracts honey using frames from his own hives (he uses deeps in his supers). The demonstration was part of the program at the June meeting of the Lake Cumberland Beekeepers Association at the Pulaski Extension Office. More photos, page 2. (Imants Rizenbergs photo) By Ray Tucker Jr., KSBA President Fair, Fair Fair! Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, by saying the word three times, magically all the tasks will be okay. July is harvest month for beekeepers, and this is a reminder that KSBA needs honey from many different apiaries to sell at the fair. KSBA also solicits 240 jars (approximately 8 ounces for each jar with your individual label) to provide to the two commodity breakfasts at the fair. Please donate a jar or two to KSBA for the breakfasts while you attend the Heartland Apiculture Society, and give them to Tammy Horn Potter or me. We will finalize our State Fair plans this year at the Summer KSBA meeting Saturday, July 16, 1-4 p.m. at the Heartland Apiculture Society. The meeting will be held at Western Kentucky University in the Dero Downing Student Union. This is a business meeting in which we will look forward to the State Fair, and plan KSBA meetings and a proposed speaker list for the next two years. Your voice is an important part of KSBA! Beekeeper Education Events July 13: Kentucky Pollinator Protection Public Forum, Warren County Cooperative Extension Office Nashville Road, Bowling Green. The Forum will run from 7-9 p.m. CDT. July 14-16: Heartland Apiculture Society, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green. Please see the website for schedule, lodging, parking, etc: heartlandbees.org. July 16: Kentucky State Beekeepers Association Open Business Meeting, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green. Dero Downing Student Union. (See Ray Tucker letter, opposite.) July 25-29: Eastern Apiculture Society, Galloway, New Jersey. Linda Seber, Lake Cumberland Beekeepers, holds a jar containing approximately 50 drones she and Dorothey Morgan collected during the June 11 meeting at Purdue University of the newly forming Heartland Honey Bee Breeders Cooperative. More photos and details, page 3. Directions: wku.edu/dsu/union_parking.php BeeLines July

2 Beekeeping Expo Aug. 5-6 at Jenny Wiley, Prestonsburg Mark Aug. 5-6 for the Honey and Beekeeping Expo at Jenny Wiley State Resort Park s Wilkinson-Stumbo Convention Center in Prestonsburg, from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. EDT. The gathering will feature beginning and advanced beekeeping seminars from quality beekeeping experts, announces park staff member Trinity Shepherd. Local honey sales are planned. Beekeepers wanting to sell their honey may rent a booth for $25, Shepherd said. Kelly Beekeeping and Dadant & Sons will be there to sell supplies. Admission is $5. More: (606) or trinity.shepherd@ky.gov. Ray Tucker (Lake Cumberland Beekeepers Association) and daughter Rebecca harvest honey. LCBA s David Gilbert (left) and Tony Salyor. (Imants Rizenbergs photos) KSBA president Tucker harvests honey at Lake Cumberland Beekeepers meeting By Pat Rizenbergs, LCBA At the June meeting of the Lake Cumberland Beekeepers Association, at the Pulaski Extension office, LCBA member Randy Ison spoke on the dos and don ts of entering honey in the Kentucky State Fair. LCBA member Dr. Robert Morgan showed the components of his new flow hive and talked about how it is supposed to operate, as he has not put bees in it yet. Finally Kentucky State Beekeepers Association president Ray Tucker, assisted by his daughter, Rebecca, demonstrated how to extract honey using frames from his own hives (he uses deeps in his supers). There were three new beekeepers among the attendance of 37. We have given out more than 10 packets of beginning beekeeping information for new members so far this year. Register your farm with FSA to take part in USDA programs By Lindsey New USDA Farm Service Agency, Somerset Office Many USDA programs offered by the Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, or other USDA partners will require a Farm Serial Number during the course of your application. Registering for a farm serial number is easy to do; however, depending on the time of year and FSA s procedural timelines for processing farm reconstitutions (divisions or combinations of other farms or tracts) that might be needed to correct our records to the current ownership, we recommend that you don t wait until the last minute if you need a farm number for program enrollment. For owned land, FSA needs proof of ownership (a deed, land contract, proof of inheritance, or tax bill) to update our farm records. Any parcel of land at least.01 acre can be established as a farm in our records system. For example, even a backyard where hives are located could be established with a Farm Serial Number. It is possible, however, that certain programs may have separate rules about the size of farms required for participation. If a beekeeper has hives located on land they don t own, FSA adds the beekeeper to the existing farm records for that land as an other producer. Contact your local FSA office for more information. Lindsey New, County Executive Director FSA Somerset Service Center, 45 Eagle Creek Drive, Ste. 101, Somerset, KY (606) , Ext. 125 Fax: (855) BeeLines July

3 State Apiarist s Report: Heartland Honey Bee Breeders Cooperative holds initial meeting at Purdue University Join me July 16 to discuss mite biter genetics! By Dr. Tammy H. Potter, Kentucky State Apiarist Drs. Greg Hunt and Krispn Given at Purdue University have been organizing the Heartland Honey Bee Breeders Cooperative. Both men have been inviting people to bring their queens to Purdue University to have their virgin queens inseminated with mite-biter genetics. Most of us would agree that Varroa mites are still the number one risk factor for honey bees. Genetics, the best tool to combat mites, is a slow process. I attended the Queen Bee Insemination Event at Purdue more... State Apiarist s July schedule July 5: Little Sandy Beekeepers Association, 94 Fairgrounds Road, Grayson, 6 p.m. EDT. July 11: Powell County Bee Association, 169 Maple Street, Stanton, 6:30 p.m. EDT. July 13: Kentucky Pollinator Protection Plan Public Forum, Warren County Extension Office, 3132 Nashville Road, Bowling Green, 7-9 p.m. CDT. July 14-16: Heartland Apiculture Society, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green. See story, page 1. Visit heartlandbees.org. July 19, Bourbon County Cooperative Extension Office, 603 Millersburg Road, Paris, 6 p.m. CDT. July 21: Laurel County Beekeepers Association, 200 County Extension Road, London, 6 p.m. EDT. July 26-29: Eastern Apicultural Society, Galloway, N.J. (L-R) Dave Shenefield, Dorothey Morgan and Linda Seber of the Lake Cumberland Beekeepers Association prepare to collect drones at the Purdue Apiary. (Purdue photos: Tammy H. Potter, Dorothey Morgan and Linda Seber) Above left: The hands of Dr. Krispn Given prepare to glue RFID tags on the backs of inseminated queens. At right, Dr. Greg Hunt sits before a queen insemination station. (L-R) Dorothey Morgan, Jeff Berta, Bryan Mathie, Joe Kovaleski,,Linda Seber, Dwight Wells, Tom Pankonen; Dr. Krispn Given (seated center), and Dr. Greg Hunt. BeeLines July

4 Linda Seber of Lavender Lane Farms stands next to a towering sixframe beehive. State Apiarist s Report: (continued) and brought back two mite-biter bees for my personal bee yards. I brought back two queens for Neil Hunt (Pike County Beekeepers Association); Dorothey Morgan and Linda Seber (Lake Cumberland B.A.) brought back a queen for their apiary; and Kent Williams (Lake Barkley B.A.) will have some stock for his yard. Setting up a cooperative The Heartland Cooperative wants to promote conversation and mite-resistant queens among the regional states programs. If you are interested in being a part of this effort, please join me and a few others Saturday, July 16 at 7 a.m. CDT at the Western Kentucky University Student Union for a one-hour conversation over breakfast. The goal is for Kentucky to have a queen breeders cooperative composed of beekeepers committed to having diverse queen bee genetics, reduce the need for miticides, and promote education and outreach to beekeepers who want to develop their own queens. I don t want this conversation to conflict with the Heartland Apiculture Society program (hence, the early hour), but I want to take this opportunity to see if there is sufficient interest to organize a Kentucky group interested in breeding queens that show resistance to mites. Dwight Wells, Joe Kovaleski, Dan O Hanlon, Dr. Krispn Given and Dr. Greg Hunt will be attending the Heartland Apiculture Society meeting so if you can t make the breakfast, send me an and chat with them about the cooperative. * * * Long live the queen! (...?...well, here s another) This is normally the time of year I start encouraging people to re-queen. At least where my bees have been, the clover nectar flow subsides, and until goldenrod kicks in, this is a nice lull in the summer season. The primary reason I requeen in July is so the hive does not go queenless just as a plethora of trees bloom, plenty of pollen comes into the hive, there are plenty of workers, and there is not the competition for queens that happens in early spring, when the entire state seems to need them. However, many people dislike re-queening in the summer heat when the colonies are at their strongest, and the workers can refuse to accept a new queen if the beekeeper does not let the hive sit queenless for two days. In any event, this is a good time to remind beekeepers to consider re-queening, or at least getting a first-aid nuc established to overwinter in case a hive does go queenless during the winter and early spring months. * * * Organic is something you earn I have received several follow-up requests regarding honey labels. Folks would like to know more specifically about organic labels. The National Honey Board has posted several links regarding the organic certification process. A growing number of consumers look for the word organic on a label. Organic is not just an adjective, nor is it synonymous with natural. You can t just slap it on. The USDA has implemented a set of national standards that foods labeled organic must meet. The USDA Organic seal on a product indicates that a product is at least 95 percent organic. If you wish to produce or handle agricultural products that can be sold, labeled, or represented as 100 percent organic, organic or made with organic ingredients, your operation must be inspected by a USDA-accredited certifying agent. More information on becoming certified can be found on the National Organic Program website at ams.usda.gov/amsv1.0/nop. Organic labeling standards: ams.usda.gov/amsv1.0/ getfile?ddocname=steldev &acct=nopgeninfo. BeeLines July

5 is a beehive of activity! By Shannon Trimboli KSBA Webmaster It has been almost a year since I became the KSBA webmaster. Over that year, I have made many changes to the website, and I hope you are enjoying the new site. Over the past six months, we ve averaged over 7,000 views per month. I think the website can be a strong communication tool for KSBA and local beekeeping organizations, but I need your help. Please send me any beekeeping events that your club or organization is hosting. I will add them to the KSBA calendar, and if you send me a paragraph or two describing the event, I will create a news post about it. I can include pictures, schedules, registration forms, etc. in the news posts. You just have to send them to me. Links to the most recent news posts are featured on every page of the website, which will give your event even more publicity. I try to get events posted within 24 hours of receiving them, and rarely does it take more than three days for me to post an event. (Side note: I recently added a subscription option so you can get news posts automatically ed to you.) I ve also added an In the Media page to the website. My plan is to fill this page with links to articles and news clips about honey bees and beekeeping in Kentucky. Obviously, this is not something I can do on my own. I need everyone to help by sending me links to beekeeping-related media from your hometown. Please send links, events, comments, or suggestions to Shannon at grassyroadsfarm@shannontrimboli.com/ Bees swarm to sting like a bee mural at Muhammad Ali Center LOUISVILLE (WDRB-TV) There was a buzz around the Muhammad Ali Center that had nothing to do with the big crowds honoring the champ. That buzz was from a swarm of bees that decided to make a home in a tree outside the center in downtown Louisville. The swarm settled near a sign showing one of Ali s most famous quotes, saying he will float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. Many visitors paying tribute to the late world humanitarian felt it was no coincidence. Kevin McKinney from KSBA said he was humbled to get the call to remove the bees. Here are links to some of the worldwide publicity that was generated for him and KSBA. More: wdrb.com/story/ /swarm-of-bees-removedfrom-a-tree-at-muhammad-ali-center bbc.com/news/world-us-canada telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/06/thousands-of-bees-swarm-tomuhammad-ali-sting-like-a-bee-memoria/ cbsnews.com/news/muhammad-ali-bee-swarm-memorial-louisville/ Putting honey bees to work for veterans BATON ROUGE, La. (ARS) Honey bees may reduce stress and become a new business venture for those who have served in the U.S. military. That premise guides a unique partnership between the Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Laboratory and the Louisiana Armed Forces Foundation (LaAFF). The lab, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and LaAFF have introduced veterans to beekeeping at Baton Rouge workshops. While honey bees may sound like an odd stress reliever for veterans, beekeeping really interests veterans, according to LaAFF cofounder Jaye Townsend. People regularly say that working with honey bees is therapeutic and has potential as a business opportunity, Townsend said. Veterans with a wide variety of bee experience are participating in the workshop. One of the more experienced is U.S. Army veteran C.J. Oliver, whose family produces about 60 gallons of honey annually in Arnaudville, Louisiana. We [my family] see this workshop as a good learning experience, as we ve gone from hobby to secondary income to hopefully a full-time business one day, Olivier said. Photo & more: ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2016/ htm BeeLines July