Phil Veldhuis: Beekeeper / Philosopher Phil Veldhuis, Apiarist

Transcription

1 Phil Veldhuis: Beekeeper / Philosopher Phil Veldhuis, Apiarist

2 Overview Me. Bee Diversity. Pollination. Bee Problems CCD Issues & Solutions. Questions.

3 Beekeeping Past Grandparents: Rupert and Ruth Vane (circa 1937)

4 Beekeeping Present Honey Marketing BeeMaid Honey Member Since 1993 St. Norbert Farmers Market Since 1991 Family Farm Operation Approx 1000 Hives. 150,000 lbs Annual Production.

5 Bees: More then Honey European Honey Bee Apis Mellifera Approx 5 other species of Honey Bee About 19,500 described species of bee. Estimates of 1-10,000 undescribed species.

6 A general Guide to bees. Social organization. Solitary: ex. Bumblebee Most are ground dwelling. 95% of species. Gregarious: ex. Leafcutter Most are ground dwelling or forest cavities. Social: ex. Honeybees Forest cavities or Human spaces.

7 Another way to think of bees. Specialist: Pollinates a single or few species. Co-evolution. Plants have often evolved to rely on specialized pollination. Advantage to plant. Bee carries pollen directly to next flower. Advantage to bee: less foraging competition. Generalist: Pollinates many different species. Doesn t rely on a single species. Less efficient pollination. Good pollination for large stands of plants. More competition.

8 Most seed and fruit bearing plants require pollination by bees to produce their seed. Sometimes honeybees are not the best pollinator. Pollination

9 The Alfalfa Leafcutting Bee Manitoba s production of Alfalfa Seed declined during the green revolution. Research by Cam U of M. Decline in Pollination by local species. Caused by 2 factors: Chemical pesticides. Destruction of Habitat.

10 Leafcutter Bee Management Techniques were developed to manage populations of the Leafcutting bee. Megachile rotundata Introduced species. Asia Minor. Accidentally introduced to N. America. Cannot overwinter in Canada. These domes provide an artificial habitat for leafcutter bees. They are not hives. Considerable expense and effort is required to replace something that was once supplied by nature.

11 Protecting plant species Requires many different types of bee. Not all bees can pollinate all flowers. Size. Large Bee can t get into a small flower Timing in year. Most species emerge seasonally. Range. Most bees forage close to their nest.

12 Problems: Is The Sky Falling? MEDIA: Hives are disappearing Bees are disappearing. Lots of economic and anecdotal evidence. Not just honeybees. My Local news experience.

13 Some history: Introduced Pests Trachea Mite: Acarapis woodi Introduced to North America 1984 Infects respiration ducts of bees.

14 Introduced Pests 2 Varroa Mite: Varroa Jacobsoni Destructor. Introduced to North America Introduced to Canada by 1991 despite restrictions on bee imports from USA. Varroa evolved as a pest of a different species of bee: Apis Cerana, commonly called the Asian Bee. Sometime in the last 30 years they adapted to parasitize Western bees.

15 Nosema Unicellular parasite: Nosema Apis Now classified as a fungi. Present throughout the world. Infection of adult bees by ingesting spores, usually while trying to clean the hive. Nosema Cerana Similar parasite of the Asian bee (Apis Cerana). First observed in 2005 in Taiwan. Old samples in N. America contain Nosema Cerana.

16 CCD (colony collapse disorder). Symptomatic Description. Honeybee colonies undergo rapid depopulation. Full populations to nothing in a few weeks. No large accumulation of dead bees around hives. A typical of toxic cause. Other honeybees seem to avoid dead hives. Viable brood (young bees) indicates recent strong health and viable queen bee. Highly contagious. Many hives infected in same apiaries.

17 Theories Cell phones. Pesticides. Enviromental Stress. Beekeeper Practices. Feeding Moving.

18 Lastest Findings Scientists from the U.S. Army and the University of Montana implicated the dual threat of an invertebrate iridescent virus, or IIV, and fungi called Nosema. (AP) We truly don t know if these two pathogens cause CCD or whether the colonies with CCD are more likely to succumb to these two pathogens, Jerry J. Bromenshenk of the University of Montana. [AP]

19 Problems in other species. Depopulation. Reduced numbers of many common pollinators. Suspected causes: loss of habitat, toxicity, Extinction. Many species have not been observed in recent years. Some species are specialized to habitats that are extinct.

20 Bees are more prone to Extinction Genetic Scheme: Haploid / Diploid. Males are clones of their mothers. Sex determination by gene, not by chromozone. Less genetic diversity. Less fertility: about 25% of males are not viable. Require Increased populations to be sustainable. Laurence Packer (York University). Keeping the bees (2010).

21 Bees are early warning system Bees will decline faster, sooner then rest of environment. Monitoring Bee Declines will catch problems earlier then watching other species.

22 My Environmental Responsibility. No one is perfect. Accept that I m part of the problem. Modern Beekeeping is energy intensive. A lot of fossil fuels. Significant efforts and inputs to control disease. What I am doing now. Solar heating of wintering building Biological control of Varroa Mite.

23 Wintering Building

24 Inside Wintering Building

25 Inside Wintering Building, Red Lights.

26 Inside Wintering Building, Lights On

27 Wintering Building Controls Temperature controlled at 5C Solar Heating Exhaust Air Heat recapture. Cooling by Ventilation Alarm System Calls my cell if: Lights on Power off Above 7C Below 2C Decibels above 50. Smoke Alarm CO2 Alarm

28 Thermal Recycling Exhausted Air = 5C + Air ducted through Radiators Fluid piped to radiant heat tubes in floor. Result: Floor temp = Air temp.

29 Solar Heating Thermal Solar Panels Heat radiant tubing whenever temp in panel is greater then temp in floor.

30 Biological control. Manipulating Hive components is very labour intensive. Each honey box weighs 50 lbs when full. About 5 5 This is where the queen and young bees are. Access to this brood chamber is necessary for biological control.

31 Some quick biology. Drones are male bees. Drones have little value to a beehive. Honeybee colonies produce drones only at times when mating flights are likely. Spring and summer. Drone larvae develop more slowly then worker bees. Varroa Mites prefer parasitizing drone larvae. When available, most mites will be on drone brood.

32 Tower Beekeeping Drone Removal as Varroa Control Pros: effective, cheap, constant, Food-Safe. Cons: Impossibly Laborious. Credit: Robyn Underwood et Al. U of M student now at Penn State Dept of Ag. A Modified Two-queen System: Tower Colonies Allowing For Easy Drone Brood Removal for Varroa Mite Control: Science of Bee Culture (2009).

33 Findings The tower colonies went into the fall with much lower varroa mite populations than the control colonies. The tower configuration allowed for easy removal of drone brood, allowing this cultural control method to be used without added labor. We recommend the use of this system as part of an integrated varroa mite control program.

34 How it works (for me) Hives mounted in pairs on pallets. Operated as independent hives Aug- Late June.

35 How it works (for me) 2 Each Hive has drone pattern plastic frame (green frames). Located in the #3 outside position.

36 Tower Config. Beginning Honey Flow. Excluder inserted ½ on each hive.

37 Tower Config. Supers Added Drone Frame easy access. Scrape Drone Frame each days.

38 Add 5 Frame nuc lids to exposed brood chamber and regular lid to the supers. Tower Config.

39 Supers Added until 1 st Honey Take-off. Late July/Early Aug. Drone Frame Scraped. Restacked as Regular hives (facilitates moving). Tower Config, cont

40 Will it work? Results so far: Varroa in test hives below Economic Threshold. Control hives above economic threshold. Test hives left untreated by any means. Will They Survive?

41 Goal: Live hives in Spring Actual Mite Levels only an indicator of success. Real test winter survival.

42 What can you do? Most bees require very small habitats. small measures will matter. Don t mulch your garden: leave exposed earth. Grow indigenous flowering plants. Diversify your Garden. Don t overuse pesticides. Many bees live in urban centers. 100 species in urban Toronto. Leave dead woody material in your yard. Dead tree branches Raspberry Canes

43 Thank you Beekeepers have lots of other problems too! We can fix things, but it takes energy and time. Truck. Ditch. 40,000 lbs honey.