Meck Bees Mecklenburg Beekeepers Association

Transcription

1 Meck Bees Mecklenburg Beekeepers Association Meets the 3rd Thursday of each month at 7 pm at 3100 Selwyn Avenue (corner of Selwyn and Woodlawn) Mailing address: 121 Hermitage Rd Charlotte NC December 2011 President -George McAllister Vice President -Richard Flanagan Treasurer -Libby Mack Chaplain -Jimmy Odom This Month s Meeting/Program Our Annual Potluck Dinner is this month. Bring a dish to share as we break bread and talk about this past year of beekeeping. Remember that everyone is invited, both members and their families. Spend an evening with us as we share a meal and talk about our bees. During the meeting we will vote on the recommended changes in the By-Laws and hold elections for the 2012 officers. This months refreshments are provided by All of us We will also hold our annual honey swap during the December meeting. Bring a jar of honey to swap with your fellow bee club members. Scientists Revive Indigenous Honey Bee SHIMLA: With a view to promote cost effective traditional beekeeping and increase pollination through indigenous honey bees, entomologists and apiculture scientists at the Dr Y S Parmar University of forestry and horticulture, Nauni in Solan have devised low cost technology beehives made from locally available material and are creating awareness and providing training to farmers for reviving the retreating indigenous honey bees and adopt apiculture as profession. One such project of the varsity is being carried out at horticulture station of the varsity at Seobag in Kullu, wherein efforts are being made to revive traditional beekeeping and the indigenous honeybee. Scientist and expert of apiculture at the Nauni University, Dr J K Gupta said: " Native honeybees (Apis cerana) have been playing a key role in the mountain ecosystem by enhancing agricultural productivity as they are a natural pollinators for a range of fruits and crops. The survival rate of indigenous honeybees is higher, as compared to the exotic species (Apis mellifera, which were introduced in the hills in 1962) as they are better adapted to the harsh climate and the yield is more as well as cost of maintaining them is also less."

2 Killing Them with Kindness? In-Hive Medications May Inhibit Xenobiotic Efflux Transporters and Endanger Honey Bees David J. Hawthorne *, Galen P. Dively Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America Honey bees (Apis mellifera) have recently experienced higher than normal overwintering colony losses. Many factors have been evoked to explain the losses, among which are the presence of residues of pesticides and veterinary products in hives. Multiple residues are present at the same time, though most often in low concentrations so that no single product has yet been associated with losses. Involvement of a combination of residues to losses may however not be excluded. To understand the impact of an exposure to combined residues on honey bees, we propose a mechanism-based strategy, focusing here on Multi-Drug Resistance (MDR) transporters as mediators of those interactions. Methodology/Principal Findings Using whole-animal bioassays, we demonstrate through inhibition by verapamil that the widely used organophosphate and pyrethroid acaricides coumaphos and τ-fluvalinate, and three neonicotinoid insecticides: imidacloprid, acetamiprid and thiacloprid are substrates of one or more MDR transporters. Among the candidate inhibitors of honey bee MDR transporters is the in-hive antibiotic oxytetracycline. Bees prefed oxytetracycline were significantly sensitized to the acaricides coumaphos and τ-fluvalinate, suggesting that the antibiotic may interfere with the normal excretion or metabolism of these pesticides. Conclusions/Significance Many bee hives receive regular treatments of oxytetracycline and acaricides for prevention and treatment of disease and parasites. Our results suggest that seasonal co-application of these medicines to bee hives could increase the adverse effects of these and perhaps other pesticides. Our results also demonstrate the utility of a mechanism-based strategy. By identifying pesticides and apicultural medicines that are substrates and inhibitors of xenobiotic transporters we prioritize the testing of those chemical combinations most likely to result in adverse interactions.

3 B e e ke e p e rs Ye a rly Ma nagement C ale nd a r for D e c e mb e r Re duc e the hive e ntra nc e to 3/8 inch to preve nt mic e from getting in the hive s Speakers for 2011 Dec Potluck Dinner Jan 2012 David Tarpy Coming Out of Winter Feb?? Astonishing Bee Facts To the 19,200 species of bees on this planet, a researcher named Jason Gibbs at Cornell University has just added 11 more, all of them from the Eastern United States. More interesting still, four of the bee species come from New York City and its immediate environs.

4 BEE SCHOOL I S COM I NG Plans are coming together for the 2012 Beginner Bee School. Watch your box and for announcements soon. Tell your friends and neighbors about the upcoming school. Most people who come to bee school say they heard about it from a friend. If you want to register for Bee School, don t send in the Dues form elsewhere in this newsletter, but wait and pay for dues and school all at one time. You can register for school at the December monthly meeting or by following the instructions in the bee school announcements. Questions? Libby mack.bees@gmail.com The Urban Beehive was developed as part of Philips new Microbial Home project, a self-sufficient closed-loop home concept that also features items like a methane digester and a plant-based effluent (read: toilet) filtration system. It's a design concept, so it s not exactly coming to a Home Depot near you. But it could, and maybe it should. The Urban Beehive has two parts that attach to your apartment window: A white frontispiece with a flower pot and a small hole for bee entry, and an orange-hued glass inverted teardrop mounted inside your house. This way you can see the bees at work, and access their honey via a small spigot. The glass teardrop has an array of honeycomb frames for bees to build their wax cells, like existing honeybee colony kits do. The shell is orange to help the bees navigate, and there s a small hole for the urban beekeeper to release smoke inside, should the hive ever need to be opened (smoke chills out the bees). The city benefits from the bees pollination work, and your apartment benefits from fresh honey and the pleasing effect of watching bees, Philips says.

5 MeckBees Honey Swap What do we bring? What do we get in return? How will this work? Does size matter? Will my honey be judged? When are we swapping?

6 DUES DUES DUES DUES DUES DUES Yes it's that time of year, time to renew your membership in our county association, and if you're not yet a member of the North Carolina State Association, consider joining up there too. Both organizations deliver great value for your membership dollars, so support your beekeeping associations. Mail this form and your check made out to Mecklenburg County Beekeepers to Mecklenburg County Beekeepers 121 Hermitage Rd Charlotte NC Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association Please Print Clearly Name Adress City State Zip Phone Send newsletter via (thanks!) paper Number of hives: Today's Date Membership Year 2012 County Association $5 I am a New Member Renewing Member State Association $15 I am a New Member Renewing Member Total Payment

7 It s Harvest Time! We have the following equipment available for extracting honey: 9 Frame Extractor (manual) Uncapping tank Bucket with valve Electric uncapping knife Capping Scratcher The charge is $5 per day to borrow the extractor with 2 day minimum You will want to use your own filters and food-grade plastic buckets. To reserve the equipment: Go to the club s website and under the Beekeeping Resources tab select MCBA Extractor Reservations. If you have any questions contact George McAllister at geomcallister@hotmail.com or call When you pick up the equipment, take an envelope and card to mail in your payment. Return the equipment promptly, clean and dry. Mail your payment in the envelope provided. With the growth of the club, there is heavy demand for the extractor in the summer months. When you get the equipment, please return it promptly so the next person on the list can get it. Thanks!

8 President's Buzzz Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association During our November meeting Jimmy Odom spoke about his early beekeeping experiences. Jimmy relived his experiences in such a vivid manner you would have thought he was talking about something that happened to him last week. Not only were his stories amusing but he wove in what he learned from his experiences. Jimmy s talk reaffirms how our involvement with bees introduces us to interesting people and takes us places we normally would not go. As I listened to Jimmy I thought back on some of my early beekeeping experiences. I initially learned beekeeping from my grandfather who also taught apiculture at NC State University. My grandfather taught me how to collect swarms and remove bees from houses to fund my beekeeping hobby. To launch my business I visited the police department and asked them to refer any calls about bees to me. As luck would have it, a few weeks earlier several policemen responded to a call about a swarm of bees and received several stings. The police chief told me they were not equipped to handle bees and not wanting a repeat performance they were more than happy to add me to their database. The following Sunday the police called asking me to remove a swarm from a store downtown. This was my first job and I was eager to get started. When I arrived, 6 police cars with their lights on were parked in front of the store. The policemen remained in their cars no doubt reflecting on what happened to their fellow officers a few weeks earlier. Not wanting a repeat performance, the only policemen outside their cars were several hundred feet away. I pulled up next to the police cars with their flashing lights and saw a big swarm of bees hanging under the front door awning to an adult bookstore. Through the store windows I could see the owner frantically waving his arms and several customers nervously pacing around. I walked up to the closest police car. The police officer inside lowered his car window about an inch and asked if I could get the bees and then quickly rolled his window back up. I shook my head confirming I was up to the challenge and went to my car to get my equipment. It didn t take long to remove the bees from the doorway releasing everyone from inside. The owner was relieved the ordeal was over and offered me anything in the store I wanted as payment. About the same time a policeman walked up having heard the conversation and asked how old I was. I responded seventeen. The owner immediately said he didn t know I was underage. He then told the police officer he was a law abiding citizen who paid his taxes. Wanting to unite my bees with their new home, I left wondering where my next call would take me. Now flash forward to this fall. A fellow bee club member asked if I would help him move his bee hive across town. His bees were in a vacant lot across the street from his house. The lot was being sold so he had to move the bees. We planned to move the bees over the weekend after it got dark. As we were leaving the vacant lot a police car pulls up and aims his spotlight on us. Apparently, a neighbor called the police reporting two men in white overalls wearing hoods entering a vacant lot. With bees clinging all over us, the policeman decided it was not in his best interest to get out of the car. The police officer lowered his car window about an inch and asked what was going on and then quickly rolled his window back up We offered to show him what we were doing but he gracefully declined and drove away. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Have fun with the bees, -George