Tag: bee health

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Honey Bee Health Coalition Varroa Management

Varroa Management

Honey Bee Health Coalition Varroa Management

Honey Bee Health Coalition Unveils Videos to Help Beekeepers Combat Devastating Parasites

Videos Complement Coalition’s Tools for Varroa Management Guide, Provides Step-By-Step Demonstrations of Utilizing an Integrated Pest Management Strategy of Monitoring and Treatment

KEYSTONE, CO, Nov. 28, 2016 — The Honey Bee Health Coalition released a series of videos today to help beekeepers promote colony health and combat costly and destructive Varroa mite (Varroa destructor) infestations. The videos can be found …

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Honey Bee Tracheal Mites: Gone? But not for Good

Authors: Philip A. Moore, Michael E. Wilson, John A. Skinner
Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN
Originally Published: August 4, 2015

Introduction

The honey bee tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi) was first described in 1921 by Rennie, who believed the mite was the cause of the Isle of Wight Disease, after dissecting infected honey bees (Apis mellifera) from colonies on the island off the coast of England (Henderson and Morse 1990). Between …

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2017 Bee Health Webinar Series: Ensuring Crop Pollination in US Specialty Crops

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This webinar series will provide an overview of pollination requirements and strategies to ensure pollination of different specialty crops. Farmers and gardeners rely on crop pollinators, including honey bees, alternative managed bees like the blue orchard bee, and wild bees. Pollination experts will discuss how to support these pollinators in almond, blueberry, tree fruit, pumpkin, and watermelon. Webinars will take place on selected Tuesdays at 11a.m. Pacific time, noon Mountain time, 1 p.m. Central time, 2 p.m. Eastern time.  Registration …

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Integrated Crop Pollination

What is Integrated Crop Pollination?

Integrated crop pollination is the combined use of multiple pollinator species, habitat augmentation, and crop management practices to provide reliable and economical pollination of crops. Pollinator species can include managed honey bees, alternative managed bees, and many different types of wild bees. Habitat augmentation refers to adding floral and nesting resources to farms (e.g. wildflower strip, meadows, and hedgerows). Crop management practices that support pollination include modifying pest management practices to reduce risks to pollinators, …

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What crops do not require honey bee pollination?

Honey bees improve, or supplement, pollination for most plants they visit. However, honey bees are considered negligible pollinators for the following crops: soybean, peach, field beans, snap beans, tomato, corn, cotton, peanuts, pecans, canola, and alfalfa. In cases like these, the plant is either independent of insect pollination in general or dependent on other pollinators. – Keith Delaplane, University of Georgia…

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How are queen bees raised and mated?

There are many methods of raising queen bees, but the central tenant of queen production is that a fertilized egg may be reared into a queen or worker depending on the food it receives as a larva. In general, a beekeeper specializing in queen production sets up special colonies (e.g., “starter” colonies) that are queenless. Young larvae are transferred, or “grafted,” from selected breeder colonies into man-made queen cell cups. The grafted larvae are placed into the starter colony where …

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What is the basic life cycle of the fungus, Ascosphaera apis that causes chalkbrood disease in honey bee colonies?

Spores of the fungus are ingested with the honey bee larval food. Larvae are most susceptible if they ingest spores when they are 3 to 4 days old and then are chilled briefly 2 days later, immediately after they are sealed in their cells to pupate. The spores germinate in the hind gut of the bee larva, but mycelial (vegetative) growth is arrested until the larva is sealed in its cell. At this stage, the larva is about 6 or …

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Why do newly installed packages of bees seem to abscond more than well-established hives?

The difference between a newly installed package of bees and an established hive has to do with the comb (an established have has drawn the comb out and has stores and brood) and the existence of brood in an established hive. Between the drawn comb and the presence of brood bees are very likely to stay put. Installing a package is usually pretty simple and successful. NC State Cooperative Extension has a series of Beekeeping Notes, one of which is …

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Does honey have nutritional value?

Honey consists primarily of glucose and fructose (both are carbohydrates) and 17-18% water. Unlike other sweeteners, honey has trace vitamins and minerals including calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, niacin, pantothenic acid, phosphorus, potassium, riboflavin and zinc. Antioxidants are also found in honey. Flavanoids and phenolic acids found in honey act as antioxidants scavenging and eliminating free radicals. Darker honeys tend to have higher quantities of antioxidants. Honey also makes an effective antimicrobial agent for treating sore throats and other bacterial …

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