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Contents
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w w w . am e r i c anb e e j our nal. c om
Editor-K irsten T raynor Advertising Manager-Marta Menn
Publishing Department- Dianne Behnke & Susan Nichols

A H on eye d G r eek
C h r i st ma s F ea st — 1 3 3 1

T h er e’ s A New B uzz i n DC
K ar e n N i e ls on L or e nc e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 7 5
● B ug P h ob i c t o B eeke ep er
Suza nne D . C ohe n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 7 7
Not es f or t h e L a b : T h e L a t est B ee S ic en e c Di st i lled
Sc ot t M c Ar t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 8 3
T h er e’ s A New B uzz i n DC — 1 2 7 5
Articles

● T a xe s f or B eeke ep er s i n 2017
H ow ar d Sc ot t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 8 7
M i so ur i o J i n s t h e Na t i on a l H on ey B ee Di se a e s S ur ve y L et t er s t o t h e

Departments
C har lot t e E kke r W i g g i ns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 9 5 Ed i t or . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 5 9

● H i ve of S ic en ce f or B ees: New sn ot es . . . . . . 1 2 6 3
R ep or t F r om a n In t er n a t i on a l P olli n a t or W or ksh op
Ali s on M c Af e e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 9 7 B eeke ep er s—T h e
Va r r oa P r ob lem—P a r t 13 U— is n g t h e M i t e M od el Next G en er a t i on . . 1 3 1 0
R andy O li v e r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 0 3
Classified
● C a n B eeke ep i n g S a ve a L i f e? A d ve r t i si n g . . . . . . 1 3 4 1
M alc om T. Sanf or d. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 1 7
H on ey’ s M a g i ca l P ow er : F our W a ys t o S la y M i cr ob es 2017 Y ea r En d
R us t y Bur le w . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 2 5 In d ex . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 4 5
● A H on ey ed G r eek C h r i st ma s F ea ts A d e v r t i si n g
T’ L e e Solle nb e r g e r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 3 1
In d ex . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 5 0

Columns
T h e C la s s r oom F or t h e L ov e of B ees a n d B eek eep i n g
Je r r y H aye s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 6 9 K e i t h D e lap lane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 1 3

H on ey B ee B i olog y F i eld G ui d e t o B eek eep i n g

W yat t A. M ang um . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 8 9 Jam i e E lli s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 2 1

December Cover Picture

American Bee Journal ISSN 0002-7626
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December 2017 1251

December 2017 1253
December 2017 1257
1258 American Bee Journal
 Letters to the Editor
F I R ST Y E AR BE E K E E P E R S
Hello:
My husband and I are first year
beekeepers. We live in the Washing-
ton, DC area and have a weekend
place in West Virginia. We set up
two beehives in the spring of 2017
at our place in WV. There’s a small
stream nearby and more wildflow-
ers all spring, summer and fall than
you can imagine. I’m including a
photo from the end of September
of one of our bees busily harvesting
pollen from daisy fleabane.
We’ve had our ups and downs
this first year. For example, at one
point we installed a queen excluder
in one of the hives only to discover
a few weeks later that we’d ac-
cidentally “excluded” the queen
above the excluder! Oops!
Learning about the incredibly
complex world of honey bees has
been very interesting and reward-
ing. We’re now focused on getting
them through the winter. We at-
tended a honey bee lecture in Min-
nesota put on by the University of
Minnesota “Bee Squad” who said
that bees don’t freeze during the
winter - if they die it’s because they
ran out of food. For someone from
Photo by Bryan Burnett
December 2017
Send your letters to the editor, Attn: Kirsten Traynor, Dadant, 51 S. 2nd Street,
Hamilton, IL 62341, Fax: 1-217-847-3660, or email: kirsten@dadant.com.
Due to size and content, we may be unable to publish all information received. Thank You!
Minnesota to say that bees don’t
freeze was a huge relief to me. I’m
from Minnesota originally, and I
know first hand how harsh and
long the winter is there. So our bees
should be just fine (temperature
wise) in West Virginia!
Thank you,
Roxanne Rothschild
AR TI F I C I AL I N TE L L I G E N C E
F O R H O N E Y BE E H I V E S
We wanted to share with your
readers that we are currently run-
ning a Kickstarter online fundrais-
ing campaign to raise funds for
our electronic beehive monitoring
project.
We all know the threats facing
bees and beekeepers today. It was
the 2013 Time magazine cover “A
World Without Bees” and the ac-
companying article that first stirred
me to consider how I as a computer
scientist and a beekeeper could help
improve the health of bee colonies.
Our electronic beehive monitor,
called BeePi, is based on the hy-
pothesis that in the future signifi-
cant practical and scientific benefits
will come from transforming our bee
yards into smart worlds. Think of a
beehive as an immobile robot that
monitors the health of the bee col-
ony inside, analyzes the data from
its sensors, and alerts the beekeeper
of any deviations from the norm
through the Internet of Things.
To make this vision of beehives as
intelligent immobile robots a reality,
we need terabytes of good quality
data collected over multiple years
and at multiple locations. We need
this data to develop automated di-
agnostic bee health models. In other
words, the BeePi system is all about
putting artificial intelligence (AI)
into beekeeping.
BeePi is a multi-sensor electronic
beehive monitor all of whose com-
ponents fit in a standard Langstroth
shallow or medium super. While
there are other electronic beehive
monitors available today, BeePi is
unique, because it uses computer vi-
sion and video analysis to estimate
forager bee traffic levels. Another
unique feature is sensor fusion, be-
cause the system combines informa-
tion extracted from video, audio,
and temperature signals to make
estimates of the beehive’s health.
All BeePi hardware components are
completely off-the-shelf.
We assembled and tested the first
pilot version in September 2014. In
2015, we tested two units for two
weeks. Then in 2016, we tested a
total of four units (two each at two
different bee yards) for approxi-
mately two months. This year we
have been running four units in four
beehives (two each at two different
yards) since early May and have col-
lected 125GB of video, audio, and
temperature data.
We are continuing our fundrais-
ing campaign until it officially ends
November 14, 2017. Since we have
raised enough money to assemble
several more monitors to deploy in
the next beekeeping season, thanks
to the generous support of our Kick-
1259
starter backers, we would like to
raise funds to support Utah State
University student research assis-
tants on this project.
Student research assistants are
vital to the success of this project.
They help to design, assemble, test,
and repair the monitors. They assist
with data collection and analysis,
develop software algorithms and
hardware designs, and co-author re-
ports, conference papers, and jour-
nal articles.
It is important to note that this
project benefits the wider beekeep-
ing community. Students, who
otherwise would not be aware of
beekeeping, are introduced to the
challenges faced by the beekeeping
industry. Beekeeping receives wider
exposure through the project’s open
source hardware and software and
scientific publications. For example,
our first scientific conference paper
on BeePi won a best paper award
at the 2016 IAENG International
Conference on Computer Science in
Hong Kong.
Thank you for taking the time to
consider our BeePi project’s fun-
draising campaign. The project’s
Kickstarter URL below provides
more information about the project,
including videos, photos, hardware
diagrams, software repositories, and
project updates.
We look forward to receiving
feedback and suggestions from bee-
keepers everywhere. All donations
are greatly appreciated. Donors of
$40 or more can receive a reward –
a project t-shirt (see photos on the
Kickstarter URL below) – by mail
(U.S. mailing addresses only).
The project’s URL is: https://www.
kickstarter.com/projects/970162847/
beepi-a-multisensor-electronic-
beehive-monitor. You can also go to
www.google.com and type “vladi-
mir kulyukin kickstarter” to find the
project’s URL.
Sincerely,
Vladimir Kulyukin
H O N E Y BE E O N
N E W E N G L AN D ASTE R S
Here is a cool pic that I took this
week of one of my girls on my New
England Asters. I like it because of
1260
Honey bee on New England Asters
her visible full pollen pouch and a
bit of wing tattering. I was able to
watch this girl feast on the fall as-
ters and then carry her heavy pay-
load back to the hive, just across the
yard, the weight of her bounty keep-
ing her a bit slow and low.
Best,
Connie Young
TH E BE E K E E P E R S O F
I N D I AN A P AR TN E R I N G
W I TH P U R D U E
The Beekeepers of Indiana (TBoI)
wanted to help the relief effort of
those impacted by Hurricane Har-
vey. We were told it would take
thousands of dollars to make an
impact, but that didn’t stop us. We
felt if everyone could do a little, it
would all add up. So we partnered
with Purdue to extract two buck-
ets of honey from their hives, TBoI
donated the 12 oz bears and labels
and our volunteers filled them up.
We ended with 131 cute little bears
of honey.
The Midwest Food Bank in In-
dianapolis, Indiana has sent 11 semi
loads of Disaster Relief boxes to
those affected by Hurricane Harvey
and their next semi included the
honey donated by Purdue and The
Beekeepers of Indiana. We can all
BEE Generous
W ATE R F O R BE E S
As hobbyist beekeepers we strug-
gled for several years to find a suit-
able watering device for our bees
since we don’t have a reliable natu-
ral water source close by. There’s
an intermittent stream next to our
bee hives but it stops flowing in late
spring. There’s a large pond about
half a mile away as the crow flies (or
should we say, as the bee flies...) but
if that’s what they were using, we
wanted to give them a closer source.
Bird baths were not a good option
because they were knocked over by
wild animals in the past. So, first,
we tried a solar powered fountain
- it worked initially but then the
fountain part stopped working, and
the mosquitoes laid their eggs in it.
Next, we tried a chicken waterer
with marbles placed in the trough
to prevent bees from drowning. But
before the bees found it, raccoons
and/or bears kept knocking it over,
spilling the water and the hun-
dreds of marbles. Then, taking the
tip from letters to editor by Tibor
Csincsa and Eric Krouse in 2016
American Bee Journals, we filled the
same waterer with peat moss and
put in the fenced garden area. It
was used for several weeks but only
by a very few bees. Determined not
to give up, we tried another device
— a hanging jar waterer for birds
that we found online: Perky-Pet
Mason Jar Wild Bird Waterer. And
it’s been a terrific hit with the bees!!
It worked so well last year that we
American Bee Journal
bought another one this year. We
fill the waterers with our well water
which is not treated with anything,
and they are located about 40 yards
from the beehives. We already had
a metal pole to hold bird feeders
during the winter and now it holds
the waterers in the summer, a win-
win for all involved.
For those who decide to purchase
the watering jars for their bees, we
have a few tips:
1. If your hives are on your prop-
erty, keep the jars close to your
Waterer - 2 jar
Waterer - 1 jar
Waterer - close-up
December 2017
house, in a place that you can see
them every day - ours are outside
of the kitchen window. Part of
this summer was so dry that we
were amazed how quickly the jars
needed to be refilled. That said,
it was never a regular schedule,
sometimes it took them 2 weeks
to drink it all, sometimes one
week, and only 3-4 days during a
dry heatwave. And that schedule
will be different depending on
how many bees/hives you have.
So by seeing the jars every day
you will know when they need
to be filled and thus guarantee a
constant supply of fresh water. A
bonus is the ability to observe the
traffic - bees landing and taking
off as often as planes at JFK. We
love it.
2. Put several sticks in the trays for
easier landings, more drinking
spots and less chance of drowning.
3. Don’t be alarmed if a few birds
join the party - we have an Ameri-
can Goldfinch that comes every
few days for a quick drink and
neither species seem to mind the
other.
Gosia and David Liedlich
Southbury, CT
1261

New s
Not es
C O AL M I N E R S SH I F T TO BE E K E E P I N G
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE RESEARCHER HELPS
ESTABLISH SOCIOECONOMIC GROWTH PROGRAM
FOR DISPLACED MINERS IN WEST VIRGINIA
University of Delaware
Former coal miners or citizens whose lives have been
shaped by the coal mining industry in southern West
Virginia spent their summer learning how to establish
and operate bee colonies thanks to help from the Uni-
versity of Delaware’s Debbie Delaney.
Delaney, associate professor of entomology in UD’s
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, spent
her summer in Summers County working as a con-
sultant through Appalachian Headwaters which is a
non-profit organization that formed the Appalachian
Beekeeping Collective. Delaney said that the goal was
to help get the socioeconomic growth program up and
running for displaced miners in 14 counties in southern
West Virginia.
“We got about 500 nucleus colonies or nucs, which
are small colonies of bees, and a queen and all summer
we’ve been erecting bear fences and creating bee yards
so we can grow the colonies over the season and get
them through the winter,” said Delaney.
Beginning next year, local partners will come on
board and get hives which will be a way for them to
generate income.
Delaney said that how much income will vary de-
pending on what kind of forage is available during
University of Delaware’s Debbie Delaney is helping for-
mer coal miners learn a new trade -- beekeeping.
Credit: University of Delaware
December 2017
that time of year--and that since the initial installation
began after foraging season, they have had to feed the
bees a lot to get them up to weight to make it through
winter.
“Typically, I’d say in that area of West Virginia, if
they do things right, they should be able to get close to
200 pounds [of honey] off of each hive,” said Delaney.
The way the program operates, the local partners
will get the colonies, pull their honey off and bring it
to the experts at the Appalachian Beekeeping Collec-
tive to extract.
“I’ve been helping them design a big honey process-
ing building that will be able to process 100,000 pounds
of honey and then we will bottle it, we’ll market it and
we’ll sell it to a higher end community,” said Delaney.
“We’re not just selling the honey but also a story which
is really cool.”
Kate Asquith, program director at Appalachian
Headwaters, said that starting a beekeeping opera-
tion can be a risky and expensive endeavor and they
wanted to help the first-time beekeepers get over those
hurdles.
“This is a way to make sure that they’re getting as
much profit from their beekeeping as they can,” said
Asquith. “Our hope is that we can help people get a lot
more money for the work that they’re doing and Deb-
bie is a really big part of all of it. She’s been a wonder-
ful piece of helping us plan out the program.”
Appalachian Beekeeping Collective is headquartered
at an old camp that was once owned and operated by
coal mining companies that saw thousands of kids of
coal miners go through the camp from different min-
ing states.
“These people are so tied to this place. When I was
there over the summer, at least twice a week somebody
would drive by and say, ‘I went to camp here 50 years
ago. This place means so much to me’ so it’s a really
special spot,” said Delaney. “There’s so much rich his-
tory there.”
Because the people are tied to the land and invested
in the history of the area, Delaney said that it made
sense to get them involved in beekeeping.
“They’re native and they’ve been there for genera-
tions and they know every mountain, every hill has a
name even though it might not be on a map. Because
they’re so tied to the land, this operation had to be
something that was sustainable and that was also very
connected to the environment and beekeeping is defi-
nitely both of those things,” said Delaney.
The area also has a rich history of beekeeping as Del-
aney said she would find antique beekeeping equip-
ment at area flea markets.
“Everybody’s grandfather had bees. It’s because it’s
all hardwood forests there, which all produce nectar
and pollen and so it’s a really good area for beekeep-
ing, really high quality forage. I think both of those
things make it ideal,” said Delaney.
The plan is for those beekeepers to keep their own
apiaries but get bees raised by the Appalachian Bee
Keeping Collective.
“We’re trying to raise a strain of Appalachian honey
bee that is mite resistant and that’s a big piece of what
1263
Debbie is doing,” said Asquith. “She’s really skilled
with natural beekeeping methods and has been a really
big help for us.”
Asquith said that the first class of beekeepers, who
will be trained over fall and winter, will number around
35 but next year the program will ramp up to include
85 beekeepers.
For the first-time beekeepers, Delaney said that the
biggest challenge is going to be overcoming the fear of
being stung.
“They’re going to be working with an insect that
stings and learning the social behavioral cues of a col-
ony, to read them, to know when they need to apply
smoke or how much protective clothing they should
wear; just learning to feel comfortable around them so
that they are safe and that the participants can work
them safely,” said Delaney.
L U R I N G H O R N E TS: SC I E N TI STS
U N L O C K SE X P H E R O M O N E O F
N O TO R I O U S H O N E Y BE E P R E D ATO R
TRAPS BAITED WITH SYNTHETIC
PHEROMONE COULD BECOME SOLUTION
TO INVASIVE ASIAN HORNET
Over the past decade, Asian hornets, predatory in-
sects with a widespread and expanding population,
have invaded parts of Europe and Korea. Vespa velu-
tina has a growing reputation as a species that prolifer-
ates rapidly, preys on honey bees and poses risks to
humans.
Now a biologist at the University of California San
Diego and his colleagues in Asia have developed a so-
lution for controlling Asian hornets derived from the
insect’s natural chemical mating instincts.
As reported in Scientific Reports, UC San Diego’s
James Nieh and researchers at the Chinese Academy of
Sciences and Yunnan Agricultural University discov-
Asian hornet attacking an Asian honey bee. Photo by Ping Wen
1264
ered the identity of the sex pheromone of V. velutina.
Further, they developed a method of controlling Asian
hornets by luring males into traps baited with synthetic
versions of the pheromones.
“We have successfully tested the key sex phero-
mone compounds of this species and the results show
that males are highly attracted to them,” said Nieh,
a professor in UC San Diego’s Division of Biological
Sciences.
Asian hornets attracted by sex pheromone caught on the sticky
trap. Photo by Ping Wen
Nieh noted that recently Turkey and Balkan nations
have been invaded by Asian hornets, with much of
Western Europe at risk. A single hornet can bite and
kill hundreds of honey bees in its quest to obtain honey
bee larvae. European honey bees have not evolved
with this deadly predator and have poor defenses. As
a result, “the European economic impact is high,” said
Nieh, and “major colony losses have led some beekeep-
ers to abandon apiculture.”
Nieh noted that Asian hornets are difficult to con-
trol because their colonies can spread rapidly and their
nests are difficult to find in non-urban areas. They pose
dangers to humans with stings that are painful and, in
rare cases, deadly.
Pheromones are chemical signals that transmit in-
formation between members of the same species. Sex
pheromones play a key role in mating and the contin-
ued survival of the species. In the case of Asian hornets,
which have limited vision, sex pheromones likely play
a key role in long-distance attraction. The new research
demonstrates a simple, reliable way to monitor and
potentially reduce the populations of these invading
insects.
M O R E TH AN 7 5 % D E C R E ASE
I N TO TAL F L Y I N G I N SE C T
BI O M ASS O V E R 2 7 Y E AR S
We often hear from gardeners and friends that they
don’t see the bees they used to on their property.
With all the headlines about bee declines, are people
just looking more closely? Or has the insect popula-
tion truly decreased in the last few decades?
According to new research from Germany, the total
flying insect biomass decreased by more than 75 per-
cent over 27 years in protected areas. Insects play a
crucial role in ecosystem functioning, pollinating 80
percent of wild plants and providing a food source
for 60 percent of birds. Previous research has shown
American Bee Journal
an overall pattern of decline in insect diversity and
abundance, but has focused on single species or tax-
onomic groups, rather than monitoring insect bio-
mass over an extensive period.
To gain a better understanding of the extent and
underlying causes of insect decline, Hallmann and
colleagues measured total flying insect biomass
using Malaise traps (see photo), deployed over 27
years in 63 nature protection areas in Germany.
They found that the average flying insect biomass
declined 76% (up to 82% in midsummer) in just 27
years in these locations. Their results align with re-
cently reported declines in vulnerable species such
as butterflies, wild bees and moths, but also suggest
a severe loss of total flying aerial biomass, suggest-
ing that the entire flying insect community has been
decimated over the last few decades.
The researchers found that this dramatic decline
was apparent regardless of habitat type. Changes in
weather, land use, and habitat characteristics were
not able to explain the overall decline. They sug-
gest that large-scale factors must be involved, and
additional research should further investigate the
full range of climactic and agricultural variables that
could potentially impact insect biomass. The authors
urge further investigation of causes for this decline,
its geographical extent, and its potential impact on
the ecosystem.
Hallman states: “Since 1989, in 63 nature reserves
in Germany the total biomass of flying insects has
decreased by more than 75 percent. This decrease
has long been suspected but has turned out to be
more severe than previously thought.”
This is a malaise trap in a nature protection area in Germany.
Credit: Hallmann et al (2017)
O BI TU AR Y
LAWRENCE JAMES “JIM” KUEHL
Lawrence James “Jim” Kuehl of Loup City, Nebraska
died Friday, October 20, 2017 at the age of 92.
Jim & Ruby owned and operated Cook & Beals, Inc
from 1962 – 1991. Jim was instrumental in the invent-
ing of the Spin Float Honey Wax Separator in the early
‘60’s. The Spin Float was patented on November 16th,
1965 (Patent # 3,217,979). Jim at Cook & Beals, Inc. also
held US patents on the Honey Comb Handler and the
December 2017
Lawrence James “Jim” Kuehl
Honey Moisture Removing System.
Jim loved working with and learning from the 1,000 +
colonies he ran with the help of his employees. His first
2 colonies made a 400 lb. average. He couldn’t under-
stand why every beekeeper wasn’t very wealthy… He
learned why.
Jim felt a great connection to the honey industry and
a number of customers became good friends.
Jim served on a Submarine in the Pacific Theater dur-
ing WWII.
He will be greatly missed.
AR I Z O N A
11th Annual Organic Beekeepers Conference is now
accepting speakers and attendees for the March 2-4,
2018 conference, held at Triangle YMCA Ranch in
Oracle, AZ. Registration fee is $240 per person and
includes 2 nights lodging, 6 catered meals, all refresh-
ments during conference, and free vendor space.
Topics include chemical free beekeeping, bee breed-
ing, field hive management, and apitherapy. Contact
Dee Lusby to register at deealusby1@aol.com or by
phone in the evenings 520 748 0542.
C O L O R AD O
The Colorado State Beekeepers Assoc. will host
their winter meeting at Island Grove State Park, in the
city of Greeley Colorado on Saturday, December 2nd
from 9am to 5pm. Keynote speaker will be Meghan
Milbrath. A research associate at Michigan State Uni-
versity, Meghan is active in multiple beekeeping orga-
nizations, writes for multiple beekeeping journals, and
speaks about bees all over the country. She currently
runs the Northern Bee Network, and is passionate
about keeping and promoting healthy bees. Also not
1265
to be missed is the Big Money Honey contest, and the
Meet and Greet Friday night!
More information can be found at http://colorado-
beekeepers.org.
M I SSO U R I
Eastern Missouri Beekeepers To Host Annual
Beekeeping Workshop and Banquet
in St. Louis on
February 10, 2018
Beekeeping Education Specialists to Present
Courses for Beginners and Experienced Beekeepers
October 5, 2017. The Eastern Missouri Beekeepers
Association (EMBA) will offer a full day of professional
beekeeping instruction for beginners and experienced
beekeepers on Saturday, February 10, 2018, at Maritz in
Fenton, Missouri. Registrants are encouraged to attend
The Sixth Annual EMBA St. Louis Beekeepers Mardi
Gras Banquet the evening before the workshop on Fri-
day, February 9, at Maritz.
Leading beekeeping educators, and honey bee re-
search scientists from the University of California,
Davis, Department of Entomology, the University of
Minnesota Bee Lab, and Oregon State University Honey
Bee Lab, will be among the visiting faculty leading the
workshop. Instructors will include Elina. L. Nino, PhD.,
apiculture research and extension, UC Davis, Becky
Masterman, PhD, University of Minnesota Bee Lab
Team Leader, Ana Heck, Minnesota Bee Lab Bee Squad
Instructor, and Ramesh Sagili, PhD, 2017 EAS Hamble-
ton Award Winner, Oregon State University, College of
Agricultural Sciences, Honey Bee Lab.
The Experienced Beekeepers course will be tailored
towards intermediate and expert level beekeepers and
will place special emphasis on hive management and
honey bee health issues.
The Beginners Beekeeping course is intended for
novice beekeepers and persons with no prior beekeep-
ing experience. The class will cover all aspects of basic
beekeeping to prepare students to start keeping bees
in 2018.
Tuition for the workshop is $85 per person if reg-
istered by January 21, 2018. Tuition is $95 per person
for those registering on or after January 22. Banquet
registration costs $30. Banquet registration closes
February 4th.
Lunch and refreshments are included with the
workshop. Registration packets will include course
materials, an authoritative reference book, beekeep-
ing periodicals, and equipment catalogs.
The Friday evening banquet features New Orleans
style food and music, a cash bar, door prizes, includ-
ing nucs, queens and beekeeping equipment, and a
keynote speaker. The cost of the banquet is in addition
to the workshop. For more information, visit www.
easternmobeekeepers.com.
Equipment vendors include representatives of
Dadant & Sons, Kelley Beekeeping Co., and others.
1266
EMBA supports beekeepers with a broad program
of cooperative procurement and educational events
throughout the year. Members may obtain complete
beginner’s equipment kits, nucleus bee colonies, and
queens for delivery in the spring. The Club also spon-
sors open hive instructional workshops and guided
colony health monitoring, during the season, at the
Club’s teaching apiary in Creve Coeur, Missouri.
Registration is available online at www.eastern
mobeekeepers.com
More information is available by email to info@east-
ernmobeekeepers.com or calling 314-669-1828.
H E AR TL AN D AP I C U L TU R AL SO C I E TY
TO HOST 16TH ANNUAL BEEKEEPING WORKSHOP
AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS ON
JULY 11-13, 2018
Beekeeping Extension Specialists and Scientists
to Present Courses for
Beginners and Experienced Beekeepers
Program to feature Lectures, Labs, Queen Rearing,
and Classes, Field Trips to Sites of
National Significance, and Social Events
Planning continues for Heartland Apicultural Soci-
ety’s annual conference – HAS 2018 - to be held July 11-
13, 2018 at Washington University, in St. Louis. HAS
is an annual conference focused on discussing the lat-
est research and methods in beekeeping. Established
in 2001 by several professional entomologists, the con-
ference rotates through the Midwest to make it easier
for Midwest beekeepers to attend the sessions. The
conference was last held in Missouri in 2012. “We are
excited about the opportunity to bring this conference
back to Missouri,” said Bob Sears, Heartland Apicul-
tural Society president, and a St. Louis area beekeeper.
Sears is among several volunteers pulling together the
organizational structure that will support the three-day
conference featuring both keynote speakers as well as
concurrent break-out sessions and evening events.
Among the speakers confirmed to date:
• Bee Squad, a collaborative, beekeeping instruc-
tional and public outreach team at the University
of Minnesota Bee Lab, directed by Rebecca Master-
man, PhD
• Jennifer Berry, Apicultural Research Professional
and Lab Manager for the University of Georgia
Honey Bee Program
• Dr. Keith S. Delaplane, MBE Professor, Walter B.
Hill Fellow & Honey Bee Program Director Uni-
versity of Georgia
• Samuel Ramsey, University of Maryland, PhD
candidate and researcher
• Marla Spivak, PhD, Distinguished McKnight Uni-
versity Professor, Apiculture /Social Insects, Uni-
versity of Minnesota
American Bee Journal
 • Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Assistant Professor,
University of Maryland
More details will be posted as they are finalized at
http://www.heartlandbees.org.
Save the Date: July 11-13, 2018
L O U I SI AN A
LOUISIANA BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION
56th ANNUAL CONVENTION
November 30 - December 2, 2017
The Louisiana Beekeepers Association annual con-
vention runs November 30 through December 2, 2017
at the Country Inn and Suites in Pineville, LA. The
convention begins Thursday afternoon with a special
welcome and a social hour that evening for commercial
beekeepers. Planned convention guests and speakers
include:
Sam Comfort, Anarchy Apiaries
National Science Educator, Tom Dadant
Dr. Kristen Healy of LSU
Texas A&M researcher, Pierre Lau
Kirsten S. Traynor, editor of American Bee Journal
Specific presenters, topics and times could still
change and will be finalized as the convention dates
draw closer.
Online pre-registration for this convention runs
from November 1 through November 14 and can be
completed at the Louisiana Beekeepers website: www.
labeekeepers.org. Changes in convention prices occur
after the end of the pre-registration period on Novem-
ber 14. Room reservations may be made at any time.
The Country Inn and Suites is located at 2727 Monroe
Hwy 165, Pineville, LA 71360, and their telephone con-
tact number is (844) 507-9486.
We encourage you to join us in Pineville for infor-
mative presentations on beekeeping basics, pollen
research, mycology and bee health, and many other
topics of interest for every level of beekeeping.
For additional convention-related information,
please contact Jennifer Brown, LBA Vice-President, at
(601) 493-3447.
AL ABAM A
The Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s
23rd Annual Beekeeping Symposium will be held
at the Clanton Conference and Performing Arts
Center, 1850 Lay Dam Road, Clanton, AL 35045 on
February 3, 2018.
Featured speakers will include Dr. Steve Shepherd,
Judge Dan O’Hanlon, Ms. Audrey Sheridan, Mr. Steve
Rapasky, and Dr. Geoffrey Williams. The diversified
program will provide updates and information for
December 2017
beekeepers of all experience levels. A separate Begin-
ner Beekeeper Workshop will be available for those
who wish get started in beekeeping. Equipment ven-
dors from national supply companies will be on site.
Registration at the door is from 8:00-8:30 am. Pre-
registration is available beginning November 1 at:
https://mell-base.uce.auburn.edu/wconnect/CourseS-
tatus.awp?&course=C180203&Publish=ANYWAY
Lunch will be provided for those who pre-register by
the Alabama Beekeepers Association. Deadline for pre-
registration is January 19, 2018.
For more information visit http://www.aces.edu/
home-garden/beekeeping/ or www.alabamabee
keepers.com. Contact Dr. Paul L. Mask at 334-844-4450
or email rjf0014@tigermail.auburn.edu.
W E ST V I R G I N I A
2018 HONEY BEE EXPO, JAN. 27, 2018
The Mid Ohio Valley Beekeepers’ Association, in
conjunction with the West Virginia Extension Services,
will present the 16th annual Honey Bee Expo. This
event will be held Saturday, January 27th, 2018, on the
Campus of WVU Parkersburg, in Parkersburg, WV.
Dr. Larry Connor with Wicwas Press will be the fea-
tured presenter. There will be workshops for all levels
of beekeepers from beginners to advanced.
Cost is $20.00 adult, $8.00 youth 12 yrs. and younger,
if pre-registered by January 12th. After that, cost will
be $25.00 and $8.00 at the door. Lunch will be an addi-
tional cost but will only be available for those who are
pre-registered. Doors open at 7:30am for registration
and complimentary coffee and pastries.
Check association website movba.org for updates,
registration forms, vendor list, and details.
V IR G IN IA
The Northern Virginia Beekeeping Teaching Consor-
tium is offering Practical Beekeeping for Beginners in
several counties throughout Virginia starting in January,
2018. The class is intensive, meets weekly for approxi-
mately 2 months, and is designed primarily for people
who want to keep honeybees. Classes are open to adults
and children (age 10 + accompanied by a paying adult).
Classes are taught by experienced beekeepers and in-
cludes information on buying equipment & obtaining
bees. See full listing here:
https://tinyurl.com/y88vbe34
1267
 M AR Y L AN D
MARYLAND BEEKEEPERS
FACE ZONING CHALLENGES

A major zoning re-write by

Prince Georges County, Maryland,
proposes severe restrictions on
residential beekeeping. Many bee-
keepers would have to reduce their
hive count or remove them. Nearby
Howard and Frederick counties, fol-
lowing challenges to local beekeep-
ers, actually reduced restrictions.
Those complaints opened the door
for beekeepers to lobby the public
and officials to change regulations
in their favor. Baltimore City and
Washington, D.C., recently lifted or
reduced restrictions. Montgomery
County beekeepers wisely man-
aged to prevent any restrictions
from being included in a recent re-
write of zoning laws.
Members of the Bowie-Upper
Marlboro Beekeepers Association
(BUMBA), comprised mostly of
Prince Georges County beekeep-
ers, are fighting to prevent the
creation of unwarranted and un-
reasonable restrictions at a time
when municipal governments such
as New York City and Washington,
D.C., have recognized beekeeping
as a safe activity.
The original zoning defined bee-
keeping as an agricultural activity ement bee housing!); and, have a class regularly reaches attendance
restricted to agricultural lands and 25 foot set back from the property limits. Members participate in
not permitted in residential zon- line with a 6 foot flyway barrier at nearly a dozen public events each
ing. BUMBA officers and members least 10 feet wide around the hives. year, promoting beekeeping and
became engaged in the re-zoning These requirements, based on fear extolling the benefits to the commu-
process, attended public hearings, and ignorance, would hamper nity. We are actively engaged with
wrote letters and made their case to many members’ enjoyment of their the public; we hope we have built a
their County Council: beekeeping property. The set backs and barriers reservoir of good will to draw on.
is not dangerous and is safely en- would require a 60 foot wide prop- Beekeepers need to pay attention
joyed by many responsible county erty, keeping hives off small lots or to changes in zoning regulations
residents (and voters). In response, city rooftops. and your zoning boards; it may af-
in November, 2016, the Council “Aggressive” and “over- fect your beekeeping. BUMBA at-
unanimously adopted legislation crowded” are subjective and unde- tendance at open hearings on 24-26
that permitted beekeeping in most fined. Required re-queening reflects October convinced officials to re-
single family residential lots larger management for Africanized bees, consider the regulations, and pos-
than 2,000 sq. ft. which are not established in Mary- sibly remove them entirely.
The final draft stepped back from land and are unlikely to ever do so. The draft zoning is available
the Council’s earlier decision, add- These regulations want to control a at http://zoningpgc.pgplanning.
ing new limitations. These require: “problem” that does not exist. com/?p=2251.
15,000 sq. ft. minimum for the At a time when the public is BUMBA appreciates the support
first two hives, plus 15,000 sq. ft. embracing beekeeping as environ- of the Maryland State Beekeepers
more land for each additional two mentally responsible, as well as Association and other local clubs.
hives; must be re-queened follow- downright necessary for our own
ing swarming or signs of aggres- food chain, unfounded restrictions David Morris
sive behavior; must be maintained run counter to the national aware- BUMBA Editor
on movable frames and managed ness of the importance of beekeep- Laurel, MD
to prevent overcrowding (no ten- ing. BUMBA’s annual beekeeping beefriend@verizon.net

1268 American Bee Journal


Q VENTILATION
I've made a Lang hive ventilator.
I stapled a plastic queen excluder
to prevent the hardware cloth from
sagging. I then put a layer of thin
burlap, then shavings. The frame
has holes drilled with screen on
them. I’m having a tough decision
on one thing. Do I put my ventilator
on top of the inner cover, or should
I put it directly on the frames. I’ve
always struggled with this choice.
What do you suggest?
Thank you
Mark
December 2017
The Classroom
by Jerry Hayes
Please send your questions to Jerry Hayes
Email: gwhayes54@yahoo.com
A
First, in true Jerry fashion. Why
this device? Why do you want to
trap moisture in burlap and shav-
ings inside the beehive?
Why not just prop up one corner
of your lid with a pencil diameter
size stick laid on its side to create a
small ¼ inch vent opening? Creates
a small opening so the chimney like
effect of our vertical Langstroth hive
hardware can move warm moist
air up and out. Warm moist air is
removed, keeps mold and fungus
from growing in a warm humid en-
vironment and can’t freeze because
it isn’t there. And when ambient
(outside) temp goes up the frozen JERRY
water that might be on the under- If your colony is so weak it can’t
side of the lid without upper venti- defend itself and a relatively tiny
lation can’t melt and rain on colony. entrance you have created on one
If you really think you want to use corner of the hive lid against robber
the device I would put it on top of honey bees or other insects then you
frames. need to condense the colony into 1
box so there is 1 bee on every inch
MARK'S COMMENT of comb. Then determine why they
OK, I understand your comment. were so weak that you had to do
That makes a lot of sense. But what this management.
about wasps and robbers. If I put a I am assuming you treated
stick under the lid, they can fly in for Varroa back in August. Just
and get into the inner cover hole? about every bad thing with
Thank you for the discussion honey bee health in 2017 cascades
down from high levels of Varroa
Mark parasitism.
1269
Q HONEY BEE SAMPLE
ANALYSIS
Hi, we bought two packages
of bees this year (we had bought
nucs in years past and wanted to
try something different this time).
They were doing great, we got them
in April, but all of a sudden about
a month ago we started to have
dead bees in the front of the hive.
We don’t have a Varroa problem, as
a matter of fact we have very few,
and we don’t see anything wrong
externally. We are trying to find a
lab to have them analyzed but we
don’t seem able to find one. We are
in southern California. The prob-
lem is getting worse and the pile of
and the pile of dying bees is getting
larger. Help! What could it bee?
Thank you,
Sofia Okolowicz
A A
Hello Sofia,
I would cut to the chase and
contact your ‘Great’ Apiculture
Research and Extension represen-
tative, Dr. Elina Niño, elnino@uc
davis.edu. She can suggest and ad-
vise on how to handle this in Cali-
fornia to get the answer you need.
D r . E l in a N iñ o
Q
STORED HONEY IN FRAME
In the fall of 2016 I applied Api-
Guard to my hives after I had pulled
the honey I planned to extract. Last
year was my best year after six years
1270
of working with bees. Over the win-
ter they died out even though they
had a lot of honey and appeared to
be healthy.
I had 14 frames of capped honey
left in these hives. I have kept them
in plastic tubs in the basement
where it is cool since February and
now I need to decide what to do
with the honey.
Is it OK to extract and use for hu-
mans??? If not then I'll use it to feed
future hive start ups.
Jim Marshall
Jim you certainly can extract them
and use the use the honey to feed
bees for sure. After the months and
months of it sitting around the ac-
tive ingredient, which is simply the
essential oil thymol possibly has be-
come less of a flavoring.
If you take a look at the Vita web-
site and ApiGuard FAQ's, Sept 2017,
#7 specifically, the last sentence
says, “Honey collected during Api-
Guard treatment can be fed back to
the bees". I did not see any restric-
tions on feeding honey to bees or
humans in 2014 EPA registration
but let’s just stay with feeding it
back to bees.
Some honeys will crystallize faster
than others. Cool temperatures, like
in a basement, will hasten that pro-
cess. The honey is simply separating
out some sugars by forming sugar
crystals. The one thing you need to
check on: if the honey in the comb
has crystallized, it won't be able to
be extracted. It will not be a liquid
but rather a solid.
Q
WINTERING
I hope this finds you doing well.
Just a question to throw at you
about the ancient subject of win-
tering. So far in my beekeeping I
have always used a double deep or
deep/shallow super configuration
for the winter. I have heard ideas
that you need at least three deeps to
overwinter in a climate like I have
here in northeastern Maryland????
I also recently read a 2014(?) article
by Lloyd Spear where he said he
would like to convince more people
to use only a single deep for over
wintering. I followed through the
rest of his articles and didn’t find
any more info on how he does it. (I
believe he was even recommending
that for climates as far north as New
York.) Is it a possibility? My one con-
cern would be that the bees would
fill their single deep with honey and
not have room to raise their winter
bees in September and October. As
far as sufficient honey storage room,
it seems that 50-60 pounds is the
recommended amount for this area
so that should not be a problem to
store in a single deep.
A
If we try to duplicate in all ways
how a honey bee swarm might se-
lect a cavity of an optimum size in
the wild there are some highs and
lows but the average is around 40
liters. Volume = Length X Width X
Height
A deep Langstroth hive body has
a volume of 42.75 liters. Sooo, in
theory 1 hive body should work if
it includes a min of 50 lbs. of honey.
The size of the colony going into
winter indicates food needs, tem-
perature overall with swings from
high to low as winter proceeds and
honey health and vigor based on
lack of stress diseases.
The challenge we beekeepers
have in 2017 is honey bee health as
primarily related to control of Var-
roa mites and all the other things
that cascade down from incomplete
American Bee Journal
and inadequate control of Varroa at
the wrong time of the year.
And remember the the goal is a
minimum of 50 lbs. of honey and
Varroa under control months before
actual winter so healthy long lived
“winter’ bees can be produced.
COMMENT
Jerry; the red wasp on page 941
of the ABJ September issue is not
a wingless wasp species, it is a
Polistes wasp, either P. perplexus or
P. Carolina (the only 2 red Polistes in
the eastern US), that has either de-
formed, damaged or missing wings.
I've been fascinated by these partic-
ular wasps all of my life. The adults
feed on nectar and effect pollina-
tion, while the larvae are fed meat;
usually caterpillars chewed up into
a gooey ball, thus controlling certain
insect pests. In 60+ years of close ob-
servations I have never seen a wasp
of this species catch or use honey
bees as food. So please beekeepers;
do not start an eradication program
against another insect ally thinking
that you are somehow helping or
protecting your bees.
Terry Combs,
Keyesport, IL
JERRY
Very cool Terry. You are the first to
ID this. Thank you.
Q
MITE COUNT
Hi Jerry,
Is a sticky board a good way to
get a mite count?
Mac in Maine
December 2017
A With the Veterinary Feed Direc-
Hello Mac,
The measurement currently is if
you have 3% of phoretic (exposed
mites riding around on bees) mites
in a colony it is time to 'treat'. If
you have 5% or more that colony is
dead, it just doesn't know it.
If one uses a sticky board over X
period of time one can collect mites
that fall off honey bees in that col-
ony of thousands of bees. Mites can
fall off because of grooming behav-
ior or just fall off. All it tells you is
you have caught Varroa mites. Un-
less you know how many bees are
in that colony it really only gives
you a possibility not a real answer.
If you use a jar / container that
you have marked with a measure-
ment line for 100 bees or buy a con-
tainer like the Varroa Easy Check
system that is self-contained to col-
lect, wash and count bees, then vi-
sually count Varroa removed, you
have the two needed pieces of data
1) number of bees and 2) number of
mites on that number of bees.
With this information you can
know with better certainty what
your management decision should
be.
Q STORED
ANTIBIOTIC
We have a 2# unopened cardboard
container of Tetra Bee Mix that set
up over summer. It is a dough like
consistency. Can we liquefy this
and apply on top of the frames? In-
gredients are sucrose, soy flour and
mineral oil Oxytetracycline dehy-
drate base equivalent to oxytetracy-
cline hydrochloride.
Steve Auchtung
A
Tetra Bee Mix is designed to be
applied as a dry powder. The anti-
biotic active ingredient must be kept
dry or it breaks down and losses ac-
tivity. Refrigeration also helps keep
the product dry with appropriate
activity and quality.
It sounds like it is ready for the
trash Steve. It is of no value if it has
absorbed moisture and is a dough.
tive now in place you will have to
get that before you can reorder the
product.
As an aside. Do you have AFB or
EFB that needs treatment? Just treat-
ing to treat (prophylactic) doesn’t
control a disease that is not there or
stop it after the treatment period. It
would like you taking an antibiotic
now because you are afraid of get-
ting an infection in January.
Q
G AR L I C , B AS I L
F L AV O R E D H O N E Y
Dear Jerry
If the bees feed on a large amount
of Ornamental Garlic, will it give
the honey an undesirable taste?
They sure like the plant.
Also what about the plant African
Blue Basil?
Thank You
Emmett Junkin
A
I am going to assume (you know
what can happen with assume) that
these are small plantings around
your home. The small amount of
flavored nectar from ornamental
garlic or the cultivar of basil mixed
with the other flower nectars com-
ing in from the environment
around you will all dilute each
other. Even at that, if you had pure
garlic nectar converted into honey
the flavor dissipates in a few weeks
as the honey ages. You would need
acres and acres of garlic or basil to
get a distinct long term flavored
honey.
If you could get 10 acres of garlic
and 10 acres of basil and have the
bees produce a garlic/basil honey
that would make a great meat mari-
nade. Sales would be amazing! ☺
1271
Q TREE SPRAYING Q
Good Evening Jerry,
Didn't know if you would know
but, you are the only real expert I
know. Our high school ag teacher
texted me for help. Here is her text
to me:
“Hi Liz! I have an important
bee question. The Dept. of Ag
came out today and said that they
are spraying our trees next week.
They asked that we move our
bees from their current location.
That isn't the problem. The prob-
lem is that they are using Tempo
and Merit - which I know are toxic
to bees. Do you have a recommen-
dation of what I should do???”
Jerry,
Any help or advice would be
great!! I don't know how many
hives they have but, I do know they
started this season with nucs. I think
she wants to know if they will be
able to move the bees back to the
same spot and if so, how long do
they need to wait. She says it's not a
problem to move the hives. How far
should she be moving them away
from the trees?
Thank you so much for any
advice.
Liz
A Jeff
An “expert” is anyone that is more
than 250 miles away from home.
Yeah, one is a pyrethroid and one
is a neonic. I wonder what they are
spraying for?
The State Dept. of Ag. should be
able to tell you what they are spray-
ing for, why now, drying times and
residues.
If they could move them 3+ miles
away to a safe place away from
other environmental impacts and
leave them there for 4-7 days before
moving them back home that would
be perfect.
In theory they could screen the
entrances the night before to keep
the bees inside the next spraying
day but not knowing where the
trees are and what the drift or re-
sidual drying time may be it would
make me nervous.
Let me know if you need any-
thing else.
1272
BALLING QUEEN
I’m a beekeeper in my third year.
This fall, I treated my 8 hives with
MAQS. According to the directions
I removed the strips on day 7 so I
could begin fall feeding. When re-
moving the strips I checked each
hive for signs of queen replace-
ment. In one hive I found a queen
(it wasn’t marked and the former
queen had been) with a ball of bees
all over it acting very aggressive. I
closed the hive and let it be for a
few weeks. On Saturday, I again
checked it and found the same sce-
nario, a queen with a ball of bees
over it acting very aggressive. The
queen looked a little bedraggled
with tattered wings etc. Is this a
rare occurrence or what? It appears
to me that they lost their old queen
and replaced it, but aren’t accept-
ing the new one?
Another thing I was concerned
about was how late it is for rais-
ing a new queen although I have
been observing a few drones
still being tolerated in my other
hives. If this one doesn’t come
around with a good queen I’ll
just combine it with another hive.
But I am curious as to what is
happening.
Thanks ahead of time for your
answer.
A
Certainly just a guess but when
you use some miticides such as
caustic acids it can damage the
sense of smell organs which are lo-
cated at the tips of the antenna. A
very sensitive spot.
The Queen produces odors (pher-
omones) that are used to communi-
cate, “here I am, I am the Queen”.
If some number of the young work-
ers have some level of damage to
their 'nose' then she will not be rec-
ognized as the Queen and perhaps
even as a foreign invader or a non-
functioning Queen. If so this behav-
ior would not be unusual.
Little late to rear a Queen, have
drones to mate with and make the
journey through winter. I would
plan on combining.
COMMENT
Re Ron Yu's question on alfalfa
nectar in the July issue, the problem
with leaf-cutters is that once the
LCs trip the alfalfa flower, nectar
secretion stops. HBs have a vested
interest in not tripping the flowers.
Almost all the tripping and seed
set by HBs on alfalfa is done acci-
dentally by nectar collectors, who
learn fast not to cut off their nectar
source. Beekeepers can make a good
crop of honey on alfalfa pollination,
but much less if the grower also
uses LCs. HBs might take 8 hours to
collect a load of pollen from alfalfa
flowers, vs. 10 minutes (?) for al-
mond flowers so they'll fly for miles
from an alfalfa field to gather pollen
from an easier source.
This is the first and likely last time
I'll ever pick a nit with one of your
answers, which I always admire for
your patience with the many ques-
tioners and the detail, depth and
insight that you provide with your
answers. Your wealth of knowledge
amazes me.
Joe T.
Alfalfa field
JERRY
The insight and nuances of man-
aging honey bees is always interest-
ing. Yes it was nit picking but keep
doing it.
Take care. Jerry
Sanders Honey
Queens
For Sale
Josh Sanders
7288 Perdie Lee Rd
Nicholls GA 31554
912-399-8480
American Bee Journal
December 2017 1273
1274 American Bee Journal
I
t was at a Governors’ Confer- neighborhood there. In Washington, tor friendly flowers. She obtained a
ence several years ago where D.C., the hive is on the Naval Obser- list of flowers from a gardener. The
Mrs. Karen Pence learned about vatory, a 72 acre plot with an abun- Vice President’s residence has beau-
bees firsthand. She knew they exist- dance of floral choices. This hive tiful lush grounds, lending itself to
ed; she knew they were important, was just started in April of 2017. a pollinator specific garden. Cone
but Mrs. Pence did not realize ex- In D.C., there is a network of trav- Flowers, Yarrow, Butterfly Weed,
actly how exciting bees were until eling beekeepers managing bees Bee Balm, Hyssop, Salvia, Verbena
she attended this conference with for other people. According to Mrs. and Gaillardia abound. The beauty
her husband. Pence, the hive at the Naval Obser- of having one’s own hive, of course,
The National Governors’ Asso- vatory is four boxes high now and is that the essence of your honey
ciation sets up meetings for first will be condensed to three as winter reflects the fragrance and flavor of
spouses several times a year. Pre- approaches. your own flowers.
sentations showcase what is being The bees work mostly floral sourc- When asked if the family uses
accomplished in their own states, es with a concentration on pollina- much honey or has a favorite rec-
and that’s where she got the idea to
have a hive. First ladies from other
states were talking about how they
had started bees in their gardens
at their governor’s office. This was
four years ago, but that did it! She
was stung!
Up until this time, Mrs. Pence
had no experience whatsoever with
bees. No family members, friends,
or neighbors kept bees. She noted
that many acquaintances were fas-
cinated by it now but no one had
started their own hive. She had been
reading about Colony Collapse Dis-
order and had a nagging concern
about that. What a great example to
have a bee hive at the Indiana office,
and she jumped right on board. The unveiling of the bee hive at the Naval Observatory, home of Vice President and Mrs.
Although she knew nothing at all Pence, was attended this spring by many of the American Beekeeping Federation members.
about managing a bee hive, she con- Gabrielle Ludwig from the California Almond Board (blue top), Kevin Hackett, National Pro-
tacted a local beekeeper who helped gram Leader for USDA-AMS (tall man with beard), the beekeeper who takes care of the hive
her establish a hive. The Governor’s (just right of center), USDA Secretary Perdue and Mrs. Perdue, Mrs. Pence, Tim May (Vice
residence in Indiana is on six acres President of ABF), Roslyn James of the USDA-AMS National Programs, and Gene Brandi
and the bees travel throughout the (President of ABF). O cial White ouse hoto by Andrea anks.

December 2017 1275


Mrs. Karen Pence welcomes everyone to the unveiling of the new bee hive on the lawn at
the residence of the Vice President. Mr. Sonny Perdue and Mrs. Perdue attended the festivi-
ties. O cial White ouse hoto by Andrea anks.
ipe using honey, her response was
that the Vice President (and she
called him ‘Mike’) has a favorite
snack - bananas covered with pea-
nut butter and honey. Also favored,
however, is honey on toast, in tea
or coffee, as a sweetener on a snack,
and on ice cream.
Although not a “hands-on” bee-
keeper at this point, Mrs. Pence
is a wealth of information about
bees. One of the questions posed to
her was “What would you like the
American public to take from your
example of being ecology minded
by keeping bees?”
“I want the American public to
support bees,” Mrs. Pence said.
“Knowing that one third of our
daily food comes from products
resulting from bee pollination tells
us how important it is for us to
support bee health. If you have an
apartment, have flowers on your
balcony. In a yard, have a birdbath
with rocks to enable bees to get a
drink of water. Purchase honey and
honey products. Go to your local
farmers’ market and take advan-
tage of buying from local beekeep-
ers. Get the benefits of eating local
honey including fewer problems
with allergies.”
The American Beekeeping
Federation is invited to D.C.
The American Beekeeping Feder-
ation has fully supported the keep-
ing of bees by our politicians. This
past summer, two of the American
1276
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Beekeeping Federation board mem-
bers were invited to Washington
D.C. to help Mrs. Pence with the GOT WAX? GET PAID!
unveiling of the hive. Gene Brandi I t’ s that simple!
(President of ABF) and Tim May
(Vice President of ABF) accepted
L ight and dark.
the invitation to attend. Mr. Sonny Rendering services available.
Perdue, newly appointed Secre-
tary of Agriculture, also attended. BEE EX CEL L ENT
All were photographed with the Phone ( 218) 7 7 6 -3593
new hive on the Naval Observatory
property and were invited into the
F ax ( 218) 7 7 6 -3502
Vice Presidential residence for lem-
E-mail bexcel@gvtel.com
onade and cookies. Tim and Gene Global inquiries welcome.
both agreed a huge statement had
been made about the importance of
bees in our economy simply by the
choice made by Mrs. Pence to keep
bees on her property.
According to ABF President Gene
Brandi, “It was an honor to be invit-
ed to the Vice President’s residence
in June for the unveiling of their bee
hive. We appreciated Mrs. Pence’s
comments about the importance of
honey bees to the nation as pollina-
tors of approximately 1/3 of the food
we eat. They also acknowledged
the fact that honey bees are still not
healthy and need our help.”
Because of Mrs. Pence’s inter-
est and subsequent advocacy for
honey bees and all pollinators to-
day, the American people are even
more aware of the crisis the honey
bee is experiencing. Certainly this
positive publicity will inspire oth-
ers to follow suit and support the
honey bee and insure its health and
survival.
American Bee Journal
I
f you’d told me I was going to
be tending my first honey bee
hive at the age of 57, I would
have laughed long and hard. I have
always been extremely phobic with
regard to bugs. But, then I took a
job as a customer service represen-
tative with Betterbee in Greenwich,
New York, which just so happens
to be the town where I live. When I
started out in my new career, those
who knew me best would say, “But,
you’re afraid of bees!” And I would
reply, “Not anymore!”
I had an auspicious beginning as
a Betterbee employee. My first week
at Betterbee, co-owner Joe Cali had
me don a head-to-toe bee suit and
walk with him into the field just
outside our door. He opened a hive
body and placed a full frame of bees
into my gloved hands. It was abso-
lutely magical, the teaming waves
of active creatures; each intent on a
separate task, working together for a
single purpose. I carefully inspected
both sides of the frame, then handed
it back to Joe. That was June of 2015.
In August I went with coworkers
to my first Eastern Apicultural So-
ciety (EAS) conference, in Guelph,
Ontario. Betterbee sees these confer-
ences as great learning opportuni-
ties for their employees. I attended
some very informative lectures,
and found myself passing around
December 2017
frames of bees with bare hands and But, then it happened. “Suzanne
only sometimes with a veil over my Cohen!”
head. The Canadians, to our sur- Stunned, I blurted out some
prise, wore little protective gear. words that I can not share here. The
On the last day of the conference, blurry moments that followed felt
I wandered over to the bee yard like getting ready for a prizefight.
with a few coworkers. There was a Alison was advising me to go for the
Beekeepers Olympics on the sched- middle frames, because the queen is
ule, and that sounded fun. People most likely there. I was putting on
were signing up for contests rang- a veil. There was a bee in the veil. I
ing from smoker lighting to drone got the bee out, and another Better-
spitting. Yes, drone spitting. A won- bee colleague, Amie Collins, helped
derful sense of humor was perva- me get it on straight.
sive with the Canadian beekeepers. I walked over to my assigned
I don’t know what possessed me, hive, where an already lit smoker
never having used a hive tool, let
alone cracked open a hive, but I
signed up for the amateur “Find the
Queen” contest. It was the only con-
test that had prizes, a bronze, silver,
or golden hive tool, brainchildren
of organizer Paul Kelly. I suppose
I felt I should be supportive of such
a fun event.
Fifteen people had signed up
for five spots, so I knew there was
little chance I would compete. My
coworker, Alison, was the only
person I even told about entering
the contest. When it came time for
the Find the Queen event I listened
with some trepidation as names
were drawn from a hat and called
out. Mine was not among the first
four names called, so I was confi-
dent I was safe. Photo by Amie Collins.
1277

and hive tool awaited me. The
whistle was blown. I grabbed the
hive tool and hastily pried off the
cover and propolis trap from the
top of the hive. I pumped the bel-
lows of the smoker, blowing way
more smoke than is necessary
all over the top of the hive. Bees
came pouring out of the hive and
many began climbing up my bare
arms. I puffed smoke at them with
my smoker, and it worked. They
were gone.
1278
Photos by Amie Collins.
I audibly told myself, “Hive
tool,” and used the tool to pry the
two boxes apart. Remembering my
instructions from Alison, I loosened
and then pulled a middle frame of
bees from the brood box. I felt like
I was losing my grip, so I briefly
rested the bottom edge on the
grass, then carefully examined one
side of the teaming frame of bees.
I slowly turned it over, and there
she was! Right before my eyes was
the marked queen, displaying her
beautiful, bright blue dot! I stam-
mered in disbelief, “I think I found
her,” and the judge came right over
and looked. “We have a winner!!!”
There followed a fun presenta-
tion of bronze, silver, and golden
hive tools. All three winners stood
on stacks of hive boxes of various
heights while our hive tools were
hung ceremoniously around our
necks. It was a scream! I came back
to Betterbee a hero, which was cer-
tainly a very nice way to start a new
American Bee Journal
 Photo by Amie Collins.
job. The video Amie had taken of
the contest was shown at our next
Wednesday morning staff meet-
ing. Chris Cripps, the Betterbee co-
owner who had accompanied us to
Guelph, announced, “She found it
in less than two minutes!” Everyone
howled with laughter, watching me
do most everything wrong, like re-
moving the medium super and plac-
ing it directly down in the grass. My
win, together with a photo of me
receiving my reward, was featured
in the 2016 Betterbee catalog. I still
keep my golden hive tool proudly
displayed over my desk.
It was my honey (the human kind),
Dennis, who had the idea of putting
our first hive up on the back roof of
our house. We have a very small
yard behind our home in the vil-
lage of Greenwich, and I was afraid
our bees would be too close to our
neighbors anywhere there. Bet-
terbee owner Joe Cali agreed that
it sounded like a good idea. Then,
by luck, I was able to attend Joe Le-
linho‘s lecture, “Beekeeping in an
Urban Setting/Rooftop Hives,” at
Photo by Suzanne Cohen.
December 2017
Photo by Suzanne Cohen.
EAS in New Jersey last year. I pho-
tographed all of Joe Lelinho’s slides
and reviewed them with Dennis
when I got home. The nice thing
about having my bees up on our
roof is that they are pretty much re-
moved from predators.
Actually becoming a beekeeper,
after two years of working at Better-
bee, helps me greatly as a customer
service representative. Now, when
customers call with beekeeping
questions and ask, “Are you a bee-
keeper?” I can proudly say, “Yes, I
am.” Having hands on experience
is invaluable. For instance, I used to
tell customers buying plastic foun-
dation for the first time, to install in
wood frames, “It’s easy. They just
pop right in!” Well, they do snap in,
but not quite as easily as I thought.
It took me a little while, when I did
my first ones, to get the knack of
turning the frames upside down,
pulling up a bit on the bottom bar,
and gradually easing the founda-
tion into place.
I find my bees to be totally laid
back when I’m photographing them
around my yard, or just in pass-
ing. But, I always wear a protective
jacket and gloves to tend to my hive.
And, after an early inspection when
“my girls” were in a particularly
unfriendly mood, I have become
more careful about the timing of my
hive inspections. When able, I go
into my hive during peak foraging
hours, around 1 to 3 PM, and NOT
when my neighbor is using a lawn
mower!
I opted to start with just one hive.
We figure two to three will be our
maximum, or I might find my-
self standing in bits of my roof in
my kitchen! I’m still a novice bee-
keeper, with much to learn. I wish
I could say, after the way my bee-
keeping story began, that I always
find the queen in my own hive, now
that I have one. That is not the case.
But, when I can’t find her directly, I
know to look for her handiwork of
eggs and larva.
Last winter I took Betterbee’s
Beginning Beekeeping Class, and
of course I learn a ton about bee-
keeping just working at Betterbee.
It is such a luxury to have Better-
bee’s owners, and my knowledge-
able coworkers, to turn to with my
own beekeeping questions. I would
say that the most important thing I
have learned is that beekeeping is
hard work. There is a lot to learn to
maintain healthy hives. And, like
Dennis says, the more a beekeeper
learns the more you can find your-
self asking, “Why am I doing this,
again?!”
A hive can be lost to swarming,
varroa mites, starvation, predators,
and a slew of diseases. Monitoring
and treating for diseases is serious
business. But, knock on wood, my
first hive is thriving, entering the
winter relatively varroa-free and
well stocked with honey.
My honey bees have been so
productive that we’ve actually ex-
tracted two full 10-frame medium
supers of honey! We extracted
one in August, and the second the
end of September. I didn’t expect
to get any honey my first year, as
is often the case. It was so exciting
to get to use all the extracting tools
I had been stocking up on! I am a
1279
 Photos by Suzanne Cohen.

gardener, and I do a fair amount

of canning every year: jams, jel-
lies, pickled beets, and so on. I was
pleasantly surprised that the pro-
cess of extracting honey, and the
clean-up, was comparatively easy.
When it’s time to extract, I stand
out on the roof and use a fume
board to remove the bees from my
supers. Not being patient enough to
let the sun heat up my fume board,
I warm it with my blow dryer inside
the house before I go out. We place
our uncapping tank just inside our
screened spare bedroom window,
where Dennis waits. Inside the spare
bedroom is also where he stands to
take photos and videos of me tend-
ing my hive. I hand the frames of
honey inside to him, one at a time,
and he puts them in the uncapper
and carries them downstairs to our
kitchen, one super at a time. Then I
either climb back through the win-
dow, not so delicately, or down the
ladder we have propped against the
side of the roof.
This spring I planted bee friendly
flowers all around my yard. Borage
is my favorite, and I think my bees
would agree that it is theirs, as well.
I love photographing “my girls”
collecting pollen and nectar on our
borage and other flowering plants. It
is so exciting to know that these are
my bees! I brought them to our yard.
And it is my responsibility to do all
that I can to keep them happy and
healthy. It is a beautiful, mutually
beneficial relationship! Who would
ever have thought that someone
as afraid of insects as I was, only a
few years back, would be so happy
tending bees?! Well, but don’t get
me started on spiders...

1280 American Bee Journal

Notes
The Latest Bee Science Distilled
O
ne thing I often hear from
beekeepers is that they’re
interested in the emerging
science on pollinator health, but it’s
hard to stay informed. They either
don’t have time to keep up with it
or the scientific articles are simply
too dense. To help remedy this situ-
ation, we’ve decided to summarize
some hot-off-the-press research
in plain English, cutting through
the dry jargon and complicated
methods. We want to highlight the
most exciting science that impacts
beekeepers in a concise, accessible,
easy-to-read column.
Our first featured article has re-
ceived a lot of chatter in both the
scientific community and beekeep-
ing blogosphere: “A worldwide
survey of neonicotinoids in honey”
written by Edward Mitchell and
colleagues, published in the journal
Science [358: 109-111 ( 2017) ].
The authors tested nearly 200
honey samples from around the
world for 5 different neonicoti-
noid (a.k.a. “neonic”) insecticides:
acetamiprid, clothianidin, imida-
cloprid, thiacloprid, and thiameth-
oxam. They found traces of at least
one insecticide in 75% of samples,
two or more insecticides in 45% of
samples and 4-5 insecticides in 10%
of samples.
Wow, neonics in 75% of world-
wide honey… where do they
come from? Neonicotinoids are
December 2017
from the Lab:
currently the most widely used
insecticides in the world. Three
main factors lead to their accumu-
lation in honey: Neonics are sys-
temic insecticides, which means
they accumulate in all plant tis-
sues, including nectar.
1) Neonics can stay in the soil
for several years before poten-
tially being taken up by crops
or other plants.
2) Bees collect nectar across great
distances (on average ~1.5 km
from their colonies). Thus,
pesticide residues in honey
bee colonies are considered
an excellent measure of con-
tamination in the surrounding
landscape.
Are the neonic concentrations
they found in honey dangerous
to bees? When evaluating risk, it’s
important to consider that the 5
neonicotinoids tested vary greatly
in toxicity. Toxicity is typically re-
ported as an LD50, the dose that
kills 50% of adult bees in a cage
study. The LD50 for thiamethoxam
is 5 ng, which means if one worker
bee consumes that amount, it has a
50% chance of surviving. But that
same bee would have to consume
1,732 ng of thiacloprid to reach the
same chance of surviving. In other
words, thiamethoxam is roughly 346
times as toxic as thiacloprid.
by Scott McArt
The authors found that total aver-
age neonic concentrations in honey
were 1.8 nanograms per gram
(ng/g). They note that 0.1 ng/g is
the lowest concentration at which
an observed detrimental effect of a
neonicotinoid (thiamethoxam) has
been shown in honey bees. How-
ever, the study found low concen-
trations (average <0.035 ng/g) of
the most toxic neonicotinoids (clo-
thianidin, imidacloprid, thiameth-
oxam) and higher concentrations
(average <2.40 ng/g) of the less
toxic neonicotinoids (acetamiprid
and thiacloprid). Without knowing
the specific neonic composition of
individual honey samples, unfor-
tunately we are left without a criti-
cal piece of information to assess
risk. Some of the honey the authors
tested clearly posed a risk to bees,
since maximum concentrations of
the highly toxic neonics were ob-
served up to 6.3 ng/g. But more
information than is contained in the
paper is needed to understand the
pervasiveness of risk to bees among
the 198 honey samples tested.
Are the neonic concentrations
they found in honey dangerous
to humans? One reason neonic-
otinoids have been widely adopted
owes to their low toxicity to humans
compared to other classes of insec-
ticides. Neonic residues are found
in many foods we eat, especially
some fruits and vegetables. None
1283
of the individual neonic residue
levels found in honey were above
limits authorized in food prod-
ucts by the European Union or the
United States. However, 2 of the 198
samples (0.5%) were above limits if HERE WE GO WITH, TWO MORE BUCKETS!

the sum of the 5 neonics was con-

sidered. Thus, it’s unlikely that the P.O. BOX 280
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ested in scientific research that can
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.
com/DyceLab/

1284 American Bee Journal

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December 2017 1285

1286 American Bee Journal
T
his year, we will review some
basics as well as address any
changes in the tax system
that pertains to beekeepers. As a
starter, do you file your beekeeping
income? Yes. No. Maybe. Should
you? Yes, you should. The rule is
that any worldwide income must
be included. That means if you
sell two jars of honey for $20, you
must include it as income. For most
hobbyists, the tax implications are
miniscule. Maybe you would pay a
few hundred dollars extra at most.
Besides, doing a Schedule C (self-
employed tax form) allows you
to claim many beekeeping related
expenses, which reduces the tax
liability. In fact, in a bad year, it can
mean taking a loss, which reduces
your overall tax liability.
Finally, although the chance of
an audit, is rare, it is not impos-
sible. You wouldn’t want to be
sitting across from a government
auditor, and have to hem and haw
when he asks, “Was there any other
income?” Of course, commercial
beekeepers don’t face this question,
as their beekeeping income com-
prises all or a good portion of their
income, and they always file their
beekeeping activity.
Now let’s review the basics. You
have three choices, hobby, business
income, and farming income. If you
call the beekeeping a hobby activity,
December 2017
then revenue goes on line 21 (Other
Income) on Federal form 1040. The
problem with hobby income is that
you can’t deduct expenses. So if
you obtained $1,000 in beekeeping
income, all $1,000 will be taxed. It
is hard to generalize, but if you are
middle level income earner ($50,000
to $100,000), you might pay a total
of $300 federal and state taxes on
this extra income.
The second option—filing a
Schedule C Self-Employment form
—allows you to deduct expenses
from revenue. Say, in the above
examples, you purchased $250
worth of packages, $100 of bottles,
$100 of medication, $50 of sugar,
and $100 on a used extractor, that’s
a total of $600 expenses. So you pit
the revenue of $1,000 against $600
expenses, and come out with a
profit of $400, as shown below:
Revenue $1,000
Expenses - $600
Profit $400
It is the $400 on the Schedule C
that you pay taxes on. You oper-
ated a business, and you only
really made $400. If you are an
average income earner ($50,000 to
$100,000), you might pay $130 in
Federal and State taxes.
So with hobby income you pay
$300 taxes; with Schedule C busi-
ness income, you pay $130. If you
do your own taxes, it pays to figure
out how to do the Schedule C and
to operate your beekeeping activity
as a business. If you don’t do your
own taxes, you will have the taxes
prepared, and the preparer will
charge you extra for the Schedule
C, maybe $150. So it becomes close
to a wash.
As revenue increases, the stakes
are higher. A beekeeper with
$4,000 beekeeping income and
$2,000 expenses, might pay $1,200
taxes as a hobbyist, and $600 taxes
as a business. It gets confusing,
and that’s probably why many
beekeepers don’t even enter their
beekeeping income. But let me just
create this hypothetical situation.
You are selling honey at a fair.
An ordinary person comes by and
buys a jar of honey. This person
happens to work for the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS). Just for the
fun of it, he decides to check your
tax return. With a press of a but-
ton, your return comes up. He is
surprised that there is no mention
of beekeeping activity. He thinks:
what was my purchase, if not bee-
keeping income? He alerts an audi-
tor, and the auditor sends a letter
asking about beekeeping income.
You answer that expenses eats up
all beekeeping income. Because
you are ignorant of the law (you
1287
must enter all income, regardless if
you make money on it or not), he
decides to audit your full return.
As a longtime tax-preparer/tax
audit representor, I would hate
to be representing you in the tax
office, when you say, “Sorry. I
didn’t understand the law.” In fact,
you are committing fraud. It might
be small-beer fraud, but it’s fraud
nevertheless. You could face penal-
ties, interest for nonpayment, more
intense scrutiny, and annual audits
henceforth.
The third option is filing a
Schedule F (Farming activity). This
form closely duplicates Schedule
C (income minus expenses) and is
rarely used. In fact, few tax profes-
sionals use a Schedule F any more.
So let’s say that’s an option, but not
recommended.
For those who choose to venture
into including beekeeping income
on your return for the first time,
here is a guide. It will also help you
understand how the tax preparer
computes your return.
If you want to enter beekeeping
income as simply as possible, add
up your revenues—honey sales,
hive rental, swarm recovery pay-
ments, wax sales, and put the total
as hobby income on line 21 of the
Form 1040. And then the tax will be
computed with your other income.
But this approach is not recom-
mended when beekeeping income
exceeds a thousand dollars. Above
that level, you have expenses, and
your tax liability will be reduced
if you record the income as a busi-
ness.
If you choose to enter your bee-
keeping activity as a business, add
up revenue and enter it on line 1,
Gross Income on Schedule C. This
sum repeats on Line 7. Let’s assume
beekeeping income is $4,000.
Next, categorize all expenses.
Categories include Advertising
(line 8 under Expenses), Legal and
Professional Services (Line 17),
Repairs and Maintenance (line
21), Supplies (Line 22), and Travel,
Meals, and Entertainment (line 24).
If you have employees, you could
use more line items, but let’s keep
this example simple. Your bread
and butter expenses include pack-
ages, medication, sugar, bottles,
and labels. For simplicity, include
1288
all of them under supplies (Line larly and exclusively for that pur-
22). These are necessary purchases pose--you could take a home office
to create your product—honey. If deduction. It’s rather complex, but
you printed a brochure or paid the first step is to calculate the
fees for fairs you’ve entered, these percent space used as a percent of
expenses go under Advertising total house space. Second, add up
(line 8). If you paid for tax prep- all house costs—mortgage, prop-
aration last year, some of the erty taxes, utilities, maintenance,
expense could go under Legal and and depreciation—and come up
Professional Services (line 17). It with a figure. If you used 5% of
would be last year’s taxes because house for beekeeping activity and
the bill was paid in the current your house costs were $20,000,
year. Maybe 50% of the cost of then your home office deduction is
tax preparation up to $200 would $1,000 ($20,000 X .05%).
be acceptable. If you paid any- This figure is entered on
one to repair any bee equipment, Expenses for Business Use of your
that amount goes in Repairs and Home (With these figures listed on
Maintenance (line 21). If you enter- Schedule C, add up expenses, sub-
tained another beekeeper for the tract expenses from revenue, and
purpose of obtaining information arrive at a profit. If your revenue
or if you attended a convention/ is $4,000 and your expenses are
workshop and incurred expenses, $3,000, then profit is $1,000. You
put that sum in Travel, Meals, and pay taxes on this $1,000.)
Entertainment (Line 24). Doing this, you fulfill your obli-
Three more expense categories gation as a citizen and beekeeper.
might be relevant. On Schedule C Besides, you’ll sleep better at night.
is Car and Truck Expenses (line 9).
Here is where you record all the Howard Scott, a 35 year bee-
miles you travelled in service of keeper in Pembroke, MA, has con-
your beekeeping business. This fig- tributed over 180 articles to ABJ.
ure includes traveling to and from He is also a longtime tax-preparer,
bee fields, soliciting merchants to spending 13 years at H & R Block.
sell your honey, and even attend- He can be reached by emailing
ing bee club meetings. Basically, dancinghill@gmail.com.
you’ll make an estimate of total
miles and multiply by the stan-
dard per/mile rate to get the travel
expense. Say you estimate the fig-
ure at 1,000 miles. The per mile rate
this tax year is 53.5 cents per mile,
so 1,000 X .535 = $535.
If you purchase an asset—some-
thing that isn’t consumed in a
year—woodenware, an extractor,
a hot knife, a table, shelving, an
uncapping machine—then you can
deduct the full cost of the equip-
ment in the year of purchase. You
do this on Depreciation (Line 13).
So if you buy a bee suit and gloves
for $150 and an observation hive
for $150, then the total, $300 goes
on Line 13. Alternatively, you
could elect to depreciate the assets
over their life, five years, resulting
in a $60 annual expense on Line 13.
However, for a small operator, it is
better to take the full expense in the
year of purchase.
If you do beekeeping activity
in your house—basement, garage,
guest room—and it is used regu-
American Bee Journal
 by DR. WYATT A. MANGUM
University of Mary Washington
Fredericksburg, Virginia
e-mail: wmangum@umw.edu
TBHSbyWAM.com

Unusual Winter Cluster Behavior:

Finally Observed with Thermal Imaging

D
uring a dark and bitter cold picture. Driven by the intense pain These 12-comb observation hives
morning of last January in my hands, I just bolted for the were still relatively new to me for
2017, I had just sprinted to house, aiming for the backdoor winter observations. They were
the back door of the house. I was light, just a dim spot from the bee nothing like my usual single-comb
running from the bee house by my house, which promised warmth observation hives. I have managed
home apiary. Not because of the and recovery. I had to return as dozens of them in the bee house.
bees, but rather I ran from seven soon as possible. The clusters were (The bee house can hold 30 of them.)
measly degrees above zero, the only behaving in strange ways that I had I was still testing out a pair of 12-
ones remaining at 4:00 a.m. I had never seen. comb observation hives (see Figure
been inside the bee house where I
keep observation top-bar hives of
various sizes.
Classes were on break over the
holiday. Suzanne was away visiting
her relatives, and I was book writing
and bee watching 24/7. For this late-
night session of bee watching, I was
taking thermal images of winter
clusters in observation hives with 12
combs, which are more like a regular-
sized colony. I had a Flir thermal
camera attached to my iPhone. After
a stealthy and tedious photo session
being careful not to disturb the
clusters, my fingers stung with cold.
The delicate little touch controls on
the iPhone quit responding to my
light tapping. Maybe the little phone
thinks I’m frozen–dead, I thought,
in the darkness of the bee house.
Feeling the burning in my fingers
growing, I wondered if my phone Figure 1. A pair of observation hives seen as a thermal image in my work space
might be right. in part of the bee house. The thermal camera codes different levels of warmth into
I slipped quietly out of the bee different colors. Here white is the warmest, followed by red, yellow, green, and blue is
house and tried the controls again. the coolest. The warmth from the clusters emanates from the hives. Note the pieces
Nothing. I could not even take a of duct tape that hold the glass on the hive. A circular lamp is over the closer hive.

December 2017 1289

 the same scene shown as a thermal
image (see Figure 3) and a close
up (see Figure 4). Notice white
emanates from deep in the center of
the cluster while the surrounding
lower parts of the hive are in the
cold background temperature in the
lower teens.
Before the cold caused my
temporary retreat, I had been
observing bee behavior that I had
only heard by listening from outside
of the hives in the apiaries in the
cold, and even then the sound was
uncommon. Tonight, I first heard it
upon slowly opening the bee-house
door, just partway in the dark.
A restless low hum murmured
steadily, from the hives, distinctly
and unusually loud. In years past,
Figure 2. A contracted winter cluster in the cold in the observation hive. I have I had heard that in the apiary and
carefully removed the glass for better viewing. The colder bees on the outside of wondered what was happening in
the cluster continuously change places with the warmer bees on the inside of the the hives. Now the strange behavior
cluster as was observed by Gates (1914). Southwick and Mugaas (1971) observed a 24- occurred in glass hives, and I had a
hour periodic occurrence of the core and shell temperatures of the cluster becoming thermal camera to “see” it.
equal. That could also be when bees from those regions of the cluster could easily One winter cluster was much
interchange. Note the hive entrance is to the left. larger than the other. The larger
cluster buzzed louder than the
1). In the early fall I put a top-bar contact. Rather, I need to enter these smaller one, most likely just a
colony in the observation hive. hives quickly with glass removal in numerical effect of more bees.
Under normal conditions, the bees less than 30 seconds, and always Strangely though, the larger cluster
do not build comb in the winter. So with a minimum of bee disturbance. had not contracted all that much
the bees do not connect the sloped- On a typical frigid January night, and was large enough to have bee
edge combs from the top-bar hive to a normal winter cluster in a multi- traffic moving around the edge of
the vertical glass walls. comb observation hive appears as the combs on one side of the hive
I can easily remove the glass sides in Figure 2. The outer layer of bees (see Figure 5) and a close up (see
of these observation hives. Nothing is oriented with their heads into the Figure 6). The winter clusters were
but duct tape holds the glass to these cluster. Any single bees separated too active in the bitter cold.
larger observation hives. These are from the cluster have frozen. Notice The unusual cold-night buzzing
special research observation hives, the bare edge of the combs. Those activity was not limited to the bee
not like typical ones viewed by the edges are frozen barriers between house. One of my home research
public, where the glass provides the bees. Admittedly the contrast apiaries is right beside the bee
ultra-safe viewing without bee is difficult to appreciate. So here is house. In the fall, I had placed four

(L) Figure 3. The winter cluster seen as a thermal image. The bees appear as slices of warmth. (R) Figure 4. The winter cluster in
close up. Unless there are holes in the combs, the cluster becomes partitioned into slices of bees divided by combs. It is far too cold
for a typical bee to walk around the cold edge of the comb and join the neighboring bees.

1290 American Bee Journal

(L) Figure 5. Abnormal winter clustering at 7°F (-13.9°C). The bees were buzzing and restless, and losing heat in the cold. Compare
with Figure 3. (R) Figure 6. Abnormal winter clustering in close up. The bees were readily moving between the combs. Interestingly,
Gates in 1914 mentioned hearing a similar odd buzzing in his hives during some very cold nights. So it is doubtful the cluster “stress”
was from harboring varroa mites or small hive beetles. Compare with Figure 4.

top-bar hives there to see about
the feasibility of insulating top-bar
hives for the winter. Two of the
hives had screened floors (enclosed
at the bottom for sticky boards).
The other two hives had regular
wooden floors.
For the two hives with screen
floors, I located their winter clusters
with a thermal camera. I positioned
insulating panels around them on
the top and sides. For the other
two hives with wooden floors, I left
them as not insulated. Apparently,
the different hive situations did
not matter because all four winter
clusters were buzzing restlessly.
They were not as loud, but of course
the hive body and insulating panels
absorbed some of the sound.
In the past, listening to strangely
buzzing colonies in the cold was
about the extent of my inquiry into
this unusual behavior. Now if one
considers the cluster of Figure 5 as
a reference colony, it suggested the
outer layers of the other four winter
clusters in the apiary were not only
active (the buzzing), they could be
disorganized to a similar degree.

December 2017 1291

To see why I found this clustering
behavior so unusual, let’s review
typical winter-cluster behavior and
put the cluster in Figure 5 into that
context.
Cluster formation begins with an
ambient temperature around 64°F
(18°C) (for a recent review see Currie
et al 2015). Early studies showed that
at 57°F, the winter cluster consisted
of one or more dense peripheral
layers of insulating bees. These bees
face into the cluster, and the region
is sometimes called the shell of the
cluster. Honey bees have thick fur
composed of plumose (branched)
hair covering their thoraxes. It is
well known this plumose hair helps
the bees collect pollen. During
winter in the compact shell of the
inward facing bees, their interlacing
fur serves as an efficient covering of
insulation (Moritz and Southwick,
1992). The shell of the cluster retains
heat generated by bees deeper in the
core of the cluster where the bees
are less dense and move about more
freely. In contrast, the bees on the
outer part of the cluster are sluggish
with an air temperature of 46°F (8°C)
around the tip of their abdomens
(Owens, 1971). That temperature is
just above the chill coma of a bee.
As conditions become colder,
the winter cluster contracts in size,
which decreases its surface area,
and reduces the heat loss from the
cluster. At 14°F (-10°C), the winter
cluster has reached the limit of
cluster contraction (several citations,
see the Currie et al 2015 review).
When the temperature falls lower
than 14°F (-10°C), the bees must
compensate by increasing metabolic
heat production.
When I was observing the winter
clusters at 4:00 a.m. with an ambient
temperature of 7°F (-13.9°C), which
of course is much less than 14°F
(-10°C), the winter cluster of Figure
5 should have been completely
contracted. However the cluster
did not appear contracted much at
all, although it had a well-defined
boundary. The bees should have
withdrawn into the spaces between
the combs as shown by Figure 2.
Therefore the bees in Figure 5 are
not positioned correctly. We should
only see the tips of the abdomens
from the outermost layer of bees.
Moreover the bees are far too active,
1292
crawling over the cluster. From the
fall, all through winter, into early
spring, now I spend a lot of time
observing my bees, using thermal
cameras in my apiaries at night,
and checking on my observation
hives with the cameras in the bee
house at all hours. I routinely see
numerous normal winter clusters.
I even have procedures for opening
my top-bar hives in hard cold with a
minimum of bee disturbance, when
there is a pressing need. Sluggish
bees showing only the tips of
quivering abdomens are virtually all
I see, which are clusters efficiently
clinging to every bit of their heat.
Then along came the cluster in
Figure 5, so bizarre, and the other
clusters buzzing in the apiary,
even stranger. The clusters of bees
were loosely packed and should be
hemorrhaging heat in the cold. The
cluster in Figure 5 was like a house
on a bitter cold winter night with
all its doors and windows open–
and the light on. Why? The apiary
would be like a whole neighborhood
of houses the same way, doors and
windows wide open everywhere
in the frigid cold. What cause had
made all the colonies behave in
such a strange and dangerous way?
Unless one spends time with the
bees, in this situation in late night
cold, these unusual behaviors may
never be known.
The next night was about as cold.
The colonies clustered normally. No
strange late-night buzzing. Suzanne
was still away on her trip. I went
back to the house, no need to run in
the dark. On the couch, I wrapped
up in a blanket, and finally felt
warm. Then I did what Suzanne
had been telling me to do — I went
to sleep.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Suzanne
Sumner for her comments on the
manuscript.
Visit TBHSbyWAM.com
References
Currie RW, M Spivak, and GS Reuter
(2015). Wintering management of honey
bee colonies. In The Hive and the Honey
Bee ed. JM Graham. Dadant and Sons,
Hamilton, IL.
Gates SBN (1914). The temperature of the
honey bee colony. In Bulletin. Vol. 96.
United States Department of Agriculture.
1-19.
Moritz FA and EE Southwick (1992). Bees
as superorganisms. Springer-Verlag, New
York, NY.
Owens CD (1971). The thermology
of wintering honey bee colonies.
Agriculture Research Service, United
States Department of Agriculture U.S.
Government Printing Office. 1-32.
Southwick EE and JN Mugaas (1971). A
hypothetical homeotherm: the honeybee
colony. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 40:935-944.
American Bee Journal
December 2017 1293
 LOHMAN APIARIES
since 1946
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Dennis Lohman Apiaries
6437 Wagner Road
ARBUCKLE, CALIFORNIA 95912
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Member of California Bee Breeders Association

1294 American Bee Journal

M
y apiary in Rolla, Missouri and survey for pests not currently in Department, put on his veil and
was among a dozen the U.S. like the smaller honey bee headed to my first colony. Another
Missouri bee yards this mite tropilaelaps. beekeeper and I were suited up so
fall participating for the first time To maximize the survey we cracked the lid and stopped.
in the National Honey Bee Survey. information-collecting effort, It was an overcast day, the girls
Missouri is the latest state to join samples will also be analyzed sounded quite cranky!
the National Honey Bee Disease for other honey bee diseases and After a brief pause so Lee could
Survey, representing the most parasites known to be present in put on his bee jacket, Lee told us
comprehensive US honeybee pest the U.S. as well as more than 170 what he needed - a typical brood
and disease survey to date. Funded pesticides. A recent worldwide frame with some empty comb and
annually since 2009 by the Animal study on honey confirms there live bees. Being careful that we
and Plant Health Inspection Service, are pesticides in 75% of all honey didn’t have a queen on the frame,
the survey provides essential honey samples processed, though many a little sugar water spray in a bowl
bee disease and pest baseline were trace detections. convinced ¼ cup of bees to stay long
information. The hive sampling process was enough for the live sample; another
During the winter of 2006-2007, simple. Once we found a relatively ¼ cup went into a wash solution for
35.8% of U.S. bee colonies died. level spot on my one acre hillside other for other testing.
Generally referred to as colony to set up a table, Lee Conner, Once the brood frame was empty,
collapse disorder, the massive die off with the Missouri Agriculture it was knocked on the table a few
was a wake-up call to commercial
food suppliers who depended on
bees for pollination. In particular,
the California almond fields faced
a year where they couldn’t get
enough hives to travel west so bee
import restrictions were lifted were
lifted to bring in Australian bee
genetics, and bees, to keep almond
fields pollinated.
By 2010, the imports were
suspended to keep exotic pests and
diseases from being introduced to
North America. To monitor what is
happening in bee colonies around
the country, the national survey
was started to establish a baseline
of information. Then year to year,
samples are checked for a variety of
diseases and pests to track potential Lee Conner works at a temporary table set up in my garden to collect bees for testing
issues developing in bee colonies later at the University of Maryland Bee Lab.

December 2017 1295

(L) The hive sampling paperwork was relatively simple to fill out. The information will be helpful to beekeepers nationwide. (R) Bees
ready to travel to University of Maryland Bee Land courtesy of US Postal Service. (Photos by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)
times to get a sample of material large scale sampling showed that To qualify for the survey, the apiary
on the frame. This is called a bump testing the brood comb was more has to have at least 10 colonies and
test and is used to sample for the informative for colony health. be within the geographic area they
pesky, diminutive cousin of varroa, One colony was done, another haven’t already sampled. A total of
called tropilaelaps. Small hive 7 to go. This national survey 24 apiaries are getting sampled in
beetles were taking off so I made collates all the samples from eight every state except California, where
sure some small hive beetle bodies colonies in a single apiary into one 48 apiaries will be sampled.
were in that pile. Then a quarter- large sample to provide a glimpse Charlotte Ekker Wiggins is
size of empty comb was removed into apiary health, as sample a beekeeper, advanced master
and placed in a separate container. processing is expensive. Once all gardener and Missouri State
This brood wax will be analyzed for of the samples were collected, Lee Beekeeping Association regional
pesticide residues. In the past the headed to the post office to ship the director. She also blogs about
survey collected stored pollen, but live samples off. beekeeping at homesweetbees.com.

1296 American Bee Journal

I
f you had the power to grant
$300,000 in annual research
grants, how would you choose
what to fund? The Rovaltain Foun-
dation – in Alixan, France – decided
to host researchers from all over the
world to discuss the most impor-
tant issues surrounding bee health.
From October 9th – 13th, 2017, I had
the pleasure of joining 18 other re-
searchers for the Hive of Science
for Bees pollinator workshop. Our
task? Suggesting the research tracks
of the future to guide Rovaltain’s
upcoming funding programs.
Our tiny group represented a
whopping thirteen countries: Ar-
gentina, Uruguay, Ethiopia, Japan,
the UK, France, Germany, Greece,
Switzerland, Israel, Japan, China,
and Canada. Oddly, the US was
not among them – although several
US researchers were invited, appar-
ently none were able to attend. We
all had different levels of experi-
ence, with some of us in our mid-
twenties (yours truly) and others
in their sixties. Nevertheless, some
themes spanned the generations.
Managed bees and wild bees
have dramatically different needs
First, we quickly realized that
we needed to separate discussions
of managed honey bees from wild
* Address: 436-2125 East Mall, Vancouver,
BC, CAN, V6T 1Z4
December 2017
bees. It’s tempting to talk about
‘bees’ as a single unit, but the two
groups have fundamentally differ-
ent challenges. One has personal
caregivers (beekeepers) and the
other does not. As I wrote about
in the May issue of American Bee
Journal, the global honey bee popu-
lation, in terms of sheer numbers,
is undeniably growing, although
this is clearly not without chal-
lenges.1 This growth is assisted by
beekeeper intervention, but even
still, there are regional fluctua-
tions in colony numbers, includ-
ing some major periods of decline.
Combined with having clear stake-
holders, this has led honey bees to
be given the most media attention.
They are now a go-to charismatic
mini-fauna, and sometimes turned
into clickbait with misleading head-
lines. Whether the media is accurate
or not, interest in honey bees has
surged, benefitting wild pollinators
in the process. Honey bees act like
gateway insects, bringing attention
to issues that affect wild pollinators
disproportionately.
Of all the bee species, honey bees
are probably the most resilient to
modern environmental challenges.
If there’s not enough forage, we
slap on a patty and fill their feed-
ers with syrup. If they catch a dis-
ease, we quarantine them and treat
with antibiotics. If their mite load is
high, we treat with acaricides. If the
winter is harsh, we wrap and con-
dense colonies. Wild bees, flies, but-
terflies, and beetles, however, are
spared only the devastation caused
by Varroa destructor. Unlike man-
aged bees, they are highly vulnera-
ble to their environment, including
a lack of appropriate habitat.
Habitat preservation and
targeted agricultural
pest control are top priorities
“One of the most important driv-
ers of the decline of wild bee pop-
ulations is habitat destruction,”
argued Peter Neumann, president
of COLOSS and professor at the In-
stitute of Bee Health in Switzerland.
“We get lost in the details, but we
need to focus on the major drivers if
we are going to change anything.”
As much as we would like to pre-
serve all pollinators, that is simply
not possible with current rates of
habitat destruction and extinction.
We concluded that we need a prior-
ity list of pollinator species to con-
serve. Ideally, such a list would be
based on “minimum regional polli-
nation units”: the species composi-
tion and population that can satisfy
the pollination demands of an eco-
system.
Another major driver affect-
ing bee health is, not surprisingly,
agro-chemical application. While
the villain-victim story between
neonicotinoids and honey bees
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is a now-famous example, it’s ar-
guably the wrong one: relative to
their cousins, honey bees tend to be
more resilient to toxins. This doesn’t
mean that it takes a higher dose to
kill them; instead, it’s a product of
their eusocialism. Since there are so
many individuals in a hive, if 1,000
honey bees die from poisoning, the
colony will live on (albeit weak-
ened) and the reproductive unit is
sustained for some time. The same
cannot be said for solitary bees and
other pollinators. It’s the hundreds
of thousands of other bee and non-
bee insect species that we should be
concerned about, and not because of
the impacts of neonics specifically,
but all pesticides.
I suggested settling the neonic
debate by doing a large-scale toxi-
cology study including neonic and
non-neonic pesticides as well as
bee and non-bee pollinators. This
would help determine which pesti-
cides and which doses are safest for
which pollinators, I argued, hope-
fully leading to actionable solutions
rather than banning an entire class
altogether. Neumann, however,
had something else in mind: “Cur-
rent pesticides use the shotgun ap-
proach. Instead, we need a sniper.”
I must agree with him. Big agricul-
ture and non-pest insect popula-
tions will be better-able to coexist
if we improve the specificity of
pest-killing with new methods al-
together. This could be in the form
of crop genetic engineering, better
integrated pest management (IPM),
or ideally, both.
Bt-corn, which has already been
used for about 20 years, is a great
example of a genetically engineered
crop that makes life safer for polli-
nators. True, corn is pollinated by
wind, but there are still plenty of
routes of exposure to corn pesticides
for pollinators (including foraging
on the corn pollen). Bt-corn was
developed to protect corn against
the European corn borer – a moth
whose larvae devastates corn fields.
The Bt-corn has been engineered to
synthesize its own insecticide (an
endotoxin normally produced by a
soil bacterium) which kills caterpil-
lars but doesn’t harm other insects.
Bees, flies, dragonflies, and beetles
are off the hook. What’s more,
non-target caterpillars are largely
spared, since the larvae need to ac-
tively consume the corn plant mate-
rial to be exposed to the toxin (no
sprays or seed coats involved). Bt-
pollen can blow onto milkweed and
kill monarch caterpillars, but we
need to remember the big picture:
is it better to harm monarchs, or to
harm monarchs, bees, flies, drag-
onflies, and beetles? I think this
technology is an asset to existing
pest-control methods, and similar
approaches should be incorporated
into IPM for more crops. There is
strong opposition against geneti-
cally modified crops, but if they
can reduce pesticide applications
without harming beneficial organ-
isms, they may prove significantly
healthier for our environment.
Politics and socioeconomics are
the major drivers of
managed bee population flux
In his 2016 paper in Agriculture,
ecosystems and environment2, Robin
Moritz – a professor at the Univer-
sity of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
– writes, “None of the colony num-
ber dynamics of the past 50 years,
neither increase nor decrease, show
any relation to the arrival of novel
pests or the use of novel pesticides
or toxins.” Moritz – who also at-
tended Hive of Science – argued
that the biggest drivers of managed
honey bee populations are political
and socioeconomic factors. It turns
out, booming oil industry is bad
for beekeeping. Civil wars and po-
litical coups are bad for beekeeping.
Military rule is bad for beekeep-
ing. Beekeepers live, die, change
professions, and cross borders for
a variety of reasons – and all these
things directly dictate regional and
national honey bee populations bet-
ter than the emergence of new pests
or pesticides.
Moritz presented this very work
at the Hive of Science meeting,
and to me, one message stood out:
regional challenges need regional
solutions. In Canada, honey bee
populations are increasing. In Swit-
zerland they’re decreasing. In South
America, the first regional surveys
are just now underway. Regional
challenges needing regional solu-
tions applies not only to politics
and socioeconomics, but also local
climate adaptation.

1298 American Bee Journal

 For honey bees, there are clearly
unique challenges for colony man-
agement in different geographic
locations. Although pests and agro-
chemicals may not be major drivers
of managed colony numbers on a
large scale, they are still significant
challenges for beekeepers locally
and the extent of their impact de-
pends on the regional climate and
habitat. At the Hive of Science meet-
ing, consensus was that a locally-
adapted bee is the healthiest bee
in the long term. I agree with this
view, but I’m aware that we have
a long way to go before the “going
local” approach (i.e., no imports)
is feasible for the North American
industry (if it ever is). Myself and
Pauleen Younger – a PhD student
at the University of Tokyo, whose
father ran an 800-colony operation
in the States – voiced something to
the effect of “Try telling that to the
industrial beekeeper who needs to
fill almond pollination contracts
after heavy winter losses.” No one
had a satisfying response to that.
In Canada, I think we have the
potential to satisfy nuc and queen
demands domestically, but I’m not
sure if the same thing can be said for
the US. It is a pity that there were no
US delegates at the meeting for me
to discuss this with. Up north, we
don’t have the massive demands of
the early almond bloom, which buys
us more time to satisfy the need for
bees at a regional level, rather than
importing. According to the queen
breeder and beekeeper surveys
Miriam Bixby and I wrote about in
the August issue of American Bee
Journal3, the temporal mismatch be-
tween when queens and nucs are
ready and when buyers need them
is perceived to be much greater than
it really is. But as long as there are
freak winter losses and high pollina-
tion demands, it probably won’t be
feasible to avoid imports entirely.
Hopefully, it could become a last re-
sort rather than habit.
Scientists, economists, and stake-
holders are on the same team
One of the Hive of Science at-
tendees – Siobhan Maderson – is
a social scientist from the UK. The
only social scientist attending. Her
work focuses on using beekeepers’
long-term observations to better
December 2017
understand local environmental
trends. “Beekeepers are a treasure TABE R ’ S on t he w e b ...
trove of information,” she argues,
urging us to incorporate beekeep-
ers’ knowledge in our own research.
Moreover, it is relatively easy to
come up with theoretical solutions
in the lab, or even in field trials, but
translating that knowledge into real
impacts and adoption in industry is
the challenge. Scientists and social
scientists – especially economists –
need to work together to develop
and implement sustainable solu-
tions; an idea which extends well Q ue e ns & P ac kag e s
beyond beekeeping. Maderson and
Yves Le Conte – the Research Di- N e w U SD A R us s i an
rector at the French National Insti-
tute for Agriculture Research – also
AR S Y ug os lav i ans
argue that we need better dialogue F r e e Br oc hur e C all
between scientists, farmers, contrac-
tors, and beekeepers. Like social
science collaboration, this kind of P h o ne 7 0 7 -4 4 9 -0 4 4 0
dialogue and knowledge translation
– in both directions – is necessary if F a x 7 0 7 -4 4 9 -8 1 2 7
we are going to adapt scientific ide- P .O . B o x1 6 7 2
als to fit real-world scenarios.
One idea for reaching society at
V a c a vil l e, C A9 5 6 9 6
w w w . h o ney b eegenetic s. c o m
large was proposed by Bertrand
Schatz, a researcher at the French
Center of Evolutionary and Func-
tional Ecology: developing a pol-
linator MOOC. MOOCs (massive
open online courses) are free, rela-
tively new educational tools that
have the potential to serve thou-
sands of ‘students’ who are not af-
filiated with an institution. MOOCs
are open to all ages and any country
– all that’s needed is an internet con-
nection. For a year, I was a teaching
assistant for one MOOC – “Use-
ful Genetics” – which has reached
nearly 10,000 students in its lifetime.
I am a huge supporter of creating
one for pollinators. The more peo-
ple who understand the nuances of
pollinator health and conservation,
the more heads we can put together
for problem solving.
Treatment-free beekeeping,
done right
I was surprised to learn that
treatment-free beekeeping initia-
tives seem to be well-supported in
Europe, and it appears to be the
chosen method of developing lo-
cally-adapted honey bees. When it’s
done right, it is a viable approach
(albeit slow) for producing disease-
and climate-hardy stock. In North
1299
 America, though, I worry about it
devolving into a dangerous fad. It’s
not something that’s suitable for the
inexperienced beekeeper. Randy
Oliver said it best in his blog post
Queens for Pennies: “Allowing do-
mesticated package colonies to die
year after year is not in any way,
shape, or form a contribution to the
breeding of mite-resistant stocks.
There is a vast difference between
breeding for survivor stock and
simply allowing commercial bees
to die from neglect.” Treatment-
free beekeeping can work, but only
with some solid education; on that
front, there is certainly room for us
to improve.
A major downside to treatment-
free beekeeping, though, is that it
takes a long time for natural selec-
tion to produce robust survivor
stock. I see our own marker-as-
sisted selective breeding initiatives
(MAS; described in the November
issue of American Bee Journal) as
being a complimentary approach.4
The MAS approach yields disease-
and pest-resistant colonies much
faster than treatment-free beekeep-
ing; however, there is a cost to the
beekeeper, incurred by screening
breeder colonies every year or two.
Furthermore, we currently don’t
have evidence to suggest that the
same protein markers we use for
selective breeding in Canada will be
equally effective for honey bees in,
for example, South America or Eu-
rope. I have high hopes for its use
in Canada and possibly the US, but
even there, combining the methods
will probably be beneficial.
Wrapping up
I admire the Rovaltain Founda-
tion’s initiative. They clearly want
to try something new to tackle is-
sues surrounding pollinator health,
and they exhibited outstanding gen-
erosity to us. Evidenced by funding
this workshop, the Foundation is
keen on filling research gaps via
carefully informed decisions, rather
than being guided by current poli-
tics or media. Rovaltain is built on
the core values of scientific rigor,
non-partisan thinking, inclusivity,
and transparency. Regarding the
latter, Rovaltain is now focused
on publishing the outcome of this
meeting to inform the rest of the
1300
Foundation as well as the public.
However, at the end of the week, I
still felt uneasy.
We had just spent four days dis-
cussing, heatedly, at times, research
tracks of the future. We say we
want to create a pollinator prior-
ity list, develop new, pest-specific
control methods, work together
with social scientists and beekeep-
ers, and maintain locally-adapted
stock. I think they’re fine ideas, but
post-workshop, I felt like we merely
stuck to the status quo – that is, we
were a bunch of researchers holler-
ing about big problems from behind
our desks. Once again, the discus-
sion was solely in the hands of bi-
ologists (except for Maderson, who,
I must add, was one of the meeting’s
biggest assets), when it needs to in-
volve more social scientists, stake-
holders, and citizens. Maybe then,
we will finally start to understand
each other, collaborate, and imple-
ment the solutions we so fervently
discuss. Including this diversity of
viewpoints is critical to finding prac-
tical solutions that work.
Acknowledgements
This workshop was funded by
members of the Rovaltain Foun-
dation: Compagnie Nationale du
Rhône, the Lune de miel Founda-
tion, and the Direction Régionale de
l’Environnement, de l’Aménagement
et du Logement.
References
1. McAfee, A. Points of debate: Exploring
pollinator misconceptions. American Bee
Journal. (2017). 157(5): 537-8.
2. Moritz, RFA and Erler, S. Lost colonies
found in a data mine: Global honey trade
but not pests or pesticides as a major cause
of regional honeybee colony declines.
Agriculture, ecosystems and environment.
(2016). 216: 44-50.
3. Bixby, M and McAfee, A. Growing Can-
ada’s queen breeding industry: Results
from the 2016 – 2017 queen breeder sur-
vey. American Bee Journal. (2017). 157(8):
893-5.
4. Guarna MM et al. Peptide biomarkers
used for the selective breeding of a com-
plex polygenic trait in honey bees. Scien-
tific Reports. (2017). 7(8381): 1-10.
American Bee Journal
 E. Suhre Bees
P ac kag e Be e s av ai lab le Ap r i l and M ay

Q ue e ns av ai lab le Ap r i l t hr oug h O c t ob e r

F or i nf or m at i on, p r i c i ng or or de r i ng

c all E r i c ( 5 3 0 ) 2 2 8 -3 1 9 7

December 2017 1301

1302 American Bee Journal
 It’s been nearly 25 years since I saw the first varroa mite in one of my hives,
and it’s been a wild ride since then. Not only for our bees, but also for the
business of beekeeping, in which we’ve been forced to adapt and evolve.
A
s my sons Eric and Ian take over the beekeep-
ing operation in which they grew up, I look back
over the challenges and changes in beekeeping
over the course of their lives. The invasions of tracheal
mite, varroa, the Small Hive Beetle, and Nosema cera-
nae—each with devastating consequences. A changing
climate, with shorter winters and longer droughts. A
shift from focusing upon honey production to almond
pollination income. The change from moving my hives
to idyllic summertime pastures of weedy, long-bloom-
ing alfalfa, to supplemental feeding of pollen subs and
sugar syrup. And most importantly, being a witness
to, and participant in, the rapidly-occurring coevolu-
tion between our bees, the varroa mite, its associated
viruses, and beekeeping practices.
The stopgap measure for varroa management relied
upon by most professional beekeepers—regular appli-
cations of effective synthetic miticides—does not appear
to be sustainable. On the other hand, there are more and
more reports of bees naturally evolving some degree of
resistance to the mite. Some time ago, I consulted my
crystal ball for a peek into the future, and decided that
I needed to focus upon three goals:
1. To better understand varroa, its population dy-
namics, and the biological ways by which bees de-
velop resistance to the mite. This led me to create
the mite model which this article is about.
2. To get serious about figuring out how to selec-
tively breed for mite-resistant bees. To this end I
will continue my Walking the Walk reports on my
December 2017
progress of my attempt to demonstrate an eco-
nomically and practical breeding program.
3. And finally, for mite management during the tran-
sition to naturally-resistant stock, to find a sustain-
able and safe varroa control product for use during
the heat of summer—one that doesn’t contaminate
the honey or the combs. For this I’m focusing upon
obtaining registration of the extended-release ap-
plication method for oxalic acid in glycerin.
I’m happy to report that I feel that I’m now on track
towards achieving all the above goals1—and it feels
pretty good! So let’s return to see what we can learn
from my varroa model.
STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS
When an artist completes a masterpiece, no one
would think to add another brushstroke. This is not the
case for my mite model! I’m under no illusion that it is
a “done thing”—I’ve already uploaded several revised
versions since first posting it.2
Most beekeepers using the model need not go be-
yond simply choosing an appropriate “Colony” type,
entering a mite number to reflect their observed alcohol
wash counts, and then seeing the effects of applying
treatments. Other, more motivated beekeepers, will, I
hope, send me spreadsheets with observed in-hive val-
ues for frames of bees, amount of brood, and percent
drone brood over the course of the year for their specific
ecoregion—which would then allow us to customize
the model for beekeeping anywhere in the world.
1303
 And then I invited those with a great interest to go
deeper into the assumptions and calculations used in
the spreadsheet to continually improve it. At this point,
however, let’s go under the assumption that the model
produces fairly accurate simulations, and see what we
can learn from it.

ADJUSTING THE MODEL FOR

YOUR BEES AND REGION
Maybe some of you have already played with the
model. One can generically learn about mite manage-
ment by using the Default “colony” setting, but the
model is far more useful if you fine tune it for your
specific conditions and management. The model con-
sistently reproduces the observed alcohol wash counts
in my own operation and those from other data sets.3
But if the simulations don’t match the mite counts in
your own hives, first confirm that the bee, brood, and
drone brood settings on the “colony” tab accurately re-
flect what actually occurs in your hives, and then use
the “advanced” settings to adjust the mite buildup rate
to match what you observe.

LEARNING FROM THE MODEL

RESISTANCE AND SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS4
One of the most interesting things to play with in the
model is to change the variables for number of daugh-
ter mites per foundress, their success at getting mated,
the mortality rate of the mites (perhaps due to groom-
ing behavior by the bees), as well as the attractiveness
of the brood cells to the mite.5

Practical application: I’m surprised at how little it

would take for bees to improve their resistance to var-
roa—perhaps most easily by engaging in “the battle
of the pheromones”.6
INTERPRETING THE ALCOHOL WASH
The simulations indicate that during spring buildup,
the alcohol wash mite count increases at a much slower
rate than does the hive’s total mite population.7 This is
because early in the season, a lower percentage of the
mites are phoretic—since most will be in the brood (see
the last column in Fig. 1).
Practical application: don’t be misled by low al-
cohol wash counts early in the season—the varroa
population is growing at it most rapid clip at that
time, due to the youthful mite population, the high
brood-to-bee ratio, and the abundance of drone
cells.
What I soon realized was that alcohol wash counts
need to be carefully interpreted—they do not necessar-
ily reflect the actual rate of mite buildup. This is be-
cause the percentage of mites that are phoretic varies
greatly over the course of the season (refer to the last
column above). Note that on the first of May, roughly
80% of the mites may be hidden in the brood, and thus
not be reflected by a sampling of adult bees. To illus-
trate, I took the values from a similar simulation, and
plotted them in a different manner (Fig. 2).
Figure 1. Note in the graphic how the alcohol wash count (in
blue) may not be alarming clear through mid July, yet the mite
population in the hive has grown tenfold (as indicated in sec-
ond column of the table). Note also how the mite population
increases at a much greater rate during spring buildup than it
does later in the summer, as indicated by the “r” values in the
third column.
This doesn’t at all mean that the alcohol wash isn’t
useful, but rather that it needs to be interpreted appro-
priately. During swarming season (when there is lots
of sealed worker and drone brood) the vast majority of
the mites will be in the brood, and alcohol wash counts
will read low (Fig. 1). Then for most of the summer,
roughly half the mites are in the brood at any time8,
and the alcohol wash gets back on track. In September
and October, as the colony cuts back on broodrearing,
alcohol wash counts may skyrocket—especially if there
is much mite immigration due to drift from more highly-
infested hives.9
Practical application: there is no single “treatment
threshold”—a mite count of 1 may be cause for con-
cern in May, whereas a count of 10 may be acceptable
(to some) as the bees are wrapping up broodrearing
in autumn. By happy chance, the alcohol wash pretty
accurately reflects the degree of overall mite infesta-
tion from July through September.

1304 American Bee Journal


Figure 2. In this typical simulation for a mid-country colony,
the alcohol wash count from 1 March through 1 July went from
about 1 to 5, whereas the total mite population increased 18-
fold. This is because during the period of active broodrearing
early in the season, a greater proportion of the mites are in the
brood, and thus not reflected in an alcohol wash. Fortunately,
the alcohol wash tracks the total mite buildup rate more accu-
rately during the critical July through September time period.
I added dotted lines to indicate how the rates of increase are
similar during the July through mid October period.
EFFECT OF IMMIGRATION
There has been much discussion of late about “mite
bombs” and “mite drift.” In order to account for this
in the model, I downloaded several data sets in which
researchers had counted the number of mites entering
mite-free monitored colonies—via drift and/or rob-
bing (some of the measured numbers were surprisingly
high). So the model allows the user to set one of five
values for mite immigration, depending upon how many
colonies crashing from mites are within flight range.
What the simulations indicate is that late-season mite
drift can easily push a colony past the tip point (Fig. 3).
Note that the colony on the left would likely have sur-
vived the winter, but it would start the next year with
four times as many mites, and would not survive the
next season without treatment.
Practical application: I find that it makes a big dif-
ference which setting I use for mite immigration,
Figure 3. Two identical simulations for a colony started from a nuc in April—changing only the amount of mite immigration. The
1200 mite figure is high, but unfortunately quite realistic if one’s apiary is surrounded by apiaries suffering from late-season colony
losses due to lack of mite management.10
December 2017
especially following an August treatment. In some
urban areas, incoming mites can frustrate those dili-
gently attempting to manage varroa.11
THE AMOUNT OF DRONE BROOD
Mites reproduce more successfully in drone brood
than they do in worker brood. So it’s reasonable to
ask just how important (or feasible) it is to manage the
amount of available drone cells in the hive. According
to a meticulous study by Allen12, a colony will typi-
cally allocate up to 5% of its brood area to the rearing of
drones. But if there is an excess of drone comb available,
they may rear up to 20% drone brood. Running simula-
tions, if I increase the amount of drone brood from 5%
to 10%, it makes a substantial difference in the rate of
mite increase.
Practical application: if you are not using founda-
tion or are inserting drone combs, it may be wise to
keep tabs on how much of that comb your colonies
are using for rearing drone brood. Conversely, the
model allows for mite trapping in drone frames as a
“treatment.”
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE MODEL
The utility of a having a model for varroa is explained
by Wilkinson.13
A robust and flexible model of varroa in a honey bee colony
can be a very useful tool to improve our understanding of
varroa population dynamics, and to highlight the more ac-
curate monitoring methods, and the more promising control
regimes.
Well put. As I’ve slowly developed this model, I’ve
found it to be very useful for deciding upon my own
management decisions regarding mite control. As an
example, allow me to run a simulation with which I’m
quite familiar—that for the colonies that we split 4 ways
into nucs after almonds (Fig. 4).
There you go—have at it with the mite model. Cre-
ate your own management schemes and test them out.
Have fun!
1305
Figure 4. Our typical mite management for those colonies that we split 4 ways in the spring.14 I adjusted the rates of mite buildup
and immigration to match what I typically observe in our California operation. In some years, we may need to do an additional thy-
mol or formic treatment in late September or October. Note that we knock the mites way down before we begin stimulative protein
feeding in September. Since our colonies often don’t go completely broodless, I didn’t show a high efficacy for the winter oxalic
dribble. Note that we make a point of rotating treatments.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 7 This is further exacerbated by the problem that in order to get

Thanks as always to Pete Borst for research assis-
tance, and to all the dedicated and hard-working bee
researchers from whose publications I draw useful in-
formation.
NOTES AND CITATIONS
1 I’ve of course still got other irons in the fire, such as the devel-
opment of better pollen subs, different hive configurations, and
improved application methods for thymol and formic acid.
2 http://scientificbeekeeping.com/randys-varroa-model/
3 There is a large degree of hive-to-hive variation in mite buildup
rates in my own operation (this is what allows me to perform selec-
tive breeding for mite resistance), but the model pretty accurately
predicts median values for what I observe in the field.
4 Sensitivity analysis with regard to a varroa model such as this refers
to the user’s ability to tweak the input variables, in order to deter-
mine which treatments, timing, management methods, or traits for
mite resistance would likely be most effective.
5 In some mite-resistant colonies, the phoretic period of questing
mites appears to be increased. This may have to do with the attrac-
tiveness of 5th-instar larvae to questing mites. The trait appears
to be highly heritable--refer to Table 2 in Harbo, JR & JW Har-
ris (1999) Selecting honey bees for resistance to Varroa jacobsoni.
Apidologie 30: 183-196.
6 Anderson, D (2006) Clarification of aspects of Varroa reproduc-
tion—first stage of a possible new control method. RIRDC Pub.
No. 06/007. “The simplest [approach for producing varroa-resistant
bees] would be to search for A. mellifera populations that produce a
[kairomonal] signal profile that is outside the receptive range of the
Korea and Japan genotypes of V. destructor. Such bees could be easily
propagated in isolation to produce varroa-resistant bee lines.”
the model’s output chart to fit the maximum bee populations
and maximum alcohol wash counts, I needed to use two differ-
ent scales on the y-axes. This makes the slope of the alcohol wash
count curve appear less steep than it actually is relative to the
curve for the total mite population.
8 I got a very nice data set from Dr. Katie Lee in support of this. For
a nice visual, see Fig. 3 in Rinderer, TE, et al (2001) Resistance to
the parasitic mite Varroa destructor in honey bees from far-eastern
Russia. Apidologie 32 (2001) 381–394 381.
9 If all hives within flight range have the same mite infestation rate,
there wouldn’t be any net change due to drift. A positive value for
mite immigration only occurs when there are “mite bombs” in the
vicinity—the roughly 10% of hives (in my operation) in which the
mite population explodes, and especially if those mite bombs get
robbed out as they collapse.
10 Frey, E & P Rosenkranz (2014) Autumn invasion rates of Varroa
destructor (Mesostigmata: Varroidae) into honey bee (Hymenop-
tera: Apidae) colonies and the resulting increase in mite popula-
tions. Journal of Economic Entomology, 107(2):508-515. I also consulted
a number of other studies for hard data.
11 I’ve reviewed weekly mite counts taken by beekeepers in some
urban areas in which mite drift is a real problem. They can get
their mite counts to zero in August, but need to keep treating as
mites flood in from their neighbors.
12 Allen, MD (1965) The effect of a plentiful supply of drone comb on
colonies of honey bees. Journal of Apicultural Research 4(2): 109-119.
13 Wilkinson, D & GC Smith (2002) A model of the mite parasite,
Varroa destructor, on honeybees (Apis mellifera) to investigate pa-
rameters important to mite population growth. Ecological Model-
ling 148: 263 – 275.
14 I still need to confirm alcohol wash counts for October and No-
vember, for which I don’t have much data.

1306 American Bee Journal

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1308 American Bee Journal

BEEKEEPERS
THE GENERATION
Across
NEXT
1 . H o n e y b e e s s t o r e c o l l e c t e d p o l l e n i n p o l l e n b as k e t s o n t h e i r
_ _ _ _ _ _ le g s .
3. A honey bee larva grows rapidly. It passes through five growth
s p u r t s , c a lle d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ,
molting from one to the next.
5. One warm winter days when bees can forage, but no pollen is
available, they sometimes collect
coffee grounds and _______, which both look a little like pollen.
7. When two worker bees have the same father, they share 75% of
their genes. Scientists call this close relationship ______ sisters.
8. Bees sometimes make strange colored _______ by collecting
b r i g h t l y c o l o r e d s u g ar s y r u p .
10. Some flowers make their nectar more desirable by producing
_______, which causes the bees to dance more enthusiastically
w h e n t h e y r e t u r n t o t h e h iv e .

D ow n Help the bees find their way home

2 . T h e b e e s w i t h t h e b i g g e s t e y e s i n a c o l o n y ar e _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .
4. A w o r k e r b e e e m e r g e s as an ad u l t i n t w e n t y - o n e d a y s , w h i l e a q u e e n t ak e s j u s t _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .
. he giant honey bee s scientific name is Apis _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .
9 . B e e s h a v e t h r e e s i m p l e e y e s t h a t d e t e c t l i g h t c al le d _ _ _ _ _ _ .

An sw e rs t o l a st m on t h ’ s crossw ord p u z z l e .

1310 American Bee Journal

1310
H O N E Y B E E C O M M U N I C AT I O N
oney bees use the figure 8 shaped waggle dance to communicate the direction and distance of food.
ou and your friends can use the waggle dance like a secret language to communicate the direction of
a snack, or any hidden ob ect
M a k i n g Y ou r N e ct a r N a v i g a t or:
1. olor in each part of the ectar avigator with
markers, crayons or colored pencils.
. arefully cut out each part with scissors along the
U si n g Y ou r N e ct a r N a v i g a t or:
It s most fun to use if you have at least two people or two
dotted lines.
groups. One will play the forager, the other acts as the
3. lace the smaller circle on top of the larger one.
hive mates.
. ush a metal fastener through the center of both
circles and fasten securely.
Forager: hide an ob ect outside. oint the avigator s sun
5. et ready to navigate
symbol towards the sun. If playing inside, make your own
sun. urn the upper dial at the hidden ob ect. eturn to
the hive. oint the sun symbol at the hive s entrance. o
the waggle dance, shaking your abdomen while walking
in the direction of the number. ancing fast means the
ob ect is near dancing slowly means it is far away.

Hive mates: observe the orager s dance. o outside.

oint the avigator s at the real sun outside or the imagi
nary one inside. Search for the ob ect in the direction of
the arrow. Whoever finds the ob ect first gets to be the
next orager.

The Nectar Navigator was created by Louise Lynch, PhD. You can download a free student &
teacher lesson packet from beeslouise.com, click on lesson plans, then scroll to the one on honey
bee communication. The student packet contains a printable version of the nectar navigator.

December 2017 1311

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1312 American Bee Journal


H
aving spent 36 months think-
ing together about the social
evolution of the honey bee,
it’s worth pausing to reflect that the
whole social enterprise rises or falls
on the system’s ability to rein in in-
dividual selfishness. E.O. Wilson,
the “father of sociobiology” and Pu-
litzer prize winning science writer,
reminds us that we humans are
eusocial organisms like the honey
bees, products of natural selection
acting at two levels – the level of
individual and the level of group.
We need both: individual selection
promotes fit and vigorous mem-
bers, while group selection pro-
motes harmony and cooperation.
But these two levels are unavoid-
ably in tension, their interests only
partly aligned. Selfish behavior
may succeed in the short term and
its genes spread within a group, but
if those selfish genes undermine the
competitiveness of the group, then
ultimately the group dies and those
selfish genes go extinct. All things
equal, a group of altruists will prob-
ably out-last a group of selfish nar-
cissists. Or, as E.O. Wilson puts it,
“. . . individual selection promoted
sin, while group selection promoted
virtue.1”
Compromise between individual
and group interests is therefore
necessary if lower levels of biologi-
cal organization will ever coalesce
to form higher ones, whether it’s
cells cooperating to form an organ-
ism, workers cooperating to form a
colony, or humans cooperating to
build a stable society. Wilson again
humanizes the abstraction:
December 2017
Anarchy in Paradise
“So it came to pass that hu-
mans are forever conflicted by
their prehistory of multilevel
selection. They are suspended
in unstable and constantly
changing positions between
the two extreme forces that cre-
ated us. We are unlikely to yield
completely to either force as
the ideal solution to our social
and political turmoil. To give
in completely to the instinctual
urgings born from individual
selection would be to dissolve
society. At the opposite extreme,
to surrender to the urgings from
group selection would turn us
into angelic robots – the out-
sized equivalents of ants.1”
Cooperation is the answer, and
it’s a great understatement to say
that cooperation is a winning strat-
egy in Earth’s natural history. Co-
operation is the dynamic that leads
to organisms, and organisms are
the things life works with. Every
one of our bodies is a testament to
the success of organismality – the
bundling together of lower biologi-
cal entities into more-or-less coop-
erative and contiguous genomes:
cells coalescing into tissues coalesc-
ing into organisms coalescing into
superorganisms coalescing into
communities: where will it end?
Organisms are the operative unit
in biology; where there is life, there
are organisms. And for beekeepers,
it should warm our hearts to know
that in the honey bee colony we see
the very same evolutionary pro-
cesses recapitulated that give rise
to all organisms. Queller and Stras-
smann put it this way: “The evo-
lution of organismality is a social
process. All organisms originated
from groups of simpler units that
now show high cooperation among
the parts and are nearly free of con-
flicts. We suggest that this near-
unanimous cooperation be taken as
the defining trait of organisms.2”
But notice that these authors
call that cooperation “near-unan-
imous.” As breath-taking as the
scope of social evolution is, we can-
not forget that evolution is optimi-
zation, not perfection. Among those
coalesced genomes bundled into or-
ganisms such as we, there are a few
programmed to go rogue and rebel
against the larger genome to which
they are attached; indeed, among
the necessary steps toward organ-
ismality is the synchronous emer-
gence of checks and balances to
constrain this very thing. But those
constraints don’t always work. If
the constraints break down in meta-
zoan organisms such as humans,
then those rogue genomes – we call
them cancer cells – reproduce un-
checked with devastating results to
the organism. In superorganisms
such as a honey bee colony there
are also cancer “cells,” but these are
reproductively active worker bees
variously called outlaws, social
parasites, or anarchists – workers
that evade the checks and balances
that keep other workers passively
content raising their mother’s sons
and daughters.
The power of kin selection theory
is its ability to predict reproductive
1313
and behavioral outcomes based
on genetic relationships that exist
inside the colony. I have talked
about these relationships numer-
ous times in this column and have
summarized them in Figure 1. In
general, the theory predicts that
an individual will behave in a way
that optimizes the transmission of
its genes. Obviously, direct repro-
duction is ideal because (in diploid
organisms) one gets to pass on 50%
of one’s genes. But in a social col-
ony there are many constraints on
a worker’s direct reproduction, and
there’s a good reason for this: work-
ers that switch to egg laying invari-
ably stop doing work on behalf of
the colony.3,4
One of the constraints imposed
on worker reproduction are phero-
mones produced by the queen and
brood that suppress most workers’
ovaries. Another constraint is prac-
ticed by the workers themselves
against each other, so-called “en-
forced altruism” or mutual “po-
licing” – the behavior by which
workers eat each others’ eggs (see
June 2015 column). Figure 1 helps
us understand the genetic rewards
of worker mutual policing. A “law
abiding” worker would rather help
her mother rear brothers (25% genes
in common), half-sisters (25%), and
especially an occasional supersister
(75%) than help a half-sister rear a
nephew with whom she shares only
12.5% genes in common. This is a
genetic no-brainer, especially con-
sidering that raising nephews, and
rewarding her half-sister’s anarchist
behavior, would lead to social disor-
der. Better that we all compromise a
little and keep the colony intact. Or
put a different way, ovary-inhibit-
ing pheromones and worker mutual
policing are the superorganism’s
evolved safeguards against cancer.
In normal European honey bee
colonies, these constraints are pow-
erful enough to keep worker ovary
development rates at no more than
1% of the worker population.5 But
these constraints only make sense
in the context of a properly func-
tioning queen. In the event a queen

Genetic relationships within a honey bee colony. Numbers are percentage of genes held in common by descent. Situations are given
for a monandrous colony (queen mated to one male) on the left and polyandrous colony (queen mated to multiple males) on right.
Each situation is simplified for this drawing; in nature, it is rare for a queen to mate with only one male or as few as two, but this does
not alter the values presented nor the concepts. Q=queen; D=drone, and W=worker. Drones colored blue or red are represented
in the queen’s spermatheca and indicate fathers of their respective blue or red patrilines and descendants. Non-colored (black and
white) drones derive entirely from the queen’s genome and have no necessary kinship with spermathecal drones. Because drones
are haploid, each possessing only one set of chromosomes, there is no chromosomal crossing-over during sperm formation as
occurs in diploid animals. Each of a drone’s sperm thus carries his entire nuclear genome; it is this “hyper-relatedness” of a drone
with his daughters that is the basis for supersisters – workers sharing the same father – possessing 75% of their genes in common.
A relationship of zero does not mean there are no genes in common, only that the relationship is no closer than that of the popula-
tion average. Anarchist workers are those that evade the colony’s normal constraints against worker egg laying and produce sons.

1314 American Bee Journal

is lost and workers are unable to
replace her, not only is her phero-
mone-based suppression of worker
ovaries removed, but so are the
genetic incentives for law-abiding
behavior. Faced with the choice
of rearing nephews, workers now
have every incentive to rear sons.
Hence, queenless workers famously
activate their ovaries, abandon nest
duties, and lay eggs – with disas-
trous results for the colony. There’s
a reason beekeepers call hopelessly
queenless colonies, well, hopeless:
not only are workers unreplen-
ished, but those that remain are ei-
ther egg-layers themselves or too
socially handicapped to sustain the
brood nest. Not all queenless work-
ers join the egg-laying bandwagon;
the propensity to activate one’s
ovaries is higher in young workers6
and certain subfamily lines.7 But the
ensuing social collapse is general:
worker lifespans decrease, colonies
lose weight, and colony defensive
responses decline.4
Technically, the genetic argument
for abandoning mutual policing ap-
plies every time there is queen suc-
cession; after all, with a new queen
the house bees are now producing
nieces, the vast majority with whom
they share only 12.5% genes in com-
mon (with a beekeeper-supplied
queen, the relationship is zero). But
in a normal succession the inter-
ruption of queen pheromone sig-
nal is brief, or in the case of brood
pheromone zero, leaving no time to
permit activation of worker ovaries.
Indeed, such a threat of “genetic
mutiny” may explain the evolution-
ary persistence of pheromone-based
suppression of worker ovaries. It
acts as a redundant constraint on
worker egg laying independent of
the workers.
So, we see that natural selection
has, in the main, rewarded colony-
level constraints that protect the
integrity of the group. This is consis-
tent with an over-arching vector in
natural history toward organismal-
ity, the whole in favor to the part,
or “virtue” over “sin” in the words
of E.O. Wilson. But it is equally true
that natural history documents that
selfishness is powerfully adaptive.
The persistence of cancers, whether
organismal or superorganismal, is
testimony that self-interest pays.
December 2017
It pays so well that some honey
bee worker lineages have figured
out how to circumvent the colony’s
constraints, lay eggs, and rear them
to functional drones, even in the
presence of a queen. These so-called
anarchist colonies persist with large
numbers of workers sporting acti-
vated ovaries. In order to rear their
“outlaw sons,” anarchist workers
must be able to (1) activate their
ovaries in the presence of phero-
monal inhibition, and (2) their eggs
must be able to escape policing.
Each of these traits appears to be
independent, and their occurrence
in some, but not all, subfamilies in
a colony underscores that anarchist
behavior is under genetic control.
This was soundly confirmed by ex-
perimenters in Australia who were
able to selectively breed an anar-
chist line of honey bee.8 While the
pheromones of anarchist queens
appear normal in the sense that
they repress ovary development
in anarchist workers9, the same is
not true of anarchist brood.10 And
when it comes to policing, anar-
chist workers lay eggs that appear
more acceptable to other workers,
and the anarchists themselves are
less likely to engage in policing
behavior.8
By dodging the colony’s con-
straints and coopting the colony’s
brood-rearing machinery, these
cheating anarchists appear to be
winning the genetic jackpot – the
transmittal of 50% of their genes.
The only thing that keeps it from
being outright parasitism is the
fact that the perpetrators per-
form their mischief in their own
natal colonies. So, a natural ques-
tion arises: why doesn’t anarchy
spread more generally in honey
bee populations?
To-date, the best mechanism lim-
iting the spread of anarchy appears
to be the fact that eggs of anarchist
queens are removed at a significantly
higher rate than non-anarchist
queens.11 The removal of queen-laid
eggs constitutes a cost to all members
of the colony, anarchist subfamilies
and non-anarchist alike, hence sup-
plying an evolutionary push-back
against unchecked selfishness.
If this is true, then policing an-
archist queens may constitute yet
another, perhaps the latest, colony-
level adaptive check on worker self-
ishness. If E.O. Wilson is right that
social evolution entails an eternal
tension between self- and group-
interest, then I can’t help but root
for the group interests. This bias for
the beauty of coordinated groups,
I think, is behind the sense of maj-
esty and awe we beekeepers feel as
we work a teeming hive on a sunny
afternoon. Against such a won-
der, a bunch of self-serving lone
rangers appear rather small and
uninteresting.
References
1 WILSON, E. O. 2014. The meaning of human
existence, WW Norton & Company.
2 QUELLER, D. C. & STRASSMANN, J.
E. 2009. Beyond society: the evolution of
organismality. Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364,
3143-3155.
3 HILLESHEIM, E., KOENIGER, N. &
MORITZ, R. 1989. Colony performance
in honeybees (Apis mellifera capensis Esch.)
depends on the proportion of subordinate
and dominant workers. Behavioral Ecology
and Sociobiology, 24, 291-296.
4 DELAPLANE, K. S. & HARBO, J. R.
1987b. Effect of queenlessness on worker
survival, honey gain and defence behav-
iour in honeybees. journal of Apicultural
Research, 26, 37-42.
5 VISSCHER, P. K. 1996. Reproductive con-
flict in honey bees: a stalemate of worker
egg-laying and policing. Behavioral Ecology
and Sociobiology, 39, 237-244.
6 DELAPLANE, K. S. & HARBO, J. R.
1987a. Drone production by young versus
old worker honeybees in queenless colo-
nies. Apidologie, 18, 115-120.
7 CHÂLINE, N., RATNIEKS, F. & BURKE,
T. 2002. Anarchy in the UK: Detailed ge-
netic analysis of worker reproduction in
a naturally occurring British anarchistic
honey bee, Apis mellifera, colony using
DNA microsatellites. Molecular ecology, 11,
1795-1803.
8 OLDROYD, B. P. & RATNIEKS, F. L.
2000. Evolution of worker sterility in
honey-bees (Apis mellifera): how anarchis-
tic workers evade policing by laying eggs
that have low removal rates. Behavioral
ecology and sociobiology, 47, 268-273.
9 HOOVER, S., OLDROYD, B. P.,
WOSSLER, T. & WINSTON, M. 2005.
Anarchistic queen honey bees have normal
queen mandibular pheromones. Insectes so-
ciaux, 52, 6-10.
10 OLDROYD, B., WOSSLER, T. & RAT-
NIEKS, F. 2001. Regulation of ovary
activation in worker honey bees (Apis mel-
lifera): larval signal production and adult
response thresholds differ between anar-
chistic and wild-type bees. Behavioral Ecol-
ogy and Sociobiology, 50, 366-370.
11 BEEKMAN, M., MARTIN, S. J., DRI-
JFHOUT, F. & OLDROYD, B. P. 2007.
Higher removal rate of eggs laid by anar-
chistic queens—a cost of anarchy? Behav-
ioral ecology and sociobiology, 61, 1847-1853.
1315
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1316 American Bee Journal

F
aced with his first swarm call,
Charles DeBarber writes the
following in a letter entitled
A Veteran’s Journey: “The excite-
ment of loading up my truck with
a plastic tub and half-cocked set
up was akin to a kid at Christmas.
I’ll remember giving them my first
swarm shake until the day I die.”
He then contemplates the swarm
while having dinner observing its
behavior. “They were my first bees
and my most industrious. They re-
warded me with an entire medium
of surplus honey that 4th of July...”
With the above statement, the
tone of the letter shifts significantly
from one of listing setbacks as a
veteran released from the service
in 2014. “My first year out...getting
proper care for my three special
needs children, working to mend a
broken marriage, and trying to find
myself professionally...resulted in
calls to the VA’s crisis line a couple
of times a month.” He could “per-
sonally attest to the despair many
disabled veterans feel post service’
who leave with limited options,
often resulting in loss of sense of
identity.”
Mr. DeBarber continues: “I can’t
put my finger on it, but no matter
how bad I’m feeling or how frus-
trated life can be, sitting down and
simply watching the girls come and
go gives me peace.” Beekeeping
December 2017
also resulted in a greater penchant
for patience in general, concluding,
“Two years into my journey, I’m in
the best place in my life. Apiculture
renewed the confidence I had lost in
myself. They (the bees) might have
saved my life.”
West Virginian Tim Polling “never
imagined his life would take him
around the world and back again.”
Serving as a chaplain in the Air Force,
he worked in the Middle East (Des-
ert Storm) and also during hurricane
Katrina, as well as the Afghanistan
campaigns. In 2009, he was assigned
to the 436th Airlift Wing, Dover Air
Force Base, Chaplins’ Team for Mor-
tuary Operations. Unfortunately, he
was forced to retire after suffering
“dissociative episodes,” and later
found himself close to commit-
ting suicide, before he realized he
needed, and asked for help.
After attending an introductory
beekeeping course and talking with
other vets, he decided to “give it a
go,” and started with a single col-
ony. Two years later, “his girls” are
his refuge. “This is therapy...I come
out here and talk to my girls and
they talk to me.” The shift has been
miraculous, according to his wife.
He’s more relaxed at home. It brings
him peace. Reported in The Market
Bulletin, West Virginia Department
of Agriculture, “A True Bee-liever,”
Vol. 101, July 2017
The sense of creating a new “self”
seems to be omnipresent in many
who take up beekeeping. Two areas
where it is most apparent along
with veteran’s experiences, are
prisons and the developing world.
A quick search on the World Wide
Web of “prisoners and beekeeping”
yields a raft of links on this subject.
Recently, on a trip to Latin America
visiting the Nicaragua Bee Project,
discussion with the project’s guru,
Dr. Mike Baur, revealed something
he discovered while teaching bee-
keeping to rural campesinos. Yes,
they were enthusiastic because the
craft offered them some additional
income, but most importantly the
activity provided something intan-
gible, yet possibly far more valu-
able, a “profession they could call
their own.”
The challenges faced by veterans
upon release from service are legion.
A fact sheet from the Veteran’s Ad-
ministration lists two pages of major
adjustments. The statistics are not
encouraging:
“A new RallyPoint/Rasmussen
Reports national survey of active
and retired military personnel finds
that 38% consider the transition
back to civilian life to be the most
significant challenge facing vet-
erans today. Twenty-four percent
think finding civilian employment
is the greatest challenge, while 13%
1317
say that of health care. Nine percent
each rate post-traumatic stress dis-
order (PTSD) and personal finances
as the biggest challenge facing vet-
erans today. When it comes to civil-
ian employment, just 34% of mili-
tary personnel believe most private
companies view military experience
as a professional asset. Slightly more
(38%) disagree. Twenty-eight per-
cent are undecided.”
Enter Colonel Gary La Grange, a
seventy-five-year-old retired Army
officer, who believes that two cur-
rently distressed populations in
the United States working together
could produce a renaissance of
sorts. His statistics reveal that a gap
exists between the current popula-
tion of farmers and a large num-
ber of folks specifically adapted
to become the next generation of
agriculturalists, veterans and tran-
sitioning service members. The av-
erage age of farmers in the U.S. is
approaching 60 with 40% over 65.
Sixty-three percent of farms may be
in their last generation. Succession
planning is critical to the country’s
farming future. At the same time,
2.3 million veterans and transition-
ing service members are looking
for a meaningful way of life. A high
percentage of them indicate an inter-
est in farming, many coming from
rural, agricultural families.
A pathway to farming is needed,
therefore, and can be provided by
the right kind of education and train-
ing. The Servicemember Agricul-
tural Vocation Education, or S.A.V.E
farm, Colonel La Grange is currently
developing can be a “home-like”
center, where those being trained
can begin to heal as part of their
agricultural education. In a recent
interview, credit is given to Gary’s
daughter, Shari LaGrange-Aulich,
a clinical psychologist, specializing
in PTSD, traumatic brain injury and
suicide, who will oversee the health
and wellness programs at the farm.
She approached her father with the
idea for the farm several years ago,
and they decided to pilot the pro-
gram through teaching veterans
how to keep bees.
S.A.V.E has indeed already been
effective. A high percentage of cur-
rent students have openly shared
that the focus on agriculture has kept
them from attempting suicide. Since
1318
the program began, it is estimated
that over 38,000 service members
and veterans have taken their own
lives. If the Department of Labor
statistics are correct and about 40%
of veterans wish to farm, this could
potentially save thousands of lives.
Gary has enlisted a number of
personnel and organizations that
have an interest in the project, in-
cluding The College of Agriculture
at Kansas State University, which
offers 16 undergraduate majors, 14
minors, and 10 graduate programs,
focusing on agribusiness, biosci-
ence, communications, economics,
and natural resources. Eight pro-
fessors of the college are in fact on
S.A.V.E.’s board of directors.
As part of a land-grant university,
the Kansas State College of Agricul-
ture is deeply engaged in curriculum
development, even directly design-
ing the farm. The departments of
horticulture and entomology fully
support the beekeeping program.
Assistance from the business college
comes via teaching students both
strategic and business planning.
An innovative part of the S.A.V.E.
program will be active mentoring by
extant farmers and beekeepers. An-
other major player in the project is
expected to be nearby Ft. Riley, Kan-
sas with its First Wounded Warrior
Battalion. The project’s vision, there-
fore, is “more than simply a farm,”
but a teaching and healing center
for residents. This will be backed up
by major resources found at Kansas
State University, which by default is
linked to all other land grant univer-
sities around the country.
Phase three of the farm is due to
become operational in May 2017
on 320 acres purchased adjacent
to Fort Riley. Residents will be im-
proving the site, installing new
fencing, planting soy beans, manag-
ing forage crops (hay and alfalfa),
and managing bee hives among
other farming endeavors. Presently
the farm consists of 90 acres of soy
beans, 25 head of angus on pasture,
120 acres of prairie hay, and three
acres of alfalfa. An additional 1,600
acres includes the largest blackberry
farm in three states. At the moment,
228 students have been enrolled in
the program.
Beekeeping is expected to be the
first key activity at the S.A.V.E.
farm. Other agricultural pursuits
are expected to be added as time
goes on. Classroom and hands-
on training will guide students
through basic beekeeping, culmi-
nating in harvesting and bottling
honey. Currently 70 hives are being
actively managed. This number is
expected to grow to 500 in ensu-
ing years, based on a current USDA
grant, which has so far enabled 250
students to take an introduction to
beekeeping course. The grant is also
expected to pay the tuition for all
students to take the University of
Montana online beekeeping certifi-
cate program.
In the recent past, beekeeping
was a relatively stress-free form
of agriculture, and did not require
much attention to detail. This is no
longer the case. The activity is now
fraught with a host of issues from
introduced pests, to pesticide use,
infection from viruses, and deterio-
ration of the environment, resulting
in among other things diminishing
nutritional resources for honey bees.
The movement of honey bees for
commercial pollination on a scale
not experienced before is also some-
thing that beekeepers and their bees
now have to contend with. It is be-
coming clearer that the total honey
bee population is in fact one com-
munity being infected by a panop-
oly of issues.
The kind of rigorous education
offered by the online course, there-
fore, is a must for anyone going into
the world of modern beekeeping
management. As concluded by the
program’s developer, Dr. Jerry Bro-
menshenk, “While no beekeeping
program can guarantee your suc-
cess with honey bees, our program
will give you the strongest possible
foundation and therefore the best
chance at keeping healthy, prosper-
ous hives.”
Again, as noted above, an essen-
tial part of this effort is pairing up
students with qualified, experienced
mentors. Finally, the curriculum will
encompass a robust research compo-
nent, not only in modern honey bee
management, but also to better un-
derstand the foundational relation-
ship between farming/beekeeping
and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Finally, the S.A.V.E. program fea-
tures training in making and sell-
American Bee Journal
ing a wide variety of beekeeping
equipment. At the moment, it has
acquired Golden Prairie Honey
Farms, which seeks to help fund the
overall program through sales of
beekeeping supplies, mostly wood-
enware, basic kits, tools, and plastic
honey containers. Bottled honey is
also currently being sold through its
catalog.
The Kansas S.A.V.E. program is not
unique. Mr. Polling mentioned above
is associated with the West Virginia
Department of Agriculture’s Veter-
ans and Warriors to Agriculture ef-
fort. The director, James McCormick
concludes: “Bees have one job in life,
a purpose. It’s all about the greater
good of the hive. The veterans see
this. They come to understand that
life goes on. It redirects their anger
and anxiety into something produc-
tive.” Rather than producing a busi-
ness of its own in beekeeping as done
in Kansas, the West Virginia initia-
tive has partnered with an ongoing
beekeeping business, Geezer Ridge
Farm.
Michigan State University’s
“Heros to Hives” initiative uses
beekeeping to address the financial
and personal wellness of veterans
through professional training and
community development. Veterans
work in teams to manage hives, so
they leave the program with per-
sonal and professional relationships
that open opportunities and ensure
long-term support along with the
skills to successfully manage a small
beekeeping operation.
“‘Heroes to Hives’ supports the
financial and personal health of
Michigan’s military veteran com-
munity via generous funding from
the AT&T Foundation and private
donations. As the program grows
through 2017, additional funding
will be pursued through private
donations, and collaborative grants
with MSU faculty and Michigan
based non-profit organizations.”
The Agricultural Research Ser-
vice Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics
and Physiology Lab and the Loui-
siana Armed Forces Foundation are
teaching beekeeping to veterans:
“We want to give back to the veteran
community. Veterans with a wide
variety of bee experience are partici-
pating in the program. One of the
more experienced is U.S. Army vet-
December 2017
eran C.J. Oliver, whose family pro- manipulation and management, but
duces about 60 gallons of honey an- also experimental technique. Colo-
nually in Arnaudville, Louisiana.” nel La Grange is in fact a graduate
The programs described above are of that program.
ripe with hope to build a new life for As noted elsewhere, the emotional
numerous people who have served aspects of the S.A.V.E program are
their country, but have been swept expected to be handled by Gary’s
up in the unintended consequences daughter, Shari La Grange-Aulich.
of post-traumatic stress disorder She is a licensed professional psy-
(PTSD) and other emotional expe- chologist, specializing in PTSD,
riences. Many will see these efforts brain trauma and suicide, whose
and be encouraged to set up like- papers on Post Traumatic Growth
minded programs. Indeed a World have been selected for presentation
Wide Web search for veterans and at past American Psychologists As-
beekeeping reveals a good many sociation conventions.
programs with the same goals. This melding of both farmer/
Several independent films have beekeeper training and professional
studied the challenges veterans face emotional healing would seem to
in not only agriculture/beekeeping, be the best mix for a successful vet-
but their personal lives. Colonel eran training effort. The S.A.V.E.
La Grange reported the following program, therefore, would appear
about a recent release: to be an ideal model that others
“Two weeks ago I was invited to should study, develop communica-
the first release of the film in Kan- tion with, and hopefully emulate,
sas City. Afterward I was a panelist ensuring the best possible outcome
with the film’s director to respond for veterans in their search for a pur-
to questions from the audience re- poseful new life.
garding veterans and farming. The
film was an unfortunate character-
ization of a veteran struggling to
farm and to recover from the effects
of war. We all agreed that what was
lacking was mentorship. Had he
gone through a training program
that incorporated therapy into the
training and had he been assigned a
post training mentor, he would have
had a greater probability of succeed-
ing. As it turns out he is not doing
well and continues his struggle with
PTSD and drugs.
“What concerned me also is that
the film facilitates a stereotypical
and wrong picture of those with
PTSD. I have found that with men-
torship and care, these young men
and women can do very well when
they are taught and coached through
purposeful training.”
The Kansas program appears to
have covered most of the important
bases in veteran training, including
mentorship, professional beekeep-
ing and personal emotional train-
ing. The first is linking up with the
University of Montana’s online bee-
keeping training program. Its three-
stage curriculum (apprentice, jour-
neyman and master) has produced
a significant number of potential
beekeeping mentors (citizen scien-
tists), trained not only in honey bee
1319
1320 American Bee Journal
I
thought I would take a break
from writing about honey bee
colony management and honey
bee biology this month and, instead,
write a lighthearted season-appro-
priate article. Three years ago, I
wrote a very brief article (one page)
in American Bee Journal regarding
what a person can get the beekeep-
er in his/her life for Christmas. I
would like to do something similar
this year.
Beekeepers have unique tastes.
We also have unique needs (who
else needs a smoker…). In the
spirit of gift-giving, Christmas and
Hanukkah provide us us the oppor-
tunity to think of the beekeepers in
our lives and get them a gift that
can make a lasting impact or sup-
port their interest in bees. What
follows is a list of items/oppor-
tunities that I think will appeal to
many beekeepers. Hopefully, you
can find something in the list that
fits your beekeeper.
1) Books — Honestly, you will
never go wrong when getting your
beekeeper a new book. All beekeep-
ers like books about bees. There
are hundreds of books about bees.
Perhaps your beekeeper is a book
collector. If so, you might consider
finding old editions of classic titles
such as The Hive and The Honey
Bee or ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture.
December 2017
There are dozens of books about
basic beekeeping, books that are
foundational to the craft. However,
there are at least as many specialist
books about bees, their colonies,
their behavior and ecology. These
would be great gift options for the
advanced beekeeper.
2) Subscription to a national bee
magazine — There are two nation-
al magazines that address beekeep-
ing-related topics. They include
American Bee Journal (the one you
are reading now) and Bee Culture.
Personally, I feel you should sub-
scribe to both. Both provide infor-
mation that can be of great use to
beekeepers. The subscriptions pric-
es are not that high. Furthermore,
your beekeeper will get one every
month. It is the gift that keeps on
giving.
3) Microscope — My wife and I
were in Scotland in September. I was
speaking at the Scottish Beekeepers
Association’s annual convention.
I had a good time browsing the
vendor area. Interestingly, a micro-
scope company was there as a reg-
istered vendor. They were selling
compound and dissecting scopes
to beekeepers. Scottish beekeepers
(and other beekeepers in the UK)
really focus on being able to see
and understand honey bee anato-
my, diseases, and pests. As such,
it is common to meet beekeepers
in the UK who own scopes of both
types so that they can explore honey
bee anatomy for themselves, con-
duct their own Nosema dissections,
etc. I think that more beekeepers
in the states should do the same.
These days, you can purchase com-
pound and dissecting scopes that
are reasonably priced. You should
consider purchasing one for your
beekeeper.
4) Dissection Kit — Along with
the scope, you should purchase
your beekeeper a basic dissection
kit. This will include forceps, small
scissors, tweezers, a small magnify-
ing glass, etc. The same vendor I
mentioned selling microscopes at
the Scottish meeting was also sell-
ing dissection kits. My wife and I
left the meeting with a kit for me
and one for her father (the other
beekeeper in our family). Even if
your beekeeper does not use it for
dissecting bees, he/she will find a
myriad of other uses for the differ-
ent tools included in the kit.
5) Pollen Trap — I am a believer
that you need to go out on a limb
every once in awhile and try some-
thing you have never tried. Most
beekeepers I know have never tried
a pollen trap. Go ahead; expand
your horizons. Get your beekeeper
a nice pollen trap and encourage
him/her to use it in the coming bee
season.
1321
6) Mead Kit — Mead kits make
good gifts for beekeepers wishing
to expand the list of value-added
hive products they offer to con-
sumers. The art of mead making
is ancient. Some historians suggest
that honey is the first sugar prod-
uct that humans ever fermented.
Mead is discussed in human lit-
erature (the “mead halls” in Beowulf
as an example). I think its history
alone makes it worth exploring.
Furthermore, mead making appeals
to the creative side of people, given
the countless ways mead can be
produced, flavored, etc. The mead
making kits and how-to guides are
relatively inexpensive, and could
be good gifts for your beekeeper.
7) Trailer — Every beekeeper needs
a trailer. For commercial beekeep-
ers, this need is met only at the scale
of a semi-trailer. Sideline beekeep-
ers often invest in one- or two-ton
vehicles for the benefit of the flat
beds they have. Even hobby bee-
keepers should have a trailer. Why?
All beekeepers need to move bees at
one point or another. New and used
trailers abound and make good gifts
for the migratory beekeeper.
8) Ratchet straps — Many people
have ratchet straps already but I
feel that every beekeeper should
have a few, maybe 10 – 15 or more,
straps. Ratchet straps are extremely
useful for a multitude of reasons.
I find them nearly indespensible
when moving bees. You can use
them to secure a hive vertically
(securing them around the entire
colony from top to bottom) or use
them to secure a hive in a vehicle.
They are cheap, available a lot of
places, and worth having.
9) Hive tool — I know you are
thinking to yourself that your bee-
keeper already has a hive tool. My
response to that is that a beekeeper
can never have enough hive tools.
Beekeepers lose hive tools all the
time…all the time. So, go head and
get a few more. They make good
stocking stuffers.
10) Personalized hive tool or
smoker — I spoke at a beekeeper
meeting in Ohio a few years ago. I
believe that it was a joint meeting
between two local beekeeper clubs.
After finishing, both clubs gave
me a personalized item, one club
a smoker with my name engraved
1322
on it and the other club a hive tool
with my name engraved on it. I
have both in my office. I think per-
sonalized hive tools and smokers
make great gifts.
11) Gift certificate for an equip-
ment vendor or queen/package
bees — Gift certificates from bee-
related enterprises (equipment
companies, producers of queens/
package bees, etc.) will provide
your bee enthusiast the opportunity
to get what they know they want,
but have been hesitant to purchase.
Christmas is a great time of year
to stock up on beekeeping knick-
knacks. There usually are big sales
around Christmas and New Year’s,
making gift certificates given at this
time usually worth more than the
face value of the certificate.
12) Custom honey labels or a busi-
ness sign — My wife came up with
this idea and I quite liked it. The
idea is that you could offer to hire
a professional design artist to work
with your beekeeper to design a
unique, snazzy label for his/her
honey jars or a company sign that
can be used to advertise the honey
business. This could be a good long
term gift if it helps increase revenue
for the beekeeper.
13) Subscription to an online bee-
keeper training program — All
good beekeepers realize that they
need to continue learning about
the craft. To that end, a number
of good online beekeeper educa-
tion programs are available. These
online courses are offered by Penn
State, NC State, the University of
Montana, and more are springing
up. My team and I are even in
the process of moving our Master
Beekeeper Program to an exclu-
sively online program. You should
consider getting your beekeeper a
subscription to such a program.
They are developed by professional
bee educators, so the information
provided in the programs is top
notch and expertly delivered. These
programs grant direct access to
experts in the field and surely can
help the beekeeper improve his/
her management efforts.
14) Trip to a national or inter-
national meeting — I am a big
believer in beekeeper meetings.
All beekeepers would benefit by
joining their local bee club and
attending their monthly meetings.
They also should be involved with
their state organization. These are a
given. However, I also believe that
beekeepers should try to attend the
yearly national meetings and even
the international beekeeper meet-
ings. My knowledge of bees, bee
science, and beekeeping began to
expand rapidly when I started to
attend national and international
meetings. I find that beekeepers
learn a lot when they hear the per-
spective of other beekeepers. At a
conference, you might pick up on
a new management style, discover
a useful beekeeping gizmo, or even
make valuable industry contacts
that will expand your horizons. I
have learned so much from other
beekeepers and other scientists,
even those from other countries
where beekeeping management
differs from how we do things in
the U.S. I have a friend who says
“everyone has something that they
can teach you.” I think this is a
good way to look at other people.
Go ahead, register your beekeeper
for a national or international bee
meeting. Heck, get two registra-
tions and go with him/her. You
will not regret it.
15) Chance to meet beekeeper
“idol” — You can give your bee-
keeper a trip to see his/her favorite
bee guru of choice. Beekeeping is a
small fraternity, but nearly every-
one has someone who they admire
in the craft. Call these gurus the
“rock stars of beekeeping” if you
will. You always can arrange a
meeting between your beekeeper
and their beekeeping idol.
16) Specialized beekeeping train-
ing event — I really like the idea
of giving someone the opportu-
nity to attend a training event on
some advanced beekeeping topic.
For example, I know that there
are multiple queen rearing short
courses offered around the coun-
try. This can include a focus on
topics such as instrumental insemi-
nation of honey bee queens. There
are short courses on honey bee
diseases and pests, candle/value
added hive product production,
nuc and package bee production,
etc. Some of these can be pricey but
I am certain your beekeeper will
appreciate the gift.
American Bee Journal
Philanthropic opportunities: and Evenly Grace) and I would like demands of work and stay on top
There are some individuals to wish you a Merry Christmas and of my articles for the journal.
who do not need more gifts but Happy New Year! Finally, and more importantly,
rather take a different approach to December 2017 marks the end of my four children are getting older
“receiving” gifts. Those individu- my fourth year serving as a colum- and their schedules are beginning
als use holidays like Christmas as nist for American Bee Journal. I have to fill (exponentially it seems).
an opportunity to make someone thoroughly enjoyed writing arti- Increasingly more of my time is
else’s life better. Such opportunities cles for the journal and its readers. spent on their interests. For these
exist in the bee world as well. For Many of you probably have noticed reasons, I plan to take a hiatus from
example, a number of non-profit aid that I was unable to provide articles my column in 2018. This will allow
organizations offer you the oppor- as regularly as I would have liked me to see the completion of the new
tunity to sponsor bee hives for peo- during 2017. This was due to a lab at UF and package my existing
ple in developing countries. World few reasons. First, life is getting articles, those written to date, into a
Vision, for example, does this. You a bit busier at work. The Florida book that I plan to finalize by mid-
can visit their website (http://www. beekeepers successfully lobbied the 2018. I hope to begin writing new
worldvision.org/ or https://donate. Florida government to build a new articles for the column in mid-to-
worldvision.org/give/beehive). bee lab at the University of Florida. late 2018 or in early 2019. I wanted
Heifer International (http://www. Planning/design/fundraising/etc. to take this opportunity to thank
heifer.org/ or https://www.heifer. for this building have taken a lot you for reading my articles. I hope
org/gift-catalog/animals-nutrition/ of my time. Furthermore, my lab that they have made you appreciate
honeybees-donation.html) does has grown to the point that it has honey bees more and made bee-
something similar. Other groups, become harder for me to satisfy the keeping a little more enjoyable for
such as Bees for Development (http:// you. I wish you a productive 2018.
www.beesfordevelopment.org/), Happy beekeeping.
use donations to train beekeepers
in developing countries. What a
great way to give bees and a liveli-
hood to others.
You also can donate money to
organizations supporting bee
research, extension and instruction.
These can be universities, local bee
clubs, state bee clubs, etc. A cou-
ple of such groups come to mind.
They include Project Apis m (https://
www.projectapism.org/) and the
Bee Informed Partnership (https://bee
informed.org/). Organizations such
as these use the funds to support bee
research and extension, ultimately
helping beekeepers everywhere.
You can even donate to building
and infrastructure efforts. For exam-
ple, I know that there is a new bee
research and extension facility at
the University of Minnesota. We
are building a new facility at the
University of Florida. Many bee-
keepers have supported both efforts,
and other initiatives like them. With
some imagination and searching
for an appropriate organization
that matches your beekeeper’s phi-
losophy, there are opportunities to
recognize your beekeeper through
philanthropic efforts.
I hope some of these ideas prove
useful to you this holiday season
and that your beekeeper will be
happy if he/she receives these as
gifts. In the meantime, my fam-
ily (Amanda, Mathias, Analy, Jude,

December 2017 1323

1324 American Bee Journal
Y
ou’ve heard the rumors,
right? Honey never goes bad,
it’s been found in Egyptian
tombs ready to eat, and it’s the only
cure for some antibiotic-resistant bac-
teria. You may wonder if any of this
is true, and if so, why. Let’s look at
some of the details.
Since the beginning of recorded
history, honey has been known to
have antiseptic properties. Frequent
mention of honey in medicine was
made by the Egyptians, Assyrians,
Greeks, and Romans. But then, as
now, users were well aware that
some honeys were better healers
than others,1 so a method of grading
honey was developed. Beginning in
1937 the underlying cause of hon-
ey’s healing power was given the
name “inhibine” and a number was
assigned to different honey types
to indicate how strong the inhibine
was by measuring how well it killed
specific bacteria like staph.
Related to honey’s antiseptic
properties is its extraordinary
shelf life. Depending on its source
and how it was handled, honey
may remain edible for many years.
According the National Honey
Board, “Honey stored in sealed
containers can remain stable for
decades and even centuries.” 2
Nevertheless, the why of it can be
difficult to understand.
A review of the literature reveals
four distinct reasons for the me-
dicinal action and stability of honey.
Three of them are directly related to
things honey bees do to the nectar
December 2017
they collect. The fourth comes from
the plants themselves.
The four factors that affect the an-
tiseptic strength of honey are the os-
motic concentration, acidity, amount
of hydrogen peroxide, and the pres-
ence of specialized plant compounds.
The healing power of any one sample
of honey is simply the sum of all the
factors,3 so we will look at each one
separately.
Osmotic Concentration
The osmotic concentration of a
solution refers to the number of par-
ticles dissolved in a unit of liquid. If
you’ve ever made sugar syrup, you
know that one part of sugar dissolves
easily in one part of water. But two
parts of sugar in one part of water
begins to get tricky. After stirring for-
ever, you may give up and use heat
to force the sugar into solution.
But honey is approximately four
parts of sugar dissolved in one part
of water. We call this a supersatu-
rated solution because the liquid is
holding more particles than it could
under normal circumstances. A su-
persaturated sugar solution is un-
stable; it may suddenly crystallize
or it may absorb water from the sur-
rounding environment.
When a substance absorbs water
from its surroundings, we say it is
hygroscopic. For example, if you
leave a jar of honey uncovered on
the counter, it absorbs moisture from
the atmosphere. Likewise, if you put
honey on a bacterium, it will suck the
water right out of the cell, killing it
by dehydration. This hygroscopic ac-
tion is one key to honey’s long shelf
life and its ability to heal wounds—
it simply dehydrates any microbe it
touches.
But the osmotic concentration of
honey changes as water is absorbed.
Once the honey absorbs enough
water to reach equilibrium, it no lon-
ger absorbs more. That jar of honey
that you left uncovered will eventu-
ally absorb so much water from the
air that it is no longer supersaturated.
At that point, a microbe such as a
yeast spore can land on it and germi-
nate, causing the honey to ferment.
You get a similar result when you
extract honey frames that contain
many uncapped cells. Because un-
capped cells contain excess water,
they can lower the osmotic concen-
tration of the entire batch, leading to
fermentation. The inverse relation-
ship between osmotic concentration
and the amount of water in the honey
means this mode of microbial sup-
pression is temporary.4
The next two modes of microbial
suppression, acidity and the presence
of hydrogen peroxide, are both due
to the action of one enzyme, glucose
oxidase.
Acidity
The hydronium ion concentration,
or pH, of honey varies from about 3.2
to 4.5. This high acidity is partially
due to acids found in the nectar, in-
cluding acetic, butyric, formic, lac-
tic, and malic. But the major source
of acidity in honey is produced by
1325

Borntrager Bee Farm
4036 Gaitan Lane
Beeville, TX 78102
361-362-1408
( Let ring during business hours)
r e
Queens shipped Priority or Express
Mail - Insured
or UPS overnight Uninsured
All postal claims are to
be made by customer
1326
the bees themselves. After collecting
nectar in the field, the bees carry it in
their bodies where it is mixed with
glucose oxidase. In a multistep pro-
cess, this enzyme oxidizes glucose
into gluconolactone and then into hy-
drogen peroxide and gluconic acid.5
The acidity of gluconic acid is
enough to weaken, if not kill, many
microorganisms. If nothing else, the
acidity may slow their growth and
reproduction. But similar to osmotic
concentration, the acidity of the
honey will attenuate with the addi-
tion of water.3 Water from the mi-
crobes themselves and moisture from
the atmosphere will, in time, lessen
the acidity and therefore reduce the
honey’s ability to suppress additional
microbes.
Hydrogen peroxide
The chief antimicrobial agent in
honey is hydrogen peroxide. In fact,
in 1963 hydrogen peroxide was found
to be the mysterious inhibine.6,7 Since
then, analyses have shown the pres-
ence of hydrogen peroxide in all
samples of honey that show antimi-
crobial action, including manuka.
During the conversion of nectar to
honey, honey bees use a number of
different enzymes. To begin, the bees
secrete invertase into the nectar. The
invertase splits the sucrose, a disac-
charide, into two monosaccharides,
glucose and fructose. Then, in the
presence of water and oxygen, the
glucose oxidase converts the glucose
portion into gluconic acid and hydro-
gen peroxide, as described above.
At one time, a solution of 3% hy-
drogen peroxide was popular for
treating wounds and infections, but
it gradually fell out of favor due to
its tendency to cause tissue damage.
Experiments have shown that while
hydrogen peroxide aids wound
healing at low concentrations, it de-
lays healing at high concentrations.8
But the level of hydrogen peroxide
in honey is much lower than the
manufactured product and is insuf-
ficient to kill pathogens outright.9 As
a wound treatment, honey works by
delivering a sustained low-level dose
of hydrogen peroxide instead of a
single high dose. The sustained low
dose works by interrupting cell divi-
sion and degrading bacterial DNA.7,9
Since nectar comprises water and
sugar, it could easily ferment in the
hive before the transition to honey
is complete. Instead, the presence of
glucose oxidase protects it during the
curing process.
Conversely, without a good supply
of water and oxygen, glucose oxidase
remains inactive. For that reason,
fully ripened honey in a covered con-
tainer produces no hydrogen perox-
ide. But once it’s exposed to oxygen
and water again, the glucose oxidase
is reactivated and resumes produc-
tion of the protective compounds.
In essence, water and oxygen to-
gether act like a switch, turning the
glucose oxidase on and off. So if
you spread fully-cured honey on a
wound, atmospheric oxygen plus
exudates from the wound provide
the conditions necessary for glucose
oxidase to produce both hydrogen
peroxide and gluconic acid which, in
turn, kill the microbes present in the
wound.10
Specialized plant compounds
A wide variety of plant com-
pounds are antimicrobial to some de-
gree. These non-peroxide chemicals,
which are found naturally in nectar,
become concentrated in the honey
as the bees remove the water. They
include enzymes, flavonoids, or-
ganic acids, and proteins. Examples
of plants with strong microbial ac-
tion include heather, viper’s bugloss,
lavender, kanuka, kamahi, and of
course manuka.11,12 While most fully-
cured honeys provide some degree
of antimicrobial protection, nectar
from plants with specialized phyto-
chemicals can be especially effective
in wound care.
Production of glucose oxidase
in the honey bee
Glucose oxidase is produced by
the honey bee worker. For a long
time, it was thought that only bees of
honey-processing age produced this
enzyme, but later research showed
that it is also produced by younger
bees.13 For example, nurse bees have
been shown to secrete glucose oxi-
dase directly into larval food, which
results in antimicrobial protection for
the developing brood.14
Honey bees secrete a variety of
enzymes from several different
glands, including the hypopharyn-
geal, mandibular, head salivary, and
thorax salivary glands, but glucose
American Bee Journal
oxidase is produced solely by the hy-
popharyngeal glands. The amount
of production increases from young
cleaner bees, to nurse bees, to honey-
processing bees, and then gradually
decreases in foragers.15
Bee health, diet, and
glucose oxidase
Several researchers have found
a correlation between honey bee
health and the amount of glucose
oxidase produced.16 A well-balanced
and varied honey bee diet increases
glucose oxidase production.17 In fact,
the highest glucose oxidase levels
have been found in polyfloral honey,
indicating that colonies consuming
pollen from diverse sources were
able to obtain the nutrition needed to
secrete higher amounts. These results
suggest that a varied honey bee diet
enhances the microbial defenses of
the colony.
Glucose oxidase has been found
in the food stored by at least nine
species of eusocial Hymenoptera,
including one ant, one wasp, and
seven species of bees in the genera
Apis, Bombus, and Trigona. In all cases,
no hydrogen peroxide was detected
until the honeys were diluted with
water.18
Based on these findings, it is easy
to see how a poor or sparse selection
of flowering plants might affect the
colony health of not only honey bees
but other pollinators as well.
Variation in microbial action
The level of antimicrobial action
varies from one floral source to an-
other. With the exception of manuka,
variations in antimicrobial action of
honey are closely correlated with the
amount of hydrogen peroxide in the
honey. Consequently, anything that
affects the amount of hydrogen per-
oxide affects the antimicrobial action
of the honey.3,12
Ironically, one compound that can
negatively affect the amount of hy-
drogen peroxide is catalase, a plant-
derived enzyme commonly found
in pollen. Catalase reduces hydro-
gen peroxide to water and oxygen.
The amount of catalase in a sample
of honey is related to the amount of
pollen as well as the source of the
pollen.6
However, other research has
shown that even exceptionally high
levels of catalase will not destroy
December 2017
all of the hydrogen peroxide.9 This
finding suggests that either some
hydrogen peroxide is inaccessible to
the catalase or that the rate of produc-
tion of hydrogen peroxide exceeds
the rate of destruction. In addition
to catalase, other phytochemicals, in-
cluding an array of antioxidants, may
be responsible for suppressing the
hydrogen peroxide activity in some
honeys.
Post-harvest handling and
antimicrobial activity
Another reason for low antimicro-
bial activity in some honey is poor
post-harvest handling. Both glucose
oxidase and hydrogen peroxide are
easily degraded by heat and light.4
Remember, hydrogen peroxide is
sold in a brown bottle for a reason:
exposure to light speeds its disinte-
gration into water and oxygen.
In short, honey intended for me-
dicinal use should be treated with
care. It should not be heated, even
slightly. In addition, some sources
recommend it be pressed from the
comb instead of processed through
a radial extractor. Extraction by cen-
trifugal force can incorporate both
oxygen and atmospheric moisture
into the honey, which prematurely
initiates the production of hydrogen
peroxide, and may damage some of
the protectice phytochemicals. After
extraction, honey should be kept at
moderate room temperatures and
protected from sunlight.
Areas for further research
Research is needed to discover
whether honey bees can be bred to
produce heightened levels of glucose
oxidase. Honey with elevated levels
of glucose oxidase could be espe-
cially appropriate for medical pur-
poses. In addition, such honey might
better protect a honey bee colony
against specific pathogens.15
Other researchers are looking into
whether honey with high levels of
glucose oxidase could be used as a
food preservative, especially in those
items which typically require mini-
mal processing and little heat.12
Please note that this article is for
informational purposes only and is
not a substitute for medical advice.
If you have a medical condition,
please consult your physician.
Literature Cited
1. Stomfay-Stitz J. 1960. Honey: an ancient
yet modern medicine. The Science Counsel-
lor 23: 110-125.
2. The American Honey Board. 2017. Does
honey have an expiration date? https://
honey.com/faq.
3. White JW, Subers MH, Schepartz AI.
1963. The identification of inhibine, the
antibacterial factor in honey, as hydro-
gen peroxide and its origin in a honey
glucose-oxidase system. Biochimica et Bio-
physica Acta 73: 57-70.
4. Dustmann J., 1979. Antibacterial effects
of honey. Apiacta 14: 7-11.
5. Stinson EE, Subers MH. 1960. The com-
position of honey. Archives of Biochemistry
and Biophysics. 89: 6-12.
6. Weston RJ. 2000. The contribution of
catalase and other natural products to the
antibacterial activity of honey: a review.
Food Chemistry 71: 235-239.
7. Brudzynski K. 2006. Effect of hydrogen
peroxide on antibacterial activities of Ca-
nadian honeys. Canadian Journal of Micro-
biology 52: 1228-1237.
8. Loo AEK, Wong YT, Ho R, Wasser M,
Du T, Ng WT, Halliwell B. 2012. Effects
of hydrogen peroxide on wound healing
in mice in relation to oxidative damage.
PLoS ONE 7(11): e49215.
9. Brudzynski K, Abubaker K, St-Martin L,
Castle A. 2011. Re-examining the role of
hydrogen peroxide in bacteriostatic and
bactericidal activities of honey. Frontiers
in Microbiology 2: 1-9.
10. Bang LM, Buntting C, Molan P. 2003. The
effect of dilution on the rate of hydrogen
peroxide production in honey and its im-
plications for wound healing. The Journal
of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
9: 267-273.
11. Bogdanov S. 1997. Nature and origin
of the antibacterial substances in honey.
Lebensm-Wiss. U-Technology 30: 748-753.
12. Mundo MA, Padilla-Zakour OI, Worobo
RW. 2004. Growth inhibition of foodborne
pathogens and food spoilage organisms
by select raw honeys. International Journal
of Food Microbiology 97: 1-8.
13. Ohashi K, Natori S, Kubo T. 1999. Ex-
pression of amylase and glucose oxidase
in the hypopharyngeal gland with an age-
dependent role change of the worker hon-
eybee (Apis mellifera L). European Journal of
Biochemistry 265: 127–133.
14. Yang X, Cox-Foster DL. 2005. Impact of
an ectoparasite on the immunity and pa-
thology of an invertebrate: evidence for
host immune-suppression and viral am-
plification. Proceedings National Academy
of Science USA 102: 7470-7475.
15. Bucekova M, Valachova I, Kohutova
L, Prochazka E, Klaudiny J, Majtan J.
2014. Honeybee glucose oxidase—its
expression in honeybee workers and
comparative analysis of its content and
H2O2–mediated antibacterial activity in
natural honeys. Naturwissenschaften 101:
661-670.
16. Pernal SF, Currie RW. 2000. Pollen qual-
ity of fresh and 1-year old single pollen
diets for worker honey bees (Apis mellifera
L.) Apidologie 31: 387-409.
17. Alaux C, Ducloz F, Crauser D, Le Conte
Y. 2010. Diet effects on honeybee immu-
nocompetence. Biology Letters 6: 562-565.
18. Burgett DM. 1974. Glucose oxidase: a
food protective mechanism in social Hy-
menoptera. Annals of the Entomological So-
ciety of America 67: 545-546.
1327
A Honeyed Greek
Christmas Feast
Photos by Kraig Sollenberger
TLeesBeeLine@icloud.com
G
reek Christmas traditions
are a bit different than the
usual Christian Christmas
celebration. Firstly, the Greek pop-
ulation is largely Greek Orthodox
and originally, very much a sea-
faring nation comprised of 227 in-
habited islands and a mountainous
mainland. Greeks fast meatless for
forty days in front of Christmas and
start the religious holiday on the
Feast of the Nativity of Jesus, De-
cember 25 and end it all on Epiph-
any Day, the Blessing of the Waters
(the baptism of Jesus as an adult)
on January 6. Secondly, the holiday
gift exchange is done on the 1st of
January, the day honoring St. Basil
the Great, instead of December 25,
when most Christian households
exchange presents.
Thirdly, even with the homogeni-
zation of cultures, the Greeks con-
tinue the tradition of displaying a
small wooden boat decorated with
lights at home rather than the Euro-
pean custom of a Christmas tree. It
is not uncommon for a large replica
of a three masted sailing ship to be
December 2017
by T'Lee Sollenberger
erected in the village square and fes-
tooned with lights during the twelve
celebratory days of Christmas.
Religious fasting is also responsi-
ble for the evolution of many clever
vegetable concoctions to substi-
tute for meat. Vegetables make up
an enormous portion of all foods
consumed and the Greeks are well
versed in making the most from
wild foraged greens (horta), and
produce from the home garden. Ad-
ditionally, locally produced cheeses
and other milk based products like
yogurt make up many unusual veg-
etable pies for which the Greeks are
famous. Barley, wheat and other
grains form the basis for making
bread and pasta. Bulgur, rice and
potatoes also play a significant role
in both the day to day diet as well as
in making celebratory foods. Sweets
are served primarily on name days,
weddings and feast days with hon-
ey playing a significant role in their
composition.
Ancestral feasting foods follow-
ing the forty day fast usually in-
clude spit roasted lamb and pig.
Turkey has also become quite popu-
lar. Vegetable appetizers, vegetable
and meat pies made with wafer
thin phyllo, breads decorated with
crosses (christopsomo), sweets
made with honey and nuts are all
typical feast foods. Many of these
dishes are made with traditional
spices grown throughout the year
for the occasion like cinnamon and
cloves or use citrus in simple sauces
and syrups.
The one thing most indicative of
Greek cooking is it is seasonal. You
won’t find an eggplant dish on a
winter menu. The Greeks are most
adept at using what is readily avail-
able—locally grown, from their gar-
dens or in the wild, rather than pur-
chasing a multitude of out of season
ingredients (now available in major
cities).
The recipes below are taste-teas-
ers showing the wide diversity of
Greek cooking using simple ingre-
dients. The addition of honey to a
dish is a means of reducing the acid-
ity of the dish, as a final glaze, or the
basis for a soaking syrup. Enjoy!!
1331

Domatokeftedes
ightly adapted from The Foods of Greece
IN G R E D IE N T S
1 bsp olive oil, reek, if available
3 cup minced scallions
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup fresh tomatoes, peeled, seed
ed, finely chopped, then drained
1 cup minced sun dried tomatoes
1 cup minced Italian parsley
1 cup minced mint leaves
1 tsp honey
1 1 tsp dried oregano
3 to 1 cup all purpose flour
1 1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp salt
1 8 tsp pepper
Additional reek olive oil for frying
1332
Appetizer
The appetizer or meze plays
a major role in Greek life. It is
a time to visit with family or
friends over a glass of ouzo or
local wine before the main meal
of the evening. Mezedes may be
served hot or cold. They are often
wrapped in phyllo dough, made
up of vegetables, cheeses, meat
or fish. Mezedes may also be sa-
vory vegetable dips served with
crusty breads or tiny vegetable
patties (photo), or meatballs fried
and puffed to perfection. Many
mezedes served together can, not
surprisingly, often form the basis
for an entire meatless meal. In the
following recipe, honey is used
to tone down the acidity of the
tomatoes.
Serves 4
M E T H O D
• Sauté the scallions and garlic briefly in a tablespoon of
olive oil in a large frying pan. Place the mixture in a mix-
ing bowl or food processor, leftover oil and all.
• Wipe out and set the frying pan aside.
• The object here is to emphasize the tomato flavor, so
make sure you peel, seed and drain the fresh tomatoes.
Mix the tomatoes, herbs and honey with the sautéed
scallions and garlic. Add 3/4 cup flour and baking pow-
der, salt and pepper. Mix well by hand or pulse once or
twice in the food processor to make a thick batter. Add
more flour if needed to accomplish this task.
• In the large frying pan, add enough olive oil to deep fry
the patties. Heat until hot and fragrant. Fry a spoonful
of batter mixture until golden brown. Turn over and fry
the second side. Remove and drain on paper towels.
Taste and add additional salt and pepper to your liking.
• Finish frying up spoonfuls of batter. Keep warm. Serve
warm with shots of ouzo or a glass of Greek wine.
American Bee Journal
 Side Dish
Although pasta seems strictly an Ital-
ian thing, the Greeks are very fond
of homemade pasta, dried pasta and
stuffed pasta. Some version or another
of Skordomakarona is found all over
Greece made with fresh pasta and local
hard cheese. Consider it Greek comfort
food!
The honey in this recipe is used to
smooth out the acidity of this dish.

Skordomakarona
S
ightly adapted from The Foods of the Greek Island
Serves 4

IN G R E D IE N T S
1 cup reek olive oil
1 cup chopped onions
3 5 cloves of garlic to taste
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup dry red wine
1 tsp honey
1 1 o can diced tomatoes
5 cups chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound of penne, iti or other hollow tube macaroni, fresh or dried
1 cup reek kefalotyri, pecorino omano or armigiano eggiano cheese
3 bsp chopped flat leafed parsley

M E T H O D

• If you make your own penne pasta, do so at this time.

• Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a deep frying pan until hot and fra-
grant. Add chopped onions. Sauté until onions turn translucent. Add garlic
and cook for about a minute. Do not brown.
• In a sauce pan bring the chicken stock to a boil. Salt to taste. Turn heat down
to low, cover and keep hot.
• Add red pepper flakes, wine and honey to the frying pan. When wine bub-
bles, add tomatoes. Boil for about 5 minutes until the mixture begins to thick-
en.
• Add 2 cups of stock to the tomato sauce. Bring to a boil. Add pasta. Stir to
incorporate. Continue stirring and adding stock as the pasta swells and ab-
sorbs the liquids. Cook until al dente and the mixture thickened (like risotto),
about 20 minutes. You may not need all the stock, depending on the type of
pasta used.
• Add only 2/3 cup of cheese. Stir. Place in a large, pre-warmed serving bowl.
Sprinkle with parsley and serve with additional 1/3 cup of grated cheese for
sprinkling on top.

December 2017 1333

 Honey Glazed Aspetsa Stuffed Duck Breast
Serves 4
AS P E T S A I N G R E D I E N T S IN G R E D IE N T S F O R D U C K

1 bsp red pepper flakes boneless duck breasts

1 1 tsp paprika smoked, is nice 1 cup honey, more or less
bsp oregano Aspetsa spices
1 bsp freshly ground fennel seeds thin wooden skewers
1 bsp orange est about 1 large orange, organic preferred edium si ed funnel
1 1 tsp dried basil 1 orange cut into thick slices optional
1 1 tsp dried mint bsp butter
If you have a spice grinder, this mixture benefits from a uick whi or two
to homogeni e, otherwise, ust thoroughly mix together. Set aside.

Main Course
Stuffed poultry is definitely a
Greek specialty. Pungent herbs, veg-
etables, bread and grains are all used
to flavor a wide variety of birds. This
unusual herb mixture, aspetsa, comes
from a medieval village on the Greek
Island of Chios and is slightly adapt-
ed from The Foods of the Greek Islands.
As citrus also plays a large part in
most Greek recipes, I’ve added honey
glazed orange slices as an optional
tasty garnish.

1334 American Bee Journal

M E T H O D

• Carefully, score the skin of the duck into a diamond

pattern about 1/2” wide using a very sharp knife. Do
not cut into the meat. Be gentle, but precise.
• Next create a 2” wide pocket in the thickest part of
the breast for the entire length of the breast in which
to insert the spices. Be careful not to exit the ends or
the sides.
• Insert the funnel in the mouth of the pocket. Pour in
at least one teaspoon of the Aspetsa spices until the
inside of the breast is fairly well stuffed. Use your fin-
ger to stuff in the spices, if the funnel isn’t working
for you. Fill all four breasts.
• Secure the opening of the pocket with a wooden
skewer. Repeat on remaining breasts.
• Using a large frying pan brushed lightly with olive
oil, cook the breasts over medium-high heat, skin
side down until they are nicely browned, the skin
crisping and the fat rendered about 5-6 minutes. Flip Melomakarona
over and brown lightly.
• Turn broiler on high. Move the breasts to a broiler Adapted from The Foods of the Greek Islands
pan. Finish the cooking with the skin side up to the akes about 0 cookies
degree of doneness desired about 6-8 minutes (me-
dium rare) or 10-12 minutes (medium-well). Baste the
breasts with honey several times, especially during IN G R E D IE N T S
the last 3-4 minutes of cooking to glaze. 1 1 cups light olive oil or a 50 50 blend of olive oil and sun
flower oil
• Remove duck to a cutting board. Cover with foil. Let
1 3 cup sugar
rest 10 minutes.
1 cup brandy
• Optional: While the duck is resting on the cutting 1 cup freshly s uee ed orange uice
board, wipe the frying pan clean. Depending on the est of 1 orange and 1 lemon
size of your orange, slice it into at least 4 slices, (this 3 3 to cups all purpose flour
will be your garnish). Add two tablespoons of butter 1 1 cups semolina flour
to the pan and melt over medium heat. Add 2 table- 1 tsp baking powder
spoons of honey to the butter; stir. When the honey 1 tsp ground cloves
begins to bubble, add orange slices. Sauté until the 1 tsp cinnamon
first sides begin to color; flip over. Add additional
butter and honey if needed; sauté the second side un- F IL L IN G
til the slices begin to color. Remove your garnish and cups ground walnuts
set aside. 1 bsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
• Remove the skewers from the duck breast. Slice
breasts 1/2” wide on the diagonal, following your S Y R U P
score marks. Plate up. Garnish with glazed orange 1 cup sugar
slices. 1 cup honey
1 1 cups water
arge piece of peel from 1 orange and 1 lemon

essert
ike almost all reek desserts, honey plays a ma or role in
the sweetening department. elomakarona photo above is a
traditional reek olive oil hristmas oney ookie stuffed with
a walnut filling soaked in citrusy honey syrup and then rolled
in crushed walnuts. It has the added advantage of improving
with age and many reeks make them several weeks ahead of
hristmas.

December 2017 1335

M E T H O D

• Using an electric mixer or food processor beat the oil, sugar, brandy, orange
juice and zests together until well blended.
• In a separate bowl, mix flours, baking powder and spices; add to oil mixture.
Beat or pulse together until the dough gathers up into a ball. It should be
smooth, soft, silky-looking and oily, but not sticky. To test: Pull a piece from
the dough. Roll and flatten it in the palm of your hand. If it is workable and
looks smooth, you are done. If it is too sticky, place on a lightly floured sur-
face and knead in additional flour until it is smooth and pliable.
• Cover dough with plastic wrap; rest for 20 minutes at room temperature. Greek Christmas
This allows the gluten in the flour to relax and makes it easier to shape.
Religion is such a major fac-
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
tor in Greek cooking with twelve
• Prepare filling by finely grinding the spices with the walnuts in a small food major feast days, including the
processor. Set aside. three I’ve mentioned here, which
next to Easter, are the most im-
• Make the syrup by simmering together sugar, honey, water and citrus peels portant to the average Greek.
for 10 minutes. Set aside. The regional cooking from island
to island to mainland reflect the
• Divide dough into 4 equal pieces by weight. Cover 2 sections with plastic diversity of necessity faced with
wrap. a limited amount of available
ingredient choices for the home
• Divide the other two dough sections into 10 equal balls per section about golf cook in order to follow the reli-
ball size. gious dictates of meatless fasting
and meat-full feasting. Hopefully,
• Flatten each ball into an oval about 2 1/2” long, three fingers wide. Indent this small sampling of taste-teas-
the center with your thumb the long way. ers will further encourage you to
explore the immense creativity of
• Drop a scant 1 tsp of the walnut-spice filling into the indent. Gather up the Greek Cooking! Happy feasting!
sides and pinch together. Turn over; flatten slightly and shape into oblong
ovals. REFERENCES
St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church. The
• Place the first 20 cookies seam side down on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake Art of Greek Cookery. Garden City,
for 30 minutes until lightly browned. NY:Doubleday & Co. 1963.
Kremezi, Aglaia. The Foods of Greece. New
• While the first batch is cooking, shape the second half of your dough. Hold York, NY: Stewart, Tabouri & Chang, Inc.
1993.
until the first batch comes out of the oven. Then bake the second batch. Re- Kremezi, Aglaia. The Foods of the Greek Is-
serve any leftover walnut-spice mixture. lands. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt. 2015.
• Remove the first batch of cookies from the baking pan and place in a 2” high
rectangular baking dish filled with half the warm honey syrup mixture. Soak www.whychristmas.com
the cookies for 15 minutes; turn over and soak an additional 15 minutes.
www.edtech2.boisestate.edu
• Remove cookies from syrup; shake off excess and then roll the topside in the www.mygreekdish.com
reserved walnut-spice mixture. Place finished cookies in an airtight container
or gift tin with each layer divided by parchment or wax paper. www.lemonandolives.com

• Repeat with your second batch of cookies adding the rest of the honey syrup www.mapleleaffarms.com/Chef Dale Miller
to your soaking pan. As before, drain and sprinkle with reserved walnut-
spice mix.
• Refrain from eating for at least 24 hours. These cookies improve as they age.
They can be held for up to 30 days. 1230 - 40th St. NW
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1336 American Bee Journal

1338 American Bee Journal
1340 American Bee Journal
 American Bee Journal
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SS S e ri e . er r er i er i . i i , e er i ree re , e i i i r . er i e e e e r e h
r . e hi e. B i i e ii . i i e i hi h re e re re e he BJ he r r e he er i er. re e re
i e er i e i e i hi he re i i i er i er , he i her r ee er i e e . r er e he h he e h re e i er
date. Send typed copy to : Advertising Dept., American Bee Journal, 51 S. 2nd St., Hamilton, IL 62341 or FAX to 217-847-3660 or e-mail to: abjads@dadant.com.

December 2017 1341

 r e ri e i e ee e r -
r . . r e ri e ,SS e r - F O R SAL E : SI N G L E S O N 4 -W AY ROYAL JELLY
tor -1200.00. 6 Frame motorized SS extractor P AL L E TS, BU L K BE E S, BR O O D , BEST 100% PURE F RESH ROY AL JEL L Y .
. . r e e r r . . SO U TH E AST TE X AS 5 0 7 -6 3 5 -5 7 4 5 . $ 6 5.00 per kilo + shipping. H I GH EST PO-
r e e r r . . e T ENCY . L OW EST PRI CES guaranteed on
re re , er ee , Custom made supers and hive bodies. All sizes. large orders. T OP QUAL I T Y . Stakich, I nc.
e er r i e. i i e r r i e i e, re e e ( 248) 642- 7023 X 301
pump -1000.00, used very little. Stainless steel i h hi i i e r r .
, i e er . . r re i r i .B r h i rie , - POLLEN
gal, insulated. Stainless steel tank inside and odridge, Minnesota. Phone ( 218) 378-4188.
, i e . e h e r e r e . . r re QUAL I T Y , CL EAN, L OW MOI ST URE POL -
. e e i re . . i $ 99.00. Available May 2018. 20 percent down L EN $ 5.40/lb. Min. 10 lbs. + shipping. L OW -
trade honey or beeswax. Phone 1-620-365-5956. payment with order. Henry Y oder, N5304 Wold EST PRI CES guaranteed for large orders.
madelinecooper@sbcglobal.net Rd., Black River Falls, WI 54615. ST AK I CH , I NC. Phone ( 248) 642- 7023 X 301
For Sale 1 1/ 2 story hives on 4 way pallets in re h r her i r i r e
For Sale: Doubles or singles on bottom boards,
ri . r er i i i i- available. Available raw uncleaned and semi-dried
10-300 hives ( 200 hives with or without loca-
r i . J e h . e e . r ri i .
tions) . Call Kim ( 925) 913-0531. Near Sacra-
mento. rS e . r i i .
Used Dakota Gunness uncapper 200 Model. $150/ 25 lbs. OBO. 308-765-8379. POLLINATION
Asking price $ 5000.00 plus shipping. Please Bee e r he . r rri ,
contact Arthur at Dakota Gunness, Inc. 701-553- HONEY FOR SALE i rS. , B er e ,
8393 or 888-553-8393. dakgunn@rrt.net Excellent clover honey in drums and light beeswax 1470.
ere ee i re r e. available. Mark Gilberts Apiaries, ( 608) 482-1988. Bee e r i i . e
300 + hives with all new woodenware and new Provide the Following: Hives are placed behind
.S. ee er, , hi e i , r locked gates. 24/ 7 security with nightly patrols.
e , r r i i . e h e black locust-limited supply) , white honey, melter
roughly $ 90,000 in pollination contracts that go Fungicide spraying only and only at night. Win-
h e , ere , e r , e e e h e eri r ih er i e hi e i e e,
with the purchase. Family medical issues is why . . . e er i e. r e B -
we are selling our operation. ( 831) 801-5468. ee i , e i i . eh e r i
win Apiaries, Darlington, WI ( 608) 776-3700. crew to place hives in orchards. Y ou are paid
For Sale: 600 Ten Frame 1-1/ 2 story & DD on 4
V ery nice looking & good tasting Nebraska r e re e r r th
r
way pallets, 350 6-5/ 8 honey supers, Dadant 60
bottling honey. ( 402) 319-5125. e re ri th
. Visit: www.almondbeepollina-
r ee r r, h e , i -
capper, SS honey tank with stand. Honda Pump, CL OV ER B he , r e, e , tion.com r re e i . e e i r i
rre r er, ee er e . i er i r r . S Almond Pollination Service, Inc. ( 209) 202-8915
e , B i . i r i er, HONEY FARM, 514 Commerce Parkway, E Mail: shousebee@gmail.com
S i er r i , i . e i e e , r - Verona, Wisconsin 53593. ( 608) 845-9601. ee he i i hi e r
er, B , i er h e i ei almonds in CA? We can unload in your holding
i , e . Seri i irie e e.
drums in WI. Great tasting! Light beeswax avail- r r rh i r . ee ee r
368-0887 or email F oothillH oneyfarms@gmail.
able. Call ( 262) 689-1000. . r i . i e ( 559) 313-
com
e ee r e. er, r e 6038. 9 yrs experience, services available in the
S r e i ri . .
B , i er. rie i e. Central Valley.
i e e er ri .
Smitty Bee Honey ( 712) 748-4292.
520-8633 or sheltonbsmith@windstream.net
PREMI UM H ONEY S – Summer: Michigan BEES AND QUEENS
S e Bee ee i B i e r S e
Blueberry, T histle ( K napweed) – excellent for J S S i r i
r e i i e i e re er
creamed honeys, plus F L premium fall pepper h ri i ee e i i e ri e . Nucs
almonds 2018. I run a 500 colony operation in
and F L spring orange blossom honeys. Call Ed and packages also. Jerry Foster Apiaries, 937 9th
e i , . h r r . ( 231) 408-7485. E mail: edeisele@gmail.com St., Colusa, CA 95932. Phone ( 530) 458-4234.
i e ee he i e e her i i e, QUALITY HONEY , barrels, your buckets. i rh e e ee . r er r
i i ie e he ee he e i e Hollenbeck, Kirksville, Missouri. ( 660) 665-2542 re. re re e h . r ri i , J
i he ri . r r e ee - evenings. . www.goldenbeeinc.com
lets- everything less than 5 years old. 16 good re i h i rh r e ee i hi . i r er r
yards. 110K gross and 70K net. I do all the work h e r e. i ei . e . spring 2016. Waldo Ohio Apiaries, George Tay-
e e e r e i ee 256-859-1747. lor, P.O. Box 122, Kilbourne, OH 43032. ( 740)
year. 150K is about what I have into it. Includes i h e e i er 524-6241. Email: W AL DOBEE@MSN.com
r ie e e i h r e. e er i r r he r he rre . i h Website: www.waldobees.com
used amitraz, all organic mite control. Serious r r. J e r , QUAL I T Y QUEENS from H AW AI I , available
i irie , e e Bri . 8647 year round. Call K ARRUS QUEENS ( 808)
Approximately 1000 DEEP HONEY SUPERS. 854-5308.
9 FRAMES PER BOX WITH FRESHLY EX- HONEY AND e Bee r e, r i i
TRACTED COMB. $ 18.00 A BOX. Northeast- BEESWAX WANTED Wisconsin. Contact: Mark Gilberts Apiaries 608-
ern South Dakota -- 605-949-3170. 482-1988.
Singles on nice 4 way treated pallets available in HONEY WANTED— Extracted or comb. e ee i re i e ihe h
Late May in Texas. Plywood lids, mite treated. S , ., er e i e ee he r he . e
r e i h ee er. ee . i i Ave. Haines City, Florida 33844. ( 863) 422-1773. i i he ee i . , i i r
r er . h re e. FAX ( 863) 421-2299 e i e i he ri . i i
e i e . . . . H ONEY W ANT ED r e . , h e 204-2631.
SB rS e r e rre r e. re S ee e r
ih r her i ee . Inc., 514 Commerce Parkway, Verona, WI. ( 608) D oub le s , s i ng le s , b r ood f or s ale
e h. r e ee . e h. he r- 845-9601. ye ar r ound. F O B Jan-Ap r i l, O ak-
ders by Feb. 30 th. i i e re i . dale , C A. Ap r i l-D e c . , M i lt on F r e e w a-
R ound c om b , F r e s h, g ood t as t i ng
i . r he i ree. t e r , O R . Q ue e ns le s s t han 6 m ont hs ,
P olle n, V ar i e t al H one ys . 8 0 0 -6 7 8 -1 2 2 6 . g r e at e q ui p m e nt . R yan@ s w e e t b e e
15 Tuck Road, Ogdensburg, NY 13654. t as t y@ zs p e c i alt yf ood. c om
S r e e , he , hone yc o. c om ( 3 6 0 ) 9 0 7 -0 8 4 2 . $ 5 k m i n.
ee , e . e er e i e . p ur c has e .
H O N E Y P R I C E U P D ATE S. C all H one y
. er . . e ee
H ot L i ne . ( 7 6 3 ) 6 5 8 -4 1 9 3 . O lym p i c W i lde r ne s s Ap i ar y – P a-
May. Cottonwood, CA. Sam & Joyce Van Vleet,
( 530) 347-1987. cific NW WILD SURVIVOR BREEDER
e ee r e hi e - Q U E E N S – D i s e as e and M i t e R e s i s t ant
e , re ii ih r ee er i – I s olat e d Y ar ds – Av ai lab le July – Se p t
hi e r e er . e ffer. ( 3 6 0 ) 9 2 8 -3 1 2 5 . w w w . w i lde r ne s s b e e s .
764-3400. c om

1342 American Bee Journal

F OR SAL E: ST ORY 1/2’ S, 3 SEMI L OADS, HONEY BEE NEWS, he J r he e
SEPT -OCT MN. DARREL RUF ER -612- 325- LABELS S h e i ri i i , ., er-
1203. Custom L abels. F REE BROCH URE. national Subscription AUS$ 50.00 ( Airmail) Bank
i r er r e er e r r e ( 319) 759-0161 leave message or r , i r er r e S .
r e e h e. B amysbeelabels@hotmail.com Published bi-monthly— r re i r i
S ri r e hi h . contact: The Editor, PO Box 352, Leichhardt
i e r er e i e BEE TRANSPORTATION NSW 2040 Australia. E-mail: honeybee@
781-4202 or email cantuapiaries@gmail.com re ire ii i i r i e accsoft.com.au
r e . i e ri , . e re e r ee r . eh e B i he i r i er i e r ee ee er ,
Call at ( 912) 670-0150 or ( 231) 330-3925 . r , r i er r i . r re e er extension workers and scientists. Our members
i r er r S ri . - h eh e r e erie e. Be r hi er i e e he e e e-
i . i i i i. 435-272-7239 or ben@honeycreek.biz
Early-bird pricing for 2018. Italian & Russian longing to IBRA, which includes Bee World. We
ee ri e e i B r hi
ri e ee , ee
in KY , ship to 5 zones. Web: www.schoolhouse-
. i MISCELLANEOUS i r i r i e r e e r
bees.com i h e r e e r r . The AMERI CAN BEEK EEPI NG F EDERA- ee ee i h ri . r re i r i -
School House Bees ( 859) 356-1350. T I ON h e e ffer i e er . Se B , rh , r iff ,
ITALIAN PACKAGE BEES, 3# $88.00, cage in- r e er hi e i r i e UK. Telephone ( + 44) 1222 372409. Fax ( + 44)
e . i . i i . e i. ffer ree Be i i Bee ee i e. 1222 665522.
Cottonwood, CA. Sam & Joyce Van Vleet, ( 530) Contact the AMERI CAN BEEK EEPI NG IRISH BEEKEEPING— Read An Beachaire ( The
347-1987. F EDERAT I ON, 3525 Piedmont Rd. NE, Bld. 5. Irish Beekeeper) . Published monthly. Subscription
Suite 300, Atlanta, GA 30305-1509, Phone ( 404) . er ree. er her ,
N uc s av ai lab le f or p i c kup M ar c h – June , 760-2875, Fax 404-240-0998, or email info@ Journal Manager, Rosbeg, Westport, Co. Mayo, Ire-
2018. Taking orders for five frame deep abfnet.org. land
w oode n nuc s w i t h I t ali an q ue e ns , $ 1 4 5 , H ONEY BEE I NSEMI NAT I ON SERV I CE
q uant i t y di s c ount s av ai lab le . L oc at e d AT T ENT I ON L I V EST OCK PRODUCERS—
( H BI S) – Susan Cobey S e i i i i - h i e i r h i r i
ne ar t o p ac kag e p r oduc e r s i n e as t ment; Training; Consulting; Custom II; Speak-
G e or g i a. E m ai l R i c h Ap i ar i e s f or de t ai ls i e r r , h ere e ,
i . e e e . well as sheep and cattle. Comprehensive Breeder
- j i m m yr @ p i ne land. ne t HBIService, honeybeeinsemination.com Directory. 1-Y r $ 27, 2-Y rs $ 54. Foreign &
S B S ee - S e i i hi e. Canada add $ 36 per yr. postage. Subscribe today!
ages. ( 910) 290-4186 http://easternbeesupply. ei e . i . B BJ, S e , . r
my-free.website Call 903-982-5889. ree e.
r e i r er r ri www.stewartonhive.com
THE SCOTTISH BEEKEEPER— Monthly Maga-
i e , S. ri e re i , e i
Sunrisehoney1@Y ahoo.com
PERIODICALS i e he S i h Bee ee er i i . er-
national in appeal, Scottish in character. View back
BEILLE DE FRANCE—T he most important numbers and Subscription rates at: http://scottish
WANTED he h i i i r e r
beekeepers.org.uk
ee ee er , r he e r he r e i .
Honey and Beeswax wanted. All colors and S B J he -
h h r i e r e i er , re r r
varietals. Send samples or call Smitty Bee Honey e i i , re ie he e i r i i r he S. . e er i Bee r er
( 712) 748-4292. er he r . r e ri - Associations. Published Bimonthly in English
Buy e x i s t i ng b e e ke e p i ng b us i ne s s i n- tion: 40$ US. ABEILLE DE FRANCE- 5, rue du ri , ri ri e e he ri
c ludi ng b e e hi v e s , yar ds , p olli nat i on Copenhague-F 75008 PARIS. and Cape Bee races. Subscriptions incl. postage
contracts. We will keep current staff. THE AUSTRALASIAN BEEKEEPER— i ie . ri er i e S h -
M i n 2 0 0 0 BH , loc at e d i n C ali f or ni a. C on- Se i r Bee ee i J r he S her ri r e i, e e e
e i here. ee er e ee- in S.A. Rands. NB. Sample copies only available
t ac t V i v i an M ar t i no at 2 0 9 -5 2 1 -9 1 9 0 or
ee i i i e he r r e re ei i . . .B er
V M ar t i no@ L e e m ode L aw . c om i n M ode s t o
beekeeping countries. Published by Pender ei , , S h ri .
WANTED: 3-FRAME ELECTRIC EXTRAC- Bee ee i S ie . ., Bi - B J i i
TOR, GOOD CONDITION. CALL ( 989) 826- lor Road, Urila, N.S.W. 2620, Australia. Annual Bee ee i i i , i he r-
3300. subscription paid in advance $ 160 AUD. terly in Turkish ( with English titles and sum-
THE AUSTRALIAN BEE JOURNAL— rie ri e ihi e
HELP WANTED Caters to both amateur and commercial ee ee i ee ee i e , r i ee-
Full time position available in Oregon. Bee- apiarists. Subscription $ 120.00 Australian keeping, and research articles, and considered a
ee i e erie e re ire . rre r er e ri er er . link between Turkish beekeeping and the world.
Ryan@sweetbeehoneyco.com PO Box 558, i he h . i ri i ri - Gazcilar Cad. No. 9/ 2 16220 Bursa-TURKEY
Milton Freewater, OR 97862 ( 360) 907-0842. i i , ., . . B , i r i , i . Fax: + 90 224 224 3964 http://www.uluda
Se i e he ee e r i r r Australia 3556 Ph: 03 5446 1543, Email: vaa@vic garicilik.org.tr
bee operation. We are located in FL and WI. We do beekeepers.com.au.
i i , ee re ri h e r i . B he e i h ee ee -
S e e erie e re erre , e e ir e , ing magazine. View a digital copy and subscribe on
wages dependent on experience, good opportunity line at www.bee-craft.com.
r e e . ri r r hi r re ere e B S -
re ire . r . he
Olivarez Honey Bees/ Big Island Queens is seek- Bee magazines with special publications in bee
i i e ee ee er i r ii ie e e e r he h i e
e erie e re erre . Se i r r he i e i er r e i ee ee er.
ability to work in a team environment a plus. Po- hree re i i e e e r
ii re i e, r e e erie e. er e e r er re r B ri .
re Be e e. ri r r hi r Monthly publications with 64 pages. Subscription
re ere e re ire . e e r i ie r . er e r e her ir h -
available. Submit resume to info@ohbees.com er , h , Ber i , e .
or Olivarez Honey Bees Inc/ Big Island Queens, + 49( 0) 30/ 293974-87, Fax + 49( 0) 30/ 293974-59,
P O Box 847 Orland Ca 95963, Fax: 530-865- www.diebiene.de
5570, Phone 530-865-0298 S, i i e he -
i r ee ee i i er er ee i e i. i he r er . ree
re e i i r i i i - e re e , ri e i e
i , ee re ri h e . i e ii . Council, Suite 236, 234-5149 Country Hills
Motivating salary. Driving license and social Blvd. NW, Calgary AB T3A 5K8, CANADA.
e ri re ire . ri e BJ, B , i , S ri i i r i i e www.
IL 62341 honeycouncil.ca.

December 2017 1343

 Volume 157, 2017
INDEX
SUBJECT
CONTRIBUTORS Phipps, Ron– 29, 597, 1043
Reed, David – 669 Avant – 818
Ayers, George S.– 99, 201, 676
Repas, Thomas – 657 Awards & Recognition – 17, 85, 127, 228,
Bender, Michael – 983
Ress, Suzanne – 75 230, 231, 477, 478, 820, 881, 918, 921
Bixby, Miriam – 893
Blomstedt, William– 167, 853 Sanford, Malcom T.- 215, 1317
Schell, Rich- 193, 541, 649 B
Bonoan, Rachael E. – 315
Scott, Howard– 95, 197, 311, 549, 747, bacteria – 15, 363, 809
Borst, Peter Loring– 285, 399, 765, 993
1287 Barnes, Jayne & Isaac –
Burlew, Rusty – 1205, 1325
Sebestyen, Tina – 189, 427, 663 Bayer Cropscience AG – 127, 477, 1029
Caron, Dewey M. – 81, 973
Seeley, Thomas D. – 277, 1183 beards, bee –
Cella, Craig– 435
Shapiro, Julie – 785 beard wax – 714
Coble, Larry – 969
Sharashkin, Leo– 381, 739 bears – 491, 1115
Cohen, Suzanne D. - 1277
Sollenberger, T’Lee– 873, 965, 1099, 1237, bee -
Colopy, Michele – 59, 173, 319, 449, 553,
669, 787, 897, 1001, 1111, 1213 1331 APP – 350
Connor, Lawrence– 155, 1085 Traynor, Kirsten– 1179 attracting – 125
Couch, Ron – 1229 USDA, National Ag. Statistics Service - behavior – 423
Delaplane, Keith S. – 67, 163, 273, 419, 485 biology – 1085
517, 621, 761, 869, 989, 1095, 1209, Weast, Robert D.– 521 blowers – 401
1313 Weaver, Mary and Bill– 879 brain – 817
Dewhirst, Karen – 669 Wiggins, Charlotte Ekker - 1295 breeds – 54, 147, 155, 265
Dixon Elsabé – 931 clubs – 787, 1111, 1213
Elliot, Jack – 645 cluster – 362
OBITUARIES dancing – 1057
Ellis, Jamie– 251, 367, 497, 719, 1061, Bauer, Dale – 924
1321 Blanks, Rev. Albert Allen – 1155
diet – 1175
Evans, Kathleen C. – 505 Fries, Ingemar – 1156 digestion – 494
Freeman, Jerry– 307 Gunness, Donald B. – 346, 351 drone – 364, 492, 1095
Kuehl, Lawrence James “ Jim” – 1265 dying – 493
Fulbright, Zach - 1103 Lappe, Kenneth Sr. – 705
Gabritsch, Darryl – 1107 Nicholson, Raymond Kenneth - 231 eggs – 367, 646
Garcia, Norberto L. – 1043 escapes – 400
Garnes, Peggy – 59 feeding – 38, 254, 326, 500, 725, 853,
Hayes, Gerald ( Jerry) –37, 141, 245, 361, SUBJECT 969, 1082, 1199
491, 607, 713, 831, 941, 1055, 1173, forager – 67, 297, 476, 817
A genetics – 348, 613
1269
ABF ( American Beekeeping Federation) grooming – 1195
Hemken, Andy– 181, 405
– 260 gut microbes – 585
Hicks, Cecil– 85, 323, 431, 673, 673
Hill, Dale – 527, 631, 777, 861, 1081, 1199 absconding – 38, 248, 521 habitat – 229
Horridge, Adrian – 985 acupuncture – 996 hair – 586
Jones, Richard – 439 advocate legislature – 553 health – 59, 273, 419, 631, 653, 819, 1028,
Kern, Jessica – 635 adulteration, food – 599 1123
Lang, A. Lee – 71 Africanized honey bees AHB – 39, 39, 54, hiving – 427
Linder, Charles – 291 285, 493, 587, 945 house, frameless – 141
Loper, Gerald M. - 983 Agricultural Act – 435 immunity – 475
Lopez-Uribe, Margarita M. – 505 agriculture – 449 larvae – 228, 348, 367, 646
Lorence, Karen Nielson– 557, 1275 allergy – 246 loss – 121, 167, 610, 814
MacFawn, David E. – 645 almond pollination – 975 mite-resistant – 53
Mangum, Wyatt A. – 89, 185, 301, 389, American foulbrood – 259, 1177 moving – 715, 819
531, 625, 755, 845, 959, 1089, 1189, amino acids – 631 nest – 989, 1086
1289 Anarchy – 1313 nutrition – 527, 631, 777, 861, 1081
Mather, Wendy – 59 antibiotics – 259, 477, 1271 packages – 311
May, Ralph C. Jr. – 1123 antiques memorabilia – 185, 223, 531, 765 parasites – 348
McAfee, Alison – 423, 537, 653, 781, 857, ants – 227 population – 537
893, 1051, 1195, 1297 apiaries –82 queens –255, 309, 499, 531
McArt, Scott - 1283 Apiguard – 44, 1270 repellent – 401
McDonell, Bob – 319, 449 Apis cerana – 53, 615 social – 163, 1195
Mikell, Sharry – 561 i re space – 293, 832
Miksha, Ron – 393 Apis mellifera ( assorted breeds) – 155, species – 831
Mitchell, Derek – 887 497, 509, 587, 613, 703, 1123 stingless – 586
Nabors, Ray– 63, 177, 297, 445, 545, 641, Apis mellifera scutellata – 155 stings – 345, 497, 869, 993
773, 865, 979, 1109, 1225 App - 350 vision – 587
Nielson-Lorence, Karen– 791 Argentina – 32, 600 wild – 349
Oliver, Randy – 43, 53, 147, 265, 375, 411, art – 85, 123, 181, 557, 917, 931 yards – 294, 432, 502, 561, 664, 741, 749,
509, 613, 729, 835, 949, 1071, 1115, arthritis – 994 755, 845, 897, 959, 986, 1052, 1063, 1107,
1217, 1303 Asian hornet – 1024, 1030 1115, 1179, 1230
Ostiguy, Nancy – 505 Australia – 897 Bee Informed Partnership – 59, 1143

December 2017 1345

 SUBJECT

beekeeper, health – 635, 994, 1099 dance, bee – 1057 H

beekeeping business – 177, 193, 323, 431, dead colony – 493 Hawaii – 13
449, 541, 645, 649, 791, 1103, 1111, deformed wing virus ( DWV) – 13, 252, health – 59, 819, 944
1277, 1287 307, 941 Hemken, Andy – 345
beekeeping history – 89, 185, 223, 277, deadout equipment – 435 history – 319, 393, 399
319, 439, 531 Delaware – 81 hive -
beekeeping programs – 375, 435 diagnostic kit – 1055 construction – 181, 545, 788
beeswax – 38 Dicambia – 1055 damage – 847, 1179
beetle, small hive – 38, 222, 291 diseases – 493, 1295 entrance – 986
blueberry, wild – 19, 1175 DNA – 287, 654, 1195 horizontal – 127
books - drone – 364, 492, 608, 983, 1095 hot ( AHB) – 493, 873
Advanced Bee Culture – 1033 drought map – 937 inspections – 719
American Bee Books – 231 dusting, powdered sugar - 609 lifter – 1025
Beekeeper’s Lab – 924 living sculpture – 931
Beekeeping with Children and Bee E location – 82, 90, 324, 432, 442, 739,
Groups – 18 Easy Check – 247 755, 845
Beekeeping Tips and Techniques – 1033 eclipse – 1025, 1145, 1177 maintenance – 809
Benevolent Bee, The – 478 editor, ABJ – 1021 management – 785
Composition of American Honeys – 393 education – 81, 323, 445, 473, 502, 545, monitoring – 363
Keeping Bees in Horizontal Hives – 127 641, 669, 674, 719, 787, 792, 879, 1023, observation – 407, 792
No bees, no life – 697 1085, 1213, 1230, 1310, 1317 products – 82, 1239
Small Hive Beetle, The – 1033 Egypt – 279 styles – 273, 399, 441, 985, 1023
What on Earth? Bees - 925 egglaying – 367 tools – 719
World Without Bees, A - 479 entrances – 363, 887, 986, 1057 two-queen – 1109
Brazil – 32, 285, 600 EPA - 173, 1147 zones - 69
Breeding – 949 epidemiology – 419 Hoglen, Rick – 673
broccoli – 248 equipment, bee – 39, 445, 1099 honey-
brood – 46, 122, 150, 645, 1085 escapes, bee – 400 sensory analysis – 75
Buckfast Abbey – 1229 evolution – 163, 265, 277, 419, 469, 818, comb – 361, 713, 865, 979, 1205
Buckfast Bees – 158 835, 989 cut comb – 361, 713, 865, 1109, 1225
Burns, David – 879 exercise – 635 dew – 142
er h i , , , experiment – 43, 189 re
extracting – 432
C foam – 143
CCD – 245, 521, 537, 918 F harvesting – 399
Canada – 19, 601, 893, 1051 FDA- Federal Drug Administration – 260 heating – 362
cane toad – 897 fairs – 95 Kosher – 609
candles – 82 farming – 85, 449 market – 25, 29, 82, 95, 137, 197, 239,
carbon dioxide – 411 feeding bees/ queens – 38, 254, 326, 500, 357, 405, 487, 593, 709, 827, 935, 1039,
caustic acid – 37 725, 853, 969, 1082, 1107 1043, 1169
cells – 492 ferel honey bees – 277 microbes – 1325
Central America – 286 e , moisture – 394
chemical – 228 re packaging – 1205
China – 33, 602 e, Jeff plants – 19, 99, 201, 676, 701, 773,
Clemson University – 1145 er 1140, 1199
cleaning equipment – 38 Florida – 1154 production – 485,
climate – 301, 493, 603, 1048 Flumethrin – 144 products – 325, 407, 1103
clover pollination – 975 food bank – 1260 splits – 307
cluster – 362 forage – 297 stand – 405
colony loss – 251 fossil, bee – 278 styles – 75, 393
Colorado – 85 fungus – 832 sweetness – 395
COLOSS – 924, 1297 tasting – 393
comb – 142, 492 G toxic – 1057
comb honey – 713, 865, 1109, 1205, 1225 Gamma ray – 76 i r
Connecticut – 431 Gary, Norm – 125 Honey Bee Health Coalition – 785,
conservation, soil – 1001 genes – 475, 613 1032
construction – 181 genetics – 348, 376, 654, 1313 HopguardTM – 469
contest, honey – 561 gifts – 1237, 1321 horses – 1107
contracts, pollination – 650 Girl Scouts – 351 humidity – 361
controlled burn – 713 Given, Krispn -17, 228 hurricane – 1179
corn maze – 85 global warming – 1048 hygienic behavior – 122, 423, 1195
crafts – 1240 glycerin – 43
Creative Discovery Museum – 669 Google Maps – 755, 845 I
Crimbring, Y vonne – 230 grafting queens – 327, 881 immunity – 67
Graham, Joe – 1021 India – 31, 601
D Greece – 439 Indoor wintering – 361
DDT – 781 greenhouse – 248 insecticide – 18, 126

1346 American Bee Journal

 SUBJECT

insurance – 541, 649, 1027 New Jersey – 673 skunk – 223

IPM – 14, 494, 609 Nigeria – 1023 slatted rack – 245, 492
iPhone app – 305 NOD Apiary Products Ltd – 59 small hive beetle – 38, 222, 291, 941,
Israel – 439 North Carolina – 561, 1103, 1107 1056, 1107
Italy – 75 nosema – 1123, 1205
nucs – 37, 645, 1061 smokers – 185, 498, 722, 1227
K nutrition – 527, 631, 777, 861, 1081 soil conservation – 1001
kale – 143 splits – 307, 664, 713, 875, 1064
Kallman, Dan – 791 O stamps, forever – 1029
Kosher honey - 609 OSBA Western Reserve – 59 stings – 345, 497, 869, 993
observation hive – 407, 792 stingless bees – 586
L Oliver, Randy – 221 sugar ( assorted) – 777, 1176
Langstroth, L. L. – 607 ordinance, bee – 193 sugar roll – 609
larvae – 367, 646 organic – 943, 1027, 1140 supering – 177
law – 193, 259, 541 over-winter – 37, 351, 433, 1227 superorganism – 67, 517, 582, 621
liability – 831 oxalic acid – 43, 492, 505, 729, 1115, 1123 supplements – 38
light therapy – 15 survey – 167
living hive sculpture – 931 P swarming – 499, 517, 522, 621, 761, 1183
Long Lane Honey – 879 PMS ( parasitic mite syndrome) – 412 swarms –
loss, colony – 251, 814 i rh e catching – 325, 381, 493, 625, 675, 697, 747,
lure, swarm - 381 package bees – 311, 427 965
packaging, creative – 325 control – 274, 309, 1207
M Page, Robert E. Jr. – 17 removal – 750, 879
MAQS – Mite Away Quick Strips – 39, 44 pasture – 326 trap – 381
macroalgae – Pence, Karen ( second Lady) – 814, 1275 syrup, sugar – 853
manage hives – 53 pest control – 14, 273
Manuka honey – pesticide – 18, 38, 173, 319, 703, 781, T
maple blooms – 301 917, 922 Taktic® – 43
management – 785 pests – 223, 227, 491, 608, 897, 944, 1024,
tax preparation – 1287
Manum, A. E. – 89 1089
temerparture, hive – 301
marketing honey – 25, 29, 82, 95, 137, phobia, bee – 1277
Tennessee – 669
197, 239, 357, 405, 487, 593, 597, 709, pheromone – 423
Texas – 493
827, 935, 1039, 1043, 1169 Planting Hope Apiary – 81
therapy, light – 15
maze, corn – 85 plants – 19, 99, 201, 676, 701, 773, 1140,
thermographic – 301, 1091, 1189, 1289
meadowfoarm pollination – 976 1199
tools – 91, 185, 440, 719, 1100
Meadows, James & Jennifer – 323 poem – 1139
top bar hive – 607
pollen – 13, 15, 142, 307, 581, 917, 1143
medicine – 259 toxic honey – 1057
pollination – 40, 248, 319, 476, 585, 773,
mentors, beekeeping – 445, 473, 500, 641 trap, drone - 532
973, 1051
metamorphosis – 367 Traynor, Kirsten – 1021
pollinator report – 227
Mexico – 286, 602 treasurers – 1111
Pollinator Stewardship – 59, 173
Meyzen, Bobbie – 431 treatment free – 375, 1299
Polyandrous queen/ colony – 1314
mice - 1089 Tylan - 494
powdered sugar – 141
microbes – 1325
propolis – 68, 71, 122, 274
Mikell, Doug & Sherry – 561 U
protective equipment – 506, 1099
milkweed – 298 UAV ( unmanned arial vehicle) – 983
protein – 631
Missouri – 1295 Uganda – 921
re h e er i e
mite drift – 1219 Ukraine – 602
mites – 14, 16, 53, 147, 265, 378, 405, 411, Q uncapping – 143
469, 949, 1148, 1173 Queen acceptance – 959 United Kingdom – 1229
miticides – 43 queen breeding – 269, 509, 657, 893 United States – 25, 287, 357, 485, 487,
moldy comb – 832 queen cages – 427, 697, 765 593, 709, 827, 935, 1039, 1169
monandrous queen/ colony – 1314 queen cells – 64, 389, 531, 960, 1209 USDA – 227, 435, 729, 813, 816, 918, 943
Monsanto – 85, 245 queen excluders – 979
mosquito – 126, 1024, 1154 queen locating – 985 V
moss, sphagnum – 609 queen marking – 499 VFD – Veterinarian Feed Directive – 259
moving bees – 607, 715, 819 queen rearing – 63, 663, 1023 VSH ( varroa-sensitive hygiene) – 615,
music – 791 1195
R vacuum ( Bee-Vac) – 751
N recipe – 1237, 1331 Varroa control – 37, 39, 141, 144, 307, 607
National Honey Board – 585, 831 record keeping – 549 Varroa mites – 14, 16, 54, 147, 247, 251,
National Science Foundation – 345 replacing frames/ combs – 610 265, 307, 423, 509, 597, 653, 701, 716,
natural beekeeping – 673, 739 requeening – 255, 646, 873, 1066 833, 835, 857, 897, 949, 1056, 1071,
necromones – 423 research – 43, 75, 245, 411 1115, 1123, 1183, 1205, 1217, 1303
nectar – 143, 308, 1199 royal jelly – 307 ventilation – 887, 1269
needlework – 557 Vermont – 89
neonicotinoids “ neonics” – 703, 922, 923, S Veteran – 81, 1317
1283 Sea myrtle – 143 Veto-Pharma – 924

December 2017 1347

 SUBJECT (cont.)
vibration – 714
Vietnam – 32, 600
Virginia – 473
viruses – 228, 1147
vision, bee – 587
Vita – 478
W Beez in Beardz: A True Story of a Buzzing
Washington D.C. – 1275
Water -
collecting – 315, 498, 970
device – 1260
salt – 943
wax, beard – 714
wax moth – 831, 1107
wax worms – 702
weather – 301, 937, 1048, 1179
Weathers, Nikki – 85
weeds – 14
West Virginia – 323
wild, bees – 349, 739, 965, 1183
Williams, Mary – 791
wintering – 324, 433, 581, 1176, 1270
Z Classified Advertising – 105, 205, 329, 453,
Zika virus - 1147
TITLE
A Collecting and Caring for the Wild Hive –
Absconding, the Mysterious Disappearance
of Colonies – 521
Advertising Index – 110, 210, 334, 458,
570, 686, 798, 906, 1010, 1130, 1246,
1350
Advocacy for Our Honey Bees – 553
African Bee Story, The – 285
America’s Sweetest Honey – 393
Antibiotics and the Beekeeper— The
FDA’s Veterinarian Feed Directive
( VFD) – 259
Attempt to Usa a UAV “ Drone” to Observe
a Congregation of Honey Bee Drones,
An – 983
Australia—N o Varroa destructor ( yet) , but
Watch Out for Cane Toads – 897
B Efficacy of Different Methods of Oxalic
Backyard Beekeeper Learns Queen Rearing
from Commercial Beekeepers, A – 663
Balancing the Needs of Honey Bees and
Horses – 1107
Bee Biology Overview – 1085
Beekeeper James Meadows Keeps Bees in
the West Virginia Mountains – 323
Beekeepers and Museum Collaborate for
the “Honey Harvest” – 669
Beekeepers—The Next Generation – 1234
Beekeeping Insights Across Forty Years –
319
Beekeeping Safely – 1099
Beekeeping Topics- Raising a Few Queens
for Your Own Use – 63; Supering Your
Colonies for the Honey Flow – 177;
Improving Our Bee Forage – 297; Teach-
ing Others to Keep Bees – 445; Begin-
ner’s Beekeeping Recommendations –
1348
TITLE
545;
Teaching and Mentoring Beekeeping –
641; Making Our Roadsides Pollinator
Friendly - 773
Bee’s Sting, The – 993
Bee-utify Your Home with Needlework –
557
Business – 1103
Beyond Taktic—Beekeeper-funded Re-
search – 43
Birth Place of Modern Beekeeping, The –
439
Breeding a Better Bee: Three Social Im-
munity Traits, One Massive Experiment
– 1195
Brief History of Pesticides, A – 781
Bug Phobic to Beekeeper! – 1277
Building Decorative Hive Tops – 181
Business Insurance Issues for the Profes-
sional Beekeeper – 649
C Honey Bee Biology – 89, 185, 389, 531,
Can Beekeeping Save a Life? – 1317
565, 683, 795, 901, 1005, 1127, 1243,
1341
Classroom, The – 37, 141, 245, 361, 481,
607, 713, 831, 941, 1055, 1173, 1269
965
Comb Honey Corner – 865, 979, 1109,
1225
Community Treatment Day - 59
Connecticut Beekeeper Bobbie Meyzen
Adds a Little Elegance to Her Apiary –
431
D ing – 1183
Darwinian Beekeeping: An Evolutionary
Approach to Apiculture – 277
Dealing with Fair Issues – 95
E Insights into Honey Bee Pollination in the
Effects of Repeated Summer Application of
Oxalic Dribble, The – 1123
Acid Application – 505
Exclusivity [or Not] – 197
Experimenting with Bees Successfully –
189
Extended-Release Oxalic Acid Progress
Report – 729; Report #2 - 1115
F Living Hive, The: A Sculpture Built by Bees
Farm Mom of the Year Honors Beekeepers
with a Skep Beehive Corn Maze – 85
Field Guide to Beekeeping – 251, 367, 497,
719, 1061, 1321
For the Love of Bees and Beekeeping – 67,
163, 273, 419, 517, 621, 761, 869, 989,
1095, 1209, 1313
G 795, 901, 1005, 1127, 1243, 1341
Going Molecular: Insights into the Life of a
Varroa Mite – 857
H
Harvesting Honey: Let Me Count the
Ways! – 399
Harvey & Irma’s Impact on Beekeepers –
1179
Heart of Agriculture: Farmers and Bee-
keepers, The – 449
Hive Maintenance as an Athletic Event –
635
Hive of Science for Bees: Report from an
International Pollinator Workshop –
1297
Hives for Humanity: Using Bees to Create
Social Change in the Downtown East-
side in Vancouver, BC - 1051
Hobby Beekeeper’s Annual Report Card
Summary, A – 549
Hobby Beekeeping and Insurance Legal Is-
sues – 541
Hobby Beekeeping and the Law—Issues to
Consider – 193
Homecrafted Holiday Quick Gifts – 1237
625, 755, 845, 959, 1089, 1189, 1289
Honey Bee Diversity Dispute, The – 653
Honey Bee Engineering: Top Ventilation
and Top Entrances – 887
Honey Bee Health Coalition Drives Col-
laboration, Cross-Pollination to Support
Pollinators – 785
Honey Bee Nutrition—Part 1 – 527; Part
2 – 631; Part 3 – 777; Part 4 – 861; Part
5 – 1081; Part 6 – 1199
Honeyed Greek Christmas Feast, A – 1331
Honey’s Magical Power: Four Ways to Slay
Microbes – 1325
How a Population of Wild Honey Bee Col-
onies Living in New York State is Surviv-
Hyenas in our Midst—The Small Hive Bee-
tle Problem – 291
I
Improved Stock – 155
Pacific Northwest – 973
International Honey Market – 29, 597,
1043
Is It Time to Breed for Propolis? – 71
L
Lessons Learned: Beekeeping Across the
Pond – 1229
Letters to the Editor – 9, 121, 221, 345, 469,
581, 697, 809, 917, 1023, 1139, 1259
– 931
M
Making Comb Honey Should Be Simple
and Fun – 1205
Marine Veteran Picked for Delaware Plant-
ing Hope with Honey Bees Project - 81
MarketPlace – 105, 205, 329, 453, 565, 683,
Mechanisms of Hygienic Behavior: It’s all
about the Necromones – 423
American Bee Journal
 TITLE (cont.)

Missouri Joins the National Honey Bee Dis- Improve Queen Quality – 657 Bees—Pipedream or Plausible?, The
ease Survey – 1295 Surveying and Reporting Bee Losses – 167 – 53; Part 5—Striking a Deal with Var-
Music and Honey Bees—an Unlikely Alli- Syrup Mixing System for Backyard Bee- roa – 147; Part 6a—Bee Breeding for
ance – 791 keepers, A – 853 Dummies – 265, Part 6b—Small-scale
My Advice for Hiving Bees – 427 Breeding – 375; Part 7—Walking the
T Walk – 509; ; Part 8 – Regulatory Cas-
N Taxes for Beekeepers in 2017 – 1287 cades, Varroa Tolerance, and a Moon
Natural Beekeeping and Ideal Hives—Dr. Test of Using CO2 for Bee-friendly Mite Shot – 613; Part 9—Knowing Thine En-
Tom Seeley Interview – 739 Monitoring, A – 411 emy – 835; Part 10—Smokin’- hot Mite
New Jersey’s Rick Hoglen Strives for Certi- There’s a New Buzz in D.C. Thanks to Mrs. Washin’ – 949; Part 11—The Math of the
fied Natural Beekeeping – 673 Pence – 1275 Mite – 1071; Part 12—Building a Model
New Look at Splits, A – 307 Treasurers Are Key to the Reputation of any – 1217; Part 13—Using the Mite Model
Newsnotes – 13, 125, 227, 347, 473, 585, Organization – 1111 - 1303
701, 813, 921, 1027, 1143, 1263 Two Safety Nets for Beekeepers—ELAP
North Carolina Beekeepers Win Interna- Program and Crop Insurance – 435 W
tional Black Jar Honey Contest – 561 WWelcome Kirsten Traynor, our New Edi-
Notes from the Lab: The Latest Bee Science U tor – 1021
Distilled – 1283 U.S. Honey Crops and Markets – 25, 137, What Makes a Good Bee Club Leader –
239, 357, 487, 593, 709, 827, 935, 1039, 1213
O 1169 When Is a Colony Worth Saving? Beekeep-
Other Side of Beekeeping, The – 99, 201, 676 U.S. Honey Production Up 3 Percent to Op- ing Finance – 645
erations with Five or More Colonies in Where Does Your Bee Club Want to Go, and
P 2016 - 485 How Are You Getting There? – 787
Package Bee Installation – 311 Why Do Honey Bees Like Dirty Water? –
Pesticide Policy Proposal for Pollinators – V 315
173 Varroa Problem—Part 4—Mite-resistant Why Newly Mated Queens Get Lost – 985
Points of Debate: Exploring Pollinator Mis-
conceptions – 537

Q
Queens Rule! Growing Canada’s Queen
Breeding Industry: Results from the
2016-2017 Queen Breeder Survey – 893
R
Requeening Hot Hives – 873
Requeening: Why, When & How – 765
Rescuing Bees Is a Great Business – 747

S
Search of the Best Swarm Lure, In – 381
Sensory Analysis of Honey - 75
Soil Conservation and Honey Bees Circa
1948 – 1001
So You Want to Sell at the Farm Market? –
405
Stimulative Feeding vs. Maintenance Feed-
ing of Honey Bees—Facts and Thoughts
– 969
Strategies for Small-scale Queen Breeders to

December 2017 1349


A.N. Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1301
A & O Forklift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1252
Acorn Beekeeping Equip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1273
American Bee Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1307, 1323
American Honey Producers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1320
Avoyelles Honey Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1284
Bastin Honey Bee Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1300
Bee Box Wraps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1324
Bee Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1301
BeeCulture.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1282
Bee Excellent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1276
Bee Hive Thermal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1312
BeeInformed.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1294
Beekeepingins.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1351
Beeline Apiaries & Woodenware . . . . . . . . . . . .1293
Beelite Wax Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1298
Bee Smart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1312
Beetlejail.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1312
Beevital.us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1340
Betterbee, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1262
BL Plastic Containers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1288
Blue Ridge Honey Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1343
Blue Sky Bee Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1255
Bordelon Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1326
Borntrager, David. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1326
Brand New Industries, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1300
Brown Honey Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1326
Browning Cut Stock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1312
Brumley Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1294
Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1274
Buzz’s Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1316
CC Pollen Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1302
Carbolineum Wood Preserving Co. . . . . . . . . . . .1323
Carol Ferguson Jewelry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1296
Chinabeeworld.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1302
Complete Bee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1286
Contract Pros Mfg.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1302
Cook & Beals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1338
Cowen Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1316
Dadant and Sons, Inc. . . . . . 1253, 1300, 1307, 1308,
1312, 1319 & Back Cover
Dakota Gunness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1285
December 2017
Advertising Index
Ernst Seeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1338
Globalpatties.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1281
GloryBee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1256
Gold Star Honeybees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1294
Hardeman Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1312
Hawaiian Queen Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1302
Heilyser Technology Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1285
Heitkams Honey Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1320
Hilbert’s Honey Bees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1291
Hogg Halfcomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1326
Horace Bell Honey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1301
Jester Bee Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1320
JJ’s Honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1288
Koehnen, C.F. & Sons, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1274
Kona Queen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1324
Lohman Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1294
LorAnn Oils and Flavors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1285
Mann Lake Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1309, 1344
Maxant Industries, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1294
McKenna Boiler Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1300
Medivet Pharmaceuticals Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1257
Merrimack Valley Apiaries, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . .1338
Meyers, A.H. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1258
Miller Bee Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1293
Mother Lode Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1258
NMC Super Bee Forklift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1284
Nod Apiary Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1328
Old Sol Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1323
Olivarez Honey Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1340
OxaVap.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1324
Park-Burris Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1278
Pierco.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1329
Pierce Beekeeping Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1286
Plastic Packaging Concept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1299
Powell Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1298
Queen Right Colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1292
QSI Honey and Food Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1320
R.M. Farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1276
Rayonier Beekeeping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1261
Roberts Bee Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1338
Ross Rounds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1257
Rossman Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1350
Salem State University. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1284
Sanders Honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1272
Selby Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1302
Shastina Millwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1254, 1330
Sherriff, B.J. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1285
Simpson’s Bee Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1319
South Georgia Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1285
Spell Bee Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1308
Stayer’s Quality Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1324
Strachan Apiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1286
Suhre, Adam Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1316
Suhre, E. Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1301
Superior Bee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1298
Swienty Beekeeping Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . .1276
Taber’s Honey Bee Genetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1299
Texas Insurance & Financial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1294
TimelessMicroscope.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1294
TreatVarroa.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1285
T.R.S. Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1336
University of Montana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1286
Veto-pharma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1337
Vidalia Apicultural Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1291
VP Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1276
Weaver, R. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1280
Western Bee Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1250
Wicwas Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1339
Wilbanks Apiaries Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1273
Wintersun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1285
Wooten’s Queens and Bees, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . .1268
Xstarpublishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1299, 1312
Z Specialty Food, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1294
1350