In June, an annual report on honey bees in the United States showed that beekeepers lost nearly half (48%) of their managed colonies, the second-highest death rate on record. The biggest culprit was the Varroa mite, a parasite that feeds on bee larvae and transmits viruses.

Kauaʻi CC’s hives are one of the few disease-free honeybee sites left in the state. According to the Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture, Hawaiʻi was free of the varroa mite, until it was detected on Oʻahu in 2007. Since then, the varroa mite has also been found on Hawaiʻi Island. Only Kauaʻi, Maui and Molokaʻi have so far remained free of the pest.

One of the most important things Kauaʻi CC Apiary Project volunteers do is breed queen bees in order to continue to protect the island from the varroa mites.

“One of our main reasons for being is to be able to raise queens here right on the island, to make them available to other Kauaʻi beekeepers to lessen the chance that someone will import a queen bee,” said Alan Spencer, a volunteer and instructor.

Spencer’s years of experience were on display as he collected a ripe queen from a busy buzzing hive with his bare hands and placed her into a vial-like container for transport.

In the bee-ginning

Kauaʻi CC’s Apiary Project started in 2010 with some funding from the Kauaʻi Rural Development Project. Additional funding in later years came from the Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture, a Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education grant and local donors. The college started offering continuing education classes in beekeeping and garnered first place awards in the Hawaiian Honey Challenge in 2018 and 2019. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Spencer and a cadre of volunteers kept the apiary alive. The lifesavers included retired electronics instructor Francis Takahashi Jr. and, more recently, Academic Advisor Valerie Melle.

“The long-term goal is to support beekeepers on Kauaʻi, offer technical support and really educate the public,” said Takahashi Jr. “Agriculture is really important on this island.”

Francis Takahashi Jr.

Agriculture is also important far beyond Kauaʻi, as the Apiary Project estimates that one-third of Americans’ diet is directly or indirectly derived from honeybee pollination.

Melle got involved when she was looking for something different to do during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This was the wildest thing that I saw happening on campus,” she said. “So I just jumped in and I was so inspired by their class that I’m still here.”

Bee-utiful future

Melle has since taken on the role of volunteer marketer for the Apiary Project and has big ideas for the future, such as restarting the college’s application to the Department of Agriculture to export their bees. She recently got a query from a hotel that is interested in collaborating with Kauaʻi CC to start an onsite apiary as part of its hospitality and culinary offerings. There was also mention of someday being able to export to clientele in Japan.

The more immediate future may hold launching an adopt-a-beehive program to generate more education and support.

Interim Chancellor Margaret Sanchez said her long-term hope is to eventually have a for-credit program so that students may earn college credits along with a certificate in beekeeping.

Sanchez said, “The overall hope is to expand our program and offer it to more people on Kauaʻi, so that we can increase the health of the bees, the health of our farms and the health of our crops.”

—by Kelli Abe Trifonovitch

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Bee-ware: Kauaʻi CC honeybees among last disease free sites | University of Hawaiʻi System News (hawaii.edu)

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ProtectaBEE won a silver medal from the World Beekeeping Awards last month

Kate Bueckert · CBC News ·

ProtectaBEE is a new beehive entrance that can help protect honeybees from pests and disease. It recently won silver from the World Beekeeping Awards at the 48th Apimondia International Apicultural Congress in Chile in September. It was created by Best For Bees and researchers at the University of Guelph. Best For Bees founder Erica Shelley talks about the invention and how it works.

A new device created by Ontario researchers is like adding a new, safe front porch to honeybee hives.

ProtectaBEE is a honeybee hive entrance that can help protect the pollinators from pests and diseases.

In recent years, beekeepers across the country have faced a number of challenges when it comes to maintaining their bee hives, including changing climate and parasites and in particular varroa mites. The mites feed on honeybees and can spread viruses in hives.

This past spring, beekeepers across the country reported large colony losses. Rod Scarlett, executive director of the Canadian Honey Council, told CBC News in April Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario honey producers lost an average of 40 to 45 per cent of their bees earlier this year while losses were as high as 60 per cent in Quebec.

It’s a problem Erica Shelley wanted to address, She’s the founder of Best For Bees, a research and development company for beekeepers based in Kitchener. She collaborated with University of Guelph researcher Peter Kevan on ProtectaBEE.

The ProtectaBEE device is red and has nozzles for the entrance and exit to the hive.

The hive entrance was first created for bee vectoring — a process developed by Kevan and other Guelph researchers where bees walk through a biocontrol powder, which they shake off onto crops while getting pollen. The biocontrol powder protects crops and deals with the parasitic varroa mite.

“That’s still in development, it’s a few years out,” Shelley said.

But in testing the product, Shelley said she found other benefits.

“The red colour actually is not easily seen by other insects,” she said.

“It actually is a protection against wasps and hornets and yellow jackets and even robbing bees from other hives,” Shelley said, adding it also protects against skunks and mice.

Silver medal at global conference

ProtectaBEE has now been recognized on a world stage. The device won a silver medal from the World Beekeeping Awards, which were handed out at the Apimondia International Apicultural Congress in Chile last month.

Shelley says there were about 20 entries from developers and inventors from around the world, large machines down to smaller innovative ideas.

“To have the world’s experts look at your thing that you’ve invented and they’ve seen so many inventions come through over the years and then to award a medal to it, it was just that kind of honour,” she said.

Erica Shelley is the founder of Best for Bees, based in Kitchener. She worked with University of Guelph researcher Peter Kevan to develop ProtectaBEE, a hive entrance for honeybees. She’s wearing the silver medal ProtectaBEE won at the World Beekeeping Awards in September. (Kate Bueckert/CBC)

“It also means we’re on the right track and what we’re working on is something that has meaning and is obviously worthwhile.”

Enid Brown, a director with the World Bee Awards, explained the judges for the awards are all practical beekeepers and they “study all the exhibits and look to see how practical they are and if the invention would be suitable to use.”

“They are aware of other products on the market and take into consideration whether this is a true invention or something that has been altered,” Brown told CBC News in an email.

Kevan says Shelley took his previous research and built upon it to create ProtectaBEE and he says it’s a smart invention because it’s simple and quick to use.

Now, the goal will be to get more people to use it, he said.

“It certainly would be useful, I think, to the commercial side of beekeeping, honey production and honey bee protection,” he told CBC News. “It’s got to be accepted by the industry and used by the industry of course and will catch on.”

Kevan said he’d also encourage government agencies and commercial agricultural producers not to overlook ProtectaBEE as a viable way to maintain healthy bees. He says it’s been his experience that these groups have not really recognized Canadian-led research into bee health, even though he believes they’re a leader in the area.

“It’s been very much sort of a ho hum response from government funding agencies and the ho hum response from the bigger established commercial entities,” he said.

Bee data project

While at the conference, Shelley and Best For Bees also launched a Big Bee data movement. She says she hopes it’s a way to collect data from beekeepers around the world to watch for trends.

“It might be pollution, it might be diversity, it might be pests, it might be forage that’s available and that, with using machine-learning, we can actually answer these big questions quickly,” Shelley said.

“So we’re trying to have this movement … so that beekeepers can help beekeepers to solve the world’s bee crisis.”

Shelley says it’s very personal for her to protect bees.

“Bees are very important for our environment and also our food security,” she said. “Our ability to eat good food goes hand-in-hand with their survival.”

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Bees can now get their hives renovated — and it could save their lives | CBC News

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• By HARLEIGH CUPP Daily News-Record

Barry Gibson, owner of Hannah Bee Apiary, inspects his hives.

A gentle humming filled the air surrounding 12 stacked wooden hives — some painted in pastel pink, blue and yellow — while Barry Gibson lifted the lids to peek in on his treasured honeybees.

Hannah Bees Apiary has a story as simple and sweet as the honey its more than 600,000 bees produce each year.

Gibson is a retired U.S. Navy corpsmen of more than 20 years that served on the front lines in Iraq during several different deployments. He peaked an interest in bees and read through several books about apiculture before having the opportunity to take free classes through Michigan State University as a serviceman.

His education certainly did not go to waste, as Gibson rattled off tidbits about the world of bees that he had grown so fascinated by.

He met Hannah Wills in 2019 and moved to their home in Harrisonburg the following year. Coincidentally, Wills father kept bees growing up and so she encouraged Gibson to start a few of his own in their backyard. He listened and what started as a hobby hive two years ago has grown into a vision for starting a small business.

Last month, Gibson received a $1,000 scholarship through a partnership of Tractor Supply Company and the Farmer Veteran Coalition that he had applied for earlier in the year. As one of 60 Veteran farmer honorees from across the nation, he plans to use the funds to construct a storage building for his beekeeping supplies — which are currently housed under the carport — and to expand his apiary to have hives in other locations.

Gibson’s real dream, he said, is to open a coffee shop as a place to display Hannah’s artwork and provide a space for veterans — and anyone else in the community — to gather and share “old war stories.” Honey is how he plans to get there.

“I didn’t start this to make a profit,” explained Gibson. “I have PTSD, and it helps me a lot just being up there [with my bees]. They have their own little world, and it’s soothing to me just to be up there.”

Get in touch with Hannah Bees Apiary and follow Gibson’s farm journey online through his new website at www.hannahbeesapiary.com.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: https://www.dnronline.com/news/harrisonburg-veteran-wins-tractor-supply-grant-to-expand-apiary/article_7e9ae844-4d1f-56ba-a432-e92939d28057.html

“It was a big surprise and deeply honored to receive this award!”
-Krispn Given

Roger A. Morse Outstanding Teaching/Extension Service/Regulatory Award
Supported by Anita Weiss Foundation

This award was founded in 1999 as a memorial to Dr. Roger Morse, who pioneered today’s Master Beekeeper Program. Dr. Morse was an American bee biologist and beekeeper. Morse was a professor of entomology at Cornell University from 1957 to 1989 who was an illustrious researcher, author, and educator, held in great esteem by generations of scientists and citizen beekeepers. The award is presented each year at the annual awards banquet and dinner.

The 2023 winner of the Roger A. Morse Outstanding Teaching/Extension Service/Regulatory Award is Krispn Given. In 2003 he joined the Department of Entomology at Purdue University, he is the Senior Apiculture Specialist specializing in honey bee breeding and research. He has been involved in many beekeeping education programs and he teaches a class in queen rearing and a more advanced course in instrumental insemination that draws folks from around the world each year.

At Purdue, he maintains a honey bee breeding program now in its 26 year with close to 120 colonies breeding for behavioral resistance to the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor. He is best known for his innovative work in honey bee breeding and developing the popular IN Mite-biter honey bee, a strain of bees that groom themselves free of the mites then bite them. He worked with honey bee geneticist Dr Greg Hunt for 16 years and together they developed a bee that is more resistant to the varroa mite. Today he is recognized as one of the preeminent international authorities in the fields of instrumental insemination and honey bee breeding. Many beekeeper’s and commercial beekeepers are using the mite-biter stock in their operations with great success. Given said he is “deeply honored” to be a recipient of this award “The field of honey bee breeding is so critical to reducing the negative impacts of varroa” It is our pleasure to recognize Krispn Given as the 24^th Rodger A. Morse winner.

Krispn Given received the award Friday August 4, 2023, at the awards banquet dinner.

BY LADD EGAN

PROVO, Utah – Students at Brigham Young University have been hard at work cracking the code of the honeybees’ waggle dance and hope to take their research to the next level by communicating back to the bees.

“It’s this waggle that is able to convey to other bees where other food sources are,” said BYU computer science student Caelen Miller. “The angle that the bee waggles with respect to the top of the hive, is the same as the angle between the hive and sun.”

Inside a greenhouse on campus, the students set up a beehive with a glass covered section so that a camera can captures the bees’ waggle dance.

“It’s about one second of waggle dance per kilometer—from what we can tell right now,” Miller said.

The bees perform the waggle when they return from collecting nectar and pollen. Using computers, the students analyze the movements in real time.

“It reads both the distance that the bees waggle as well as the angle it’s waggling at,” said Tanner Day, who is also majoring in computer science. “From there, it extracts those parameters and sends it to another algorithm, which then uses that to essentially put a dot on a map.”

The students aren’t stopping there. The next step is attempting to give the bees directions to a specific location using a robotic bee.

“Which will allow us to control the bees and send them where we want to,” Miller said.

They’re still fine-tuning the robot bee so that it can correctly imitate sound, vibration, movement and how to give a taste of nectar.

“It will be exciting to see how well they’ll follow and how accurate we’ll be able to communicate back to the bees,” Day said.

The experiment would include setting up nectar and flowers in an area where the bees don’t normally forage.

“Then we would have our robot bee send the signal to the other bees through the waggle dance in order to tell them to go to that specific location,” Miller said.

For the computer science students, working hands-on with bees has been an unexpected academic adventure.

“It’s been a really fun project,” Day said.

“This has been fantastic,” Miller said. “I’m really excited to get to the testing of the mechanical bee.”

This research has been several years in the making and they anticipate having the robotic bee working by the end of this summer.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: BYU students build robotic bee to communicate through ‘waggle dance’ (ksltv.com)

Pollinator Grants Offered to High Schools

Sand County Foundation is now accepting applications from high school teachers for pollinator habitat grants.

This competitive grant program gives Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin high school students hands-on experience growing native wildflowers and establishing habitat for imperiled insect pollinators and monarch butterflies.

Successful applications will receive prairie seeds and seedlings, consultation, and $1,000 to support project expenses. This year the program will make two rounds of awards, with applications deadlines of August 10 and November 17, 2023. To apply, visit www.sandcountyfoundation.org/SchoolGrants.

Insect pollinators are essential for crop pollination and ecological diversity. In recent years their populations have declined partly due to loss habitat, especially in the agricultural landscape.

“Students will germinate and grow native plants over the winter, and plant them outside in the spring as an experiential learning opportunity,” said Haley Diem, Sand County Foundation school grant program coordinator. “We encourage applicants to partner with landowners to establish pollinator habitat on agricultural and other working lands.”

Pollinator habitat grant program sponsors include: Syngenta, Enel North America, Monarch Joint Venture, and U.S. Forest Service International Programs.

“Enel understands the fundamental role pollinators play in our natural world. We’ve incorporated pollinator habitats into solar projects, recognizing that renewable energy can not only reduce carbon emissions but also support the ecosystems surrounding these projects,” said Jesse Puckett, Director of Sustainability Projects and Community Affairs for Enel North America. “We’re honored to support this important program and are grateful for the Sand County Foundation’s work to engage high schoolers in developing pollinator habitats.”

In addition to the grant program, teachers can access a Pollinator Habitat Curriculum Guide. Aligned with state and national education standards, the guide’s activities engage students in planning, establishing, managing, and monitoring prairie habitat. The guide is available for free download at https://bit.ly/2JHdq1u.

Sand County Foundation is a national non-profit that champions voluntary conservation practices by farmers and ranchers to improve soil, water, and wildlife habitat.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Casey Langan, Sand County Foundation

608.295.6001, clangan@sandcountyfoundation.org

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: https://www.sandcountyfoundation.org/our-work/soil-and-water-conservation/monarch-pollinator-conservation

FFAR & AAVMC Announce 2023 Honey Bee Vet Fellows

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) and the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) announced the 13 recipients of the 2023 Veterinary Student Research Fellowship (FFAR Vet Fellows). This unique fellowship creates opportunities for veterinary students around the world to conduct research advancing global food security, sustainable animal production and environmental sustainability.

Veterinarians trained in animal science and public health are critical to addressing many global challenges within the veterinary and agricultural fields. Through the FFAR Vet Fellows program, veterinary students can pursue research outside of the biomedical sciences and gain experiential learning opportunities with a qualified mentor. This fellowship culminates with student presentations at the annual Veterinary Scholars Symposium.

“There are few funding opportunities for veterinary students to gain the research experience needed to adequately prepare them to address climate change, emerging infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance and other issues that threaten sustainable livestock production,” said Nikki Dutta, FFAR interim scientific program lead for Advanced Animal Systems. “FFAR is excited to support this fifth cohort of FFAR Vet Fellows to give these students a leg up on their veterinary research and public service careers.”

The 2023 FFAR Honey Bee Vet Fellows include:

Madison Rowe

Texas A&M University

Honey bees are an ecologically and economically important livestock species often overlooked in veterinary agricultural research. Rowe is studying the behavioral and reproductive effects of a detrimental gastrointestinal fungus, Nosema ceranae, in honey bee queens and workers to determine the indirect impacts of infection. This research will inform future treatments and supportive care for the disease, as well as trace potential production impacts that occur prior to colony collapse.

Courtney Wallner

Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine

Honey bees pollinate over 80% of all flowering plants, including many agricultural crops. They play an integral role in ecosystem health and food security but face numerous threats from parasitism to pesticide toxicity. In 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a directive that tasked veterinarians with overseeing their care, yet honey bees are the only food-producing species not traditionally taught in U.S. veterinary schools. To address this knowledge gap, Wallner is designing a honey bee medicine curriculum tailored to veterinary students and professionals to increase the number of veterinarians able to see honey bees as patients.

Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) builds public-private partnerships to fund bold research addressing big food and agriculture challenges. FFAR was established in the 2014 Farm Bill to increase public agriculture research investments, fill knowledge gaps and complement the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s research agenda. FFAR’s model matches federal funding from Congress with private funding, delivering a powerful return on taxpayer investment. Through collaboration and partnerships, FFAR advances actionable science benefiting farmers, consumers and the environment.

About the AAVMC

The member institutions of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) promote and protect the health and wellbeing of people, animals and the environment by advancing the profession of veterinary medicine and preparing new generations of veterinarians to meet the evolving needs of a changing world. Founded in 1966, the AAVMC represents more than 40,000 faculty, staff and students across the global academic veterinary medical community. Our member institutions include Council on Education (COE) accredited veterinary medical colleges and schools in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, as well as departments of veterinary science and departments of comparative medicine in the U.S.

Contact: Michelle Olgers, 804.304.4200, molgers@foundationfar.org

Eric Hedin

A week ago, my wife came in and announced, “There’s a scary-looking bees’ nest in the lilac bush!” Wasps routinely try to build nests around our house, so I was prepared for the worst when I went out to investigate. What I found was a basketball-sized cluster of honey bees — a “swarm.” There was no nest, only a living ball of thousands of bees hanging from a branch.

I’ve never done any beekeeping, but fortunately, we have some friends who do. We had no idea, but apparently a swarm of bees in May on an easily accessible branch is something to get excited about! Soon, our beekeeper friends rolled up in their pickup truck. One pulled on jacket and bee-proof bonnet, set a large container (a portable hive box) on top of a stepladder underneath the swarm, took hold of the branch, and shook it. The swarm of bees, all festooned together, fell in a clump into the box. Or, rather, most of them did. Hundreds of them draped over the sides, which our undaunted friend scooped into the box (with gloved hands), while hundreds more buzzed around. The couple who came kept reassuring us, “They’re not going to sting because they’re focused on staying with the queen.” I learned that the queen bee’s presence is of utmost importance for the thousands of others.

Thanks for the Bees

Our friends extended thanks for the bees, then went home, while we went inside for a belated supper. The next day, I saw a smaller swarm around a branch in the same lilac bush. Here’s the interesting thing. Our friends said that they didn’t think they had captured the queen since the bees were acting agitated, so they came right back over to recover the remaining small swarm. When they added it to the hive with the bulk of the bees, all of them settled down right away. The queen had come home.

Here was a fascinating example of a finely tuned aspect of living organisms that was surely worth further investigation. A trip to the university library and online research quickly yielded multiple sources of information about honey bees from specialists of all types. As I’ve read up on bee behavior and their life cycles, a striking picture appears of ingenious design in living systems.

Natural Engineering

A recent research article reported on the use of x-ray microscopy to provide three-dimensional, time-resolved details on how bees manufacture their iconic honeycomb structure. Several observations from the authors are worth mentioning:¹

Honeycomb is one of nature’s best engineered structures.

Engineers recognize design, and never has good human-level engineering come about by anything other than intelligent design.

Honeycomb is a structure that has both fascinated and inspired humans for millennia, including serving as inspiration for many engineering structures. It is a multifunctional structure that acts as a store for food, a nursery for developing honey bee brood, and a physical structure upon which honey bees live. It is constructed of wax produced by bees in specialized glands in their abdomen. Wax is an expensive commodity and so comb construction can be quite costly for a honey bee colony. Honeycomb is constructed in such a way to minimize wax consumption.

Honeycomb construction is optimized to serve multiple purposes for the bee colony, subject to the constraint of material and labor costs. Sounds like the bees are a responsible engineering firm.

The ability of bees to “know” how to manufacture the structurally optimal hexagonal-packed honeycomb is even more amazing when one considers that the worker bees constructing it hatched less than three weeks earlier.

While not a perfect analogy, a colony of bees may be compared to a multicellular living organism. Each member of the colony seems to know what to do at each stage of its life for the good of the whole “organism.” An isolated bee will soon die, even if supplied with nutrients, suggesting that it is designed to function as part of the whole.

Arranged by a Designer

We could say that the whole honey bee colony is greater than just the sum of its individual members. This state of affairs usually arises when the individual components of a complex system are specifically arranged by a designer to accomplish a predetermined purpose. Consider any complex electrical or mechanical device. All of the components of my laptop would make a fascinating pile if laid out on a table; but they’re even more fascinating when assembled and functioning together as a whole, according to their designed purpose.

A professor of entomology at Iowa State University, studying the behavior of honey bee colonies, writes:

Each bee appears to specialize, for a time at least, on a particular job. Thinking about this, you may decide that a single bee is somewhat like a single cell of your own body. The work force in charge of a particular job, such as feeding larvae, would then correspond to one of your tissues. And if you follow this analogy further, you may conclude that a colony of honey bees is like an organism — a superorganism.²

Aspects of an organism that manifest in a honey bee colony include caring for developing larvae, securing and processing nutrients (similar to metabolism), tending the queen (whose presence coordinates the behavior of the entire colony), guarding the hive and patrolling for intruders (similar to an immune system), temperature regulation (fanning their wings to cool the hive, clustering and vibrating their wings to heat the cluster of bees), growth of the whole colony in terms of the number of individual bees, reproduction of the “organism” (resulting in the phenomenon of the honey bee swarm), coordination of activities mediated by a variety of communication channels, and a sense of purpose.

Observers of complex, functional systems, whether nonliving or alive, rationally conclude that, “If something works, it’s not happening by accident.”³

Beyond Mere Survival

The honey bee colony “works” and accomplishes a purpose beyond mere survival. It diligently stockpiles nectar which its workers convert to honey in amounts exceeding its needs.⁴ Honey’s unique ingredients give it value as a food source for humans that has been recognized for millennia.

The high total sugar concentration [primarily fructose and glucose, with a smaller amount of sucrose] in honey is beneficial in that most yeasts cannot ferment in it. Also, together with one other constituent (glucose oxidase), it gives the honey antimicrobial properties, and it can be stored safe from spoilage…⁵

Beyond the direct production of honey for our use, the role of honeybees as pollinators is of critical importance in agriculture:

Bees and other pollinators play a critical role in our food production system. More than 100 U.S. grown crops rely on pollinators. The added revenue to crop production from pollinators is valued at $18 billion.⁶

Continuing to ponder bee behavior, comments made by Professor Richard Trump of Iowa State University are instructive:

If a honey bee, with her microbrain, knows what she is doing, this is cause for wonder. If she does not know — if she is fully programmed by those sub-microchips of DNA that come to her as a legacy from her ancestors — this is even greater cause for wonder. It is incredible.⁷

Here are a couple of examples that may cause us to wonder how bees know how to do what they do. Researchers have found that bees possess an internal organic timer, which in conjunction with an awareness of the rotation of the Earth, allows them to efficiently time their foraging activities to arrive at flowers when pollen sources are at their peak.

The famous “waggle dance” that a scout bee performs back at the hive after discovering a food source communicates to other bees (by touching, since the inside of the hive is dark) both the distance and the direction of the food in relation to the current position of the sun. Bee keepers have found that if they reorient the honeycomb on which the bee is dancing, the undaunted bee will adapt its dance so that it still correctly communicates the proper direction to the food source.⁸ Sometimes the dancing scout bee will continue its dance for more than an hour, and over this time, the position of the sun has changed. In response, the bee will compensate for the sun’s movement across the sky by gradually adjusting the angle of its dance.

How Many Lines of Code?

If humans tried to duplicate the capabilities of honey bees by building and programming mini-robots that could fly, how many lines of code would have to be written and executed to make an artificial bee? We can also ask what the likelihood is of all this coded information arising from unguided natural processes. Someone committed to the evolutionary paradigm might answer that any genomic changes that offered a survival advantage would’ve been locked in by the ratchet-like mechanism of natural selection until primitive bee ancestors evolved into the complex, coordinated colonies of honey bees seen today.

Systems engineer Steve Laufmann, co-author of the recent book Your Designed Body, addresses the engineering hurdles facing any proposed evolutionary explanation:

…when evolutionary biologists hypothesize about small and apparently straightforward changes to a species during its evolutionary history, the biologists tend to skip both the thorny engineering details of what’s necessary to make the system work, and the bigger picture of how any system change has to be integrated with all the other systems it interacts with. The result is that biologists tend to massively underestimate the complexities involved.

And here’s the rub: if they’ve massively underestimated those complexities, then they’ve massively underestimated the challenge for any gradual, materialistic evolutionary process to build up these systems a little bit at a time while maintaining coherence and function. 

1. 324-325

The difficulties outlined by Laufmann are in the context of the human body, but they apply equally well to the complexities of a colony of honey bees. Bee keepers are all too aware of the precarious balance between life and death throughout a single year for a colony of bees. Engineers know that making changes to a delicately balanced complex functional system, even small ones, have a way of upsetting the balance — not towards better function but towards failure and collapse.

Honey bees offer us a glimpse of a remarkable living system involving interdependent, communally cooperative behavior. In some ways, they outshine the best in conscious human attempts to build a thriving society.  Perhaps we can learn a thing or two from the humble bee.

Notes

1. Rahul Franklin, Sridhar Niverty, Brock A. Harpur, Nikhilesh Chawla, “Unraveling the Mechanisms of the Apis mellifera Honeycomb Construction by 4D X-ray Microscopy,” Advanced Materials, Vol. 34, Issue 42, Oct. 20, 2022.
2. Richard F. Trump, Bees and Their Keepers, (Iowa State University Press, Ames, IA, 1987).
3. https://evolutionnews.org/2021/12/caltech-finds-amazing-role-for-noncoding-dna/
4. How do bees make honey? From the hive to the pot | Live Science(accessed 5/28/2023).
5. Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile, Beekeeper’s Handbook, (New York: Cornell University Press, 1998).
6. 25.2020 (usda.gov).
7. Trump, Bees and Their Keepers, p. 78.
8. Trump, Bees and Their Keepers, pp. 80-1.

ERIC HEDIN

Eric R. Hedin earned his doctorate in experimental plasma physics from the University of Washington, and conducted post-doctoral research at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. He has taught physics and astronomy at Taylor University and Ball State University in Indiana, and at Biola University in Southern California. At Ball State, his research interests focused on computational nano-electronics and higher-dimensional physics. His BSU course, The Boundaries of Science, attracted national media attention. Dr. Hedin’s recent book, Canceled Science: What Some Atheists Don’t Want You to See, highlights scientific evidence pointing to design.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Natural Engineering in Honey Bee Lifestyle | Evolution News

• By SIMON GONZALEZ N.C. COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE

N.C. State apiculture specialists educate beekeepers about better management techniques and best management practices. Photo courtesy of N.C. State University

In the winter of 2006, a distressing phenomenon began to make headlines.

Beekeepers across the country were reporting troubling losses of their honey bee hives, at a scale and for causes not seen before.

The majority of worker bees in a colony would disappear, leaving behind the queen, plenty of honey, and a few nurse and immature bees. Colonies cannot survive without worker bees, and as many as 90% of beekeepers’ hives were being lost.

Stories about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) were amplified with the vital role that honey bees play in pollination and their critical link in agriculture production. There were dire warnings that the collapse of the honey bee population would lead to the collapse of the national and global food supply.

Soon after CCD stories became widespread, David Tarpy, N.C. State University Extension specialist in apiculture and beekeeping, noticed a phenomenon of his own.

“When I started in 2003 it was before CCD hit all the headlines,” he said.

“There were just under 1,200 members of the state association. Today there are nearly 5,000. They had 44 county chapters that met once a month. Now there’s something like 89 chapters, and half of them meet in their local Extension office. We have the most beekeepers in the nation, probably outright but definitely per capita.”

Motivations can vary.

Some North Carolina beekeepers do it for business opportunities, to harvest the honey to sell at farmers markets or to friends, family and neighbors. A few beekeepers have expanded their hives and are providing commercial pollination services.

But just about all of them have something in common.

“Most of them are getting into it because they hear that bees are in trouble,” Tarpy said.

“It’s something they’ve always been curious about, and always wanted to do. It was enough of a curiosity and impulse to get started and keep bees as a hobby.”

Seth Nagy, extension director in Caldwell County, observed something similar in his area.

“When Colony Collapse Disorder showed up and it was in the news cycle, locally we went from beekeepers calling us occasionally to a massive increase in awareness about bees,” he said. “We might be talking to somebody and suggest a crop protectant or a pesticide, and they might say something like, ‘Well, I don’t want to do anything that harms the bees. I know we need them.’ ”

May 20 is World Bee Day, first proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2018. It was chosen in honor of Anton Janša, a pioneer of modern apiculture who was born on the date in Slovenia in 1734.

The purpose of the day is not to celebrate Janša, but rather to raise awareness of the ecological importance of bees and their general health.

In 2022, the good news is there are plenty of honey bees. But there are significant challenges.

“A lot of people equate all bees as being the same,” Tarpy said. “Solitary native bees that are not under the purview of humans are in decline because of habitat loss. Since honey bees are managed they aren’t going extinct. We just have difficulty in keeping them healthy.”

“We are doing research on different stressors of honey bees to try to find ways to mitigate them,” Tarpy said. “That leads directly into our extension work, which is to educate beekeepers about better management techniques and best management practices. That’s where we have our most effective impact, trying to make existing beekeepers better.”

Among the major stressors affecting the health of honey bees are parasites and pathogens, disease agents that make bees sick. The worst of them is a parasitic mite called varroa.

“That’s what a lot of our training is focused on,” Tarpy said. “There are many different options, but there’s no silver bullet. You can do the same thing to two different colonies and they’ll respond differently. It’s about trying to get beekeepers to understand the complexity of the entire issue.”

Other stressors are pesticides and environmental contaminants, things that bees can encounter in their environment that are toxic to them; and nutritional stress, including habitat loss that reduces the amount of pollen and nectar-bearing flowers.

“It used to be possible to be a bee haver; you could have a hive of honey bees and let them do their thing. You’d go in there once a year and take excess honey, and that was about it,” Tarpy said.

“Now you have to be an active beekeeper, because there have been these introduced disease agents that our bees don’t have a natural defense against. As a result. they succumb to them if left on their own. So honey bees really do need a lot more hand-holding these days than before.”

Much of the education component takes place through the Beekeeper Education & Engagement System (BEES), an online resource that offers courses for beginning and advanced beekeepers.

“We built the BEES network to empower the Extension agents so that they didn’t have to be experts in beekeeping,” Tarpy said. “They could rely on my expertise and these online lecture materials to educate their local beekeepers.”

Before the pandemic, Extension apiculture added an in-person element with the introduction of three regional BEES Academies, held in Caldwell, Chatham and Brunswick counties. The academies took elements from the online course and added live training sessions conducted by Tarpy.

“The idea was we would take newer or even seasoned beekeepers and help add to their knowledge, dive into some of these topics like disease management and hive management,” said Nagy, whose Extension center hosted one of the events. “The second day we had some hands-on components where we did mite checks, as well as some things with the industry like hive products and how to expand offerings that could generate revenue. It was just a fascinating program.”

COVID-19 restrictions put the academies on hold, but there are plans to resume in the fall.

Another development on the horizon that will empower Extension to help North Carolina beekeepers is construction of a new field research facility in Raleigh, replacing the dilapidated building that was condemned.

“The state beekeepers, on hearing the news that our field research facility was condemned in late 2020, went to the state legislature and got funding for a new field lab,” Tarpy said. “That is in the works to be built in the next few years. It will include an Extension center so we can start having Extension activities at our field lab again.”

While there are challenges, Tarpy encourages anyone who has thought about becoming a beekeeper to take the plunge.

“Anything to promote bees is helpful,” he said. “It’s a great gateway into agriculture, a great way into farming and local produce.”

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: N.C. State aids beekeepers with hive health | | journalpatriot.com

$15K grant supports local efforts in eastern Kansas

Kansas teens are learning how to plan, plant and maintain habitats that attract butterflies, bees and other pollinators. (Photo courtesy of Cheri Nelsen, Wildcat Extension District)

MANHATTAN, Kan. – An ambitious group of teenagers have set out on a path to improve pollinator habitat in their communities, while giving a nod to the important role that bees and butterflies play in food production.

Cheri Nelsen, a 4-H youth development agent in K-State Research and Extension’s Wildcat District, said the teens are learning how to plan, plant and maintain habitats that attract pollinators.

“Many youth know about pollinators like bees and butterflies, but they don’t always know what is needed for attracting and keeping pollinators,” Nelsen said.

Earlier this year, Nelsen and Leavenworth County extension agent Sonya Murphy were awarded a $15,000 grant from the National 4-H Council and Corteva Agriscience to support community-based pollinator projects.

The group includes youth from the Wildcat District – which includes Crawford, Labette, Montgomery and Wilson counties in southeast Kansas – and Leavenworth County (northeast Kansas). Nelsen said 17 youth have received initial training for teaching others; each of those youth is charged with teaching an additional 250 youth about pollinator habitats.

National wildlife conservation officials have put recent emphasis on creating habitat that attracts pollinators. As an example, in mid-2022, the iconic monarch butterfly – known for its bright orange and black markings – was placed on the endangered list, a result of habitat destruction and climate change, among other reasons.

As they move about, pollinators often choose milkweed to lay eggs.

“Maintaining a healthy habitat is important for pollinators,” Nelsen said. In nature, bees, butterflies and other pollinators carry pollen from the male part of a flower (known as the stamen) to the female part of the same or another flower.

Nelsen adds: “We all need to eat, and pollinators also play a vital role in food production (by pollinating food crops). For myself, I enjoy watching kids learn new things and doing things to help the community.”

In Parsons, youth are planting a seven acre plot to native plants. Nelsen said part of the process is determining what type of pollinator plants need to be included.

In Leavenworth County, youth are planning a pollinator garden at the Veteran’s Administration hospital.

Nelsen said youth have also taught lessons at Earth Day and in local schools, and are planning events during the upcoming county fair season.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: 4-H Youth Launch Projects to Improve Pollinator Habitat | Morning Ag Clips

Lucile will be assembling and distributing 600 seed packets for free. She will also offer free seed packets to ship anywhere in the United States after you pay a $1 shipping fee. When you get the seeds, you will plant them to produce flowers for pollinators. This seed blend is made for North America. Once the flowers bloom, they will feed the pollinators a more diverse diet. By producing more flowers, this could help fight against starvation, disease, and loss of resources to our pollinators.

Lucile will be giving presentations in southeastern Oklahoma and distributing seed packets for free. To schedule a meeting at a school, business, 4-H or other club please call (580) 743-6992.

If you would like a seed packet, please email: Beeboxcustomercare@gmail.com.

Thank you to our sponsor Oklahoma 4-H Foundation for this grant opportunity. To ensure future years of this service project she will be accepting donations for next year. Questions about the project? Email: Beeboxcustomercare@gmail.com

Set to break ground this summer, the new Honey Bee Research Centre on Stone Road will be a state-of-the-art research and education/outreach destination

Barbara Latkowski

A new facility for honey bee research, education, advocacy and outreach is coming to the University of Guelph.

Set to break ground this summer, the new $16.1-million Honey Bee Research Centre (HBRC) will be a state-of-the-art research and education/outreach destination dedicated to all aspects of honey bee health and well-being.

The new HBRC will be located on a former U of G physical resources tree nursery, east of the main campus near the corner of Stone Road East and Victoria Road. Work is currently underway clearing the property.

The current version of the Honey Bee Research Centre is at Townsend House which is a 1960’s bungalow on Stone Road East.

“They’ve outgrown that facility a long time ago,” said John Cranfield, associate dean for external relations at the University of Guelph’s Agricultural College.

The completion of the new Honey Bee Research Centre is projected for fall 2024.

Cranfield said the aim is to have a ground-breaking celebration in June, to not only thank people who have shown their support, but to raise awareness and attention to the project.

“We are really excited about the project and what it can do to raise awareness for the role of pollinators as well as what we are doing at the University of Guelph to make sure that we are addressing pollinator health, wild and managed, because we do both here at our college,” Cranfield said.

With a significant increase in honey bee colony mortality over the last decade, research is becoming increasingly important.

Honey bees are necessary for 1/3 of the food that humans consume. HBRC’S mandate is to support the future of honey bees through research, teaching and outreach.

“There’s one thread that weaves all of humanity together throughout all of time, and that is ‘what we eat.’ We all have to eat, and we know that pollinators of all kinds play an important role in the production of food,” Cranfield said.

“We have a long history. We’ve had a honey bee research centre and apiary since 1894. So, we are well versed on it and that is why we are really excited about this amazing facility.

“Our Honey Bee Research Centre is recognized globally for the science that comes out of the centre and the outreach that happens. There’s the scientific discovery that is fundamental to improving bee health, but there’s also the outreach that makes that research tangible for bee keepers,” Cranfield said

“It’s about putting that knowledge into action and into the hands of bee keepers.”

In addition to a 100 hive apiary, the new HBRC will be a 15,000 sq.ft facility that includes space for research, production and outreach programs, a research laboratory, as well as office and classroom space.

It will also serve as a demonstration facility for best practices in commercial beekeeping and honey production, enable world class research on honey bee health, and act as a vehicle for increased community outreach and public education.

Cranfield said that a very large part of the building will be public-facing.

“We are calling that the discovery centre, and that is the outreach component,” Cranfield said.

“We’ve designed the facility so that we can host school groups and other social functions. There’s a range of different options that can be housed at that facility, and right now, we don’t have that at Townsend House, at least not on the scale that we need.”

The University of Guelph has the largest research apiary in North America, he noted.

“The new centre will offer a dedicated space for learning. It’s a great way to help young people put STEM into action, in helping them understand the important role of pollinators.”

In terms of accessibility, the centre will be near a bus and bike route, surrounded by pollinator gardens and walking trails.

“There are wetlands all around us. What is really key is that there are nearby sources of pollen throughout the year, so when trees are beginning to leaf in the spring, that is an important source for pollinators. Throughout the summer, natural and planted flower beds are important. So, when bees wake up from winter, will have access to pollen and access to the environment which is important for what they do,” Cranfield said.

Located adjacent to the arboretum, Cranfield said this will help create a flow of people between two functional areas of the university.

“Visitors from the arboretum can also discover what we do at the Honey Bee Research Centre,” Cranfield said.

“This is great in making sure that we are all working together to activate that part of the campus and further enhance how we can engage with the public around nature, around pollinators, and around what we are doing at the university to help support both.”

So far, the project has raised $13.38 million towards a $16.1-million goal.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: New Honey Bee Research Centre creating a buzz at U of G – Guelph News (guelphtoday.com)

Each year, the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC), in conjunction with several partners, solicits nominations for eight prestigious awards: the Pollinator Advocate Award (3 countries), the Farmer-Rancher Pollinator Conservation Award (3 countries), the Pollinator Roadside Management Award, and the Pollinator Electric Power Award.

Nominees in all categories understand just how important pollinators are to food, culture, and life. They have taken that extra step to help out the birds, bees, butterflies, moths, and bats that support agriculture and ecosystems everywhere. NAPPC, through its recognition and appreciation of all awardees, encourages their activities and hopes to catalyze future actions on behalf of pollinators. Each year, awards are given in Canada, the United States, and Mexico supporting all of the work that goes into protecting North American pollinator populations. Winners of these awards are recognized at the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign Conference hosted annually in October.

2022 POLLINATOR AWARD WINNERS

OHIO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

2022 POLLINATOR ROADSIDE AWARD

The Ohio Department of Transportation, (ODOT) planted wildflower sites across the state purely for aesthetics in the 1990s. The Department realized the practice was not sustainable in its current form and discontinued the practice. In 2011, ODOT was approached by the Ohio Department of Natural Resource’s Division of Wildlife and Pheasants Forever to install a sustainable prairie on the western edge of the state in Darke County. The planting was successful and with a subsequent test site focusing on plants that benefit pollinators and wildlife began ODOT’s pollinator habitat effort. With minor adjustments to its seed mixture, the Department determined a prairie could be created that would meet the needs of both initiatives, which greatly increased the number of public-private partners. In 2016, ODOT created a fully funded standalone Highway Beautification and Pollinator Habitat Program to capture the numerous opportunities available to enhance and establish pollinator habitat along the state’s 19,000 miles of roadside. The coordinator works with local, state and federal agencies, non- profit organizations and other partner organizations to plan and implement new roadside pollinator habitats.

DISNEY SOLAR POLLINATOR PROJECT

2022 POLLINATOR ELECTRIC POWER AWAR

Disney set ambitious goals to drastically improve the sustainability and carbon footprint of company operations by 2020 including a 50% reduction of net emissions by 2020 from 2012 levels. To help achieve this goal, Disney worked with ORIGIS Energy USA, Duke Energy, Reedy Creek Improvement District, and Reedy Creek Energy Services to bring two solar facilities online, which offsets enough electricity to operate two out of the four Disney theme parks in Orlando. However, the story does not stop at clean energy. In continued commitment to wildlife and conservation, teams from Disney Conservation, Origis Energy USA, Duke Energy, Reedy Creek Improvement District, Disney Horticulture, other contractors, and individual experts worked together to create pollinator-friendly habitat at the solar facilities. The project goal is to not only add conservation value for native pollinators and wildlife, but also to provide valuable research meadow. Disney’s current research aims are to continue to develop best management practices for long term habitat maintenance, to study solar habitat impacts on native bees, and to study how under-panel microclimate affects flowering phenology and abundance. This project allows us to lead and support other businesses in setting a new bar for industry standards and corporate conservation.

To see ALL the Award Winners go to; Awards | Pollinator.org

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Awards | Pollinator.org