GBA Meeting is Coming Up

For the last year I have served as President of the Georgia Beekeepers Association. I was reelected in October to serve another year. It's wonderful to get to work with beekeepers all over the state and to meet so many new people who love our favorite insect.

On Saturday, February 17, we have the GBA Spring Conference. The all-day meeting actually begins the day before when we have a GBA Board Meeting on Friday the 16th, followed by a catered dinner following the board meeting. Dr. Diana Sammataro who is one of our keynote speakers will be our dinner speaker and will speak about "Mites and Fungicides."

If you live nearby and want to come, the meeting is at the UGA Griffin Campus, 1109 Experiment St, Griffin, GA 30223.  The campus is about an hour south of Atlanta. Here's where to register. 

And here is the program:

In the Red at GBA

GBA was an interesting meeting. I had fun seeing beekeeping friends from all over the state. I enjoyed the connections.

Amazingly they didn't ask for an evaluation of the meeting, which may reflect a money issue or may mean they don't want feedback. I desperately wanted to give feedback - they didn't have a timer for the speakers so the speakers often ran over or were short of time; the speakers could have been more stimulating in their topics; there was no food except for snacks at the breaks - I would have gladly paid for dinner with my registration; they didn't supply the agenda ahead of time on their webpage - maybe they knew the speakers' topics and didn't want to share ahead of time???

I heard three good speakers - Keith Delaplane, Kim Flottum and a woman from Locust Grove, Kathy Henderson, who isn't a beekeeper but is a fabulous gardener and talked about plants for bees. I went to a workshop with Kim Flottum on marketing varietal and artisanal honey which was top-notch.

Above is Keith, talking about the CAP grant and what they are learning. He reiterated what I have heard him say many times that he himself has only seen one case of CCD in all these years. His CAP grant is looking at bee decline and the many contributing factors.

Below is Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture, who is talking about marketing honey. I loved his perspective which was find something to make your honey unique. For example, he described how he has three pines in his front yard - one of which has been struck by lightning. He can call his honey "Broken Tree Honey" and everyone in his area knows where the honey location is!

Note:  Feedback I would have loved the opportunity to give - for the first 15 minutes of Kim's talk there was a mother with small children playing games in the back of the room.  They were not quiet and very distracting - why were they not asked to play somewhere else before the workshop started?  They were not there to hear the workshop, but were playing in there before the workshop began.

Our Metro Atlanta club had this display for our club entry in the honey show. It had to include 16 pounds of honey. The background cut from wood by my friend, Jay, is our MABA logo, and my friend, Jerry, cut the honeycomb hexagons that rotate and form the stand on which the honey, wax, etc. sits.

I entered light honey, medium honey, chunk honey, a photo of the bees, and the quilted bag that I made (in the photo above) into the honey contest. My light and medium didn't place, but my chunk honey came home with a red ribbon as did the quilted bag and the photo - three red ribbons for me in the event.

Earlier post on talks I've heard with Kim Flottum can be found here

Earlier posts on talks from Keith Delaplane are here and here 

Keith Delaplane on Powdered Sugar as a Varroa Mite Treatment

This weekend the Georgia Beekeepers Association met in McDonough, Georgia just southeast of Atlanta.  Our Metro Atlanta Beekeeping club had the highest number of people there.  It certainly made me appreciate the quality and level of programming our local club has.  The speakers' topics for this meeting were not available ahead of time. I much prefer to know what to expect when I go to a meeting.  There also was no food available except by leaving to go to a fast food restaurant and that made the whole process feel less nurturing.

The two speakers I learned something from were Keith Delaplane and Kim Flottum.  Today I am going to tell you about Keith's talk on the results of the powdered sugar study done by Jennifer Berry at the University of Georgia Bee Lab.

Keith Delaplane talked the most specifically I have ever heard him speak about the results of the powdered sugar study done by Jennifer Berry at the University of Georgia Bee Lab.  Jennifer took the position that it might be more effective to try to address the varroa mite at a break in the brood cycle such as in the winter.

Her study compared a number of factors.  They looked at treating with powdered sugar beginning in January or beginning in March.  They compared using a top sifter (a flour sifter) to using the Dustructor - a contraption they built that blew in the powdered sugar from the bottom of the hive.  Then they compared how often to apply powdered sugar.  Some hives they treated every two weeks for a year.  The others they treated every other month.  On the treatment months they did four applications of powdered sugar with three days between the treatments.

First they found that winter bee populations are better in the spring if treatment begins in January.  They also found that treatment is better with the Dustructor.  Finally the timing of treating every other months, giving four treatments at each treatment month, three days apart was the most effective timing of treatment.

I own a contraption from Brushy Mountain called Varroa-Dustructor and plan to use it regularly on every hive beginning in January.  I"m going to follow the plan for four treatments every three days and do it in January, March, May, July, September and November.  We'll see if I have healthier bees!

Goody Bags for the Metro Short Course

Taking the Metro Short Course brings a wealth of bee knowledge. The presenters are people like Jennifer Berry (who writes a monthly article for Bee Culture and manages the apiary at UGA), Keith Fielder (Georgia Master Beekeeper and field agent), Cindy Bee, Curtis Gentry (author of the Peace Corps guide to building top bar hives) and many others.

In addition, the participants go home with a goody bag full of bee "goodies." Some of what is in the bag is in the photo above. I'm in charge of the Goody Bags this year - it's my third time doing this job.

The goodies include more than is in the picture. In the picture you see the bag, a jar of honey, a tube of lip balm, a CD with PDFs of the presentations of each of the presenters, a copy of First Lessons in Beekeeping by Keith Delaplane, a copy of ABJ, various bee catalogs, pamphlets from the National Honey Board. In addition, we'll add to this tomorrow a copy of Bee Culture, a list of regional bee suppliers who sell nucs and packages, a resource list of Internet connections, a handmade candle, and a couple of other things.

These items have occupied one side of my sun porch all the fall. I will be so glad to give them away on Saturday!

I was also in charge of burning the CDs and making the @$%^#$^ labels for them. That is a job I never want to do again. It's difficult to gather all the PDFs of the presentations and I found making the labels beyond challenging.

 The program that came with the labels taught how to calibrate the printer, which I did so that it printed perfectly on the model. Then on the actual label, the printer often pulled the paper in incorrectly and I threw away almost as many labels as I actually used. Never again.

NOTE:  If you're counting, this is my 800th post on this blog!

On the Road to Master Beekeeper

At the Young Harris Beekeeping Institute each year, there's an opportunity to earn various levels of certification in beekeeping. The Institute is sponsored by the University of Georgia's entomology department, so the people who are speaking offer a lot of knowledge and experience. I went to the Institute in 2007 and 2008.

May 2007: Passed Certified Beekeeper in state of Georgia
May 2008: Passed Certified Journeyman Beekeeper in state of Georgia

In 2009, I had to miss Young Harris because one of my dearest friends had a surprise birthday party in Charleston, South Carolina, so I went to SC instead of Young Harris.

This year (2010) I plan to at least try for the Master Beekeeper. Here are the requirements:

• Must have three years of beekeeping experience. DONE

• Must have held Journeyman rank at least one year. DONE

• Must pass a written test (over Institute lectures) and practical documentation. To do in May 2010 hopefully

Note: To do the pass-the-test part, another friend from my bee club and I are going to form our own Master Beekeeper study group to cheer each other on to get to the goal. The books pictured above are what Keith Delaplane recommends for the Master Craftsman Beekeeper in addition to First Lessons in Beekeeping. They are The Biology of the Honey Bee by Mark Winston and The Wisdom of the Hive by TD Seeley.

• Complete 10 units of public service work beyond that required for Journeyman (see public service requirements).
• Here's my public service so far:
1. "Providing a hive of bees to pollinate a public garden" I managed two hives at a public garden (Blue Heron) - well-documented
2. "Officership in local beekeeping association." I'm in my third year of a three year term as a director on the Board of Directors for Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association
3. "Presenting bee-related lecture or workshop to non-beekeeping group (youth or adult)."
4. 3/31/09 Gave a bee talk at an Atlanta preschool
5. 4/6/09 Collected a swarm from a resident's yard in Chamblee, G
6. 5/13/09 Gave a bee talk (and did the waggle dance) at Clairmont Elementary School
7. 6/12/09 Gave a presentation a St. Dunstan's vacation Bible school on bees (and did the waggle dance!)
8. 7/20/09 Was the featured guest on a public blogtalk radio show: Scorpion Equinox, talking about being a beekeeper
9. 10/14/09 Gave a talk at the Peachtree Battle Garden Club on beekeeping and gardening
10. "Public demonstration on beekeeping topic at fair, festival or similar public event." 5/9/09 Ran a demonstration booth at the Eco-Fair at the Blue Heron
11. "Other activities may be admissible, but candidates are advised to contact program officers about specific cases" I've written the two directors about the bee tree rescue below and I already know they approve of my blog as a public service:
12. 8/5/09 Helped a tree cutting company rescue a beehive that they found in a tree so that the hive would not be destroyed. The event was written up in a community news email blast sent to 1596 citizens of the local area
13. Have managed this blog since April 2006 and have posted 624 posts (so far)

• NOTE: whoo - ten PSCs are all I need

• Practical documentation must demonstrate expertise in at least five of the following 18 subspecialties:

• Winning 1st or 2nd place in an authorized competition in extracted honey. DONE
• Winning 1st or 2nd place in an authorized competition in comb or cut-comb honey. DONE
• Winning 1st or 2nd place in an authorized competition in crystallized (spun or creamed) honey.
• Winning 1st or 2nd place in an authorized competition in beeswax. DONE
• Publishing article in beekeeping publication (excluding newsletters).
• Publishing article in a non-beekeeping publication (with at least state-wide distribution).
• Being recognized as a beekeeping authority in your local area by appearing on radio or TV. (Wonder if the Scorpion Equinox blogradio interview counts or the podcast I did for NKYbeekeeper?)
• Documenting training in life-saving treatment of persons suffering from allergic reactions to insect stings.
• Attending at least three regional (multi-state), national or international beekeeping meetings.
• Conducting a program or workshop at a state, regional, national or international meeting or convention. Have been invited to speak at the Southeastern Organic Beekeepers Meeting in Florida in February, 2010
• Demonstrating competence in small-scale queen rearing.
• Completing a course on queen artificial insemination.
• Acquiring private pesticide applicator’s license.
• Documenting legally-licensed honey processing facility.
• Participating in a beekeeping research or extension project at an approved institution.
• Demonstrating theoretic knowledge of Integrated Pest Management, practical competence in its application, and personal commitment to its precepts.
• Acquiring other certified bee-related training as approved by Review Board.
• Serving two or more years as officer of regional, national or international bee organization (need not be consecutive nor in the same organization).

So at this point, it looks like I need to do something else in the eighteen sub-categories just above - like publish an article in a bee magazine, get some more certified bee-related training, or get asked to appear on local radio or TV.....
and
I need to pass the test.

Delaplane Speaks on CCD

Last night Dr. Keith Delaplane spoke to the Metropolitan Atlanta Beekeepers Association on Colony Collapse Disorder. Lucky me, I got to go out to dinner with him before the meeting and we had a lot of fun, talking about bees and life in general.



Delaplane is heading up a consortium grant involving 17 colleges and universities. The grant is a four year, 4.1 million dollar grant to study CCD. The studies are focused on determining the cause of CCD.

Delaplane said that there are three major pathogens being studied: viruses, nosema, and pesticide residue. Other factors being considered are an increase in bee pollinated crops and at the same time a decrease in beekeeper managed hives. In other words, as there are less beekeepers in the country, the almond pollination needs are rising.

I've always wondered why almonds were the benchmark crop. Delaplane explained that it is a valuable nut that is currently fetching a premium price. Pollinating an almond is a simple event in that a single pollen grain on a single stigma equals one nut.

As most of you know, beekeepers rent out their hives to the almond growers. There is a bias in beekeeping toward migratory beekeeping because there is so much money in it.

The migration begins when hives are rented to the almond growers. Then migratory beekeepers might load up those hives and go to the Dakotas to get a honey crop from clover; go to Michigan to pollinate the blueberries; and then migrate to Florida to pollinate the orange crops.

Honey yields go through the roof with migratory beekeeping, so there's an ongoing reward for beekeeping in this way. This migratory circuit is typical of American beekeepers but not found in other parts of the world.

In general the bees gather nectar and produce honey during a short period of the year. In Georgia we have a 6 - 8 week honey flow. Then the rest of the season is spent conserving the supplies to make it through the winter. The migratory bees don't get a break but go from honey flow to honey flow.

Currently there is an ongoing study project comparing 30 bee colonies which stay in the same place with a group of 30 USDA colonies which are migratory. Hopefully some understanding of the impact on bees of migration will be the result. I tried to find a reference on the web for this and couldn't.

Delaplane referenced a wonderful study on PLOS ONE which he encouraged us all to read. That this open source study is available to us non-scientists is a real gift. This study looks at the interaction of stress and pathogens on bees and CCD.

He also encouraged us to search regularly on the website: eXtension.org, using bees/honeybee/bee as a search terms. This is a site maintained by the land grant universities and gives all of us commoners access to the latest research being done by land grant colleges and universities on bees.

For example, if you go to this article, you'll see on the right a number of other articles that may have a similar focus and may be of interest to you. Or try this concentration area on Bee Health.

I'm a little scared of this site because I think I might get lost in all the interesting reading and not come up for air!

As always, Dr. Delaplane was full of helpful information and useful pointers. I can't wait until he returns to our bee club next year.

Keith Delaplane speaks to Bee Club on Honeybee Decline

In the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers' Association, we are so lucky to have frequent access to Dr. Keith Delaplane. Tonight he spoke to the monthly bee meeting on "Honey Bee Decline and Why it Matters."

I love to hear him speak and always learn something. The University of Georgia has received a grant of $4.1 million dollars to study the decline of the honeybee and Dr. Delaplane is the chief investigator for the grant.

Tonight he wanted us to understand why it is important to be concerned about the plight of the honeybee. When asked why they are interested in raising bees, the top of the list for most beekeepers is honey production. Much lower on the list is the honeybee function of pollination. However, pollination and the role of the honey bee in it is key to why we should be concerned about the decline of the honeybee population.

While there are many vectors of pollination: the wind, gravity, water, bats, monkeys, wasps and butterflies, bees have the highest rate of pollination over all of these.

Bees are ideal as pollinators. They are hairy all over and in addition their hairs have split ends which encourages pollen to stick to them. Bees tend to visit flowers in succession, which makes them great vectors for pollination as they seek out what they really came for: the plant's nectar.

Keith had graphs showing the decline in honeybee population. However, as the honey bee population goes down, the acreage in this country planted in crops that need to be pollinated has gone up. This creates a losing equation. In addition, honey bees are less in the pollination business because there is habitat loss and change in the environment. And today's agriculture is machine based rather than animal based so less forage crops are planted.

He put up an interesting chart from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization showing that crops that are not bee pollinated are the ones that meet 90% of the world's food needs. These crops included: banana, barley, cassava, coconut, corn, millet, potato, rye, rice, sorghum, sweet potato, wheat. None of these crops need bees.

On the other hand, meat and dairy products need bees because they need pollinators for forage crops.

Interestingly, developed nations such as the US, Canada, the EU countries, Australia and Argentina have a higher quality of life and thus include more complex diets, based on many more bee-pollinated foods. However, underdeveloped countries whose people subsist on the UN FAO list of crops above, want bees for honey production.

Delaplane pointed out that it doesn't matter if the beekeeper's focus is honey production. The by product for the community when honey production is the point of beekeeping turns out to be pollination!!! And honeybees do well in less developed countries because from an economics perspective, it takes little to get started - you only need a rooftop for a hive - you don't even need land!

And although the many species of solitary bees by themselves do a super job of single flower pollination (fruit set can result after only one visit from the solitary bee), the honeybee visits in droves and thus a colony of bees (social bees) can be a very effective pollinating machine.

We were lucky too that he stayed after his talk for questions on many beekeeping subjects. In the Q and A, someone asked him about poisons in the hives and he said that his research is showing that many of the chemicals that are part of modern day beekeeping are very deleterious to the bees. Maybe mites die, but in the long run, the bees are badly affected.

He cited the beekeeping of Georgia's only Master Craftsman Beekeeper, Bill Owens, who doesn't use any chemicals and really doesn't subscribe to IPM either, but doesn't lose any more hives than the person who does do chemicals in the hive.

Dr. Delaplane reminded all of us that on May 14 - 16 the Young Harris Beekeeping Institute is taking place (this is its 18th year) and that registration is now open. Young Harris is where I earned my certified beekeeper certificate and (last year) my journeyman certificate.

Honey Judging and Entering Honey Contests

Robert Brewer, Welsh honey judge from Young Harris, Georgia

I know I haven't posted in a while. I had to miss the last Metro Beekeeper's meeting because I was leaving town on the day after the meeting and had to pack and get organized. I'm sorry I missed it - Keith Delaplane spoke on the thermodynamics of bees and I know I would have learned something new.

Sometimes, however, being a grandmother trumps being a beekeeper!

I did go to a talk at GBA by Robert Brewer, well-respected Welsh honey judge, on preparing honey for a show while I was at the GBA meeting a couple of weekends ago. I found my notes, so I want to share them with you.

In preparing honey jars for a show, Robert strongly urged that one always use new containers and new lids. Most people take their honey to the show with plastic wrap between the jarred honey and the lid so that no honey gets on the top of the jar. He suggested carrying new lids with you to the show to put on the jars when you remove the plastic wrap.

The first order of business is the cleanliness of the jars. He suggested that denatured alcohol will remove smudges from the jar. He also suggested polishing your jar with nylon or silk. I saw a number of people entering jars in the GBA show who came with special cloth for polishing the jar.

I used knee-high panty hose, but next year I'm going for silk!

After the judge determines if the jar is clean and without smudges, he or she will look at the fill level. On a queen-line jar, the honey should be just high enough in the jar that there is no air line between the honey and the jar lid when viewed from the side of the jar.

He said that honey is judged on clarity and cleanliness. If you see something in the jar or want to clear bubbles from the top of the honey in the jar, Robert said that a silver spoon will for an unknown reason do this better than a stainless steel spoon (who knew?). The judges take a flashlight and really look at the jar, both to see possible smudges on the jar and to pick up anything floating in the honey, so strain your honey very, very well.

For chunk honey (a cut of honey comb sitting in a jar of liquid honey), the comb should fit the length of the jar. As I've written about earlier, the comb needs to go in the jar the way it is in the hive, right side up. Judges prefer that the comb sit on the bottom of the jar.

Although my chunk honey won a blue ribbon in the state show, the judge (Robert Brewer) wrote that he would have preferred to see the chunk on the bottom of the jar. Since the wax wants to float, the only way to accomplish this wish is to somehow stick the honey comb to the jar bottom. Robert said that some people set the wide-mouthed jar in hot water so that when you put the chunk in the jar it melts slightly to the bottom of the jar and sticks there.

"Cut comb" is the comb in the clear plastic 4 inch square box. Robert said that judges look for clean cuts of the comb, no honey drips in the box, and for dry cappings. Bees can cap honey in two ways: wet cappings and dry cappings. The wet cappings look somewhat transparent as if the honey is touching the wax and sort of soaking into it. Dry cappings look white and lovely and the honey is not apparently touching the wax.

Robert also talked about pouring wax blocks (remember my 18 pours??). He noted that pouring a good wax block is particularly hard to do. Wax is affected by air currents and vibrations in the room. He suggested doing what I have done - pour the block and go to bed, leaving the block in a quiet room to cool. He said that some people put the block in the oven to cool with a piece of glass over it to keep the air currents from affecting the block. Even the air conditioner turning on or the vibrations of the refrigerator can cause wave marks on the top of the wax.

I've always liked the wavy surface when the wax cools. This year is the first year that I've learned that wavy surfaces count off, so I bought a pane of glass and have tried to minimize the waves.

While I knew the importance of even, slow cooling and the importance of avoiding the wavy look from the air currents, he also said that the edges of the wax block needed to be smoothed so that they are not sharp. Mine are always sharp so I am going to try what he said next year during my 18 or 19 pours. He said to take the ball of your thumb and rub it on the sharp edge to round it off.

Wax block pouring for judging is one of the hardest things to accomplish. This year my wax block won a red ribbon in the state show, but with all these helpful hints, maybe I can do even better next year.

I'm hoping to try all of Robert's techniques described in his talk "Preparing Honey and Hive Products for Show." There are other good hints about honey show success on the Metro Atlanta Beekeeping Association web site as well.

The Best Part of Young Harris

Obviously the best part of the Young Harris Beekeeping Institute is sharing information and getting to know beekeepers from Georgia and surrounding states.

Here's my fun lunch group from the last day. We had a great time at the lunches. (The food leaves something to be desired but the company is well worth hanging out in the cafeteria.) We all shared the experience of the day with each other. I didn't take pictures at the most fun event which was the shrimp boil held at the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds on Friday night. The food is really delicious there and the people are all more relaxed because we're through with all the tests.



Tests? Yes, the Beekeeping Institute is put on by the University of Georgia and The Young Harris College. Most people come to try to get certification at some level. You can take the beginner level - which is Certified Beekeeper. That's what I did last year. The next level is Journeyman (must have two years of beekeeping under your belt) followed by Master Beekeeper and Certified Master Craftsman Beekeeper (those two take at least five years). I believe that Bill Owens is the only Certified Master Craftsman Beekeeper in the state of Georgia. Also available at Young Harris Beekeeping Institute is a class to certify Welsh Honey Judges.

I took the Journeyman tests both written and practical and turned in my proof of the required five public service credits I had earned.

I sweated bullets. I was pretty sure I had passed the written test, but the practical test included some entomology that threw me for a loop. So I wasn't feeling very hopeful as I sat down at the end-of-the-institute convocation.

When Dr. Delaplane called out the name of the person who had passed the Journeyman level, I was not that person, so I sat back in my chair and thought, "OK, maybe I'll try again next year."

Then after a pause, I heard Dr. Delaplane announce, "And Linda Tillman." I was thrilled. He commented that this blog influenced my certification, so thank you to all of you who come to read about my beekeeping adventures and comment on my efforts.



I keep a statcounter on the numbers of people who visit each day and now it averages 300/day from all over the world. Since January 1, 2007, Google reports that 1,989 people have watched my video on crush and strain harvesting and 2,848 people have watched the one on how to make a solar wax melter. Thank you all for your interest and for visiting so often.



I also entered the photograph below in the photography section of the honey show and it won second place. What a great day for me all the way around!

Dr. Keith Delaplane Speaks to Bee Club on CCD

Tonight at the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers meeting the speaker was Dr. Keith Delaplane speaking on CCD. Interestingly the media was there. I saw camera people from two TV stations and he was asked to go to a different room after his talk with us to speak to CNN.

I'm only the messenger and don't necessarily know that he has all the answers (personally I think Michael Bush has all the answers!)

This is what I got from what he said:

**Honeybees have been on a steady decline in this country over many, many years, due increasingly to our agricultural practices no longer requiring animals to feed in the fields, so less crops for the honeybees.

**With the advent of the varroa mite, beekeeping went from an organic, hands off endeavor to a chemically dependent endeavor. This has resulted in

• The quality of queens going down, with many queens living only 6 months - 1 year; finding drone brood among worker brood, and having high supercedure rates. (He had a chart showing that with increased use of chemicals in the hive, a study done at UGA showed shorter life for queens.)
• Poorer life span and sperm quality for drones
• Increased cognitive dysfunction for worker bees, including not being able to find their way home to the hive.
  
  He encouraged us to buy our queens from people working to develop hygienic queens such as the Purvis Brothers in N Georgia. The University of Georgia is also working on developing hygienic queens which will be available for distribution to queen breeders in August. They will, of course because it is a research university, not be for sale but will be distributed by lottery, I think he said, to the queen breeders.
  
  He also laughed at himself in his earlier books in which he highly encouraged medicating the bees and said that he is the author of the new edition of First Lessons in Beekeeping from Dadant out later this year and in this new book he encourages IPM and no chemicals.

The issues contributing to bees disappearing from hives (CCD) are some not in our control (environmental pesticide usage, the presence of mites in the world, viruses, etc). However the issues that we can change include:

** In hive pesticide use
** Old comb
** Migratory stress
** Nutritional deficiencies
** IPM (Integrated Pest Management)

He encouraged using no pesticides in the hives and replacing old comb regularly.

He said that migratory stress is about how the honeybee in one setting works about 6 - 10 weeks per year during the honey flow. Commercial beekeepers by moving their hives from flow to flow ask the bee to work many 6 week periods in the year, thus wearing the bees out and making them more subject to disease.

He mentioned a commercial beekeeper in N Georgia (Bob Binnie) who feeds each hive 5 gallons of syrup every fall and Dr. Delaplane said that we are not feeding our bees enough, thus resulting in poor nutrition and this makes the bees vulnerable to disease.

He strongly encouraged IPM - screened bottom boards, powdered sugar shakes.

He cited studies done at UGA for all of what he had to say and presented graphs and data to support his talk. In general he doesn't think that CCD is anything new, but is the cumulative result of chemical beekeeping.

A kid in the audience asked if cell phones were the problem and he smiled and simply said, "No."

Colony Collapse Disorder

As most of you have probably read, bees are disappearing from hives in this country and so far there is not an explanation for why this is happening. The New York Times has a good article on the thoughts about this problem. My computer stays signed in to the NYT, but you may have to sign in to read the article.

Also, Bill Maher has an Earth Day article addressing CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder).

Beekeepers seem to have quite a creative sense of humor. On the Beemaster Forum, people have been playing with outrageous reasons why the bees are disappearing. My three favorites so far are:

"...they joined the army reserve trying to bee all that they can bee."

and

"The Honey Bee internal GPS system gets its directions from Map Quest now..."

and

"The worker bees created a union and decided to go on strike..."

On May 9, the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association meeting will have as the guest speaker, Dr. Keith Delaplane from the University of Georgia honeybee research program. Dr. Delaplane will talk about Colony Collapse Disorder.

It's everywhere! It's everywhere!