What I Learned at GBA

Well, I learned a lot at GBA (and had fun). The most interesting talk I heard was by Jennifer Berry. She reported on the toxin project going on at the UGA bee labs.

They have been exploring the sub-lethal effects of chemicals in honeybee colonies. They wanted to look at honeybee colony health and how miticides might impact that. They particularly studied Checkmite, Apistan and non-labeled (ie, not labeled for honeybee use) Tactik and Maverik (probably misspelled).

I found this next part amusing. They wanted to start 48 colonies of bees off with non-contaminated wax. So Jennifer bought wax from two different "organic" beekeepers. They sent the wax off (at $275 an analysis) to determine if the wax indeed were non-contaminated. In fact the process found that there was both Coumaphos and Fluvalinate in the wax - probably from purchased contaminated foundation.

Faced with an impossible task - no available "pure" wax, Jennifer set all of her colonies up on foundationless frames and lo and behold, the bees drew beautiful wax! She was so proud of it that she had a slide to show us. Like most foundationless frames, the bees had filled the frame but had not attached the lower corners.

These researchers looked at foraging, the health of baby bees, the ability of the bees to return to the hives, the numbers of queen cells, etc. They found, for example, that there were the highest number of supercedure cells in the hives in which apistan and coumaphos were applied - the bees were all saying, "What kind of a place is this? We need new leadership!"

Overall the control hives which were not treated did the best. They, for example, had the highest level of foraging and returning home after foraging. In general, as many of us assume, science is now proving that no treatment is best.

I always love to hear Jennifer speak and I never fail to learn something....but the most fun with Jennifer was on Friday night at the fried fish dinner. We had entertainment - a band called "Always, Patsy Cline." Jennifer (and the other three of us sitting together) were rocking out, singing along with "Patsy."

I know it's a Hank Williams song, but Jennifer was really the absolute best on "Your Cheatin' Heart."

New York Times Article Today

Today there is a very environmentally oriented article in the New York Times about beekeeping.

The article focuses on the damage all of the chemical elements brings to the beehive. The point is to try to help the bees grow strong in the face of all the chemicals that are currently in use in the hive.

Thankfully, so far, my hives are not subjected to poison.

The pure organic beekeeper will say that I am introducing powdered sugar by sifting it over the bees and that it is not natural. They have a point, but I am not using poison and the powdered sugar does have impact on the Varroa mite.

The pure organic beekeeper will say that I am introducing a chemical element by feeding sugar syrup to my bees in the drought of Georgia. Again, they have a point, but I am not using chemicals in the way of poison or feeding syrup like corn syrup which again introduces poison into the hive. Corn is the second most poisoned crop in the country after cotton. So when beekeepers feed corn syrup to their bees, the bees get the poison which has been sprayed, dusted, etc. onto the corn.

While I am not a pure organic beekeeper yet, keep watching because that is the way I am going. For the first time this year, I have frames of honey frozen in my basement freezer so that I can feed the bees actual honey in the winter this year.