NP 305, Crop Production, focuses on the most critical issues and needs of U.S. production agriculture. It comprises two major Research Components: (1) Integrated Sustainable Crop Production Systems and (2) Bees and Pollination.

Component 1. Integrated Sustainable Crop Production Systems
This component encompasses ARS efforts to improve existing and develop new production systems for current and emerging crops. Production systems are highly complex and depend on the integration of multiple management components. Innovative technologies, methods, and strategies are vital to maintaining and improving profitability of production systems, conserving energy and natural resources, and promoting agroecosystem sustainability, including marginal lands or urbanized environments.

Component 2. Bees and Pollination
Bees are crucial for U.S. agriculture and ecosystem health. The honey bee is one of the most effective pollinators for fruit and nut crops such as cherries, apples, and almonds; row crops such as cucurbits and melons; oilseed crops such as sunflowers and canola; and berries. Given the pollinating potential of a honey bee colony due to its wide foraging area, the large numbers of bees in a typical healthy colony, the ease at which honey bees can adapt to new environments, and the value of hive products, honey bees play critical roles in many specialty crop commodities. Non-Apis bees, including bumble bees, alfalfa leafcutter bees, and blue orchard bees, are also effective pollinators of agricultural crops and many native plant species. Native bees, some living solitary or in small colonies, perform ecosystem services of value that cannot be estimated.

Current Action Plan
NP 305 Action Plan 2018 – 2023

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.ars.usda.gov/crop-production-and-protection/crop-production/

ABC Central West

/ By Hugh Hogan, Hamish Cole, Alex James, and Kim Honan

Australia was the last major honey producing country to be free of the pest before the outbreak. ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

An invasive parasite deadly to bees has been detected in central west NSW for the first time.

Key points:

• Varroa mite has been detected at Gumble near Molong, with 23 hives already destroyed
• The hives were legally moved to the area from Sackville North in Sydney and traced to the area as part of the ongoing containment effort
• Local beekeepers remain confident the outbreak can be contained

The Department of Primary Industries has euthanized 23 hives at Gumble near Molong that tested positive to varroa mite after tracing their movement from Sackville North in Sydney.

The department said the movement was legal but was then followed up after a detection in the Sydney region.

The outbreak started at the Port of Newcastle last year and has since been found in almost 200 hives across the Central Coast, Hunter, and Sydney basin.

DPI deputy incident controller Shannon Mulholland said the fact the detection was made so quickly showed the biosecurity measures were working.

The latest detection is the first time varroa mite has been found in the NSW central west. Map can be found at https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/emergencies/biosecurity/current-situation/varroa-mite-emergency-response

“The site has already been euthanized so by acting on that quite quickly we were able to get on top that situation and work to further mitigate spread of the mite,” she said.

Australia was previously the only major honey producing country in the world free of the mite before the outbreak in Newcastle.

The pest is known to weaken and kill colonies of honey bees but can also transmit deadly viruses between hives.

In the last 12 months more than 130,000 hives have been tested for the parasite, with more 25,000 destroyed, according to the DPI.

Local producers confident

The central west was previously a blue zone, meaning it was in the general emergency zone but not in any eradication or surveillance areas.

Despite the fresh outbreak, local honey producer John Lockwood remained confident the ongoing incursion could be contained.

“It is slowly spreading through the Central Coast which is a concern, I do believe they have a ring around it which is fantastic that they’ve found the outer edge and have it contained,” he said.

“This one at Gumble is from a legal hive movement and there is very low [numbers of] mite in the colonies so it is just a spot fire I believe.”

However, the president of Crop Pollination Australia Steve Fuller said the detection of varroa mite was “very concerning”.

“The problem is it is blue zone to blue zone [transmission], that is where the industry is really worried,” he said.

“If it was an illegal movement, industry would be a lot happier.”

A 10-kilometre eradication zone has been established around the discovery at Gumble where all hives will be euthanized.

A 25km surveillance zone has also been established where officials will be monitoring both domestic and wild honey bee colonies.

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: Varroa mite detected in central west NSW but honey producers remain confident – ABC News

Honey bees aren’t an endangered species; they’re causing chaos

Yes, everyone loves them and keeping them has become a green hobby, but they’d feel differently if a swarm besieged their home

By Antonia Hoyle

Antonia Hoyle: ‘I frantically vacuumed them up and deposited them outside as fast as they arrived’ CREDIT: Geoff Pugh for The Telegraph

For days, there were only a few, upstairs – blown in through a window, I assumed, by the late spring breeze. But then more came downstairs, gaining ominously in number until one morning three weeks ago, I walked into the living room to find hundreds of the creatures crawling, seemingly lethargic, over the carpet.

“Wasps!” I wailed to my analyst husband, Chris, who like me is 44. I frantically vacuumed them up and deposited them outside as fast as they arrived, until the pest controller arrived at our location home. Pointing at a cloud of black dots dancing around our third-floor chimney, he corrected me: “You’ve got honey bees.”

Being gatecrashed by sugar plum fairies would have been simpler, and less controversial, to navigate. While not illegal, pesticides permitted to treat honey bees in a domestic setting are strictly limited, ethically questionable, and some pest controllers refuse to deploy them.

Short of advising us to stuff the fireplaces they’d been flying in through, and spend hundreds hiring a cherry picker to send someone up to the roof to physically extract them (with no guarantee of success) there was little he could do, the pest control man apologised, letting us know, for what it was worth, that we are far from alone.

This month beekeepers reported an increase in honeybee swarms – which happen when the old queen departs the hive with half the bees to set up a new home – caused by the sudden change in weather after a long, cold spring.

Usually, this split happens in a “staggered manner,” explains Matthew Richardson, president of the Scottish Beekeepers’ Association, but because of the delay in decent weather “the bees have been queuing up waiting to swarm and they’re all going at once.”

For many, the image might gladden the heart. Chris’s eyes certainly softened when I disclosed the identity of our uninvited guests and our 12-year-old daughter Rosie was delighted: “They’re an endangered species!”

But are they? In recent years, wildlife campaigners have made huge efforts to raise awareness of the importance of bees, of which there are around 270 species in the UK, including 24 species of bumble bees and hundreds of wild solitary bees that nest alone in cavities or underground.

Many are in decline – we have already lost around 13 species, including the short-haired bumblebee, last recorded in 1956, and the great yellow bumblebee in 1974. Another 35 species are currently at risk, with the use of pesticides in farming and destruction of pollen and nectar to feed off largely to blame – the UK has lost 97 per cent of its wildflower meadows since the 1930s.

Concern around honey bees, however, seems to stem from 2007, when an unexplained condition called colony collapse disorder (CCD), in which worker bees in a honey bee colony disappear, was officially recognised. Colony losses were reported in America and Europe and the potential impact on agriculture – according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the global value of global crops pollinated by honey bees in 2005 was estimated at over £150bn – was huge.

Within a decade, the threat of CCD seemingly passed, but our passion for honey bees continued, often in cities where beekeeping has become a fashionable “green” hobby. In 2021 UK Google searches for “urban beekeeping” jumped 21 per cent in a year. Celebrities who keep bees, meanwhile, include David Beckham and Jeremy Clarkson and last month a picture of the Princess of Wales wearing a beekeeper’s suit while tending to a hive in her Norfolk estate was released to mark World Bee Day.

Yet honey bees, the only species that makes honey, are not at risk – and, experts warn, our obsession with breeding them could be detrimental to bee species that are.

“There’s definitely a popular misconception around bees,” says Andrew Whitehouse of insect conservation charity Buglife, who says honey bees are “not endangered, they’re essentially livestock” and believes misunderstandings began when charities such as his own started to raise awareness of the importance of all pollinating insects around 20 years ago: “Perhaps the conservation organisations didn’t explain things properly and well-meaning people reached for the solution which was to increase the number of honey bees.”

At the same time as charities were starting to promote the importance of “wild pollinators,” he adds, CCD was becoming widely known: “I think the two issues were conflated a bit.”

Because honey bees are good at collecting pollen and returning it straight to their hives, they are less efficient at pollinating some plants than wild bees, with whom they compete for pollen.  And honey bee hives are bigger than most……

To read the complete article go to;

Honey bees aren’t an endangered species; they’re causing chaos (telegraph.co.uk)

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: Honey bees aren’t an endangered species; they’re causing chaos (telegraph.co.uk)

Pollinator and Monarch SAFE Map: Counties in which Ohio Pollinator and Monarch SAFE may be applied.

Sign-Up Available for CRP Pollinator and Monarch Practice in Ohio

Ohio State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE)

Dr. John Patterson, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Executive Director in Ohio, announced that landowners and operators in designated counties throughout Ohio will have the opportunity to offer cropland for enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Pollinator and Monarch practice entitled State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE).

The Ohio Pollinator and Monarch SAFE project was designed in collaboration with pollinator experts and other conservation partners to help enhance and restore habitat for ecologically and economically significant pollinator species.

The goal of this project is to increase the amount of appropriate habitat for the monarch butterfly and other pollinators in Ohio.  The enrolled habitat, a mix of grasses and forbs, will provide important nectar sources as well as the required larval host plant species.  Because of the significant decline in monarch numbers, both range-wide and in Ohio, the monarch butterfly is the focus of this project.  However, other pollinator species are expected to benefit from implementation of this project.

Pollinator and Monarch SAFE is available on a continuous (ongoing) basis in the following counties: Allen, Ashland, Ashtabula, Athens, Carroll, Clermont, Columbiana, Coshocton, Erie, Franklin, Guernsey, Harrison, Henry, Hocking, Holmes, Huron, Jefferson, Licking, Lorain, Lucas, Mahoning, Medina, Meigs, Mercer, Montgomery, Morgan, Muskingum, Ottawa, Perry, Portage, Putnam, Richland, Sandusky, Scioto, Stark, Trumbull, Tuscarawas, Van Wert, Vinton, Warren, Washington, Wayne, and Wood. See map below for eligible geographic areas.

To be eligible for the Ohio Pollinator and Monarch SAFE, the offered land must be owned or leased for at least one year prior to enrollment and must be physically and legally capable of being cropped in a normal manner.  Land must also meet cropping history and other eligibility requirements.  Land currently enrolled in CRP may be re-offered for enrollment into SAFE if the land enrolled in CRP is in the last year of the CRP-1 contract.  Offers are automatically accepted provided the land and applicant meet all eligibility requirements.  Ohio Pollinator and Monarch SAFE offers are not subject to competitive bidding.

Producers will receive annual rental payments for the length of the contract, and cost share assistance of up to 50% of the eligible practice cost to establish pollinator habitat.  Additionally, FSA provides producers with a signing incentive payment (not applicable to re-enrolled acreage) and practice incentive payment.  Contracts enrolled under the Ohio Pollinator and Monarch SAFE must be 10-15 years in duration.

For more information on Ohio’s Pollinator and Monarch SAFE project, visit your local FSA county office.

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

The CFIA is committed to its mandate to protect animal health, which includes the health of the Canadian bee population. The CFIA will continue to engage with the Canadian Honey Council, the USDA, provincial governments and apiculturists and a wide range of other stakeholders with respect to Canadian honeybee health.

In addition, the CFIA continues to put significant effort into identifying and evaluating potential new sources of packaged bees and queen bees internationally. Canada currently allows imports of honey bee queens from the United States, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Ukraine, Italy and Malta, and honey bee packages from Ukraine, Italy, Chile, Australia and New Zealand.

Sincerely,

Parthi

Dr. Parthi Muthukumarasamy (he, him, il)

Executive Director, International Programs Directorate

Canadian Food Inspection Agency / Government of Canada

Parthiban.Muthukumarasamy@inspection.gc.ca | 343-550-3542

Directeur exécutif, Direction des programmes internationaux

Agence canadienne d’inspection des aliments / Gouvernement du Canada

Parthiban.Muthukumarasamy@inspection.gc.ca | 343-550-3542

Beekeeping Technician

Essential functions:

• Lead beekeeping operations that involves appropriately managing 200-400 colonies for research and extension activities
• Build, operate, and repair beekeeping equipment (e.g., equipment for honey extraction, feeding pumps, forklifts, woodenware)
• Possess, or ability to possess, a pesticide applicators license
• Direct junior technicians and undergraduate students, and provide mentorship and skills development
• Support field and laboratory experiments, especially alongside post-doctoral scientists and graduate students
• Communicate to stakeholders through hands-on workshops and classroom presentations
• Work under challenging conditions (e.g., ability to lift >60 lbs and operate in hot/humid conditions with stinging insects)

Minimum requirements
Education level: A bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution
Field of study: Agriculture, Entomology, Biology, or related natural or social sciences field
Areas of experience: Experience and foundational knowledge concerning honey bee biology and management. Several years of sideline or commercial beekeeping experience, especially concerning swarm management, splitting, queen rearing, disease and nutrition management, and honey production. Experience using woodworking tools (e.g., power tools like table saws, circular saws, and drill presses), as well as ability to troubleshoot and solve the practical and organizational problems involved in beekeeping and research (e.g., equipment setup and maintenance, scheduling, and planning for weather and contingencies).

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE POSITION AND TO APPLY PLEASE VISIT: https://www.auemployment.com/postings/39244
Only applications submitted via the Auburn University Human Resources page will be considered.

Required application documents:
1. Cover letter
2. Resume
3. Contact information for 3 references
4. Copies of post-secondary transcripts or other relevant qualifications

If you are interested in learning more about this position, please see the full opportunity brief by clicking here to download the PDF.

USDA Accepts More Than 1

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is accepting more than 1 million acres in this year’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) General signup. This is one of several signups that USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is holding for the program. The results for CRP General signup reflect the continued importance of CRP as a tool to help producers invest in the long-term health, sustainability, and profitability of their land and resources.  The signup’s results include over 3,000 acres in Ohio.

“This year’s General CRP signup demonstrates the value and continued strength of this voluntary conservation program, which plays an important role in helping mitigate climate change and conserve our natural resources,” said John Patterson, FSA State Executive Director in Ohio. “Today’s announcement is one of many enrollment and partnership opportunities within CRP, including opportunities through our working lands Grassland CRP, Continuous CRP, and Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). USDA will continue working to ensure producers and landowners have the information they need to take advantage of the options that work best for their operations.”

Offers for new land in this General CRP signup totaled about 295,000 acres nationwide. Producers submitted re-enrollment offers for 891,000 expiring acres, reflecting the successes of participating in CRP longer term. The total number of CRP acres will continue to climb in the coming weeks once FSA accepts acres from the Grassland CRP signup, which closed May 26. Additionally, so far this year, FSA has received 761,000 offered acres for the Continuous CRP signup, for which FSA accepts applications year-round.

Through CRP, producers and landowners establish long-term, resource-conserving plant species, such as approved grasses or trees, to control soil erosion, improve soil health and water quality, and enhance wildlife habitat on agricultural land. In addition to the other well-documented benefits, lands enrolled in CRP are playing a key role in climate change mitigation efforts across the country.

Other CRP Signups

Continuous CRP, in which producers and landowners can enroll throughout the year. Offers are automatically accepted provided the producer and land meet the eligibility requirements and the enrollment levels do not exceed the statutory cap. Continuous CRP includes the State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) Initiative, the Farmable Wetlands Program (FWP), and the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). In CREP, which is available in certain geographies, partnerships with States, Tribes, and other entities are leveraged for participants to receive a variety of added incentives and flexibilities. Also available is the Clean Lakes Estuaries and Rivers (CLEAR) initiative. CLEAR30, a signup opportunity under that initiative available nationwide, gives producers and landowners across the country the opportunity to enroll in 30-year CRP contracts for water quality practices.

More Information  

To learn more about FSA programs, producers can contact their local USDA Service Center.  Producers can also prepare maps for acreage reporting as well as manage farm loans and view other farm records data and customer information by logging into their farmers.gov account. If you don’t have an account, sign up today.

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production; fairer markets for all producers; ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities; building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices; making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit usda.gov.

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.fsa.usda.gov/news-room/news-releases/2023/usda-accepts-more-than-1-million-acres-in-offers-through-conservation-reserve-program-general-signup

BRIAN RAMOS

With summer just around the corner, optimal temperature for the bees is about 95 degrees, any hotter and the bees will begin to exhibit stress have difficultly of surviving.

By Rhiannon Saegert 

Beekeeper Dave Sharpless went to check on one of his beehives during this June 2019 day in Henderson only to find empty, melted hives.

The days of triple-degree heat during the summer months in Southern Nevada are extreme enough to drive some bee colonies from their hives, leaving behind a melted, sticky mess, he said.

Fall and winter are typically the most precarious time for hives, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, but Sharpless said comparably milder winters in the region are easier for them to get through. The real danger is summer heat even if bees have plenty of water and food.

“We lose more hives in the summer, it’s so extreme,” Sharpless said.

Sharpless has been keeping bees for 10 years and running the bee removal company LV Bees for six years. Instead of exterminating bees, he and partner Destry Myers move hives from customers’ properties to wooden structures in one of several Henderson fields, where he cares for them.

The incident four years ago was the first time they noticed the empty hives.

Sharpless began narrowing down what had caused them to flee. Colony Collapse Disorder wasn’t to blame, because instead of leaving the queen and a handful of nurse bees the colonies had completely abandoned their hive.

If pesticides or illness were the cause, dead bees would have been left behind.

“For most of those hives, even in full sun, 112 degrees is not a problem,” Sharpless said. “When it gets to be 117, 118, that’s when they say, ‘Nah, we can’t handle it.’ The honey starts to drip down on them and they say ‘Forget it, we’re out of here.’”

The following summer, Sharpless provided a closer water source that should have met their cooling and drinking needs and laid down bee-safe fire ant traps, but the exact same thing happened.

It only stopped in 2021, when he topped all of his boxes with 1-inch slabs of insulation foam, cutting down the heat and providing some extra shade.

To make matters stranger, it only happened to his hives in Southern Nevada.

“I have hives out in Arizona, out in the open like this, that don’t need the panels,” he said. “You’d think Northern Arizona gets just as hot as here. I have land in Moapa, and I don’t cover those either.”

Bees aren’t unequipped to deal with heat. In summer, they regulate the temperature inside their hives by collecting water, spreading droplets throughout the hive and fanning them with their wings to air condition the structures, he said.

Allen Gibbs, a life sciences professor and insect physiology expert at UNLV, said desert bee varieties should know how to weather the hottest temperatures. Some fly around with body temperatures of more than 120 degrees, he said.

“For the native bees, these are conditions they’re used to,” Gibbs said. “It’s kind of warm here for honeybees, but (native ones) do OK.”

He said the decades-long drought plaguing the area is a bigger problem for Southern Nevada bees than the heat itself.

“The hotter it gets, the faster they lose water,” he said. “That’s true for any insect.”

For Sharpless, business picks up fast in March and stays busy until the end of June. April and May are the busiest because colonies are growing their numbers and new swarms are splitting off to start their own colonies.

“I get calls two times a day from people like that. ‘I’ve got them under my composting!’ ‘I’ve got them under my shed!’ ‘I’ve got them in my roof,’” Sharpless said. “I’m like yeah, you’re not the only one. We’re booked.”

Sharpless said wild bees typically have a sense for where to build their hives to escape the heat, even in early spring. They’ll seek shade and enclosed spaces like irrigation valve boxes and any gaps inside unsuspecting Nevadans’ walls.

One recent customer, a woman who’d never encountered a hive in her 13 years in Las Vegas, realized a colony had made a home not only on, but in, the decking under her balcony, he said.

Their queen found her way into the interior wall through a hole left over from a speaker installation and the whole colony followed, making themselves cozy in the shaded, enclosed, insulated space.

Sharpless and Myers captured the colony and moved them to a box in the Henderson field.

Las Vegas isn’t the lone area of bee meltdowns as the earth’s temperature continues to rise.

In Australia, homeowners found honey leaking out of her wall and pooling onto the floor, according to 2020 report from ABC Radio in Perth. The homeowners found a melting hive weighing about 220 pounds inside an enclosed, unused chimney.

A Canadian bee researcher also in 2020 raised the alarm after discovering huge numbers of drones, or male honey bees, died of shock from heat stress.

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: Summer heat a buzzkill for Southern Nevada’s bees – Las Vegas Sun Newspaper

Texas Public Radio | By Brian Kirkpatrick

Brian Kirkpatrick / Eighteen-year-old Cashlyn Varnon was selected as this year’s festival Honey Queen.

Uvalde brought back its Honey Fest tradition this weekend to celebrate the local industry, little more than one year after the Robb Elementary School shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead. It was cancelled last year because of the tragedy.

The bees that produce the region’s honey and the townspeople both share a strong sense of community.

“They are tough, and they are going to do everything they can to survive. They work together, and they all pull their weight. And it’s all about the hive,” said local beekeeper Linda Williams.

Brian Kirkpatrick / Beekeeper Chianne Delacerda at the Uvalde Honey Fest on June 9, 2023.

Fellow local beekeeper Chianne Delacerda liked the comparison, too. Delacerda operates Deer Valley Apiary just outside Uvalde.

“The community still tries to come together,” she said. “We still try to stay cohesive as a unit. Everyone kind of supports each other through everything.”

Festival manager Gloria Reza agreed.

Brian Kirkpatrick / Bees at work at the Uvalde Honey Fest on Friday, June 9, 2023.

“We are one big beehive. We’re a bunch of worker bees, and we will find a way to pick up the pieces,” she said. “Not just from this tragedy, but from anything that has happened to us.”

It’s clear the residents of this farm and ranching town will always remember the shooting victims.

Eighteen-year-old Honey Queen Cashlyn Varnon was asked if the festival is a step toward a new normal. “A little bit. It’s definitely still different,” she said.

Brian Kirkpatrick / Honey Fest in Uvalde on June 9, 2023.

The festival was held at the town square in the heart of Uvalde. There were all sorts of vendors, including those selling honey, made by the area’s bees.

At the park’s center, however, remained the wooden crosses with the names of those who died, along with photos and mementos from their lives.

Brian Kirkpatrick / Wooden crosses remain at the center of the Uvalde town square, where Uvalde held its 2023 Honey Fest.

And in the countryside around the town, bees were busy collecting nectar from wildflowers dotting the landscape, including from Guajillo brush, which produces what one beekeeper called a light, sweet, beautiful honey.

The beekeepers explained that honey has healing properties for humans — a quality Uvalde treasures more than ever before.

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: ‘We are one big bee hive:’ Uvalde festival celebrates honey’s power to heal wounds and soothe souls | TPR

Winston Szeto · CBC News

The owner of Rushing River Apiaries in Terrace, B.C., announced last week that it had acquired 200 Carpathian queen bees from Ukraine. (Rushing River Apiaries)

A city in B.C.’s North Coast has become a buzzing haven for unique new visitors courtesy of a local beekeeper.

Christine McDonald, owner of Rushing River Apiaries in Terrace, B.C. — about 575 kilometres west of Prince George — recently took to social media to share her delight over the arrival of 200 Carpathian queen bees and 1,000 accompanying worker bees to her farm from Ukraine, through a beekeeping equipment company in Ontario.

McDonald says she acquired 200 plastic cages of the queen bees, each also containing five worker bees and food.

“I knew that these Carpathians are well known for their rugged survival like mountain honey bees, and also being very gentle,” McDonald told host Carolina de Ryk on CBC’s Daybreak North.

“Those are the two qualities that we value a lot, especially because we sell these to newer beekeepers, and we want them to be able to comfortably work with their bees.”

Imports to Canada since 2020

The Carpathian bees get their name from the Carpathian Mountains, a 1,500-kilometre range spanning Central and Eastern Europe from the Czech Republic to Romania.

Alison McAfee, a honey bee specialist at the University of British Columbia, says Ukraine has a thriving beekeeping industry involving over 600,000 people — approximately 1.5 per cent of the country’s population — working with apiaries. Ukraine ranks among the top five honey exporters globally in terms of weight.

In 2020, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) granted approval for Ukraine to export queen bees to Canada.

Prior to Russia’s invasion in 2022, which devastated apiaries throughout Ukraine and displaced tens of thousands of beekeepers, the CFIA also authorized the importation of bee packages consisting of a queen bee, several thousands of worker bees, and a brood of larvae in a hive box.

The federal agency says it has issued six permits for importing queen bees from Ukraine this year so far, and some permit holders distribute the bees to apiaries across Canada.

Bees are pictured in June 2022 at an apiary outside Melitopol, Ukraine. (Yuri Kadobnov/AFP via Getty Images)

Dancing Bee Equipment, based in Port Hope, Ont., is among distributors of Carpathian queen bees. Individual buyers must travel to Ontario to collect the bees at the airport or the company’s warehouse, while commercial buyers can request a shipment of the bees.

CEO Todd Kalisz says the company has imported over 20,000 queen bees from Ukraine since the start of the war, acknowledging the logistical challenges caused by the ongoing conflict.

“There’s no advance notice of the [shipping] schedule … it could change the day after,” he said, adding some customers who failed to check the updated schedule were disappointed after making the long drive to Ontario, only to discover their orders hadn’t arrived.

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: Queen bees from Ukraine find a sweet new home in northwestern B.C. | CBC News

While honey bee workers are all the same size, that’s not true for bumblebees. Scientists aren’t sure what’s behind the wide variety in bumble body sizes, but a new UC Riverside project aims to find out.

Certain crops, like greenhouse tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and blueberries, rely on bumblebees for a style of pollination that only bumblebees can perform. Among growers, the preference can be for bigger-bodied bumblebees because they’re thought to be more efficient pollinators.

Enabled by a $750,000 grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the research team will investigate factors suspected of influencing bumblebee biology and body size, including climate change, wildfires, and the presence of nearby honey bee colonies.

In many cases, individual animals are born smaller when their habitat has less nutrition available. The researchers want to know if this is also true for bees. “One idea is that honey bees are taking more food resources, resulting in smaller bumbles. This is part of what we will be testing,” said UCR entomologist and project lead Hollis Woodard.

To test this, the researchers will collect bumblebee size data over the next four years from places both with and without honeybees nearby. “It’s hard to find anywhere in the lower 48 without either managed or feral honey bees. For this reason, we’re headed to Alaska for part of the study,” Woodard said.

Fire may also play a role in bumblebee development. Some research has shown that bumblebees are born bigger, and in higher numbers, during the years following a wildfire. Since wildfires are common in California, the research team will also be collecting data from places throughout the state with different types of fire histories.

“Fires are good in some ways for bees,” Woodard said. “As the land recovers from the burn, a lot of flowers appear, offering food.”

In addition to the mystery of what influences the bees’ body size, it’s also unclear what role size plays in a bumble colony. While all bumblebee workers perform the same functions, variation in size could allow the hive as a whole to collect pollen from a wider variety of flowers.

Though bigger bees can collect more pollen, they might not be right for every plant species. For some flowers, especially those that are trumpet-shaped, smaller bumblebees are better pollinators.

“There are theories that bumblebee sizes are just random, or that it’s just generally good to have variation,” Woodard said. ‘Right now, we don’t yet know exactly what this variation in size does for colonies.”

In addition to benefitting crop growers, the team’s findings could ultimately benefit the bees themselves. “Any insights we gain into factors affecting the bumblebees could help us better understand how to bolster their dwindling populations,” Woodard said. “Helping them in turn helps ensure the health of wildflowers, as well as our food supply.”

Source: ucr.edu

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: ucr.edu

Beekeeping is an Example

NEWS PROVIDED BY

CGTN (Chinese Global Television Network)

BEIJING /PRNewswire/ — Liu Jinliang, a second-generation beekeeper in Miyun District, the northeastern suburb of Beijing, practices multi-box beekeeping. He is China’s first beekeeper to successfully utilize the technique, introduced by the district government in 2016.

It took the young bee farmer five years to fully implement the new technique, and now it is helping his family and local beekeepers live a “sweet” life.

Spurred on by Liu and the local government, around 30 percent of bee farmers in Miyun have now adopted the new technique, greatly boosting the output and quality of their honey. Over 360 low-income farmers in Miyun have shaken off poverty since joining the beekeeping project.

“Through my example, I can motivate people around me. And those people can empower other people around them as well. In this way, we can achieve common prosperity,” Liu told CGTN.

The beekeeping industry in Miyun generated around 130 million yuan ($18.91 million) in revenue in 2020, an increase of 19.3 percent over 2019. Encouraged by what has been achieved in Miyun, more and more bee farmers across China have turned to the multi-box beekeeping technique to raise their honey output while improving quality.

Chinese President Xi Jinping once quoted an ancient Chinese proverb, “The key to running a country is to first enrich the people,” to explain why the country is striving for common prosperity. Liu’s story gives a glimpse of China’s exploration of the paths to achieve that goal.

People-centered philosophy

The saying, which comes from Shiji, or Records of the Grand Historian, a monumental history book of ancient China compiled about 2,000 years ago, sets forth the traditional Chinese philosophy of governance: the common people are considered the foundation of a country, and only when the people prosper can the country prosper.

This is a classic piece of Chinese wisdom, and it has become part of the governance philosophy of the Chinese government in modern times.

When quoting the saying at a gathering to mark China’s poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters, President Xi pledged the country would adhere to the people-centered development philosophy and unswervingly follow the path of common prosperity.

“We have always remained committed to standing on the side of the people and consistently stressed that eradicating poverty, improving people’s lives, and achieving common prosperity represent the essential requirements of socialism,” said Xi.

Behind Liu’s success is the Miyun district government. It has helped local beekeepers learn advanced apiculture techniques and provided them with high-quality queen bees at no charge.

To better help beekeepers, the district government has also provided financial aid to support about 30 projects in the sector, with an investment of about 100 million yuan, to help make commercial beekeeping standardized and industrialized.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-06-05/Why-does-China-stick-to-the-path-of-common-prosperity–1kob98IUhB6/index.html

https://youtu.be/Lom4HnpR2xI

Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lom4HnpR2xI

SOURCE CGTN

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: CGTN: Why does China stick to the path of common prosperity? (prnewswire.com)

Researchers shed more light on how insects pollinated the very first flower. (KarinD/Adobe)

The Botanic Gardens of Sydney has published a paper with researchers from Macquarie University and Western Sydney University, shedding more light on one of the earliest origin stories about the birds and the bees.

A large dataset examining what pollinators are relied on by 1,160 species of different flowering plant families has been examined to determine the long relationship insects have had with some of the earliest flowers.

By examining a state-of-the-art ‘evolutionary tree’, researchers believe that insects have pollinated angiosperms, or flowering plants, over most of the plant’s 140-million-year evolution.

The findings of the botanical science study were published in the journal New Phytologist on Tuesday.

Macquarie University PhD student Ruby E. Stephens was the lead author of the paper. She explained the evolutionary tree showed when certain plant families evolved, which helped to advance the understanding of plant history.

“This is a significant discovery, revealing a key aspect of the origin of almost all plants on Earth today,” Stephens said.

“By running different models, we can map backwards from what pollinates a plant in the present, to what might have pollinated the ancestor of that plant in the past.”

A total of 90% of today’s flowering plants are pollinated by insects and the colour, scent, and even sexual mimicry of these many flowers have evolved to attract insects.

However, a number of other flowers do not depend on insects and instead rely on vertebrate animals, wind or even water to transport pollen.

According to researchers, until this study it was not clear which form of flower pollination came first.

The authors further believe that the first flower was also likely to be insect-pollinated.

“Plants are the lifeblood of our planet, and our study highlights the importance of insects to plant reproduction throughout Earth’s history,” Stephens said.

Dr Hervé Sauquet from the Botanic Gardens’ plant discovery and evolution team noted that in addition to insect pollinators, the research uncovered how other forms of pollination changed over time.

Wind pollination, for example, was more likely to evolve in open habitats towards the poles. Meanwhile, locations such as closed rainforests near the equator were where animal pollination was more likely to take place.

“Pollination from vertebrate animals like birds, bats, small mammals, even lizards, has evolved and reverted numerous times throughout history,” Sauquet said.

“Wind pollination has also evolved many times, but it is harder to reverse — once plants go pollination by wind, they rarely go back.”

Washington University biology expert Professor Susanne Renner said the findings confirmed insects pollinated angiosperms for most of this plant lineage’s history.

“This underscores the need for the conservation of insects — their role as pollinators is essential for the continued existence of plants,” she said.

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: Insects have a lot to do with ancestral flower power, study finds (themandarin.com.au)

Two pending endangered species listings for pollinators can have major impacts on the almond industry as many almond growers have added pollinator forage such as blooming cover crops, hedgerows and floral strips to add value to their operation. Josette Lewis, Almond Board of California chief scientific officer, said 2023 will be a decisive year for the endangered listing of the monarch butterfly and native bees in California, which leads to questions for growers. However, work is underway to protect producers if this happens and Lewis took some time to answer those questions.

Q – What is the status of the monarch butterfly being listed as an endangered species?

Lewis – A couple of years ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the decision that monarch butterflies were warranted as an endangered species, but they had other priorities at the time. So, while it was not going to be listed, they are required by law to revisit that decision by the end of this calendar year.

Q – If they do get listed as endangered, what does that mean for an almond grower? 

Lewis – It means a couple of things:

The first is that a lot of almond growers have stepped up and added pollinator forage, flower resources and habitat to their farms and land around their farms. We’ve seen a great response in terms of the number of growers who have registered as Bee Friendly Farms, who are putting in flowering cover crops, and working with organizations like Monarch Joint Venture to specifically put in monarch habitat around their ranches. Several handlers are working with growers on pollinator habitat too, as it has value to some almond buyers.

For those growers who have stepped up, we want to make sure that they are protected if the monarch is listed as an endangered species. So, if they accidentally harm the caterpillars or the butterflies themselves, we want to make sure that they are not breaking the law because they’ve done such a good job of adding that forage into their operation.

The other issue, on an industry level, is that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – who has to approve every crop production product our industry can use – was also mandated by law to increase their review of the potential negative impacts of pesticides on endangered species.

We know that if the monarch is listed, some of the products we use when they come up for re-registration, or any new products that are developed and need to be registered, will have extra scrutiny for their potential impact and could involve more restrictions on the use of those products.

Q – So it sounds like this could be a legal concern for growers and a bigger concern of more regulation on certain products if the monarch gets listed as endangered. What is ABC doing to address these two concerns? 

Lewis – We’ve been working with the Almond Alliance of California, other California agricultural interest groups, and some conservation groups who have been valuable partners of the California almond industry to negotiate a conservation agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would protect growers who have monarch habitat if they accidentally harm any of those monarch butterflies or larvae.

The way those agreements work is that we have to show that there’s a net benefit to the pollinators. Things like adding flowers and habitat for monarch butterflies, and in exchange for doing those good things, in this agreement you’re then protected if you accidentally harm monarchs.

Also, as part of those negotiations, we are including the kind of practices that reduce risks of crop protection products and try to demonstrate that we can use those safely and still have a net benefit to monarch butterflies.

Q – “Net benefit” seems like the important term in this conversation. ABC grower-funded research has already been completed in this realm and showed pollinator gains from increased habitat outweighs the risk. Can you explain that?  

Lewis – That’s right. ABC funded research with a native bee expert at UC Davis, which was published last year, showed that when farmers add floral strips – such as wildflower strips, part of a hedge row or just wildflowers near the outside the orchard – the added food for native bees helps protect those bees from the impacts of pesticide exposure. So, there is a net benefit to those native bees.

This research provides good, peer-reviewed and science-based evidence that shows these kinds of activities we have seen many growers in our industry do have a net benefit.

Q – ABC and partners are already addressing these concerns, which is good because more and more growers and handlers are utilizing this practice, right?

Lewis – A lot of growers have been looking at cover crop and adding that into their orchard management. This year in particular, I heard a grower who planted cover crops talk about how the water didn’t stay standing in their orchards back in early spring when we had so much rain, rather that the water infiltrated and drained much more quickly.

There are agronomic benefits from the practice that are worth considering, in addition to benefits to pollinators. And adding more permanent habitat outside the orchard is another area where a number of our handlers in the industry have seen a market value. Buyers want to know that they have a supply chain of almonds that allows biodiversity and a healthy ecosystem on the farm. Some handlers have really leaned in with their growers and are encouraging those kinds of practices, and that’s added certain value to both growers and handlers.

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: Pending Endangered Listings: What Growers Need to Know (almonds.com)