Dr. Tracy Farone

Technical Updates
By: Dr. Tracy Farone

It is mid-May here in the foothills of Pennsylvania. The locust trees are in full bloom. It looks like it will be a good year for them. “Good for the bees,” says the beekeeper voice in my head. The white-tailed deer have changed color into that beautiful reddish brown that pops out within the fresh, green backdrop of the woods. As my “barn” cat (but not really a barn cat), Sylvester, snoozes, stretched out at my feet, I just watched a doe trot away from a salt block 20 yards from my deck. I am a couple of days out from the end of the semester, time to take a breath…The last thing I want to think about is meetings, committees and the possible political acrobatics that go along with them.

I must admit I usually really hate meetings… “analysis paralysis,” pre-determined “communication,” hours of my life I will never get back, things “old” people do, and such. I have always thought it ironically funny that “committee” is the term for a gathering of vultures. But I am also appreciating the importance of voicing and hearing different perspectives on issues and how it’s extremely important in today’s world. And those that step up and serve on organizational committees are giving up their valuable time to contribute to important and ever on-going work.

As promised, I would like to give you an update and summary on a few exciting collaborations that have recently taken place and hopefully bring about positive relationships and outcomes between the beekeeping industry and veterinarians. The American Veterinary Medical Association’s (AVMA) Animal Agriculture Liaison Committee (AALC) Meeting was held at AVMA Headquarters in Schaumburg, IL May 3-4, 2023. I had the opportunity to be a “fly on the wall” at times as an alternate delegate via ZOOM for some of the meeting. The Honey Bee Health Coalition’s (HBHC) Annual Meeting in Sacramento, CA was held at the same time. Both meetings hosted veterinarians representing honey bee medicine for the FIRST time. All representatives were veterinarians also serving on the Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium (HBVC) board.

The American Veterinary Medical Association’s (AVMA) Animal Agriculture Liaison Committee (AALC) Meeting Summary:
I have been an alternate delegate representing honey bees on this committee for four to five months now. I am still trying to figure out the ropes, doing mostly listening (a benefit to being the alternate). I can say the committee is continually active with legislative consulting and policy considerations coming to my email box every other day. I can also say that the committee is absolutely enthralled to learn more about honey bees. As an alternate, I did not attend the meeting in person, but Dr. Terri Kane was there, near Chicago, representing. I jumped into the meeting via ZOOM when I could. Some other perspectives include those that represent veterinarians and producers in the areas of veterinary pharmacology, bovine, fish, aquatics, swine, small ruminants, sheep, public health, cattle, chickens, turkeys and the reproduction of animals, as well as government entities like the FDA and USDA.

Discussions include topics like, the Farm Bill; various drug regulation bills; protective measures for maintaining a safe food supply; humane guidelines in animal handling; policies for identifying, preventing, and controlling several current disease threats; and reports on current issues affecting each industry represented and any on-going actions in place. Our honey bee report included information on the progress made within the HBVC and multiple Colleges of Veterinary Medicine to increase honey bee related education of veterinarians and veterinary students to better serve the industry through grant projects, additional curriculum and certification programs for practicing veterinarians. I wish I could get into more detail, but I am bound by a non-disclosure agreement and a secret handshake (just kidding about the handshake). Maybe I will work on the handshake when I attend a meeting in the flesh.

The Honey Bee Health Coalition’s (HBHC) Annual Meeting Summary:
The stated purpose of the HBHC annual meeting is to “advance dialogue and action across workstreams in the priority areas of forage and nutrition, hive management and crop pest control.” Focuses included almond production, bee protection, The Bee Integrated Demonstration Project and building relationships within members. Drs. Kristol Stenstrom and Britteny Kyle represented veterinarians and the HBVC, a new member of the HBHC, again for the first time. Various reports were shared on the status of honey bees, pollinators and the industry from both the agricultural and conservational perspectives. Best practices and projects involving disease management, habitat management and pesticide use were working topics of discussion.

Next on the List: Euthanasia and Depopulation Procedures in Honey Bees.
The AVMA is extremely interested in learning more about recommendations and guidelines for euthanizing honey bee colonies in various situations, in the safest and most humane manner. Various situations include smaller verses larger operations, stationary hives, migratory hives, emergency de-population procedures, euthanasia for public safety reasons and euthanasia for disease mitigation reasons. AVMA recommendations and guidelines exist for nearly every type of animal that veterinarians work with, except honey bees. I have been asked to be part of a special sub-committee to consider, write up and present recommendations and guidelines to the AVMA. As we begin this work, I am open to reader’s suggestions on the topic. Oh boy… another committee, here we go!

Links:

Honey Bee Health Coalition: https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/

Farmers for Monarchs: https://farmersformonarchs.org/

• Finalized and disseminated a comprehensive update to the Tools for Varroa Management Guide
• Continued facilitating the Varroacide Resistance and Testing Team which has grown to over 30 varroa researchers and is working to find the next varroacide
• Launched a new initiative to develop a nutrition supplement guide for beekeepers
• Published a report on lessons learned from the 2017-2021 North Dakota Bee Integrated pilot program
• Submitted updated recommendations to the USDA for improving pollinator outcomes in private land conservation programs
• Launched a new initiative to develop a pollinator habitat guide for utility-scale solar developers
• Published Apple Best Management Practices (BMPs) for pollinator health, developed with the U.S. Apple Association
• Held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Bianca’s Pollinator Pathway, an installation of interactive opportunities for youth to learn about bees and pollinators, at the Center for Maryland Agriculture and Farm Park
• Launched the “hot topic” video series with two video presentations on timely issues for beekeepers and farmers
• Generated 105,908 website views in 2022

Read the full report here: HBHC 2022 Annual Report

Honey Bee Health Coalition Releases 2^nd Edition of Foulbrood Identification and Mitigation Guide

Denver, Colo., November 22, 2022— The Honey Bee Health Coalition released an updated guide for beekeepers aiming to identify and mitigate foulbrood disease in their honey bee colonies. The new guide includes renewed diagnostic tools as well as updated guidance for both beekeepers and veterinarians on the judicious use of antibiotics to treat American and European Foulbrood.

“American and European foulbrood continue to vex beekeepers, leading to regulatory and production costs. New tools are available for diagnosing both diseases and for mitigating their effects,” said Jay Evans, Research Scientist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service. “This document describes key field and lab diagnostics for foulbrood, community resources available to beekeepers, and current law regarding antibiotic use. With the increased importance of veterinarians for honey bee health, and a ‘Onehealth’ (integrated) view of treating bee disease, this document sets the stage for rational care of foulbrood disease in honey bee colonies.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enacted a Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) rule in 2017 regarding the use of antibiotic treatments on livestock. The new ruling classified honey bees (Apis mellifera) as livestock, thus requiring beekeepers to consult with a veterinarian prior to purchasing and applying antibiotics to their honey bee colonies. The underlying concern is that overuse and/or prophylactic use of antibiotics can lead to microbial resistance.

“While mites take most of our management time, bee pathogens still require our diligence as we steward bee colonies,” said Dewey Caron, Emeritus Professor of Entomology & Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. “This revision of our foulbrood disease guide emphasizes how to distinguish between the two foulbrood diseases by using detailed illustrations. It also clarifies the need to secure a veterinarian if antibiotics are going to be used. This guide is a must-have tool to keeping healthy bees.”

The guide provides information on both American and European Foulbrood, details steps for testing and management, and explains what measures beekeepers should take to prevent the pathogens from entering their operation—and if they do, how to minimize their spread. If antibiotics must be used, the guide details how beekeepers and veterinarians can work together to determine proper antibiotic use to keep bacteria from developing resistance.

The full guide is offered free of charge at the Honey Bee Health Coalition’s Website: https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/resources/managing-foulbrood/

About the Honey Bee Health Coalition

The Honey Bee Health Coalition brings together beekeepers, growers, researchers, government agencies, agribusinesses, conservation groups, manufacturers, brands and other key partners to improve the health of honey bees and other pollinators. Its mission is to collaboratively implement solutions that help achieve a healthy population of honey bees while also supporting populations of native and managed pollinators in the context of productive agricultural systems and thriving ecosystems. The Coalition focuses on accelerating the collective impact of efforts in four key areas: forage and nutrition; hive management; and crop pest management.

The Honey Bee Health Coalition is a project of the Keystone Policy Center, a nationally recognized nonprofit that brings together diverse stakeholders to find collaborative, actionable solutions to public policy challenges.

Read the Guide Here

Contact:

Matt Mulica
mmulica@keystone.org
(303)531-5511

Contact:

Matt Mulica

mmulica@keystone.org

(303)531-5511

Honey Bee Health Coalition Releases 8^th Edition of the Tools for Varroa Management Guide

New Edition includes extensive revisions, treatment tables updates

Keystone, Colo., August 22, 2022— The Honey Bee Health Coalition unveiled the 8^th Edition of the Tools for Varroa Management Guide today. The guide provides information on the latest tools and options for beekeepers in the USA and Canada to keep bees healthy and manage varroa mites, which spread disease within and among honey bee colonies.

“As an Apiculture Extension Educator, I often hear from devastated beekeepers who struggle to keep their honey bee colonies healthy and alive. The successful management of varroa mites is critical to keeping honey bees healthy. This guide provides comprehensive information about management options for one the most serious threats to honey bee health,” said Ana Heck, Apiculture Extension Educator at Michigan State University.

An expert team of beekeepers, entomologists, Extension agents, apiary inspectors and federal regulators spent more than six months editing the document to bring it up-to-date with changes in best practices and treatment options. The guide details new information on varroa control products including new products that have been approved for release since the 7^th edition was released in 2018.

“The Varroa Management Guide is the most valuable tool to include in your varroa management toolbox,” said Dewey Caron, Emeritus Professor of Entomology & Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, and a principal author of the guide. “It has what you need to know in one streamlined and concise package. It should help improve overwintering success by helping you flatten the varroa growth curve and reduce bee colony viral epidemics.”

Varroa mites represents one of the greatest threats to honey bee health, honey production, and pollination services. Untreated or ineffectively treated colonies can fail, causing economic losses to beekeepers, potentially impacting agricultural food production. Colonies infested with varroa are also a potential source of mites and diseases that can spread to other colonies and apiaries.

Effective varroa control will reduce colony losses and avoid potential spread of infectious disease among honey bee colonies. The Tools for Varroa Management Guide explains practical, effective methods that beekeepers can employ to measure varroa infestations in their hives and select appropriate control methods.

The full guide is offered free of charge at the Honey Bee Health Coalition’s Website: https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/resources/varroa-management/

About the Honey Bee Health Coalition

The Honey Bee Health Coalition brings together beekeepers, growers, researchers, government agencies, agribusinesses, conservation groups, manufacturers, brands and other key partners to improve the health of honey bees and other pollinators. Its mission is to collaboratively implement solutions that help achieve a healthy population of honey bees while also supporting populations of native and managed pollinators in the context of productive agricultural systems and thriving ecosystems. The Coalition focuses on accelerating the collective impact of efforts in four key areas: forage and nutrition; hive management; crop pest management; and communications, outreach and education.

The Honey Bee Health Coalition is a project of the Keystone Policy Center, a nationally recognized nonprofit that brings together diverse stakeholders to find collaborative, actionable solutions to public policy challenges.

By: MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press

The recent Northwest Honey Bee Survey found that small-scale beekeepers have nearly double the colony loss that larger operations. Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press

Small-scale, hobbyist or “backyard” beekeepers experience roughly double the amount of colony loss compared to commercial beekeepers, according to a regional bee health survey.

Backyard beekeepers — those keeping up to 50 colonies — averaged nearly 40% losses in the last 12 years, compared to commercial beekeepers, who averaged 21% losses, according to the Pacific Northwest Honey Bee Survey.

“They are not as attentive, not as aggressive in mite control, and so their level of losses is higher,” said Dewey Caron, leader of the survey and an emeritus professor of apiculture and entomology at the University of Delaware. He’s based in Portland.

Varroa mites are the top risk to healthy bees.  The mites themselves are not the problem, but they enhance and change bee virus populations, which leads to viral epidemics and rapid losses of colonies in the fall and winter months, Caron said.

Commercial beekeepers might work faster to correct a weakened colony, while backyard beekeepers might not find it as quickly, he said.

“As you get more investment, if you’re more than a one or two-colony beekeeper, you start being more like a commercial beekeeper, doing those proactive things to avoid the loss, rather than being too late and doing too little,” Caron said.

Those who have been beekeeping for more than 10 years have slightly less loss than those with fewer years of experience, but not as dramatically as the difference in colony numbers, Caron said.

“It’s your level of being proactive and having the right information on how to do varroa control,” he said.

Beekeepers should frequently sample colonies for mite numbers, be aware of the tools available and use them in a timely manner, Caron said. A higher number of mites per 100 bees carries higher risk.

Varroa mite populations vary each year, with some losses heavier than others, Caron said. For backyard beekeepers, losses have been at 48% three different times in the last 12 years. Commercial beekeepers also saw a spike in losses those years, but not so heavily.

“Looking at 13 years of survey data, it goes up, then it goes down,” he said. “We don’t have any direct correlations of why that might be the case, but it is consistent.”

The Honey Bee Health Coalition recently released the 8th edition of its varroa mite management guide. Caron called the revisions a “major reworking,” with updates on available chemicals and use recommendations.

Reaching backyard beekeepers can be challenging, Caron said. They might rely on the Internet for their information, instead of attending meetings or using a mentor. Oregon and Washington offer Master Beekeeper programs.

The Pacific Northwest bee survey works with local beekeeping organizations to gather data from individual beekeepers in Oregon and Washington. The survey team collects and analyzes data from individual beekeepers on more than 20 variables to identify relationships and trends among various micro climates, forages, and methods of bee husbandry in the region.

Each state has between 70 to 100 commercial beekeepers, those managing 500-plus colonies, with several families managing 14,000 to 20,000 colonies.

Oregon and Washington both have roughly 1,000 to 1,500 small-scale beekeepers managing less than five colonies, while Idaho has roughly 800 smaller beekeepers, primarily along the Snake River in the southern part of the state.

The USDA projects 92,000 honey bee colonies in Idaho; 87,000 in Oregon and 81,000 in Washington.

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: Survey: Backyard beekeepers see higher colony losses compared to commercial | Orchards, Nuts & Vines | capitalpress.com

Honey Bee Health Coalition Releases 8^th Edition of the Tools for Varroa Management Guide

New Edition includes extensive revisions, treatment tables updates

Keystone, Colo., August 22, 2022— The Honey Bee Health Coalition unveiled the 8^th Edition of the Tools for Varroa Management Guide today. The guide provides information on the latest tools and options for beekeepers in the USA and Canada to keep bees healthy and manage varroa mites, which spread disease within and among honey bee colonies.

“As an Apiculture Extension Educator, I often hear from devastated beekeepers who struggle to keep their honey bee colonies healthy and alive. The successful management of varroa mites is critical to keeping honey bees healthy. This guide provides comprehensive information about management options for one the most serious threats to honey bee health,” said Ana Heck, Apiculture Extension Educator at Michigan State University.

An expert team of beekeepers, entomologists, Extension agents, apiary inspectors and federal regulators spent more than six months editing the document to bring it up-to-date with changes in best practices and treatment options. The guide details new information on varroa control products including new products that have been approved for release since the 7^th edition was released in 2018.

“The Varroa Management Guide is the most valuable tool to include in your varroa management toolbox,” said Dewey Caron, Emeritus Professor of Entomology & Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, and a principal author of the guide. “It has what you need to know in one streamlined and concise package. It should help improve overwintering success by helping you flatten the varroa growth curve and reduce bee colony viral epidemics.”

Varroa mites represents one of the greatest threats to honey bee health, honey production, and pollination services. Untreated or ineffectively treated colonies can fail, causing economic losses to beekeepers, potentially impacting agricultural food production. Colonies infested with varroa are also a potential source of mites and diseases that can spread to other colonies and apiaries.

Effective varroa control will reduce colony losses and avoid potential spread of infectious disease among honey bee colonies. The Tools for Varroa Management Guide explains practical, effective methods that beekeepers can employ to measure varroa infestations in their hives and select appropriate control methods.

The full guide is offered free of charge at the Honey Bee Health Coalition’s Website: https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/resources/varroa-management/

About the Honey Bee Health Coalition

The Honey Bee Health Coalition brings together beekeepers, growers, researchers, government agencies, agribusinesses, conservation groups, manufacturers, brands and other key partners to improve the health of honey bees and other pollinators. Its mission is to collaboratively implement solutions that help achieve a healthy population of honey bees while also supporting populations of native and managed pollinators in the context of productive agricultural systems and thriving ecosystems. The Coalition focuses on accelerating the collective impact of efforts in four key areas: forage and nutrition; hive management; crop pest management; and communications, outreach and education.

The Honey Bee Health Coalition is a project of the Keystone Policy Center, a nationally recognized nonprofit that brings together diverse stakeholders to find collaborative, actionable solutions to public policy challenges.

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://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/

July 2020

Hive treatments made easy

Honey Bee Health Coalition releases short guide to help beekeepers in U.S. & Canada control bee pests & diseases

There is a lot of misguided information out there on treating hive pests and disease. Using unregistered treatments — or registered treatments not in accordance with their label instructions — is not only illegal, it could also hurt your bees. Plus, it could mean hive pests and diseases become resistant to the tools beekeepers rely on.

That’s why the Honey Bee Health Coalition has released two one-page guides, one for the U.S. and one for Canada, that list all the legal, registered products that effectively control the most common hive pests and disease. These include American and European foulbrood, nosema, small hive beetles, tracheal mites, varroa mites, and wax moths.

Take a look and share with your beekeeping clubs, friends, and networks!

The Honey Bee Health Coalition was formed in 2014 and uses the power of multi-stakeholder collaboration to work toward healthy populations of honey bees and other native and managed pollinators in and around agricultural land.

The Coalition is facilitated by the Keystone Policy Center, a nationally recognized nonprofit. Founded in 1975, Keystone maintains an unwavering commitment to independence by not advocating for any single position but rather by helping all participants work together to address shared goals and reach mutually agreeable solutions.

Visit the web at www.honeybeehealthcoalition.org/contact-us/.

________________________________________________________________________________

by Michele Colopy

In the May 2015 issue of this magazine, as part of the Honey Bee Health Coalition, an article detailed the process of reporting an acute bee kill. However, not all bee kills are acute evidenced by a large pile of dead bees scattered in front of the hive. Honey bees will die away from the hive if stricken by illness or the effects of pesticides. Their very nature guides them to protect the colony, and die away from the hive if ill or suffering from toxins. The question that arises, though, is how to report bee losses that are not Winter losses, and are not acute bee kills? How do beekeepers report an unusual dwindling of the hive? These are not acute kills, but bee losses caused by sub-lethal, or pre-lethal exposures to toxins in the honey bees’ forage area.

A slow-dwindling

A honey bee’s boundary is its flight range, from one to six miles, as it searches for pollen and nectar. Honey bees do not restrict themselves to just the crop right in front of them, nor to property lines or fence lines.

Neighboring crops, wildflowers in bloom along field edges, generally any blooming thing in forage range is sampled by honey bees. An adult forager bee may not be affected acutely by toxins in and on the pollen and nectar, however, the brood in the hive may be affected. When the life cycle of the hive organism is disrupted through the feeding of tainted pollen and nectar to brood and house bees, a sub-lethal situation is created starting a downturn in the health and sustainability of the honey bee colony. Nurse bees feed brood what they are supplied. When it is toxic, brood dies. Until incoming resources “clean-up” the hive it will shrink. Even after incoming contamination ceases, and the hive appears to recover, it will suffer later due to eating contaminated stores.

Warning signs of a pre-lethal situation in your hive may include:
• agitated honey bees

• unanticipated decrease of adult

• population (not due to swarming)

• a few weeks after pesticide exposure a spotty brood pattern is observed (brood of all ages intermixed)

• house bees removing brood

• some entombed pollen

• three weeks post exposure abnormal queen supercedure occurs

• a few months post exposure hive populations are small, some are deadouts

• Unanticipated levels of pests and pathogens precipitated by the bees’ weakened immune systems, and the colony’s reduced population that causes stress across the hive organism

An acute bee kill in Florida.

Many of these symptoms are difficult to test as to causation. Research has shown pesticides in the foundation can travel from one cell to another, spreading the toxins throughout the hive. You may see only one of these warning signs, you may see a number of them. You may not even notice a slow dwindling of your hive until it is too late. However, if you enter a bee yard and your bees are agitated for no exterior reason it would be a good time to collect samples of pollen, wax, and possibly live bees. Remember pesticides degrade quickly, so collect samples as soon as possible. Collect any live bees showing abnormal behavior into a ziplock bag. With tweezers collect freshly pulled larvae into a separate bag. Observe incoming pollen foragers and attempt to locate the section of the frame that matches: remove a three inch square and place that in a separate plastic bag. If the bee kill has been in progress for a while, some bees may have entombed some pollen. Locate this, remove a sample of the entombed pollen and place in a bag. Always freeze your samples immediately. Make arrangement to have the samples analyzed. You can find a list of labs at our website

Bee losses while pollinating watermelon. Neighboring field is a cotton crop.

Increased losses while pollinating crops

Beekeepers sometimes suffer losses while pollinating a crop. One beekeeper stated he experiences 10-25% losses of adult forager bees weekly from pesticide exposure in agriculture from July 1st to August 30th. Not all farming areas feature a single crop, but a variety of crops adjacent to each other. Many of these crops may be treated with pesticides in a constant and ongoing manner, such that the bees do not get any relief from the mix of pesticides. Honey bees will experience a myriad of pesticide products on crops, as individual applications, as well as tank mixes of a variety of chemical products.
Those beekeepers pollinating individual crops may not see the pre-lethal effects until weeks after pollinating that crop. Beekeepers who remove their bees from a contracted crop pollination site, may discover in two weeks or a month the hives crashing, brood being pulled out, and or the queen has stopped laying. Whether the beekeeper has moved their bees to another crop to be pollinated, or they placed them on native ground to produce a honey crop, the bees are now showing pre-lethal signs of toxic exposure. Determining which toxin caused the current pre-lethal situation can be difficult and expensive.

So how does a beekeeper report this type of bee loss? An acute bee kill is relatively easy to acknowledge and report: an inordinate amount of dead bees in front of the hive. Pre-lethal losses, such as a hive full of honey, but lacking honey bees; a reduction in adult foragers, and an imbalance of castes demanding bees take on a task before they are ready; a loss of a brood cycle, or two, a queen who stops laying are all difficult to evaluate as to the specific cause. These types of losses are not being tracked, not being counted, and yet these losses are prevalent in the real-world of our honey bees.

Lab testing of pollen and other hive products is necessary to determine hive level concentrations. Concentrations that may not be at a lethal dose level, or even at a level of concentration, but the level is still causing damage to the organism that is a colony of honey bees. If we are to fully protect pollinators, funding needs to be available to support laboratory analysis of pollen and other hive products for not just pests and pathogens, but pesticide exposure as well. Beekeepers should not have to bear the full burden of the cost of lab tests on acute and pre-lethal bees and their hive products. To obtain this definitive analysis of the toxins in the hive, the toxins in the pollen and nectar collected by honey bees, scientific lab analysis is needed. The lab analysis needs to be funded by those entities supporting agriculture and apiculture at the federal and state levels. EPA seeks the data of pesticides in the real-world. They collect data on bee kills, and prefer lab analysis to validate “anecdotal evidence.” Funding then needs to be provided to those entities who could assist with lab testing. Cost-sharing programs for lab testing have worked well with some University Extension Programs, but more programs need more funding.

Real-world of Honey Bees

Research shows tank mixes of pesticides are more problematic than single use exposure of a pesticide. The real-world of our honey bees needs to have real-world testing. The EPA needs the data concerning actual pesticide exposure to honey bees to determine re-registrations, and/or adjustments to pesticide labels to protect human health and the environment. Lab testing of all hive products of a hive suffering inordinate losses would contribute to the research data sought by the EPA. As an indicator species, honey bees are an environmental beacon we should support by taking every opportunity to collect all the needed data in order to protect human health and the environment.

Several factors are implicated as primary causes of bee declines, most notably pesticides (insecticides, fungicides and herbicides) and pathogens (mites, viruses, bacteria, fungi). The Pollinator Stewardship Council (PSC) is part of a collaborative project with the Pesticide Research Institute, Inc. (PRI). Together, with commercial beekeepers, we seek to better understand how these different stressors compromise the health of bees. This research will follow 60 beehives, making measurements of:

• Pesticide residues in pollen, wax, and honey (180 different pesticides)
• Pathogen levels (in collaboration with Montana State University scientists)
• Varroa mite loads
• Hive strength, queen performance, disease, bee mortality, and any abnormal bee behavior

We started the work in January 2014, and four out of five sample sets have been collected. We have made hive strength measurements and observations at regular intervals over the course of the year. The preliminary results are tantalizing. We now must finish analyzing the samples for pesticide residues and pathogen levels, and then do the statistical analysis. Visit the project page to find out more, and see how you can support this important work of the real-world of our honey bees. Our research on the hive tracking is a collaborative project involving our science partner PRI, the Flenniken Lab at Montana State University performing virus diagnostic testing of our samples, and commercial beekeepers pollinating a variety of crops. As government budgets are cut, the bulk of research of honey bees falls to university researchers, and non-profits. Valid research is research that is replicated and reviewed by others, and then validated by their research peers. Collaborative research such as our Hive Tracking Research project will be shared with the other research scientists and the beekeeping community. We must use these precious sources of funding wisely, funding projects that are collaborative, and most importantly peer-reviewed.

Reporting Bee Kills: Acute and Pre-lethal

Because all bee kill incident reporting currently is fixated on the presence (or lack thereof) of dead adult bees it is difficult to report bee kills which are sublethal to adult bees. This must change. All effects which diminish the health of pollinators must be acknowledged and addressed. The Pollinator Stewardship Council helps beekeepers through the reporting process. We encourage you to follow the ten steps to reporting a bee kill as defined in the May issue of Bee Culture magazine. Whether it is an acute bee kill, or a pre-lethal loss of your honey bees, the information about these losses is important. It is devastating to you as a beekeeper, but it is important information for EPA’s data collection and analysis. Even if lab analysis of hive products was not conducted, report these pre-lethal losses. The Pollinator Stewardship Council can help you report this data to the EPA. For more information about reporting bee losses visit our website or call us at 832-727-9492.

Pesticide residues in honeybees, honey and bee pollen by LC–MS/MS screening: Reported death incidents in honeybees,  Kasiotis KM, Anagnostopoulos C, Anastasiadou P, Machera K, Sci Total Environ. 2014 Jul 1;485-486:633-42. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.03.042. Epub 2014 Apr 17. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24747255
Four Common Pesticides, Their Mixtures and a Formulation Solvent in the Hive Environment Have High Oral Toxicity to Honey Bee Larvae, Wanyi Zhu, Daniel R. Schmehl, Christopher A. Mullin, James L. Frazier,
Published: January 8, 2014, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077547 http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0077547
Overwintered brood comb honey: colony exposure to pesticide residues, Dr. Nancy Ostiguy and Dr. Brian Eitzer, Journal of Apicultural Research, vol. 53(3) pp. 413-421, July 4, 2014  http://www.ibra.org.uk/articles/Pesticides-in-brood-comb-honey
High Levels of Miticides and Agrochemicals in North American Apiaries: Implications for Honey Bee Health Christopher A. Mullin , Maryann Frazier, James L. Frazier, Sara Ashcraft, Roger Simonds, Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Jeffery S. Pettis , Published: March 19, 2010. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.000975, http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0009754
Pesticide Residue Detection in National Science Lab Beeswax, Posted by Michael Sussman, Science and Technology Programs, on August 2, 2011 at 2:45 PM See more at: http://blogs.usda.gov/2011/08/02/pesticide-residue-detection-in-nsl-apiary-beeswax/#sthash.AmgIyzEC.dpuf
http://blogs.usda.gov/2011/08/02/pesticide-residue-detection-in-nsl-apiary-beeswax/
Sub-Lethal Effects of Pesticide Residues in Brood Comb on Worker Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Development and Longevity, Judy Y. Wu, Carol M. Anelli, Walter S. Sheppard mail,  Published: February 23, 2011, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0014720 http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014720

Multiple Factors Influence Honey Bee Health

Multiple factors impact honey bee health; these include bee pests and pathogens, forage and nutrition, genetics, bee management practices and pesticide exposure. The Honey Bee Health Coalition (‘Coalition,’ www.honeybeehealthcoalition.org) is a diverse group of stakeholders that is working toward solutions across all of these factors. Within crop pest management, the Coalition is promoting best management practices for controlling crop pests and safeguarding pollinator health. The Coalition is also promoting incident reporting to give all stakeholders access to better information and data to diagnose problems and prevent or mitigate future losses. This article explains the importance of incident reporting as well as methods for reporting.

The Importance of Incident Reporting

Information is the key element obtained from incident reporting. Incident reporting is not about compensatory damages, nor is it about placing blame; it is about determining the best methods to protect our honey bees while we also protect crops from pests, thus promoting strong agricultural crop yields in honey crops, as well as plant crops. The information provided as a result of bee loss incidents is invaluable to the EPA, states, manufacturers, pesticide applicators, growers, and beekeepers as we all work together to protect honey bees and better understand what is harming them. Accurate information on bee loss incidents is key to understanding the real-world experience of our pollinators and to inform best practices for pesticide use and application as well as federal and state regulations and labels intended to protect honey bees.

A working group of Coalition members recently conducted a review of how honey bee losses are reported. The Coalition concluded that many beekeepers do not know HOW to report bee losses. The purpose of this article is to acquaint beekeepers with the process of incident reporting, including how to report an incident to the State, the EPA, and pesticide manufacturers, and how to obtain help from non-governmental organizations. It also describes how beekeepers can collect their own evidence for analysis.

The Scenario

It is a bright and sunny day, a light wind is blowing: it has been a beautiful week for your bees to be foraging or pollinating. As you walk into your beeyard something is amiss. A small number of bees are flying, but in front of the hive is a carpet of dead and/or dying bees. As you get closer to the hive you realize there are hundreds of dead and dying bees, struggling to move, stumbling across the carcasses of the other members of the colony. Your heart sinks. You pull out your phone, switch on the camera and start videotaping the bees, their behavior, and the carpet of dead and quickly degrading carcasses. You reach your hive to crack it open, and find the adult foraging force is dead, dying, or simply gone. Younger bees are cleaning house, pulling out dead brood. It is a dramatic and stressful scenario, but a story often heard in the beekeeping community.

What do you do now? The answer is: take photos and video, and report through one or more of the following options for collecting, analyzing, and submitting bee loss information. Remember – it is important to share this valuable information of how our bees experience the real-world across agricultural stakeholders, and this often requires filing a report with more than one party. Refer to the Quick Guide to Reporting a Bee Loss Incident for more details on how to report an incident and additional informational links and contacts.

Collecting and analyzing your own evidence

Beekeepers should be prepared to collect their own evidence, particularly if the state inspector cannot get to the site in less than 24 hours. It may be too late to obtain a kit or gather the materials needed after the problem has been observed. The state lead pesticide agency inspector may not be able to collect it in a timely manner, and may not have the funds to do the lab testing. Additionally, collecting data creates more than anecdotal evidence and could help determine where to look to find the source of the problem. At a minimum, the beekeeper should prepare a written and visual (photographic or video) record that describes and shows the beekeeper’s observations, and the circumstances surrounding the loss. This should include the weather conditions, what bees may have been foraging on at the time of the loss (e.g., blooming crops/weeds in close proximity to affected colonies), approximate number and location of dead bees, and whether adults and/or brood were affected. The absence of foraging bees should be noted, and if nurse bees are present in the hive. Also, if dead and dying bees are present, the beekeeper should attempt to characterize any unusual behavior of surviving bees (e.g., lethargy, intense grooming activity, loss of coordination). There is a how-to guide for collecting evidence of bee losses on the Pollinator Stewardship Council website http://pollinatorstewardship.org/?page_id=1342, as well as a list of labs to which you can send your evidence. Guidance may also be found at http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/monitoring/fifra/bee-inspection-guide.pdf.

Check the prices of labs as none of the tests for suspected pesticide-related bee kills are free, and can cost between $300-$800. An academic research lab may accept your samples as part of a research project (at a reduced rate for testing costs), or similar opportunity. Keep in mind dead bees degrade quickly, and once degraded may not serve as reliable evidence for measuring pesticide residues. If you are unsure of what killed your bees or want a complete pesticide screen on pollen, wax, larvae, pupae or adult bees, the Bee Informed Partnership offers an Emergency Response kit (http://beeinformed.org/programs/emergency-response-kits-2/) that includes a pesticide screen conducted by USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. Pollen samples and wax samples are the better hive products to determine levels of contaminants as residues may be more stable (less vulnerable to degradation). The caveat in collecting your own evidence is that investigators and pesticide manufacturers may not be able to utilize the samples/pesticide residue data you collect because of their requirements regarding who “handles” (collects and analyzes the data) and the chain of custody through which the samples are passed. While beekeepers may be anxious to collect bee, pollen, and comb samples for analysis, qualitative information regarding the circumstances surrounding the loss can be equally if not more important, particularly if inspectors do not arrive quickly, and the conditions surrounding the loss become less apparent.

Options for Reporting

Reporting to the State: The most critical contact is with the state lead pesticide agency (SLA) so that an investigation can be initiated in a timely way. Beekeepers should maintain ready access to the current list of SLA contacts. Contact information on SLAs can be obtained from the Association of American Pesticide Control Officials at http://aapco.org/officials.html. Contact your SLCA immediately, and explain the situation without making inferences as to the circumstances surrounding the loss; that should be left to the investigators. In states with apiary programs, the state pesticide agency will normally notify the state apiarist. Determine when an inspector can come to your site to investigate the incident. The state pesticide inspector will be looking for evidence of pesticide misuse and the inspection will consider multiple factors including pesticide products used in the hive. Under their cooperative agreement with EPA to enforce the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), states will file a report with EPA at the conclusion of the investigation. Note that the purpose of the state pesticide investigation is to determine whether pesticide misuse occurred, not to determine the cause of the bee kill.

Reporting to EPA: The information provided as a result of bee loss incidents is invaluable to the EPA. There are two ways to file a report with the EPA: sending an email to beekill@epa.gov or using the National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC) web portal for Ecological Pesticide Incident Reporting http://pi.ace.orst.edu/erep/. You can report to EPA whether or not you choose to report to your SLA and initiate an investigation by the state. The NPIC web portal leads you through questions, including the state and county of the incident, and what you observed. Even if you do not have answers to all of the questions on this web portal, submit the information you do know. You can upload photos to the site as well. You can submit the report anonymously, or provide your contact information. Contact information provided through the NPIC portal is not shared with EPA, and therefore EPA cannot follow up with you if you report through NPIC. For those under the stress of having just lost one or a dozen colonies, you could simply email beekill@epa.gov with your contact information and EPA will follow-up with you for additional facts about the incident; this can provide greater clarity of what happened to your bees, provided that you are comfortable with contributing additional detail. The extent to which detailed information is available on an incident will dictate the extent to which it can be used as a line of evidence in determining the cause of the loss.

Reporting to a pesticide manufacturer: In cases where there is confidence regarding the specific pesticide involved, contact the manufacturer by calling either the emergency or non-emergency phone number on the product label (if available). Additional information such as contact information for the farm that applied the product, bee yard location, symptoms observed and duration of the effect, product type (seed treatment, foliar application), crop, and weather conditions may be gathered during the initial call. The manufacturer will most likely ask if the state pesticide lead agency or EPA has been contacted about the incident. The manufacturer will most likely ask about a follow-up visit with the caller either as an on-site visit or via phone.

Receiving assistance: Do you need help navigating all of the reporting options or assistance in filing a report? The Pollinator Stewardship Council can assist the beekeeper in filing reports to EPA so you can get back to the business of beekeeping. You can also contact the Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) Program to request an Emergency Response Kit (http://beeinformed.org/programs/emergency-response-kits-2/), or, if applicable, contact your BIP Tech Transfer Team (http://beeinformed.org/team-2/tech-transfer-teams/) for a kit.

Incident reporting allows all stakeholders to learn from and prevent or mitigate bee losses, and provides the data needed to help build solutions for Healthy Bees, Healthy People, and a Healthy Planet.

The Honey Bee Health Coalition appreciates support from Bee Culture magazine in sharing this information with its readers. One thousand laminated copies of the Honey Bee Health Coalition Quick Guide to Reporting a Bee Kill Incident are available through Bee Culture magazine; order yours online today at www.pollinatorstewardship.org or download an electronic copy at www.honeybeehealthcoalition.org.

October 16, 2014

The Honorable Thomas Vilsack The Honorable Regina McCarthy

Secretary Administrator

U.S. Department of Agriculture U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

1400 Independence Ave., S.W. Office of the Administrator – 1101A

Washington, DC 20250 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC 20460

Dear Mr. Secretary and Madam Administrator,

As leaders charged by the President to coordinate federal efforts to research, prevent, and recover from pollinator losses, you know that a lot rides on the health of the honey bee. You are in a unique position to help safeguard global food production, North American agriculture, and healthy ecosystems across the world, which is why we want to work with you to improve honey bee health.

The Honey Bee Health Coalition is one of the largest and most diverse groups of stakeholders representing more than 30 organizations working across food, agriculture, government, and conservation to reverse recent declines in honey bee health and promote their long-term health and the health of other pollinators. By coordinating together on key priorities we can include a broader set of stakeholders and achieve our mutual goals faster, with greater impact, and do so more cost effectively.

To that end, the Coalition issued the attached Bee Healthy Roadmap outlining steps for working together to improve honey bee health that will accomplish more than any one group can achieve on its own. The Coalition is committed to developing explicit goals, milestones and metrics to measure improvements in honey bee health. We’re working to achieve Healthy Honey Bees, Healthy People, and a Healthy Planet and we set ourselves four priority areas that need collective, science-based action:

• Put the best available tools, techniques, and technologies in the hands of beekeepers so they can better manage their hives. As noted in the Presidential Memorandum creating a federal strategy to promote the health of honey bees and other pollinators, we need ‘…expanded collection and sharing of data related to pollinator losses [and] technologies for continuous monitoring of honey bee hive health… and new cost-effective ways to control bee pests and diseases.’ Therefore, the Coalition aims to support on-the ground efforts underway to provide beekeepers with monitoring and expert advice and analyses to best manage hive health, as well as to promote development of new products and use of best practices for varroa mite control.

• Ensure honey bees – especially those in and around production agriculture – have access to a varied and nutritious diet. Our work aligns with the Pollinator Health Task Force focus on pollinator-friendly seed mixes and habitats. The Coalition is working on how to prioritize where forage is needed, what plants are needed, and at what times – and on public-private strategies to meet nutritional needs. Steering Committee.honeybeehealthcoalition.org

• Control crop pests while safeguarding pollinator health. The Coalition is promoting best practices to safeguard honey bee health and exploring opportunities to promote and improve reporting of honey bee health incidents related to crop pest control. These activities align with the Task Force’s work toward ‘identification of existing and new methods and best practices to reduce pollinator exposure to pesticides.’

• Work together to improve honey bee health. In alignment with the Task
Force’s emphasis on public-private partnerships, the Coalition is promoting public private collaboration across diverse stakeholders, including State and and local
governments, farmers, corporations, and nongovernmental organizations.

Together we can collaboratively implement solutions among food, agriculture, government, and conservation partners. Together we can achieve a healthy population of honey bees as well as healthy populations of native and managed pollinators. Together we can ensure healthy, sustainable agriculture and healthy ecosystems, and healthy ecosystem services for years to come.

Knowing that the Coalition can’t improve honey bee health on its own, we want to provide you with this Roadmap to share the priorities we’ve identified and ask for your input and feedback so that we can effectively work with you, as appropriate, to achieve our mutual goals. We would like to schedule some time for members of the Coalition to meet with you to review this Roadmap in the coming weeks. Would the first or second week of November be a convenient time? If not, please suggest a time that would. I can be reached at (970) 513-5830 or jshapiro@keystone.org to coordinate on scheduling or to provide further information.

Sincerely,

The Honey Bee Health Coalition Steering Committee:

Pete Berthelson, Pheasants Forever; Zac Browning, Browning Honey Co.; David Epstein, USDA Pest Mgt. Policy; George Hansen, ABF; Gerald Hayes, Monsanto; Christi Heintz, PAM; Bill Kuckuck, Croplife America; Robert Sears, East MS Beekeepers; Ed Spevak, St. Louis Zoo; Thomas Steeger, EPA; Dale Thorenson, US Canola Ass’n; Maria Trainer, CropLife Canada; Dennis vanEngelsdorp U MD; Richard Waycolt, Almond Board CA.

Steering Committee

p.p.

Julie Shapiro

Facilitator, Honey Bee Health Coalition &

Senior Associate, The Keystone Center

CC:

Dr. Ann Bartuska, Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics, USDA

Mr. Jim Jones, Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, U.S. EPA

Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, Director, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA

Dr. Melinda Cep, Special Assistant, Office of the Under Secretary, Marketing and Regulatory Programs, USDA

October 16, 2014

The Honorable Thomas Vilsack                     The Honorable Regina McCarthy

Secretary                                                         Administrator

U.S. Department of Agriculture                     U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

1400 Independence Ave., S.W.                      Office of the Administrator – 1101A

Washington, DC 20250                                  1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC 20460

Dear Mr. Secretary and Madam Administrator,

As leaders charged by the President to coordinate federal efforts to research,

prevent, and recover from pollinator losses, you know that a lot rides on the health of

the honey bee. You are in a unique position to help safeguard global food production,

North American agriculture, and healthy ecosystems across the world, which is why

we want to work with you to improve honey bee health.

The Honey Bee Health Coalition is one of the largest and most diverse groups of

stakeholders representing more than 30 organizations working across food,

agriculture, government, and conservation to reverse recent declines in honey bee

health and promote their long-term health and the health of other pollinators. By

coordinating together on key priorities we can include a broader set of stakeholders

and achieve our mutual goals faster, with greater impact, and do so more cost

effectively.

To that end, the Coalition issued the attached Bee Healthy Roadmap outlining steps

for working together to improve honey bee health that will accomplish more than any

one group can achieve on its own. The Coalition is committed to developing explicit

goals, milestones and metrics to measure improvements in honey bee health. We’re

working to achieve Healthy Honey Bees, Healthy People, and a Healthy Planet and

we set ourselves four priority areas that need collective, science-based action:

• Put the best available tools, techniques, and technologies in the hands of

beekeepers so they can better manage their hives. As noted in the Presidential

Memorandum creating a federal strategy to promote the health of honey bees and

other pollinators, we need ‘…expanded collection and sharing of data related to

pollinator losses [and] technologies for continuous monitoring of honey bee hive

health… and new cost-effective ways to control bee pests and diseases.’ Therefore,

the Coalition aims to support on-the ground efforts underway to provide beekeepers

with monitoring and expert advice and analyses to best manage hive health, as well

as to promote development of new products and use of best practices for varroa mite

control.

• Ensure honey bees – especially those in and around production agriculture –

have access to a varied and nutritious diet. Our work aligns with the Pollinator

Health Task Force focus on pollinator-friendly seed mixes and habitats. The Coalition

is working on how to prioritize where forage is needed, what plants are needed, and

at what times – and on public-private strategies to meet nutritional needs.

Steering Committee.honeybeehealthcoalition.org

• Control crop pests while safeguarding pollinator health. The Coalition is

promoting best practices to safeguard honey bee health and exploring opportunities to

promote and improve reporting of honey bee health incidents related to crop pest

control. These activities align with the Task Force’s work toward ‘identification of

existing and new methods and best practices to reduce pollinator exposure to

pesticides.’

• Work together to improve honey bee health. In alignment with the Task

Force’s emphasis on public-private partnerships, the Coalition is promoting publicprivate

collaboration across diverse stakeholders, including State and and local

governments, farmers, corporations, and nongovernmental organizations.

Together we can collaboratively implement solutions among food, agriculture, government,

and conservation partners. Together we can achieve a healthy population of honey bees as

well as healthy populations of native and managed pollinators. Together we can ensure

healthy, sustainable agriculture and healthy ecosystems, and healthy ecosystem services for

years to come.

Knowing that the Coalition can’t improve honey bee health on its own, we want to provide

you with this Roadmap to share the priorities we’ve identified and ask for your input and

feedback so that we can effectively work with you, as appropriate, to achieve our mutual

goals. We would like to schedule some time for members of the Coalition to meet with you to

review this Roadmap in the coming weeks. Would the first or second week of November be a

convenient time? If not, please suggest a time that would. I can be reached at (970) 513-5830

or jshapiro@keystone.org to coordinate on scheduling or to provide further information.

Sincerely,

The Honey Bee Health Coalition Steering Committee:

Pete Berthelson, Pheasants Forever; Zac Browning, Browning Honey Co.; David Epstein, USDA Pest Mgt. Policy; George Hansen, ABF; Gerald Hayes, Monsanto; Christi Heintz, PAM; Bill Kuckuck, Croplife America; Robert Sears, East MS Beekeepers; Ed Spevak, St. Louis Zoo; Thomas Steeger, EPA; Dale Thorenson, US Canola Ass’n; Maria Trainer, CropLife Canada; Dennis vanEngelsdorp U MD; Richard Waycolt, Almond Board CA.

Steering Committee

p.p.

Julie Shapiro

Facilitator, Honey Bee Health Coalition &

Senior Associate, The Keystone Center

CC:

Dr. Ann Bartuska, Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics, USDA

Mr. Jim Jones, Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, U.S. EPA

Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, Director, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA

Dr. Melinda Cep, Special Assistant, Office of the Under Secretary, Marketing and Regulatory Programs, USDA

New coalition brings together diverse stakeholders to improve honey bee health

KEYSTONE, CO, June 18, 2014 – At the Saint Louis Zoo’s Annual Pollinator Dinner last night, The Keystone Center announced the formation of a new Honey Bee Health Coalition. Recognizing that declines in honey bee and pollinator health have put agriculture, healthy ecosystems, and worldwide food security at risk, this diverse coalition was formed to promote collaborative solutions.

Ed Spevak of the Saint Louis Zoo’s WildCare Institute Center for Native Pollinator Conservation and the Zoo’s Curator of Invertebrates introduced the Honey Bee Health Coalition, noting that it brings together beekeepers, growers, researchers, government agencies, agribusinesses, conservation groups, manufacturers and consumer brands, and other key partners in the U.S. and Canada to improve the health of honey bees and other pollinators, ecosystems, and the security of our food supply. Approximately 80% of flowering plants rely on the honey bee and other native and managed pollinators; these plants include crops like almonds, apples, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, squashes, tomatoes, and alfalfa among many others.

“We helped found this Coalition because honey bees support approximately $18 billion of United States food production annually,” said Randy Verhoek, President of the American Honey Producers Association. “In the United States, approximately 30% of managed honey bees now die each winter,” he continued, “compared to around 15% that beekeepers consider acceptable. This makes it increasingly difficult for beekeepers to stay in business, hurting not only the beekeepers and their families but also the farmers and agricultural communities that rely on those bees to pollinate crops.”

“If we do not act collaboratively to find solutions that work for all involved, honey bee health, the ability to produce fruits, nuts and vegetables, and the ability to sustain ecosystems and the economy will all be impacted,” said Jerry Hayes, Honey Bee Health Lead for Monsanto. “A healthy bee population is imperative for our industry and for our supply chain, and we need collaboration across stakeholders. This coalition is a great step in this direction.”

“The Coalition has already made important progress in identifying critical areas for collaboration, including bee forage and nutrition, crop pest management, hive management, and outreach, education and communications,” said Richard Joost, Director of Research for the United Soybean Board. “The Coalition will address these critical areas by building consensus on key strategies, creating a platform for collaboration, and funding partnerships, pilots, and programs.”

The idea for the Coalition first took shape as part of a Clinton Global Initiative Commitment in 2013. In a very short period of time the coalition members have turned that idea into a reality.

Coalition members currently include the Agricultural Retailers Association, the Almond Board of California, the American Beekeeping Federation, the American Honey Producers Association, the American Seed Trade Association, Bayer CropScience, Browning Honey Company, the Canadian Honey Council, CropLife America, CropLife Canada, Ducks Unlimited, DuPont, Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association, Land O’Lakes, Inc., Monsanto Company, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, Pheasants Forever, Project Apis m., the Saint Louis Zoo’s WildCare Institute Center for Native Pollinator Conservation, Syngenta, Unilever, United Soybean Board, the University of Maryland’s Department of Entomology, and the U.S. Canola Association. The Coalition also includes ex officio participation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Funding has been provided by the Agricultural Retailers Association, the American Honey Producers Association, Bayer CropScience, CropLife America, DuPont, Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association, Land O’Lakes, Inc., Monsanto, Syngenta, Unilever, and the United Soybean Board.

About the Honey Bee Health Coalition

The Honey Bee Health Coalition brings together beekeepers, growers, researchers, government agencies, agribusinesses, conservation groups, manufacturers and brands, and other key partners to improve the health of honey bees and other pollinators. Our mission is to collaboratively implement solutions that will help to achieve a healthy population of honey bees while also supporting healthy populations of native and managed pollinators in the context of productive agricultural systems and thriving ecosystems. The Coalition is focusing on accelerating collective impact to improve honey bee health in four key areas: forage and nutrition, hive management, crop pest management, and communications, outreach and education.

Through its unique network of private and public sector members, the Coalition will foster new partnerships, leverage existing efforts and expertise, and incubate and implement new solutions. The Coalition will bring its diverse resources to bear in promoting communication, coordination, collaboration, and investment to strategically and substantively improve honey bee health in North America.