Notes from 12/8/2014 Meeting
30
members attended, not counting spouses and kids. New members: Mary
Ebert, Ed Furnish, Sara Fort, Kathleen Green, Ken Johnson, Carolyn
Lemaster, Jim Scott, Mike and Cindy Spading, Ben Stevens
Vice Prez: Floyd Otdoerfer agreed to take over as ECIBA vice-president, replacing Terry Dahms.
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| Dave Irvin would like to have your humorous bee stories. |
Beekeeping Stories:
Anyone who keeps bees for very long has stories about it, many of them
hilarious, at least in retrospect. President Dave Irvin suggests we
write them down—we might be able to sell a book of such stories for
fundraising.
Protecting Bees in Iowa:
This ISU pamphlet is now out of print. Too bad—we used to give out
copies at our beekeeper booths at meetings and fairs. Bob Wolff has
an electronic copy he will get to Jim Davis to put on our ECIBA website.
Horizontal top-bar hives: December issue of Acres has plans how to build these.
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| Floyd Otdoerfer reporting on the Iowa Honey Producers annual meeting. |
Iowa Honey Producers Association, Marshalltown, Nov 14-15, 2014: (Floyd Otdoerfer report) State Apiarist Andy Joseph said
that last winter was very hard on Iowa bees, with 60-70% of colonies
reported lost by March. [DLC comment: It’s useful to check your hives
on winter days when it is warm enough that bees are flying: if you find
them clustered up under the top cover, they are out of honey, and need
to be fed.] Andy again advised beekeepers to check and treat for mites,
to renew colony registration every spring, and to be sure to report bee
kills that might be due to nearby pesticide applications. Keith Delaplane
of UGeorgia said that new swarms will seek elbowroom, and typically
settle in places over 500m from the home hive. He recommends frequent
checks of larva in your brood frames—larva need to be immersed in jelly
it they are to thrive. If larva cells look dry, feed protein! Also, be
sure and get rid of old dark comb, which will have collected pesticide
residue. Marla Spivak of UMinn has sponsored many volunteer
groups to help beekeepers there—some groups specialize in mentoring
beginners, and others in doing inspections and advising professionals.
Marla also is involved in awarding cash grants to worthy bee causes
through the Midwest, including several in Iowa. [DLC comment: I’m
pretty sure Marla was awarded the 2010 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship
genius grant. Was that what she used the MacArthur money for?] Marla
has done studies of protein content of various pollens, and points out
that corn pollen won’t help bees very much: only ~5% protein. She also
says poplar and cottonwood resin make some of the best propolis, and
that bees will seal cracks up to 1/8” (up to 1/3 of a bee space, that
is).
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| Dave Campbell talked about his involvement with an ISU bee virus study. |
(Dave Campbell report) Four of us who were present at tonite’s meeting had provided bee samples in fall 2013 to Amy Toth and Adam Dolezal of ISU for their bee virus study. They gave their results at this year’s IAPA and in the November issue of The Buzz.
Their idea was to look at apiaries in heavily cropped areas (>70%
cultivated fields nearby) versus those not (<35%). They anticipated
the <35% bees would be better nourished, and have fewer mites and
viruses. Not so! It turned out that bees from both groups were about
equally fat, and had about equal mites (average was ~3 mites/every 100
bees). Not surprisingly, though, high mite levels made for high
viruses. Four virus types were measured: deformed wing virus (DWV),
black queen cell virus (BQCV), Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), and
sacbrood virus (SBV). DWV and BQCV were fairly common, and the others
rare, though high when present. Conclusions: treat for mites if you have
high mite levels (later speaker Mike Goblirsch said >7 mites/
100 bees), and put your hives in low-cultivation areas when possible (a
finding from other studies, though not this one). Marla Spivak’s
people at UMinn have put together a poster showing how to do a powdered
sugar mite test. Find it at http://www.beelab.umn.edu/prod/groups/cfans/@pub/@cfans/@bees/documents/asset/cfans_asset_317466.pdf.
Mary Harris
of ISU reported on best practice recommendations resulting from work
done for the Corn Dust Research Consortium (stakeholders included
beekeepers, manufacturers, farmers, and university). Not surprising,
pneumatic corn planters (the modern air-puff ones, as opposed to the
older spike-finger types) make dust that gets on bee plants. The dust
contains neonics which stay on nearby plants for at least 3 weeks,
despite rain, and for over a year in groundwater. Nowadays many farmers
plant very early, before the ground is actually warm enough to
germinate corn (>~60oF). (They add fungicides to keep the
seed from rotting in the meantime.) Problem: that early in the year our
bees are out collecting pollen from early bloomers like willows,
maples, and ash. Many samples of willow pollen that were tested had
doses of neonics (1.6-3.4 ng/bee) high enough to be lethal to bees (LD50
= 2.8 ng/bee). Recommendations: farmers should stop planting so early,
use coated seed only when really necessary, and be sure to follow
manufacturer’s specs. However, uncoated seed must be special-ordered,
is rarely available, and costs just the same; so it will be hard to get
anybody to follow advice like that.
In
a separate study, Mary Harris’ people found that putting 10% of
cornfields in prairie strips reduced water runoff by 95%, phosphorus
loss by 90%, and nitrogen loss by 85%. Plus, prairie strips provide
forage for bees! [DLC comment: that’s great, but how does it compare
with no-till? Way more farmers are going to no-till nowadays.
Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFA) ought to check this out!]
==Dave Campbell, ECIBA Secretary
