Links

LINKS TO OTHER GREAT INFORMATION ABOUT BEES

Here is a great link that a young person shared with us. She is working very hard for her Nature badge and I'm thinking a wonderful future of learning! Check out this link! www.avasflowers.net/flowers-as-food-a-guide-to-honey-bees

Beekeepers Calendar

The Effects of Gardening with Pesticide

https://www.angieslist.com/articles/effects-gardening-pesticide.htm

Much Ado About Swarms
A list of references from Diane Dunaway- May 20th 2015

Tom Seeley's Cornell University YouTube on swarm decision making:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX8B135Ypq8

Tom Seeley's American Scientist 2006 article about the same:

http://host31.spidergraphics.com/sml/doc/Group_D-M_(112).pdf

BOOKS etc

Clan Apis by Jay Hosler

http://www.jayhosler.com/Chapter2.html

Honeybee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9267.html

The Biology of the Honey Bee by Mark Winston

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674074095

And BC APICULTURE factsheet #404

http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/apiculture/factsheets/404_swarming.htm

EU Study: Value of Ecosystem Services (Pollinators etc neonics)

Great scientific article; values ecosystem services
http://edepot.wur.nl/338020

Exec Summary;
Critical to assessing the effects of neonicotinoids on ecosystem services is their impact on non-target organisms: both invertebrates and vertebrates, and whether located in the field or margins, or in soils or the aquatic environment.
Here, the Expert Group finds the following:
1. There is an increasing body of evidence that the widespread prophylactic use of neonicotinoids has severe negative effects on non-target organisms that provide ecosystem services including pollination and natural pest control.
2. There is clear scientific evidence for sublethal effects of very low levels of neonicotinoids over extended periods on non-target beneficial organisms. These should be addressed in EU approval procedures.
3. Current practice of prophylactic usage of neonicotinoids is inconsistent with the basic principles of integrated pest management as expressed in the EU’s Sustainable Pesticides Directive.
4. Widespread use of neonicotinoids (as well as other pesticides) constrains the potential for restoring biodiversity in farmland under the EU’s Agrienvironment Regulation.

Mentors Program Links
This is a list or resources as links that are suggested for the BITs "Beekeepers-In-Training", in conjunction with the Mentorship Program.

Links
Extension University and Ask an Expert (articles, webinars, seminars, videos, ask an expert) http://www.extension.org/bee_health
BCHPA http://www.bcbeekeepers.com/
BC Ministry of Agriculture (Apiculture) http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/apiculture/
American Bee Federation (archived ABF Convention education seminars) http://www.abfnet.org/
Andy Giger’s B-Eye http://andygiger.com/science/beye/beyehome.html and http://andygiger.com/science/beye/beyeold.html
Podcasts
Kiwimana Buzz http://kiwimana.co.nz/category/podcast/
BKCorner http://www.bkcorner.org/
Scholarly Papers
Diurnal Behavioural Differences in Forager and Nurse Honey Bees Apis Mellifera Carnica (K Crailsheim, N Hrassnigg, A Stabentheiner) Adipologie 1996 27 235-244
The honeybee queen influences the regulation of colony drone production (Wharton/Dyer/Huang/Getty) Oxford Journal of Behavioral Ecology Vol. 18 Issue. 06, 2007 http://m.beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/18/6/1092
The Ups and Downs of Bee Navigation (Laura Blackburn) Journal of Experimental Biology doi: 10.1242/jeb.002089March 1, 2007J Exp Biol 210, 845-853
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/210/5/845.full research paper http://jeb.biologists.org/content/210/5/i.2.full article
Vision and air flow combine to streamline flying honeybees (Taylor/Luu/Ball/Srinivasan) Nature’s Scientific Reports: Scientific Reports 3; Article 2614; 10 Sep 2013 doi:10.1038/srep02614

WAS Newsletter

The newsletter of the WAS Western Apicultural Society, Items of Interest To Beekeepers is sent out regularly. Beekeepers everywhere are able and encouraged to join the mailing list. Instructions for joining, and unjoining, are given in every edition. So, please sign up if you wish to continue to receive this informative newsletter!
You are encouraged to join if you wish to continue to receive it in your own email.
To be removed from this list, just hit 'Reply' and put "Unsubscribe bee list" in the Subject line.

Fran Bach,
Western Apicultural Society Journal and Washington State Beekeepers newsletter editor
509-573-4245
febach3@gmail.com

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Native Pollinators & Pollen Nutritional Value

Keeping the Bumblebee:
A Nutritional Study of Peace River North
Meagan Haugen-Koechl, Grade 12

Meagan Haugen-Koechl is an exceptional young woman living in Ft St John. She has won a place TWICE to attend the Canada Wide Science Fair, in 2012 and 2014. Her research is about native pollinators and forage quality especially forage of native plant species. We were made aware of her work through an article published in the Grasslands Conservation Councils February 2015 newsletter. Through a series of inquiries we, Kamloops Branch of BCHPA, were given permission to post the article here.
This is a link to a short youtube video describing her project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T0qf3uZl-Q

This is a statement from the GCC Newsletter related to the original GCC newsletter article:
Last month we featured an article by Meagan Kochel-Haugen on her Bumble Bee research in the Peace region of BC. One of our readers passed along these sentiments after reading Meagan article "... The academic capacity of some of these students leaves me in awe and quite honestly, in the dust when it comes to understanding. It is a testament to the excellence in education they are receiving..." ... and no doubt the students desire to learn! A day after the newsletter was released, I received a note from an individual associated with BC Honey Producers Association who are very interested in Meagan's work! We we pleased to help connect them with Meagan!

Keeping the Bumblebee:
A Nutritional Study of Peace River North
Meagan Haugen-Koechl, Grade 12

My mom said years ago when the dandelions bloomed, the flowers were covered with bumblebees. Now there are few bees on the dandelions. I believe bumblebees are declining rapidly. Habitat loss due to extraction of natural resources, agriculture and expanding neighborhoods in North East British Columbia, has disturbed ecosystems. Plants that co-evolved with local bumblebees are being replaced by introduced species of plants and trees. This decline in native plant population could mean bees are not getting the nutrition they require.

My research interest is in the nutritional needs of bumblebees in my area and what can be done to help keep the bees. I've been participating in science fairs since grade 1. These projects have allowed me to explore topics that wouldn't normally be taught in school but were of keen interest to me. I have been allowed to work at colleges and universities where kind professors found time to help a high school student. I've traveled to national science fairs around Canada, met students like myself and networked with adults who have pursued careers in the same field as my research. My last two science fair projects have been concerned over understanding the nutritional needs of bumblebees. I used the native plants that evolved with bumblebees in my area as a baseline for their nutritional needs and compared it to plants, trees and shrubs that have been introduced to the Peace River area.

In the fall of 2006, honeybees started to disappear in the United States. Bees were not returning to their hives. The problem soon became known as CCD - Colony Collapse Disorder. There are many possible reasons to why this is happening. New types of pesticides, malnutrition, viruses and mites are only a few of the possibilities attacking the honeybee. Wild bees are also disappearing. However, less research has been committed to their problem in comparison to the honeybee. Recent research recognizes wild bees as important crop pollinators.

One article in the British magazine, The Guardian (February 28, 2013), stated wild pollinators were twice as effective as honeybees in pollinating crops. The research showed honeybees couldn't replace native bees in maintaining many ecosystems. Domestic honeybees are made up of one species, while wild bees can represent many different species. A disease that can affect one species (for example CCD) may not affect all wild species. It is extremely important to keep a healthy native bee population for most ecosystems.

Bumblebees have a shortened life cycle in the North. In early spring (late April to beginning of May) the queen bumblebee emerges from hibernation in search of great quantities of pollen. The nutrition in the pollen she finds helps to boost her body and sustain her while she begins to lay eggs. The pollen she collects is also needed to feed her first generation of worker bees. These queens often emerge when there is still snow on the ground. The first available pollen in my area is the willow trees and Pulsatilla patens (common name crocus). Both are native plants to the region. No introduced plant has available pollen this early. With the stored pollen in her nest, the queen then produces the worker bees that will now take care of her. In August, the next year's queen bees and males emerge to mate. At this time, there are many native and introduced plants blooming.

For both of my projects, I had to begin in early spring harvesting the pollen for examination. This continued through summer and fall, collecting only pollen I noticed bees collecting. I recorded the blooming times of flowers to create a linear graph showing the length and dates of when the flowers bloomed. The flowers were classified as to whether they were native or introduced.

In 2012, I worked with Dr. Sandra Hoffman in the lab at Northern Lights College in Fort St. John to conduct a protein assay on 23 types of pollens*. Tests were run three times for each type of pollen to determine an average and standard deviation. Protein absorbance results were then graphed on the standard curve to determine the concentrations. These results were then entered into a formula to calculate relative protein content and graphed.


Using the blooming chart created, I calculated every 25 days the average amount of protein available for the bees based on the plants blooming at that time. It was then plotted to show the difference between native and introduced species.The graph clearly showed that native plants had higher protein rates at the beginning of the season (May) and then towards the end of the season (August). This coincided with bees requiring higher amounts of protein in early spring when the queens emerge from hibernation and then again in August when new queens mate. Introduced plants, though, gave the bees additional variety of pollen and higher protein content from the end of May to the beginning of July. The highest percentage of protein was found in willow, crocus, fireweed and vetch, all native to this area. Dandelion registered the highest amount of protein for introduced plants.

In 2014, under the guidance of professors, Dr. Tina Bott and Matthew Jensen, at the University of Northern British Columbia, I was able to extract fatty acids from ten different pollens (6 were native and 4 were introduced). Fatty acids are important to bee development, nutrition and reproduction. Certain fatty acids are known to have antimicrobial abilities **. The tests were run in triplicate so an average and standard deviation could be calculated. Fourteen fatty acids were detected.

Of the ten plant pollens studied (6 native - willow, crocus, paintbrush & goldenrod; 4 introduced - dandelion, lilac, alfalfa & Alsike clover), all had similar fatty acids. The C14:0 to C18:0 FA's were most common, which included Myristic (C14:0), Palmitic C16:0, Stearic (C18:0), Oleic (C18:1), Linoleic (C18:2) and Linolenic (C18:3). Amongst native plants Palmitic acid was dominant followed by Linolenic, Linoleic and Stearic acids. Of the introduced plants, alsike clover and alfalfa were closest in their fatty acid profile to native plants. However, they were higher in stearic acid than most natives. Dominant fatty acid in dandelion was Lignoceric acid (C24:0) at 25%. All other flowers were well below 2% in this acid. All introduced plants were low in Myristic acid, where as most native plants had it in their top five fatty acids. Three of the 6 top fatty acids common in bee-collected pollen have antimicrobial abilities - Myristic, Lineolenic and Linoleic. These fatty acids are important to nest hygiene and help prevent bacterial diseases that kill larvae. In general, the native plants had considerably more antimicrobial fatty acids than did the introduced.

Native plant pollen had higher total fatty acid content than introduced pollen. This would provide higher nutrition and energy to sustain bumblebees. Native plants and bumblebees have co-evolved in a symbiotic relationship. I believe native plants are essential to the general health of bees. Using the native plants as a guide, the introduced plants did not have the same fatty acid profile or total level of fatty acids, as the native plant pollen during key reproduction times (early spring egg laying and August mating); therefore, they do not provide the same nutrition for native bumblebees. However, introduced plants do have longer blooming times into the fall allowing extending foraging in late season.

In both of my science fair projects, I based the nutritional needs bumblebees require on the analysis of the native pollen bees evolved with. Willow is an essential source of pollen because of the timing of the queens emerging from hibernation as soon as the snow begins to melt.

Cold tolerant bumblebees emerge from hibernation at the same time Willow pollen and Crocus bloom. It is, therefore, essential to keep these plants, especially willow, due to the high volume of pollen produced. All native plants are important to bumblebees to maintain the nutritional balances they evolved with in the ecosystems.

Recommendations to keeping our local bumblebees:

Awareness Programs: Due to oil and gas, and logging activity in Northeastern British Columbia, companies need to be made aware of key plants and trees that are important to bumblebee survival. When land is reclamated, it should be required that native plants and trees (especially willow) are returned to the site.

Agriculture: Farmers should grow willows and native plants around the edges of fields. This would help ensure the bees are there to pollinate their crops.

Making nesting sites: Keep some ground undisturbed. Bumblebees like nesting in abandoned rodent holes and also enjoy crevasses in rock walls and piles of brushes.

  * I was unable to find a pollen protein standard, so a relative protein standard was set up using Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA). A standard protocol was performed for a 5ml cuvette assay using Quick Start Bradford 1x Dye Reagent. Absorbance levels were recorded from the spectrophotometer and graphed to develop the standard curve. The 23 protein aliquots (pollen solution) were mixed with dye reagent and the absorbance levels recorded.

** Fatty acids were extracted in the following manner: Pollen was placed in a solution of 2:1 dichloromethane to methanol. The solution was extracted, the crude extract was found and the solution was washed 7 times with 5mls of hexanes. The hexanes were removed and the left over extract had 2mls of Hydrochloric Acid added to acidify the solution. The solution was washed with 1.5mls of hexanes 3 times. This put the fatty acids in the hexane layer. This layer was then placed into vials and sent to the gas chromatography lab.

The following links have been shared by savingourbees.org

Here’s Why We Need to Save the Bees + 10 Things You Can Do to Help
How to Become A Tree Hugger
Make a Mason Bee House
The Buzz on Beekeeping: A Guide to Bringing Up Bees in Your Own Backyard
Making a Bee-Friendly Garden

Help the Honey Bees! Toxic Pesticides to Avoid in Your Garden

Buzzing for solutions 13 organizations an initiatives to save the bees
Guide to composting at home