Honey Bees

The honeybee problem has been going on in the US for a few years now. I have friends who were bee-keepers and when the mites came, they just gave up. Crops weren't being pollinated, gardeners lost their best friends, we all know the problems.

A scientist to the rescue! A woman started about 20 years ago trying to artificially inseminate honeybees. At the time, everyone smiled condescendingly about how they do a good job on their own.

Well, now people from all over the world (one of the current students is head of New Zealand's natural resources) are coming to learn from her (she currently is working at Ohio State University) how to do this. She has developed a line of bees that are very resistant to both forms of mite, and is working on a new line that also will be able to thwart the newest problem, the beetles that lay eggs in their hives.

Anyway, if this effort is successful, hopefully we will have wild honeybees again! Or at least some of my friends will be able to get back into the honey business!

It isn't going to happen fast, she only has sessions twice a year, with a maximum of 8 students per session... but if international people can come and learn, and go home and train others... it can spread a lot faster.

Fascinating lupi and what good news
We're all missing our bees!! :(
I see very few now - lots of bumblies though, which is good

My father used to keep bees, but that was before the days of veroa etc. Used to have great fun helping with the honey extraction - and the eating lol! Oh for a piece of honeycombmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
;)

That is great info, thank you.
I hadn't seen many honey bees here either until I planted Brugs and Datura. Now they come every evening, just wating for the flowers to open. Some mornings the buzz gets so loud it's like standing in a hive.

I have a neighbor that has hives and somehow treats the mites...She has several hives here at my place and if you want to see honeybees...come when the poppies are in full bloom..They choose them over anything else...Really enjoy watching them....

The sex of a bee is hard to see
But he can tell, and so can she.
The queen is quite a busy soul
She has no time for birth control.
And that is why, in times like these,
There are so many sons of bees.

CoCo: I was really taking all what you said in. Until that last line. How witty. Cute.LOL..

Thanks Lupi. DH took a course at U of MD some years ago on bee-keeping. We have honeybees aplenty - not bumblee - in our gardens; just amazed due to the mite problems. We are actually looking into hives for this spring. There's a very active group here in Md and will keep you posted!

I have a good number of bumblebees and yellow-jackets, I have only seen one honeybee this year :( Of course with our severe winter, almost all the hives died anyway.

Dea, go for it!!!!!!

Bluepoppy, that is so good to hear about your neighbor who is successfully treating the mite problem. The only people that I know who are still keeping bees just order new queens every year, rather than try to maintain the hives year-round. They are orchardists, so need them for their crops, but get enough honey to sell (and honeycomb :)

Phil, I didn't know that UK was also hit with the veroa and tracheal mite problems. I had only heard about the US problem. If you have any connections with anyone doing honeybee research, let them know about this program. I can try to find out more specifics if needed.

Lots of hives are sitting in fields around this area. I'm not acquainted with beekeepers lately, but will try to remember to look up the couple I knew who used to sell their honey at our farmer's market during the summer and fall months. I do see a lot of honeybees in my pastures and even in Granddarling's city gardens in San Antonio. Last week, they were nectaring on some phlox, obedient plant and ruellia I planted there.

Thanks lupine, I know a couple of beekeepers, but noone involved in research at the moment. One of the people I dormouse with used to work in that field, but not any longer

I'll mention it when I find the right person :)

My oldest son is an entomologist and works with USDA in Baton Rouge, LA. They were working with the killer bees, but have decided it is more important now to try to control the mites. The killer bees do not seem to be spreading to the north as fast as first thought.

His lab is working with Russian bees, trying to find some that are more or less immune to the mites. Not very good success yet tho.

I must tell you about my sweet corn. Last year the ears did not fill out, very disappointing. The tassels were being broken down by birds. The same thing started happening this summer. So the fellow who works for me and I constructed a framework over the top of the corn patch well that is the first 3 varieties (3 short rows each), and covered withbird netting. We hung mylar strips down sides to further deter the birds. Birds did not seem to go in and what was very surprising, the bees loved it and sounds like a swarm working there, pollenizing my ears of corn. Donna

Donna, that is a great success story.

There are several commercial beekeepers in our area. On the property next door to me are about 100 hives which I love to see. They ship them to California in the winter, spring in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and later spring they are around here. He has a mite problem that he is treating all the time and he has heard of the artificial insemination program and is very interested in learning more as more data comes available.

I get the benefit of the bees when they are home which is late spring till late fall. Yippeeee!!!!

Lupi, what is the name of the woman?

Is there any information online?

I LOVE bees of all types, and had planned to get a lot of bee plants going this usmmer so that I can buy some bumbles bees and orchard bees this coming winter, and there will be sources for the bees.

(Things hove gotten a little behind schedule), but I am interested in any information available.

Thanks be to God we still have bees around - they love crape myrtle and ceniza, for starters, Many times when I am taking fotos around the area they are present.

And the Ft Worth zoo has them everywhere - they are always buzzing around the trash containers, they smell the thrown away cups of soda pop.