January’s Meeting: Bee Sting Allergy

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Our first meeting of the New Year featured an informative and fact filled presentation by Dr. Mark Anthony Powers on how to evaluate the seriousness of a bee sting and how to ascertain the most suitable treatment. Dr. Powers is Associate Professor Emeritus of Medicine Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at Duke University and he is a NC Certified Journeyman Beekeeper. His presentation is based of a recent article published in the December 2018 issue of the American Bee Journal, Vol. 158 No.12 pp. 1327-1331. A PDF of Dr. Powers presentation entitled Bee Sting Allergy What You Need to Know is available for download HERE .

Protecting Beehives During Hurricanes & Spray for Mosquito

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Dr. David Tarpy, NCSU, Professor and Extension Specialist (Apiculture) has provided this article Protective Measures of Beehives During Hurricanes and makes the following recommendations:

*Strap down the lid and hive components if they’re not propolized.
*Reduce hive wind profile by removing unnecessary boxes (feeders, for example).
*Hives should be at ground level or on sturdy stands. Be sure solid bottom boards are tilted to let rain out.
*Are your hives in danger of limbs or trees falling on them? Consider relocating hives.
*Move hives from low-lying areas if there’s a flooding danger; bees will drown.
*Register your hives at DriftWatch so you’ll be notified if spraying for mosquitos commences.

Thanks are due to Debbie Roos, Agricultural Extension Agent
Chatham County Center for providing the above links and to Jason Williams,
Pesticide Operations Specialist, NCDA&CS – SPCAP for the following link to “Bee” Kind if You Spray for Mosquitoes” authored by Dr. Michael Waldvogel, Extension Specialist (Household & Structural Entomology), Entomology & Plant Pathology – NC State University.

Instructional Beekeeping Videos

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The Honey Bee Research Center at The University of Guelph located in Ontario, Canada produced 32 How-To Videos during 2016. They are excellent. You may watch these videos on their website HERE or select them from Youtube HERE. ENJOY!

The Honey Bee Research Center maintains populations of a hybrid strain of honey bees known as Buckfast bees. This is a man-made bee race and is a cross of many strains of bees, developed by Karl Kehrle, also known as Brother Adam, who was in charge of beekeeping from 1919 to about 1995 at Buckfast Abbey in Devon in the United Kingdom, where the bees are still bred today. Notes about the different types of Honey Bees, including Buckfast, are discussed in Beekeeping Notes 1.12 from NC State.

New OSU Bee Lab Varroa Mite Webinar

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The Bee Lab at The Ohio State University has made available a Webinar entitled “Mite Check: Using Beekeeper Citizen Science to Transmit Bee Health Information, Not Varroa destructor” by Becky Masterman, University of Minnesota Bee Lab, Bee Squad Associate Director. A PDF handout is also available for download here.

On the above webpage under “UMN Bee Lab” find the following:
  Pest Manual PDF, UMN
  Varroa mite test kit, UMN
   Powdered Sugar Roll instruction sheet, UMN 
And links to Honey Bee Health Coalition and Varroa management links, OSU Bee Lab are also posted.

The University of Minnesota’s Department of Entomology Bee Lab has also posted videos with the following video titles:
 Hiving Bees in Rain and Sleet
 Looking into a New Colony
 Looking at a Frame
 Adding a Brood Box
 Adding a Second Super
 Working Bees Without Gloves
 A Few Words about Comb
 On Frames and Foundation
 Finding the Queen

Links to Historical Bee and Beekeeping Literature

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If you have noticed, our newsletter’s editor has an inclination for historical bee and beekeeping literature. If your historic interest parallels that of our editor’s, as it does mine, then I have just the links for you. The last page of January 2017 issue of the Alamance County Beekeepers Newsletter featured a copy of the last page of Volume 1 from the January 1861 issue of The American Bee Journal entitled “Monthly Management.” This page was retrieved from “The Hive and the Honeybee” digital collection that is part of the Everett Franklin Phillips Beekeeping Collection housed in the Mann Library at Cornell University. This site includes access to the complete digital volumes of the The American Bee Journal published between 1861 and 1900. Once a volume is selected from HERE the format for viewing that document can be selected from the menu item entitled “Format” either as an image or text or PDF. Note that text search boxes are available. Currently online there are 48 books and 30 volumes of The American Bee Journal published between 1861 and 1900. 

Another website that may pique your interest can be found HERE at The Charles C. Miller Apicultural Collection at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that currently includes digitized copies of the following 14 beekeeping serial titles HERE:

Western bee-keeper
New England Apiarian
Beekeepers instructor
National Bee Gazette
North American Bee Journal
Queen Breeders Journal
California Apiculturist
White Mountain Apiarist
Pacific States Bee Journal
Western Bee Journal
Pacific Bee Journal
Nebraska Beekeeper
Moon’s Busy Bee

Enjoy some winter reading!