For a while I had my blog setup to take on users. Why, I am not sure since everything on the blog is available to the public. I am no longer doing so as I am getting to many users from the former Soviet Bloc countries registering with my site in a spam like format.
The only feature on my site that requires registration is the forum. I know it may be difficult to decipher that CAPTCHA code to register but it is the only way I can weed out fake users. If you are having difficulty with it please send me a note and I will personally register your name and password according to your needs. You can always later change the password. That’s it.
Jesse Bellavance
Beekeeping has turned into an apothecary’s dilemma. With all of the new issues effecting our honeybees one has to wonder what course of action to take in regards to protecting our bees. I wrote earlier that I am trying to distance myself from the use of miticides and other chemicals as I believe it destroys the long term survivability of our honeybees.
What options are on the table? First I would look to the field of genetics to help come up with a solution. With our ability to rapidly advance the process of evolution through planned selection of traits, I believe we can develop a better bee. Maybe not one that can rip the car door off of a burning wreck to rescue an infant but less dramatically be able to survive two or three seasons when invaded by a host of mites.
Gross!
I know some people may disdain the use of genetics when dabbling with the public’s food supply but I think a real absence of honeybees would be very detrimental to our nations food security. And with a rapid loss of food we can expect much more upheaval to follow. Civil war, mass starvation, roving gangs of angry motorcycle riders, and potato flavored ice cream. Maybe we would not have a Mayan 2012 apocalyptic disaster but not having a ready supply of fresh fruits and vegetables would make food shopping more expensive and our bodies less healthy. Hell we are fat asses now. Think what a steady diet of starches will do. We will all become like those hovering blobs in the movie Wall-E. I digress.
There are several scientists out their who are on the for front of developing honey bees that are not only resistant to the mites but also diseases such as American Foul Brood. Dr. Marla Spivak, for one, has helped develop the Minnesota Hygienic Italians. These honeybees are bred to exhibit a high degree of hygienic behavior that will prevent the development and spread of AFB and chalk-brood. This behavioral trait is comprised of two behaviors. The uncapping of diseased cells and then their removal of the pathogen found within the pupae, thereby eliminating the life cycle of the disease. These bees also exhibit a Varroa Specific Hygiene that targets the Varroa mite.
The USDA has also worked on producing a stronger honeybee with their breeding of honeybees Queens imported from the Primorsky Territory on Russia’s Pacific coast. The behavior associated with mite resistance is their ability to detect and remove mite-infested brood from a colony. When compared to existing domestic stock, the Russian honeybees showed much more hygienic behavior in association with the Varroa mite. Currently the USDA is making these queens available to commercial queen breeders around the country.
For the long term, I think this is our best bet for resuscitating apiculture in the United States and possibly around the world. The reliance on chemicals is only a band aide that more or less hides the problem. It may work for beekeepers in the short run but every time you put an Apistan strip in your hive you are making the mites stronger as they quickly adapt to the chemicals afflicting them. I am sure it is possible that even if the perfect bee was developed, which could throw mites off itself with ease, eventually a new mite would evolve to counter this trait. However in my very unprofessional layman’s opinion I think it would take a lot longer. And while that mite evolves the honeybees will be evolving right along with it.
Chemicals don’t show that kind of adaptability. Usually we end up developing another band-aid, further weakening our honeybees, or begin increasing the amount of chemical concentration to keep pace with the problem.
Hopefully the folks in the USDA with the lab coats and pocket protectors will save us.
JPB
Having my own daughter, I have become very much the worry wart that I used to make fun of when watching other parents. In my youth of 28 years ago, I used to live the life of high adventure on my parents small 11 acre parcel in New Jersey. We had horses, goats, cats, dogs, fish, ticks, hermit crabs, lawn tractor, barn rafters, and metal swing sets with ropes. All of the necessary elements for a boy to grow into a man or reach an early demise from an accidental pony kick to the abdomen.
In today’s safety conscience world of bicycle helmets and life jackets it is no wonder the earth’s population is booming into a Malthusian catastrophe from all of the added children that should have been taken out by their tire swing. If my father had let me do today what I did then he would have been dragged off to prison for child endangerment. Bicycle helmets? Phffffffft! All we had were training wheels and maybe an orange flag swinging from our rear bike axle. I fondly remember at the age of 8 walking freely through our woods, exploring foundations of old houses on our property, climbing up into the barn’s rafters over the horse stalls, and riding my bike miles down the road to buy a soda. Those were the sepia toned days of my imagination.
Then came the bane to gym teachers around the world. The Atari 2600. Instead of roaming the wilds of the outdoors or playing sports, children could now sit on their ass all day and grow fat playing Pong while chugging down carbonated high fructose corn syrup. What is this world coming to?
The icing on the cake was when I read that children under the age of one should not ingest honey as recommended by the CDC. HONEY? Your kidding? Apparently there is a slight risk of infants developing infant botulism. This life
The little bastards.
threatening disease is caused by the bacterium known as Clostridium botulinum. Up until the age of 6 months, infants are at a greater risk of developing this disease as their intestinal tract has not built up the ability to safely move the spores through the body. Symptoms of the illness include:
Fortunately it is very treatable and only about 100 cases occur each year. Apparently water, dirt, dust, and contaminated honey are the likely sources of this bacterium.
After doing a little Google research I came across a few articles that discuss why honey is a real risk. First, it is true that honey will inhibit the growth of bacteria and spores. Spores need to have just the right environmental variables for them to germinate and spread. In honey the variables are not all there. In the adult human body the high acidity and natural bacterial flora also prevent these spores from activating. However in an infant human body the acidity levels are low enough in combination with a lack of natural bacteria which adults have, allowing the spores to germinate and cause illness.
So as much as I like to tout the benefits of honey I would have to say I would follow the conservative course of action and just wait until my child was at least 2 before I started putting honey on her toast. So let me get back to heli-parenting around my daughter she is about to put her hands in the toilet water.
Ever press all the wrong buttons in just the right order. Well that is what I did today resulting in a completely fouled up web blog. Trying to rebuild it was folly so I decided I would just redo it. In Autumn colors none-the-less. I have also changed the name of the blog and website from www.weekendbeekeeper.com to www.theweekendbeekeeper.com. Notice the word “THE” in front. Either way if you connect again to the older site you will be immedietly directed to the new one automatically. For the comments that were on the board, they are lost. I will have the forum up and running this weekend. Sorry.
jpbellavance
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