| How we are working to
diversify our Honeybees and make them stronger and healthier
without the use of chemicals. |
|
| Background |
Read our 2007 Plan |
|
20th February 2006 |
| Our way of looking at and
working with bees changed dramatically four years ago when
about 40 of our beehives collapsed a month after we had
harvested our early season honey; Mary and I were in a state
of shock! We spoke to all our Beekeeper friends and about
the best they could tell us was the mites (V. jacobsoni),
that we had been treating for, had become immune to the
treatments. The conventional thinking had been to treat the
mites with chemicals and when the chemicals didn’t work
anymore then we should switch to the newest chemical which
the mites still had not yet become immune to. Mary and I had
worried a lot about treating our bees with chemical
medications and this disaster was the last straw- the straw
that broke our cameľs back. |
| We immediately began to look
around to see what other beekeepers were doing to fight the
mites that didn’t involve chemicals! Soon we discovered a
Honey Bee project that was being run at the USDA , ARS Honey
Bee Breeding, Genetic, Physiology Research Laboratory in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana that was actually working with
Russian Queen Honey Bees imported from Russia. The purpose
of the project was to determine if the Russian version of
the Honey Bee species (Apis mellifera) would be more
resistant to the mite since: |
Apis mellifera is not native
to the Primorsky Territory on Russia's Pacific coast, but
was first moved there in the last century. At that time,
pioneers from western Russia took advantage of the
completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway and moved bees from
European western Russia to the Primorsky Territory in Asian
far-eastern Russia. This far-eastern area of Russia is
within the natural range of Apis cerana, the original host
of Varroa jacobsoni. Thus A. mellifera was brought into the
likely range of V. jacobsoni even before the parasite was
scientifically described in 1904. This probable long
association of V. jacobsoni and A. mellifera in the region
has engendered one of the best opportunities in the world
for A. mellifera to develop genetic resistance to V.
jacobsoni....
(Source:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=2744)
When Mary and I discovered the American Honey Producers
Association was meeting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for their
34th Annual Convention (January, 2003) and that they were
going to highlight the Russian Honey Bee and also take a
field trip to the USDA , ARS Honey Bee lab we made travel
arrangements and booked our flight.! |
| As expected the AHPA
convention was great and we got a chance to meet the
research personnel from the lab and even got a chance to
handle the Russian Honeybees while at the USDA , ARS Honey
Bee lab. In addition we met some of the beekeeping
cooperators, the commercial beekeepers from Iowa,
Mississippi, Louisiana who participated in the field trials
of the Russian Honey Bee, and we were able to have extended
discussions with them about their experiences with the
Russian Honey Bee. (see cooperators at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Business/docs.htm?docid=4083) |
| The following Spring we began
a program of moving our Honey Bee stock over to Russian
Honey Bees. Our first task was taking a trip to Virginia to
pick up Russian baby bee hives (also knows as Nuc’s ) from a
beekeeper name Bob Brockman who was recommended by the
people from the Baton Rouge bee lab. Bob had been using
Russian bees for a number of years and he over wintered his
bees from upstate New York in Virginia. Later in the Spring
we received in the mail Russian Queens from Bob Brockman and
Hubert Tubbs at Tubbs Apiaries in Mize, Mississippi and
introduced these queens into our bee yards. |
| In 2004 we continued our
introduction of Russian Queens from Bob Brockman and also
Ray Ravis from North Carolina. In addition Ed flew out to
Ohio to take a Queen rearing course at Ohio State University
with Sue Cobey. (please see Sue’s program at:
http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/news/susancobey.html) |
| In 2005 we began our third
year of introducing Russian Queens from Ray Ravis. In
addition we began our own Honey Bee Queen rearing program
and we successfully produced (20) Russian Queens. |
| In 2006 we will be
introducing Russian Queens from Bob Brockman and Ray Ravis.
In addition we will be bringing in a Russian Breeder queen
from Glen’s Apiaries and intend to produce (100) Russian
Queens. (please see Glenn Apiaires at:
http://members.aol.com/queenb95/) Finally we are on a
waiting list for Russian Honey Bee Winter Nuc’s from Kirk
Webster at Champlain Valley Bees & Queens in Middlebury,
Vermont; hopefully we will be making the trip to Middlebury,
Vermont. We think Kirk’s bees will be a real positive
influence for our Honey Bees. |
This year will be testing all
our Honey Bees for hygienic propensity and activity so we
will have a better idea on which hives can really take care
of themselves against diseases. Since we began migrating our
Honey Bee yards to Russian Honey Bees in 2003 we have not
used the following chemical medications: Apistan, CheckMite
and Terramyicin.
Our Honey Bees have been getting stronger since 2003 and we
hope this year’s activities will only make our bees even
stronger!! |
|
Read our 2007 Plan |
| Mary & Ed Kosenski |
