[susan rudnicki]

Here is what Josip mailed back to me about this observation—

Hello Susan,

Situation that you described is normal in present season of bee swarming. Why? Because for many bee colonies, swarming in Sothern California (since May to August approximately) in this time of year (it is similar in the other parts of the World with different clime) swarms are not primary or if new colony of this year swarms could be primary swarm with several queens… Secondary or other swarms always have several queens with mother queen or in most cases all queen are virgins.
When swarm occur, several queens go with the bees too. Bee worker protect favored queen before in mother hive and in time of swarming with hope that their chosen queen will won… Also queens constantly look for opportunity in mother hive, or later in time of swarming, or in new home to attack other queens… Because bee workers sometimes are not able to protect favored queen very well in box, or in swarming flight, or in new home, queens make use of time to ride of others… Also after while beekeeper can notice that some bees gathered surrounding death queen which lost life in war with another smarter and stronger queen.

Which queen will stay or not with the bees depend on many factor, but many times situation could be like without of opportunity for queens to ride of others before, or in swarming flight because of each group of bee workers carefully protect lovely queen… In that situation if you have opportunity to put swarm with many queens in the box, next day or later you can have a situation that swarm is out and often is noticeable that that swarm formed several small swarms in short distance of each other. After while they united in one cluster again with several well protected queens by bee workers…
If you put that swarm in the box again with many queens (many beekeepers are not recognize swarm with several queens…) for while in the box every queen has own followers of bees from same swarm group but every queen look to survive riding of other queen. Usually it is happened in the box (hive) in day or two… All dependent on opportunity…
Sometime some queen in the war for surviving get hurt badly that they with the follower of the bee worker swarmed out, but rescuers found after while that colony is queen-less because queen die after day or too of injury… Or sometimes, next day or day after, small number of the bees with the lovely queen (because bee workers protected lovely queen very well) swarmed out from new home looking for another new home…. Why? Because bees could not found a way witch queen to keep or not to protect…
So really in many cases of rescue operation, rescue group received a call that swarm is too small…, size of orange or small grapefruit. That swarm was part of the original swarm with several queens that split after while because bee workers could not found common language to have one queen with larger number of bee worker in a colony…

(You know it is like politics or a family that split on ex wife and ex husband and kids that suffered a lot… Or sometimes we can read about the worse scenario in the World that in process of splitting because of some kind conflict or… many live(s) been gone…

So in the bees world you have some kind politics or obstinate bee workers… as well as people – opinionated…

I hope that will help you to have better picture what happened in your bee yard.

Thanks.
JB

[susan rudnicki]

Ray took these

[susan rudnicki]

Ray took these

[susan rudnicki]

Mr Morgan—this is a excerpt of a letter I sent to the head of Armstrong Garden Centers, a outfit putting soil drenches on their flowering plants and trees prior to shipping from the growers. Neonics can be very persistent in the tissues of treated plants—we are talking years.

———————————–
…..research information is flawed if it is failing to explain that systemics (soil drenches of imidicloprid and the like) do not transfer the active ingredient to the pollen, nectar, and water exudate that often is collected by foraging bees from plants as a source of water for use in the hive.
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has researched and documented this angle of neonicotinoid usage and the group has no ax to grind for profit motives. Please read this file—-
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CFQQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.step-project.net%2Ffiles%2FDOWNLOAD2%2FAre-Neonicotinoids-Killing-Bees_Xerces-Society1.pdf&ei=veT6UpD6M8XBqAG28ICgDA&usg=AFQjCNHJ_r7Z2MCyOaia6cxMF5WI_l56jw&sig2=qP3Ddhuh_KmTWuHjfVMLeA&bvm=bv.61190604,d.aWM

Also, below is some very troubling late research to add to your knowledge base. It goes to the heart of the inadequacies and scientific modeling that have been exploited by chemical companies and agriculture to insist there is little to worry about. In fact, the general formula that would test ONLY the adult bee response, not that of the brood, sounds very much like the same fatal flaws of toxicological research that fails to address the ill effects of hormone mimickers, fire retardants, plastics, coatings, paints and a plethora of other background chemicals encountered by children and their developing immune, neurological, and hormone systems.

This ezine is also available online at http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2014.01.28.08.18.archive.html

CATCH THE BUZZ

Miticides, Ag Chems and Inert Ingredients A Deadly Mix In A Beehive.

Alan Harman

Disturbing new research finds four pesticides commonly used to kill mites, insects and fungi – fluvalinate, coumaphos, chlorothalonil and chlorpyrifos – are also killing honey bee larvae within their hives.

A team from Penn State and University of Florida also found that N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) – an inert, or inactive, chemical commonly used as a pesticide additive — is highly toxic to honey bee larvae.

“We found that four of the pesticides most commonly found in beehives kill bee larvae,” says Penn State’s Jim Frazier. “We also found that the negative effects of these pesticides are sometimes greater when the pesticides occur in combinations within the hive.

“Since pesticide safety is judged almost entirely on adult honey bee sensitivity to individual pesticides and also does not consider mixtures of pesticides, the risk assessment process that the Environmental Protection Agency uses should be changed.”

The research was funded by the National Honey Board, the U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture-Agriculture and Food Research Initiative-Coordinated Agricultural Projects and the Foundational Award programs. Frazier says the team’s previous research demonstrated that forager bees bring back to the hive an average of six different pesticides on the pollen they collect. Nurse bees use this pollen to make beebread, which they then feed to honey bee larvae.

To examine the effects of four common pesticides – fluvalinate, coumaphos, chlorothalonil and chlorpyrifos – on bee larvae, the researchers reared honey bee larvae in their laboratory. They then applied the pesticides alone and in all combinations to the beebread to determine whether these insecticides and fungicides act alone or in concert to create a toxic environment for honey bee growth and development.

The researchers also investigated the effects of NMP on honey bee larvae by adding seven concentrations of the chemical to a pollen-derived, royal jelly diet. NMP is used to dissolve pesticides into formulations that then allow the active ingredients to spread and penetrate the plant or animal surfaces onto which they are applied.

The team fed their treated diet, containing various types and concentrations of chemicals, to the laboratory-raised bee larvae.

“We found that mixtures of pesticides can have greater consequences for larval toxicity than one would expect from individual pesticides,” Frazier says.

Among the four pesticides, honey bee larvae were most sensitive to chlorothalonil. They also were negatively affected by a mixture of chlorothalonil with fluvalinate. In addition, the larvae were sensitive to the combination of chlorothalonil with the miticide coumaphos.

In contrast, the addition of coumaphos significantly reduced the toxicity of the fluvalinate and chlorothalonil mixture.

Penn State professor of entomology Chris Mullin says the pesticides may directly poison honey bee larvae or they may indirectly kill them by disrupting the beneficial fungi that are essential for nurse bees to process pollen into beebread.

“Chronic exposure to pesticides during the early life stage of honey bees may contribute to their inadequate nutrition or direct poisoning with a resulting impact on their survival and development,” he says.

The researchers note that fluvalinate and coumaphos are commonly used by beekeepers in their hives to control Varroa mites, and are found to persist within beehives for about five years if not removed by beekeepers.

Chlorothalonil is a broad-spectrum agricultural fungicide that is often applied to crops in bloom when honey bees are present for pollination because it is currently deemed safe to bees. Chlorpyrifos is a widely used organophosphate in crop management.

“Our findings suggest that the common pesticides chlorothalonil, fluvalinate, coumaphos and chlorpyrifos, individually or in mixtures, have statistically significant impacts on honey bee larval survivorship,” Mullin says.

“This is the first study to report serious toxic effects on developing honey bee larvae of dietary pesticides at concentrations that currently occur in hives.”

The team also found that increasing amounts of NMP corresponded to increased larval mortality, even at the lowest concentration tested.

“There is a growing body of research that has reported a wide range of adverse effects of inactive ingredients to human health, including enhancing pesticide toxicities across the nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory and hormone systems,” Mullin says.

“The bulk of synthetic organic chemicals used and released into U.S. environments are formulation ingredients like NMP, which are generally recognized as safe. They have no mandated limits on their use and their residues remain unmonitored.

“Multi-billion pounds of these inactive ingredients overwhelm the total chemical burden from the active pesticide, drug and personal-care ingredients with which they are formulated. Among these co-formulants are surfactants and solvents of known high toxicity to fish, amphibians, honey bees and other non-target organisms. While we have found that NMP contributes to honey bee larvae mortality, the overall role of these inactive ingredients in pollinator decline remains to be determined.”

——————————————–

The entire concept of the “generally recognized as safe” is a grab-bag of grandfathered in give aways to the chemical companies by our United States Congress. There is a dark and corrupt history to that issue that I won’t go into here, as it is very involved, but it amounts to the chemical industry not having to PROVE their products cause no harm BEFORE introduction, but the burden of the proof lies with injured parties later down the road having to prove they have been harmed—a much more difficult and expensive proposition.

As you may guess, your letter does not bring me much comfort. This sentence—“supply home gardeners with the products needed to be successful.” —-begs the observation— in a pursuit that is inextricably tied to the abundance, diversity, and intricacy of Nature—the notion of “successful” being a perfect, blemish free, controlled Nature is inherently hypocritical. So many organisms—birds, reptiles, mammals, other arthropods— rely on the very “bugs” that “success” seeks to annihilate and commerce is so avid to encourage the public to want such a situation. I had to laugh ruefully at the little mechanical butterfly toy, going in circles ’round a potted plant at the checkout counter in the Torrance store. That is just the sort of ‘acceptable’ insect that we may be left with if we keep on the trajectory we have been treading the last few decades.

I hope you pass this information on to the rest of the group. If you are only a businessman, you may not be able to process the biological significance of what I am writing you. These issues are technically arcane but the fact remains, only the blind insist we are not messing with fundamental processes we barely understand.

Sincerely, Susan Rudnicki, beekeeper and gardener, Manhattan Beach CA

[susan rudnicki]

These are gone

[susan rudnicki]

Yes, Please call Ruth Askren at BeeCapture 323-580-1492 or Tyson Kaiser at SweetBee, 323-892-4170. Be aware—there are a LOT of sheister operations out there, claiming and charging, for “humane removal” They cut out the wax combs and dump them in a trash bag, suck up the bees with a vacuum, and depart. This is a specialty service, not widely done and certainly not regulated.

[susan rudnicki]

Maggie and all others seeking help with these technical issues—please understand, beekeeping is not free of expense. Your boss should post directly that he is prepared to pay a “exerienced beekeeper local to Encino” for their expertise and time and fuel to address problems. This forum is being inundated with first time posters having technical issues or aggression issues and wanting help, but the implication is someone else should do this for free. Those of us having done mentoring the longest are getting burned out with responding to these pleas and can not cover them all, either with written responses or site visits.
Sorry if this is a shock, but this message needs to be articulated as there seems to be a misunderstanding in the club that there are no expenses for teaching/learning/technical problem assessment. Susan Rudnicki

[susan rudnicki]

I think you need help from a more experienced mentor, on site. Splitting the hive may help, by forcing them to re-queen themselves. But you need to have some understanding of how to do splits and what to do if it does not tame their demeanor.
You do not mention how often you do inspections of the brood nest and when you take off honey. Are these bees on foundationless frames and have the frames been managed well to keep them free and parallel?
The drone strains the queen stores in her body can be quite different at different times, reflecting the various drones the queen originally mated with. There are experienced beeks in our club who will take hot hives, re-queen them, and split them. Your hive may have outstripped your capabilities and you may be better off re-homing them to a apiary keeper.

[susan rudnicki]

Another one came later in the afternoon. No one calling—I am taking them to Josip

[susan rudnicki]

Ray is taking these

[susan rudnicki]

Josip took this one and another that came in since no club members called

[susan rudnicki]

These are all adopted

[susan rudnicki]

George Langworthy is taking these

[susan rudnicki]

Ray took these, but more are not listed for Tues

[susan rudnicki]

Hi, you might contact Ruth at Bee Capture 323-580-1492

[Author]

Posts