February 2012
If you are a member and have anything that you feel is important to chemical free beekeeping, please email it to me. I will post it in this section in a future issue. Thank you. Dennis
Each newsletter brings us closer to the bee season. With the rain we have recieved here in Texas of late, things are looking good for spring. This month in the South we should be going to classes, reading books and magazines and finishing up on our equipment. Start putting together a plan for the year. Check with your neighbor beekeepers and see if they need help getting ready. Fellowship is one of the best activities we can do. It is always fun to sit around with other beekeepers and talk bees. We all have bees in common.
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The following article was sent in by member "Costa Kouzounis"
Honey Bees and Agricultural Sprays
Eric C. Mussen, Extension Apiculturist, UC Davis
Growers of conventional and organic crops are faced with choices concerning controlling invertebrate pests and crop diseases in their fields and orchards. Often the chemicals of choice are applied to the crops in aqueous sprays, delivered by ground rigs or by air. Although essential for crop protection, those applications can be detrimental to honey bees. The following information pertains to those problems.
Honey bees normally forage during daylight hours, when the temperature reaches or exceeds 550 Fahrenheit. Rain, heavy dew, or wind velocities of 12 miles per hour or higher tend to keep bees in the hive. In order to fly, honey bees have to maintain a body temperature above 800F. Although honey bees create heat in their bodies, when air temperatures drop below 540F they cannot retain enough warmth to fly. At 500F, a honey bee eventually will fall into a cold comatose condition and die. When temperatures are at or near the threshold for flight, bees that come into contact with agricultural sprays will not be able to fly due to the weight of spray droplets on their wings. If they fall to the ground, in the shade, they are likely to die of chilling.
Under warmer conditions, wetted bees can wait until their wings dry out in order to fly again. However, recovery depends upon the toxicity of the spray to the bees, as well. Insecticides are most toxic to honey bees. The bees can come into contact with insecticides by flying through the application, having the spray drift onto the hives, or by visiting contaminated blooms while the residue remains toxic. Previous studies suggest that the toxicity of most insecticides to honey bees decreases by 50% if the spray has an opportunity to dry prior to contact by the bees. However, each insecticide has an intrinsic period of time when the dried residue remains toxic to honey bees in the field, varying from an hour to a week or more.* Obviously, honey bees should not encounter such residues within the field or orchard for which the grower has rented the bees. However, the fact that honey bees forage up to four miles away from their hive means that they cover a potential foraging area of 50 square miles of potentially toxic areas.
Honey bee poisoning by herbicides and fungicides is not common. However, in some cases in which the adult bees suffer no direct consequences of contacting fungicides, residues of the chemicals can be returned to the colony as field-contaminated pollen or as pollen contaminated by the hairs of bees that flew through the sprays or walked on contaminated blossoms. Incorporated into the larval food, some formulations of captan have killed honey bee larvae or led to malformed pupae and emerging adult bees. The fact that all formulations of captan do not appear to be equally toxic suggests that it may be the “inactive ingredients” and not the parent compound that causes the toxicity. Contamination of pollen by Rovral® also causes death of pupae during the molt to adult bees.
Obviously, when applying this information in the field, growers should attempt to limit fungicide contamination of pollen or pollen collecting bees. In the case of almonds, on a good foraging day the pollen collectors have removed nearly all of the pollen from the field by mid-afternoon. At this time of day, examination of blossoms reveals no exposed pollen grains. Examination of foraging bees reveals very tiny pollen loads and bees tending to flit from blossom to blossom very quickly. At this time, the sprays should not damage the bees. Also, pollen grains do not germinate well on wet stigmatal surfaces, so not spraying when fresh pollen is being deposited on the blossoms is wise.
The following article was sent in by member "Tracey LaForge".
The fossil record tells us honeybees have been around for 150 million years or more. No one knows when we discovered the treasure hidden in their hives, but paintings of beekeepers lining the walls of a cave in Spain prove that we have been practicing the art of beekeeping for at least 7,000 years. Honey is versatile. It has been prized as a sweetener, as medicine, as an offering for the gods, as currency, and as a symbol of love. In Greek mythology, for example, Cupid dips his arrows in honey before aiming them at our hearts.
Honey also shows up in scripture. The Qur’an describes rivers of honey in paradise, and the Old Testament speaks of the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. This golden elixir also appears in the Veda. (The Sanskrit word for honey is madhu.)
According to ayurveda, honey is the nectar of life. Because it is created from the essence of a flower’s sex organs, it has a natural affinity with reproductive tissue. It can also heal sore throats, colds, coughs, ulcers, burns, and wounds. And when ingested with a healing herb (like ashwagandha), honey travels to the deepest tissues, transporting the chemical properties and the subtle energies of medicine to the cellular level.
Slow Poison
Ayurveda says that raw honey is medicine, but cooked honey is a slow poison. Why? In its natural form, honey is rich in minerals, vitamins, enzymes, amino acids, and carbohydrates. But heat strips honey of most of its nutritional value and transforms the honey molecules into a non-homogenized glue that adheres to mucous membranes and clogs subtle energy channels. Cooked honey creates cellular toxicity and may lead to immunological dysfunction. It can also clog the arteries and lead to atherosclerosis (thickening of the arteries), hampering blood flow to the vital organs. So as a general rule, honey should never be cooked, and nothing should be cooked with honey. Instead, add raw honey to yogurt, warm tea, or spread it on bread or toast.
These days, most honey sold commercially has been heated and should be avoided. Look for the words “raw” or “unpasteurized” on honey at a health-food store or online at places like the Ayurvedic Institute. But the purest form of honey is local and raw because it helps prevent (or calm) seasonal allergies and is full of life-giving prana. As summer approaches, check your local farmers’ market, and if you live in the country, keep an eye out for roadside honey stands.
Honey, Help Me!
Ayurvedic texts are full of honey-based remedies for a wide range of ailments.
For obesity, high blood pressure, and/or high cholesterol, drink a cup of hot water with a teaspoon of honey and 5 to 10 drops of apple cider vinegar early in the morning daily. (Ayurvedic texts say honey scrapes fat and cholesterol from the body’s tissues.)