I missed the National Meetings last year due to some out-patient surgery.
I also retired from full-time work at the University. I, however, am not
dead, as rumor has it.
I am looking forward to seeing friends at the Am Honey Producers Meeting in
San Diego. Unfortunately, I will not be at ABF or ABRC in Hershey,
which are being held on the exact same days.
I am sending Colin Henderson to represent us at ABF and to present at
ABRC. Say hello to him, introduce yourselves, if you've not meet him before.
Colin is presenting two talks and a poster at ABRC, I'm on the program at
AHPA, presenting similar information.
We will be presenting the results of two years of wide area survey work
concerning exposure levels to clothianidin to honey bees in the corn belt
(Illinois, Indiana, and Nebraska) and in the canola seed production areas near
Lethbridge, Canada.
We will also be introducing the acoustic scanner that we are currently
Beta testing for use in detecting honey bee pests and diseases, as well as our
progress in terms of being able to provide sensors and electronic
monitoring systems for bee colonies.
Important technological advances in the last 12 months have made these
systems practical and MUCH more affordable. We've been doing this type of
work since 1995; but only in the last few months has the enabling technology
become available that dramatically reduces price while expanding capability.
Finally, we'll also show what our new, portable lasers for mapping bees
across fields with in (centimeter) accuracy look like. I'm like a kid in a
candy store, when it comes to having two LIDAR units that can scan fields
for bees, locate them with that level of accuracy. This is the tool we
needed to make use of bees to find landmines and UXO viable. Its also got
great potential for pollination research.
FYI, I still work 1/3 time at the University, running a state-wide program
related to energy research and education. Our company in the last few
years has developed some new products and established itself as a place to go
to for contract GLP level research. And, as I mentiioned above, we're at a
turning point in terms of our ability to provide the technologies that
we've been working on for the military for the past 10 years. Much of that we
are working on at the moment is making these technologies available to
beekeepers.
We're also extending our work to S. America, and looking forward to new
collaborations in New Zealand and Australia.
So, I'm retired - sort of. But I'm not dead - yet. Best wishes for the
Holiday to all on Bee-L
Jerry
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