1/13 The First Trial of the Stationary Hive Project: Abiotic Site Effects

The experimental design of the project involves stationary apiaries of 30 colonies
in each of 7 states (see Spivac 2010a,b for more detail). In the spring of 2009 seven
stationary apiaries consisting of ca. 30 colonies per site were initiated from 3- lb packages
obtained from various commercial honey bee producers across the southern and western
U.S. New hive hardware was used in all apiaries. A single assigned manufacturers batch of
Pierco black plastic waxed foundation was used exclusively at all apiaries and a preinstallment
wax sample was collected for pesticide analysis. At all sites colonies were requeened
either at colony establishment or shortly after establishment with Italian race
queens from a similar genetic background obtained from Koehnen & Sons, Inc. All
colonies were fed sugar syrup and pollen substitute (MegaBee®) when necessary and
were managed typical for the region, except there were NO efforts to manage pests,
parasites, or pathogens. Sampling of colony strength, disease incidence, pest and parasite
loads, and select environmental factors was carried out at each apiary through the
duration of the honey bee foraging season.

* all apiaries setup in 2009, except FL, experienced 100% loss.

* We did not find any relationship with any of our measures of pesticide contamination and colony loss rate at the apiary level for either 2009 or 2010

* we found strong support in some preliminary analyses for the role of Varroa, Nosema, and IAPV in colony losses

http://www.beeccdcap.uga.edu

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm