I agree with Peter that the convention in Orlando was very worthwhile.  My only complaint was that there were too many good talks to choose from - all taking place at the same time. Therefore I appreciate Peter taking the time to tell us what he learned, as he attended some talks I missed. 

I would like to make one small correction to Peters post. The award presented to Medhat Nasr is Canada’s national award for beekeeping excellence (not just Alberta), although Medhat does work out of Alberta and they are very lucky to have him.

If I start telling you about all the good talks I saw in Orlando I just might end up with a post longer than one from Allen Dick. But here goes.

I took in a talk given by an attractive blond agent from the U.S.A. Department of Homeland Security about their fight to stop the illegal importation of adulterated honey. In Canada this file is handled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency who do a good job of stopping the flow of phony honey but tend to make a dry subject even drier when talking about it. Not so with the American agent. 

She said she was from Chicago and has eight agents working for her. Two of them had accompanied her to the talk and were stationed at the back of the room. She told us a lot about bad guys and what they could and should and might be thinking and how not knowing what they know might stop them from getting arrested but if she had any proof that they knew what they knew then they would be arrested. As the agent talked she’d periodically throw her hips to one side causing her suit coat to open and flash a police badge fastened to her belt. This didn’t seem to have any effect on the American beekeepers but as a Canadian I can tell you it was - well, you know- interesting. 

I figured what with her being from Chicago and wearing a badge and having two agents in the back of the room, no one would be brave enough to ask any questions, but I was wrong. Either Americans can’t read the signs or they just don’t give a damn because one of them stood up and said something like, “ When the hell are you gonna arrest someone? That’s what I want to know!” The agent gave this fellow a hard look. I’m pretty sure she had a set of handcuffs hidden back in behind her badge somewhere and it looked to me like an arrest was imminent. My health insurance didn’t cover injuries suffered during riots or civil unrest so I thought it prudent to leave the room at that point.

A major theme at the convention was pesticides and their effects on honeybees. There is a lot of research being done in this field and there were too many speakers addressing this topic to list here. To make sure the delegates found something of interest the conference organizers offered a smorgasbord of information with at least four different speakers speaking concurrently.

ABF vice-president Dave Mendes explained that like us, they have avoided discussing pesticides in the past fearing it might hurt the reputation of our products. But now that pesticides might be linked to hive loss we need to debate, discuss and research pesticide use.

I attended a talk by Dr. James Frazier from Penn State University titled: Pesticide Effects on Honey Bees. Dr. Frazier has been working with Dr. Jamie Ellis at the University of Florida, among others, to test beeswax and pollen in beehives for the presence of pesticides. To date they have found about 200 different pesticides in beehives. The two most common are fluvalinate and comophous which are used by beekeepers. However a fungicide sprayed on crops is the third most common pesticide found. 

These chemicals are often present at very low levels - under four parts per billion. To demonstrate what a small amount of chemical that is Dr. Frazier explained it would take a billion sheets of toilet paper to stretch from New York to London - the analogy being that honey bees have the ability to detect/be effected by only one square of that roll. By feeding these miniscule amounts of chemicals found in beehives to bee larva and adult bees in the lab, Dr. Frazier and his collegues are finding that these chemicals do effect a honey bees health and development.

Testing is at an early stage but it is apparent that no one can predict what toxicity these chemicals might have when combined. For example, when fluvalinate and comophous were combined and fed to bees they were less toxic than either chemical on it’s own. Other chemicals combine to become more toxic. Since chemical companies are not required to test how an individual product might effect bees when combined with other chemicals, we really have no way of knowing what sub lethal effects pesticides might be having on bees until much more research is done. 

Both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. and the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) in Canada have recognized pesticide testing by chemical companies may not fully consider how the chemicals will behave in the environment. Both agencies now encourage members of the public to report any unexpected side effects of pesticide use . Pesticide applicators are required by law to report such incidents. You can make such a report to PMRA at:  http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/cps-spc/pest/registrant-titulaire/reporting-declaration/_mandatory-obligatoire/index-eng.php

For many years there have been two national beekeeping organizations in the U.S.A. - the American Beekeeping Federation (ABF) and the American Honey Producer Association (AHPA). Recently these two organizations have cooperated to establish the National Honey Bee Advisory Board (NHBAB). The NHBAB - “Believes that certain pesticides deleteriously impact the health of honey bee colonies, threaten the sustainability of the U.S. beekeeping industry, and significantly imperil our national food supply.” 

The commercial beekeepers who are members of this new board feel hive loss is connected with the increasing use of GM plants that produce their own insecticides, the use of chemicals that prevent pest outbreaks rather than suppress pest outbreaks and the recent practise of mixing several different types of pesticides together in one tank for ease of application. The purpose of the NHBAB is to lobby the EPA to address these concerns. (This info is taken from a flyer the NHBAB handed out at the convention)

I am not familiar with beekeeping politics in the US but I understand the ABF and AHPA are traditional rivals. I was left with the impression that they are cooperating in the fight against pesticides because they feel they have their backs to the wall and are fighting for their survival. 

As mentioned previously on bee-l, there were also speakers at the convention who presented research showing that some of the new pesticides being used are harmless to bees (eg. Dick Rogers). This debate over the role of neo-nics in colony loss has been ongoing for ten years now with no resolution in sight. I came away from this convention feeling the science on this is still not clear and it is an issue all of us should be concerned about. I know it is a subject where emotion can override reason. However I can’t help but applaud those beekeepers who have the courage to speak out against current trends in the pesticide industry based on their personal experience in trying to keep hives alive.

I watched a presentation by Dennis VanEngelsdorp titled: Causes of Mortality in Beekeeping Operations. Mr. VanEnglesdorp and his colleagues have been survey beekeepers in the eastern US for the past several years asking them what percentage of hives they are losing each year and what seems to have caused the loss. I didn’t take notes but if I remember right the beekeepers most often thought their hives died of starvation and only 7% of the hives were considered to be victims of CCD. However the common theme through these various forms of hive loss appeared to be poor and/or short lived queens (this seems to conflict with what Peter heard from Dave Tarpy - a talk I missed). 

Dennis also showed us a graph plotting the introduction of new beekeeping pests into North America over time. The trajectory of the graph showed that we should expect new pests with increasing frequency as time goes on. So that was nice and depressing. 

Another interesting topic was Honey Bee Supplemental Nutrition . A panel of commercial beekeepers told us what they are feeding their bees and took questions from the audience. I learned Soya flour is toxic to bees and should not be fed. I have set out Soya flour for years to distract bees from grain bins in the spring. So I guess I need to switch to something else.

The thing that struck me about this talk is that some beekeepers who pollinate now have to feed their bees pollen supplement every month of the year to keep them healthy. Our agricultural system has progressed so that bees can no longer find enough good food for themselves. At least I think that’s progress.

Ted

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