John Miller
Happy New Year!
I have a lot to be thankful for. My former company, Miller’s Honey Farms, Inc. keeps me occasionally employed. This morning, as I took my youngest son to the airport we chatted about retirement. I’m sort of retired. I work in January and February placing and caring for bees in almond orchards. It’s hard work, but I love it because I get bees. I understand bees. The more I know about bees, I’ve learned – the less I know about bees. But every Spring, which comes early in California, I re-learn the fundamentals of good beekeeping. It’s a joy. I’m thankful to be employed during January and February – and thankful quite a bit to have March off. I also help with the queen work in April, because there is never enough help during queen-rearing season. And if you’ve ever stuck 15,000 cells in 25 days – you know how good it feels to be finished with those cells.
Pathogens and Parasites
A moment to reflect. Beekeeping has a large number of small institutions working on hive health. The Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) does some of the finest hive-health work on earth. I’m mystified why more beekeepers do not participate and benefit from BIP work. Project Apis m. (PAm) leads the industry, having invested over $10 million in over 100 published research papers available to everyone on their website. The Honey Bee Health Coalition is another standout group. Lots of other groups deserve mention, but I can’t list them all.
Non-profits depend on benefactors and donors. In this industry, it is a big lift to achieve the $10 million threshold. Part of that success is board participation. Recently, PAm, for instance, held a match challenge funded by the board members. For the hobbyist or the commercial beekeepers, PAm’s board put up $34,000 to match donation from others. It’s grass-roots efforts by those invested in beekeeping that add up to more research. I’m thankful for the benefactors. We need more benefactors, because we have more challenges and opportunities ahead.
Let’s look at 2023.
Look for breakthroughs in 2023 in honey bee genetics. We have bright, young scientists probing honey bee genetics. There is huge potential to improve honey bee genetics from machines and the skilled operators of those machines that simply did not exist ten years ago.
The Three P’s are still with us: Pathogens, Parasites and Pastures; but things are changing.
Vaccines in 2023 are in development for American Foul Brood and Nosema. Spend a moment on the Nosema vaccine. Soon, bee breeders will be able to vaccinate cell-builders rearing queens against Nosema. Many beekeepers large and small treat beehives for Nosema with treatments some researchers view as doing as much harm as good. A Nosema treatment scours the digestive tract of the infected bee. A bee lives about 35 days. If the treatment occurs on the 17th day of a honey bee’s life – scant time remains for the honey bee to repopulate its gut with the bifidobacterial populations enabling digestion. By vaccinating cell-builders against Nosema, the pathogen never achieves economic threshold. Millions of newly emerged virgin queens will get a better start. Now apply the same vaccine to the drone mother hives placed in queen rearing yards. With this soon to be available vaccine – bees will live healthier, longer lives (It was not so long ago that most honey bees lived to a ripe old age of 42 days). If the worker bee populations live 8.5% longer lives – a cascade of benefits accrue to the hive – notably, queens won’t burn themselves out laying 8.5% more eggs, just to keep up with unvaccinated worker bee mortality.
Pollinator Pasture
In 2023, beekeepers will again have no control over markets. Prime example: Cost of Feed.
Increased costs will weigh on commercial operations grappling with labor, freight and feed; the top three cost centers. If a vaccine exists for Nosema, savings in feed costs may be found in more efficient hive operation. Maybe 8.5% lower feed costs described in the previous paragraph. If your feed budget for 2023 is $1 million – and say 8.5% of the cost can be saved by more efficient hive feed use due to longer-lived honey bees – that’s $85,000.
In 2023, beekeepers will have no control over inflation. Inflation erodes balance sheets. If inflation abates, the eroding value of cash will slow. Inflation won’t end, but the 8%+ haircut every operation experienced in 2022 may not be a 2023 buzzcut.
In 2023 a new Farm Bill will be written. Creating the Farm Bill is not a pretty process. Food security is historically a national priority. Many a regime has perished over the availability and price of food. A lot of food depends on insect pollination. An unwelcomed pest from Asia, native to the Asian honey bee is expanding its range, and now devastates Mellifera honey bee populations across a wide swath of Asia. It is Tropilaelaps mercedesae. Check it out. Beekeepers who know their elected Congressional representatives should support provisions in the Farm Bill to fund preventative measures. The Animal Plant Health Inspection Service should have an active prevention plan in place. It does not.
If you hate the past 35-year experience with Varroa – the next 35-year experience with Tropi may cure you from beekeeping; but will not eliminate the threat of Tropi to global food production. Call me an alarmist. I hope I’m wrong.
Please remember to plant more flowers. In 2023, for example, watch for big things from the Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund (BBHF) in the 13 mid-western states it now operates in. Monarch butterflies, honey bees and native Bees all benefit from nutrition islands. These projects, are now catching critical mass in forage programs. Significantly, solar farms need to control vegetation. The BBHF program has specific seed mixes for specific applications. Check it out.
Lastly, if you enjoyed The Mind of a Bee by Lars Chittka in 2022; you’ll probably also enjoy Bee Club a novel by M.E.A. McNeil, coming in 2023. McNeil is a gifted writer and keen observer.
Have a wonderful 2023.
JRM
