Minding Your Bees and Cues

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Becky Masterman earned a PhD in entomology at the University of Minnesota and is currently a host for the Beekeeping Today Podcast. Bridget Mendel joined the Bee Squad in 2013 and led the program from 2020 to 2023. Bridget holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an M.F.A. from the University of Minnesota. Photos of Becky (left) and Bridget (right) looking for their respective hives. If you would like to contact the authors about your united beekeeping efforts, please send an email to mindingyourbeesandcues@gmail.com.

Minding Your Bees and Cues

Promote Beekeeping
By: Becky Masterman & Bridget Mendel

About a year ago, we shared a bit of a rant. In our Defend Beekeeping article, we named names and challenged beekeepers to defend beekeeping. We heard agreement from some of you (thank you!); those in disagreement did not reach out (thank you?). We would like to continue this conversation in the spirit of promoting and protecting beekeeping. We hope that you peruse this list of issues, ideas, and inspirations and as the Beatles say, “Come together, right now.”

Issues
We can all agree that the offensive varroa mite feeds on our developing and adult bees and transmits viruses in the process. Can we also agree that this tiny mite pitted beekeeper against beekeeper? How many of you have blamed neighboring beekeepers for your mite problems? While we are not saying that not managing mites is not a big deal (a triple negative we will affirmatively regret when reading this article aloud for (the BC podcast?)), we are saying this: if a little mite called varroa can cause so much non-bee damage, just what is a littler mite called Tropilaelaps going to do to us?

Michigan State University Apiculture Extension educator, Ana Heck holding a frame for
inspection with a group of Hives to Heroes veteran beekeepers. Photo credit: Sarah Grassel

Let’s recap varroa. First detected in 1987, it ceased being a serious threat to the beekeeping industry in…oh wait. We are in year thirty-eight of the varroa era. Otherwise known as 38 AV. While we don’t want to be too critical, if we can’t come together to tackle varroa in 10 or 20 or more years, what is the future of mite management if the dreaded Tropilaelaps mites cross the border? Can we afford (culturally and financially) to take our time tackling this new pest? Can we wait for scientists and the industry to come to a consensus about when we should intervene in mite population control? Can the bees wait for us to convince beekeepers that they need to monitor for a new pest?

A lack of unified, quick responses to threats is what makes beekeeping harder now than in the recent past. Solutions to habitat improvement, pesticides, pathogens, pests, predators, prices, climate and queen health concerns will come faster if we address the inefficiencies of a divided industry. While impressive efforts for backyard, sideliner and commercial beekeepers to communicate with each other exist, there are too many examples where this communication has broken down or is not robust.

Ideas
Finding Common Ground
A divided industry is inefficient. When it comes to numbers, generally speaking, one ‘side’ has the beekeepers and the other ‘side’ has the colonies. The majority of managed honey bees in the U.S. are managed professionally, but the majority of U.S. beekeepers are hobbyists or sideliners. There are missed opportunities for engagement and help with bee health initiatives between these two groups. And misinformation can spread easily if beekeepers are not communicating with each other. While it might be optimistic or unusual for a livestock industry with different levels of participants to work together to support their animal, the small beekeeping world could become mighty by finding common ground.

Across the country, beekeepers come together to learn about beekeeping management, research and programs. Some states are more organized than others and have impressive coordination of local chapters that feed into the state club. Some states are working on it. And some (we admit- Minnesota!) do not have a system that brings the beekeepers in the state together. While it might be optimistic and simplistic, what if each state worked together to find common ground on their state’s top five (or three if consensus is contentious) honey bee health concerns, then shared those with state agencies? It would be an impressive letter with all the state beekeeping club signatures showing support.

Here is a start if you need ideas: 1) habitat improvement; 2) support for honey bee research; and 3) opportunities to improve communication between beekeepers and farmers.

Inspirations
There are many heroes in the beekeeping world. We hope that beekeepers at all levels know about the work that both Project Apis m and Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund are doing to support the industry. Please visit their websites and take a close look at the board members. Many are commercial beekeepers. Many are on both boards. Just an FYI what these glamorous positions require: many many Zoom meetings and funding your own travel to represent the organizations at in person meetings. These groups are great at sharing the amazing work they are doing, but they are a bit shy about letting backyard and sideliner beekeepers know just how much time, money and brainpower the commercial beekeepers have invested in these all beekeeper benefiting projects.

We can’t say enough about how excited we are to welcome veterinarians to our little livestock industry. Every other livestock industry out there has a long-time relationship with these doctors of animal medicine and it is about time that our animals benefit from the same relationship. We think that their perspective on pathogens, parasites and nutrition will benefit our bees greatly. Please visit the Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium website to learn more. Please make sure you also check out the SHBVC while you are there. The future of bee health is bright!

It takes a special (we mean extremely smart and organized) person to become an apiary inspector. The Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) is definitely upping their beekeeping game with their work on coordinating a response and education for the tropi mite and their US Beekeeping Survey collaboration with Dr. Geoff Williams and Auburn University. Visit their website for the latest on Tropilaelaps, the northern giant hornet and the yellow-legged hornet.

Minnesota Apiculture Extension educator, Dr. Katie Lee sharing in hive honey bee health and management information with a group of new beekeepers. Photo credit: Cory Ryan, University
of Minnesota Extension

It also takes a special (we mean extremely smart and organized) person to become an apiculture Extension educator (EE). While we find ourselves running out of room to name our favorite EEs, we ask you to check out your nearest land grant university apiculture program website and check out the work they are doing. These programs are vital in their efforts to support and provide management research and recommendations.

We ran out of space to mention the brilliant honey bee health researchers, beekeeping club leaders with tireless dedication and vision, beekeepers who are working tirelessly to keep their colonies healthy, USDA scientists who are generating vital data and translating it for all of us to understand, this magazine (and another one) and their efforts to inform beekeepers, the Honey Bee Health Coalition with their brilliant varroa management and nutrition guides and the beekeeping industry vendors who are generous in both their efforts to provide services, but in their endless donations to support clubs. The beekeeping industry has so much going for it. Just imagine our potential to support honey bees and their keepers if we unite and tackle our challenges together, right now.

Has your state come together for the bees? Write to us if you think your community has figured out how to rise above beekeeping differences to work together for the big picture! We’d love to interview you!

Resources
Defend Beekeeping https://www.beeculture.com/minding-your-bees-and-cues-12/
Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium https://www.hbvc.org/
Apiary Inspectors of America https://apiaryinspectors.org/
Project Apis m. https://www.projectapism.org/
The Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund https://www.beeandbutterflyfund.org/