Mite Control Survey Request
The following comes from Katy Evans, a graduate student at the University of Delaware:
“My name is Katy Evans, I am a graduate student at the University of Delaware under Dr. Deborah Delaney. I am currently working on a Master’s degree and my project focuses on helping the local beekeeping community reduce and better manage mite populations and varroa vectored viruses in a non-chemical fashion. Specifically, I will be testing the efficacy of splitting and swarming of hives to keep mites below harmful levels while increasing the overall colony survivorship. If effective this strategy will be developed into an IPM practice for beekeepers in the mid-Atlantic region and it will greatly benefit the beekeeping community in that it will reduce the amount of time and costs beekeepers must spend on varroa control treatments and alleviate the need for additional control tactics. I will be hosting field days, training sessions, and creating web-based and printed material to share my data and IPM practices with the local beekeeping community. To better design the IPM practices it is important to know how many beekeepers currently treat for mites and I have composed a survey to find out the strategies beekeepers are using to control for mites. I have uploaded a survey to the UDEL sponsored survey website Qualtrics, and would greatly appreciate it if you could extend my message to members of your beekeeping organization.”
Winter Loss Survey 2012 - 2013: Preliminary Results
The Bee Informed Partnership, in collaboration with the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is releasing preliminary results for the seventh annual national survey of honey bee colony losses.
View the winter loss survey results at the Bee Informed website.
Bee Informed
From Keith Tignor:
“Later this month the Bee Informed Partnership in association with state and federal apiary services will conduct two online surveys. One is on winter losses; the other is on management practices. Participation in the surveys is totally anonymous. There is only enough information gathered to break down the survey responses into specific sub-segments such as: regions of the country, size of operation, participants in crop pollination, etc.
The surveys begin March 29 and remain open until April 15. By then, participants will know a lot about their wintering success. The results from past surveys are available through the Bee Informed Partnership website. Besides data summaries, there are graphics of the data. You can access information from thousands of beekeepers on what worked to keep bees healthy and productive, and what didn’t.
I encourage you to take the time to participate in these surveys. Last year more than 500 beekeepers from Virginia took part in the surveys. Each year the number of participants in the state has grown by 20%. Let’s keep this trend going. Take part in the surveys starting next week at http://beeinformed.org/; and, encourage fellow beekeepers to participate in the surveys.”
Small Hive Beetle
State apiarist Keith Tignor gave a great presentation in March on the small hive beetle.
Package and Nuc Guidelines
Regional inspector Bob Wellemeyer provided a page of guidelines on the care and installation of packages and nucs.