Project Apis m.

Latest News

Now You Can Donate to PAm Online!

We have added a 'Donate' button to our homepage. Now you can help PAm with its research goals! Your donation through PayPal is secure and convenient. We offer a choice of payment methods, including through your PayPal account OR with a major debit or credit card. PAm is committed to improving the health of honeybee colonies while enhancing crop production.

Why PAm? Honeybee research is guided by beekeepers. Focus is placed on practical solutions for managed colonies. Efficient transfer of research results into field practice. Economic viability for pollination businesses. Leveraged contributions seek matching funds. Non-profit and low overhead.

Research is costly. Donate NOW and become part of the solution. You will be helping PAm with our present research: improving honeybee nutrition via more forage resources; varroa control, viral loads and their impact on health; correlating pathogen presence to beekeeper management practices; helping to build a database of pesticide prevalence in hives matrices; and improving stock and bee husbandry through extension projects.

Project Apis m. depends on the public, growers, and the beekeeping industry for its funding in order to continue. Thank you for your support!

NASS Listens - Annual Honey Report Reinstated!

NASS to Reinstate Several Agricultural Estimates Programs

Issued December 9, 2011 by the Agricultural Statistics Board of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service

The Annual Honey Report Saved! Good news for the beekeeping industry as NASS reinstates the annual report. The Annual Bee and Honey Report (Data collection begins January 23rd - Report Date is March 30th) remains a viable tool as the USDA reconsiders the elimination of the program. PAm urged beekeepers to contact the director of NASS, as well as their local NASS office.

Thank you for taking the time to save this important report for our industry!

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

- Winston Churchill -

PAm Reps Receive Distinguished Service and Beekeeper of the Year Awards at CSBA Conference

Christi Heintz, Project Apis m. Executive Director, receives the 2011 Distinguished Service Award from CSBA Award Committee Chairperson, Alan Mikolich. Christi was presented with a plaque at the CSBA 122nd Annual Banquet held in Rohnert Park, CA on November 17th. She is the only such person in the association's history to receive this honor twice - the first time was in 2003.

Also, PAm Scientific Advisor, Randy Oliver, was named 2011 Beekeeper of the Year.

Congratulations Christi & Randy!

PAm's Meg Ribotto has photo featured

Meg Ribotto, Outreach and Education Coordinator for Project Apis m., recently received notice that her photograph of a beekeeper branding frames (February) has been featured in the 2012 Bee Culture calendar. The calendar theme for 2012 was "Working Bees". Calendars are now available through Bee Culture. Meg has taken hundreds of excellent photographs during the course of her work on PAm BMP brochures, fact sheets, PowerPoint presentations and trade show booth materials. A spot in the 2012 Bee Culture calendar is testimony to her quality photography.

PAm, CSBA & Forage Featured in The Washington Post

PAm's Christi Heintz was interviewed by The Washington Post on the California State Beekeepers Association (CSBA) grant to improve forage for honeybees. The grant is managed by PAm. Christi Heintz, in the interview, stressed the importance of growers to set aside land and to plant forage resources for honeybee colonies brought into California for pollination services. PAm has been working on seed mixes that are bee-friendly and that may also provide an economic incentive to growers. The article was featured on Oct. 21, 2011 in the Bloomberg Section of the Post.

North Dakota Allocates $50,000 to PAm for Honeybee Research

The North Dakota Department of Agriculture’s Apiary Division has provided PAm with $50,000 to be used for honeybee research. PAm will be entrusted with finding the appropriate projects to be funded, as well as being responsible for the proposed projects. The funding includes $37,500 from the ND Department of Ag – Apiary Division under the direction of Judy Carlson. Christi Heintz and Meg Ribotto, along with PAm Board members, Zac Browning and John Miller, met with Judy Carlson in August about bee research priorities. The additional funding, $12,500, is from the ND Honey Promotion Fund. Thank you North Dakota for your support!

PAm Approves Funding for DeRisi - Phase II

The UC San Fransisco team will move forward with Phase II: 'Quantitative Examination of Seasonal Prevalence & Geographic Distribution of Honey Bee Pathogens & Correlates to Colony Health'. After monitoring commercial honey bee colonies for 10 months, Phase I established a baseline of pathogen prevalence in healthy bee colonies. Dr. DeRisi explains that "Establishing a comprehensive list of pathogens is critical to future studies aimed at understanding how these pathogens affect honey bee health and their potential role in CCD." The next step will delve deeper into the 'hive'. Key samples such as seasonal points (the summer and winter pathogen peaks), mite-infested and pesticide-exposed samples, as well as beekeeper management styles will all be correlated to inform and guide migratory beekeeping practices.

UCSF Finds NEW Bee Viruses in PAm Funded Study

Why not use the same detection tools that find illnesses in humans to search for the cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD) in honey bees? This is the very question that Christi Heintz, executive director of Project Apis m. (PAm) asked Joseph DeRisi, PhD, and his team at University of California, San Francisco. So began a partnership that joined a non-profit honey bee research organization dedicated to honey bee health, a renowned molecular biologist and biochemist and one of North America’s largest commercial beekeeping operations.

Project Apis m. initiated and contributed towards funding the year-long study which was recently published in the June 2011 issue of the Public Library of Science (PLoS). “Dr. DeRisi is tops in his field and we convinced him to transfer his expertise to honey bees,” said Heintz. When initially approached, DeRisi wasn’t fully aware of the extent to which colonies are transported coast-to-coast to pollinate crops and that commercial beekeepers were losing more than 30% of their colonies each year. However, what DeRisi did know very well is what makes us sick. His lab at UCSF works on the causes of malaria, SARS and other ills.