Project Apis m.
  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Project Apis m.
    • PAm Staff
    • Scientific Advisors
    • PAm Board of Directors
    • Annual Reports >
      • 2021 Annual Report
      • 2020 Annual Report
    • Contact Us
    • Join The Team
  • News
    • PAm eNewsletter
    • Project Apis m. Blog
  • Honey Bee Research
    • Honey Bee Research
    • PAm-Costco Scholars
    • Request Funding
    • RFPs
  • Seeds For Bees
    • Seeds For Bees FAQs
    • Seeds For Bees For the Grower >
      • Water Requirements
      • Cover Crop Competition
      • Nitrogen Management
      • FAQs for Growers
      • Seeds for Bees Resources
    • PAm Seed Mixes >
      • PAm Pollinator Brassica Mix
      • PAm Annual Clover Mix
      • PAm Bio Build 3 Mix
      • PAm Wildflower Mix
      • Vetch-Grain Mix
      • PAm Perennial Clover Mix
    • Seeds For Bees Supporters
  • Forage
    • Forage (Home)
    • The Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund
    • Forage Videos
  • Resources
    • Guide to Indoor Storage of Honey Bee Colonies in the USA
    • Guide to Shipping Honey Bee Queen Cells
    • Best Management Practices For Beekeepers (Home) >
      • Honey Bee Nutrition
      • Varroa
      • Nosema
      • Honey Bee Equipment Management and Maintenance
      • Honey Bee Colony Management
    • Best Management Practices For Almond Growers
  • Video
  • Supporters
    • Our Supporters
    • Support Us
    • Honey Saves Hives
    • Christi Heintz Scholarship
    • Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
    • Testimonials

Project Apis m. Blog

A "Bee-g" Question: How do Honey Bees and Native Bees Interact?

9/30/2021

3 Comments

 
Picture
Image: A honey bee and a native bee forage on the same floral resource in the Cache Valley, Utah. Utah is home to about 900 species of native bees, and 28,000 commercial honey bee colonies.
Access to clean, nutritious forage is essential for all bees, and as bee forage is declining each year in the USA, the number of native bees and managed bees are also declining. 75 years ago there were nearly twice as many honey bee colonies in the US, and more than half the native bee species assessed seem to be in decline.   

Read More
3 Comments

UPDATES: Christi Heintz Memorial Award Recipients

9/20/2021

2 Comments

 
Four honey bee health graduate students were awarded $55K through PAm’s Christi Heintz Memorial Award in 2020. A year later, we are checking in to see how the first field season went for the awardees. “Christi would be so pleased and impressed with the students we have funded in her honor,” PAm Executive Director Danielle Downey said.  

Rogan Tokach, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Awarded $10,000 
Rogan 
Tokach studies how pesticide-contaminated food impacts a colony's ability to re-queen itself and individual bee development. Honey bees are often located in, or adjacent to, agricultural systems, where pesticides are used to manage pests but can impact honey bee health.
Picture
Rogan Tokach in his UNL research apiary holding a frame for banking his own queens, reared for his research.

Read More
2 Comments

Project Apis m. Request for Proposals on Behalf of the National Honey Board.

8/25/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture

Salt Lake City, Utah-August 25th 2021.
Background
Managed honey bees in North America are under increasing pressure to meet pollination demands for our food supply. At the same time, annual colony losses are high- 45.5% in the US in 2020, and the natural forage which gives bees healthy nutrition and a honey crop for producers is decreasing. Colony losses are often attributed to pathogens, parasites, pesticides, hive management (queen mating, genetics, maintenance), climate, and available nutrition. United States honey production in 2020 from producers with five or more colonies totaled 148 million pounds, down 6% from 2019. Sustainable beekeeping is dependent on maximizing outputs (colony health, colony numbers, pollination contracts, honey production, profitability) while minimizing the inputs (time, money, personnel, treatments). A sustainable beekeeping industry contributes to a more sustainable agricultural landscape through a stable supply of bees for crop pollination. Therefore, PAm is requesting research proposals that focus on enhancing the health, survival and productivity of honey bee colonies, which provide practical and tangible solutions to the beekeeping industry.

Read More
0 Comments

Crossing Borders: New Research in Canada, and Our Newest Science Advisory Committee Member

7/28/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Beekeeping is a big industry and interest in Canada. In 2019, Canada produced 80.4 million pounds of honey, and in 2017 pollination services in Canada were estimated to contribute between 4.0 and 5.5 billion dollars to the nation’s economy.1 Canada is a major producer of canola and blueberries, two crops that benefit greatly from pollination services. Unfortunately, beekeepers in Canada face similar challenges to those in the U.S. making research a necessity for improving honey bee health, creating and optimizing tools for beekeepers. In 2020, the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists (CAPA) reported 30.2% colony losses over winter, nationally, with some provinces losing as many as 40.7% of their colonies.2 

Read More
0 Comments

Seeds for Bees applications are now open for the 2021-2022 growing season!

6/14/2021

2 Comments

 
Picture
Farmers and Growers in California are encouraged to apply for free or discounted cover crop and forage seed to help support the nutritional needs of honey bees and native pollinators. 
 
Planting pollinator forage and blooming cover crops is a management practice that can help you meet your sustainability goals and qualify for Bee Friendly Farming certification. Improved bee and soil health, weed control, and beneficial insect habitat are just a few of the benefits of planting Seeds for Bees.  Individualized, one-on-one technical support is provided at no cost for all growers who qualify.
 
Learn more at ProjectApism.org/Seeds-For-Bees, or apply to enroll here.
2 Comments

Flagstone Foods Announces Intent To Source 100% Of Its Almonds From Bee-Friendly Farms By 2025: A First In The Private Label Nut Industry

6/4/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
CLICK HERE for the full press release.

CLICK HERE to learn more about the "Healthy Bees, Happy Snackers" initiative.
0 Comments

Breeding Hilo Queens-Spring 2021

4/14/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
For any beekeeper, queen breeding could be considered leveling up!-it involves a whole new skill set that is not covered in basic beekeeping practices. There is an entire industry within beekeeping that focuses on producing quality queen bees, we got a sneak peek into the methods for producing Hilo queens this season.

With Hilo queens the focus is on keeping varroa resistant traits while also selecting other qualities that beekeepers want in a commercial operation, such as honey production. 
Here Saira Mendez Urbina is using a magnifying glass to find and carefully graft eggs into queen cups.  She places a newly hatched worker larvae inside the queen cup, then queenless bees will feed the larvae royal jelly and draw out the rest of the queen cell. (pictured right)
Another preparation for inseminated queen production is to catch drones and harvest the sperm. Drones are too large to pass through a queen excluder, so by placing one in front of the entrance the drones returning from a flight are stalled, and can be caught and taken to the lab. Drones do not sting and are easy to grab by hand! The first photo shows Bob Danka catching drones this way. Another tool, a drone catching cage, also allows you to capture drones. Just like with mating in the wild, this is a one-way trip for these drones.​
Once in the lab, the drone's sperm is carefully collected.  When the queens emerge from the cells, virgin queens will be carefully inseminated using sperm collected from drones (previously caught in the apiary).  The middle photo shows Juliane Steckel in the middle of this process, and the last photo is a screen shot from a short video demonstrating insemination of an earlier batch of Hilo bees. 
After insemination, each queen is carefully marked and placed into a cage for banking until they are ready to be introduced into a nucleus colony. 
Picture
Finally the inseminated queens are installed into nucs-together they will become a new full-size colony of known pedigree as she lays more eggs and their population grows. To learn more, check out the Hilo bees website!
0 Comments

Bee A Part of Something Big!

4/13/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Survey data is extremely important to researchers and beekeepers to keep a pulse on bee health trends, economics of beekeeping, best management practices, and emerging threats to honey bees. Completing surveys is an easy, anonymous way to contribute directly to honey bee health research!

​ Here are two efforts that we encourage you to participate in. The first survey, from UC Davis, will gather information that can help growers provide benefits, such as flowering cover crops, to beekeepers (and bees) while pollinating almonds. The second survey, from the Bee Informed Partnership, collects the crucial colony loss and management information that researchers and beekeepers rely on for an up-to-date picture of honey bee health and beekeeping practices year after year.  ​
Picture
Economic Value of Contract Enhancements in Almond Pollination

From Dr. Goodrich:
Almost no documented research exists quantifying beekeeper preferences for certain contract features, so this research will provide much-needed information to the beekeeping and almond industries. This survey will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. As compensation for your time, you will be provided with a $20 Amazon gift card. 

This survey closes on April 15th! Download the letter of consent here.

Take the survey here! (password: Apism2021)

Picture

Bee Informed Partnership's Annual Management and Loss Survey

Any beekeeper can participate in this survey, and it is shorter this year! This long-standing effort provides essential data to beekeepers and researchers alike, including the annual colony loss chart and map. This survey closes on April 30th.

Take the survey here!

0 Comments

Blue Diamond Growers Hosts a Spring Cover Crop Meeting & Webinar!

4/12/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture

Cover Crops and Habitat: The Link Between Better Pollination, Healthier Bees and Soil.
​
Thursday, April 15, 2021

2:00 - 3:00 p.m. PST

Register Here

Read More
0 Comments

Project Apis m. Funds Dr. Judy Wu-Smart to investigate the impacts of pesticide-treated seed recycling in Nebraska.

3/16/2021

1 Comment

 
Beekeepers have been re-locating their apiaries from Nebraska for years. Well before the public became aware of an ethanol plant producing pesticide-laden by-products, there had already been a concerning trend of beekeepers leaving Nebraska.
 
Dr. Marion Ellis, head of the Bee Lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) saw the pattern begin during his tenure. Beekeepers were migrating out of the state as more pastureland in the area was planted with corn, and especially when that corn was treated with organophosphate insecticides to control corn rootworm. Organophosphate insecticides are persistent in the environment and are highly toxic to bees, but beekeepers were reluctant to complain to friends and family who farmed the land. As Ellis said, “It became really hard to keep bees in the Corn Belt.”

More recently, large-scale career beekeepers with thousands of colonies have continued that exodus from Nebraska because they cannot afford the high bee losses year after year.1 A new publication representing a major collaboration across state and federal organizations puts some concerning data behind the trends.  It highlights that bees in Nebraska are dealing with a disproportionately high number of pesticides detected at higher levels than most other states and the neonicotinoids clothianidin and thiamethoxam contributed significantly to the hazard quotient (the risk) posed to bees in Nebraska.2

Read More
1 Comment
<<Previous
Forward>>

    Categories

    All
    Almond Pollination
    Bee Informed Partnership
    Beekeeping
    Forage
    Funding Opportunities
    Honey
    Honey Bee
    Honey Bee Health
    Honey Bee Management
    Honey Bee Nutrition
    Honey Bee Research
    Neonicotinoid Research
    Nosema
    Pesticide Research
    Queen Bee
    Research
    Seeds For Bees
    Varroa

    RSS Feed

    News Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    September 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015

Donate online

DONATE

donate with check to:

 Project Apis m.
PO Box 26793
Salt Lake City, UT 84126​

916-287-3035

follow us

Contact us


Project Apis m. is a 501 (c) (5) non-profit organization.  ​Consult your tax advisor for deductibility of expenses.
Copyright © 2017 Project Apis m. All rights reserved.
  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Project Apis m.
    • PAm Staff
    • Scientific Advisors
    • PAm Board of Directors
    • Annual Reports >
      • 2021 Annual Report
      • 2020 Annual Report
    • Contact Us
    • Join The Team
  • News
    • PAm eNewsletter
    • Project Apis m. Blog
  • Honey Bee Research
    • Honey Bee Research
    • PAm-Costco Scholars
    • Request Funding
    • RFPs
  • Seeds For Bees
    • Seeds For Bees FAQs
    • Seeds For Bees For the Grower >
      • Water Requirements
      • Cover Crop Competition
      • Nitrogen Management
      • FAQs for Growers
      • Seeds for Bees Resources
    • PAm Seed Mixes >
      • PAm Pollinator Brassica Mix
      • PAm Annual Clover Mix
      • PAm Bio Build 3 Mix
      • PAm Wildflower Mix
      • Vetch-Grain Mix
      • PAm Perennial Clover Mix
    • Seeds For Bees Supporters
  • Forage
    • Forage (Home)
    • The Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund
    • Forage Videos
  • Resources
    • Guide to Indoor Storage of Honey Bee Colonies in the USA
    • Guide to Shipping Honey Bee Queen Cells
    • Best Management Practices For Beekeepers (Home) >
      • Honey Bee Nutrition
      • Varroa
      • Nosema
      • Honey Bee Equipment Management and Maintenance
      • Honey Bee Colony Management
    • Best Management Practices For Almond Growers
  • Video
  • Supporters
    • Our Supporters
    • Support Us
    • Honey Saves Hives
    • Christi Heintz Scholarship
    • Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
    • Testimonials