|
Right now, wildfires are decimating much of California, Oregon and Washington. This strain is conflated with the Coronavirus pandemic, which many of us hoped would be winding down by now, still raging in many states. Hundreds of thousands of acres of habitat and forage are burning, along with homes, businesses and hives. It can be difficult to think about the devastating losses experienced by our friends, family and in many cases ourselves. While the future is uncertain for many, PAm’s thoughts are with everyone being affected. You can learn more about what the outlook is for native bees after a fire, and what scientists know about how honey bees act in a smoke-filled environment from this article from Oregon State University.  On Sunday, September 13th Foothills Honey Farms was working hard to remove colonies from evacuation zones in Oregon where they are in danger from the Beachie Creek and Riverside Fires. Some beekeeping operations have already lost their homes and businesses to fires*, and many more have lost colonies and equipment.
0 Comments
Seeds for Bees is partnering with almond growers, Bee Friendly Farming, and Scientists at the University of California, Davis to plant bee forage and habitat in California and study the benefits. Learn about the program, and the science behind why it works by watching this pre-recorded webinar: Featuring:
•Billy Synk, Director of Pollination Programs, Project Apis m. How the Seeds for Bees® program benefits beekeepers and growers. •Dr. Elina L. Niño, University of California, Davis Ongoing research out of UC Davis related to the impact of cover crops on bee health. •Dr. Amélie Gaudin, University of California, Davis Ongoing research out of UC Davis related to the impact of cover crops on soil health. •Laurie Davies Adams, President and CEO, Pollinator Partnership The exciting Bee Friendly Farming certification.  Please join Project Apis m. for our first webinar of 2020.
We hope to see you there! Click here to join us June 23rd at 10:00am Pacific Time. Download the Webinar Flyer with Links Here As I get close to finishing my dissertation, I am reflecting on the way that the PAm-Costco Scholar Fellowship has helped me to take my interest in honey bee foraging behavior and apply it to helping beekeepers and land managers who want to support honey bees.  I started studying bees a few years after increased colony mortality had drawn international public attention and concern. Research since that time has highlighted four major stressors that contribute to high mortality: parasites, pathogens, pesticides, and poor nutrition. Good nutrition is not only essential to day-to-day activities of bees, but it also helps colonies deal with the other stressors. Finding apiary spots that lead to good colony nutrition is challenging because honey bee colonies have a very wide foraging range, in some cases traveling over 8 miles to collect food. If we consider that most foraging happens within 2 miles of a hive, that’s still over 8,000 acres that foragers are covering to find rewarding flowers.
National Corn Growers Association, U.S. Canola Association partner with Coalition to develop best practices growers can use to reduce risk to honey bees, other pollinators.   BEEKEEPER NEWSLETTER . . . . . . March 5, 2019
North Dakota is home to over half a million honey bee colonies, and is the number 1 honey producing state in the US for the past 30 years. According to the North Dakota Department of Agriculture, in 2017, North Dakota produced 33 million pounds of honey valued at over $65 million. The vast expanse of land, as far as the eye can see, offers a dense and rich clover forage, a favorite of the honey bee. It is therefore no surprise that more beekeepers want to bring their bees to the Peace Garden State each year. In contrast, corn and soybean are gaining popularity in the agricultural landscape of North Dakota, replacing some of the more traditional grain crops of the past. As a result of these two opposing landscape factors, beekeepers in North Dakota report an increase in honey bee colony density and a decrease in forage for the pollinator. Zac Browning of Browning Honey Co. warns that North Dakota is the ‘Last Best Place for Bees’.  Caption: Map of North Dakota bee yards. Each blue dot represents a registered apiary (bee yard) Source: https://beemap.ndda.nd.gov/  Photo Courtesy of Drew Spacht “Pollen metabarcoding is a way that we can enable larger questions to be answered, and larger scientific studies to be conducted more cost efficiently.” – Rodney Richardson, PhD Candidate, Ohio State University
Grower Spotlight - with David Fenn, Sr. Vice President of Farming at SunWorld International8/20/2018  David Fenn is the Senior Vice President of Farming at Sun World International. In 2017 Sun World International worked with Project Apis m.’s Seeds for Bees program to plant hedgerows and bee-friendly cover crops and earn Pollinator Partnership’s Bee Friendly Farming certification. Sun World has a deep commitment to sustainability which you can read more about here.
We talked to David to learn more about growing table grapes in California, and how Sun World approaches cover crops and other sustainability practices. |
Categories
All
News Archives
September 2020
|
RSS Feed