Exploring Beekeeping Class in Eden Prairie

Teaching Beekeeping!

I will be teaching a beekeeping class this spring in Eden Prairie.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014 from 6:30-8:30pm   ($15)
Here's the link below:

https://edenprairie.thatscommunityed.com/course/spring-summer-adult-2014/exploring-beekeeping

Exploring Beekeeping

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This two-hour course offers an introduction and brief overview of beekeeping. It will cover: city ordinances, equipment, time and financial requirements, races of honey bees, beehives location, obtaining and installing your new bees, honey plants and bee food needs, pollination, pesticides, as well as helping your honey bees to stay healthy. If you are interested in keeping honey bees, but not yet sure how to start, this class is for you. After taking this course, you will be able to make a well-informed decision about keeping bees in your backyard. And, if you would like to pursue beekeeping, Eden Prairie Community Education will offer a full seven-week beekeeping course as part of our Fall course offerings.

5160-01

Add to Cart 

Karine Pouliquen

Central Middle School : Room 312

Tuesday, Apr 29
6:30 - 8:30 PM

Price:

$15.00

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Varroa Gene Silencing: Is there Hope?

Varroa mite ( brown oval on thorax) on honey bee

As you know  honey bees have a very difficult time surviving. At 30% death rate year after year is not sustainable. Many scientists around the world are on a quest to find a "cure" to help and save the bees.

As it is understood around the world, the Varroa mite, this "blood sucker vampire" is the honey bee parasite that cause the most economic impact on the beekeeping industry. It can cripple and ruin an operation in few seasons. This mite can only reproduce in a honeybee colony, attaching itself to a honey bee, weakening her and at the same time transmitting many viruses, thus making it impossible for the bee to recover such a devastating plague.

In 2010, researchers at Aberdeen University have been able to "silence" natural functions in the mites' gene. Dr. Alan Bowman explains that "introducing harmless genetic material encourages the mites' own immune response to prevent their genes from expressing natural functions. This could make them self destruct."

This approach is very specific and targets the mites only without harming the bees. This development comes from the Nobel-Prize Winning theory 'RNA interference', which controls the flow of genetic information.

Gene silencing is the ability of a cell to prevent the expression of a certain  gene. This method is now used to combat cancers and infectious diseases. It also means that the genes are decreased not eliminated, not completely erased.

In that optic, a team composed of Garbian Y, Maori E, Kalev H, Shafir S, Sela I.  from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Rehovot, Israel, discovered that when the bees were fed some double stranded RNA (ds Rna) with a sequence of genes similar to the Israeli acute paralysis virus, they were protected against the deadly virus! 
In their new study, they show that dsRNA eaten by the honey bees, is transferred to the Varroa mite, and then passed on to an already parasitized bee. This exchange of dsRNA between bee and mite, created a gene silencing in the mite. This resulted in a decreased of 60% in the mite population!


This transfer of gene silencing triggering molecules between the honey bee and this parasite could lead to a brand new approach to Varroa control.

(Bidirectional Transfer of RNAi between Honey Bee and Varroa destructor: Varroa Gene Silencing Reduces Varroa Population.

PLoS Pathog. 2012 Dec;8(12):e1003035)

Always something new to learn!

Eden Prairie: Hive Registration 2014

Enough snow yet?

Now that Eden Prairie, MN has passed the city ordinance allowing beekeeping on city lots. We can  register our hives with the E.P. Police Department. 

I have copied the link where you can find the registration documents, and a copy of the ordinance.

http://www.edenprairie.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=3060

Happy Beekeeping!

Honey Bees Coping with Minnesotan Winter!

Wind in Minnesota

This morning the thermometer indicated-15F (-26C). That is darn cold (excuse my French!!!), I just went outside all bundled up to get the newspaper, and the cold air hurt my lungs...Now I know why bears hibernate and stay cozy and warm all winter!

So what about the bees? First they are not warm blooded like us or the bears! They are insects as you know. However they have a special way to keep warm. Unlike most insects who produce a chemical called glycerol or other chemicals which act as a natural antifreeze and keep them from freezing to death. And unlike others which find shelters, in soil, under the bark of trees or decide to come inside your own home for warmth. And unlike some insects that are even smarter and migrate south to a warmer climate like the Monarch butterflies! 

Honey bees are special and don't go dormant either; they stay active in their hives days and nights during winters to survive. Unlike us, honey bees don't heat their homes to keep warm. Temperature of a healthy colony never goes below 63F (17C) when outside temperature falls to -20F (-28C). 

This what happens right now when our temperatures are so cold.
All the bees stay in a tight cluster around the Queen, usually in the center of the hive. 

 Infra red picture of a bee cluster

Bees on the outside of the "ball" of bees insulate the bees and the Queen that are in the center. See the picture, the outside is darker in color (colder),  and inside, bright yellow (warmer). 
The bees of course alternate their position from insulating, outside cluster  (heat producer) to the inner cluster generating heat with their bodies (heat retainer). It is remarkable! We cannot do that!

Honey bees generate heat with their tiny bodies by "shivering" their unhinged flight muscles. To keep and  maintain a good inside cluster temperature of about 93F (33C) the bees have to consume a lot of honey which is then converted into energy. However, when the outside temperatures are very cold like now in Minnesota and prolongated over many days, this enormous effort tend to sap the bees from their strengths and vitality making them vulnerable.

How can we help our little darlings, then? We have to be careful, we don't want to insulate the boxes so much that they "overheat" and generate too much moisture and die of freezing.

Instead, it is recommended to  make a natural windbreaker around the hives from the prevailing winds in late fall. Because without one, it becomes more difficult for the cluster to maintain a normal temperature.



 Wrapping our hives in black roofing paper, or a black waxed cardboard liners is also important.

Giving an upper entrance, for the moisture to escape is an excellent way to ventilate the hives, preventing condensation which would eventually fall onto the insulated layer of bees producing a frozen ball of bees.
Studies show "that moisture-laden air is often more detrimental to honey bee colonies in winter than cold temperatures."

Ukrainian hives

Still, I think about my bees a lot these days. Especially knowing that I already lost 50% of my hives so far. But I have to be patient...

I think I will make myself a  cup of cocoa, and read a good book by the fireplace and wait for a warm up!

Eden Prairie, Minnesota & New Ordinance with the Keeping of Bees

Beekeeping is fun!

 Eden Prairie, MN has finally joined other cities allowing residential beekeeping in their city. The City Council voted on Tuesday, January 21, 2014, to amend the City Code Chapter 9, by adding a new section 9.73 related to keeping honeybees within the city limits, and amending then section 9.08 and 9.11. The ordinance incorporates City Code Chapter 1 and specifically section 9.99 relating to penalties.

This ordinance will take full effect when it is published in the EP News.

The ordinance gives a complete understanding how one can start the process of having honey bees on their residential lot.

1. Mandatory registration of hives at the EP police Department every year.

2.Regulations to where bees can be kept, how many hives

3. Notification of neighbors, and the right of those neighbors to file written comments

4. Keeping equipment well maintained

5. Treating the honey bees well

6. Fruit trees and flowering plants on the site shall not be sprayed when in bloom!Very important aspect!

7. Have a fly away barrier, so bees fly up

 And more!

I think  the ordinance is well written , and clear and resemble many similar ordinances like in Stillwater, and Minneapolis or even other suburbs. 

You can view the City Council discussing the matter at :

SECOND READING OF ORDINANCE AMENDING CITY CODE CHAPTER 9 RELATING TO THE KEEPING OF HONEY BEES AND RESOLUTION APPROVING PUBLICATION OF SUMMARY ORDINANCE

I have also  attached the documents so you can get familiar with the new Ordinance, and be prepared!

Memo & Attachments

Happy Beekeeping! Love you bees!

Another Worry for the Bees: A New Virus!

As if we did not have enough worries for our bees:

A viral pathogen on plants has been detected in honey bees! In the journal of the American Society for Microbiology, scientists from the U.S. and Beijing, China after routinely screening bees for rare viruses found a new one! This one is called Tobacco Ringspot Virus (TRSV). They decided to investigate further to see if this plant infected virus could also cause systemic infection in honey bees.
Yan Ping Chen from the USDA, ARS laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, and colleague Ji Lian Li from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science in Beijing are suggesting: " The results of our study provide the first evidence that honey bees exposed to a virus-contaminated pollen can also be infected and that the infection becomes widespread in their bodies".

It is already known that bees can transmit a virus from plant to plant. Many honey bee viruses are known causes of honey bee vital disease.

When the researchers investigated further, they noticed that colonies classified as "weak"; TRSV and other viruses were more prominent than in the "strong" ones.
Another important aspect found is that colonies with a lot of viruses in the fall dwindled rapidly and were dead before February! The strong colonies with fewer viral problems survived the entire cold winter months.

Finally Chen and Li concluded that "The increasing prevalence of TRSV in conjunction with other bee viruses is associated with gradual decline of host populations and supports the view that viral infections have a significant negative impact on colony survival"

Signs of Life!

No beekeeping class at this time...

Thursday January 22, 2014

I was reminded today how lucky I am to love bees!

I learned Monday 1/20 that I won't be teaching the backyard beekeeping class in Eden Prairie and that was after knowing the faith of my own bees... I was really sad because I love talking bees, beekeeping, new ideas and so on. Maybe at a later time, when people are more interested. After all we are in the middle of our second Vortex, no one is thinking about spring.

However, I received an email today about someone who was also bummed not to be able to attend the  beekeeping class. That made my day! I knew it, there are some people who love bees like me :) and want to know more. Thank you for your uplifting note Josef :)

I went to see my bees this past Sunday 1/19

My hive in Shakopee is alive! It was about 38F, and I walked in the snowy field. I was huffing and puffing, sometimes I was walking on top of the snow and sometimes I was dropping all the way to my hips! What a walk!

Then I collected myself, and a curious bee flew on my red winter coat as to welcome me. I put her delicately on the telescopic metal top cover. She stayed there while I was looking/ peeking into the hole of the hive. 

You may not be able to understand the joy, and happiness that I felt...the bees were alive and were greeting me at the door! (see pictures)

See the bees?

The one that welcomed me!

On my way back, I was thinking: Winter is not even over, very cold temperatures are still lurking. With -15F (-26C) today and schools cancelled again, one can only dream of spring.











In my apiary in Chanhassen,  I lost 3 hives. I have to wait until I can know from what they died..is it starvation or the frigid temperature or a disease? I will open the hive later in March or April. Liz was with me when we discovered the death toll, and that was really sad.

First there were no sign that the bees had taken their cleansing flight ( this is when the bees fly out to defecate, yes they hold it until it is a bit warmer, so they don't soil inside the hive...aren't they smart? or what?)

So, that gave me a clue (bad feeling), but one never knows. I had to see them, to make sure. I was knocking on the boxes, and nothing was happening...until the third to the last colony.

The Russian bees are alive!

They must have thought : " What the heck is banging on our door like that?" And I saw them with my own eyes...they were there, alive.

I did a little dance, and Liz was laughing! We decided to move the wall of hay that Liz had build to help with the wind, closer around the surviving hive. We felt that we had to do something to protect the little bees.

The lonely hive alive

Now after that horrific visit, I had to see my precious Russian bees. Liz and I hopped in my car and drove to the second bee yard . The bees were flying in and out! Incredible! What a sight!

But reality hit suddenly, now my 3 hives have to survive the next 6-7 weeks, which is not the most obvious thing to do. Their food is getting low, and we cannot feed them yet. We can only hope and Nature may surprise us again. In the meantime, have a thought or two for the beautiful bees.