Tuesday 23 August 2011

Central Beekeepers Alliance : Project RoboBee: Can a Robot Learn the Bees’ Waggle Dance?

Central Beekeepers Alliance : Project RoboBee: Can a Robot Learn the Bees’ Waggle Dance?


Project RoboBee: Can a Robot Learn the Bees’ Waggle Dance?

Posted: 22 Aug 2011 10:45 AM PDT

Can a robot bee learn to do the “waggle dance” well enough to fool honeybees into following its directions?

At the Free University of Berlin, researchers are working on a mechanical bee they hope will be able to communicate with real bees about the location and quality of a food source. The implications for pollination services are enormous — if the robot bee can master the complex “waggle dance” language of bees, could it encourage a colony to work a field of canola rather than, say, more attractive wildflower forage in another direction?

What an idea! But it’s a steep learning curve for the scientists and their robot bee, according to Rebecca J. Rosen’s article in The Atlantic online:

So far, the dancing robotic bee has not been able to successfully communicate the location of a new food source, according to a new paper in PLoS ONE. The scientists list a couple of possible reasons: For starters, the robot can’t seem to get enough other bees to pay attention to its dance for long enough, perhaps because of a lack of buzzing wings (whose role in the waggle dance is unknown), sufficient body heat, or legs for creating vibrations in the honey comb. It’s also possible that chemicals on robot are off-putting to the other bees.

Robotic Bee Presentation

Robot Bee Communicates with Real Bees

Read more:
The Atlantic, 20 August 2011: Attack of the Robobees! A Mechanical Bee Tests Its Wings.

Photo credit:
Chittka L: Dances as Windows into Insect Perception. PLoS Biol 2/7/2004: e216. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0020216

Project RoboBee: Can a Robot Learn the Bees’ Waggle Dance? Article by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. Copyright © 2011 MindsEye Productions and Central Beekeepers Alliance. All rights reserved.

Random Posts


Saturday 20 August 2011

Central Beekeepers Alliance : Will Your Bees Have Food for Winter?

Central Beekeepers Alliance : Will Your Bees Have Food for Winter?


Will Your Bees Have Food for Winter?

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 07:55 AM PDT

August is a tricky month for beginning beekeepers. With many fall flowers in bloom, the field bees are still out collecting nectar and pollen and winter seems a long way off. But the last few weeks of true summer are deceptive. The nights are starting to chill down here in New Brunswick. In a healthy colony with a good queen, drone brood production will be noticeably down. You may even start to see a few drones kicked out of the hive, as the season starts to wind down.

Starvation is a major cause of winter bee losses.

The past few years here in New Brunswick we’ve been seeing an unusual thaw in mid-December, even getting heavy rain and spring-like flooding in much of the province in December 2010. When the weather acts up like that, it fools the bees. That’s when many colonies break their cluster and the bees become more active, moving about the hive and consuming more of the stored honey than they normally would.

The result is too often that the colony runs out of easily accessible food before spring, when snow melts and temperatures rise enough for beekeepers to get in to start spring feeding.

The answer is to make sure your bees go into winter with plenty of food — both honey and stored pollen — to see them through to spring.

How much food do bees need for winter?

Unless you are in the semi-tropical or tropical regions of the country your bees should have somewhere between 50 and 100 pounds of honey safely stored away when the first signs of autumn show. The colder and longer your winter and spring, the more they will need.

Kim Flottum, the editor of Bee Culture magazine who lives near Cleveland, Ohio, says that his bees typically use about 60 – 70 pounds of honey and 5 – 7 frames of pollen between the end of October and the beginning of April. Here in New Brunswick, beekeepers often prefer to have more like 85 to 100 pounds on a colony when it gets wrapped for wintering. Obviously, the further south you go, the sooner spring comes, and bees in don’t need as much in the way of winter food stores as they do here in Atlantic Canada.

New beekeepers: do not expect to take much if any honey off your newly established colonies in the first year. That honey belongs to the bees, to help build them up for next season.

If you figure about eight pounds of honey for a deep frame mostly filled on both sides you can estimate how much honey your bees really have. A medium frame like I use holds 4+ pounds if it's filled completely on both sides. Either way, that's a bunch of frames of honey that the bees need. And don't forget the pollen.

There is some controversy in warmer climates, with a longer growing season, about whether or not to feed bees. Up north here, especially if the fall honey flow is weak or we get a dry spell during the late summer and early fall, beekeepers often have no choice about whether to feed. After all, if it’s a choice between bees starving and bees surviving…

One good reason to start feeding as soon as possible after the honey harvest is because bees need time and warm temperatures to convert the sugar syrup to “honey” — this is not the real honey bees make from flower nectar and you would never harvest it for human consumption, of course, but simply the bees converting the sugar-and-water syrup into a form they can use for food.

Pollen is needed for feeding brood in the spring, so it is just as essential as honey stores for the bees. If you don’t see lots of pollen stored in the frames, consider feeding a good quality pollen substitute. And unless you are absolutely sure your bees have enough stores to get them through the winter (and then some extra, in case of a late spring), you’ll want to feed 2:1 sugar syrup as well. This is a good time to medicate against nosema as well, as you can put the medication right into the syrup.

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/honeybees-beekeeping/getting-your-bees-ready-for-winter-already.aspx#ixzz1VNztAAap

Read more:
Mother Earth News: Getting Your Bees Ready For Winter…Already by Kim Flottum

Will Your Bees Have Food for Winter? Article by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. Copyright © 2011 MindsEye Productions and Central Beekeepers Alliance. All rights reserved.

Random Posts


Thursday 18 August 2011

Central Beekeepers Alliance : Honey Laundering: Toxic Chinese Honey is Sold in US Stores

Central Beekeepers Alliance : Honey Laundering: Toxic Chinese Honey is Sold in US Stores


Honey Laundering: Toxic Chinese Honey is Sold in US Stores

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 07:01 AM PDT

Honey Laundering: Toxic Chinese Honey is Sold in US Stores by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. Copyright © 2011 MindsEye Productions and Central Beekeepers Alliance. All rights reserved.

As if fans of honey needed yet another reason to buy straight from local beekeepers — or, better yet, to keep their own honey bees — a new investigative report from Food Safety News warns that tainted honey from China is ending up on American store shelves and on the tables of consumers.

Asian honey, tainted with illegal antibiotics, heavy metals, and in some cases agriicultural chemicals that are banned from use in many countries including Canada, has for some time been smuggled into Europe and North America. Alarmingly, Food Safety News, this practice continues, “despite assurances from the Food and Drug Administration and other federal officials that the hundreds of millions of pounds reaching store shelves were authentic and safe following the widespread arrests and convictions of major smugglers over the last two years.”

Experts interviewed by Food Safety News say some of the largest and most long-established U.S. honey packers are knowingly buying mislabeled, transshipped or possibly altered honey so they can sell it cheaper than those companies who demand safety, quality and rigorously inspected honey.

“It’s no secret that the honey smuggling is being driven by money, the desire to save a couple of pennies a pound,” said Richard Adee, who is the Washington Legislative Chairman of the American Honey Producers Association.

“These big packers are still using imported honey of uncertain safety that they know is illegal because they know their chances of getting caught are slim,” Adee said.

Read the full report by Andrew Schneider at Food Safety News: Asian Honey, Banned in Europe, Is Flooding U.S. Grocery Shelves

Random Posts


Saturday 6 August 2011

Central Beekeepers Alliance : Central Beekeepers Potluck Corn Boil 2011

Central Beekeepers Alliance : Central Beekeepers Potluck Corn Boil 2011


Central Beekeepers Potluck Corn Boil 2011

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:11 AM PDT

Central Beekeepers Potluck Corn Boil 2011 by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. Copyright © 2011 MindsEye Productions and Central Beekeepers Alliance. All rights reserved.

Central Beekeepers Alliance will hold our annual Summer Corn Boil and potluck supper on Saturday, 27 August 2011. This year there’s a change of location — the corn boil will be held at the Picnic Grounds of the Agricultural Research Station, Fredericton, NB. As always, visitors and new beekeepers are welcome.

Time: 6:30 p.m.
Date: Saturday, 27 August 2011
Location: Agricultural Research Station, Lincoln Road, Fredericton, New Brunswick

As well as enjoying good food and company, and lots of beekeeping talk, we’ll be accepting volunteers to take a shift or two at the beekeepers’ booth at the Fredericton Exhibition, the first week of September.