CATCH THE BUZZ - Antibiotics Found In Honey, Again...

WINTERING WEBINAR

Our next webinar will have a slightly different format than those you’ve seen in the past. Get comfortable because it will be two hours long. The first hour will focus on overwintering bees. We will discuss location (urban, rural), pests and predators, feeding, temperature extremes, as well as much more. This discussion features  Michael Palmer, a commercial beekeeper in northern Vermont, to help us with the northern climates, and Harry Fulton, retired State Apiarist from Mississippi, who will bring the southern perspective. To fill in the bits and pieces, Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture Magazine will be joining us. That is the first hour. The second hour will be a panel discussion of sorts on all things beekeeping. We have had numerous requests for just an Q;& A session. With this panel, there is not a question they won't be able to answer.

This Webinar is brought to you courtesy of Brushy Mountain Bee Farm

Overwintering bees and Panel Discussion
Date: Sept 21, 2010
Time: 6:00-8:00PM EST
Space is limited. Registration is free so reserve your Webinar seat now at: For more information and registration Click Here

 

CATCH THE BUZZ

By Alan Harman

  

Two international honey brands are claimed to have been found with antibiotic levels well above legal limits.

   India’s Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says Australia’s Capilano Honey Ltd.’s Capilano Pure and Natural Honey brand had three antibiotics detected, while Switzerland-based Narimpex AG’s Nectaflor Natural Blossom Honey brand had five antibiotics.

   The Press Trust of India news agency reports Capilano denies its honey contains higher level of antibiotics than the prescribed standards and suggests the sample may have been counterfeit.

   A Capilano statement says its own test results on the batches of honey identified by the dates on the packaging of the product identified in reports, show no detection of the residues alleged to be in the honey.

   “The company had found counterfeit products previously in Thailand and Indonesia where it had been copied to the extent that it was neither Capilano honey, nor even a product from Australia,” Capilano Managing Director Roger Masters said.

   “Recently, Capilano objected to trademark applications commenced in India to register a look-alike name Capilona.”

   CSE, a public interest research and advocacy organization based in New Delhi, says its pollution monitoring lab tested 12 branded honey samples for six antibiotics and found antibiotics in 11 samples. The tested samples were bought randomly from various markets in Delhi in July 2009. Ten were Indian brands and two were imported brands.

   The six antibiotics that PML looked for were oxytetracycline, chloramphenicol, ampicillin, erythromycin, enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin.

   The CSE says Capilano’s sample had 150.8 micrograms per kg of oxytetracycline, 15 times more than the 10 micrograms per kg set by the India Export Inspection Council.

   The sample also had 3.6 micrograms per kg of chloramphenicol, compared to the 0.3 micrograms per kg set by the council.

   The test also found 144.8 micrograms per kg of enrofloxacin, for which the council does not set a limit.

   Narimpex’s sample returned 112 micrograms per kg for oxytetracycline; 3.7 micrograms per kg for chloramphenicol; 614.2 micrograms per kg for ampicillin; 56.1 micrograms per kg for enrofloxacin; and 280.3 micrograms per kg for erythromycin.

   The CSE says the leading Indian honey producers - Dabur, Baidyanath, Patanjali Ayurveda, Khadi, Himalaya – all had two to four antibiotics in their products, much above the stipulated standards.

   But CSE director Sunita Narain says in a statement what is even worse and shows the regulatory double-standards is that the two foreign brands tested by CSE – from Australia and Switzerland – had high levels of antibiotics and would certainly be illegal in their own countries.

   “It is clear that foreign companies are taking advantage of the lack of regulations in India,” Narain says. “After all, if our government does not care about the health of its people, why should these companies care?

   “We have standards for antibiotic contamination in the honey we export. Government even tests and certifies that exported honey meets health and safety regulations. But we do not have any standards for domestic honey. This is clearly unacceptable.”

   “The Capilano Pure & Natural Honey sample was found to contain three antibiotics and was non-compliant with the EIC export standards as well as some standards imposed in Australia itself,” the CSE statement says.

   “The fact that more than one antibiotic was found in the samples indicates the prevalent practice is to collect honey from different sources and then blend them before packing and distributing for sale. This brings into question the issue of traceability of honey.”

   Oxytetracycline was found in 50% of the samples in the range of 27 to 250 micrograms per kg.

   Chloramphenicol, banned by the EU, was found in 25% of the samples with levels nine to 15 times higher than the 0.3 micrograms per kg standard fixed by the EIC.

   Ampicillin was found in 67% of the samples at a concentration of 10 to 614 micrograms per kg. CSE says there is no standard for ampicillin in honey in any country because it is not supposed to be used in beekeeping. It is, therefore, an unauthorized or illegal substance in honey.

   Similarly, enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin and erythromycin, which do not have any standards, are being illegally used.

   The results of the tests on the Indian brands were not a shock. The European Union in June banned Indian honey from entering any of its 27 member countries because consignments were found to be contaminated with antibiotics and heavy metals.

   The CSE says the business of honey collection has changed – from small producers to large cartels of honey producers contracting small producers and pushing for high productivity and profits.

   “The business is no longer that of health,” the CSE says. “Besides the presence of the contaminants, investigations by CSE have also exposed the murky underbelly of the international honey trade, where fraud, deceit and illegal trade practices rule the roost.”

Build an entire bee hive with just a table saw. Go to Garreson Publishing. Books by Peter Sieling.

Find out What’s New At Mann Lake right Here Protein feeding pays off with better health, better survival, better production, and better wintering.  Learn More.  

FREE -  Kelley Bees Modern Beekeeping Monthly Newsletter Quality Top Bar Hives by

Gold Star Honeybees - good for you, good for your bees, good for the planet.  Check us out at www.goldstarhoneybees.com.

Subscribe to Malcolm Sanford’s Apis Newsletter right here For a comprehensive listing of beekeeping events around the country and around the globe, check out Bee Culture’s Global Beekeeping Calendar

Check out the Biggest Honey Show there is this fall at www.honeyshow.co.uk

 This message brought to you by Bee Culture, The Magazine Of American Beekeeping, published by the A.I. Root Company.

Read an EXCLUSIVE CHAPTER from Tom Seeley’s new book Honey Bee Democracy, only on Bee Culture’s web page Here!

 

CATCH THE BUZZ - CCD PILOT SURVEY SUMMARY

 

Our next webinar will have a slightly different format than those you’ve seen in the past. Get comfortable because it will be two hours long. The first hour will focus on overwintering bees. We will discuss location (urban, rural), pests and predators, feeding, temperature extremes, as well as much more. This discussion features  Michael Palmer, a commercial beekeeper in northern Vermont, to help us with the northern climates, and Harry Fulton, retired State Apiarist from Mississippi, who will bring the southern perspective. To fill in the bits and pieces, Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture Magazine will be joining us. That is the first hour. The second hour will be a panel discussion of sorts on all things beekeeping. We have had numerous requests for just an Q;& A session. With this panel, there is not a question they won't be able to answer .

This Webinar is brought to you courtesy of Brushy Mountain Bee Farm

Overwintering bees and Panel Discussion
Date: Sept 21, 2010
Time: 6:00-8:00PM EST
Space is limited. Registration is free so reserve your Webinar seat now at: For more information and registration Click Here

 CATCH THE BUZZ

The National Honey Bee Disease and Pest Survey:

2009 – 2010 Pilot Study Summary Report

 ROBYN ROSE USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service   

JERRY HAYES Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Division of Plant Industry

JEFF PETTIS, KAREN RENNICH, NATHAN RICE, DAWN LOPEZ, JAY EVANS, AND VIC LEVI , USDA Agricultural Research Service

DENNIS VANENGELSDORP, MICHAEL ANDEE, NISHIT PATEL , Pennsylvania State University

Executive summary

This pilot study was conducted to 1) validate and trouble shoot the sample collection process we proposed to use for a national survey effort, 2) assess the infrastructures related to shipping, storing and analyzing the specimens, and 3) gather baseline data for a broader survey of honey bee pests and pathogens that was initiated in 2010.  The participating states were California, Florida, and Hawaii and a total of 87 samples were collected. 

We found that our collection protocol worked well, and found that shipping lives bees is a good and viable alternative to collecting and shipping bees on dry ice; however, the rate of surviving bees decreases dramatically with transit times longer than 5 days. 

 In all, samples from 13 different organisms with known associations with managed honey bees were examined.  We found three viruses, Deformed Wing Virus (DWV), Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV) and Kashmir Bee Virus (KBV) in all surveyed states.  Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus (CBPV) and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) were found in both California and Florida, but not in Hawaii.  Slow Paralysis Virus (SPV) was not found in any samples.  While N. ceranae was ubiquitous in all samples, N. apis was notably absent, none being detected in any samples.   Tracheal mites and Tropilaelaps mites were also not found in any samples. Varroa mites were found in all states, and were found particularly abundantly in some Hawaii samples. 

This survey was not designed to be comprehensive representation of the country, and the results should not be interpreted to mean the absence of certain pathogens in the US or in any one particular state.    

Introduction

A pilot survey of honey bee pests and diseases was funded in 2009 by the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and was concluded in 2010.  This survey was conducted in an attempt to document which bee diseases and parasites of honey bees are currently present in the U.S., and to examine all samples for Tropilaelaps, a parasitic mite not thought to be in the U.S.   This pilot survey was initiated to validate and trouble shoot the sample collection process, assess the infrastructures related to shipping, storing and analyzing the specimens, and to gather baseline data for a broader survey of honey bee pests and pathogens that was initiated in 2010. The three states surveyed by this limited effort were California, Hawaii and Florida and a total of 87 apiaries, representing 696 colonies were sampled.  

California, Florida and Hawaii were chosen because they represent high-risk areas that have many potential ports of entry, long growing seasons, and diverse agricultural crops.  Twenty-five samples were collected from different voluntary apiaries throughout Florida, and fourteen samples from Hawaii.  Forty eight samples were collected from California, twenty seven from hives originating in that state and twenty one from migratory beekeepers who were in California under pollination contracts or other reasons.

Coordination of this survey is in collaboration with USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Bee Research Lab (BRL) in Beltsville, MD, Pennsylvania State University (PSU), the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) and USDA APHIS.  

 Survey Description

Live samples taken in the field were sent to USDA BRL and immediately frozen at -800C upon arrival.  The frozen samples were held until molecular analysis was conducted.  Molecular testing of the samples was focused on identifying the following viruses, and pathogens:

1. Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV)

2. Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus (CBPV)

3. Deformed Wing Virus (DWV)

4. Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV)

5. Kashmir Bee Virus (KBV)

6. Slow Paralysis Virus (SPV)

7. Trypanosome sp.

8. Nosema ceranae

9. Nosema apis

The samples taken at the apiaries and preserved in alcohol were later inspected using microscopic analysis at Pennsylvania State University and USDA BRL to:

1. Quantify Nosema spores

2. Quantify Tracheal Mites loads

3. Detect Tropilaelaps Mites

4. Quantify Varroa Mite loads

Beekeepers participating in this survey were provided with a summary report on the average apiary level Nosema, tracheal mites, and Varroa loads in addition to the presence or absence of

Tropilaelaps.  This report was also furnished to each state-level apiary specialist. A separate report that presented the results from the molecular analysis of the sampled bees was distributed to the participating beekeepers and state-level apiary specialists. This report provided the participant with a positive or negative result for the six bee viruses targeted, the two Nosema species targeted, and the presence or absence of Trypanosome in the sampled apiary.

Part of the survey included a visual inspection of the hives before sampling; therefore, the presence of the following symptoms, pests and brood diseases was also recorded, but not analyzed, at the apiaries for each sample taken:

1. American Foul Brood

2. Black Shiny Bees

3. Chalkbrood

4. Deformed Wing Virus

5. European Foul Brood

6. Parasitic Mite Syndrome

7. Sac Brood

8. Small Hive Beetle Adults/Larvae

9. Wax Moth Adults/Larvae

Evaluation of sampling protocol

Live bees were shipped via the U.S. Postal service from each apiary to Beltsville, MD for molecular testing.  In each live bee ‘kit’ was a petri dish that contained both a small amount of water and some hard “queen” candy for food for the bees. This kit contained approximately 12000 live adult bees at sampling time. The percentage of bees lost in transit was directly affected by the length of time samples were in transit.  There was a noticeable decline in the percentage of live bees surviving in sampling boxes when they took 5 days or longer to arrive.  It is not known whether this was due to temperatures experienced during shipping or a lack of food or water or a combination of all three variables. Survivability ranged from 90 – 100% after only 2 days in the mail, to  0 – less than 20% after 6 days in the mail.

Samples were drawn from south, central and northern California, and south, central northern and panhandle area of Florida.

Average Varroa load in all bees sampled was just over 2 mites/hundred bees, but the range was from 0 – 19 mites/100 bees. Nosema ceranae spore counts averaged just over a half million spores/bee, but ranged from 0 – over 4 million spores/bee.  Only moderate levels of IAPV, KBV, ABPV CBPV were found, buy average levels of DWV, Nosema ceranae and especially Trypansomes sp. Were elevated. No tracheal mites or tropilaelaps mites were found in any samples.

Conclusions

The sample protocol developed worked well and the shipping and storage methods were sufficiently robust to justify the initiation of a national effort. The sample size and sampling effort were not robust enough to make any categorical statements about the absence of parasites in the US.  So, while no Tropilaelaps mites were found in these efforts, neither were honey bee tracheal mites nor Nosema apis, both of which are known to be present.

Build an entire bee hive with just a table saw. Go to Garreson Publishing. Books by Peter Sieling.

Find out What’s New At Mann Lake right Here

Protein feeding pays off with better health, better survival, better production, and better wintering.  Learn More.  

FREE -  Kelley Bees Modern Beekeeping Monthly Newsletter

Quality Top Bar Hives by Gold Star Honeybees - good for you, good for your bees, good for the planet.  Check us out at www.goldstarhoneybees.com.

Subscribe to Malcolm Sanford’s Apis Newsletter right here For a comprehensive listing of beekeeping events around the country and around the globe, check out Bee Culture’s Global Beekeeping Calendar

Check out the Biggest Honey Show there is this fall at www.honeyshow.co.uk

 This message brought to you by Bee Culture, The Magazine Of American Beekeeping, published by the A.I. Root Company.

Read an EXCLUSIVE CHAPTER from Tom Seeley’s new book Honey Bee Democracy, only on Bee Culture’s web page Here!

 

 

 

CATCH THE BUZZ - Dr. Norm Gary and The History Channel's SuperHuman's Show

 

Our next webinar will have a slightly different format than those you’ve seen in the past. Get comfortable because it will be two hours long. The first hour will focus on overwintering bees. We will discuss location (urban, rural), pests and predators, feeding, temperature extremes, as well as much more. This discussion features  Michael Palmer, a commercial beekeeper in northern Vermont, to help us with the northern climates, and Harry Fulton, retired State Apiarist from Mississippi, who will bring the southern perspective. To fill in the bits and pieces, Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture Magazine will be joining us. That is the first hour. The second hour will be a panel discussion of sorts on all things beekeeping. We have had numerous requests for just an Q;& A session. With this panel, there is not a question they won't be able to ans wer.

This Webinar is brought to you courtesy of Brushy Mountain Bee Farm

Overwintering bees and Panel Discussion
Date: Sept 21, 2010
Time: 6:00-8:00PM EST
Space is limited. Registration is free so reserve your Webinar seat now at: For more information and registration Click Here

CATCH THE BUZZ

 

THIS ‘BEE SUIT’ SUITS HIM FINE; APICULTURIST NORMAN GARY ON HISTORY CHANNEL SEPT. 16 AS ‘HUMAN BEE HIVE’

 

By Kathy Keatley Garvey, Communications Specialist, Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, kegarvey@ucdavis.edu 

When honey bee expert Norman Gary “suits up,” don’t expect a standard-issued bee suit.

 

It’s not an “ordinary” bee suit. And what he does is not “ordinary.”

 

Norman Gary, a retired University of California, Davis entomology professor, wears his bees—thousands of them.

 

And that suits him just fine. To him, bees are not only a science (study of apiculture), but an adventure.

 

Gary, 76, who retired in 1994 from UC Davis after a 32-year academic career, will appear Thursday, Sept. 16 on a History Channel show wearing 75,000 bees. The show, part of Stan Lee’s “Super Humans,” is scheduled to be broadcast at 10 p.m., Pacific Time (Channel 64 for local Comcast viewers).

 

Host-presenter Daniel Browning Smith has billed him as “the human bee hive” and will explore bee behavior and the science behind the bees.

 

A crew from England filmed Gary in mid-May at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, at Rick Schubert’s Bee Happy Apiaries in Vacaville-Winters and then in a UC Davis open field where the 75,000 bees clustered his entire body.

 

“That’s about 20 pounds, depending upon how much honey or sugar syrup they have consumed,” Gary said.  “A hungry bee weighs approximately 90 mg and within a minute of active ingestion she can increase her weight to 150 mgs!” 

 

Norman Gary knows bees. And he knows their behavior.

 

As a beekeeper, he’s kept bees for 62 years and as a researcher, he’s studied them for more than three decades. He’s published more 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers and four book chapters.

 

But he is also a bee wrangler. He trains bees to perform action scenes in movies, television shows and commercials. His credits over the last 35 years include 18 films, including “Fried Green Tomatoes”; more than 70 television shows, including the Johnny Carson and Jay Leno shows; six commercials, and hundreds of live Thriller Bee Shows in the Western states.

 

Gary estimates he has performed the bee cluster stunt at least 500 times over the past 35 years. He remembers 54 performances at the California State Fair alone.

 

The History Channel episode may be his last professionally staged bee-cluster stunt, he said. However, he will continue to serve as a bee consultant to video producers and has just written a beginning beekeeping book, “The Honey Bee Hobbyist,” to be published in early December by Bow Tie Press. Norm’s book will be reviewed in Bee Culture magazine when it comes out.

 

“Bees are trainable, if you ask them to perform behaviors that are in their natural behavioral repertoire,” Gary said. For the program, the Director wanted a close up of what happens when a bee stings. So Kim Flottum, who was also covering the story volunteered a finger to take the sting. Of course the first time was a ‘test’ to see how it looked, setting up the scene for the second, and final take. Look for this incredible act of bravery during the show.

 

For the shoot, Gary borrowed New World Carniolan bees from Schubert, whose bee stock originated with bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey of the Laidlaw facility.  “Bees are not inclined to sting if they are well fed—happy and content—and are ‘under the influence’ of powerful synthetic queen bee odors—pheromones—which tend to pacify them,” Gary said.

A feature length, behind the scenes article on how this show was made will appear in the November issue of Bee Culture. So watch the show on Thursday, and look for the story next month. 

 

Bees are attracted to pheromones and they cluster on drops of pheromones he places on himself.  While at UC Davis, he formulated a pheromone solution that is very effective in controlling bee behavior.

 

“Bees wrangled by this procedure have no inclination to sting,” he said.  “Stinging behavior occurs naturally near the hive in defense of the entire colony not for the individual bee, because it dies within hours after stinging.  Using this approach I have has as many as a million bees clustered on six people simultaneously “

 

Gary once trained bees to fly into his mouth to collect food from a small sponge saturated with his patented artificial nectar.  He holds the Guinness World record (109 bees inside his closed mouth for 10 seconds) for the stunt. 

 

“Most people fear bees,” Gary acknowledged. “They think bees ‘want’ to sting them. Wrong!  They sting only when the nest or colony is attacked or disturbed or when they are trapped in a physical situation where they are crushed.”

 

Sometimes, with the heavy weight of the bees on his body, he’ll receive one or two stings per cluster stunt. Sometimes none.

 

Gary, who began hobby beekeeping at age 15 in Florida, went on to earn a doctorate in apiculture at Cornell University in 1959. During his career, he has worn many hats, including hobby beekeeper, commercial beekeeper, deputy apiary inspector in New York, honey bee research scientist and entomology professor, and adult beekeeping education teacher, and author.

 

Known internationally for his bee research, Gary was the first to document reproductive behavior of honey bees on film and the first to discover queen bee sex attractant pheromones. He invented a magnetic retrieval capture/recapture system for studying the foraging activities of bees, documenting the distribution and flight range in the field. His other studies revolved around honey bee pollination of agricultural crops, stinging and defensive behavior, and the effects of pesticides on foraging activities, among dozens of others.

 

Today his life centers around music and bees. He has played music professionally for more than 50 years and for nine years has led a Dixieland band, appropriately known as the Beez Kneez Jazz Band, recording two CDs.  He has performed more than 30 years in the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, the world’s largest jazz festival.

 

His instruments include the “B-flat clarinet,” which he plays when he’s covered with bees.

 

“I’m still very active in bees and music,” Gary said. “It’s a good life.” (Editor’s Note: His website is at www.normangary.com. For more information on the History Channel, see http://www.history.com/shows/stan-lees-superhumans/episodes/episode -guide#slide-2.)

 

More photos on the UC Davis Entomology website at http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/news/normangarybeewrangler.html

 

Build an entire bee hive with just a table saw. Go to Garreson Publishing. Books by Peter Sieling.

Find out What’s New At Mann Lake right Here

Protein feeding pays off with better bee health, better surviv al, better production, and better wintering.  Learn More.  

Subscribe to Malcolm Sanford’s Apis Newsletter right here For a comprehensive listing of beekeeping events around the country and around the globe, check out Bee Culture’s Global Beekeeping Calendar

Check out the Biggest Honey Show there is this fall at www.honeyshow.co.uk

 This message brought to you by Bee Culture, The Magazine Of American Beekeeping, published by the A.I. Root Company. Read an EXCLUSIVE CHAPTER from Tom Seeley’s new book Honey Bee Democracy, only on Bee Culture’s web page Here!

 

 

 

 

 

CATCH THE BUZZ - Bees' Internal Clocks can Change

Our next webinar will have a slightly different format than those you’ve seen in the past. Get comfortable because it will be two hours long. The first hour will focus on overwintering bees. We will discuss location (urban, rural), pests and predators, feeding, temperature extremes, as well as much more. This discussion features  Michael Palmer, a commercial beekeeper in northern Vermont, to help us with the northern climates, and Harry Fulton, retired State Apiarist from Mississippi, who will bring the southern perspective. To fill in the bits and pieces, Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture Magazine will be joining us. That is the first hour. The second hour will be a panel discussion of sorts on all things beekeeping. We have had numerous requests for just an Q;& A session. With this panel, there is not a question they won't be able to answer.

This Webinar is brought to you courtesy of Brushy Mountain Bee Farm

Overwintering bees and Panel Discussion
Date: Sept 21, 2010
Time: 6:00-8:00PM EST
Space is limited. Registration is free so reserve your Webinar seat now at: For more information and registration Click Here

CATCH THE BUZZ

Bees Change Their Internal Clocks

Honey bees removed from their usual roles in the hive quickly and drastically changed their biological rhythms, according to a study in the Sept. 15 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The changes were evident in both the bees' behavior and in their internal clocks. These findings indicate that social environment has a significant effect on the physiology and behavior of animals. In people, disturbances to the biological clock are known to cause problems for shift workers and new parents and for contributing to mood disorders.

Circadian rhythm, the body's "internal clock," regulates daily functions. A few "clock genes" control many actions, including the time of sleeping, eating and drinking, temperature regulation, and hormone fluctuations. However, exactly how that clock is affected by — and affects — social interactions with other animals is unknown.

Senior author Guy Bloch, PhD, and his colleagues from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, chose to study bees in part because of their complex social environment. One role in bee society is the "nurse": bees that are busy at all times caring for larvae. This continuous activity is different from other bees and animals, whose levels rise and fall throughout the day.

Bloch and his team thought that changing the nurse bees' social environment might alter their activity levels, so they separated them from their larvae. The researchers found that the bees' cellular rhythms and behavior completely changed, matching a more typical circadian cycle.

"Our findings show that circadian rhythms of honey bees are altered by signals from the brood that are transferred by close or direct contact," Bloch said. "This flexibility in the bees' clock is striking, given that humans and most other animals studied cannot sustain long periods of around-the-clock activity without deterioration in performance and an increase in disease."

The results suggest that the bees' internal clocks were shaped by certain social cues. Jürgen Tautz, PhD, of the Julius-Maximilians Universität Würzburg in Germany, an expert in honey bee biology who was unaffiliated with the study, said it is a wonderful example of the tightly regulated interactions between genes and behavior in a bee colony. "The presence or absence of larvae switched the genes 'on' or 'off,' which guaranteed the adaptive behavior of the bees," Tautz said.

Because bees and mammals' circadian clocks are similarly organized, the question is whether the clocks of other animals also strongly depend on their social environments. The next step is to find just how social exchanges influence gene expressions. Further research into this question may have implications for individuals who suffer from disturbances in their behavioral, sleeping, and waking cycles. Research into how these rhythms may be altered and even stabilized might identify new treatment options.

Build an entire bee hive with just a table saw. Go to Garreson Publishing. Books by Peter Sieling.

Find out What’s New At Mann Lake right Here

Protein feeding pays off with better bee health, better survival, better production, and better wintering.  Learn More.  

Subscribe to Malcolm Sanford’s Apis Newsletter right here For a comprehensive listing of beekeeping events around the country and around the globe, check out Bee Culture’s Global Beekeeping Calendar

Check out the Biggest Honey Show there is this fall at www.honeyshow.co.uk

 This message brought to you by Bee Culture, The Magazine Of American Beekeeping, published by the A.I. Root Company. Read an EXCLUSIVE CHAPTER from Tom Seeley’s new book Honey Bee Democracy, only on Bee Culture’s web page Here!

 

Central Beekeepers Alliance : Thanks from Central Beekeepers VP

---

Thanks from Central Beekeepers VP Posted: 14 Sep 2010 06:48 PM PDT Well, the CBA has had a busy few months. We started off with the Maritime Bee Tour here in our city that was a great success! We had several guest speakers that had a wealth of information for all beekeepers young and old. The food was great, the people were awesome, and the many things that we learned — be it hands on or just talking to the many beekeepers from other provinces and towns — will, I’m sure, be remembered as we carry on with our own bees in our back yards. The FREX was just another event that we attended. This was a chance to inform the general public about the HONEY BEE, and all of the ups and downs of keeping bees. We had an observation hive for all to see and many of our beekeepers talked to everyone who would listen …AS WE LOVE OUR BEES!! Some of our beekeepers had honey and other bee-related products to sell, as this was a great way to promote our honey bees in NB. I would like to thank all of the beekeepers who gave the gift of their free time to help with these events. Christine Dembenski Vice President, Central Beekeepers Alliance Thanks from Central Beekeepers VP was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com. Central Beekeepers at FREX in September 4th Annual Harvey Outdoor Adventure Show Bee Registration Time in New Brunswick

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CATCH THE BUZZ - HFCS by any other name...

CATCH THE BUZZ

CRA petitions FDA for high fructose corn syrup name change

By Caroline Scott-Thomas,

 

The Corn Refiners Association has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asking it to allow the term ‘corn sugar’ as an alternative label declaration for high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

HFCS has suffered from a spate of bad publicity in recent years, and food and beverage manufacturers have been increasingly switching it out of their products in preference for beet or cane sugar (sucrose).

The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) has said that the reason it filed a petition with the FDA was to be clear with consumers about what HFCS is: A sugar made from corn. The CRA – a trade association that represents the corn refining industry in the United States – has repeatedly stressed that HFCS is not high in fructose, even though that is what the name may suggest. In fact it contains proportions of fructose and glucose that are similar to sucrose.

President of the Corn Refiners Association Audrae Erickson told FoodNavigator-USA.com: “The words ‘high fructose corn syrup’ have caused confusion…This is all about consumer clarity on the ingredient label.”

She said that in much the same way that there is beet sugar and cane sugar, sugar from corn should be called ‘corn sugar’ in order to give it a name that is easily understood.

It is expected to take up to two years for the FDA to come to a decision on whether to approve the renaming.

The American Dietetic Association has also found that HFCS is "nutritionally equivalent to sucrose”, and that it is metabolized by the body in the same way as sucrose.

Erickson said: “We hope that the FDA will act positively on our petition in the interest of consumer clarity."

This is not the first time that a name change has been sought for an ingredient that has been declining in popularity in an effort to simplify its image with consumers.

In November last year, Ajinomoto rebranded its aspartame ingredient ‘AminoSweet’, saying the time was right to “remind people that aspartame is made from two amino acids and brings absolutely nothing new to the diet, just sweetness without the calories”.

Build an entire bee hive with just a table saw. Go to Garreson Publishing. Books by Peter Sieling.

Find out What’s New At Mann Lake right Here

Protein feeding pays off with better bee health, better survival, better production, and better wintering.  Learn More.

 Subscribe to Malcolm Sanford’s Apis Newsletter right here For a comprehensive listing of beekeeping events around the country and around the globe, check out Bee Culture’s Global Beekeeping Calendar

Check out the Biggest Honey Show there is this fall at www.honeyshow.co.uk

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CATCH THE BUZZ - Apple Genome Deciphered

CATCH THE BUZZ

 

Apple genome Pealed Away

   By Alan Harman

An international team of scientists from Italy, France, New Zealand, Belgium and the United States publish a draft sequence of the domestic apple genome.

   The availability of a genome sequence for apple will allow scientists to more rapidly identify which genes provide desirable characteristics to the fruit and which genes and gene variants provide disease or drought resistance to the plant.

   The information can be used to rapidly improve the plants through more informed selective breeding.

   An organism's genome is the total of all its genetic information, including genes. Genes carry information that determines, among other things, a plant's appearance, health, productivity and color and taste of the fruit.

   Led by Washington State University (WSU) horticultural genomicist Amit Dhingra, the Washington-based team sequenced and analysed a unique version of the genome of the golden delicious apple in which all duplicated chromosomes are genetically identical.

   This information was used to validate the sequence of the more complicated “heterozygous” golden delicious apple, in which duplicated chromosomes are not identical.

   “Before genome sequencing, the best we could do was correlate traits with genes,” Dhingra says. “Now we can point to a specific gene and say, ‘This is the one; this gene is responsible for this trait'.

   “That trait of interest might be, for instance, a disease, which is why sequencing the human genome was such an important milestone. Or the trait might be for something desirable, like flavour in a piece of fruit.

   “We are already working on finding physiological solutions to issues such as bitter pit in current apple varieties with the gene-based information available to us and lay a foundation for improved varieties in the future through generation of sports (mutations) and breeding.”

   While the apple genome provides a valuable resource for future research, one pressing question answered by the international team's paper in the journal Nature Genetics was one of origin.

   Scientists have long wanted to know, and have for years argued vehemently about, the ancestor of the modern domesticated apple.

   The question is now settled with the researchers saying Malus sieversii, native to the mountains of southern Kazakhstan, is the apple's wild ancestor.

   “Having the apple genome sequence will greatly accelerate our ability to define the differences between apple cultivars at the genetic level,” WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center apple breeder Kate Evans says.

   “This will allow us to exploit these differences and target areas of diversity to incorporate into the breeding program, resulting in improved cultivars for the consumers that are also better suited for long-term, sustainable production.”

 

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Protein feeding pays off with better bee health, better survival, better production, and better wintering.  Learn More.

 Subscribe to Malcolm Sanford’s Apis Newsletter right here For a comprehensive listing of beekeeping events around the country and around the globe, check out Bee Culture’s Global Beekeeping Calendar

Check out the Biggest Honey Show there is this fall at www.honeyshow.co.uk

 This message brought to you by Bee Culture, The Magazine Of American Beekeeping, published by the A.I. Root Company.

Read an EXCLUSIVE CHAPTER from Tom Seeley’s new book Honey Bee Democracy, only on Bee Culture’s web page Here!