No. 42 Spring, 1997 Page 1

Year of the Swarm?

I have examined about half of the colonies here at MSU on the 1st and 2nd of April, and the bees look as good as I have seen in many, many years. I had several colonies that had their covers pulled off by raccoons? and ate most of the honey out of the top super. Even many of these colonies were still very good. Now comes the real problem, how to prevent the bees from swarming. Some of these colonies are full of bees now. If we are not careful many of these colonies will be in the trees by mid May. My concern is that Michigan could possibly repeat what seems to have happened a year or two ago. That is, we have a good winter followed by lots of swarms, and then these swarms build up lots of mites that cause these feral colonies to collapse and infest the managed colonies next fall or the following year. then we have a large winter loss again.

Pesticide Losses ??

The American Beekeeping Federation is trying to verify losses caused by use, or by misuse of pesticides. It seems that beekeepers have generally keep this information to themselves since their is no longer any compensation for these losses. However, the problem is that the U.S. Government is now considering removing some of the warnings on pesticide labels since they have heard of few problems. If you have had losses and do not have a report form from the ABF, write to Gene Brandi, Chair, ABF Research & Technical Comm., 15346 South Johnson Road, Los Banos, CA 93635.

Proposed Honey Board
Legislation Changes

Amendments are being proposed to the Honey Research, Promotion, and Consumer Information Act – the statute under which the National Honey Board is organized. Once the Act is amended and the related order drafted, the industry will vote on the proposed order.

What the amendments will do is:

1. require that the NHB allocate at least 8% of its annual revenue for beekeeping research;
2. allow the Honey Board to check for adulteration of honey;
3. add 1-cent/ lb. on honey packers;
4. add 2 more seats for packers. The vote will come at some later time.

 

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Document author(s): Roger Hoopingarner
E-Mail: hoopinga@msue.msu.edu
URL: http://www.ent.msu.edu/bplus/page1.html