Save the Bees

What do we do?

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We practice biodynamic farming, and only use non GMO seeds and seeds without neonicotinoids. We do not use pesticides or other chemicals and try to do as many of the efforts listed below.

 

We also educate people on the importance of bees and ways to help save the bee. Recently we worked with the local girlscouts on their beekeeping silver award. Check out their very informative website. 

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Here's what you can do:

• Don't pull the dandelions or clover. Bees love them

• Plant flowers and herbs even if it's just pots on a deck. Every little bit helps

• Plant less lawn & more flowers & herbs

• Don't mow every week so bees can forage the lawn

• Don't use pesticides or chemicals 

• Only buy plants & seeds that are organic, not treated with pesticides or neonicotinoid

• Purchase organic food & products

• Become a backyard beekeeper. Take a class through your local bee association.

• Get educated: watch bee documentaries, take workshops, read books

 

What is a Neonicotinoid?

Sometimes shortened to neonics ("NEE-oh-Nicks").  In the late 1990s neonicotinoids came under increasing scrutiny over their environmental impacts.  Neonicotinoid use was linked in a range of studies to adverse ecological effects, including honey-bee colony collapse disorder (CCD) and loss of birds due to a reduction in insect populations. In 2013, the European Union and a few non EU countries restricted the use of certain neonicotinoids.  

 

Do you know the European Union bans many pesticides where the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) relies on the very companies that make pesticides to provide the research that shows that products are safe. That's like the fox watching the hen house. 

 

Washington Post Story on millions of bees dead after South Carolina sprays for zika mosquitoes. Click here to read. 

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American FoulBrood

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Good News for the Honey Bee!! The United States Department of Agriculture has approved the first-ever vaccine for honeybees to prevent American foulbrood disease, a fatal bacterial disease that can destroy honeybee colonies. American foulbrood is one of the most widespread and the most destructive of the honey bee brood (baby bees) diseases. The vaccine will be available for purchase in the United States in 2023.   

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Image above on left is infected with foulbrood. Note the dark, patchy cells. The image on the right is a Hudson Hives bee hive and is a healthy frame. 

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How does it works:

• Unlike traditional vaccines, the honeybee vaccine isn’t injected with a syringe. Instead, it’s mixed into “queen feed,” which the worker bees consume. The worker bees incorporate the vaccine into royal jelly, which they feed to the queen bee. Once the queen bee has consumed the vaccine-laden royal jelly, fragments of the vaccine are deposited in her ovaries. Then the queen’s larvae will be born with immunity to the disease.

 

Foul brood Symptoms: 

• First the capping of the diseased cell becomes moist and darkens in color

• Then as the larva shrinks, the capping is drawn down into the mouth of the cell so the normal convex capping becomes concave

• Worker bees may puncture this sunken capping and eventually remove it altogether

• Death of an infected larva takes place after the cell has been sealed and the cocoon has been spun

• At death, the diseased larva changes from a normal pearly white color to a creamy brown, then gradually darkens

• As the larva dries, it becomes dark brown

• The final state is a very dark brown scale

• The overall appearance is patchy because of the mixture of diseased and healthy brood cells

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Transmission: 

• The spores are fed to young larvae by the nurse bees

• They then germinate in the gut of the larva and multiply rapidly, causing the larva to die soon after it has been sealed in its cell. By the time of death of the larva, the new spores have formed. 

• When the house bees clean out the cell containing the dead larva, these spores are distributed throughout the hive and more and more larvae become infected. 

• The honey in an infected colony can become contaminated with spores and can be a source of infection for any bee that gains access to it. 

• For example, as a colony becomes weak, it cannot defend itself from attacks by robber bees from strong nearby colonies; these robbers take back the contaminated honey to their own colony, continuing the cycle of infection. 

• The beekeeper also may inadvertently spread the disease by exposing contaminated honey to other bees or by the interchange of infected equipment. 

• Moreover, drifting bees or swarms issuing from an infected colony may spread the disease.

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To learn more visit the USDA