Recent Developments in Apiculture

Recent Developments in Apiculture

Modern Beekeeping- An Introduction

Modern Beekeeping are specialist suppliers of high quality beekeeping equipments and beekeeping supplies. It includes the different as well as efficient techniques and developments in disease management, hive management and in all the aspects of apiculture. 

As at May 2006, 2707 beekeepers owned 300 569 hives on 18 996 apiaries (Table 10.4). Beekeeper numbers continued to decline during 2005/06, falling by 240, compared with 261 last year and 582 in 2004. However, hive numbers increased by 7641 and reversed the downward trend of the past several years.

Recent Developments in Hive management

Thermometer

When the winter is very cold and temperature steadily declines, the cluster is forced to rise and move away from the front of the hive faster. If a sufficient amount of honey is not left in the top body, the colony may starve even if an abundance of honey still remains at the bottom of the hive!

               

to install any thermometer with a sensor to monitor temperature inside of your hive. Such a small investment will help you control temperature inside of your hives year-round.
            During wintertime, if you notice an unexpected temperature drop, you will get a chance to prevent a possible loss of your colonies

Sensors

Sensors are located in the center of the area above the frames.

Recent developments in Pest and Disease Management

Immunizing The Bees

To improve bees' defensive response to bacteria, I immunize them with freshly-grated onion twice a year, once during late autumn and once in the early spring if my colonies may succumb to disease.

External Beetle And Wax Moth Trap:

A 2 liter drink bottle with a hole cut 1 1/4" below the neck shoulder. Fill with equal amounts (1/4 – 1 cup each) of vinegar, sugar, and water. Shake until the sugar is dissolved. Then add a very ripe thinly sliced unpeeled banana or slum gum or rotten orange and place it in a warm place to begin fermentation. Then hang it from a tree near the apiary or the stored supers.

Dowda Method Of Powdered Sugar Dusting:

This may work better during broodless periods, but treatment may be too late once a broodless period has been reached in the fall. You need 10X powdered sugar, a measuring cup, a sifter (tea strainer or flour sifter), and a bee brush.

 The hive must have a screened bottom board (1/8” mesh). Insert a dry bottom board or piece of poster board below the screen. Separate the brood chambers and sift 1 cup of 10X powdered sugar over the brood frames of the lower chamber.

Brush the sugar off the top bars down between the frames. Replace the upper brood chamber, sift another cup of powdered sugar and brush it down too.

 Wait at least 5 minutes, remove the bottom board and check for mites. Leave the bottom board out for ventilation. If you see a lot of mites, repeat this every few days.

Comb Drying And Storage:

After the last honey of the year has been extracted from your supers, stack them outside near your bee hives alternating orientation and let the bees lick the wet combs dry over a few days and then store them over the fall and winter.

 Only store honey supers that contain no pollen and have had very little brood in them as wax moths will damage pollen-laden comb quickly. Cut out any wax moth tunnels the following spring before placing them back in service.

Managing Dead Outs And Over-Winter Deaths:

A colony in which the bees all died during the growth and production season (spring, summer, or fall) is a dead out. This is possibly secondary to a serious brood disease, such as AFB. Dead outs allow other robbing bees to pick up and transmit brood diseases back to their colony and also allow pests such as wax moths and SHBs an ideal area to proliferate.

Therefore dead outs require timely removal from the apiary to prevent disease and pest spread. Colonies that die over winter and are found in late winter / early spring are not dead outs and are typically not due to disease (other than to mites, which also die with the colony).

Although the dead bees and uneaten pollen frames of over-winter deaths should be removed from the hive, the hive itself may be safely left in the apiary until the weather warms up.

Varroa Destructor

Varroa destructor is an external parasitic mite that attacks the honey bees Apis cerana and Apis mellifera. The disease caused by the mites is called varroosis.

Characteristics Of Varroa

Varroa destructor can only reproduce in a honey bee colony. It attaches to the body of the bee and weakens the bee by sucking hemolymph. In this process, RNA viruses such as the deformed wing virus (DWV) spread to bees. A significant mite infestation will lead to the death of a honey bee colony, usually in the late autumn through early spring.

The Varroa mite is the parasite with the most pronounced economic impact on the beekeeping industry. It may be a contributing factor to colony collapse disorder, as research shows it is the main factor for collapsed colonies in Ontario, Canada and Hawaii, USA.

Control Or Preventive Measures And Treatment

Chemical Measures

Varroa mites can be treated with commercially available miticides. Miticides must be applied carefully to minimize the contamination of honey that might be consumed by humans. Proper use of miticides also slows the development of resistance by the mites.

Synthetic Chemicals

• Pyrethroid insecticide (Apistan) as strips
• Organophosphate insecticide (Coumaphos (Check-mite)) as strips
• Manley's Thymol Crystal and surgical spirit recipe with sugar as food

Naturally Occurring Chemicals

• Formic acid as vapor or pads (Mite-Away)
• Powdered sugar (Dowda method), talc, or other "safe" powders with a grain size between 5 and 15 µm (0.20 and 0.59 mil) can be sprinkled on the bees.
• Sugar esters (Sucrocide) in spray application
• Oxalic acid trickling method or applied as vapor
• Natural hops compounds in strip application (Hopguard)

Physical, Mechanical, Behavioural Methods

Varroa mites can also be controlled through nonchemical means. Most of these controls are intended to reduce the mite population to a manageable level, not to eliminate the mites completely.

Limited drone brood cell method, is based on limiting the brood space cell for Varroa mites to inhabit (4.9 mm across — about 0.5 mm smaller than standard), and also to enhance the difference in size between worker and drone brood, with the intention of making the drone comb traps more effective in trapping Varroa mites. Small cell foundations have staunch advocates, though controlled studies have been generally inconclusive.

Freezing drone brood method takes advantage of Varroa mites' preference for longer living drone brood. The beekeeper will put a frame in the hive that is sized to encourage the queen to lay primarily drone brood. Once the brood is capped, the beekeeper removes the frame and puts it in the freezer. This kills the Varroa mites feeding on those bees. It also kills the drone brood, but most hives produce an excess of drone bees, so it is not generally considered a loss. After freezing, the frame can be returned to the hive. The nurse bees will clean out the dead brood (and dead mites) and the cycle continues.

Drone brood excision method is a variation applicable to top bar hives. Honey bees tend to place comb suitable for drone brood along the bottom and outer margins of the comb. Cutting this off at a late stage of development ("purple eye stage") and discarding it reduces the mite load. It also allows for inspection and counting of mites on the brood.

Birth Control For Varroa

The pads are handy to use, but the real beauty is that by putting them smack dab in the center of the broodnest, the fanning by the bees drives the vapors right through the brood cappings where it can kill the tiny, soft skinned, pale male and developing female mites. if you can kill the male mites before they can mate with their partnerss, then even if some females emerge, they won’t be able to reproduce!

Recent Developments In Feed Management

Pollen Supplement

Hack’s Sack Protein Patties - Procedure

1. 125 lbs. Sugar (Add water and keep wet. Should be a little thicker than pancake batter.)

2. Add either 3 cups citric acid or 4 quarts of lemon juice, (this is to put the ph at 4 ½ to 5) 3. Add 1 cup Honey Bee Healthy

4. Add ½ bag Vitamins & Electrolytes

5. Add 10 lbs. pollen (optional)

(keep the mix wet)

6. Mix in 25 lbs. of Inedible Dried eggs

7. Add 3 ½ cups Canola Oil

8. Mix in 24 lbs. (2 gallons) Honey

9. Finish by adding 50 lbs. Brewtech Brewers Yeast. Water until it has the consistency you desire.

This formula tests out from 16-20% protein

Ultimate Fondant Recipe (Bee Candy, Bee Feed Paste)

Fondant (also known as bee candy or bee paste) is used as emergency feed for honey bees - usually in the winter as a defense against low honey stores.  Fondant, in solid form, is usually placed on the topmost hive frames where the honey bees can access it as the cluster moves upward in the wintertime.

it is mostly "inverted sugar" - sucrose (white table sugar) that is broken down, using heat and a catalyst, into two simpler sugars: fructose and glucose.   Fructose and glucose are far easier for bees to digest.  Although some beekeepers have used baker's (cake) fondant (e.g. vanilla flavoring and starch which is detremental to the bee's Digestive System).  

Equipment For Making Fondant

• Big pot (depending upon how much you are making - e.g. a 5 quart or bigger pasta pot).  I use one of those pots used for cooking turkeys in oil from Walmart).
• A strong mixing device for stirring the sugar/water mixture. 
• Electronic "instant-read" pocket kitchen cooking thermometer (strongly suggest NOT using an unwieldy candy thermometer )
• Something to pour the fondant into (pans, plastic bags, plastic frames, etc.
• Scale (one of those electronic kitchen scales are great at this) - you wont need this after the first few batches as you'll know what to do and accuracy is not that important.
• Gloves to prevent injury

SOWING MACHINES IN RICE

SOWING MACHINES IN RICE

TNAU Paddy Seeder

vDirect Paddy Seeder/TNAU Paddy Seeder is one of the revolutionary equipments that changed the face of sowing paddy seeds in wetland field.

v Direct paddy drum seeder has eliminated the need of transplantation and hours of manual work which will literally break the back of the farmers involved in sowing the paddy seeds to the field. 

 It covers 8 rows of 20 cm row to row spacing at a time. transplantation and hours of manual work which will literally break the back of the farmers involved in sowing the paddy seeds to the field. 

v It covers 8 rows of 20 cm row to row spacing at a time. 

Salient Features of Paddy Seeder

› vThere is no need to raise nursery

vTransplantation is avoided

vPaddy Seeds are sown directly in wetland field

vLabour cost is reduced drastically

vOne single person can sow one ha per day

Improved Direct Paddy Seeder

›vImproved Direct Paddy Seeder is developed at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore.

Some of the features due to which it is highly appreciated

vHigh strength

vLow maintenance

vReduces labour

vLight in weight

Drum Seeder

v Drum Seeder is hand operated agricultural implement to sow paddy in wetland field.

v There is no need for transplantation.  

v It reduces labour cost drastically.

vDrum Seeder has four numbers of seed drums.  

v Seed Drums are of hyperboloid shape. 

Advantages

vLabour cost is reduced drastically

vUniformity in seed sowing and plant population

vContinuous drilling of seed is eliminated

vReduction in seed rate

›

Automatic Rice Nursery Sowing Machine

vThe Rice Sowing Machine can finish all kinds of process about spreading soil,sowing rice seeds,sprinkling and covering soil automatically one time.

v The Rice Nursery Sowing Machine adopts spiral seed-metering device,meeting the needs of precise sowing, achieving adjustable quantity of seeds and increasing sowing uniformity.

›

Fusarium – Identification Characters and Plant Disease control

Fusarium – Identification Characters and

Plant Disease control

Fusarium – An Introduction

Fusarium is a large genus of filamentous fungi widely distributed in soil and in association with plants. Most species are harmless saprobes, and are relatively abundant members of the soil microbial community. Some species produce mycotoxins in cereal crops that can affect human and animal health if they enter the food chain. The main toxins produced by these Fusarium species are fumonisins and trichothecenes.

The name of Fusarium comes from Latin fusus, meaning a spindle.

Identifying characteristics

• Saprophytic Fungi.
• Grows in plant and animal tissues, and soils.
• Lab cultures often show a cottony-pink mycelium.
• Macronidia shape is main basis for identification.
• Causes many plant diseases, mainly root rots and vascular wilts.
• Spores dispersed by air movement and rain splash.
• Over thirty unique species within the genus have been isolated.

Fusarium cells

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The picture on the left shows typical Fusarium cells

Taxonomic description

The genus Fusarium consists of species that are highly variable due to their genetic structure and also because environmental changes can easily cause changes in their morphology. Many Fusarium species require specific conditions to form their optimal morphologies and also tend to mutate rapidly, causing further difficulties in identification.

The specific shape of the Fusarium's slimy, banana-shaped, septate macronidia is the main identifying characteristic. Some species also form distinctly different sequences of micronidia in their aerial mycelium. Also, some species form chlamydospores in varying patterns.

Fusarium is a genus of the hyphomycetes, formally classified as a genus of the deuteromycetes. There are thirty species of Fusarium that are most commonly recognized, but many additional species have been isolated.

However, due to the varying conditions under which these were cultured and the mutational possibilities of these species, not all scientists recognize them as unique. It cannot be stressed enough as to the myriad of subtle and qualitative differences among Fusarium species.

The above picture shows micronidial chains in the aerial mycelium of various species of Fusarium.

Isolation and ecology

Isolation of Fusarium species can be achieved from samples of soil, running water, insects, and seeds and roots from most plants. Because of the many difficulties in identifying the various species, an evolving set of isolation principles is gaining favor, including the following:

 1) nutrient poor media such as carnation or banana leaf agar must be used to culture the microscopic characteristics of Fusarium for accurate identification to be possible,

2) exposure to fluorescent light and/or UV light is necessary for optimal macronidia growth, and 3) the potato dextrose and potato sucrose agars commonly used in the past to culture Fusarium species should no longer be used as the high sugar levels in these media tend to promote mutation in many species, therefore making accurate identification an almost impossible task.

As stated earlier, Fusarium is found to be widely distributed in nature in various environments. There are several toxic species that can cause disease in both plant and animals, including humans. Infection in animals by a Fusarium rarely occurs, and most often only does so when a break in the skin allows for the organism to enter the body.  

The most common diseases associated with Fusarium are common in plants, mainly root rots and vascular wilts of field crops such as potatoes, tomatoes, and small grains such as wheat, oats, barley, and rye. 

Chlamydospores in clumps of Fusarium

The above picture shows chlamydospores in clumps of Fusarium.

B. subtilis – Control  over Fusarium

B. subtilis bacteria produce antibiotics, including some called iturins, which help the bacteria compete with other microorganisms either by killing them or reducing their growth rate.

When applied directly to seeds, B. subtilis bacteria colonize the developing root system, competing with various disease organisms that attack root systems. According to the manufacturers, B. subtilis also inhibits plant pathogen spore germination and interferes with the attachment of the pathogen to the plant.

When soil or seed-applied, it is claimed that B. subtilis feeds off plant root exudates, depriving disease pathogens of a food source.

B. subtilis is also reported to induce systemic acquired resistance (SAR) against bacterial pathogens. SAR is when a plant’s own defense mechanisms are induced by prior treatment with either a biological or chemical agent. The concept of SAR has been studied for many years and is an exciting prospect for disease management.

Effective disease management in onions, or any crop, is usually the result of an integrated approach that includes cultural practices like crop rotation, sanitation and variety selection. On organic farms, biological fungicides such as Bacillus subtiliscan be used as an additional tool. Studies show this material to be relatively effective in helping to suppress onion diseases

Wonders of Honey Bees

Wonders of Honey Bees

An Introduction

            Do you know ?  Honey bee itself, a wonder. Let see the facts why its called WONDER.

Largest Honey producer in the world

The world record for honey production is by a man Ron Smith who lived for one year in the tropical forests of Australia he lived and worked his 400 bee hives on Eucalyptus trees they averaged 672lbs per hive some produced over 1000 lbs through the year. average production of 346 kilograms (762 lbs) per hive from 460 hives.

For an Ounce of Honey

The Average honey bee will produce 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. To make one pound of honey it would take 556 workers and 2 million flowers. Honey bees fly about 55,000 miles to bring in enough nectar to make one pound of honey.

            Honey bees make an average of 1,600 round trips in order to produce one ounce of honey.About one ounce of honey is all it takes to give the honey bee enough energy to fly around the world

Bee Wax

            Secreted from glands, beeswax is used by the honeybee to build honey comb. It is used by humans in drugs, cosmetics, artists' materials, furniture polish and candles.Beeswax production in most hives is only about 1.5% to 2.0% of the honey yield. Approximately eight pounds of honey is eaten by bees to produce one pound of  beeswax.

Royal Jelly- A Life changing thing

Royal Jelly is the substance that turns an ordinary bee into the Queen Bee. It is made of pollen which is chewed up and mixed with a chemical secreted from a gland in the nursing bee's heads. This "milk" or "pollen mush" is fed to all the larvae for the first two days of their lives.

Honey bees can fly at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour.           

That might seem fast, but in the bug world, it's actually rather slow. Honey bees are built for short trips from flower to flower, not for long distance travel. Their tiny wings must flap about 12,000 times per minute just to keep their pollen-laden bodies aloft for the flight home.Its recorded that the bees can go farthest distance of 13.7 km.

An industrious worker bee may visit 2,000 flowers per day. 

She can't carry pollen from that many flowers at once, so she'll visit 50-100 flowers before heading home. All day long, she repeats these round trip flights to forage, which puts a lot of wear and tear on her body. A hardworking forager may live just 3 weeks.

Honey bees maintain a constant temperature of about 93º F within the hive year-round.       

As temperatures fall, the bees form a tight group within their hive to stay warm. Honey bee workers cluster around the queen, insulating her from the outside cold. In summer, the workers fan the air within the hive with their wings, keeping the queen and brood from overheating. You can hear the hum of all those wings beating inside the hive from several feet away.

A queen honey bee stores a lifetime supply of sperm. 

The queen bee can live 3-4 years, but her biological clock ticks a lot faster than you might think. Just a week after emerging from her queen cell, the new queen flies from the hive to mate. If she doesn't do so within 20 days, it's too late; she loses her ability to mate. If successful, however, she never needs to mate again. She holds the sperm in her spermatheca and uses it to fertilize eggs throughout her life

The queen honey bee lays up to 1,500 eggs per day, and may lay up to 1 million in her lifetime. 

Just 48 hours after mating, the queen begins her lifelong task of laying eggs. So prolific an egg layer is she, she can produce her own body weight in eggs in a single day. In fact, she has no time for any other chores, so attendant workers take care of all her grooming and feeding.

  

Their sting has some benefits

A toxin in bee venom called melittin may prevent HIV. Melittin can kill HIV by poking holes into the virus's protective envelope. (Meanwhile, when mellitin hitches a ride on certain nanoparticles, it will just bounce off normal cells and leave them unharmed.) Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis hope the toxin can be used in preventative gels. 

They can help us catch serial killers

Serial killers behave like bees. They commit their crimes close to home, but far away enough that the neighbors don’t get suspicious. Similarly, bees collect pollen near their hive, but far enough that predators can’t find the hive. To understand how this “buffer zone” works, scientists studied bee behavior and wrote up a few algorithms. Their findings improved computer models police use to find felons.

They can recognize human faces

Honeybees make out faces the same way we do. They take parts—like eyebrows, lips, and ears—and cobble them together to make out the whole face. It’s called “configular processing,” and it might help computer scientists improve face recognition technology, the New York Times reports.

They’re job creators

Americans consume about 285 million pounds of honey each year. On top of that, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that honeybees pollinate 80 percent of the country’s insect crops—meaning bees pollinate over $20 billion worth of crops each year.

Pollination
            Agriculture depends greatly on the honeybee for pollination. Honeybees account for 80% of all insect pollination. Without such pollination, we would see a significant decrease in the yield of fruits and vegetables. 50-100 flowers are pollinated during one collection trip.  

So next time you're eating any fruit or vegetable, thank a honey bee!

Honey – Amazing Facts

ü  Honey never spoils. No need to refrigerate it. It can be stored unopened, indefinitely, at room temperature in a dry cupboard.

ü  Honey is one of the oldest foods in existence. It was found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun and was still edible (a little dry) as honey never spoils because it is naturally anti microbial. (Anti fungal, anti bacterial, anti everything nasty) which is why it's also such an incredible healer.

ü  Honey has been used for medicine by the Egyptians as far back as 5000 years!

ü  Honey is very good for burns, abrasions, and indigestion.

ü  The sting of the honey bee is used for arthritis; which is called Apitherapy.

ü  There are over 300 varieties of honey, because there are over 300 kinds of flowers.

ü  Darker honey has higher mineral content and antioxidant potential.

ü  Honey should not be fed to babies under the age of 1 year due to the botulin toxin.

ü  Honey is an effective antimicrobial agent, which inhibits growth of bacteria.

ü  Honey has an approximate pH of 3.9

ü  That there are 75 substances found in honey.

ü  Is highest composition of Glucose, and fructose.

ü  Has monosaccharide (simple sugars), which are more easily assimilated than any other forms.

Reference

ü  www.beeman.ca

ü  www.honeybeesonline.com

ü  www.beesource.com