THE
HEXAGON December 17, 2013
CHINESE HONEY SMUGGLING OPERATION FINALLY GETS STUNG Hillary Acer
When most Americans think of honey, they probably imagine Disney’s infamous Pooh bear, plump and bashful and licking his fingers clean of that lucid nectar, honey. However, that view may quickly change because the discovery of a semi-recent honey scandal is causing quite the buzz. Two companies, Groeb Farms, Inc. and Honey Holding and 14 of their top officials have been caught with sticky fingers. They have been accused of illegally smuggling Chinese honey across United States borders and customs for less than fair market prices. This colossal case of honey laundering, sometimes referred to as “Project Honeygate,” underwent a long-term investigation. According to several news sources, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement called this scandal “one of the largest criminal anti-dumping cases in history.” Findings revealed that Groeb Farms and Honey Holding illegally dodged upwards of $180 million worth of anti-dumping duties– US import regulations imposed specifically on inexpensive Chinese honey to keep it from infiltrating and undermining the domestic production of honey. However these companies paid a measly fine of $2 million and $1 million respectively, less than one percent of the fees they avoided paying by smuggling. How did this group pull the off the largest food fraud in US history? German company ALW sold honey to US distributors (Groeb Farms, Inc and Honey Holding). ALW first utilized independent honey brokers who transported cheaper Chinese honey to other countries including India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, South Korea, Mongolia, Thailand, Taiwan, and the Philippines where it was relabeled under the new country name.
Additionally, the honey often underwent an extra ultrafiltration step here, which removed nearly all traces of pollen, making it nearly impossible to trace the honey back to its original source. Aside from avoiding import tariffs and mislabeling products, Groeb Farms and Honey Holding allegedly bought this imported honey with the knowledge that most barrels contained illegal substances. FDA prohibited antibiotics, in particular, Chloramphenicol , a bacteriostatic antimicrobial used as medicine to treat eye infections such as Pink Eye, were found in several barrels of Chinese honey, though small amounts. Though consumption of this honey was not thought to have a significant effect on health, it questions whether difficult-to-regulate imported goods, such as barrels of foreign honey are safe for the United States. Other honey barrels were found to have alternative sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup that were not labeled on honey bottles. However, as long as the United States continues to be the top consumer of honey worldwide, consuming over 120 million kilograms per year, costing over 380million dollars, producers and distributors will be searching for ways to lower costs and increase profitability. What does this mean for the US honeylover? Consumers must pay more attention to the behaviors of honey companies, ask questions of your honey producers, follow up on customs regulations, petition for stricter import laws, and ultimately check that everyone in the growing honey industry “bee-hives themselves!”
The hexagon GLOSSARY OF TERMS
december 17, 2013
There are a number of terms that are used frequently to describe honey production and beekeeping guidelines. Compiled below are those terms which are used in the official recommendation to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) and that may be unfamiliar to the reader. -
Matthew Duffett
Apiculture: The management and pro-
duction of honey bees, queens, and bee products
Bee products: Honey, wax, propolis,
royal jelly, beeswax, pollen, and bee venom, or any other product form bees intended for human use or consumption
Colony: Queen bee with its attendant
worker bees and drone bees used to produce bee products
Forage zone: Land or bodies of water,
within a 1.8 mile (3 km) radius of the edge of the apiary/bee yard which provides bees with water nectar, honeydew, pollen, and propolis.
Harvest equipment: Equipment used to collect bee products for sale as organic,
including honey supers, frames from which royal jelly will be harvested, and any other equipment in contact with organic bee products
Hive: Equipment used in the production of bee products to include hive boxes, bottom boards, covers, frames, and comb
Nucleus colony or nuc: A smaller sized hive box with reduced numbers of bees and
brood usually containing a queen, used for expansion of the apiary operation
Replacement bees: Bees introduced into an existing organic apiary operation to replenish established colonies that have been lost to overwintering, predators, or other catastrophic loss
Surveillance zone: Land area of 2.2 mile radius (3.4 km) beyond the forage zone which may not contain high risk activities
(Giacomini, 5)
The hexagon WHAT IS HONEY? Jissel Poblete
december 17, 2013
This seems like somewhat of a simple question. It is a food product made by bees using nectar from flowers. There should be no contested knowledge about something so simple, and yet, in 2011 there were many speculations about what should indeed be labeled as “honey”. In November of 2011, Food Safety News came out with an article stating that most honey sold in grocery store chains was, in fact, not honey. This caused much confusion and a slight uproar in the food industry, leading to several class action lawsuits. According to most of the world’s food safety agencies, honey lacking particles of pollen cannot be labeled as “honey”. This is because without pollen, there is no way to trace where the honey came from. Specifically in the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration states that honey that has been ultrafiltered to remove all pollen can no longer be considered honey. This law is to ensure that the honey can be traced to a safe source. Based on a study done by the Food Safety Network, 76-77% of products found in large chain grocery stores like Safeway, Target, and Walmart had all pollen removed. 100% of honey from drugstores such as Walgreens and CVS Pharmacy, as well as individual packets from KFC and Smuckers, had all pollen removed. This raises multiple questions: if these products cannot be labeled as honey, what is it? And if they are not honey, why are they on the shelves of these stores as such? The confusion of what can and cannot be classified as honey comes from ambiguous products that do not have pollen to products that have been ultrafiltered. Honey that does not have pollen is still honey. In fact, honey is not even made from pollen; it is made from nectar. Pollen ends up in honey accidentally and is still useful in tracing the source of where the honey came from, but it is unnecessary in the honeymaking process. Yet, it is not the presence or lack thereof pollen that determines what is honey by the FDA’s standards, is whether a product has been filtered or ultrafiltered. Filtration is common to remove wax particles, pollen, and bee body parts from the honey and meets the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s standards. Ultrafiltration, however, is illegal. It involves adding water to filter honey under high pressures that results in a sweetener product that is derived from honey, but is not honey according to the National Honey Board. Most of this ultrafiltered product comes from China, where it could have been contaminated with antibiotics that are illegal in the U.S. Therefore, the question to what honey is not whether or not is has pollen, but rather has it been ultrafiltered into sweetener. In terms of addressing this confusion, it is necessary for the FDA to take action and enforce their standard. Until then, there are serious difficulties in knowing whether the honey we buy in large chain grocery stores is made by ultrafiltration or U. S. standard filtration.
TEST your Honey’s Purity! - Pour honey in a glass of water - real honey will drop to the bottom and not dissolve - Dip a stale piece of bread into honey in question - it should still be firm after 10 min - Pure honey will not freeze in the freezer - it has a low freezing point - Dip a match stick in honey and let soak for 2-3 minutes, then remove and try to spark it - if it sparks, it is pure - Pure honey will uncook a grain of cooked rice after 12 hours because it will draw the moisture from it - Pure honey spins clockwise due to its non-symmetrical structure - diluted honey will spin counterclockwise like other liquids http://beeuorganics.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/fake-honey-honey-flavored-corn-syrup/
The hexagon
december 17, 2013
Research Method Challenges for BIG HONEY Jissel Poblete & Hillary Acer
Tracking the supply chain of large-scale honey production led UC Berkeley undergraduate researchers to a dead end. The lack of information obtained meant that there may be a reason why honey distributors are making this information difficult to come by -- perhaps they do not want American honey consumers to know what exactly they are putting in their mouths. They found that most large-scale distributor websites were vague and did not transparently provide connections between producers, processors, and distributors. As researchers tried to dig deeper, they found considerable speculation and contested knowledge over where the honey actually came from and what producers motives were. UC Berkeley investigators even called and emailed multiple distributors and received zero responses in return. Food Safety News did similar inquiries and found that the information about where honey sourcing was “proprietary� confirming the findings that consumers have no reliable way of knowing whether their generic honey from Walgreens or Safeway is safe or unsafe to consume, let alone have the knowledge about where it is coming from. To date, the only surefire way to scientifically trace the source of the honey is by its pollen content. Yet, most large scale honey are sending this popular sweetener through ultra-filtration processes, which completely remove the pollen content from the honey. Despite the controversy surrounding pollen-free honey, there are other reasons for filtering honey that affect why it has not yet been banned. The simplest answer is that consumers demand honey that is transparent and clear. In fact, the USDA give higher grades for honey with more clarity in it. It also takes more time for filtered honey to crystallize and thus, it maintains a longer shelf life. Because of this, researchers found it difficult to understand the intentions companies have for removing pollen from their honey. Could they be doing it to comply with consumer demand? Or because they prefer to use cheaper, sometimes illegally imported Chinese honey, which is untraceable? In conclusion, researchers found that one of the main issues in tracing large scale honey is the FDA standards on honey quality and tracking, along with a lack of enforcement of said standards. For example, if the FDA does not consider ultra-filtered honey to be actual honey, which has been under debate for period of time, they should enforce these standards more strictly, for the consumers benefit. Ultimately, eaters should be able to know where their crystal clear honey is coming from, what it contains, and if it is even honey to begin with, and there is no reason large scale producers should be unwilling to hide this information.
Photo Credit: Eric Tourneret
The hexagon US v. EU STANDARDS
Nicholas Monroe Austin What makes a product good enough for one buyer and not the other? Basic economic theory would suggest asymmetric information, price, or a severe lack of supply for one of the buyers. When expanded to view the aggregate macroeconomic situation, countries act the same way as one buyer would. I first began my research to compare and contrast the European Union and the US Organic Honey regulations. As I continued, I learned the truly stringent qualifications for honey to be organic because of the wide forage range of honeybees. Any plant or insect effecting chemicals would taint the honey from a diehard organic advocate’s perspective. Consequently, I am instead tackling the difference in the countries’ relative honey market shares and the reasons behind these flows. According to the 2012 US CIAFS report – Capacity to Improve Agriculture and Food Security – “the EU has the highest per capita honey consumption in the world and produced enough honey to fulfill approximately 60% of its demand in 2010.” This means that the EU as a whole commands a huge share of honey intake, and as we will see, it is some of the best honey in the world. Europeans as well as most of the world will pay more for lighter honeys, “white, extra light amber, light amber,” known to be sweeter, less strong of a taste, and historically aesthetically pleasing. Personally, dark honey is amazing, so this was a surprising but important fact in the world honey market. The US market share may be less per capita but overall we consume more honey, or at least what we perceive to be honey. We fulfill about 65% of our demand for honey through imports, which is much more than the EU. This leads to a larger percentage of the honey that requires supplier chain tracing, or else poor practices involving the bee treatment, pollen chemical residue, or packing issues can occur without notice.
december 17, 2013 IIn response to these problems, the EU marks certain countries as unable to be imported from. Two examples of this are that “Argentina exports have suffered due to GMO pollen concerns” as well as issuing a “ban on Indian honey.” Thus, the EU sees a problem and realizes they do not want the honey from that place, even if that means increasing their costs for imported honey. In response to this decrease in export potential, “Argentine producers began to shift [their product] towards the US market.” This honey situation reflects a common theme that occurs for the US and EU markets. The risk analysis of the US clearly allows much more than the precautionary approach that the EU does. EU opposition can inspire change as it did in Chinese honey and their use of certain antibiotics. This importation of Chinese honey, which is the largest world exporter, has been identified as a risky source from past scandals. We see that even the EU takes on potentially harmful products for profit’s sake. The real question is if the US consumers would individually buy the honeys that they are getting assuming they knew what harmful processes they most likely went through. From the 2005-2011 period the phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder has been occurring, which has severely impacted the world’s honey supply. To combat the world’s lacking amount of honey, save the honeybees, and ensure honey purity, we must increase our local agricultural sustainability efforts to benefit bees. Their success both provides us a sweet product and helps our nation’s rural sector. Urban-beekeeping is another possible solution to assist the bee cause. While on a micro-scale these practices can culminate towards a larger benefit, major import countries have to enforce policies which discourage the negative decisions of other export countries.
The hexagon
december 17, 2013
Checking Twice, Naughty or Nice? Nicholas Monroe Austin
There are many questions to ask when looking down the aisle for your favorite honey. Whether that be at Costco, Whole Foods, or the local farmer’s market, there are steps to take to get the best quality honey. Standards put forth by governmental organizations like the USDA specify both what is honey for “human consumption” and then a next step up, what is “organic?” Luckily, there are 3rd party non-profit organizations like True Source Honey, which keep track of each part of the honey supply chain. This attention helps to ensure that these beekeepers, processors (export and import related), and retail companies maintain healthy practices. I was able to discuss these matters with a Los Angeles local honeybee activist and raw honey supplier, Chelsea McFarland. When asked what some current honey industry issues exist, Chelsea responded “it is really hard today to know that the honey you are getting hasn’t been cut with high-fructose corn syrup or ultra-pasteurized. When these things happen the honey loses its natural beneficial properties.” The True Source checking model identifies honey’s that are approved throughout the chain. This approval is met by combating the issues that Mrs. McFarland mentions. Though, after looking at some of the specific honey supplier sites, not all say that they are explicitly organic. Despite this, the TSH certification process is a step in the right direction also supplemented by the USDA requirements. One example of a TSH approved beekeeping organization is the Baltimore, Maryland based BMoreHoney. This 501(c)3 non-profit works to combat Colony Collapse Disorder and create pure honey where the bees are treated with a hands-off approach. This means no use of antibiotics or production supplements. One thing to keep in mind for this higher quality is that it comes at a much higher price than what you might get at a large grocery store. McFarland had this to say concerning mainstream honey: “A golden rule of thumb is that if it squeezes out of a little plastic bear, it’s probably not the best type of honey that you can buy.” As a student at the University of California Berkeley, I’ve grown to love bears, but I absolutely agree with the activist’s mantra. Importation of poor-grade honey has become a scandal in the US, which is why checks on the honey market are so important. Wanting to see if a socially considered “green” company like Whole Foods actually has good honey, I asked McFarland what she thought on its products. She stated that “one of the cool things about Whole Foods is that they allow local beekeepers to supply their stores’ honey. I always say the best way to ensure local, organic, raw honey is to know your local beekeeper or be your beekeeper.” While her thoughts may be true in that some great quality honey’s are sold at Whole Foods, the consumer must be wary of the 365 Whole Trade Organic Honey. It is a common tactic used by Whole Foods to buy established producers of a good and then label these things as “365” certified. This certification does not necessarily have as strict of requirements as TSH or small local producers. Their 365 guidelines are not available for review by the public eye. I wonder what they have to hide.
The hexagon
december 17, 2013
The Problem With “Organic” Honey and Recommendations for New Standards Matthew Duffett Unlike organic fruits and vegetables, which rooted in place. The bees that produce honey are highly mobile and gather pollen from an extremely large area. It is far more difficult to control where bees collect their pollen, and because it is all combined in the hive, any pollen contamination may affect an entire batch of honey.
There are two zones that beekepers need to monitor. The forage zone is any land or water within a 1.8-mile radius of the apiary where bees are most likely to collect pollen, nectar, and propolis. The surveillance zone is a land area of 2.2 miles radius beyone the forage zone which, for organic production, may not contain high risk activities such as pesticide and herbicide application (Giacomini, 5). An examination of typical agricultural landscapes in North America reveals very few areas where an apiary is surrounded for miles by exclusively organic production or wildlands. Most organic farms exist adjacent to or within a few miles of conventional agriculture. This proximity poses a major challenge for anyone hoping to produce organic honey. Taking into account the fact that many hives are trucked to multiple farms throughout the growing season for their pollination services, it is nearly impossible to say with certainty that any commercially produced honey in North America is actually pure organic honey as defined by the forage and surveillance zone recommendations. These guidelines come from Daniel Giacomini’s official recommendations for rulemaking to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). They are, in fact, merely guidelines because no actual organic standards specific to honey production exist at this time. Until now, all USDA certified organic honey has been produced following the general guidelines written for organic fruits, vegetables, and animal products. Even if one considers honey as an animal product, the general organic standards fall short. Honey cannot be treated the same as, say, milk because the area bees forage is much larger and more difficult to control than even the grasses and forbes grazed by cattle at pasture. Maybe it is for this reason that after establishing a 4-mile radius zone free from contaminants, the official recommendation focuses on the cultural practices of directly interacting with bees and hives for organic standards. The Formal Recommendations address the origin of bees, development of an organic apiculture plan, maintenance of records, the land upon which colonies may be maintained, the types of feed and water made available to bees, hive construction and materials, and bee health care practices (Giacomini, 5-8). Bee forage may be supplemented only with feed from organic honey, organic sugar/syrup, or organic pollen substitutes. In order to minimize foraging outside of the approved organic forage zone, the Organic System Plan must demonstrate that an adequate supply of certified organic crops is available within 1.8 miles of the apiary as food throughout the year and that crops in the surveillance zone “offer minimal risk to organic integrity (Giacomini, 7).” Concerns regarding pesticide drift were not addressed. The document also supports the Accredited Certifiers Association Apiculture Working Group’s 2009 suggestions for including several new chemicals on the National List of approved chemicals for use in a certified organic operation. These chemicals are primarily intended to treat diseased hives and include formic acid, thymol, carbon dioxide, folic acid, and lactic acid. The working group also suggested prohibiting tobacco used in smokers, synthetic miticides, and the antibiotics oxytetracline, and terramycin (Giacomini, 5).
The hexagon
Local Honey Tammy Lee
december 17, 2013
Honey is from flower nectar that is collected my bees. The bees store the nectar in honeycombs where the nectar naturally breaks down into simple sugars through evaporation. The color and flavor of the honey depends on the kind of nectar collected by the bees and the color can range from light to dark. Natural raw honey has absolutely no additives in it. Beekeepers collect honey by scraping off the wax from the honey comb and then the frames are placed in an extractor which uses centrifugal force to get the honey out of the frames. The honey is then strained and if it is raw honey, it would go straight into a bottle. Sometimes honey is heat treated, but raw honey is not. So where can you get yourself some pure honey? Right here in our own backyard there are two local honey sellers: Bee Healthy Honey Shop and Marshall’s Farm Natural Honey.
Bee Healthy Honey Shop
Bee Healthy Honey Shop on 2950 Telegraph in Oakland is owned by Khaled Almaghafi. He is a fourthgeneration beekeeper and he learned the trade as a child in Yemen. He keeps 250 hives that are scattered around Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, and Santa Clara. Here in the East Bay hills, the bees primarily forage on wildflowers, while in Santa Clara the hives are located on a persimmon and blueberry farm. Khaled would move his hives to different farms, depending on the season. He would only take his bees to specific orchards/farms where he personally knows the owners and have been working with them for a long time. This way he knows that the farmer did not spray his orchard before the bees come which would kill the bees. Khaled offer flavors that range from sage honey from Monterey County, orange blossom honey from Fresno, blueberry honey from Oregon, a coffee honey gathered from Ethiopian coffee plantations and honey from Napa Valley grape juices. His honey is sold at their shop on Telegraph, online, Berkeley Bowl, and Farmers Markets. In addition to selling honey, Khaled also provides a bee removal service. He removes the bees unharmed and then relocates them to bee farms. Khaled’s bees have been affected by Colony Collapse Disorder. They use to have 500 hives and now they only have half the number of hives in the last five years. He believes that the cause is a combination of factors which include GMOs, chemicals, pesticides, stress, as well as commercial beekeeping practices. Some practices would feed hives high-fructose corn syrup over the winter and rely heavily on antibiotics. Khaled’s own solution is to use an essential oil solution to treat for Varroa mites. He mixes spearmint, peppermint, and wintergreen essential oils, melts them together with beeswax and neem oil, and combines the mixture until it is like a lotion. He then soaks a card in the lotion and places it at the bottom of the hive. The bees walk through it and the mites stick to the card. And this method has been working for him. He also recommends putting the hives in sunny locations. t at the bottom of the hive. The bees walk through it and the mites stick to the card. And this method has been working for him. He also recommends putting the hives in sunny locations.
The hexagon
december 17, 2013
Local Honey cont. Tammy Lee
Marshall’s Farm Natural Honey
Marshall's Farm has a hand-crafted approach to traditional honey production. All their honey is produced in California and the west coast. They market their honey as raw, 100% pure, unheated, uncooked, unfiltered, natural & certified kosher. So what makes Marshall’s honey special? “Beekeeper, Spencer Marshall, harvests small quantities of superior quality gourmet honey in the very special microclimates of the San Francisco Bay Area. Spencer searches out locations that support only a few hives but produce exceptional tasting honeys. The diverse & constantly changing seasonal blooms of the Bay Area (Eucalyptus, Star Thistle, Wildflower, Blackberry & others) produce floral nectars & pollens that differ greatly in taste, texture & color. Spencer harvests after each bloom, isolates the honey harvested from each apiary & thus creates the special flavor nuances & wonderful color variations in Marshall's Farm delectably delicious honey.” – Marshall’s Farm Marhsall’s honey can be found at local markets and grocery stores, restaurants, and online. They would truck their bees to where the blossoms are which also guarantees that bees are harvesting nectar from the rite flowers that create that special taste. But most of the wild flower hives are stationary around the Bay Area in backyards, farmlands, and forests. The price of honey has gone up over recent years due to drought and the decline in bees. Colony collapse disorder has also affected Marshall’s hives but, according to an Marshall’s employee, it depends on the hive. They would sometimes offer pollinating service to farmers. They believe that it is important to eat local honey because you know exactly where your honey is coming from since you can develop a relationship with the beekeepers. Raw honey is also good for you because it helps to build up immunity to local pollen that can cause allergies. Other health benefits include being a great skin moisturizer because honey is a natural humectant (attracts and retains moisture) with antimicrobial properties. Honey also provides energy because it is carbohydrate rich and it is a natural cough suppressant. The commodity chain of honey is relatively short and transparent, which is what makes local raw honey great. You know exactly what is in your honey and know that you are paying for the genuine product. The honey comes straight from the bees to jars and then to you through your local bee keepers. While the price of honey has gone up due to drought and the decline in honey bee populations, local honey has tastes that cannot be compared to your average imported teddy bear jar honey that has been mixed with honey from different places. Local bee keepers work to harvest nectar from seasonal local flowers to create specialty honey like yellow starthistle, orange blossom, and buckwheat. Each honey is unique and wonderful in its own way depending on the flowers the bees harvest from. In addition to the taste, the major benefit of local raw honey is that it helps reduce allergies that people have to local pollen. So next time you want honey, definitely try local honey. You will definitely be amazed by its unique taste.
The hexagon
december 17, 2013
Building Your Own Bee Garden! Tammy Lee
Why are bees important? Bees are responsible for the fertilization and reproduction of plants. While not all plants depend on bees to pollinate them (some are pollinated by wind and other insects), there are a large number of plants that do depend on bee pollination. Bees were built to be pollinators and they are the number one pollinator in the world. If we do not have bees, some plant species will cease to exist, like wild flowers and crops that depend on bee pollination like California Almonds. Within our food system, 100 crops are pollinated by bees. But honeybees are in decline right now and so scientists are hoping to find native bees that will provide the necessary pollination that we need. Currently, honeybees are trucked-in to pollinate fields which are stressful for the bees. If we are able to find native pollinators that live in the surround wildlands to pollinate crops, we would not have to rely on trucking bees to pollinate crops. Bee Gardens: Bee gardens aim to attract more bees into the area and promote bee health in general. Bees are a vital species for our plants and we should be helping to preserve them. But creating a bee garden is not just about planting plants that bees like. You also have to provide them with food, water, and cover/places to raise young. The use of sustainable gardening practices is also important to the health of the bees. . Providing food: Bees need to have flowers that provide nectar and pollen all year long. Nectar provides bees with energy they need to function and the pollen they collected are used to feed their young. Bees have a seasonal emergence pattern where different species of bees comes out from their nest at different times of the year. Bees can emerge in the early spring, late spring, summer, and fall. They time their emergence to the kind of flowers they prefer to collect nectar from, but they collect from other seasonal flowers in bloom as well. Some early flowering plants that provide food for bees includes: CA Lilac (Ceanothus sp.), Manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp.), Wisteria (Wisteria sp.), and Pride of Madeira (Echium candicans).
Providing cover: Providing bees with cover and a place to raise their young is very important. An interesting thing about native bees is that native bees are mostly solitary nest makers. They build their nest in the ground or in pre-exisiting cavities so providing nesting blocks or leaving bare patches of soil or sand in your garden would be enough to provide these covers. These places should not be in direct sunlight and should be protected from the rain. .
Providing water: Puddles are enough to provide honey bees and bumble bees with water. Plantings that have large parches of flower are most favorable to bees. The more diverse the patches are the better for the bees. These plant species should be carefully selected because not all flowers attract bees. Sustainable planting practices: You would want to have a health garden that is home to a diversity of species. Many pesticides used in gardens are harmful to beneficial insects. There are natural remedies that can be used as an alternative to pesticides. Other sustainable gardening practices include: composting, limiting water usage, capturing rain water, using native plants that are adapted to your area, and using organic fertilizers. These practices improve the overall health of your garden as well as promoting a thriving ecosystem. Flowers to look for: You will be looking for flowers that provide both pollen and nectar. Some good plant families to consider include plants in the Asteraceae (Compositae) family and the Lamiaceae (mint family). Looks for some flowers that can only provide pollen, like the California Poppy and Solanum spp. Even in a small garden, you should try to incorporate at least 15-20 different species so that there is a variation in peak times among the flowers. Aim for flowers that should be available in late spring and early summer.
More resources can be found on http://www.helpabee.org/. Good luck with your bee garden!
The hexagon
december 17, 2013
Worker Bees Take Back the Hive Jessica Wong
All honeybees were not created equal. The division of labor between females and males has long been studied. The queen is the source of eggs for the entire hive. She can lay unfertilized eggs, which become the haploid males, or she can lay eggs fertilized by sperm stored in her spermatheca to make diploid female bees. Male bees are known as drones and their only purpose is to mate with the queen when she goes on her nuptial flight (how many in life time?) Drones do nothing else for honeybee colonies. They will stay in the hive for as long as they can and they consume resources gathered by worker bees. All worker bees are female. They are the bees that nurse the bee eggs and larva, or brood, they clean the hive, they feed all the bees in the colony, they guard the hive from intruders, and they forage for pollen and nectar. Their roles are determined by age, with the youngest females maintaining the inside workings of the hive and the oldest females doing the most dangerous job of foraging. The bee colony system is successful because there are worker bees to maintain homeostasis in the hive. The divide between genders in the hive becomes more apparent as honeybees prepare for winter. Female worker bees are planning to evict all the male bees from the hive by any means necessary. They consume resources while providing nothing in return, so the annual drone removal is necessary if the colony is to make it through a period of few flowers and rain. Worker bees form a line creating a physical barrier in the entrance way of their hive after all the drones have been removed from the hive. Male bees will do all they can to try to get back inside, but to no avail. Many will die at the door step of the hive. Every year workers take back the hive.
History of Beekeeping
Jessica Wong
1957
Estimated 1,200 professional beekeepers maintain 1,440,000 honeybee colonies in the US
2000 BCE
Tree beekeeping in Europe
13,000 BCE
First evidence of wild honey collecting in Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America
5000 BCE Horizontal
used in Egypt
1988
Imidocloprid, the insecticide is patented
1856
Invention of centrifugal honey extractor
1852
2006
Beekeepers in the US report losing 30-90% of hives due to suspected Colony Collapse Disorder
2005
Langstroth moveable-frame hive developed
70,306 metric tons of honey produced, 210,000 beekeepers, and 2,400,000 colonies in the US
1889
Comprehensive system for rearing queen bees developed
1987
Varroa mites introduced to the US
2013
European Union bans neonicotinoid use because bees
The hexagon
december 17, 2013
Small-Scale Honey Farmer Cures Hives of Colony Collapse Disorder Jessica Wong Cheryl Loraditch at Bear Foot Honey in Santa Rosa, CA began beekeeping as a child. Her father was an avid beekeeper and honey producer, and he put his children to work whether they wanted to or not. She decided to get away from beekeeping and do something very different with her life. She became a mortgage underwriter, but when the housing market crashed she lost her job and found her way back to bees and honey. Now beekeeping on her own accord, Ms. Loraditch has been running Bear Foot Honey by herself since January 2008 and has no intention of another career change.
Bear Foot Honey is a very small scale local business. Ms. Loraditch is the only employee and honey can only be bought from her single store or at the seasonal downtown Santa Rosa farmers’ market, which is open May through August. She does not sell online or wholesale. Ms. Loraditch has 45 hives spread across 5 sites including the lot right next to the store and in her very own backyard. She collects and processes all of her honey. Her honey processing is minimal and happens in the back of her store; the comb is removed from hive frames and then put through a centrifugal honey extractor to separate the honey from the wax. The last step is putting the pure raw honey into jars. She does not add anything to the honey. Although this seems to be an ideal way to produce honey, this smallscale production generates only enough income to sustain itself, while Ms. Loarditch is supported by her husband’s income. Ms. Loraditch has not lost a honeybee colony to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in three years. “There are ‘bee-havers’ and there are beekeeper,” said Ms. Loraditch on CCD management, “bee-havers don’t actually take care of their bees and let them get sick. Beekeepers maintain the health of their bees and manage for Colony Collapse, which was in part caused by humans, so it’s only right that humans need to take care of the problems as they come up. Having bees doesn’t automatically make you a beekeeper.” CCD is a complex problem caused by a number of factors and stressors, some natural and some anthropogenic. One way it can start is with Varroa mites, an invasive pest from Asia aptly named Varroa destructor. The mites attach themselves to adult bees and cause lacerations on their abdomen or thorax to consume hemolymph. Varroa mites can also get into brood cells, which results in nurse working bees to abort the baby bee. The open wounds caused by the mites can become infected by a number of pathogens. The fungal infection caused by Nosema ceranae is particularly detrimental to honeybees. The fungi get into nectar and pollen gathering bees’ guts and cause cells to rupture. The foraging bees often do not make it back to the hive, which causes a shift in the roles of the worker bees. More bees become foragers and more bees become sick from the fungal infection, eventually the colony is depleted of worker bees and all that is left is an empty hive with honey and brood. There is a solution and management strategy for CCD claims Ms. Loradicth. What has worked successfully for her for three years now are a variety of treatments. She treats for Varroa mites by drenching the entire hive with a sticky sugar water solution. The bees will clean the hive and in turn remove about 70% of the mites from the hive. A pesticide for mites can also be very effective for managing Varroa mites. Nosema ceranae is treated with a fungicide called Fumagilin-B®. A major factor of the spread of these pathogens is brought on by transporting bees. Honeybees from other hives that come bearing gifts of pollen or nectar are always welcomed into a colony even if she is infected with mites, fungi, or other pathogens. Because of this, Ms. Loraditch never transports her bees for pollination services or any other reason. By treating for the two major stressors of the honeybees, CCD can be managed and honeybee colonies can continue normal function. Scientists may still be disputing the causes and treatments of Colony Collapse Disorder, but as far as Bear Foot Honey is concerned, it is no longer a problem.
The hexagon 3 Day Weather Report for The Hive - Matthew Duffett
Sunday: Sunny with a light breeze from the North West. Expect pollen from pine trees, heather, lilies, and iris, which are in bloom during December. Temperature high: 55 F, low: 37 F. Monday: Partly cloudy with strong gusts from the West. Expect large quantities of pollen from pine trees, heather, lilies, and iris, which are in bloom during December. Wind may reduce the amount of pollen found on flowers. Temperature high: 45 F, low: 35 F. WARNING! Pesticide drift expected from the conventional strawberry farm to the west. Stay in the hive if possible! Tuesday: Rainy with moderate gusts from the West. Pollen count expected to be low due to rain. Temperature high: 47 F, low: 39 F.
RESOURCES
december 17, 2013
Obituaries
Mellifera “Busy Bee” Apis:
Mellifera Apis also known to her employers as “Busy Bee,” passed away late Wednesday night after a long fight with Varroa Mites. Mellifera led an above average life, with many impressive accomplishments – her fellow bees even said Mellifera’s next step would have been queen. But, this busy bee was destined for success at a young age. At just 4 weeks, she set the female record for number of wing flaps per minute, topping 247 flaps! As she grew up, she participated in long distance pollinating, an incredibly energy intensive practice. She loved the thrill of the flight, especially when she was destined for a colza field. Because of her determination, she was an exceptional worker bee with a notable work ethic. Although most bees only produce 1/12 teaspoon of honey in their lifetime, Mellifera miraculously helped produced upwards of 1/8 teaspoon. Certain honey patrons alleged that they could taste her sweat in the honey and were devastated to find her gone, knowing that no other honey bee sweat could replicate that same honey taste. However, she also maintained a strong tendency to help and support others. Mellifera was always the first bee to greet and feed newborn drones as they emerged from the wax encasement of the hive. Her motherly attitude and concern for maintaining the hive family did not go unnoticed; her fellow bees break hive on the life-size monument of Mellifera in gratitude to her work. The hive will be holding a special ceremony of remembrance at the time and place of: two second figure 8 waggle pointed southeast, followed by three, 4 second figure 8 waggles pointed east.
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