Category: Buzz on Honeybees

Getting Close to “Fixing” Colony Collapse Disorder Among Honeybees

This is good news.  University of Georgia is finishing its third year of a grant from The Department of Agriculture to help fight colony collapse disorder among honeybee hives, to find out why our feral bee population is close to extinction, and what we can do to breed bees that aren’t harmed by viruses, mites, and new pesticides.

Managed Pollinator CAP Web-Page: www.beeccdcap.uga.edu

Awareness of the decline of honey bees and other pollinators took a dramatic upturn after two recent events: the October 2006 release of the National Research Council report “Status of Pollinators inNorth America” followed by high death rates of bee colonies in the winters of 2006-2008, a phenomenon now called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). All at once, managed pollinators were popularly recognized for what they always were: essential members of American agro-ecosystems.

The problems with managed pollinators cannot be relegated to one or few causative agents. Bee declines are likely a product of negatively interacting factors in pathology, immunology, nutrition, toxicology, genetics, ecosystems management, and bee husbandry. In response, we have assembled a nationally-coordinated team of experts with proven capacity in extension, genomics, pathology, toxicology, management, pollination, and bee behavior. Our long-term goal is to restore large and diverse populations of managed bee pollinators across theUnited Statesto sustain natural and agricultural plant communities.

Dr. Keith S. Delaplane
University of Georgia
Department of Entomology

More information about the Managed Pollinator CAP can be found at their web-page: www.beeccdcap.uga.edu

THE BUZZ ON HONEYBEES goes to press

Today’s the day that THE BUZZ ON HONEYBEES goes to press! I made the final edits yesterday and it looks beautiful with the soft, whimsical watercolor illustrations by Kathy Coates of Charlotte, NC. Itty Bitty Betty, she’s a honey of a bee, is the star of the book, sharing the news she’s collected. She’s a bit of a gossip, but an interesting one, full of facts and information told in a fun way about Georgia’s state insect and the state insect for 17 other states. Bee facts are called BEEZNESS in the book. BEEZNESS number one (not in the book, by the way): did you know that bees were brought into this country by some of the first settlers from Europe? Imagine bringing honeybees in hives on a several month voyage on a sailing ship. Bees are not native to the Americas. The native Americans called them white man’s flies. The settlers knew the importance of honeybees pollinating their crops.

More beezness to follow in other blogs. Am off tomorrow to Birmingham, AL for the Southern Breeze fall conference. They’re my region’s branch of the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Books Writers and illustrators.) Am hoping to come back with lots of marketing and social networking ideas for promoting a book once it’s out. Am also having a manuscript critiqued about Sowbelly, the largest wide mouthed bass on record, caught in Georgia during the Depression. So far no luck on finding a publisher. Maybe the manuscript is to blame? It’s difficult to hear anyone criticize your work. Perhaps it’s easier coming from a stranger. So I’m hoping to come back with some good ideas to make this story come across more effectively. It’s a fish tale that needs to be told once again and treasured.