Vitamin Bee?cdn.ymaws.com/...A troubled hive 7/13/2019 Add...
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Vitamin Bee? The Importance of Honey Bee NutritionDr. Tracy Farone, DVM Professor of Biology
Grove City College, Grove City, PA
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Objectives
• What bees need‐ water, carbohydrates, protein, fats &
trace nutrients
• When bees need certain nutrients
• Supplemental feeding
• Good nutrition= Good immunity= Ability to deal with stressors =Healthy hive
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Natural Forage
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Problems with Natural Forage
• It’s seasonal, dependent on weather
• Destruction of natural habitat &
fragmentation
• Monoagricultural landscapes
• Pesticides are everywhere
• Migratory beekeeping
• It’s difficult to “fence in” bees
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Water
• To maintain thermoregulation & humidity
• Dilute honey & produce brood food
• Not stored in hive
• Beekeeper can help supply
• Usually not a problem in PA…lately
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What is Honey?
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Product of nectar & honey dew
Carried by honey stomachTrophallaxisEnzymes Glucose & FructoseDehydrated 18%Capped, Preserved, Stored
40‐80 lbs needed for overwintering
Question:
How many flowers to fill up the honey stomach/a bee trip?
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What is Pollen?
• Brought back by hairs & pollen baskets
• Source of protein
• Also lipids, vitamins, minerals (more research coming here)
• Need diversity for good nutrition
• Bee bread‐ storage form, needs symbiotic microbes to ferment
• Very important in brood rearing, indicator of hive health
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Nutritional needs of different bees
• Workers – eat honey/pollen
• Drones & Queen are often fed by others
• Larvae are feed different jellies‐brood food( a mixture ofgland secretions & honey/pollen)
• Royal jelly/queen jelly
• The hive also needs propolis‐resin
Randy Oliver scientificbeekeeping.com photo credit 7/13/2019 9
Seasonal nutritional needs
• Spring build‐up – may be most critical time
• Summer/Fall derth/s
• Winter, winter cluster
• New colonies/swarms
• Re‐queening
• We pretty much have to do this now…know your colony
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Honey & Pollen in the Hive
Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com photo credit 7/13/2019 11
Sugar feeding
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Types, Timing & Methods
• Various feeding systems
• Various sugar products on the
market or homemade(white cane sugar)
Syrup 1:1, 2:1, cake/candy in winter
Don’t feed when honey supers
are on
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Types, Timing & Methods
Important in drawing new wax
Helpful for medication delivery
Be careful feeding honey‐disease!
Do not feed lactose/galactose‐toxic!
Powdered sugar may can gut problems
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Pollen feeder ‐ exterior
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Types, Timing & Methods
• Pollen supplements/substitute can be purchased and fed in or outside the hive
• Various opinions on what and how
• Most important in late winter/early Spring
or when you want to raise brood
• Patties or pellets
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Look at reserves & weight
7/13/2019Randy Oliver Scientificbekeeping.com photo credit
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Become a botanist and a weather watcher
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https://app.beescape.org/ ‐analysis of your apiary area in PA
A troubled hive
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Wet brood
Starvation‐ why?
7/13/2019Randy Oliver Scientificbekeeping.com photo credit 20
Colony Lifecycle & the Environment
Photo credit Randy Oliver/Scientificbeekeeping.com 21
Bee informed survey data
• https://bip2.beeinformed.org/survey/
• Malnutrition is considered to be a major contributing factor to colony collapse
• “Starvation” is considered to be a major cause of hive collapse/death
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References• A Field Guide to Honey Bees and their Maladies, The Mid‐Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension
Consortium (MAAREC) with USDA cooperation, 2015.
• Honey Bees: A Guide for Veterinarians. American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), 2017.
• Milbrath, Meghan, instructor, “Bees and Veterinary Medicine 2018”, VIN on‐line course completed April 2018.
• Ritter, Wolfgang, ed. OIE: Bee Health and Veterinarians, 2014.
• Sammataro, Diana and Avitabile, Alphonse. The Beekeeper’s Handbook, 4th ed. Cornell University Press, 2011.
• Shimanuki, Hachiro and Knox, David. USDA – Diagnosis of Honey Bee Diseases, Agricultural Handbook, #690,2000.
• Vidal‐Naquet, Nicolas. Honeybee Veterinary Medicine: Apis mellifera L., 5m Publishing, 2015.
• http://scientificbeekeeping.com/
• Honey Bee Diseases & Pests, 3rd Ed., Stephen Pernal and Heather Clay eds., Canadian Assoc. of Professional Apiculturists, 2013.
• Sallmann, Ben, Snyder, Rob. Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Honey Bee Diseases. Bee InformedPartnership.
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Questions?
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Dr. Tracy [email protected]
https://pabeevet.com
Thank you!