Classes, Talks, and Another Class!

After a week off, the NYC Beekeeping Meetup Group is coming back on January 18th with another FREE winter course lecture. This is going to be one that you don't wanna miss:

"Predators, Pests, and Diseases, Oh My!"
Prior to the 1980s, beekeepers had but one disease that could kill their
bees - Foulbrood. Most beehives thrived with little or no attention from the beekeeper.

As rampant unregulated World Trade grew during the 1980s, beekeeping changed
forever - suddenly, any neglected beehive soon became a dead beehive.

We are lucky in NYC - many diseases and pests have not been brought across
the Hudson River. But to be able to eradicate any incursion of pests and diseases, we have to
be able to identify symptoms and detect specific evidence.

This class will explain in detail the specifics behind the oft-quoted phrase
"The Price of Honey is Eternal Vigilance."

As always, check out their website to sign up for the class and RSVP for the lecture (a must!)


In my neck of the woods, I'll be hosting a screening of "Vanishing of the Bees" at Brooklyn Brainery AND giving a talk on the latest CCD research and information. Apparently, the prospect of listening to me prattle on about bees is more exciting than I anticipated, as seats sold out in a matter of days. (It might have been the honey tasting.)

Sorry I didn't get it up here earlier and give y'all first chance at seats. Mea culpa. However, they saved a few seats for me, so if you just missed it and really wanna go, shoot me an e-mail and I'll see what I can do.


Getting ahead of the ball (for once), I will be teaching another Beekeeping 101 course at the Brainery in February/Early March and will be sure to post about it as I get specifics! Keep on checking back here for details!

In the News: CCD Research

Quite a number of you have sent me the recent New York Times article on the discovery of the cause of colony collapse disorder or CCD. Firstly, thanks to everyone who thought to send it in; I try to keep up on the news, but there is quite a bit of it. By sharing any beekeeping related tidbits you run across you not only help me keep up, but let me know what kind of things you are interested in.

I like that. I’d also like to share my interpretation of the paper and the reaction that followed.

So, as seems to be the norm in the news, the story has come across a little differently than it was originally intended. The title of the NYT article says it all: Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery. While I understand their enthusiasm, the actual research article on PLoS ONE makes no such claim. Rather, their research points to the combination of Nosema ceranae and an Invertebrate Iridescent Virus (IIV) as the proverbial straw that broke the camels back, NOT the exclusive causative agent of CCD.

In their relative small scale study (41 colonies) they found a statistically significant correlation between colonies suffering from CCD and a co-infection by nosema ceranae and IIV. The combination of both N. ceranae and IIV type 6 was detected in 100% of the collapsed or failing colonies in a small scale study done in 2006. Similarly, follow up studies on an observation hive undergoing collapse in 2007 and 9 colonies in Florida in 2008 showed that the combination was present in all colonies that collapsed.

Even with such a small sample size, such a strong connection is hard to ignore, but there is a fly (bee?) in the ointment for anyone who would like to believe that they found the one true cause of CCD.