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Allen's
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• The Ontario Bee Breeding Model
• Ontario Honeybee Queen, Nucleus and Colony Producers

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• VALUE-ADDED PRODUCTS FROM BEEKEEPING
                 FAO AGRICULTURAL SERVICES BULLETIN No. 124
• About the romantic environmental movement
• Why did we sign on to Kyoto?

Allen's
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• Varroa Mites Reproduce in Capped Brood Cells
• Greenhouse gases barely impact climate: scientists
• Beat those mites with Russian bees
• SUCROSE OCTANOATE ESTERS

I heard the other day from a US queen breeder that Bernard Apiaries is no longer distributing the USDA Russian breeder stock, and then I noticed, in his BEE-L post, that Charlie's sig line now contains the URL 'russianbreeder.com'. So, I visited  www.russianbreeder.com  and, according to the counter I was visitor number 10. (Going back just now, I was number 38).

Curious, I wrote the lab http://msa.ars.usda.gov/la/btn/hbb/projects.htm -- actually I could have written Charlie -- and asked what's up.

Tom replied and indicated that raising breeders is difficult, time consuming, and not particularly profitable, and that Bernard Apiaries has decided to focus on honey production and sales, and that, yes, Charlie has taken over the job.

To quote Tom's email:

This last spring Charlie became the CRADA holder for the production of breeder queens. This year for the first time, breeder queens for next spring have already been produced and are being overwintered in colonies they themselves have produced.

Charlie has been one of the three key beekeeper co-operators in the Russian project since inception, and since he has exclusively Russian test stock in his outfit and knows it well, he seems to me to be a very logical choice to raise, select and distribute queens.

Let's hope we can get buy them freely up here in Canada next spring. Last I heard, everything is lined up to once again allow large scale queen imports from the mainland USA to Canada next spring, under permit.

allen

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The best Internet Browser I've found ...and it is free!
      MSIE2 is actually just Microsoft Internet Explorer on steroids.  It uses the MSIE engine, but adds some great features.

> While this list is tolerant of FGMO discussions they are not
> necessarily in favor of this type of treatment.

FWIW, this list does not have one opinion about any topic. BEE-L has a wide range of participants, ranging from wannabee and new beekeepers to respected editors, authors, research scientists, commercial beekeepers, retired beekeepers, and others interested in bees, including, in fact, Dr. Rodriguez himself. The fogging method of application was first pioneered in California two decades ago and apparently abandoned, but then later proposed on this list when attempts to use wax paper strips with FGMO failed to work as hoped. A number of list members practice FGMO fogging, and report here from time to time.

As with any topic, there are some members who feel compelled to challenge the efficacy of FGMO and rigour of FGMO tests. Some are more diplomatic than others, but BEE-L tends to show some skepticism on any claims. IMO, coumaphos use has gotten just as hard a ride (harder!) here as FGMO.

> Please check out the following link as all of your questions will be readily answered.
> http://www.beesource.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/forumdisplay.cgi?
> action=topics&forum=FGMO&number=11&DaysPrune=30&LastLogin=

The URL given previously was broken in the wrap, so, here is a shorter one that will take you into the heart of that forum: http://www.beesource.com/ubb/Forum11/HTML/000181.html 

I'm not sure they will answer all questions, but there is active discussion on the topic there. Just as here, there seem to be many opinions on that bulletin board (See below). The thing that strikes me, though, is that almost everyone in that discussion seems to be actually measuring -- and actually knows -- their own daily mite fall, on a regular basis. To me that is the very first thing that every beekeeper must do to speak intelligently on the topic -- or to treat his/her bees effectively -- no matter what control method is favoured. I gather Dr. Rodriguez is away in Spain right now, but he is active on that board, and also here on BEE-L when he is around.

Since the forum does not seem to contain an FAQ, I looked around for an FGMO FAQ and found these articles that may be helpful.

http://www.beesource.com/pov/rodriguez/bmite&mo.htm
http://www.beesource.com/pov/rodriguez/minoilapp.htm
http://www.beesource.com/pov/rodriguez/minoiltest.htm
http://www.beesource.com/pov/rodriguez/minoiltest2.htm
http://www.beesource.com/pov/rodriguez/graphs.htm
http://www.beesource.com/pov/rodriguez/abjjan2003.htm
http://www.beesource.com/pov/rodriguez/fgmo2001report.htm 

While at the forum, on the thread http://www.beesource.com/ubb/Forum11/HTML/000181.html, you will see the following message from Axtmann posted October 23, 2003 11:32 AM From: Germany. he is an active participant of that forum with 133 previous posts, so I assume he has been watching closely...

--- begin quote from the forum --

Go to the following site! http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/archives/bee-l.html  I don't trust FGMO!!! If you're using the fogging treatment with oil it's your business but I wouldn't stay on "one leg". There many negative articles about FGMO, in the beginning it might work but after two or tree years the "time of true" will come. Too many beekeepers lost their colonies. The argument this beekeeper didn't follow 100% the instructions is not fair. A good working treatment begins with the method of easy using. Who wants to play with a fogger every 7 days, some beekeeper twice the week, for the whole live??? And if this failed you must have don a mistake with your cord .. It's your fault not the instructor. http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/FGMOBeekeeping/ 

In 2002 lots of "positive articles" but this year. ..Quiet!! I wonder why??

It's crazy to treat colonies one the week during the whole year and at the end of the year MITES STILL FALLING. There shouldn't be any mite left after 50 treatments! The brood cycle from the honeybee is 21 days, if the treatment would work with a very low result (60%) you can figure out by your self how long it would take to get rid of ALL mites. The reification is not an excuse, this will be possible maybe on one or two hives but not on the whole bee yard.

And now they find out there other ingredients necessary in the cord to be MORE successful! Some companies have Thymol in there products. this must be a good stuff, ok lets putt some of that GOOD STUFF in the cord and we might have success too! CRAZY!

Instead saying this treatment is not that what beekeepers help, they playing with different methods and using hundreds of beekeepers as test objects. If the tests failed who cares, all testers worked for free and on there one risk. Nobody has the right to complain or will get a refund.

--- end quote ---

I might also add that at the recent BCHPA meeting in Kelowna B.C., a Provincial Apiarist (and very well-known researcher) stood up to warn the assembly that a small commercial beekeeper had placed faith in FGMO fogging without monitoring the results and had lost almost all hives as a direct result. Another Apiarist from another province also stood up to relate a similar experience. I stood up and pointed out that it might have some usefulness in an IPM scenario, BUT, I also warned that monitoring the before and after is the key. Many reports have shown that FGMO fog alone will not provide adequate control in many cases. That fact can be confirmed by the assertion by Dr, Rodriguez, himself, in that same forum, that he is now investigating use of thymol in the fog.

I personally believe that FGMO can have an application, but just be careful that it is working in YOUR situation. No method is foolproof, and this one is more operator dependant than many.

allen

Anne Sayers wrote:

> I am using FGMO as a control for mites in my hives...
> Our question is " should we suspend
> the fogger treatment of FGMO after the first frost and not resume
> treatment until we begin the spring population build up for the honey
> flow?'

Sorry. We got off on discussing everything except the question asked. I'll try to address it.

The answer is that you can fog at any time the bees are not clustered, and I gather many practice fogging weekly whenever the bees are active, regardless of season. Repeated fogging apparently does not harm the bees in any noticeable way. (Clustering is generally considered to take begin when the bees are in an ambient temperature of 55 degrees F or lower, but an good indicator of activity is seeing bees coming and going at the entrance).

Since, as we have so strongly pointed out again recently, fogging is not an entirely reliable method of control. Regular and careful monitoring of mite loads, and correct interpretation of results is absolutely essential to prevent loss.

Whether sugar shake, ether roll, natural mite drop, alcohol wash, or a 24 hour Apistan or coumaphos drop is used for this purpose, interpretation of the results of the test is a bit of an art. Moreover, how many mites your hive can tolerate is dependant on many factors, including weather, climate, location, breed of bees, nutrition, time of year, etc. etc. Most of us tend to try to err on the side of safety, and although the forum discussed previously mentions 20-40 mites a day in natural drops, most of us would decide to use a more powerful, emergency method to knock the mites back before we got nearly that high. My 'get serious' threshold is more like 3 mites a day in summer and fall (natural drop test), or anything more than an occasional mite in the spring.

The Central Science laboratory -- http://www.csl.gov.uk/science/organ/environ/bee/varroamodel/  -- offers an analyzer at http://www.csl.gov.uk/science/organ/environ/bee/varroamodel/app.cfm  that can be instructive, but assumes some drone brood at all times, which is not what we observe here. I discuss my own experience at http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/articles/drops.htm 

The main thing is monitor and give yourself -- and your bees -- a wide margin of safety if you see the varroa levels climbing, not falling.

allen

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