Dodie Stillman

The Texas Beekeepers Association Legislative Committee has been working hard to follow bills as they are introduced. We will continue to monitor and update this site as new information unfolds. If you see other relevant bills that should receive our attention, please let us know. Please look for the 2023 Legislative Session Updates under the Resources tab under Issues, look for the Legislative Updates box at the bottom, or follow this link. This page will be updated soon with more details on each of the bill we are currently tracking.

Bee-related bills currently following:

• HB 590 – Relating to the labeling and sale of Texas honey.
• HB 1750 – Relating to the applicability of certain city requirements to agricultural operations. (Right to Farm – Burns)
• HB 2271 – Relating to the protection of aquaculture operations. (Right to Farm – Aquaculture – Kacal)
• HB 2308 – Relating to nuisance actions and other actions against agricultural operations. (Right to Farm – Ashby)
• HB 2329 – Relating to honey production operations and the harvesting and packaging of honey and honeycomb. (Clean up bill DSHS – Bailes)
• SB 829 – Relating to cottage food production operations. (Cottage Food –Kolkhorst)

Please join Mann Lake for their first annual Customer Appreciation BBQ. The event will be Saturday March 4, from 8 – 4 at their store at 1600 Commerce Street in Marshall Texas.
There will be plenty of give-aways, including Nucs, and Packages, Queen Bees, Pollen Patties, and Gift Certificates. Of course there will be special in-store sales and Door Buster prices, as well as door prizes and a raffle. Best of all, a special auction item from which the Texas Honey Bee Education Association will receive 100% of the proceeds!!

Parasitic Mites’ Biting Rate May Drive Transmission Of Deformed Wing Virus In Honey Bees

By Eurasia Review

Varroa destructor is an ectoparasitic mite that can cause European honey bee colonies to collapse by spreading Deformed wing virus as they feed. A study published in PLOS Pathogens by Zachary Lamas and colleagues at the USDA-ARS and the University of Maryland suggests a relatively small number of mites can contribute to a large number of infected bees.

Arthropod disease vectors transmit pathogens while feeding on susceptible hosts. However, little is known about how the feeding dynamics of Varroa spread viruses in adult honey bees. In order to better understand Varroa mite parasitism on honey bees, researchers conducted a series of experiments. First, they used fluorescent microspheres to test if Varroa were feeding on adult bees each time they entered a known feeding position. They next determined whether microspheres could be transferred from a Varroa to an adult bee via Varroa feeding by allowing Varroa to feed on bee pupae which had been injected with fluorescent microspheres. In the third experiment, researchers observed mites switching from adult bee host to host. The researchers then observed how a single mite could spread pathogens by feeding on multiple bees and calculated the relative risk of Varroa parasitism on adult workers.

Mites with high virus levels and which switched the most frequently contributed to the highest mortality in adult honey bees. Varroa are promiscuous feeders and switch hosts at a high rate. Mites switching hosts at the highest frequency were responsible for nearly three times as many parasitized hosts as their lower switching counterparts. Future studies are needed to better understand the mechanisms driving mites to switch hosts.

According to the authors, “Our work shows that viral spread is driven by Varroa actively switching from one adult bee to another as they feed. Relatively few of the most active Varroa parasitize the majority of bees. The ability to parasitize and infect multiple adult bees provides the best explanation to date for the maintenance and subsequent host-to-host spread of viruses among the long-lived worker bees common in these crowded and vulnerable colony populations”.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: https://www.eurasiareview.com/20012023-parasitic-mites-biting-rate-may-drive-transmission-of-deformed-wing-virus-in-honey-bees/

by Queen Mary, University of London (https://www.qmul.ac.uk/)
January 18, 2023

Queen Mary researchers have revealed unexpected variation in bee neural receptors, challenging current safety assessments of insecticides, which work by targeting these receptors.

Because bees use different versions of this receptor in different tissues and across species, it may be impossible to accurately predict the impacts of insecticide exposure on bees.

Farmers use insecticides to protect plant crops from being eaten by pests. Unfortunately, although many commonly used insecticides were initially thought to be safe, they can also harm wild bees and other beneficial pollinators.

A new study by researchers from Queen Mary University of London, published in Molecular Ecology, uncovers the molecular mechanism that explains why measuring and evaluating the effects of the insecticides is so difficult using the current assessment practices.

The most commonly used insecticides, which include neonicotinoids and their potential replacements, target a neural receptor that is present in all animals. The idea that bees might have different versions of this receptor had not yet been considered in insecticide safety evaluations. Also, it was unclear to what extend bees use these receptors outside the brain.

The researchers used high-resolution molecular techniques to understand how the bodies of bumble bees and honey bees build the neural receptor targeted by insecticides. The researchers found that in different tissues, the receptor is made using different components.

There were also major differences between bees of different ages and between species. The effects on an insecticide depend on how the receptor is built. Thus, the diverse manners through which the receptors are built can explain why the insecticides have extremely diverse effects.

Discovering this much variation in how the neural receptors are assembled was surprising.

Queen Mary researcher Alicja Witwicka, lead author of the study, said, “We already knew that the insecticides can harm beneficial pollinators by affecting their behavior, their memory, their dexterity, their immunity, and their ability to reproduce. We now also know why insecticide can harm pollinators in so many different ways.”

Call for action
The study’s findings have serious implications for the safety assessments that are conducted before insecticides are sprayed onto crops to check if it could unintentionally harm pollinating insects. These assessments typically examine one or few measures of toxicity in one or few species and attempt to extrapolate those findings into general risks for the hundreds of other pollinator species that could be exposed.

Yannick Wurm, Professor in Evolutionary Genomics & Bioinformatics at Queen Mary, said, “Previous work showed that receptor composition affects susceptibility to the insecticides. We now found that receptor composition varies between tissues and between species. It is thus impossible to justify simple extrapolation of insecticide toxicity measures from one species or situation to another. Because the molecules for insecticide susceptibility vary so much within individuals and between species, policymakers should reconsider how the safety of insecticides is assessed.”

Matt Shardlow, CEO of the Buglife charity, who was not involved in the study, said, “Despite the huge negative impact on wild pollinators caused by neonicotinoid pesticides, the lessons have not been learnt and the pesticide approval processes have not been improved. This research underlines the importance of testing the impacts of pesticides on a range of bee species and life stages, before chemicals that can cause huge damage to nature are released into the environment.”

What are the targeted receptors?
Insecticides typically aim to kill one or few pest species. But in fact, the most widely used modern insecticides target a neural receptor that is essential in all animals for the transmission of signals between neurons. These neural receptors are called nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. The new research revealed that neurons in every body part of a bee uses these receptors. This shows that all parts of a bee could be affected by insecticide exposure.

The new research also revealed unexpected variation in how the receptors are built. Each receptor is made up of five sections or subunits, and bee’s genetic blueprints include instructions for 10-15 versions of subunit. The researchers revealed that the receptors in different body parts are built using different combinations of subunits. The combination of subunits that make up a receptor fundamentally changes how it is affected by an insecticide.

The large diversity of receptors used mean that insecticide safety would need to be tested on each version of receptor. This is likely to be infeasible.

“Our work demonstrates that high-resolution molecular approaches can help us to better understand how the bodies of pollinators work, and ultimately their health,” added Alicia Witwicka.

More information: Alicja Witwicka et al, Expression of subunits of an insecticide target receptor varies across tissues, life stages, castes, and species of social bees, Molecular Ecology (2022). DOI: 10.1111/mec.16811

https://phys.org/news/2023-01-safety-insecticides-inadequate-bees.html

A drop in longevity for lab-kept honey bees could help explain colony losses and lower honey production in recent decades.
A new study by University of Maryland entomologists shows that the lifespan for individual honey bees kept in a controlled, laboratory environment is 50% shorter than it was in the 1970s. When scientists modeled the effect of today’s shorter lifespans, the results corresponded with the increased colony loss and reduced honey production trends seen by U.S. beekeepers in recent decades.

Colony turnover is an accepted factor in the beekeeping business, as bee colonies naturally age and die off. But over the past decade, U.S. beekeepers have reported high loss rates, which has meant having to replace more colonies to keep operations viable. In an effort to understand why, researchers have focused on environmental stressors, diseases, parasites, pesticide exposure and nutrition.

This is the first study to show an overall decline in honey bee lifespan potentially independent of environmental stressors, hinting that genetics may be influencing the broader trends seen in the beekeeping industry. The study was published November 14, 2022, in the journal Scientific Reports.

“We’re isolating bees from the colony life just before they emerge as adults, so whatever is reducing their lifespan is happening before that point,” said Anthony Nearman, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Entomology and lead author of the study. “This introduces the idea of a genetic component. If this hypothesis is right, it also points to a possible solution. If we can isolate some genetic factors, then maybe we can breed for longer-lived honey bees.”

Nearman first noticed the decline in lifespan while conducting a study with entomology associate professor Dennis van Engelsdorp on standardized protocols for rearing adult bees in the laboratory. Replicating earlier studies, the researchers collected bee pupae from honey bee hives when the pupae were within 24 hours of emerging from the wax cells they are reared in. The collected bees finished growing in an incubator and were then kept as adults in special cages.

Nearman was evaluating the effect of supplementing the caged bees’ sugar water diet with plain water to better mimic natural conditions when he noticed that, regardless of diet, the median lifespan of his caged bees was half that of caged bees in similar experiments in the 1970s. (17.7 days today versus 34.3 days in the 1970s.) This prompted a deeper review of published laboratory studies over the past 50 years.

“When I plotted the lifespans over time, I realized, wow, there’s actually this huge time effect going on,” Nearman said. “Standardized protocols for rearing honey bees in the lab weren’t really formalized until the 2000s, so you would think that lifespans would be longer or unchanged, because we’re getting better at this, right? Instead, we saw a doubling of mortality rate.”

Although a laboratory environment is very different from a colony, historical records of lab-kept bees suggest a similar lifespan to colony bees, and scientists generally assume that isolated factors that reduce lifespan in one environment will also reduce it in another. Previous studies had also shown that in the real world, shorter honey bee lifespans corresponded to less foraging time and lower honey production. This is the first study to connect those factors to colony turnover rates.

When the team modeled the effect of a 50% reduction in lifespan on a beekeeping operation, where lost colonies are replaced annually, the resulting loss rates were around 33%. This is very similar to the average overwinter and annual loss rates of 30% and 40% reported by beekeepers over the past 14 years.

Nearman and vanEngelsdorp noted that their lab-kept bees could be experiencing some sort of low-level viral contamination or pesticide exposure during their larval stage, when they’re brooding in the hive and worker bees are feeding them. But the bees have not shown overt symptoms of those exposures and a genetic component to longevity has been shown in other insects such as fruit flies.

The next steps for the researchers will be to compare trends in honey bee lifespans across the U.S. and in other countries. If they find differences in longevity, they can isolate and compare potential contributing factors such as genetics, pesticide use and presence of viruses in the local bee stocks.

https://agnr.umd.edu/news/honey-bee-lifespans-are-50-shorter-today-they-were-50-years-ago

Join Hives for Heroes for the National Hive for Heroes NewBEE Hive Meeting where we discuss anything from beekeeping to personal growth and development. After a quick update on the progress of the organization the floor is open for us to build knowledge and relationships together.

This meeting occurs on the first Tuesday of every month via Zoom with members from all over the country contributing. Next meeting will be 7 Feb 2023 19:00, CST

See you soon!!

https://zoom.us/j/99125496898?pwd=WnhUMS9CSFdTK1pkOFVRRldOWWpudz09

Best regards,
Hives for Heroes

Sunflower plantings have the potential to significantly reduce mite infestations in nearby honey bee colonies, according to research recently published in the Journal of Economic Entomology by researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). With pollinators under threat from pesticides, climate change, loss of habitat, and the spread of disease and parasites, sustainable methods that address multiple factors at once are needed. This study points to a way to address destructive Varroa mites, while reducing the need for in-hive use of miticides that can likewise harm colony health. “If sunflowers are as big of a factor in mite infestation as indicated by our landscape-level correlations … having a few more acres of sunflower within a mile or two of apiaries could bring colonies below the infestation levels that require treatment of hives with acaracides (i.e., mite-controlling chemicals),” said lead author Evan Palmer-Young, PhD, of USDA’s Bee Research Lab in Beltsville, MD.

Prior research has pointed to sunflower pollen as a potential benefit for a number of common bee diseases and infestations, including the Varroa mite, the fungal parasites Nosema spp, and various viruses. Investigations went through four different experiments aimed at characterizing any potential effects. The first focused on landscape associations between Varroa mites and Nosema using National data on over 400 apiaries in 30 states, comparing the amount of sunflower crop area to colony health. The second took a group of 30 bee colonies at the University of Maryland and supplemented their feeding with either an artificial pollen patty, sunflower patty, or wildflower patty during the late summer to early fall, and then assessing the prevalence of mites and disease. The third supplemented a group of 30 colonies in Massachusetts with the same pollen options in springtime, and then evaluated colony health. The last experiment focused on the impact of sunflower pollen on worker bees already infected with Nosema and deformed wing virus.

For the initial experiment on landscape associations, areas with more sunflower production were found to have lower levels of mite infestation. For every doubling of sunflower crop production, models employed show a nearly 1/3 decrease in varroa mite infestation. For the fall pollen feeding experiment, colonies fed sunflower pollen saw a 2.75 fold reduction in the intensity of Varroa infestation compared to the artificial pollen treatment. For the spring feeding, Varroa was found in only one-third of hives sampled. Neither the fall nor spring feed experiment, or the individual caged bee experiment saw a significant effect on viral loading or Nosema prevalence, however. “Although we did not find significant effects of sunflower pollen on endopasrasites [Nosema ceranae] or viruses in laboratory or field settings, sunflower pollen was associated with reduced levels of Varroa mites in honey bee colonies,” the authors write.

This finding is important in the context of declining diversity in U.S. crops. According to the study, the acreage of US farmland under sunflower production has declined by 2% per year since 1980.

While the pesticide industry often cites Varroa mites as the primary factor in pollinator declines, it is critical to understand that pesticides are playing a role in this phenomenon. Evidence shows that exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides increase honey bee vulnerability to mite problems. While mites infestations are relatively simple to diagnose in the field, it is much more difficult to test for insecticide exposure in a hive, requiring specialized labs and equipment.

Typical approaches to Varroa management include regular hive treatments with various miticides, many of which can likewise place a colony at risk. Any approach that will allow beekeepers to reduce stress on honey bee hives provides important benefits. “If sunflower pollen can be used to effectively manage Varroa mites, the timing of sunflower pollen production—which peaks in late summer (in temperate regions), just as mite levels begin to rise towards their peak in October and November (Traynor et al. 2016)—is ideal for reducing infestation during the critical late-season time frame,” the study notes.

Nearly a decade ago, then-President Obama established a Presidential Pollinator Health Task Force aimed at reversing declines in honey bees and other pollinators, coordinating action among various government agencies, and including guidelines for federal agencies to protect pollinators. USDA did announce some actions to increase habitat, but neglected other factors like pesticides, and only two years later, the Government Accountability Office cited USDA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its failure to address threats to pollinator populations. While the Trump administration took an antagonistic approach towards pollinator safety, siding with industry and delaying even the listing of an endangered pollinator, President Biden has yet to pick up the important work that President Obama began, or take any similar steps to protect pollinators.

With a vacuum in leadership at the top, both managed and wild pollinators continue to suffer unacceptable declines that threaten not only the health of ecosystems, but critical food sources humans rely upon. Earlier this year a study found pollinator declines are the reducing the global production of nuts, fruits, and vegetables by 3-5% annually, and this loss of healthy, nutrient-dense food is resulting in over 425,000 excess deaths each year.

Join Beyond Pesticides in urging the Biden administration to take meaningful steps to reform pesticide regulation and address the coinciding existential crises of our time – climate change, public health, and pollinator and biodiversity decline.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
Source: Entomology Today, Journal of Economic Entomology

Growing Sunflowers Near Honey Bee Colonies Helps Reduce Mite Problems

2023 Speciality Crop Block Grant Program

Proposals Due: February 2, 2023

The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) is pleased to announce the competitive solicitation to award 2023 Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) funds for projects that solely enhance the competitiveness of Texas specialty crops.
The Request for Application (RFA), application link, project profile template and financial capability questionnaire  may be found on TDA’s website under Grants & Services, www.TexasAgriculture.gov.

Eligibility

Responses will be accepted from Texas state agencies, universities, institutions, and producer, industry, or community-based organizations involved with, or that promote specialty crops.

• Grant applications must demonstrate that they will enhance the competitiveness of a Texas specialty crop industry.
• Grant funds may only be used for activities benefiting specialty crops.
• Grant funds must benefit more than one individual, institution or organization.
• Grant funds will not be awarded for projects that solely benefit a particular commercial product or provide a profit to a single organization, institution or individual.

Questions

For questions regarding SCBGP, please contact Kat Neilson, Grant Coordinator, at (512) 463-6695 or by email at Grants@TexasAgriculture.gov

The Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation will begin conducting eradication activities in and around production cotton fields, beginning December 19, 2022. All cotton fields will be mapped, and treatment will begin during the 2022 cotton growing season. Field entry and treatment is expected to last until all cotton is harvested in the eradication zones.

The eradication zones include the following ten counties in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV): Brooks, Cameron, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Kenedy, Maverick, Starr, Webb, Willacy, and Zapata.

To mitigate risk, all beekeepers should notify the Foundation of beehive locations near cotton fields. The Foundation will monitor treatments in these locations where bees are present to ensure the security of hives and will notify you prior to Foundation chemical treatments upon your request, so that steps may be taken to protect the safety of the hives.

For more information regarding this program and to notify the Foundation of hive locations, please call the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation at 1-800-687-1212.

Taylor Powell
CHIEF APIARY INSPECTOR

The Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Farm Storage Facility Loan (FSFL) program provides low-interest financing to help you build or upgrade storage facilities and to purchase portable (new or used) structures, equipment and storage and handling trucks.

Eligible commodities include corn, grain sorghum, rice, soybeans, oats, peanuts, wheat, barley, minor oilseeds harvested as whole grain, pulse crops (lentils, chickpeas and dry peas), hay, honey, renewable biomass, fruits, nuts and vegetables for cold storage facilities, floriculture, hops, maple sap, rye, milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, meat and poultry (unprocessed), eggs, and aquaculture (excluding systems that maintain live animals through uptake and discharge of water).

Qualified facilities include grain bins, hay barns and cold storage facilities for eligible commodities.

Loans up to $50,000 can be secured by a promissory note/security agreement, loans between $50,000 and $100,000 may require additional security, and loans exceeding $100,000 require additional security.

You do not need to demonstrate the lack of commercial credit availability to apply. The loans are designed to assist a diverse range of farming operations, including small and mid-sized businesses, new farmers, operations supplying local food and farmers markets, non-traditional farm products, and underserved producers.

For more information, contact your local USDA Service Center or visit fsa.usda.gov/pricesupport.