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Texas Beekeepers Association has worked with Agrilife Extension Agents, Texas Apiary Inspection Service, Texas Master Beekeeper Program, and resident beekeepers to create a resource for beginning beekeepers over the past year. This was a USDA funded SARE grant to benefit youth beekeepers in the State of Texas as well as to educate extension agents with a centralized resource for beekeepers around the state.
The main focus of the grant is to create a resource guide that would help 4H, FFA, Youth Programs, Mentorship Programs, and individual beekeepers navigate through the learning process.
Visit the collaborative website at TexasBeekeeping101.com for access to resources, modules, and more!
A very special thank you to those who participated in curating resources, submitting photos, and helped to facilitate the grant – we are so grateful to work with such amazing volunteers and experts.
Read more about the SARE grant here.
Honeybees are critical to the ag economy and play a major role in sustainability and food production as well as pollinating plant communities. Texas is currently ranked 7th in the U.S. in honey production and there continues to be an increased interest in beekeeping statewide, both in urban and rural areas. This project seeks to transfer the wealth of knowledge and wisdom that currently exists within the beekeeping community itself, into a basic understanding and education of apiculture to the agricultural extension personnel who serve the 254 counties in Texas as well as establish a youth-friendly resource that can be used to mentor and guide the next generation of beekeepers through local 4-H clubs and Youth Beekeeping Clubs. AgriLogic Consulting, in cooperation with Texas Beekeepers Association (TBA), the Texas Apiary Inspection Services (TAIS), Texas AgriLife Extension Service (TAES) and five mentor beekeepers, will seek to resolve this issue by developing a relevant, streamlined curriculum that will be made available free of charge through TAES, intended to serve these targeted audiences and ultimately ensure the sustainability of apiculture in Texas. Project activities will include development of curriculum, marketing of said curriculum, as well as training at three major annual events directed at the targeted audiences. Results will be measured through several evaluations, with a goal of increased beekeeping knowledge at the county extension agent level and more youth beekeepers state-wide.
The objective of this funding request is to ensure that a streamlined curriculum developed by Texas beekeeping experts is available electronically, and free of charge, to better equip those in a position to teach, train and mentor new and youth beekeepers. The curriculum will be made available both on the main Texas AgriLife Extension website, as well as within the 4-H Curriculum website as one of the available 4-H Explore Guides. The long-term objective involves strengthening the apiculture industry in Texas, which in turn strengthens the ag industry as a whole since managed honey bees are the most valuable pollinators in terms of agricultural economics; in fact according to USDA, one honey bee colony is worth 100 times more to the community than to the beekeeper.
The target audience for this project are (1) agricultural extension agents serving the 254 Texas counties; (2) 4-H extension agents and other youth leaders wishing to offer beekeeping contests, clinics or competition options to their 4-h youth; and (3) existing beekeepers wishing to serve as mentors to youth and new beekeepers.
The following resources are currently available through the Texas AgriLife Extension website. https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/browse/apps-bookstore-resources-tools/
This project seeks to add an important resource to the site, both for use by the trainers as well as those seeking to be trained. While much information exists regarding beekeeping in general, the information does not regularly apply to Texas (climate, threats, best practices); there are vast differences of opinion within the beekeeping community which can leave a new beekeeper confused; and format of such information is not always streamlined, organized, electronically available, nor free of charge. Currently, when questions are received at the local extension office regarding beekeeping, callers are directed to the Entomology department at Texas A&M or referred to one of two IPM agents in the state who work to provide apiculture and related education. Local extension agents also routinely refer inquisitors back to the local beekeeping community because they have not been trained/equipped to answer these questions. Specifically, the project seeks to cut down the number of calls being transferred to the Entomology department and the two IPM agents located in San Antonio and Austin by 50% over a three-year period. This would also mean that there would be a 50% increase in the number of questions being answered at the county agent level.
This curriculum will also allow 4-H leaders as well as local club volunteers to offer a beginning beekeeping opportunity for interested youth ages 3rd -12th grade and allow them to compete in local as well as potentially district and state contests in the future. Specifically, for 4-H, the goal is to have at least 25 (10%) of the counties in Texas charter a beekeeping club or contest by the end of year 3. According to the Texas 4-H State office, there is currently a Beekeeping Essay contest held annually as well as one youth club in Brazos County which is not officially chartered as a 4-H Club. Outside of that, they are not aware of any other specific youth beekeeping clubs or activities in the state, as part of the 4-H program. An investigation of the existing 4-H curriculum and bookstore found two resources available free of charge through the 4-H website, the first of which is the The Honey Files: A Bee’s Life, an activity books for grades 4-6, published in 2001 by The National Honey Board in Firestone, CO. The second is a six page electronic download describing the process by which flower nectar and pollen become honey in the bee hive, along with the food value of honey and methods of preserving it for best flavor. A chart provides honey equivalents of corn syrup or sugar in recipes, and several recipes are given. We were unable to find any other bee-specific resources from the following 4-H curriculum website at this time, further justifying the need for a streamlined, free of charge curriculum. https://www.agrilifebookstore.org/category-s/1938.htm
Finally, the curriculum can be used in local beekeeping clubs to guide mentors wishing to start a youth beekeeping club (not part of 4-H), of which there has been increased interest and requests per the Texas Beekeepers Association in recent years.
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The first live Asian giant “murder hornet” of 2021 has been spotted in Washington state — and it was caught in the act of living up to its name, attacking a wasp nest.
Entomologists on Thursday confirmed the report of Vespa mandarinia — the world’s largest hornet and a worrisome invasive species that originates from East Asia and Japan — by a person in a rural area east of the town of Blaine, south of Vancouver, British Columbia, near the Canadian border.
“This hornet is exhibiting the same behavior we saw last year – attacking paper wasp nests,” state entomologist Sven Spichiger said in a news release from the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
The location of the sighting confirmed on Thursday is only about 2 miles from where the first Asian giant hornet nest was eradicated in October.
In June, a “slightly dried out, dead specimen” of the hornet was discovered on someone’s lawn in the town of Marysville, Wash., north of Seattle and about 60 miles south of Blaine.
While technically the first sighting of 2021, agriculture officials said at the time that because murder hornets don’t typically show up until July, the hornet in question was probably left over from the previous season.
While the paper wasps being attacked by the Asian giant hornet in the latest sighting might disagree, honeybees probably have more to worry about, the state agriculture department says.
“These hornets may attack honey bee hives in the late summer or early fall,” the department’s news release says. “A small group of Asian giant hornets can kill an entire honey bee hive in a matter of hours.”
Nobody knows quite how Vespa mandarinia came to America, but since 2019, there have been several sightings in Washington state.
The hornets’ toxic venom and large stingers are known for killing dozens of people each year in Japan and China, according to National Geographic. But so far there have been no reported deaths in the United States.
In any case, the department is interested in tracking the insects, and Spichiger advises: “If you have paper wasp nests on your property and live in the area, keep an eye on them and report any Asian giant hornets you see. Note the direction they fly off to as well.”
Article by Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/trader-joes-100-manuka-honey-isnt-thats-ok-says-9th-circ-2021-07-15/
July 16 – A federal court on Thursday refused to revive a proposed class action against Trader Joe’s Co accusing the retailer of falsely marketing its “100% Manuka Honey,” which is not derived entirely from the manuka plant.
A unanimous 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled Thursday that reasonably minded consumers were unlikely to be deceived by the label because it is impossible to produce a honey made from only one flower source, and because the Food and Drug Administration allows honey to be labeled according to its primary flower source.
“We are pleased that the Ninth Circuit confirmed that Trader Joe’s Manuka Honey is exactly what the package promises,” Trader Joe’s, which is represented by Dawn Sestito of O’Melveny & Myers, said in a statement.
C.K. Lee of Lee Litigation Group, who represents the plaintiffs, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Manuka honey is made by bees that feed on the nectar of the manuka plant, which is native to Australia and New Zealand. It contains methylglyoxal, which has been found to have potential antibacterial properties and other health benefits when applied topically to wounds, burns and skin ulcers.
Because of its perceived benefits and limited simply and transportation costs, manuka honey is much more expensive than other honey, sometimes costing hundreds of dollars a bottle. It is sold under a grade system developed by manuka honey producers to indicate how much of the nectar that went into the honey derives from manuka.
According to the plaintiffs’ 2018 lawsuit, Trader Joe’s sold “100% New Zealand Manuka Honey” for $13.99 per bottle, though it was also labeled as a relatively low grade. They alleged that tests of its pollen content revealed that it was only 57.3% and 62.6% derived from manuka.
Trader Joe’s moved to dismiss, arguing that the case was preempted by the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. It noted that the FDA allows honey to be sold under the name of its primary flower source, meaning that its honey was entirely manuka honey, albeit of a low grade.
The company also said that, because bees forage freely, it is impossible to ensure that they only go to a single kind of flower.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore in Oakland, California, granted the motion, and the plaintiffs appealed.
Circuit Judge Kim Wardlaw, writing for the majority, agreed that the product conformed to FDA rules, since manuka was “the chief floral source for all of the product’s honey under the FDA’s definition, even if some of it is derived from nectar from other floral sources.”
She also said that a reasonable consumer was unlikely to be deceived.
“First and foremost, given the foraging nature of bees, a reasonable honey consumer would know that it is impossible to produce honey that is derived exclusively from a single floral source,” she wrote.
The judge also said that the product’s low cost relative to higher grade manuka honey products should have tipped off consumers.
Wardlaw was joined by Circuit Judge Daniel Collins and Judge Richard Eaton of the Court of International Trade, sitting by designation.
The case is Moore et al v. Trader Joe’s Co, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 19-16618.
For plaintiffs: C.K. Lee of Lee Litigation Group
For Trader Joe’s: Dawn Sestito of O’Melveny & Myers