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Oct. 03-Nov. 03

Next Meeting is:Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003

7:30pmLittle Theater, Falls Church High

7521 Jaguar TrailFalls Church, Virginia 22042

President Alan Fiala 703-790-8044 Treasurer Bennie Liles 703-671-1010Vice-Pres. Patricia Haskell 703-560-3484 Secretary Pearl Liles 703-671-1010

Editor Alan Fiala 703-790-8044

Nov 25: Jeff Pettis

Dr. Pettis is a noted researcher, now at the Belts-ville Bee Lab. He has degrees from Georgia andTexas A&M. His graduate work was primarily onAfricanized Honey Bees, and on tracheal mites. He

spent several years working with Mark Winston.His projects now encompass control of parasiticmites, small hive beetle, and AFB in honeybees.There are several facets to this work. Jeff was alsothe first to publish papers on the use of screenbottom boards, although he modestly gives creditfor the idea to many others. He will speak on theSmall Hive Beetle and other challenges to bee-keeping.

Registration of Honey Processing Fa-cilities.

Registration of Food Facilities Under the PublicHealth Security and Bioterrorism Preparednessand Response Act of 2002; Interim Rule The U.S.Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an interim final regulation for the registration offood facilities. Domestic and foreign facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold food forhuman or animal consumption in the United States are required to register with the FDA by De-cember 12, 2003. All facilities processing food regulated by the FDA are subject to this regula-tion. [Honey is on the list of foods.]

Keith Tignor is of the opinion that hobbyists are exempt from this requirement under the ex-emption for farms and residences. Further details are on the Bee Culture website

http://www.beeculture.com/beeculture/buzz/index.html , and the VSBA websitehttp://www.virginiabeekeepers.org/ . The complete notice is at the end of this newsletter.

Tracheal Mite Survey

Please refer to page 5 of the most recent issue ofThe Commonwealth Buzzand read about thetracheal mite census being conducted by Rick Fell. He talked about this at the Staunton meet-ing. Few beekeepers can sample for tracheal mites. It is important to determine whether tra-cheal mites are still an important problem in the state. He assured me that opening a hive tocollect a sample in February in sub-50 degree weather would not harm the bees. Please partici-pate. Use any sealed container and alcohol; see if your extension agent will send it to VPI.

Upcoming BANV Meetings

November 25, 2003 Little TheaterJanuary 27, 2004 PotLuck, TBA

In This Issue:

BANV Meetings and News 1

FDA Registration requirements 2

Tracheal Mite Survey 2

Presidents Corner 3

VSBA Winter Meeting 3

MSBA Fall Meeting 4

BANV Minutes, Sept. meeting 5

FDA continued 7

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Presidents Corner

My term in office is drawing to a close. Time flies and so much remains to be done. Ive had awonderful set of officers to work with, and enjoyed it.

The terms of elected officers end at the January meeting. The Nominating Committee has aslate of nominees to present at the November meeting. Other nominations may be made fromthe floor at the January meeting.

The January meeting will be our annual indoor potluck dinner. We hope to have an entertainingprogram, and we are looking into a meeting site other than the High School.

Pat Haskell, as a Master Beekeeper, is taking her commitment to education very seriously. Shewill be heading up a Short Course in February and March, the first one for BANV in many years.Please encourage anyone you know who has the slightest interest in your beekeeping activitiesto take the course, even if they may not end up keeping bees themselves.

Please help Rick Fell in his statewide survey of tracheal mites. See the note in the Common-wealth Buzz and elsewhere in this newsletter.

This issue of the newsletter was prepared under adverse circumstances. I apologize for it beinga bit late and a bit rough.

Alan

Highlights of the Virginia State Beekeepers Association Winter Meeting.

By Alan Fiala and Dan Jackson

The meeting was held October 25 at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, 68 attending.

Keith Tignor, the VA state apiarist, gave a report on pest and disease in the state and an-nounced that they had hired a new inspector for the southwest region. The Small Hive Beetlehas been found in two new places: Gloucester and Arlington. AFB is still a problem, and it isterramycin resistant. He discussed the new FDA registration requirements as a result of anti-terrorism legislation, and is of the opinion that hobbyists will not be required to register, underthe exemptions for farms and residences. [Note: see separate article on this.] He reminded usof the beekeeping license plate, with a continuing plea to send in applications, because we are

still far short of the minimum number required.The Honorable Ben Cline, VA House Delegate for the 24th district, addressed the Association.In a rambling, poorly prepared address he spoke in general about agriculture and small busi-ness with little regard to the specifics of beekeeping. He had been invited to learn that bee-keepers are a part of agriculture, and to learn some of our concerns. There was much com-plaining about bears destroying hives and beekeepers not receiving appropriate compensation.

George Clutter, the West Virginia state apiarist, talked about several of their programs. WVrequires beekeepers to register, and the state actively works to promote beekeeping and helpbeekeepers. He has been working with several counties in their state to get them to eliminatethe property tax they impose on beehives. He said the tax was counter-productive because itcaused people to hide their hives and made disease control harder. The state has an autoclaveto treat AFB-infected equipment, and it travels around during the winter treating unused

equipment at no charge. He has also setup a beekeepers coop where WV beekeepers can buyequipment and supplies, like sucrose for feed, at wholesale prices. They have a grant programwhere poor families can get a complete hive and a package of bees after passing a basic bee-keeping class. Classes and workshops are held frequently around the state, especially when alocal group is declining. They start and promote 4-H projects. He spoke a bit on their bear prob-lems and how they are dealt with. An associate of George Clutter from WVU talked about theWV Queen program that was intended to breed resistance to tracheal mites and also producehoney, in their climate.

Bob Noel, the producer of Honey-B-Healthy, described the experiments and research he hasconducted on the use of essential oils and other natural products in beekeeping. He had some

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interesting results and indication but he pointed out many times that the stuff he was using wasnot FDA approved and that he was not recommending anything other than additional research.

There was a brief business meeting. The Executive Committee presented a proposal for a Bee-keeper of the Year Award. The concept was approved, and a small budget granted to pay for anaward plaque. Details of operation will be issued in forthcoming state newsletters. There was arequest for an ad hoc committee to do more lobbying with the state legislature, though themain concern seemed to be to get satisfaction on the bear problem, which produced a secondround of complaining about bears.

Rick Fell, Virginia Tech, talked about Foulbrood and colony health. He repeated the advice oftenheard that beekeepers need to be able to recognize diseases, especially AFB, especially in theearly stages. He also went back over ways to recognize AFB, how to distingush it from symp-toms of other diseases, and how to treat it. Kemper Loyd talked about splits and building colonystrength.

Wyatt Mangum gave a very interesting talk, with slides, about debris you find on the stickyboard under a screen bottom board and what it can tell you about the hive. You can read hisarticle in this months ABJ.

Dr. Debra Schmidt, an osteopath in family practice from WV, gave an interesting talk on medi-cal uses of bees and bee products. She focused on the ingredients in bee products from honeyto venom and the scientific research that has been done. Besides the health benefits of eating

honey and its use in various holistic remedies, it is beneficial in treating wounds and is used tokeep skin grafts viable for several weeks. She described why it has antimicrobial properties. Inaddition, she highlighted research on the uses of propolis, pollen, royal jelly, and bee venomtherapy (or apitherapy) for autoimmune diseases.

Seen at the VSBA Meeting in Staunton: Standing Dane Han-num, Brenda Kiessling, Terri and Tom Merz, Ed Dillon, Billy

Davis, Alan Fiala; Kneeling Jay Jones, Paul Diehl.Photo courtes Brenda Kiesslin

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Highlights of the Maryland State Beekeepers Association Fall Meeting

By Alan Fiala

The MSBA Fall meeting was held at the MD State Dept. of Agriculture in Annapolis on Saturday,November 8. This is a very nice facility, and in addition to a program of speakers there was ahoney show rivaling EAS in size, and a potluck dinner. Eighty people attended. Since my honeydid not get judged at the Arlington County Fair, I entered it here, and received a third placeribbon for each. Other attendees from Virginia included Pat Haskell and Lonnie Campbell.

George Imirie introduced Pat as the newest EAS Master Beekeeper. A newly established award,the George Imirie Award for Education in Beekeeping, was presented to Steve McDaniel, whohas addressed BANV twice.

The theme of the program was activities of bees. VP Dave Smith chose this as a respite fromthe stream of programs dealing with pests and diseases. Three top-notch speakers spoke ondance communication language, the Sun as a navigational aid, the analogy of a beehive to afactory, and orientation flight behavior tracked with radar.

Tom Seeley, Cornell, talked about looking at a hive and comparing it to a factory, a talk hegave at EAS 2002 at Cornell. There is a division of labor between inside and outside the hive.Outside, there is a collecting cycle: foragers collect foodstuffs and unload it at a spot just insidethe hive. Inside, the collected material is stored and processed. The problem is to coordinatethe work rates of the two groups, to avoid a bottleneck with idleness on one side. The inputsource is not steady, it varies in the short and long range. Bloom is by plant, and varies daily.Abundance affects the size of each bees load and the time taken to get it. It also affects thepercentage of bees foraging. That has a range of 5% to 50-60%. If more bees are needed toforage, returning foragers perform a waggle dance on the comb to recruit more foragers andtell them the location of the food source. Foragers returning from several sources compete forrecruits. He described the experiments done 20 years ago to find this out, using colonies iso-lated on an island with controlled food sources and marking bees doing different activities. Onthe other hand, if there are not enough bees working to store food inside the hive, returningforagers do a waggle dance to recruit receivers. A particular forager usually returns to unloadat the same spot in the hive every trip, receivers move the material to storage within the hive.

Bill Towne, Kutztown, described his experimental studies of how bees navigate when the sky isovercast and the Sun cannot be detected. This was intimately related to the communicationdance, because it describes direction to the source with relation to the Suns position. He foundthat under overcast conditions, honeybees appear to navigate and communicate by theirmemory of where the Sun should be. He also found that they only learn this once. If the hiveis relocated, the bees that move with it still navigate by their imprinted memory of the Sunsmovements at the original location. Thus their communication dance is incorrect, because it isbased on the wrong location of the Sun. Bees born in the new location will get it right. Addi-tional conclusions: bees pilot by landmarks in familiar terrain, but navigate by the Sun in unfa-miliar terrain. The bees link memories of the Sun and the landscape to use in the absence ofcues from the sky, and when relocated they learn the new landmarks, but seem to link that tothe old memory of the Sun. What is the consequence? Loss of forage nectar on overcast days.

Elizabeth Capaldi, Bucknell, described experimental work using radar to track bees on their ini-tial orientation flight. She said that in biology, honeybees are the model system for studying

organization and structure. The question is how do animals insects process informationabout the world and figure out problems. Bees perform different tasks as they age. Within thehive, demands for processing are olfactory, but outside the hive demands are both olfactoryand visual. Orientation flights start with a Turn Back and Look (TBL) jumps, short hops duringwhich bees fly backwards looking at the hive. Then there is a short series of looping flights, fol-lowed by flights outward. The experienced forager flies face first going out of the hive. Orienta-tion flights occur after discovery of a new food source, prior to initiation of foraging, and aftermoving to a new nest with a swarm. Questions she posed: 1) Over what spatial scale are hon-eybees oriented homeward after a single orientation flight, and 2) do nave bees and previouslyexperienced bees differ in any respect after a single orientation flight? The behavior must be

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important, because bees returning after orientation carry nothing on their bodies no water,nectar, or pollen. She described her experimental apparatus. The work was done in England,because that was where radar equipment suitable for the experiment was available. Each beehad an antenna stuck to its back for the initial flight in order to produce a radar reflection. Theconclusion was that homing does depend on previous experience, distance between the hiveand point of release, and some other factors. Where do bees travel during orientation, and dothe flights change with experience or age, and how do they differ from foraging flights? The re-sults were that the number of flights before foraging averaged 6.2, the age at first orientation

flight averaged 6.2 days, and the age of onset of pollen foraging averaged 14 days. Looking atthe duration, distance, range, area, and speed of the flight, there was no correlation with ageand all correlated with experience except for duration. Conclusion: bees take several orientationflights. With experience, they fly faster, cover more area, but dont spend more time at it. Shethen showed still more questions raised by the results that would be for future investigation.

Tom Seeley did one more short talk with some general discussion. He had found some feralcolonies in trees in a protected forest near Cornell in 1978. In fall 2002 he went back and foundabout the same number of feral colonies, though in different locations. In May 2003 he foundmost had survived over the winter, and by fall 2003 were still alive. He put out 5 bait hives inMay 2003 and caught 3 swarms in June. A sticky board count each month showed that they didindeed have varroa mites, but at a low level. He now wonders whether the mites have evolvedto a low enough level not to kill the host colony, because the colonies are so far apart at least

half a mile. Are the bees resistant, or is there naturally a large enough space in the trees formites to drop off?

The meeting closed with all speakers up for general questions and answers. On a general ques-tion about the importance of odor vs. dance communication, Seeley thinks that the dance de-scribes the vicinity, the odor is used to close in. On a question of which bees in the hive takesugar from top feeders, it was thought that the middle-aged unloaders did, not the foragers.This may slow down foraging activity; Seeley said that no studies have been done on orienta-tion inside the hive.

Minutes of BANV meeting, Sept. 23, 2003

President Alan Fiala called the meeting to order at 7:44 and welcomed all.

Guest, Thomas Cohen, introduced himself and mentioned that he wants to keep bees in the Ty-sons Corner area. Larry Kelly and Alan offered to help him learn.

Alan then introduced our newest Master Beekeeper: Pat Haskell. Pat passed the rigorous mas-ter beekeeper 4-part test given at EAS in August on her first try. Pat credited all of us with hersuccess (but we werent the ones studying the texts.)

Benny Liles made a motion to accept the minutes as submitted in the newsletter. It was sec-onded by Paul Diehl and the minutes were approved.

Benny made the Treasurers report: there is $1,159.00 in the treasury, due in part to the Ar-lington County Fair event.

Alan showed off our current possession: the Virginia State Beekeepers Meeting AttendanceAward, which is ours to keep as long as we can maintain the most attendees at the summer

state business meetings.The Nominating Committee for the new officers is composed of past presidents Brenda Ki-essling, Paul Diehl, and John Ferree. Please call one of them if you have suggestions for offi-cers.

John Ferree gave a report on the Arlington County Fair, though he forgot to bring the moneyand numbers. The Club did well. John worked up a full analysis, including trend analysis forthe last years. This year was an average year. Some items went up and some down. Boothcosts were up. Nine people sold. Expenses did not exceed profits, so there was a slight dona-tion to the Club. He thanked Pat Haskell for organizing the work schedule.

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Dane Hannum reported on the Home and Garden Show. We didnt get the free space we havehad in the past. We cant afford to pay for the space.

Additionally, Dane thanked the Club for helping him out when he needed it. We were all happyto have been able to help.

The next 4H club meeting will be on Oct. 18, 2003, in Frying Pan Park. Ann Harman will be thespeaker. The topic will be judging honey the English way. Adults are welcome to attend, butmust keep quiet.

On Aug. 1-2, Prince William County Fair 4 H Club ran a booth. It was very successful, withClyde Harris observation hive attracting lots of attention. The 4H kids did club t-shirts and gotnew people to sign up.

Pat Haskell was written up in a feature article in the Luray County News. Tom and Terry Merzwere also written up in a newspaper article about their farmers market.

Summer State Association meeting report: Pat Haskell, John Ferree, Tom Merz, and Bill Bundy(Loudoun) helped lots, with the Prince William/Stafford club doing a very successful Saturdayluncheon.

The next state meeting is on the last Saturday in October, in Staunton at the Frontier Museum.

The EAS meeting in August was attended by John Ferree, Kathy Heslep, Pat Haskell, and

Brenda Kiessling. All were enthusiastic about the meeting and its good programs. Next yearsEAS will be in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. It should be great since Seven Springs is a resort!.

Lazlo Pentak attended Apimondia in Slovenia, a worldwide version of EAS done in 4 languages,with headset translation. The abstracts of 500 presentations alone filled a 1.5 thick volume.The program was a full week, with field days. Apimondia meets every other year. The Api-mondia 2005 conference will be in Dublin, Ireland, and 2007 will be in Australia.

New Business

1. Should we get shirts for the group?

2. Alan has found a free place for the website, but we need someone to set it up. DonMcIntyre has some experience. Alan offered be the webmaster.

3. There has been past discussion of state clubs contributing to make up for Rick Fells cutin funding. Rick says it takes about $20,000 to support one graduate student.

4. John said hed brought some untreated burlap for smokers.

5. John wants to resign from his positions managing membership and distributing thenewsletter. Could someone else take them?

6. Tom Barry reported on the West Virginia Honey Festival in Parkersville, W.Va. The co-opextension set up an extraction demo, and Steve Conlyn was the bee beard guy. Tomsuggests that we do a Honey Festival here, along the same lines.

7. Larry Kelly reported on the National Honey Board. The American honey producers peti-tioned the Department of Agriculture as to whether to continue the National HoneyBoard. It was passed by over 60%. New changes will be coming in the structure, includ-

ing a new order of rules governing the NHB. The seven members of the NHB are pre-dominantly packers or importers. There may be a threshold as to the paying assess-ment, from 125,000 pounds to 250,000 pounds. The American Honey Producers side ofthe board lost big. This affects us because the board defends and promotes the use ofhoney. The NHB has found problems with honey tainted with phenchlorophenol andnoted some recalls of products.

Thereafter Bob Wellemeyer presented a program about winter management.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathy Heslep, recording secretarypro tem , Edited by Alan Fiala

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New Food Regs take effect in 6 weeks. Honey is on the list.

Registration of Food Facilities Under the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparednessand Response Act of 2002; Interim Rule The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has is-sued an interim final regulation for the registration of food facilities. Domestic and foreign facili-ties that manufacture, process, pack or hold food for human or animal consumption in theUnited States are required to register with the FDA by December 12, 2003. Registration is oneof several tools that will enable FDA to act quickly in responding to a threatened or actual ter-rorist attack on the U.S. food supply. In the event of an outbreak of food-borne illness, regis-tration information will help FDA and other authorities determine the source and cause of theevent. Registration will also allow FDA to more quickly notify facilities to protect themselvesagainst terrorist activity. All facilities processing food regulated by the FDA are subject to thisregulation. Section 305 of the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Re-sponse Act (Bioterrorism Act) of 2002 defines a food processing facility as any establishment,

structure, or structures, such as a factory or warehouse, which manufactures, processes, packs,or holds food. The registration requirement does not apply if a facility is a private residence,farm, restaurant, retail food establishment, nonprofit food establishment, and fishing vessel. Afacility is exempt from registering only if all of its activities are included in one or more exemp-tion. As an example, a farm that raises vegetables and sells the produce to consumers as itsprimary function, i.e. retail, is exempt from registration. However, a farm that raises vegetablesfor packing and sale to a distributor must register. The regulation requires the registration ofthe location of any facility involved in the manufacture/processing of food. It does not requirethe registration of individuals involved in food production or processing. Information derivedfrom the registration database may be shared with States and other federal agencies. The reg-istration information contained in the database of food processing facilities is not subject to dis-closure under the Freedom of Information Act. Any information derived from the list of facilitiesor registration documents that would disclose the identity or location of an owner, operator,

agent, or registered facility is not subject to public review. If you are an owner or operator of afood processing facility and it is not exempt from the registration regulation, the facility mustbe registered with the FDA. Failure to register, update, or cancel a registration as required is aprohibited act. The FDA can bring civil or criminal action, cancel a registration, or hold food arti-cles for those in violation of this regulation. Owners or agents of appropriate facilities may reg-ister electronically over the internet (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~furls/ovffreg.html), by mailwith Form 3537 or a CD-ROM containing multiple submissions, or by FAX. There is no fee forthis registration. Registration is a one-time requirement for each food processing facility.Change in mandatory information or cancellation of registration must be submitted to FDAwithin 60 days of the reason for the event. Written or electronic comments on the interim regu-lation may be provided to the FDA by December 24, 2003. Written comments should be sub-mitted to the Division of Dockets and Management, Food and Drug Administration, 5630 FishersLane, Room 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. Submit electronic comments tohttp://www.fda.gov/dockets/ecomments. Current information on FDAs efforts under the Bioter-rorism Act and an electronic copy of the regulation may be viewed athttp://www.fda.gov/oc/bioterrorism/bioact.html .

Kim FlottumEditor, Bee Culture Magazine http://www.beeculture.com/beeculture/index.htmlFor an archive of Catch the Buzz postings, visit:http://www.beeculture.com/beeculture/buzz/index.html

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Candle and Soap Book Recall

Washington, D.C., October 9, 2003 The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission an-nounces the following recalls in voluntary cooperation with the firms listed below. Consumersshould stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. To access colorphotos of recalled products, go to the Commission's Web site at http://www.cpsc.gov . Name ofproduct: Candle and Soap Making For Dummies Book Units: 5,400 Manufacturer: John Wiley &Sons Inc., of Hoboken, N.J. Hazard:The instructions in the book for making lye combine sodium

hydroxide and water in an incorrect order. This could cause the mixture to bubble over, posinga burn hazard to consumers. Incidents/Injuries: None reported. Description: The paperbackbook is titled Candle & Soap Making For Dummies. The book's cover is black and yellow and hasa photograph of candlesticks and slices of soap. Sold at: Bookstores and discount departmentstores nationwide from August 2003 through September 2003 for about $20. Manufactured in:United States Remedy: Consumers should return these books to the store where purchased fora full refund. Visit Wiley's Web site at http://www.wiley.com for more information.

Kim FlottumEditor, Bee Culture Magazine http://www.beeculture.com/beeculture/index.htmlFor an archive of Catch the Buzz postings, visit:http://www.beeculture.com/beeculture/buzz/index.html