Healing Honey And The New Queen Bee(keepers)
by Allison Aubrey from NPR

Bee Debate Causes a Buzz in Blackman Township

Published: Saturday, October 02, 2010, 11:40 PM    
Updated: Monday, October 04, 2010, 4:49 PM
(http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2010/10/bee_debate_causes_a_buzz_in_bl.html)

Keith and Jessica Steller moved to Blackman Township a year ago to make a new start as backyard beekeepers.

The Stellers said they started keeping bees as a hobby several years ago in Whitmore Lake and it grew through word of mouth into a side business, Steller Apiaries. They thought their 8 acres at 3342 Clinton Way near Parnall Road and U.S. 127 were zoned agricultural and would be ideal for beekeeping.

The Stellers were so excited about their new home they told their neighbors, John and Marian Gattshall, they had planned to keep bees.

The Gattshalls, worried the honeybees would wander and sting people, called the township. In November, the Stellers were notified they had violated the township zoning ordinance by having bees and three chickens in a residential area.

The Stellers said the complaint and the way the township handled it didn't make them feel very welcome.

"I kind of regretted moving to the area," Jessica said.

The couple said their neighbors probably wouldn't have known they kept bees if they hadn't told them and no other neighbors have come to them with concerns.

The Stellers also said they believe so strongly in their right to keep bees they are willing to go to court and they believe state law trumps the very ordinance the township says they're violating.

The Stellers' honeybees — as many as 200,000 of them in 10 hives — provide a valuable service by pollinating crops for miles around, they say.

"They are an integral part of the ecosystem," Keith Steller said.

But the township zoning ordinance, adopted in 1989 to protect residents from animal attacks or encounters, considers honeybees an "exotic animal or pet" and Zoning Administrator Jack Koch has told the Stellers to remove them from their property.

Koch declined to comment when asked if he thought the bees posed a threat to the safety of residents, but he said rules are rules and the Stellers should follow them.

Failure to comply with the ordinance "could result in the issuance of a misdemeanor citation, which may result in fines up to $500.00 or imprisonment not exceeding ninety (90) days or both," Koch's notice said.

Koch also notified the Stellers they violated the zoning ordinance by having two banners — a honey-for-sale sign and a Steller Apiaries sign — in a residential area and told them to remove them.

The Stellers took down the Steller Apiaries sign and put the for sale sign in their front window.

Dan Hawkins, the township's new supervisor, said it wouldn't be fair to other township residents to let the Stellers farm in a residential area, and they should seek a zoning change or variance if they want to keep bees.

The Stellers said that could take months and cost hundreds of dollars and they still might not be able to keep their bees.

"It's a lot of wasted time and a lot of wasted effort for a silly ordinance," Keith Steller said.

The Stellers said they make a few thousand dollars a year removing bees from other people's property, which is how they got their bees, and they make several hundred dollars a year by selling some of the bees' leftover honey. They also teach a beekeeping course at the Dahlem Center as volunteers.

They said they carry $2 million in liability insurance in case a customer or a neighbor has a problem with their bees, and they would get rid of them themselves if they thought they were a threat to safety.

Keith, a small-engine mechanic and Army veteran, and Jessica, who just had their first baby, said their beekeeping business helps them pay bills, but they are fighting to keep their bees as a matter of principle.

"It's an agricultural-environmental calling," Jessica said.

Attorney Robert Flack, who formerly served as the township's attorney, has told the Stellers they are doing nothing wrong and can continue keeping bees.

Flack argues that the state's Right to Farm Act, which was adopted in 1981, preempts the township zoning ordinance. He said as long as the Stellers keep bees as a commercial activity and meet the state guidelines, the Generally Accepted Agricultural and Management Practices, they are covered by the act.

Hawkins said his understanding of the act was that it was written to protect farmers from encroaching urban residents.

Flack said that might have been the intention but now it protects farmers from residents no matter who was there first.

"It allows farming in places that people would not expect because of the size of the property and the location of the property in relation to other zoning districts," Flack said.

Kristin Linderman, a resource analyst with the Michigan Department of Agriculture's Right to Farm Program, inspected the Stellers' beekeeping operation at their request. Linderman said it would meet the state guidelines but the Stellers should bring it into compliance with the township zoning ordinance.

"The Michigan Right to Farm Act is for everybody. It's to help everybody live together," Linderman said. "For the Stellers to be able to keep bees, they have to work with their local community."

The Role of Bees

Roger Hoopingarner, president of the Michigan Beekeepers Association, and Roger Sutherland, president of the Southeastern Michigan Beekeepers Association, said honeybees play a key role in Michigan’s environment.

They said in the past a variety of bees pollinated fruits, vegetables and flowers, but their populations have dwindled and now honeybees do virtually all of the pollination through the efforts of beekeepers.

“We are losing lots and lots of bees,” said Sutherland, a retired biology professor at Schoolcraft College. “Other pollinators are OK, but the workforce is just not there.”

Hoopingarner, a retired professor of entomology at Michigan State University, said occasionally people will “stumble upon a wild colony” of bees and get stung, but the bees kept by beekeepers are relatively docile and pose little threat to others.

Sutherland said yellow jackets are much more aggressive than honeybees and some people don’t know the difference.

“People have built up this myth that honeybees are aggressive,” Sutherland said. “Unless you disturb their hive, they are not trying to be aggressive. They’re very gentle.”

Hoopingarner and Sutherland both said urban beekeeping is growing in popularity. They said each of their organizations has about 20 members in Jackson County and the actual number of beekeepers might be higher but the Department of Agriculture no longer requires beekeepers to register.

Bee Researchers Find Major New Suspect For
Colony Collapse Disorder

Jerry Bromenshenk, biology research professor, UM Division of Biological Sciences, 406-544-9007, 406-541-3160, beeresearch@aol.com;

Colin Henderson, Applied Arts and Sciences faculty member, UM College of Technology, 406-243-7843, 406-541-3160, colin.henderson@umontana.edu ;

Bee Alert Technology Inc., 406-541-3160, info@beealert.blackfoot.net .

Oct 6th, 2010

University of Montana honeybee researchers and their partners have discovered a one-two-punch combination that may cause Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious malady that is depopulating beehives around the globe.

UM biology Research Professor Jerry Bromenshenk said his research group has learned that a honeybee virus previously unknown to North America, as well as a fungal pathogen, were found in all their samples collected at hives afflicted by CCD from 2006 to 2009. Those two pathogens were not found in the control groups – colonies with no history of CCD in Montana and Australia.

“We truly don’t know if these two pathogens cause CCD or whether the colonies with CCD are more likely to succumb to these two pathogens,” Bromenshenk said. “It’s a work in progress, but it may be the most important advance in the search for the cause of CCD in the previous three years.”

The research was published Oct. 6 in PLoS ONE, a scientific journal found online at http://www.plosone.org.

The first of the suspect pathogens, insect iridescent virus (IIV), is similar to a virus first reported in India 20 years ago, as well as a virus found in moths. It afflicts the abdomens of bees and is called iridescent because infected host tissues may take on a bluish-green or purplish hue.

The fungus is called Nosema ceranae. With this pathogen, the bee ingests spores that allow the fungus to spread in the gut. Either the iridescent virus or the fungus by itself can make bees sick, but together they might be too much for most bee colonies.

“From our data, there seems to be a correlation between the presence of these two pathogens together,” said Robert Cramer, a research partner and fungal pathologist at Montana State University-Bozeman. “We envision the bee gets an infection from one or the other, and this causes the bees to become stressed, which then allows the second infection to come in and more effectively cause disease.”

Bromenshenk said most researchers worldwide investigating the cause of CCD studied RNA viruses associated with honeybees. The insect iridescent virus his team correlated with the disorder is a DNA virus.

“This is a fundamental difference that takes CCD research in a whole new direction,” he said.

The research group’s samples of ground-up honeybees were analyzed at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, a U.S. Army-backed laboratory based at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. Edgewood has developed a liquid-chromatograph proteomics mass-spectrometry device, which identified and quantified as many as 30,000 proteins in each sample. This voluminous dataset revealed the iridescent virus and fungus were present in all CCD samples.

The team of UM bee specialists and MSU fungal pathologists eventually grew to include insect virus specialists at Texas Tech University and the Instituto de Ecologia, A.C., in Mexico. Much of the work was done at Bee Alert Technology Inc. in Missoula, a private company Bromenshenk and his partners started that licenses honeybee technologies discovered at UM.

So if the paired pathogens do cause CCD, what can beekeepers do to prevent the disorder and the mysterious disappearance of their bees?

Until an effective treatment can be developed, it may be prudent to eliminate infected colonies, said Colin Henderson, a faculty member at the UM College of Technology who did the statistics work related to the project. Standard quarantine practices, such as testing imported bees before they are added to colonies and disinfection of equipment, also likely would help.

Bromenshenk said some beekeepers have reported outbreaks of CCD following extended periods of cool, damp weather. Beekeepers also report more problems in areas with frequent fog or in hills where the weather is cooler. Placing bees in warm, sunny locations appears to help prevent outbreaks.

“Even if it’s not the cause of CCD, the discovery of the iridescent virus in our North American bees is important,” Bromenshenk said. “It warrants additional investigation, as it’s a whole different category of viruses than anyone has looked at before. It’s a unique discovery.”

Beekeepers Might be Allowed to Operate in Blackman Township

Published: Thursday, October 28, 2010, 11:31 PM
Updated: Friday, October 29, 2010, 10:23 AM
(http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2010/10/beekeepers_might_be_allowed_to.html)

The Blackman Township Board might have found a way to allow beekeeping in residential areas.

At a work session Thursday, board members discussed removing the rural non-farm residential zone from the township’s exotic animal and pet ordinance and encouraging beekeepers to apply for the zoning designation.

“If we do the two steps, we’ll be happy and they’ll be happy,” Supervisor Dan Hawkins said.

The board is trying to accommodate Keith and Jessica Steller, 3342 Clinton Way. The Stellers bought eight acres in the township to keep bees and then found out their property was not zoned agricultural and they were in violation of the zoning ordinance.

When contacted after the meeting, Jessica Steller said she and her husband are pleased township officials are willing to work with them and plan to apply for a zoning change.

“It’s a huge sigh of relief,” Jessica said.

Hawkins said the Stellers’ property is now zoned residential-1, but it’s a perfect fit for the rural non-farm residential zone.

Attorney Eric White, who researched the issue for the township, said he was surprised to learn that cities as big as New York and Salt Lake City allow beekeeping.

“It looks like European honeybees are non-aggressive bees that simply produce honey,” White said.

Also at the work session, Scott Fleming, president of The Enterprise Group of Jackson, and Amy Torres, vice president of economic development, discussed the possibility of getting Community Development Block Grants to extend water lines to businesses that create jobs and make investments.

They said several businesses on Cooper Street and Michigan Avenue and in Hurst Industrial Park have expressed interest in getting water from the township. Fleming and Torres said they will get more details and report back to the board.

Fleming also told board members he is moving forward with Project Welcome Mat, his plan to turn a cell tower at the Cooper Street exit of I-94 into a clock tower, and he will seek township approval for it.

The Blackman Township Board will discuss amending the exotic animal and pet ordinance at its next regular meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the township office, 1990 W. Parnall Road. The board usually meets on a Monday but is meeting Wednesday because Tuesday is Election Day.

Funny Honey Targeted by State Authorities

by, Tom Breen
Sept 24th, 2010

ALEIGH, N.C. — You might call them the Honey Police – beekeepers and honey producers ready to comb through North Carolina to nab unscrupulous sellers of sweet-but-bogus "funny honey."

North Carolina is the latest state to create a standard that defines "pure honey" in a bid to curb the sale of products that have that label but are mostly corn syrup or other additives. Officials hope to enforce that standard with help from the 12,000 or so Tar Heel beekeepers.

"The beekeepers tend to watch what's being sold, they watch the roadside stands and the farmer's markets," said John Ambrose, an entomologist and bee expert at North Carolina State University who sits on the newly created Honey Standards Board.

Florida was the first state to adopt such standards in 2009. It's since been followed by California, Wisconsin and North Carolina. Similar efforts have been proposed in at least 12 other states, including North and South Dakota, the nation's largest producers of honey, together accounting for roughly one-third of U.S. output.

Beekeepers and honey packers around the country are fuming about products masquerading as real honey, and they hope the state-by-state strategy will secure their ultimate goal: a national rule banning the sale of any product as pure honey if it contains additives.

Americans consume about 350 million pounds of honey per year, but just 150 million pounds are made domestically, creating a booming market for importers and ample temptation to cut pure honey with additives such as corn syrup that are far less expensive to produce.

This month, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago announced the indictments of 11 German and Chinese executives and six companies on charges that they avoided nearly $80 million in honey tariffs and sold honey tainted with banned antibiotics.

The scale of the problem nationwide is hard to gauge. It's largely a concern for the big producers who make most of America's honey, said Bob Bauer, vice president of the National Honey Packers and Dealers Association.

"The honey industry is looking to be proactive and take whatever steps are necessary not only to keep it from becoming a widespread problem, but to get rid of it entirely," he said.

Story continues below blockquote .mid_article_ad_label { border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); }Advertisement The most passionate supporters of the laws tend to be beekeepers and other small producers outraged at what they see as the corruption of their craft.

"They're trading on the good name of honey to sell their product," Kenosha, Wis., beekeeper Tim Fulton said of phony honey peddlers.

Ambrose said the North Carolina board – formed by the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the state Beekeepers Association – won't be a "honey patrol."

The board will instead respond to complaints about improperly marketed honey, which under state law is now defined as what honeybees produce: no more, no less. Once a complaint has been received, a state-approved lab will test the product. If it's not pure honey, the state can order it to be removed from sale and impose fines for subsequent violations.

"You can go to roadside stands throughout the western part of the state and they'll try to sell you Karo syrup and swear it's sourwood honey," said Charles Heatherly, a North Carolina beekeeper.

Sourwood – Heatherly calls it "the Cadillac of North Carolina honey" – is mostly found in the state's mountainous west. It can cost up to $10 a pound, making it an attractive target for adulteration.

It was a similar impersonation of local honey that provoked Nancy Gentry, a beekeeper who owns Cross Creek Honey in Interlachen, Fla., to launch a bid to get a honey standard not just in her home state, but around the country.

"People were taking raw honey, adding high fructose corn syrup and marketing it as grade A USDA No. 1 honey, but there is no such thing," said Dick Gentry, Nancy's husband and a retired trial lawyer who helped steer the campaign in Florida.

But the real sting in the Florida provision, and in standards adopted in California, Wisconsin and North Carolina, is that it makes it easier to file lawsuits against purveyors of bogus honey.

Agencies have been reluctant to create standards for honey ever since a Michigan jury in 1995 found in favor of a honey processing firm that had been accused of cutting the product with an additive. The jurors said there weren't enough regulations governing honey to make the charge stick and that the government failed to identify the additive.

Under the new laws, it isn't necessary to know out what's being added to honey. Any additive, from cane sugar to corn syrup, deprives it of the label "pure honey."

That could prompt retailers or beekeepers to file more lawsuits.

"For us, it is through the civil courts, then, that we take back the product," Nancy Gentry told an industry group in Fresno, Calif., according to a transcript of her speech. "We crush unscrupulous packers and throw out honey pretenders."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has worked to block the sale of honey contaminated with potentially harmful chemicals, and it's reviewing a petition seeking a national honey standard, spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey said.

In the meantime, North Carolina beekeepers promise to keep on the lookout to ensure every jar of honey holds what the label says.

"Some of the people who think they've been buying sourwood all these years have actually been buying corn syrup, and they have no idea what they're missing," Ambrose said.