- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The honey bee garden owned and maintained by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology has received a $15,000 donation from the California State Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
State Regent Debra Jamison of Fresno, as part of her two-year fundraising project to support the troubled bee population, donated the funds to enhance the bee environment in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road.
Jamison, the 2012-2014 state regent, presented the check March 28 at a “lunch-with-the-bees” celebration organized by the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Some 125 DAR members, some from as far away as Chico and San Diego, dined beneath a canopy of olive trees bordering the road.
“We appreciate this more than we can say,” said Ed Lewis, professor and vice chair of the department--and whose mother belongs to DAR.
This was DAR's second check presentation in two years to the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. In 2013, Jamison presented a check for $30,000 for bee research to assistant professor Brian Johnson.
On behalf of the department, haven manager Christine Casey accepted the $15,000 check from Jamison and Karen Montgomery of Modesto, the state regent's project chair. Casey announced that some of the funds have already been used to purchase two benches, and other projects will include a shade structure in the Growers Grove section and more bee habitat.
Jamison adopted the motto, “Bees are at the heart of our existence” and vowed to support honey bee research and enhance honey bee environments to help the beleaguered bees.
Honey bees prefaced the American Revolutionary War (1765-1783) by 143 years. European colonists brought the honey bee to Jamestown colony, Virginia, in 1622. Descendants of the American Revolutionary War formed DAR in 1890.
“When the state regent's project was conceived, I never imagined that honey bees would be in the serious state they are in,” Jamison told the luncheon crowd. “I could not have imagined that this amazing insect would make the cover of Time magazine, or that the California DAR would be involved in trying to do something to help the most vital insect in the animal kingdom.”
“Our 114 chapters and 15 districts have worked diligently to educate members, children, and the public about the plight of bees,” Jamison said. “This outreach has been truly outstanding. Add to that the phenomenal fundraising efforts. I truly thought that when I brought this project before the members that they might think, ‘Eeeeeuuuu, creepy insect, and weird state regent.'
Jamison presented certificates of appreciation to Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen and communication specialist Kathy Keatley Garvey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology for their work in helping DAR with the two-year project.
“Kathy is the first live body I talked to about a possible project at UC Davis,” Jamison said. “She was immediately excited and hooked me up with the resident researcher here at the time. Our members know that Kathy is an accomplished micro-photographer, and they have seen many of Kathy's photos because she has been so open to sharing them with our organization. We also thank her for publicizing the first phase of this project. Our members were so excited to read all about it on the internet!”
Next, she paid tribute to Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen, a member of the faculty since 1976. “Dr. Mussen, there is no way we could have put this project together without you and all of the information you provided,” she told him. “Your willingness to meet with me, and to give a tour of the lab and Honey Bee Haven was so appreciated and so kind of you. Thank you for answering all of my questions and emails over the last two years.”
“A little bee at the Central Valley Beekeepers Association--of which I am now a member-- told me you would be retiring this summer. My best wishes for a happy retirement and more personal time to spend with your bees!”
"Bee Patriotic” rally towels decorated each table. Last year Jamison's rally towels were lettered with “Bee-lieve in the Power of DAR."
All those attending the March 28th luncheon received a “I Beelong to DAR” recyclable grocery bag.
The crowd toured the haven, which was installed in the fall of 2009, and ended the day with bee presentations in the Laidlaw facility conference room.
Mussen talked about the life cycle of bees and the issues bees face: malnutrition, pesticides, pests, parasites, diseases and stress. Malnutrition, Mussen said, is a bigger problem now than colony collapse disorder (CCD), a mysterious malady characterized by adult bees abandoning the hive. An active colony of honey bees requires an acre-equivalent of mixed blooms, daily, to meet their nutritional needs.
Mussen also warned that simply because certain pesticides are labeled for use in organic gardening does not mean that they are less dangerous for non-target insects, particularly pollinators. Also, insecticides that are watered into the soil and move from the roots, systemically throughout the plants, are secreted in the nectar and pollens when the treated plants bloom.
Johnson thanked DAR for the generous donation of $30,000 that he received last year. He said the financial support will cover a two-year period of graduate student research. His graduate student, Gerard Smith, researches the effect of pesticide exposure in the field on honey bee foraging behavior, and graduate student Cameron Jasper studies the genetic basis of division of labor in honey bees.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Her seminar will be from 12:10 to 1 p.m., in 122 Briggs.
"Pesticides may be necessary in today's cropping systems but large monocultures have resulted in the need for significant use of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides," Frazier says. "New chemistries, such as neonicitinoids have their advantages but the persistent use of synthetic pesticides, especially in bee-pollinated crops and/or crops visited by bees to collect nectar or pollen, such as corn, has resulted in significant pesticide exposure to bees."
"Over the past seven years our lab has analyzed over 1,200 samples of mainly pollen, wax, bees and flowers for 171 pesticides and metabolites. We have found 129 different compounds in nearly all chemical classes, including organophosphates, pyrethroids, carbamates, neonicotinoids, chlorinated cyclodienes, organochlorines, insect growth regulators, fungicides, herbicides, synergists, and formamidines. Further, we have identified up to 31 different pesticides in a single pollen sample, and 39 in a single wax sample. An average of 6.7 chemicals are found in pollen samples. However, the pesticides found most often and at the highest levels are miticides used by beekeepers for the control of varroa mites."
In her talk, Frazier will discuss these results and additional studies and concerns about "the synergistic effects of pesticides, systemic pesticides and sub-lethal impacts, including those on immune function, memory and learning and longevity, as well as the question of toxicity associated with adjuvants/inert ingredients."
Helping to coordinate the event is Mea McNeil of San Anselmo, master beekeeper and writer. Assistant professor Brian Johnson is the seminar coordinator for the spring quarter.
Frazier received her bachelor of science degree in agriculture education from Penn State University in 1980. In 1983 she completed a masters of agriculture in entomology at Penn State, specializing in apiculture. She has worked as the assistant state apiary inspector in Maryland, and for two years as a beekeeping specialist in Sudan and later in Central America.
For the past 25 years, Frazier has held the position of senior extension associate in the Department of Entomology at Penn State and is responsible for honey bee extension throughout the state and cooperatively across the Mid-Atlantic region. She works collaboratively with other members of PSU Department of Entomology to understand how pesticides are impacting honey bees and other pollinators. In addition, she works with a team of U.S. and Kenyan researchers to understand the impacts of newly introduced varroa mites on East African honey bee subspecies and helping Kenyan beekeepers become more productive.
Frazier has taught courses in beekeeping, general entomology and teacher education and is involved with the Department of Entomology's innovative public outreach program.
Frazier appears in a YouTube video, posted July 23, 2012 on the declining bee population. The brief clip was excerpted from Frazier's Spring 2012 Research Unplugged talk titled "Disappearing Bees: An Update on the Search for Prime Suspects." The abstract: She discusses the decline of pollinators and the prime suspects behind it. Some of these suspects include the use of pesticides, on both small and large scales, that destroy food sources for bees; agribusiness practices such as monocropping, in which the same single crop is planted year after year, eliminating the plant diversity pollinators need; stress caused by transporting the bees across country for commercial pollination needs; and threats such as nosema disease, viruses and mites.
Her April 2nd talk is the first in a series of departmental spring seminars that will conclude June 4. The remainder of the department's spring seminars:
April 9:
Edwin Lewis, professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
April 16:
John Jaenike, professor and chair, Department of Biology, University of Rochester, New York
April 23:
Elizabeth Tibbetts, associate professor, Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
April 30:
Eric Lonsdorf, conservation scientist, Chicago Botanic Garden
May 7:
Riccardo Bommarco, professor, Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
May 14:
Leithen M'Gonigle, postdoctoral fellow, Claire Kremen lab, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley
May 21:
May Berenbaum, professor and department head, Department of Entomology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
May 28:
Andrea Lucky, evolutionary biologist and biodiversity scientist, Department of Entomology and Nematology, University Florida, Gainesville (and UC Davis alumnus; doctorate in entomology, Phil Ward lab)
June 4:
Katharina Ullmann, graduate student, Neal Williams lab, Department of Entomology and Nematology, UC Davis
Under the direction of professor James R. Carey, plans call for all the seminars to be recorded for later posting on UCTV.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
DAVIS--Honey bee guru Eric Mussen, Extension apiculturist at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology who will be retiring at the end of June, has seen and used many a smoker during his 38-year career.
But this one is different.
In honor of his service, the California State Beekeepers’ Association recently presented him with a plaque decorated with a smoker “for 38 years of work and support.”
Throughout his career, Mussen has offered advice to scores of people and figuratively put out many a fire involving beekeeping and pollination issues.
A smoker, a device that beekeepers use to calm honey bees so they can open their hives, masks the smell of the alarm pheromones released by guard bees. It also prompts the bees to gorge on honey.
Considered by his peers as one of the most respected and influential professional apiculturists in the nation, Mussen presented a slide show of some of the highlights of his career during his two-hour presentation on “The Most Interesting Time in Beekeeping.”
“I got carried away,” Mussen said later. “I was nearly at the end of the second hour when I was asked to wrap up my 45-minute presentation. Many listeners said that they still hope to hear the ‘more current’ portion that had to be omitted.”
Mussen has given presentations to CSBA since joining the UC Davis faculty in 1976. He is also the organization’s apiculturist and parliamentarian and served as a delegate to the American Beekeeping Federation.
A native of Schenectady, N.Y., Mussen received his bachelor’s degree in entomology from the University of Massachusetts (after turning down an offer to play football at Harvard) and then received his master’s degree and doctorate in entomology from the University of Minnesota in 1969 and 1975, respectively.
His doctoral research focused on the epidemiology of a viral disease of larval honey bees, sacbrood virus.
Mussen continues to tackle many new challenges regarding honey bee health and pollination concerns, including mites, diseases, pesticides, malnutrition, stress, Africanized honey bees and the successful pollination of California’s almond acreage.
Mussen educates the beekeeping industry and general public with his bimonthly newsletter, from the UC Apiaries, which he launched in 1976. Since 1976, he has also written Bee Briefs, addressing such issues as diseases, pesticides and swarms. Both publications are on the departmental website at http://ucanr.org/sites/entomology/Faculty/Eric_C_Mussen/Apiculture_Newsletter/.
The recipient of numerous state and national awards, Mussen is a worldwide authority on honey bees, said Jackie Park-Burris, a commercial queen breeder in Butte County and a past president of the California State Apiary Board.
Mussen is known for devoting his research and extension activities toward the improvement of honey bee health and honey bee colony management practices. He helps growers, consumers, UC Farm Advisors, agricultural commissioners, scientists, beekeepers, researchers, pesticide regulators, 4-H’ers, and state and national agricultural and apicultural organizations, among others.
"I am basically all pro-bee,” Mussen told the American Bee Journal in a two-part feature story published in the September of 2011. “Whatever I can do for bees, I do it...It doesn’t matter whether there is one hive in the backyard or 15,000 colonies. Bees are bees and the bees’ needs are the bees’ needs.”
Recruitment is underway for his successor, who will begin as an Extension assistant apiculturist.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
They are pollinator ecologist/associate professor Neal Williams and Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen.
Williams, co-director of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis, will deliver the research luncheon talk on Wednesday, Nov. 20. His topic is “Honey Bees and Pollination: New Things We Now Know.”
Mussen will discuss “The Most Interesting Time in Beekeeping” on Thursday afternoon, Nov. 21. Mussen has served as the Extension apiculturist since 1976 and will be retiring in June 2014. He wears several hats on the CSBA board: apiculturist, parliamentarian and a delegate to the American Beekeeping Federation.
Other topics will include scientific updates, bee laws, almond pollination, sustainability, and “A Bug for Every Bug,” the latter by Steve Godin and the California Citrus Research Board.
Among the other speakers is Robert Curtis, associate manager for agricultural affairs, Almond Board of California. He just received the "Friend" award from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at its 25th annual College Celebration.
President of the association is John Miller of Newcastle. The mission of CSBA is to educate the public about the beneficial aspects of honey bees, advance research beneficial to beekeeping practices, provide a forum for cooperation among beekeepers, and to support the economic and political viability of the beekeeping industry.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The free multimedia event will pay tribute to the honey bee "and the wonderful world of pollination," said cultural entomologist Emmet Brady, host of the Davis-based Insect News Network, broadcast on KDRT 95.7 FM Radio, Davis.
"The Bee-a-Thon 3 will take intelligent humans everywhere on a deep dive into the Microcosm and the wonderful symphony of pollination," Brady said.
The event will begin online with a series of videos about honey bees and other members of the Microcosm, including videos created by Brady and clips from previous Bee-a-Thons.
UC Davis will be represented by Eric Mussen, Extension apiculturist with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; and entomologist/artist Diane Ullman and artist Donna Billick, co-founders and co-directors of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program. Mussen, a member of the department since 1976, is world-renowned for his honey bee expertise. Ullman is the associate dean of undergraduate academic programs in the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and a professor of entomology. Billick is a self-described rock artist whose work has been shown throughout the world. She created the "Miss Bee Haven" ceramic mosaic sculpture in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis, and the sign that graces the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility.
The schedule includes:
- a pollination fundraising luncheon, with a honey-inspired menu, from noon to 1 p.m. at Monticello Seasonal Cuisine, 630 G St. (not broadcast).
- fruit presentations from 1 to 1:30 p.m. at the Davis Food Co-Op, 620 G St.; (not broadcast)
- a live broadcast from 2 to 4 p.m. on Davis Community Television public access Channel 15
- a radio/video feed from KDRT, 95.7 FM, from 4 to 6 p.m.
- BATMAP (Bee-a-Thon Monster After Party) billed as the world’s first Pollinator Party from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Davis Media Access, 1623 Fifth St., and featuring music by Eminent Bee. Admission is free, but guests must come adorned as an insect, spider or flower.
- a lounge chat from 10 p.m. to midnight at deVere’s Irish Pub, 217 E St.
The pollination luncheon at Monticello Seasonal Cuisine, a fundraising event for Davis Media Access, will include a special honey menu prepared by the owners. Brady will be offering a special preview of his forthcoming book “The Insect Tribe: Who? What? Why?”
Brady says the art-science event is designed to ignite a community about the full story about honey bees and other pollinators — "not just the science, but the art, the anthropology, the technology and design, the pop culture."
“The interdependence we have with insects — especially bees — is profound and complex and most people are only discussing half the story," said Brady, who holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Hiram (Hiram, Ohio) College. "The key word is biocomplexity — how human behavior fits into the global ecology. It’s also about how insects inspire and amaze our society. That will all be covered on the show.”
Brady described the Bee-a-Thon as timely; Time magazine just published a cover story on “beepocalpyse.”
Noon - 1 p.m.
A pollination fundraising luncheon at the Monticello Seasonal Cuisine, 630 G St.
1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
The broadcast continues online with more videos and interviews pre-recorded for the event.
1 p.m. – 1:20
Melon Chat at Davis Food Cooperative (not broadcast). This is a special presentation about the unique connection between melons and honey bees, and the dramatic impact they had on the formation of the United States.
2 – 4 p.m.: Broadcast from the Studios of DCTV in Davis, CA
2 p.m. - Live Introduction for the Bee-a-Thon 3 and the lay-out of the event.
2:10 p.m. - Green Screen: Meet the Honey Bee
2:15 p.m.- Visit to Redwood Barn to see live bees with guest Doneice Woody-Harlan of Henry’s Bullfrog Bees with a bee observation hive
2:25 p.m. - Symbols of the Insect Tribe / BUFFER
2:40 p.m. - First musical artist - To be announced
2:45 p.m. - Interview: Patrick Adams of Blue Moon Bees and the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Yuki Kamashi, Japanese Beekeeper (pre-recorded)
2:55 p.m. - Pollinator Video: with Derek Downey of the UC Davis Bee Sanctuary, located next to the Dome Cooperative Housing (pre-recorded)
3 p.m. - Interview: Professor Ille Gebeshuber of the University of Vienna from Kuala Lampur, Malaysia (pre-recorded)
3:20 p.m. - Green Screen Video - How a Honey bees Flies
3:30 p.m. - Interview: Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture magazine, described as the definitive magazine for the beekeeping industry in the U.S. (pre-recorded)
3:40 p.m. Interview: Marina Marchese, founder of the American Honey Tasting Society and owner of the Red Bee Honey (Pre-recorded)
3:45 p.m. - Roving Cam: Don Shor, owner of Redwood Barn Nursery and radio host of the Davis Garden Show (live)
3:55 p.m. – Rachel Edler, designer of Bee-a-Thon graphic media and owner of Rachel Edler Designs (pre-recorded)
4:00 p.m. - KDRT, 95.7 FM – Introduction of the Insect Tribe
4:05 p.m. - Eric Mussen, Extension apiculturist and world-renowned bee expert from UC Davis (live)
4:20 p.m. - Ria de Grassi, director of federal policy, California Farm Bureau Federation (live)
4:30 p.m. - Musical Break
4:35 p.m. - Mike Somers, state director of Pesticide Watch and Pesticide Watch Education Fund (live)
4:45 p.m. - Celeste Ets-Hokin, creator of the Pollinator Gardens at Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA (live)
4:55 p.m. - Musical Break
5:00 p.m. - Eddie Dunbar, founder of the Insect Sciences Museum of California (live)
5:10 p.m.- Musician - To be announced
5:15 p.m. -Teen interview - UC Davis Bio Boot Camp youth Bjorn Bush and Jack Henderson (live)
5:25 pm -Artists Corner: Tattoo Art with Jenn Ponci and Sara Ely, co-director of the Davis Music Festival (live)
5:35 p.m. - Kamal Lemseffer, computer analyst at UC Davis (live)
5:45 p.m. Close
5:58 sign-off
6 – 7 p.m.
Broadcast continues online at www.insectnewsnetwork.com with a series of videos about honey bees and other members of the Microcosm, including videos created by host Emmet Brady.
7 – 10 p.m.
Live video stream of the BATMAP (Bee-a-Thon Monster After Party) the world’s first Pollinator Party, and featuring music by Eminent Bee. This will take place at Davis Media Access, 1623. Admission is free, but guests must come adorned as an insect, a spider or a flower. Donations are asked to support the Davis Media Access.
10 p.m. – Midnight
Lounge chat at deVere’s Irish Pub, 217 E St., Davis, with members of the Insect Tribe (not broadcast)
For more information, contact Brady at info@insectnewsnetwork.com. The telephone number for the Davis Media Access is (530) 757-2419.