Pollinator Habitat Best Management Practices Collaborative Meeting

Photo credit: Janelle St. Pierre

By Janelle St. Pierre, Portland Parks and Recreation

This article is about the Pollinator Habitat Best Management Practices Collaborative Meeting that occurred on 8/3/2017. 

There is a buzz of activity in the Portland Metro Region!  In early August, a group of 40 pollinator enthusiasts came together, representing a range of interests, including community volunteers & activists, academics, consultants, nonprofits, as well as multiple local, state, and federal agencies. In a session facilitated by Samara Group and Portland Parks & Recreation, the participants worked on developing a framework that gathers the collective wisdom on key components for creating pollinator habitat across multiple scales and types of projects. The group also looked at opportunities for community engagement in pollinator projects. The information that was gathered at this meeting will be used to create a shared resource that will help identify needs and direct future efforts for pollinator habitat projects.

This meeting brought together participants from (but not limited to) the following initiatives:

ODOT Vernal Pool Pollinator Project

Photo credit: Sarah Red-Laird

A collaboration between the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Bee Girl organization

by Sarah Red-Laird

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) manages 196 acres of vernal pool habitat for the purposes of wetland and listed species mitigation in Central Point, Oregon.  Vernal pools are a locally significant wetland type that supports unique plants and macro-invertebrate communities, including three state and federal protected species: vernal pool fairy shrimp ((Branchinecta lynchi), Cook’s desert parsley (Lomatium cookii) and large-flowered wooly meadowfoam (Limnanthes pumila spp. grandiflora).  This unique site is a mix of oak woodland, oak savannah and open prairie/chaparral habitat with vernal pools occurring throughout the site.  In 2015, ODOT began a partnership with the Bee Girl organization to both provide pollination services for flowering plants, and also to monitor and document pollinator diversity in this rare and special habitat.  

It has been fascinating to see which pollinators have mutually beneficial relationships with which plants.  The meadowfoam is visited by the Bombyliidae, an adorable fuzzy fly which hovers high above the flowers.  However, the honey bee seems to do most of the pollination work, she really dives into the flower and rolls to and fro in the pollen.  So far one of the more popular flowers has been Collinsia grandiflora.  We’ve spotted Bombus, Halictidae, Apis mellifera, and Xylocopa all feeding on this beauty.  

For more photos and stories of our work, use the hashtag #ODOTpollinators on Instagram.  

The Oregon Master Beekeeper Program Looks Ahead to 2018

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by Jen Holt, Coordinator – Oregon Master Beekeeper Program and OSU Pollinator Health Program

Summer is a busy time for both honey bees and their keepers.  Students in the Oregon Master Beekeeper Program are diligently working away at their requirements for certification, and we are already beginning to look ahead to the Apprentice class of 2018.

Are you curious about bees and how to keep them?  Are you interested in learning how to become a better beekeeper?  Do you want to help others learn about bees?  The Oregon Master Beekeeper Program is for you!

The Oregon Master Beekeeper Program represents a collaborative effort between the Oregon State University Extension Service and the Oregon State Beekeepers Association. Participating beekeepers gain experience at three successive levels:  Apprentice, Journey, and Master.  Each level provides opportunities and support for additional learning, practice in the field, and community service.

The Apprentice level emphasizes hands-on training with a mentor. Classroom-based and online instruction is available throughout the state. Completion of this level gives participants a solid foundation in beekeeping.

The Journey and Master levels offer additional training in advanced beekeeping topics such as queen rearing and integrated pest management.  These levels also involve bee-related research projects and community service to educate others about honey bees and beekeeping.

Many educational opportunities are available to students enrolled in the program including access to web classes and several annual events held at the Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture on the OSU Campus.  Meet other beekeepers from Oregon, improve your beekeeping skills, and learn something new!

The deadline for the 2018 Apprentice Waiting List is Friday August 18th, 2017.  

Click here to add your name to the waiting list.
The number of available students we are able to accept into the program is based on the number of available mentors we have in the program.

Interested in the program? Contact us for more information!
www.oregonmasterbeekeeper.org
jen.holt@oregonstate.edu
541-737-1875

 

A Bee Yard Mystery

Photo by Jen Holt

Photo by Jen Holt

By Ron Lane

The early spring days in the bee yard often bring surprises, turning the apiary into an excellent outdoor classroom.   If the beekeeper is observant and willing to follow clues left by the bees, it would be a rare season indeed that leaves the beekeeper without a new lesson.  In this month’s newsletter I would like to share with you one of those lessons.

In early May I removed a queen, some brood and nurse bees (artificial swarm) from a strong colony that had wintered very well.  I found the queen on the first frame I pulled at the very outside edge of the box, roaming around on capped honey.  This struck me as a little strange but what the heck, it was an easy find.  I was out to create a split and the queen seemed to want to cooperate.  Only later did this oddity fit into the equation.

I “notched” numerous cells containing eggs and young larva, (which always produces plenty of queen cells) and returned 5 days later to remove the capped queen cells.  From egg to capped queen cell is a process that typically takes eight days.  Queen cells capped prior to that are raised from older larva that does not always receive the appropriate amount of royal jelly which can result in weaker queens.

To my surprise the colony had produced very few queen cells, just four as matter of fact and all of them were capped.  It was quite unusual to find that no queen cells had been produced from the notched cells with eggs.  Upon further inspection I found nearly two full frames of eggs in the bottom hive box, (remember the queen had been removed 5 days earlier) and yet there were these four queen cells.  What was up with that?

It became apparent that on the day I removed the queen she had already been replaced. Most likely the new queen had not completed her mating flights yet.  That may explain how the colony prepared some queen cells from older larva, but stopped short of building queen cells from the notched cells with eggs.  I believe the new queen completed her breeding flights almost immediately after I removed the first queen.  After breeding, her pheromone production fully developed and that stopped the construction of additional queen cells.  A few days later she was laying the eggs I found.

If you recall, the queen I removed was found on an outside frame of honey at the very top of the hive.  I believe she had moved as far away from the new queen as possible and that is why I found her in such an unlikely place.

Most of the literature says up to 20 percent of spring hives contain two queens as they prepare to swarm or replace the old queen via supercedure.  I had not come across two queens in the same colony before, but now I know firsthand that it is something a beekeeper should keep in mind when managing colonies in the spring.

In summary, it took a bit to put all the pieces together, but after following the trail of evidence, I came to understand that my hive had two queens in it on the day I removed the first queen to make the split.  Prior to breeding, young queens are difficult to distinguish from regular worker bees and can easily be overlooked when examining a frame.  They do not grow into the large queen size bodies we are familiar with until after breeding.

For the beginners and second year beekeepers reading this, this is a good reminder that more happens in the bee yard in spring than at any other time of year.  However, many beginning beekeepers will miss out on the opportunity to experience the spring season because they have been unable to keep their bees alive through the winter.   For that you need healthy “winter bees” and it is worth your time to spend the next month or so researching how to prepare a colony to raise healthy winter bees.

Reports from the Road – The Hermiston Swing

By Andony Melathopoulos, OSU Assistant Professor – Pollinator Health Extension

The Oregon Bee Project headed to Hermiston and Milton Freewater on the 19-21 June to meet growers and beekeepers to get a better sense of the pollinator initiatives and need for resources in the region.  We were also excited at the prospect of seeing the state’s two other managed bee species in action; the cavity nesting alfalfa leafcutter bee and the ground nesting alkali bee, both of which are critical to alfalfa seed production.

Day 1:  Driving to Hermiston.
The drive down the Columbia River gorge provided an opportunity to sample some of the late summer bee communities along the Highway. There was far less forage available than in the spring when the balsamroots and lupines covered the meadows, but we did find patches of vetch (picture left – by Andony Melathopoulos) that were completely covered with a variety of Megachilidae, bumble bees (particularly B. griseocollis). It impressed on us the potential importance of small patches of flowering plants in the drier regions of the state at this time of year.

Day 2: Hermiston.
We started the day with visits with two OSU faculty with considerable experience with pollinators, Drs. Sandra DeBano and Scott Lukas. Dr. DeBano reviewed the native bee work happening in Eastern Oregon and Dr. Lukas provided us with a crash course in watermelon cultivation and how something like soil health might impact strategies for enhancing pollinator habitat around watermelon fields (photo below left). Watermelons were already in bloom and one grower explained the challenges of growing seedless watermelon and the importance of building a strong working relationship with beekeepers. We also visited a very large farm that had considerable dedicated wild pollinator habitat on the edges of their irrigation pivots, using the outer sprinkler to help establish the pollinator plants, but then cutting the water the following year.

 

We ended the day at a grower who recently began growing alfalfa and their experience cultivating alfalfa leafcutter bees. The one remark that stuck in mind was their interest in getting alkali bees, but their difficulty in getting resources on how to establish beds.

Day 3: Milton Freewater.
OSU Extension Horticulturalist Clive Kaiser showed us around the diverse farming systems around Milton Freewater. From alfalfa seed, to orchard crops to newest federally approved federal American Viticulture Area, Milton Freewater has it all. We began the day at some pollinator plantings at high value wine grapes in The Rock District, one of the most distinctive grape-growing regions in the Pacific Northwest, where grapes are literally growing out of a cobblestone landscape. Next we went looking for alkali bee beds. Alkali bees (Nomia melanderi) are the only solitary bee managed on a sizable scale in the US and phenomenal pollinators of alfalfa seed (see below). We visited one producer who had recently refurbished the beds the bees nest in by trenching new irrigation pipe into the salty soil where the bees make their home. He told us that his bed was one of the original beds that were established in the late 1950s, but that it had fallen into neglect when he took over.  On the day we visited there was a cloud of bees flying in and out of the beds to the surrounding alfalfa fields. The long flight range of these bees, means that they frequently cross the road, prompting growers to put up signs to ensure drivers reduce their speed to increase bee survival.

 

Central Oregon – June 2017

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By Andony Melathopoulos, OSU Assistant Professor – Pollinator Health Extension

Hybrid carrot seed production is one of the biggest honey bee pollination events in Oregon, involving almost 10,000 of the state’s honey bee colonies.

Beekeepers began moving bees into fields at the end of June and last week the fields were quickly approaching full bloom (with a few fields already showing signs of significant seed set). Like other hybrid production systems, the name of the game is moving pollen from a couple of rows of pollen donning plants (male-fertile) to larger rows of flowers that lack male flower parts (male-sterile) (see above).

Also in bloom were alfalfa seed fields, where alfalfa leafcutter bees could be seen busily flying from their commercial domiciles, but also fields of dill seed and mint, both of which are visited by pollinating bees. Although much of the surrounding native plant bloom was over, there were some great diversity of native bees on cultivated lavender and asters.

What’s Happening in the Hive – July 2017

By Paul Watts, certified Apprentice Beekeeper and current Journey student in the Oregon Master Beekeeper program

It’s early July and the local blackberry blush in is just about complete – the flowers have dropped off and new berries are forming. For much of western Oregon, the blackberry bonanza provides the bulk of nectar for bees to lay in honey. It’s been a banner year for many, especially given the late, wet spring. Many of my beekeeper colleagues speak of adding box upon box of additional room for the honey their bees are producing. And while bee colonies kept in more agricultural areas might see a drop-off in nectar or pollen sources in August, I’ve found that my suburban hives have plenty of forage even into mid-late September. Granted, my wife is a horticulturist and has gradually transitioned parts of hers (and our neighbors’) gardens to late-blooming flora varietals.The result being that my hive is very strong with great honey stores, and still expanding as we head into August.

I will be pulling honey from the hive in another couple of weeks and then starting to treat for varroa mites. These parasites breed in the brood cells along with the bee larva and their populations grow exponentially in the spring and summer as the bee colony expands.   There are a variety of treatments for combatting varroa mites, but I utilize a best practice to pull any honey from the hive before treatment so as to eliminate any chance of contamination. I conducted a sugar roll test for mites last month and found very low numbers. However they have assuredly increased since then, and I will be re-testing and then treating for mites. It will be important to knock down the numbers of mites before the bee colony heads into winter.

2017 has been an interesting year for me in that I have switched from beekeeping with a Langstroth hive (the typical rectangular boxes) to a Topbar or coffin hive. See picture below. Overall, I’m finding that the Topbar hive enables me to have a significantly less invasive relationship with my bee colony. Inspecting a frame only requires me to pull out that specific frame, as opposed to opening up the entire hive. I’m enjoying that immensely.   On the downside, the frames of brood and honey are significantly less robust than the Lanstroth versions and I’m seeing a slight drop in the amount of honey being produced. However, I’m expecting more than enough honey this year to provide for my wife and myself as well as some presents for our friends. Here’s to a long summer!

Brief Bio:   Paul Watts is an R&D program manager at Hewlett-Packard and lives in Albany Oregon with his wife Kris.   Paul was motivated to join the Oregon Apprentice Beekeeper Program in 2014 as a form of shock-therapy to get over his life-long fear of bees.   It worked.

June Bees & Wasps in Southern Oregon

By Travis Owen, Amateur Anthecologist

A few weeks ago I bought a new camera and have been using it to photograph any bee or wasp that crosses my path. Carpenter bees (Ceratina and Xylocopa) are highly active, as well as bumbles (mostly B. vosnasenskii), metallic green sweat bees, and a fee cuckoo bee sightings (Sphecodes).

As for wasps, vespid wasps now have their first wave of worker sisters and are rearing the third wave now, while queens and foundresses are free to remain in the nests full time since the daughters can take over the foraging role. Aculeate solitary wasps are building and provisioning nests, including mason wasps (Eumeninae) and mud daubers. Two weeks ago I reared several black and yellow mud daubers (Sceliphron caementarium) from nests I had collected last year. Cuckoo wasps (Chrysididae) are also on the prowl. They are commonly found inside Sceliphron nests here.

Countless parasitic wasps are also active, though the identity of most is obscure and mysterious, often requiring a trained professional and a microscope to identify to species.

Another Pollinator Week with the Xerces Society

By Mace Vaughan, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Although the Xerces Society is a national organization with staff across the U.S., our main office is in Portland and we take special pride in our work close to home here in Oregon. Over the last decade we have worked with farmers and agencies across the state, helping them better understand the pollinators within their landscapes and creating habitat for pollinators. For example, last year we completed a 50-acre pollinator meadow on Government Island in partnership with the Port of Portland. We are currently surveying pollinators as part of a Bonneville Power Administration restoration project, and are working with the U.S. Forest Service to study and conserve the mardon skipper and Johnson’s hairstreak butterflies. We have trained hundreds of farmers and agency staff on how to best manage farms with pollinators and other beneficial insects in mind and have provided training on how to monitor bee populations. Beyond Oregon Xerces is bringing on six new pollinator conservation biologists to work as partner biologists with the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service. The new positions will be based in California, Nebraska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Maine.

This week, the Xerces Society, in partnership with Oregon Tilth (https://tilth.org), is rolling out Bee Better Certified™, a national farm and food certification program. The new certification is designed to recognize growers who have adopted habitat and reduced-risk pesticide practices that protect and support the pollinators on their farms. To learn more, visit http://beebettercertified.org.  Also, Xerces and Oregon Tilth have scheduled a webinar for farmers and others to learn more about the new certification on Tuesday, June 20 at 1pm (https://tilth.org/event/bee-better-certification-webinar/).

Pollinator Week is a great time to participate in Bumble Bee Watch, and the forecast looks great for finding them visiting the flowers in your area. To learn more about how you can help Xerces and our partners search for and map bumble bees, visit www.bumblebeewatch.org

Many pollinators are in trouble, but if we all work together we can help these animals that do so much for us. For more information on how you can help visit: www.xerces.org

What’s Happening in the Hive – June 2017

By Alex Hansen, certified Apprentice Beekeeper in the Oregon Master Beekeeper program

As the blackberry honey flow begins in the Willamette Valley, honeybees will be actively foraging and storing nectar for their increasing populations. Things that beekeepers are doing at this time of year include ventilation, protecting against robbers, taking steps to avoid swarming, and supering.

In the Willamette Valley, ventilation is most crucial during wet months, as excessive moisture and mold can be deadly to bees. But it is also a concern during hot summer months. Ventilation can be accomplished by using a screened bottom board and/or a vivaldi cover. Moving (or removing) entrance reducers to let more ventilation in is another thing to consider. The need for ventilation should be balanced with the need to protect against robbers. As the weather gets warmer, robbers—yellow jackets and bees from other hives trying to steal nectar from your hives—become a concern.  Make sure there are not any cracks or other spaces where robbers can invade. Adjust the entrance reducer so that the bees have a smaller space to defend. Make inspections quick so that robbers are not attracted to the smell of honey coming from your open hive. Watching the comings and goings of the bees at the entrance is not only fun, it will also help you assess whether they are fending off robbers or if they seem overwhelmed. If a colony is strong and healthy, it can usually survive robbers, repulsing them with minimal losses.  If you have been feeding your bees well during the spring, the colony is more likely to be strong. Reducing the chances of swarming includes making sure the bees have ample space above them into which they can move.  Also important are making sure they have enough food stores and that they have a strong queen. A good brood pattern and calm bee behavior are signs of a healthy queen. Supers give bees a space where they can use frames exclusively for honey storage, assuming that the brood chambers below are not overcrowded. Of course, if the honey supers are going to be harvested for human consumption, treatments for pests should not be done until after the supers are removed later in the summer.