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The Cummings Report

Dan Cummings

Read an update on the almond industry. The accounting year for the 2012 almond crop concluded July 31st with 1.85 billion pounds! Bearing almond acres for 2013 are estimated to be 810,000. Read more... Click here.

The Bee Status

Dr. Gordon Wardell

PAm's Chairman gives his insights after speaking with beekeepers across the U.S. Read about the 2013 summer honey crop and its effect on bees making brood, Varroa, queens and hive rental fees for almond pollination. Click here.

The Mind-Boggling Math of Migratory Beekeeping

A lot of trees and a lot of bees...how many?

31 billion honey bees plus 810,000 acres of almond trees equals 700 billion almonds...read here.

Article courtesy of Scientific American.

Almond Pollination Contracts

Secure Yours by the End of Summer

Click on the pic below for a contract template provided by PAm

Pollination Contract Template

Considering Commercial Beekeeping as a Career?

Bee Culture

The magazine of American beekeeping is hosting...

MILES TO GO

October 5 - 6th

Medina, Ohio

This first-ever conference will highlight every aspect of migratory beekeeping. "If you move bees for a living, are going to or are thinking about it, this two-day event is for you." Click here to register or call Kim Flottum at 330-725-6677 Ext 3214 or email at Kim@BeeCulture.com with 'Miles' in the subject line.

Water Hose Bibs

CA Inspection Stations

Migratory beekeepers bringing their colonies into CA this coming pollination season will have access to water at Benton, Needles, Truckee & Yermo. The CA Dept of Food & Ag (CDFA) is installing multiple heavy duty hoses that will extend from the water lines to the shippers' trucks to provide water to the bees. This was co-funded by CSBA, PAm and the Almond Board of CA.

How Can You Help?

Make Your Contribution to PAm

Securely Online

BEE Part of the Solution!

Mark your Calendar!

Sept 19 - Oct 4 Apimondia

Oct 5 - 6 Miles-to-Go

Oct 12 North Dakota

Oct 16 - 19 WAS

Oct 22- 24 NAPPC

Oct 31 - Nov 2 Oregon

Nov 10 -13 ESA

Nov 18 - 22 CSBA

Dec 3 - 5 Almond Board

Jan 7 - 11 AHPA

Jan 7 - 11 ABF

For quick links click here!

Emergency Response Kits (ERK)

Bee Informed Partnership and the USDA have piloted a program to aid beekeepers. ERK is designed to rule out causes of large scale, suspicious colony loss through small scale sampling. The cost of the kit without pesticide analysis is $80. PAm offers a cost-share program for pesticide analyses of hive matrices. View lab directory.

The Beekeeper's Lament

This book follows commercial beekeeper, John Miller. Proceeds from your purchase goes to PAm to help fund honey bee projects. Buy your copy today! Click here.

October 2013

Are You up to a Challenge?

A couple of years ago I was introduced to TED. I met TED online. There is nothing more intellectually stimulating than TED. I should explain. TED.com is a free website that features people from the world of Technology, Entertainment and Design. Speakers are challenged to give the talk of their lives - in 18 minutes or less. Started in 1984 as a conference of leaders in the three industry fields, the TED Talks began as a simple attempt to share what happened at the conferences with the world. Under the moniker, 'ideas worth spreading', talks were released online and quickly attracted a global audience in the millions.

Dr. Marla Spivak was invited to the conference held in June and her inspiring talk was recently posted. In 18 minutes Marla described how, at 18 years old, she fell in love with bees. In 18 minutes Marla talked about how the honey bee is in dire need of our help, and in 18 minutes, Marla gave us a challenge. "There are two things each and every one of us can do to help bee populations. We can plant bee-friendly flowers in our gardens without pesticides. Also, we can all campaign to have a wide variety of flowers planted in community gardens and on roadsides, and to have flower borders planted around farms."

PAm is on the phone daily with almond growers. Growers have the land, and PAm has the bee-friendly seeds. We have pushed the 'Seeds for Bees' campaign hard this Fall. From now til mid-November we are dedicated and committed to garnering as much acreage as we possibly can for bee pastures.

Congratulations, Marla on the prestigious honor of being chosen for TED Talks, and thank you for the challenge.

Meg Ribotto, Editor

TED TALKS
When this PAm enews reaches your inbox, Dr. Marla Spivak will have had well over 295,000 views in just a month on TED! Watch here. In 2008, Dennis vanEngelsdorp was invited to TED Talks. He looks at the honey bee's important place in nature and the mystery behind its alarming disappearance. View here.

PAm Forage Update -

Over 1,185 Acres Sowed for Honey Bees in CA !!!

Backed with continued funding to buy seeds for the 'Seeds for Bees' forage project, PAm, to date, has enrolled over 1,185 acres designated for bee pastures just since August 5th...land that will be sowed with mustards, clovers and vetch for honey bees. These bee pastures will provide nutritional resources prior to and after almond bloom when two-thirds of the nation's colonies are in the state for pollination services. Daily phone calls are being made to almond growers asking them to dedicate any amount of acreage to a cover crop for pollinators. PAm, with Monsanto funding, sources seeds from suppliers in CA and AZ.

Beekeepers: Contact Your Almond Growers

Are you a beekeeper and have a grower-pollinator relationship with a grower in CA? Tell them about our 'Seeds for Bees' forage project. We are shipping FREE seed mixes (click) this month to sow through November 10th - the ideal window when the soil is still warm and before the first germinating rains.

They can contact us at ProjectApis@gmail.com

How can YOU convince your grower to order through PAm and sow seeds for your honey bees?

Say this...

Planting a bee forage cover crop will: improve soil fertility, increase organic material, fix nitrogen, improve water infiltration, suppress noxious weeds, conserve soil moisture, increase beneficial insects, and reduce soil erosion.

PAm-Costco Scholar

Winner Announced!

Laura Brutscher is the recipient of the PAm-Costco three-year $50,000/year fellowship. Laura is a PhD student in the Microbiology Department of Montana State University where she is investigating the role of microbes in maintaining and disrupting colony health and how microbes may relate to the recent surge of honey bee losses. In addition, Laura will investigate what genes are essential for honey bee antiviral immunity. She is co-mentored by Drs. Michelle Flenniken and Carl Yeoman. Laura has been actively involved in maintaining the university's colonies and sampling/surveying honey bee-associated microbes in commercial colonies. Congratulations, Laura!

Top Ag Leaders Adopt Measure to Protect Honey Bees

North Dakota Ag Commissioner, Doug Goehring, is urging the federal government to work with state agriculture officials in developing strategies for promoting the health and welfare of honey bees. Goehring introduced a policy amendment recommending that the USDA-ARS work with state ag departments to implement "pollinator plans," the overall goal is "to ensure that beekeepers continue to have access to areas with adequate forage that will support bees health...and a peaceful co-existence between beekeepers and agriculture producers." Click here to read more.

October Bee Husbandry - BMPs for Pests, Diseases and Nutrition

What are beekeepers feeding their honey bees and doing to control mites and diseases in their colonies? Learn the latest best management practices by watching videos presented by Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp with the Bee Informed Partnership (BIP). The information is gathered by an online survey that is conducted each year to quantify the colony losses suffered by U.S. beekeepers . The videos cover the overwintering losses for 2012-2013. PAm has posted these on our BMP webpage, click here.

Watch PAm's YouTube Video

Preparing Colonies for CA for Pollination Services

Project Apis m | | christih@cox.net | http://www.ProjectApism.org
P. O. Box 3157
Chico, CA 95927