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Randy,s Posts

The Economy of the Hive – Part 2

The Economy of the Hive—Part 2 Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in American Bee Journal February 2010 Last month I described the functions of the main players in the hive economy—the queen, the nurse bees, the foragers, and the “resting” bees. Now let’s look at the main driver for the bee economy—the supply of food....

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Pollen Sub Recipes

Update February 2023:  Be sure to check out an updated Homebrew formula from my research in 2020 at https://scientificbeekeeping.com/a-comparative-trial-of-the-pollen-subs-part-5-revisiting-de-groot/ The recipe below was developed by a beekeeper near Bakersfield, CA, and in my trial, outperformed all other tested subs.   Update December 28, 2013 I am currently running a beekeeper-supported controlled trial of the major...

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An Adaptable Workforce

An Adaptable Workforce Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in American Bee Journal March 2010 I’d like to return to the analogy of the honey bee colony as being similar to a medium-sized mammal.  The combs are analogous to the skeleton, the queen to the ovary, drones to sperms, honey to body fat, and the workers...

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The “Nosema Twins” Part 1

The “Nosema Twins” Part 1 Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in December 2007 Nosema ceranae update The debate continues as to how deadly N. ceranae is. I’ve been corresponding with Antonio Pajuelo (CONSULTORES APÍCOLAS (Broken Link!)  http://www.pajuelo.info/). He notes that in Spain there are citations of collapses of colonies in autumn and winter...

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Sick Bees – Part 1

Sick Bees: Part 1 Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in American Bee Journal August 2010 Most any long-time beekeeper has noticed that bees are simply not as healthy as they used to be, and that we have been plagued with a spate of unusual colony collapses in recent years. As luck would have it, I’ve...

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The “Nosema Twins” – Part 2 Detection & Microscopy

The “Nosema Twins” – Part 2 Detection & Microscopy © Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in Jan. 2008 Last fall, getting wind of Nosema ceranae, I carefully collected a few bees from a dozen or so hives from each yard, and sent the whole pooled sample of 500 bees off to a lab...

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Sick Bees – Part 2: A Model of Colony Collapse

Sick Bees—Part 2 A Model of Colony Collapse Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in American Bee Journal September 2010 Over the past year, I have watched the experimentally-induced collapse of an apiary. The experience has helped me to understand the progression of colony collapse due to multiple parasite infection. The California Trial Last year I...

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The “Nosema Twins” – Part 3 Sampling

The “Nosema Twins”  Part 3 –Sampling © Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in Feb. 2008 My previous articles about Nosema ceranae may have grabbed your attention. Let me be clear that I’m not trying to be alarmist—not all operations have problems with nosema. In fact, I’ve got some colonies doing poorly despite having...

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Sick Bees – Part 3: The Bee Immune System

Sick Bees—Part 3 The Bee Immune System Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in American Bee Journal October 2010 In my previous article, I proposed a model for the in-hive positive feedback loops that may lead to colony collapse. Before I can further explain the model, we must understand more precisely how the bee immune system...

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The “Nosema Twins” – Part 4 Treatment

The “Nosema Twins” Part 4 Treatment © Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in March 2008 Beekeepers had a hard enough time dealing with Nosema apis. What can we do about N. ceranae? Unfortunately, we are currently not very far up the learning curve. The best we can do is to take what we...

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The “Nosema Twins” : Part 5- Alternative Treatments

The “Nosema Twins” Part 5 Alternative Treatments and Prevention © Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in April 2008 Update:  see https://scientificbeekeeping.com/field-trial-of-several-nosema-treatments/ The more I learn about CCD and other colony maladies, the more I am impressed by the fact that honey bees are currently dealing with a complex of novel parasites, pathogens, vectors,...

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Sick Bees – Part 4: Immune Response to Viruses

Sick Bees—Part 4 Immune Response to Viruses Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in American Bee Journal November 2010 Table of Contents Bees vs. Viruses 1 Back to School 2 Practical Application 4 Viruses Fight Back 4 MicroRNA’s 4 Inapparent Virus Infections 5 Acknowledgements 5 References 5 Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that infect all organisms,...

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Sick Bees – Part 5: Multiple Infections

Sick Bees Part 5 Multiple Infections Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in January 2011 Table of Contents   The Problem of Co-infection1 The Battle of the Brood Pathogens 2 The Cost of Immunity 3 Opportunistic Pathogens 4 Varroa and Nosema 5 References 5 I ended the last installment of this series by asking...

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Sick Bees – Part 6: Infection by Multiple Viruses

Sick Bees—Part 6 Infection by Multiple Viruses Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in American Bee Journal February 2011 We beekeepers hear from researchers that our sick bees are full of viruses. Understandably, we want to know what we can do about it. But to most of us, virus infections are a “black box”—a generally invisible,...

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Sick Bees: Part 7 – Transgenerational Immune Priming

Contents Trans Generational Immune Priming. 1 Practical Applications. 4 What is RemebeeTm and How Does it Work?. 4 Natural Amplification and Spread. 4 Is Remebee Safe?. 5 Does it work?. 5 Results from my California Trial (continued) 5 How About Nosema ceranae?. 8 The Future of RNAi 9 Transgenic Bees?. 9 References. 10 Sick Bees—Part...

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