Category Archives: Disease

Honeybee Health

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Project_Apis_m

The Bee Ranchers support the efforts of Project Apis m.

Hello to all the Bee Rancher supporters!

The Bee Ranchers, LLC is excited to announce our support of the non-profit honeybee research group, Project Apis m. http://www.projectapism.org/. With every Bee Ranchers bee hive kit we deploy in the field since the founding of our company in 2011, we will donate $10 to Project Apis m. in support of honeybee research. We have always felt it is important to support the efforts of groups that are focusing their energies on the health of the honeybee and we feel Project Apis m. is the best, most direct way to do that.

Project Apis m. is the largest non-governmental, non-profit bee research funding organization in the USA whose Board Members are well known, active beekeepers in the beekeeping community. PAm is funded by both beekeepers and growers throughout the country whose main goal is to enhance the health of honeybees, improve crop production potential and seek practical solutions for managed colonies.

Their research efforts will certainly help you and I maintain healthy, backyard beehives. I encourage you to peruse PAm’s website, sign up for their newsletter and support them anyway you can. I have included their link on The Bee Ranchers website as well. As always, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me via phone or email.

Thank you for your continued interest in honeybees.

Mike Vigo
Ranch Foeman
The Bee Ranchers, LLC
925-519-0560

Hive Down

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Well we can’t say this is how we wanted to start our BLOG but it does in many respects highlight the difficulties that local (and cross country) bee keepers / ranchers are having. Over the past few years, there has been a great deal of focus on what many experts are calling Colony collapse disorder. What it is exactly and how it strikes our friendly Honeybees has yet to be pinned down. All the experts know is that there has been a significant decline in healthy honeybee colonies across the nation (and parts of Europe).

As for the pics above and below, an unfortunate sight. One of our favorite backyard colonies – dead. Definitely not Colony collapse disorder but the effects of Varroa destructor – mites. This past Fall, we confirmed that several of our fellow bee keepers around the East Bay got hit pretty hard by mites. Something we all watch for. It is preventable but not always caught in time.

The intent of the Bee Rancher BUZZ BLOG is to provide and share information and news – both the good, and the bad (as in this case) to our clients and fellow Honeybee lovers all over the Bay Area. As they say, information is power and hopefully we can channel some of that power toward helping our local Honeybee populations.

Are you a San Francisco Bay Area beekeeper? Did you have difficulties with mites this past year (2011)? If so we’d like to hear about it and how you are dealing with them.