BASC

Program for May 23rd, 2013

Rich — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:47:42 +0000

This month we are honored to have a professor from San Diego coming to talk to us. Dr. James C. Nieh was born in Taiwan, but grew up in Southern California. He received his B.A. at Harvard in 1991 and his PhD from Cornell University in 1997. He subsequently received a NSF-NATO Postdoctoral fellowship to study at the University of Würzburg in Germany. After this, he received the prestigious Harvard Junior Fellowship. In 2000, he joined the faculty in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of California San Diego where he is currently a professor in the Section of Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution. Dr. Nieh’s interests focus on bee communication, cognition, and health. He studies many types of social bees, including honey bees, bumble bees, and stingless bees. Currently, his lab is interested in exploring how bee colonies use foraging communication to deal with challenges from predators and alter their behavior in response to pesticides and disease.
Simone Tosi, a visiting PhD student from the University of Bologna,
Italy, will also talk about his research on bee health and his new
project in the Nieh lab studying the effects of chronic sublethal
pesticide exposure in honey bees.
http://labs.biology.ucsd.edu/nieh/index.html
The meeting will be at the usual time of 6:30PM at the La Mirada Civic Center, 13710 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada, CA 90638
And for those of you who may have seen James in Costa Mesa, he assures me that this presentation will be completely different plus the addition of Simone.
See you there Thursday May 23rd, 2013!!

Beekeeping 101 Class Saturdays starting April 2013

Rich — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:37:01 +0000

Dick Dyer will teach the bee class, Beekeeping 101, which will be held April 27 and May 11 at the Hathaway Ranch Museum, 11901 East Florence Avenue, Santa Fe Springs 90670. Each class will run from 9:30 AM ’til noon. Bring bee suit(s) and a sack lunch. About 1 PM we will do a tour of the museum; it is the history of Santa Fe Springs through the eyes of one family in the cattle feed lot business. The work was mechanized, without electricity. It will be a seminar, not a structured class. We will examine the hive and take it apart. We will do a split, then come back later to see the results. Just show up (and bring money for a donation to the Museum).

Nanoparticles Made From Bee Venom Can Kill

Rich — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 04:18:04 +0000

http://io9.com/5989525/nanoparticles-made-from-bee-venom-can-kill-hiv

Bees Buzz Each Other, but Not the Way You Think

Robin — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:21:30 +0000

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/03/bees-buzz-each-other-but-not-the.html?ref=hp

Next meeting April 25th, 2013

Rich — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 08:43:40 +0000

Please join us Thursday April 25th 2013 at 6:30PM for our next monthly meeting.

This month’s meeting will be at the usual location: La Mirada Civic Center is 13710 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada, CA 90638 If anybody needs directions driving please call Rich at (949)458-6532 Refreshments are supplied by the club.

For those interested in contacting other club members via email to discussing beekeeping issues, please join our Yahoo Group at http://YahooGroups.com/Group/BkASC/

Next Meeting Thursday March 28th, 2013

Rich — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 09:45:26 +0000

Please join us Thursday March 28th 2013 at 6:30PM for our next monthly meeting. Our program for this month will be an hour to hour and a half long PowerPoint presentation on Almond Pollination. If you ever wondered what it takes to pollinate almonds you will not want to miss the meeting. Sean will describe the process and have lots of photos from his most recent trip up with 101 hives. Also we will be discussing and voting on how to allocate funding for research as discussed at the February meeting.

For those interested in contacting other club members via email to discussing beekeeping issues, please join our Yahoo Group at http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/bkasc/

This month’s meeting March 28th, 2013

Mark — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:54:49 +0000

Thank you to everyone that came out to the Beekeeping 101 event April 25th. According to my sign-in sheet, we had 62 people in attendance. I (as well as others) have some great pictures of 60+ beekeepers all in “moon suits” walking up the hill to the apiary location. It is really something to see. “Either the bee club is having an event or we’re being invaded.”

A special thanks to Jerry for allowing us to once again hold this event at his house. Thank you Ron for organizing the schedule and starting us off. BASC really appreciates all the presenters and speakers that showed up to explain what all the equipment is and how it works. Lastly, I’d like to thank Jim Mieras of Pierce-Mieras Mfg. (Fullerton) for providing protective gear for sale to our new beekeepers. Many who showed up were now able to purchase veils, hats, suits, and tools on site and then head up to the bees in the apiary.

That was a record attendance for this event! We will try to have another one this year and then again in Spring of next year.

Mark Allen (Past President)

Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Research

Mark — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:52:36 +0000

I was excited to see the new Haagen-Dazs ice cream flavor as well as the new bee information labels in my local supermarket freezer.

At the request of Dr. Eric Mussen and Dr. Sue Cobey of UC Davis, I brought two observation hives to the Dreyers/Haagen-Dazs sales convention that was held in Las Vegas last year to answer questions about bees. It is thrilling to see more mainstream sources of bee education and awareness popup. As of February, Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream (part of Dreyers Ice Cream) has come out with a new flavor of ice cream called Vanilla Honey Bee. In addition, the labels on over 40% of Haagen-Dazs flavors have honey bee information on the label. When I was speaking with representatives of Haagen-Dazs they were very excited about this new program because 40% of all Haagen-Dazs flavors are dependent on honey bee pollination. I mentioned to them that ALL flavors of ice cream are honey bee dependent. Milk cows are fed alfalpha, clover, oats, and other feed crops. These crops are totally dependent on honey bees to pollinate in order to produce seed either at the seed producer level or directly in the field. Without honey bee pollination, there will be no feed crops for milk production.

Haagen-Dazs has donated $100,000 to UC Davis for Bee Research as well as $150,000 to Penn State University for Bee Research. These funds will be used to continue efforts at both research laboratories towards Colony Collapse Disorder, pollination research, and overall bee health.

CDFA Information on Pesticide Damage to Your Bees

Mark — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:42:42 +0000

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) offers a good article, in .pdf form, on the indicators of pesticide poisoning of honey bees. This article also provides information to beekeepers, growers, pesticide applicators, and general agriculture industry on how to protect against pesticide drift to honey bees.

Click on the link here: www.cdfa.ca.gov/files/pdf/ReduceBeePesticideEffects.pdf

Our next Hands-On Beekeeping field trip!

Mark — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:42:16 +0000

Okay, so you can purchase the hive, you can even purchase a queen and bees, but what do you do then? Maybe you have even read the books that are recommended. You are ready… yet you are still waiting for something or someone to help you get started. Well, you are in luck! BASC offers field trips to an experienced member’s beeyard for hands-on introductory beekeeping sessions.

Our next hands-on beekeeping field trip is going to be sometime in May of this year. The exact date is vague at this time as we are working with the calendar. However, as we get closer to May, the exact date and time will be available to all members and potential members that want to participate. Membership in our club is only $8 for the entire year and includes events like these as well as access to library resources of books, films, trade magazines, and supplier catalogs. This is not nearly as important as the access members have to experienced beekeepers found at every BASC meeting. We want you learn and enjoy this hobby as much as we do, and that is saying a lot.

We try to hold our “Beekeeping 101″ sessions at least 3 times a year so that new and potential beekeepers can get physically involved with handling a hive of bees. We also include practical skills like assembling wooden hive components, wiring wax to new frames, and extracting honey from comb. The day ends with either a relaxing lunch or bbq to unwind and chat with other beekeepers.

Please contact us be email and/or check back to this site for updated fieldtrip information.