Beekeepers Insurance
Beekeepers need to consider insurance for personal injury, property damage, and circumstantial liability. In an article in the American Bee Journal, the author comments Insurance The very word sends shivers down the reader's spine. Or if not shivers, at least annoyance at putting out so much money over so many years, and getting so little in return. But what does insurance have to do with beekeeping, you ask Only this as a seller of honey, you are liable for injuries sustained by your...
Honey Bee Diseases
The two most common bee diseases are American foulbrood AFB and European foul-brood EFB . American and European foulbroods kill bees during the pupal stage. The dead pupa rots and begins to smell, hence the name of the disease. Foulbrood is worse in high humidity. In an on-line forum, Thomas Deeby stated Terramycin oxytetracycline HCL is the only drug approved for use as a preventive treatment against American foulbrood. This antibiotic does not kill Bacillus spores, but prevents or delays...
Africanized Hybrid Bees
Since 1990, Africanized honey bees the so-called killer bees have been a threat to beekeepers in the United States. These hybrids have invaded Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California, as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Information Staff, 2002 . It is not known how far north the Africanized honey bees can live in the U.S., but they can live in the Andes of South America. The limiting factor to their spread seems to be that they don't store as much food as most other honey...
Honey Bee Pests
During the past 15 years, tracheal mites and varroa mites have become major bee pests that seriously threaten the industry in the United States. Mites have killed more than 90 of wild honey bees and 60 of commercial bees in the U.S. Quarles, 1997 . A new pest to U.S. beekeepers first identified in Florida in 1998 is the small hive beetle Frazier and Steinhauer, 1999 . The following discussion focuses on least-toxic methods of controlling these pests. Microscopic tracheal mites Acarapis woodi...
