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Cornell’s Bee Work: Organic Beekeeping Research, NYS Tech Team Colony Assessment, and Interdisciplinary Work at Rwanda. https://blogs.cornell.edu/mcartlab/ https://cals.cornell.edu/pollinator-network/nys-beekeeper-tech-team Ben’s initiative and research on Organic Beekeeping! Ben DeMoras, a Master’s student at Cornell has been researching organic beekeeping. He mentions that there is not much organic beekeeping in the US due to two major issues. First, the rules are very strict. USDA requires a 2-mile radius of completely organic land which is challenging to find. And the second problem is the varroa mites, one of the primary challenges in the beekeeping industry that can be managed through chemicals and synthetic treatments. These treatments are overused, and mites are becoming resistant to some of them. Consequently, the treatments are not working much and in the process, there is the exposure of bees to chemicals, which could have long-term effects.
According to Ben, a potential solution to this is organic beekeeping. He believes a half mile in diameter of farmland is what is needed for organic beekeeping which is also feasible for beekeepers to find. Hives can be placed in such organic farms where the bees would be less exposed to chemicals and can be monitored. If farmlands of half mile diameter can be certified and hives can be monitored that would be great! Researchers at Penn State and Virginia Tech universities are also engaged in these efforts. Compiling all the work together it would be easier to understand how bees forage, namely are they foraging within the farm or going outside a lot? Ben mentions his main agenda is to manage bees with organic methods, that is, use organic treatments when they get sick, and this way they are going to stay on the farm and not get much exposure to pesticides. Best of luck Ben for your initiatives, we truly appreciate your sincere efforts to encourage organic beekeeping! Connor’s engagement with Beekeepers: Colony assessments, data analyses, and providing resources! The Dyce Lab at Cornell, where Connor, Ben, and Catherine work, covers research on insect pollinators and their pesticide exposure, the latter being one of the major challenges in today’s bee world. Connor Hinsley is the honey bee technician for the New York State Beekeeper Tech Team at the Dyce Lab. NY Tech team is funded by the pollinator protection plan in the state to tackle pollinator-related issues. The tech team goes out and samples honey bee colonies across the state, usually during June and September, to assess varroa mites, colony disease assessments, etc. Connor and his team not only work with beekeepers to tackle their issues and provide immediate assistance but also create resources for all beekeepers out there who need additional information. One of the main goals for the team is to emphasize environmentally conscious beekeeping behavior. The team looks into the data they collect during their assessment, gives reports back to the beekeepers, and further analyzes the trends in the data to understand what actual practices predict better healthier colonies. Then they post those results and written reports on a website as resources for everyone interested. Overall, the team provides immediate assistance to beekeepers across the state, directly helping out the industry, and creating resources so that everyone can learn and apply. Cathy’s fieldwork in Rwanda, interdisciplinary research! Catherine Crosier also works at the Mc Art Lab and is a New York State Beekeeper Tech team member. She just came back from Rwanda where she was involved in field research with beekeepers there. According to Catherine, beekeeping is a booming industry in Rwanda and the government is trying to increase honey production. Her group worked with three different cooperatives. Cooperatives refer to groups of beekeepers working together. This was a ten-day field trip (in collaboration with the school of business) where she interviewed beekeepers to understand the various connections between the beekeepers. This was also part of a grant supporting student research and one of the starting goals of the project was to encourage women to get involved in beekeeping in Rwanda. Interviews and surveys were run to map social networks. ‘Beekeepers in Rwanda are most interested in increasing honey production,’ says Catherine. Given the behavior of African subspecies of honeybees, the traditional hives there are circular and made of plantains. It was interesting for her to explore whether some slight changes in management practices can maximize honey production in that kind of hive, which is very different from the hives we use here in the United States. Based on her beekeeper interviews, all beekeepers in Rwanda understand the need for hive assessment but they don’t have the resources, which the social science researchers understood. This highlights the need for an interdisciplinary research focus. Catherine mentioned, unlike her work at the Mc Art lab, for this trip, she was approaching the project as a social scientist. She really liked her work in Rwanda and believes there is a need for interdisciplinary work to integrate everything. She mentions suggestions for sustainable beekeeping practices cannot always be made based on technical data only, there is also a need to understand the economic and social system, how information is being spread, and make more holistic recommendations.
So true Catherine! I feel absolutely the same after my interviews with the Tanzanian Maasai about their interests in beekeeping.
Catherine is grateful to Professor Scott McArt for involving her in this project. I’m also grateful to Professor McArt for connecting me to Ben, Catherine, and Connor and getting such interesting insights from their work. It is fascinating to get an overview of the diverse scope of work taking place at McArt Lab. Thank you, Professor McArt! Coming next week is a discussion of the challenges the team faces in their research work.
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