Salmon Farm Quarantined

Another salmon farm has recently been quarantined in BC due to the threat of a virus spreading after 560,000 fish were already culled due to this virus called IHN. It has also caused 3 other salmon farms to close in B.C. over 10 days. A site near Tofino has had to cull all their salmon and the same company (Mainstream Canada) found the fish at their Bawden Point to be "weak positive" for the virus. Since the virus does not have any effect on humans, the company is going to sell the fish as they are mature and ready for market. More tests are being done on other farms; one came back negative at a farm near Sechelt.
I recall earlier in the term I read an article discussing a virus found in many fish markets in B.C. I am curious to know if this is the same virus and if so, it sounds like it has escalated a lot. This article states that it is harmless to humans yet what effect does it have on the salmon specifically and what is it doing to other organisms in contact with the farmed salmon. It is very worrisome to hear of such a virus in farmed salmon as it is possible that the virus could reach the wild salmon who are even less likely to be adapted to fight the virus. Hopefully things will not reach that point.

Syngenta Settles Herbicide Lawsuit

And the Syngenta discussion continues! On Friday, May 25, in St. Louis, Il Syngenta agreed to pay $105 million. This is to settle a lawsuit that has been in progress for almost 8 years of the herbicide called atrazine that has supposedly found its way into the water systems of over 300 communities. SOme claim that the chemical now found in the drinking water causes low birth weights, birth defects and reproductive  issues. Runoff after a rainstorm can wash the chemical into water supplies, however, Syngenta argues that nobody could consume enough atrazine from the water to cause any effects. Apparently this deal will be good for Syngenta as they will still be able to sell their herbicide to U.S. corn growers and continue with their retailers, distributers and partners. No official court date has been set, however the federal lawsuit will include water providers in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio and approximately $34.9 million of the payment will go to attorneys as fees.
Having learnt about Syngenta briefly already, it is very interesting to see them being sued again for another chemical. However, they do not seem to be effected very much by what seems to be a large amount of money since they are still allowed to sell their product that is the issue at hand. This seems rather unproductive as whatever water systems are re compensated for, just as many will be infected with the chemical if it continues to be distributed. I wonder if it is worth it to agree to this deal if the long term benefits are non-existent.

Using Queen Cells

According to this reading, you will often end up with an excess of queen cells compared to the number of mating nucs available. In this case you can either give them to a neighbour to use or save them for yourself in a Queen Bank. The queens must be mated and not stay virgins or they will not be very useful. If there are still to many queen cells they can be used to make a queen pheromone lure used to make bees swarm. Do this by placing the emerged queens into alcohol and let them sit for several months in the jar with alcohol. It can then be used as the swarm lure.
THis article seems very smart. It has several ways of dealing with extras which is a very good way to avoid more waste on the planet and aid others or yourself in the process. Out of the 4 readings from this website I fount this one the clearest and easiest to follow.

Finishing Queencells

This article is based on conditions in the UK. It states that a strong stock can finish one or two frames of queens and to not overload the stock or else some queen cells will be undernourished. The cells only need to be in the starter colonies for 24 hours and then are moved to the finisher colonies. Feed the finisher colonies with honey diluted with water so they can feed the queen cells. Make sure not to feed to much and let the diluted honey ferment. Also make sure to hold the frames with queen cells on them up right and stable. Place them in the uppermost box with a queen excluder between the other boxes so the queen stays bellow. Make sure there is lots of pollen with a central frame of young brood. If repeating the process in the same colony, replace the centre frame with another frame with brood from the bottom box or from another colony. Once the cells have been sealed they can be removed at any time and put in an incubator or left in mating nucs for 24 to 48 hours.

This reading gave a very detailed description on how to finish the queen cells yet I am still slightly confused. If so many queen cells are being produced in the colony, would that not cause the queen bee to swarm? Having read this, I have a better understanding as to how queen cells work, yet it left me with that main question.

Clipping and Marking Queens

This reading goes into how to mark and clip queens. One way to mark queens is with a Baldock cage, which traps the queen while the other bees can fit through the mesh. This allows you to mark her with paint or cement let it dry, then release her. To remember what colour corresponds with which year ending you can use What You Rear Green Bees? and 1,2,3,4,5. White =1,6 Yellow=2,7 Red =3,8 Green =4,9 Blue =5,0. You can also used numbered discs to mark queens but it is much more precarious. To do this you must capture the queen in a tube cage. Trap her against the mesh at one end of the cage and mark her. You can also twist the plunger a tiny bit so one wing pops out and you can clip it 4 mm or so. Then let the glue dry and allow her to walk back onto the comb.
To clip the queens wings, pick her up by the wings with forefinger and thumb.Then, point your left forefinger at your right shoulder and offer the queen this finger. When she grabs on with all legs, gently close your fingers on her legs. Then mark her and clip her, cutting about 1/3 of the wing completely perpendicular to the wing's surface. To make sure the cut is clean and not ripped, make sure the scissors re very sharp. Also when marking the queen, be sure that the paint gets all the way to the carapace so the workers cannot slowly chip away the paint, resulting in no marking in later years.
This article had a lot more information than the last however it does not explain the reasoning behind why marking and clipping is important. I'm not sure what clipping the queen's wings does. Otherwise there seem to be many methods of marking and clipping, which allows a good selection if one doesn't fit your skills. That is very useful since beekeepers vary a lot.

Queen Cell Starting Methods

This article explains how to start queen cells in several different ways. First is by using the swarm impulse and is known as the Skep beekeeping method. It can be done with the Miller method. In this method a zig-zag edged comb is used in a level hive and allows the queen cells to hang vertically on the frame. This can also be done with the Alley method, which involves strips of cells with one day old larvae being placed downwards in a frame with lots of spacing for queen cells to grow effectively. Every second and third larva must be destroyed in this method
Supersedure impulse will hopefully help improve bees in the future instead of just selecting for swarming hives as Skep beekeeping methods do.
Emergency impulse should not be used consistently for breeding programs as splitting a hive is meant to be a last resort for the bees.
There is another method called Swarm Box method however, this article did not go onto explain what this method involved.
I found this article quite confusing. It was a little all over the place and not very specific or clear. I'm curious as to if there are any benefits to the Alley method vs. the Miller method or vice versa.

How to Perform an Artificial Swarm

In this video the artificial swarm is discussed. For the first method the old colony is placed in a new site more than 4 feet away. He then took 3 frames with 2 or 3 queen cells on each and a new brood chamber into a new box put in the same location that the old box had been in before being moved. So when the field bees return to their location that used to have the old box, they find that their queen is gone but there are queen cells so they stay. You must eventually narrow the queen cells down to just one in each box so there are not secondary swarms. For honey production, you can combine the two colonies and keep just one queen.
The other method is to take a brood chamber full of foundations and put the chamber right on top of a strong hive, making sure there are no queen cells already existing in the hive. This means the whole hive can draw out the whole foundation and expand the colony. As soon as you find a queen cell in the new chamber you can split them.
Both methods seem quite reasonable especially since you do not need plenty of space such as a distance of three miles as seen in the last video. The second method seemed very easy and would be great for new apiaries to increase the hive size and apiary size.

Splitting a Hive

This video is meant to inform the watcher of one of the ways to split a hive. Splitting a have is done to prevent a swarm in an overcrowded hive or to make more hives in your apiary. He takes three frames out of the five frame nook box and set them aside to put save room for the new frames. Take a frame that has food and pollen for the nook box. FInd the queen bee and put her in the new box while leaving the frame she was found on in the original box. There should be only 2 frames from the original box in the new box as to not take too much brood out of the original box. Wait 3 days before putting a new queen bee in the original box so the hive knows they are queenless and will accept her much better than if she is put in immediately. Mark the hive so you know which hive to put the new queen into.Move the new hive at least 3 miles away or the field bees will go back to the original hive and the queen will die.
This seems like a simple yet effective way of splitting a hive except it seems rather inconvenient to have to find a place to keep your new hive 3 miles away. I wonder if there is a way to split the hive without having to separate them for a time.

A Guide to Queen Rearing

This video covers how to produce your own queen bee. According to the video you do not need to graft and anybody, no matter who or where, can make a queen cell. First you must take out the frame that has eggs in your hive. Then make a frame that has a piece of wood running across the middle as a bar. Drip hot wax across the whole bar as an adhesive. Then take a utility knife and cut a 1/2 inch thick full strip of eggs/larva and set the strip on the bar. Press down at the beginning and then every inch press down so it sticks. It is then a vertical cell that goes back in the frame. You can get about 10 queen cells like this for free.
This sounds like a fantastic way of saving money and being environmentally friendly while still getting the queens that you need. Especially for people who cannot afford or are not willing to pay a large amount to bee keep, this would be a perfect way to get the queen bee.