4th Set of Readings: Late May, Early June

1. In this first article titled "Syngenta agrees to settle herbicide lawsuit", Syngenta's agreement to pay $105 million to settle an 8 year old lawsuit over reimbursing nearly 2,000 communities water systems that had to filter out the chemicals. The second article titled "Pesticides kills bee colonies", 'safe' amounts of pesticides affect bees because it makes bees prefer sweeter nectar and they refused to eat the average nectar they usually feed on. This causes colonies to be wiped out. The third article titled "Third BC salmon farm quarantined", is about another BC salmon farm that was forced to close down after it was affected by a virus known as IHN. The virus does not affect humans who consume the fish but it poses a threat towards salmon and salmon farmers.
2. I found all these articles interesting because all the problems I read about were directly from humans. The use of hebicides, pesticides and salmon farms affects the plants and animals and can cause bacteria and virus along with mutations to occur. Humans need to be more conscious of what they do and how it affects the environment.

3rd Set of Readings: Mid May

1. The articles I read summarized how to create a queen cell and the different methods behind it, how the mark your bees with color, how to feed finishing colonies, and how to raise queens by grafting.
2. These articles I found interesting because I am constantly surprised by all the different methods and techniques involved with bee keeping. I find it very interesting that people mark their bees with color and that they can make their own queen bees in order to avoid your bees from swarming.

2nd Set of Readings: Early May

A Guide to Queen Rearing/ Splitting a Hive/ How to Perform an Artificial Swarm
1. In these videos it talks about how you can artificially trick bees into thinking things are happening naturally. Doing these things improve the longevity of your hive and bees.
2. I thought these videos were interesting because before taking this class, I had no idea you could do these things with your bee hives. I thought that you had your hive but not that you were able to alter it and trick the bees. This really interested me because it shows how smart bees are and how many different things you can do with your bees.

1st Set of Readings: Late April

" York region hospitals focus on food "

1. This article talks about how hospitals in the York Region are trying to improve the quality of the food served in the hospitals and to have them be freshly cooked. This improves the patients satisfaction with the hospital with so many meals being served a day.

2. I thought this was an interesting article because my whole life I have heard people complain about how unappetizing hospital food is. Hospital bills are very costly and the food should be of better quality because when you're sick and/or recovering, you would want appetizing food.

" Public warned of beef products that may contain E.coli "

1. This article talks about how the public has been warned not to consume beef products that have the number 761 on them because they may be contaminated with e.coli bacteria. There has only been one reported illness from this meat. Contaminated meat may not look or smell contaminated but contains very harmful bacteria.

2. This article was interesting because I eat beef products and knowing that what I am eating can be potentially harmful, is concerning. Reading this article makes me consider cutting out meat products or cutting back on them to lower my chance of contracting e.coli.

Identifying and Treating Varroa

Three things I found interesting about this video on identyifing and treating varroa was that varroa mites are the number one killer of honey bees on the planet. Also, they live on the outside of the honey bee and they're a natural parasite from an asian honey bee and are now found in most countries around the world. Two things I will look for next time I am in the apiary is to look for varroa mites and see if you can identify if a bee has mites by it's activity. One question I have is how do you kill of mites?

Identifying Nosema

Three things I found interesting were that nosema only infects adult bees, also the infection begins when bees ingest nosema spores and lastly, when the spore reaches the bee's gut, it explosively uncoils a long straw-like polar filament. The filament penetrates outer gut cells and, in the process infects them. Two things I will look for next time i'm in the apiary is if there is any physical sign that a bee is infected with nosema and what signs they may show. One question I have is what can be done to control the spread of nosema?

Common Bee Diseases

Three things I found interesting about this website on Common Bee Diseases was that Bacillus larvae can be found in every state in the U.S. and is spread by robbing bees and poor beekeeping practices. It can be identified from a shot gun appearance of the capped brood.  The capping over the brood will be sunken and some will have holes.  Also, Ascosphaera apis is now found throughout the United States and is a disease of stress in the early spring to early summer but severe cases can be found in the comb later in the year. Two things I will look for next time i'm in the apiary is if there are any signs of these diseases and how these diseases are identified. One question I have is what can you do you cure bee diseases?