Western Apicultural Society of North America Conference

October 16 - 19, 2013La Fonda Hotel, Santa Fe, New Mexico

"Honeybuzz" (shown above) is a painting by Santa Fe artist Kathryn Alexander (inset) and chosen this year for the conference tee-shirt design. Kathryn's special interest in honey bees is highlighted in her unique art exhibit on the mezzanine floor of the La Fonda Hotel during the WAS conference. Visit the exhibit, opening Thursday, October 17th at 5:30, or her website at kathrynalexanderfineart.com. She can be reached at kathrynalexanderfineart@gmail.com or 505-913-9557.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

MEMBERS WE HAVE LOST IN 2012-2013................................................................. 5PRESIDENTS' WELCOME ........................................................................................... 7VENDORS (list, location, hours open) ........................................................................... 9CONFERENCE SPEAKER SCHEDULE (Ballroom) .................................................. 11CONFERENCE FACILITIES LAYOUT ..................................................................... 14SPEAKER PHOTOS, BIOS & PRESENTATION SUMMARIES................................ 15

MEETINGSWAS Pre-Conference Board Meeting, Wednesday October 16, 3 p.m. .......... Ballen BoardroomWAS Annual Meeting, Friday October 18, 3:30 p.m........................................... Ballroom SouthWAS Post-Conference Board Meeting, immediately after AGM ....................... Ballroom South

REGISTRATIONRegistration opens Wednesday 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. Thursday, Friday & Saturday 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

BEE BUZZ SOCIALWednesday, October 16th 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Marble Brewery (60 E. San Francisco St, Suite 313)

"TINY HEROES" ART EXHIBIT OPENING Thursday, October 17th, 5:30 p.m. Mezzanine floor, La Fonda Hotel

BANQUET Friday, October 18th, 6:30 p.m. Ballroom

SPONSORS Walter T. Kelley New Mexico Department of Agriculture Propolis-etc. McCune Foundation City of Santa Fe

BCS_BEH_M3_1207_O.indd 6-27-2013 5:43 PMSaved at NonePrinted At Client BCSMedia Type MagazineLive NoneTrim 4.9167” x 10”Bleed NoneJob Title Festival for the Eno AdPubs Eno Brochure Ad Code None

DEPARTMENT:

APPROVAL:

Art Director Copywriter Acct. Manager Studio Artist Proofreader Traffic Production

Addl. Notes: 1/2 page

Get the buzz on bees by following @BayerBeeCare or becoming a fan on Facebook at Facebook.com/BayerBeeCareCenter.

Bayer CropScience LP, 2 TW Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709. Always read and follow label instructions. Bayer and the Bayer Cross are registered trademarks of Bayer. For additional product information, call toll-free 1-866-99-BAYER (1-866-992-2937) or visit our website at www.BayerCropScience.us.

More than a quarter of all plants consumed in the U.S. are dependent upon honey bee pollination. The care and protection of bees is critical to our agricultural system – and the future of our planet’s food security. The Bayer Bee Care Program was established to strengthen our commitment to honey bee health and use Bayer’s extensive experience and resources to help solve bee health’s toughest challenges.

What’s all the buzz about bees?

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In MemoriamMembers we have lost in the past year

James Bach Dec 23, 1941 - Aug 30, 2013Selah, WAWA Regional Rep & WAS Treasurer

Maycelle Muncey 1930 - Sept 16, 2012Sparks, NV

Alternating Nevada Regional Reps since the beginning of WAS

Tom Muncey 1929 - Dec 5, 2012Sparks NV

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Welcome from the NMBA PresidentWelcome to New Mexico! We are honored to show you that in an often mis-

understood state we have a vibrant and growing beekeeping community. New Mexico has a strong tradition of traditional, high quality agriculture that has been improving over thousands of years in our native pueblos, carried on by the Spanish, and now by many cultures. Due to limited water New Mexico has small farms and small scale beekeeping that emphasizes quality rather than quantity.

Mesquite, desert broom sage, mountain clovers and thistles all make delicious honey when it rains at the right time. The New Mexico Beekeepers Association has been helping beekeepers keep bees in a changing and challenging desert cli-mate.

New Mexico has a long tradition of organic farming that has helped beekeepers avoid pesticide problems. That tradition has also found it’s way into beekeeping. Many New Mexican beekeepers have never used miticides, antibiotics, or other “treatments” and have bred disease and mite resistant bees. It seems hypocritical to us to complain about agricul-tural pesticides killing or damaging bees and then use them ourselves.

We look forward to meeting you all and hope that we can all learn from each other, eat some great New Mexican food and have a grand time,

Les Crowder, New Mexico State Beekeepers Association President

Welcome from the WAS PresidentI am humbled and encouraged by the diverse attendees participating in this year’s

conference. As a native New Mexican, I welcome you to our communities and cul-tures that weave a brotherly and reverent tapestry of tradition and celebration.

This year’s conference theme, “COLONY CONSCIOUSNESS: Working Together to Preserve, Protect & Promote Our Pollinators”- was chosen to compliment the cornucopia of demographics, topographies, stewardships, and backgrounds that are emerging and evolving in this artful science.

Individual and collaborative efforts to manage and promote honeybees and their relatives are on the rise, as is needed. This increase relies on information exchange, mentorship and applied research. This year’s conference will indeed be an educational one. We have visitors from around the nation and internationally as well. I am happy that our keynote speaker, Dr. John Kefuss is joining us all the way from France. His focus on survivor breeding for mite resistance is a nuanced and practiced one. His efforts are recognized globally and I am appreciative of his ef-forts and for his willingness to join us here in the oldest capitol city in the USA to share his management research.

Santa Fe is an ancient community, recently surpassing its 400th year. This old world town is known as The City Different, with its reverential customs, peoples, and landscapes. May the sights delight you, the conversations stimulate you, the cuisines bring you contentment, and the arts enchant you. I hope your experience here in the high country of New Mexico will inspire and encourage you to come back to visit. There is much to see and do here, both in and out of the apiary!

This conference program is a diverse and full one with tracks on Health, Genetics, Colony Management, Alter-native Pollinators, and Education. Included is the agenda for each day, information on the speakers and their bios, as well as a list of participating sponsors and vendors/exhibitors. We encourage you to visit the exhibitors’ booths. They have travelled from far and wide to bring you quality information on their products and services.

Be sure to visit the pollinator art exhibit “Tiny Heroes: Celebrating the Beauty of Our Pollinators,” featuring Santa Fe artist Kathryn Alexander on Thursday evening.

I also encourage you to network with one another, and with the various organizations that have gathered here. By communicating, collaborating and, most importantly, celebrating, we can further our individual as well as col-lective efforts to continue to support our beloved bees and their blessed gifts to life on this planet.

Melanie Kirby, Western Apicultural Society President

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Exhibitor/vendors

Vendors can begin setting up Tuesday afternoon, October 15th, or all day on Wednesday, the 16th.

Visit these apicultural professionals in the screened-off section of the ballroom. Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 8 - 11 a.m. Saturday.

Bayer Bee Center

Country Rubes - Thursday only (Janet Brisson)

HealingBees.org (Dr. Valerie Solheim)

Honey Hive Farms (Tim & Connie Moore)

For the Love of Bees (Les Crowder)

Mann Lake (Brenda Tharp Bray & Neil Hannigan)

National Pollinator Defense Fund (Michele Colopy)

New Mexico State Beekeepers Association

NOD Global/MiteAway (Wendy Mather)

Pollinator Nation (Laurie Lange)

Project Apis M (Christi Heintz & Meg Ribotto)

Propolis etc. (Andrea Quetglas)

Walter T. Kelley (J. Everett)

Western Bee (Tim Molenda)

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Western Apicultural Society CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

(subject to last minute changes)

Wednesday, October 169:00 - 5:00 Set up - Vendors & Silent Auction3:00 – 5:00 WAS BOARD Meeting5:00 – 9:00 Registration/Bee Buzz Social/Silent Auction opens

Thursday, October 178:00 - 10:00 Registration8:30 – 8:45 Welcome WAS President/NM President8:45 – 9:15 Tribute to WAS Treasurer Jim Bach: Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk

Track - Genetics and stock improvement9:15 - 10:00 Speaker & discussion: Dr. John Kefuss “Why we buy our varroa mites at $12,000 a pound”/The Great Varroa Challenge10:00 – 10:30 Break & networking10:30 – 11:15 Speaker & discussion: Dr. Steve Sheppard “Bee breeding – can we see the future?”11:15 – 12:00 Speaker & discussion: Mark Spitzig “How old are your drone mothers?”12:00 – 1:30 Lunch on your own & networking

Track - Colony management1:30 – 2:15 Speaker & discussion: Dr. Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman "Varroa population dynamics and what it means for mite control strategies"2:15 – 3:00 Speaker & discussion: Dr. Gordon Wardell “Honey bee nutrition: Have we learned anything in the last 10 years?”3:00 – 3:30 Break & networking3:30 – 4:15 Speaker & discussion: Les Crowder “What are all these top bar hives about?”4:15 - Visit to Kate Whealan’s top bar apiary (car pool - 10 mins) Dinner on your own5:30 - 7:00 “Tiny heroes” art exhibit opening - on the Mezzanine (second) floor.7:00 - Brother Adam movie - Ballroom

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Friday, October 188:00 - 10:00 Registration

Track - Colony management8:30 – 9:15 Speaker & discussion: Jenny Bach “A diverse approach: Natural techniques

Hawaii’s beekeepers considered to support colonies for years to come” (with Jen Rasmussen and Christina Yahn)

9:15 – 10:00 Speaker & discussion: Dr. John Kefuss: “To treat or not to treat”10:00 - 10:30 Break & networking

Track - Educating beekeepers and the public10:30 - 11:00 Speaker & discussion: Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk “Internet beekeeping -

facts, fictions, and myths”11:00 - 12:00 Speaker & discussion: Joran Viers “Urban beekeeping: making and

keeping good neighbors”12:00 – 1:30 Lunch on your own & networking

Tracks - Education, Alternate pollinators1:30 – 2:15 Speaker & discussion: Dr. Eric Mussen “Pesticides and honey bees”2:15 – 3:00 Speaker & discussion: Dr. Gordon Wardell “PAm, Almonds, Bees and

BOBs: What Gordy has been up to”3:00 - 3:30 Break & networking3:30 - 5:00 Kids’ Corner3:30 - ? WAS Annual Meeting6:30 - ? Banquet, awards, end of Silent Auction, What’s on tomorrow

Saturday, October 198:00 - 10:00 Registration

Track - Human and hive health8:30 - 9:15 Speaker & discussion: Dr. Valerie Solheim ”High energy fields and the healthy hive”9:15 - 10:00 Speaker & discussion: Dr. Brad Weeks “Therapeutic uses of bee products and the

role of raw honey for health”10:00 - 10:30 Break10:30 - 11:00 Speaker Conference Wrap-Up 11:15 - 5:00 Tour leaves, lunch on the way

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Conference facilities layout

Jenny BACHJenny Bach began beekeeping while completing her Bachelors of Science

in Biology at the University of Hawaii. Wild honeybee colonies were her first teachers as she removed and relocated colonies from unwanted places. The connection to wild honeybee colonies left to it’s own rhythms, undis-turbed or manipulated gave Jenny her foundation in keeping bees while honoring their natural life cycles. She has been a beekeeper for 11 years in Hawaii and is the founder and director for the Honeybee Education Program and Honeybees for Farmers Project. The Honeybee Education Program

offers free outreach presentations to children and beekeeping courses to adults and has been successfully funded by grants for the past 7 years. Over 4200 children have participated in the Honeybee Education pro-gram in the last 3 years.

Hawaii was once a honeybee paradise, rich in year-round nectar flows and a lack of most honeybee pest found in the continental US. In 2007, varroa mites arrived in the State of Hawaii. Shortly after, the Small Hive Beetle also found its’ way to paradise. The varroa mite combined with the Small Hive Beetle had signif-icant affects on honeybees and Hawaii’s farmers. This was one of the greatest challenges and opportunities in beekeeping for Jenny. Approaches to support honeybee genetic diversity while considering global challenges shaped many beekeepers practices and lack of practices in Hawaii. Her work with honeybees goes beyond keeping bees for honey or pollination; it is found in the connection between bees and the beekeeper, and the bees to the environment as a whole.

Jenny, with Jen Rasmussen and Christina Yahn, talk about personal experiences on the road to recovery.

Dr. Jerry BROMENSHENKJerry is a Research Professor at the University of Montana, directs

Montana’s statewide US Department of Energy Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Program, and is CEO and partner in Bee Alert Technology, Inc, a Montana Board of Regents-autho-rized technology transfer company based in Missoula. He has a Ph.D. in Entomology and over 40 years of honey bee research experience worldwide. He pioneered the use of honey bees as environmental monitors, produced protocols for EPA for the use of honey bees for ecological assessments of hazardous waste sites, and with Dr. Henderson and colleagues developed methods to train bees to search for harmful chemicals and LIDAR instruments for locating and mapping bees. He, Henderson, and their team have extensively researched the extent and causes of Colony Collapse Disorder in North America and are cur-rently Beta-testing an Acoustic Scanner to detect pesticides, bee pests, and diseases in beehives.

Current projects include pesticide exposures and effects, a new pollination study in New Zealand, as well as international delivery of science-based, on-line courses in beekeeping and bee management.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), first reported by the media and the Internet in 2006, has had a global impact. It reminded people that honey bees and other pollinators are important, critical to croplands and native plants. Beekeeping has been rediscovered and not just in the USA. There has been a worldwide resur-gence in beekeeping that surpasses anything in recent memory. Certainly I’ve never seen anything like it in my 40+ years of studying and managing bees. The internet spread the word about pollinator declines. For better or worse, it has become the source of information to many beekeepers. At best, it provides a means of distributing information and education in new ways. We’re exploring these opportunities at the University of Montana, having recently launched an international beekeeping series. We employ a team of student media

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2013 Conference Presenters

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Together we can make a difference for beekeeping operations, for Together we can make a difference for beekeeping operations, for pollinators, for a sustainable and affordable food supply.

National Pollinator Defense Fund P.O. Box 193, Danbury, TX 77534 832-727-9492 www.pollinatordefense.org a nonprofit organization

Defending managed and native pollinators vital to a sustainable and affordable food

supply from the adverse impacts of pesticides.

We’re working for your bees: Collecting data on bee kills from beekeepers. If you suffer a

loss of your bees email us at info@pollinatordefense.org.

Using multiple strategies: advocacy, guidance, and legal petitions, to defend pollinators, and ensure FIFRA regulations are enforced.

Support our work by making a donation today

online or mail to:

Les CROWDERLes started keeping bees in his teens. He worked for a 4,000 hive beekeep-

ing firm for a few years and then as a temporary honeybee inspector for the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, and maintained a small honey and beeswax producing business for more than thirty years. He has been the pres-ident of New Mexico beekeepers Association several times including the last 2 years. He has taught beekeeping for more than 30 years. He has advocated the elimination of pesticides in agriculture, starting with beekeeping, and has developed management techniques and bees that have been making honey without treatments for more than 25 years. He and Heather Harrell have writ-

ten a book, Top-Bar Beekeeping, published by Chelsea Greene in 2012, that is being sold all over the world.

Topbar hives are springing up all over the world. There are reasons why we are likely to see them well into the future. The cost, simplicity, and the bee-friendly nature of topbar hives are calling many beekeepers to give them a try. This is a chance to hear from a long time beekeeper of nearly 40 years with more than 30 years of topbar beekeeping on a small business scale (80-200 hives) explain the topbar hive.

Dr. Gloria DeGRANDI-HOFFMAN Gloria is the Research Leader of the USDA-ARS Carl Hayden Bee Re-

search Center in Tucson, AZ. She joined the Center in 1985 after completing a B.S. in biology and M.S. in entomology at Penn State University and Ph.D. in entomology at Michigan State University with Dr. Roger Hoopingarner as her major professor. Her research program has produced bodies of work in honey bee pollination of agricultural crops, honey bee/insect population dynamics, Africanization of European honey bees, and most recently honey bee nutri-tion and the effects of pesticides on honey bee physiology. She has received awards for her research including both the Eastern and Western Apiculture Society Awards for Outstanding Research, the Federal Laboratory Consortium Award, ARS Technology Transfer Award, Outstanding College of Agriculture Alumnus Award from Penn State University, and the Entomological Society of America John Henry Comstock Award. She is an alumni fellow of the Pennsylvania State University and a member of the Armsby Honor Society of the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Treatment schedules to maintain low levels of Varroa mites in honey bee colonies were tested in hives started from package bees and splits of larger colonies. The schedules were developed using a honey bee colony – Var-roa population dynamics model (VARROAPOP). The miticide we used was HopGuard® (HG). In colonies started from package bees, we kept Varroa populations to < 2.0 mites per 100 bees in the spring and during summer. However, by the fall, colonies had 6-15 mites per 100 bees. In colonies started from splits, we reduced mite populations to 0.12 mites per 100 bees in the spring. In September, there were significantly more mites in the colonies than predicted. The increases in Varroa in the late summer and fall could not be accounted for by Varroa reproduction only. Our findings suggest that Varroa may be migrating among colonies with sufficiently high frequency to affect mite population growth. The implications for controlling Varroa in colonies if the mite is highly mobile will be discussed.

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specialists who are helping us develop videos and animations to illustrate concepts that previously could only be demonstrated in the beeyard. The internet allows us to reach beekeepers in remote areas, too far for them to come to us or for us to go to them. The downside is that the internet also has its share of self-proclaimed 'experts' who at times are insightful and creative, but often offer opinions masquerading as truths. The chal-lenge, as I will attempt to illustrate, is in separating substantiated facts from made-up fictions and mythical fables, proving once again that “Facts are Stubborn Things.”

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Dr. John KEFUSSI started keeping bees in Canton, Ohio with my younger brother Joel when

I was 11 years old. In high school I decided that I was going to study bees in Germany, which eventually I did. By the time I left for Ohio State University where I obtained a BS in Entomology, we were running about 100+ hives. Over the next few years I worked at the bee lab of Dr. W.C. Rothenbuhler, at the USDA Wild Bee Lab at Logan, Utah while studying at Utah State Uni-versity under W.P. Nye and Dr. Ned Bohart, then Ph.D. in Zoology with Dr. F. Ruttner in Oberursel. At that time the job market was tight for bee research workers so I spent the following spring queen rearing season at Weaver Apiar-

ies in Navasota, Texas, then went to Toulouse, France and since 1974 have been exporting queens to Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.

In 1994 Francisco Rey and I started Pacific Queens at Limache Chile, selecting for hygienic behavior and pollen production, and running up to 5000+/- hives for avocado pollination and pollen production plus 2500 deep five-frame Langstroth nucs for queen production. We ship queens to Europe, the Middle East and Canada. Frozen pollen (sometimes over 9 tons) is shipped to Europe for bumblebee production and human consumption.

My main areas of interest are breeding for pollen production and disease resistance. The “Bond” or “live and let die test” gives clear results but due to fear most breeders refuse to use it. To limit

the financial impact of the “Bond Test” we developed the “Soft Bond Test” and held a World Varroa Challenge near Toulouse to independently verify our selection results. Hives (600+) were located in a zone exposed to mites from other beekeepers. Challengers randomly chose hives and time spent controlling for mites. One cent was paid for every mite found dead or alive. Free meals and hay to sleep on were provided. Fifty-five challeng-ers in 12 countries required over 100 hours to find 109 mites.

The “Live and Let Die “ testing program has been modified to reduce the financial impact of the “Bond” test. Essentially through a process of elimination we do the final, more expensive testing on a restricted number of colonies. This sharply limits the financial impact of the test program.

The best colonies with the least amount of varroa are not treated and are used for breeder queens. Daughters from these queens will produce drones to mate with the beekeepers’ virgins the following year. It is important to use as many different breeder queens as possible to avoid inbreeding. Selection can be done using only natural mating and does not require expensive testing equipment. At the present time we cannot economically justify us-ing chemicals to kill varroa mites because our varroa infestation and reproduction rates are less than 5%.

Beekeepers should ask themselves two questions before beginning a program of selection for resistance to varroa mites. The first is what are the different reasons why you don’t wish to stop chemical treatments against varroa mites? The second is under what conditions would you stop these treatments in all your hives? Answers to these questions are not that evident but they are critical before you will be able to decide if under your spe-cific conditions a selection program is possible.

Dr. Eric C. MUSSENEric is the Extension Apiculturist for the University of California, housed in

the Entomology Department at the UC Davis campus. Eric received his bach-elor’s degree in 1966 from the University of Massachusetts, his master’s and PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1969 and 1975, respectively. For the past 36 years he has been involved in basic research but mainly has organized and delivered various extension programs to beekeepers and others interested in honey bees and crop pollination. He has published a bimonthly newsletter for 37 years, with copies of editions since 1994 available on his webpage. He also has topical articles on important aspects of beekeeping, called Bee Briefs, on his webpage. He is a member of the American Association

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of Professional Apiculturists, Entomological Society of America, Northern California Entomological Society, California State Beekeepers’ Association, Western Apicultural Society, American Beekeeping Federation and American Honey Producers’ Association.

Pesticides is a broad term that covers any chemical product used to mitigate a pest problem. The suffix “-cide” means to kill, so we have insecticides, acaricides, herbicides, fungicides, etc. Officially, to be sold they must be labeled with an EPA and state registration number. Many of the products directed toward animal tar-gets are devised to interfere with the nervous system, usually the nerve cells. Since nerve cells do not really touch each other, a complex chain of events, involving changing electronic polarity and secretion/reabsorption of neurotransmitters across synapses, allows impulses to pass along the nerves. Many pesticides either block (antagonists) that pathway and stop the impulses, or cause the pathway to fire continuously (agonists). Both of those processes result in paralysis. The pesticides involved with non-animal targets often are directed toward biochemical pathways dealing with energy production in the cells or with assembly of sterols and cell wall components. Unfortunately, honey bees share a lot of these biochemical pathways with targeted species. Those details will be discussed as they relate to honey bee physiology.

Dr. Walter S. SHEPPARDSteve is the Thurber Professor of Apiculture and Chair of the Department of

Entomology at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. His areas of interest include population genetics and evolution of honey bees, insect intro-ductions, and mechanisms of genetic differentiation. Steve, his WSU graduate students, and post-doctoral researchers have continued work on the genetics of honey bees, selection and breeding of honey bees for Pacific Northwest condi-tions, applied aspects of integrated pest management, and investigation of issues related to honey bee colony death. Since 2008, the bee research program at WSU has been instrumental in the importation of germplasm of three honey bee sub-species of apicultural interest (Apis mellifera cardiac, A. m. caucasica, and A. m. linguistic) and developing improved cryopreservation technology.

The western honey bee, Apis mellifera, is an insect with an original distribution in Europe, Africa and Asia. Within this range, more than two dozen subspecies or geographic races developed and only a small subset of these were sampled and introduced into the Americas and Australia. Since 1922, bee breeding in the United States has been restricted primarily to descendants of these early importations. More re-cently, importation of novel genetic material (resampling of source populations) coupled with cryopreservation technology has made it possible to utilize a larger genetic baseline from which to conduct selective breeding. The potential to now use marker-assisted selection and progeny testing in breeding to improve resistance mecha-nisms to parasitic mites and diseases are positive developments.

Dr. Valerie SOLHEIM Valerie is a research psychologist. In connection with the Golden Geobiology re-

search group, her study of the biophysics of energy fields on beehives based on gravi-to-magnetics and acoustic signatures has continually presented very good results.

Her research applications indicate that the location of hives in subtle energy fields is highly beneficial to the sustainability of the hive colony’s health in its capacity to protect itself against disease, pest invasion and adverse conditions.

In the 21st century, colony consciousness means a holistic collaboration of minds to the field of pollinator sustainability. My contribution, from a bio-physics/geologic perspective, indicates that the location of beehives in highly coherent energy fields naturally sustains the colony’s health and productivity.

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Joran VIERS Joran is the County Program Director and Agriculture Agent with the Bernalillo

County Cooperative Extension Service, and is a native of that county. He grew up in rural California, Costa Rica and Arkansas. Viers returned to New Mexico in 1989 to attend UNM, from where he graduated (summa cum laude) with a degree in Biology and an emphasis in plant ecology.

After completing a Master’s Degree from the University of Florida’s Botany De-partment, he worked for two years as the Garden Manager for the UF Horticulture Department’s Organic Gardening Research and Education Park. In 1996 he returned to Albuquerque, and was soon serving as the Agency Director for the New Mexico Organic Commodity Commission.

Joran left this position after six years and began his Extension Service career in 2003 as the Horticulture Agent. Currently, he is the administrative head of the Berna-lillo County Cooperative Extension Service office. His areas of technical expertise are

in sustainable agriculture, arboriculture, home gardening, insect and plant identification, and site diagnostics. He has been a member of Think Trees NM since 2003, and an ISA-Certified Arborist since 2008. He has been keeping top-bar hives since 2010, in a small hobby way.

As the County Agriculture Agent in a largely urban county that is home to a strong backyard beekeeping community (and as a novice backyard beekeeper myself), I sit at the meeting place between pro-bee folks and bee-fearing urbanites. People call me several times a year to find out what options they have to deal with their bothersome neighbor’s bees, while at the same time I work with a local group to promote backyard beekeeping. The question then, is how do we maintain our bees while not infuriating our neighbors, who do have a right to enjoy their own yards without being in fear of bees? Education is the key, both for our neighbors, but perhaps more importantly, for ourselves.

Dr. Gordon WARDELL Gordy holds a Ph.D. in Entomology with emphasis in Apiculture and Pest Manage-

ment from Michigan State University. Following his degree he worked for 12 years in International Apicultural Development traveling from Nepal to Fiji, mostly in In-donesia, Malaysia and Thailand, helping people improve their beekeeping potential.

In 1988 he joined the faculty of the University of Maryland as the extension api-culturist, acted as a consultant to the State Department and the Agency for Interna-tional Development in matters of apiculture and community development.

Moving to Arizona in 1996 he established and managed a research and develop-ment company dedicated to implementing innovative solutions to entomological and agricultural problems.

In 2009 he accepted a position as Bee Biologist and Apiculturist with Paramount Farming Company, coordinating pollination efforts for the company’s almond or-chards and investigating solitary bees as possible pollinators of almonds and other crops.

Beekeeping and colony management has changed dramatically over the last ten years, not the least of which is honeybee nutrition. Of course, the nationwide shift to almond pollination is one of the greatest changes in colony management and it has a huge impact on the health of our nation’s bees.

In his second talk, Gordy will discuss almond pollination in 2014, the recent developments and research at Project Apis m, and current advances in management of the solitary Blue Orchard Bees.

Dr. Bradford S. WEEKS Dr. Weeks completed undergraduate studies at Dartmouth College (major:

Political Philosophy) then studied medicine at the University of Vermont where he met fellow beekeeper and master apitherapist Charlie Mraz, with whom he founded the American Apitherapy Society (AAS). Dr. Weeks served as presi-dent of AAS and wrote and edited Bee Well, the original Journal of the Ameri-can Apitherapy Society for 6 years. He has lectured internationally on api-therapy and holistic integrative medicine. In addition to being a medical doctor, he is a beekeeper and apitherapist using all aspects of the hive for promoting health. Known as “the bee doctor” for the past 25 years, he is a champion of the honeybee and instructs medical doctors in the benefits of apitherapy. For more

information about his medical practice and credentials, see www.weeksclinic.com

Dr. Weeks will lecture on apitherapy (the therapeutic use of honey bee products) in general and the role of raw honey for health in particular. Distinctions between raw honey and the heated product will be discussed and the question-able science behind the assertion that infants ought not eat honey examined. Considerations of the biochemical prop-erties of honey and the vast peer-reviewed scientific articles supporting apitherapy will be shared with participants.

22

We invite you to our NEW WEBSITE at www.kelleybees.com

807 W Main St., Clarkson, KY • Toll Free (800) 233-2899 or (270) 242-2012Hours of business are 7:00 AM CST - 5:00 PM CST Monday – Friday & 7:30 AM CST - 12:00 PM CST on Satu rday.

AlternativeHealth AdvocatesOptimizing Health Choices

Thank you for attending WAS 2013. Safe journey home.

See you next year in Montana!

23

January 7-11, 2014The Baton Rouge River CenterBaton Rouge, LouisianaThe city of Baton Rouge welcomes the ABF for the 2014 North American Beekeeping Conference & Tradeshow. The conference will be held at the Baton Rouge River Center with guest room accommodations available at the Belle of Baton Rouge and the Hilton Baton Rouge Capital Center.

Baton Rouge is one of the fastest-growing cities in America. With so much to seeand do, you’ll want to start planning your agenda now. There is never a dull moment in Baton Rouge!

The River Center is centrally located in the downtown area, within walking distance of various attractions, cultural sites, hotels, restaurants and nightlife. With surroundings rich in Louisiana culture and entertainment, the River Center provides a unique environment for memorable experiences, including the 2014 ABF annual conference.

The Belle of Baton Rouge, the conference host hotel, is located just steps away from the Baton Rouge River Center. This hotel features 278 guest rooms, complimentary high-speed Internet access, complimentary airport shuttle, heated outdoor pool and a fully equipped health facility.

The 2014 North American Beekeeping Conference & Tradeshow is sure to offer top-notch education sessions from industry leaders, various networking opportunities, a variety of hands-on workshops and lots of fun.

Watch for details on the ABF conference website atwww.nabeekeepingconference.com

2014North AmericanBeekeepingConference& Tradeshow

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Number of Packages

2 Pound Package With Queen

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Orders along these routes are delivered for FREE!!! Pick up at our farm or choose one of our routes. All delivers made by experienced beekeepers.

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