BCTC honey testing lab 'on hold'
Dr. Deb Davis tells BeeLines the BCTC Kentucky Honey Testing Lab is “on hold” for now, because the principal investigator has not returned to school and may not return in the spring. The project may be extended for one more year. Kentucky beekeepers’ samples are being safely stored.
News for the beekeeping community from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture
Ryan F. Quarles, Ed.D., Commissionerkd •kd Tammy Horn Potter, Ph.D., State Apiarist
Did COVID crash your honey marketing?
A producer of specialty crops including honey, fruits, vegetables, horticulture, tree nuts, maple sap, or indigo whose operation has been directly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, can apply for USDA's Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2 (CFAP 2).

The program is designed to assist agricultural producers who continue to face market disruptions and associated costs because of COVID-19. USDA will accept CFAP 2 applications through Dec. 11.

•     Payment is based on 2019 honey sales. New producers can use 2020 sales to-date.
•     Producers should contact their local FSA offices. Email is best way to establish contact.
•     You do not have to have participated in FSA programs in the past.
•     You do not have to have a crop report on file.

Payments will be calculated based on the producer’s 2019 sales, modified by a percentage that gradually decreases as sales increase. For complete details of procedures, conditions, and restrictions, visit farmers.gov/cfap/specialty.
Pollinators' friend Williams named to KADB
Williams built a “motorized monarch” for pollinator protection events at Audubon.
A remote radio (sprayer controller) moves the wings.
The Kentucky Agricultural Development Board (KADB) has gained another member with pollinator awareness in Robbie Williams.

Williams worked with Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy (GOAP) executive director Dorsey Ridley on the Audubon State Park Wetlands project when Ridley was a state senator.

The Audubon State Park Wetlands now features 10 acres of pollinator plots.

“We are seeing pollinator support from a very diverse cross-section of people – something we really need about now,” Williams said.
Williams is shown installing panels at his solar farm with his daughter, Anna.
KADB-KSU “bee education” grant funds winter instruction
Craft teaches 14 courses through collaboration with KSBA, KDA apiarist 

The Kentucky Agriculture Development Board (KADB) has financed the education of beginning Kentucky State Beekeepers Association (KSBA) members in a series of over-winter “Beginning Beekeeping” courses taught online by former state apiarist Phil Craft. The grant proposal to KADB was written by state apiarist Tammy Potter.

Two flights of Craft's November-to-February seven-course online series will be given, covering subjects including equipment, hive placement, obtaining bees, managing hives in the first year, issues new beekeepers will face, and “summer and onward.” There are no fees for the courses, but a $15 annual membership in KSBA is required of participants. (Both flights are at their capacity. Check here to join the standby list.)

The first course, an introduction to beekeeping titled So ...You Want to be a Beekeeper? is “a must for those with no, or limited, knowledge about the science and practice of beekeeping,” Craft said. The classes are taught courtesy of Kentucky State University Extension Services.
Registration: kybees.org
---------- Other beekeeper education events ----------

Nov. 7. Former Kentucky State Apiarist Phil Craft addresses a members-only KSBA video meeting at 7 p.m. EST/6 p.m. CST. New officers for 2021 will be elected during the meeting, and Beekeeper of the Year will be named. Members have been sent sign-in data.

Nov. 18. Planting for Honey Bees: A Guide for Beekeepers. Online course with instructor and author Shannon Trimboli. Registration $10.
SAVE THE DATE: Jan. 16, 2021. Eastern Kentucky Winter Bee School (virtual). Keynote speaker Rebecca Westwick (right), graduate research assistant in the Rittschof Laboratory, University of Kentucky (UK), from 10 - 10:55 a.m. EST, will present on “Laying Workers: Biology and What it Means for Your Hive.” Also speaking: Dr. Clare Rittschof of UK, Sarah Preston of the Certified Kentucky Honey Program (CKHP), Lindsey New of the Farm Service Agency, and Tammy Potter, state apiarist. Complete details and schedule next month.
Two young Kentuckians win national Bayer honor
Young prizewinners will educate, recruit next-generation beekeepers
(L-r) Keith Griffith III;
Emma Stevens and her hives; the cover of Keith's book.
(Keith's and Emma's photos courtesy Bayer.)
Bayer CropScience has honored two young Kentucky beekeepers with their 2020 Blue Ribbon Beekeeper Award winners, recognizing next-generation leaders supporting pollinator health.

Thirteen-year-old Keith Griffith III, of Louisville, took first place in the national competition and will receive $3,000 to put toward his beekeeping projects or college tuition.
Emma Stevens, 16, of Greenup, placed second and will receive $2,000.
Tammy Potter, state apiarist, called to congratulate Keth and Emma during recent Zoom interviews. Her notes:

While many young beekeepers focus on the importance of beekeeping to the environment, Keith Griffith III focuses on the benefits of beekeeping to mental health. “When I am in a hive, everything else just goes away,” he said in an interview, with a huge smile. “I recommend anyone find that one thing that he or she loves and just focus on that.”

Learning beekeeping made such an impression, Keith wrote a book on the therapeutic mental-health advantages. 

Before a FFA field trip to Hunter's Honey Farm in Indiana, Emma Stevens was "terrified" of honey bees. Watching a beekeeper work in just T-shirt and shorts "made a big impression on me," Stevens said.

Now, as vice-president of Greenup County FFA, she helps others overcome their fears. She wants to arrange for STEM events that focus on bees at four elementary schools in her county as well as planning to make available a three-day bee camp. She plans to use her $2,000 stipend to pay for protective bee apparel and other gear for these events.

“Emma's leadership in pollinator education is exciting and commendable,” Potter said.
Each 2020 Blue Ribbon Beekeeper entrant impressed the judges with creative and impactful projects to benefit pollinators and further community education. The panel of five industry experts chose the winners from a group of entrants from 14 states, the Bayer press release noted. 

Stevens is committed to educating her community on the importance of pollinators. Through her high school agriculture department, she volunteers with local elementary school junior bee clubs to teach younger students about beekeeping.

Stevens is her high school’s FFA vice president, in which she provides educational information to local farmers and others on the impacts and importance of honey bees.

She hopes to start a bee club at her high school, conduct a three-day junior bee camp for students in second through sixth grades, and organize a STEM Day emphasizing bees for her district’s four elementary schools.

Bayer technical crop advisor
Lewis Bradley emphasized, “The Bayer CropScience motto is ‘Science for a better life,’ and bees are at the heart of that.” 
The European hornet has in Kentucky since it was brought here in the 1800s. The speciescan be identified by the "paint-drips" on its striping. (Richard Tracy photo)
AGH moving
slowly south;
nest destroyed
in Washington

Scientists netted a live Asian giant hornet (AGH), Vespa mandarinia, near Blaine, Washington, and later found and destroyed the first reported AGH nest in the U.S.
State Apiarist Tammy Potter is fielding several calls and emails per week from people asking if the hornet they've found is an AGH. (Tanza Boyd photo)
Specimens were netted earlier, but tracking failures kept the location of the nest hidden from the University of Washington scientists.

During fall, the AGH goes into a “slaughter phase,” in which the breed targets and marks hives to attack in force. Some tracking mishaps intervened between the first hornet capture and the discovery of the nest, which was eradicated Oct. 25.

Scientists have outfitted hives with traps to catch AGHs, intending to tag them and follow them back to their hives. This system has been successfully deployed to control the pest in Japan. 

68 miles a year – Oregon by 2040: New research from scientists at Washington State University and the Washington State Department of Agriculture warns that if the hornets are not properly contained in Washington, the species will likely move down the west coast and establish itself in Oregon in 20 years or less. The hornets can spread up to 68 miles each year. This research was reported in Modern Farmer magazine.

Not near here yet – unless hitchhikers! The hornets could hitch a faster ride to other locations, if humans accidentally transport them. State Apiarist Tammy Potter has completed her 2020 USDA bee and wasp survey, including hornet traps she set, and reports “no Asian giant hornets yet.” The story: NPR.org
Above, workers in ultra-protective suits vacuum the AGHs out of their tree nest. Below, here's a Halloween decoration: a scary tube full of AGHs. (WSDA photos)
‌
The AGH has a yellow-orange head. It does not prefer to attack humans. It would rather seek out beehives, and it can destroy one in under an hour.
(Jessica Mayes photo)
Apiarist conducts vigorous
USDA sampling program
“I would like to sample from an apiary in every county in Kentucky,” State Apiarist Tammy Potter said. “There are about 25 [counties]
I have not sampled from yet.” Potter collects samples of bees for the USDA Honey Bee Health Survey, feeding a national database of bee health statistics. The bees are examined at a lab for spores, mites, and viruses. The data is shared with the beekeeper as it goes into the national database. Potter has been sampling since 2015.
(originally published in Grapevine, KDA employee newsletter)
RECIPE / Honey cream pumpkin pie
  • 1 frozen, unbaked
xxxxxx. 9-inch, deep-dish
xxxxxxxpie shell

For honey cream:
  • 3 T. cream cheese, room temperature
  • 2 T. honey
  • 1 t. vanilla
  • Pinch of salt

For pumpkin layer:
  • 1 - 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
  • 3 eggs
  • 3/4 c. brown sugar
  • 1 T. cornstarch
  • 2 t. pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 t. salt
  • 1/8 t. ground black pepper
  • 1 c. half & half

For whipped cream:
  • 1 pint fresh whipping cream
  • 3 T. honey
Alice Ashlock's colorful pumpkins.
Preheat oven to 425° F. Pre-bake the pie shell for 10 minutes, then let cool. Whisk together all the honey and cream ingredients, and set aside.

Whisk together the pumpkin puree, eggs, brown sugar, cornstarch, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and pepper until incorporated. Next, add the half-and-half until well combined. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the pie shell, spoon the honey cream in dollops around the pie and carefully swirl in with the tip of a knife.

Bake the pie for 15 minutes at 425° F. Then reduce the heat to 350° F. Bake for another 40-50 minutes or until a knife comes out clean and the center is set. Let cool.
                       
Whip whipping cream until it makes soft peaks, then slowly add in the honey until combined. Serve with the pumpkin pie.

TIP: If you don't have pumpkin pie spice, substitute
1 t. cinnamon, 1/2 t. ground ginger, and 1/4 t. ground cloves.
(Recipe from National Honey Board. Pumpkins photo: Alice Ashlock)
Distinctive white-eyed drone
faces limited choices in life

This white-eyed drone honey bee is an unusual genetic mutation. The photo was taken by Michael Pellittiere, president of Green River Beekeepers.

The website “Wildflower Meadows” says, “Don’t be fooled, however. Their life is not normal. For them, there will never be any mating; no flights, no flying to drone congregation areas, nor looking for queens. These drones are more or less stuck inside the hive because, due to their white eyes, they are blind.”
Since drones develop from only one set of chromosomes, recessive traits such as these can emerge more frequently than in females.
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Stay on top of the Kentucky beekeeping and honey industries. News from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the Kentucky State Beekeepers Association, local beekeeping associations,
the state's universities, and other agriculture organizations.
At right: The KSBA treasurer presented these current balances in the organization's accounts to the KSBA Board at a meeting in October.