American Bee Journal

Combined Articles of Interest 

Beekeeping in Brazil

“I first journeyed to Brazil in the wake of a sabbatical study in Bologna, Italy. Apimondia, the World Beekeeping Congress, convened that year (1989) in Rio de Janeiro. It was a time of great turmoil in the world's fifth largest country, when measured by landmass. Government was in the final stages of being passed from military dictatorship to civilian democracy. Inflation was at an all-time high; those attending the congress saw their bus transport to the event, purchased in advance from downtown to the Rio Centro Convention Center on the outskirts of the city, evaporate as the nuovo cruzado, the currency at the time, became increasingly worthless.

The Congress, however, was a great success, and was a coming out of sorts for Brazilian beekeeping. It featured two prominent geneticists, Dr. Warwick Kerr of Brazil and Dr. Walter Rothenbuhler of The Ohio State University, as honored guests, and was a first sign to the world that the country was coming to terms with what introduction of the African honey bee had wrought.

Beekeeping in Brazil: Report on the VIth Encontro

In my series on the current status of Brazilian beekeeping I mentioned that the Africanized honey bee's introduction into that country produced a huge outpouring of scientific study. The result of this continues to be the legacy of one of the world's most dynamic faculties involved with tropical bees at the Ribeirão Preto campus of the University of São Paulo. In 1994, a group of students and faculty at that institution organized the first Encontro (Encounter) to share their tropical bee research results and provide a forum for discussion. Thus began a series of these meetings taking place every two years.

IUSSI Meets in St Petersburg, Russia

“It seems appropriate, therefore, that the first meeting of the European Section of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI) in Russia (the 3rd European Congress) should meet at the University of St. Petersburg (22-27 August 2005), which was established in 1724. To give the meeting further significance it met in the university's historic Twelve Collegiums (Ministries) on Vasilyevski Island, characterized by a series of twelve identical buildings, connected by a common corridor over 300 yards long. At one end is a library and at the other a painting showing Peter the Great signing the university into existence. The building's long hallway is adorned with paintings and sculptures of notable Russian scientists like Mikhail Lomonosov (first Russian student of the natural sciences), Andrei Sakharov (father of the soviet H-bomb), and perhaps most celebrated, Ivan Pavlov, who developed the theory of learning through conditioned response.

The Brave New World of GMOs: How it Relates to Beekeepers

Beekeepers, like everyone else, will be affected by what is being called the "third industrial revolution." The first industrial revolution was use of new sources of energy to produce goods and services. The second involved information theory. That is now maturing as part of the "information" age, and is based on use of digital computers in almost all the trappings of "modern" life. The third is "genetic engineering," using aspects of the other two in conjunction with recent scientific developments to directly manipulate the components of biological life. The products issuing from the third revolution are called "genetically modified organisms" or GMOs. This opens up a whole new universe of possibility for agriculture and by extension apiculture.

The Africanized Honey Bee in the Americas

Too much it seems cannot be said about the Africanized honey bee in the Americas, especially when it is referred to by its more sensationalized names, "abeja asesina" in Spanish or "killer bee" in English. Unfortunately, these names conjure up an insect that exists on planet earth for one purpose, to kill. And not only can it kill but in a most horrible and gruesome way via a barbed sting filled with life-destroying venom. This killer bee image, like that of sharks, tigers and other species known to harm humans, continues to be perpetuated in the mind of the average citizen, who knows little about insects in general and honey bees in particular. Perhaps the most concrete example of this is the large fiber glass and steel statue of the bee constructed by the citizens of the City of Hidalgo, Texas, where the Africanized bee was first observed to have crossed the border into the United States of America. This statue was originally mounted on a cart and continues to be trotted out during festivals and other occasions as a way to provide publicity for the town of Hidalgo but, in a real way, continues the myth that somehow the Africanized honey bee is larger than life.