Progress 03/01/18 to 11/05/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project was small-scale beekeepers in the United States, and those who work with them.Small-scalebeekeepers, commonly referred to as 'hobby beekeepers' or 'backyard beekeepers,' are those beekeepers who keep < 50 colonies and may or may not make income from their bees. It is unknown how many small-scale beekeepers are in the United States, but it is estimated that this group of beekeepers makes up the vast majority of the estimated 125,000 beekeepers in the United States, and manages tens of thousands of colonies. This group was targeted becausecolony loss rates are consistently much higher among small-scale beekeepers than commercial beekeepers (e.g. 41% and 21%, respectively, for the winter of 2014 - 2015). Much of the increased colony loss for small scale- beekeepers is thought to be attributable to the parasitic mite Varroa destructor; data show small-scale beekeepers consistently have higher mite loads than commercial beekeepers. While there is currently no comprehensive national survey for mites does not yet exist, the APHIS disease monitoring program, the BIP Sentinel Apiary program and the BIP Tech transfer teams have all collected data indicating that small-scale beekeepers have higher mite loads than larger beekeepers: In 2015, small-scale ('backyard') beekeepers in the BIP Sentinel Apiary Program consistently had significantly higher monthly mite levels than sideline or commercial beekeepers. Small-scale beekeepers also had higher varroa levels compared to commercial beekeepers measured through the BIP tech-teams. There are many obstacles to treatment among this agricultural group. First, many beekeepers do not understand the risk of the mite and may not realize the importance of parasite management. Secondly, many small-scale beekeepers recognize the importance of the mite, but are confused by the variety of treatment options. Finally, many beekeepers self-identify as 'treatment-free' and are resistant to managing mite populations. We designed an outreach program based on existing and novel scientific data that provided clear and culturally senstitive messaging to help overcome obstacles to treatment in this group. Not only did we target the small-scale beekeepers, but we also targeted the individuals that work with this population, including extension specialists, bee supply companies, and state and local beekeeping organizations. We developed 'train-the-trainer' programming that was designed to provide the basic information on parasite management, as well as effective messaging to respectively address cultural obstacles to treatment and combat false messaging from non-scientific sources. The goal with this two-pronged extension approach was to provide a multi-faceted extension messaging program that was scalable and addressed multiple barriers to treatment while filling in data gaps regarding mite control in small-scale beekeeping operations. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We presented information about the MiteCheck program at local, regional, national, and international beekeeping conferences, including multiple state meetings, the Heartland Apicultural Society, the Eastern Apicultural Society meeting, and the Western Apicultural Society meeting, the American Honey Producers, The American Bee Federation, and Apimondia. We also wrote an article for Bee Culture Magazine, which has an international readership of over 19,000. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Specific extension objectives Implement a national train-the-trainer program that creates a network of local experts that can provide hands on demonstrations of mite monitoring and management techniques to small-scale beekeepers. Since the inception of the project, at least 30 training sessions in 10 states have been held by project members. The train-the-trainer program was carried out in partner states in the summer of 2019, and rolled out nationally at the American Bee Federation meeting in January 2020, and at three regional meetings during the summer of 2019: the Eastern Apicultural Society, the Western Apicultural Society, and the Heartland Apicultural Society. In the past years we have developed the following information for the trainers: online, handouts, and power points,to be used that the training sessions.We monitored the train the trainer program closely in Michigan, frequently following up with the trainers. The 25 trainers that attended the initial session went on to provide further training to an additional 400 beekeepers that summer alone, indicting the success of this model.After receiving feedback from our trainers, we shared our system (presentations, deliverables, agendas, etc) with other universities and beekeeping supply stores. Create a single online destination for scientifically-based varroa monitoring and management information through the curation and collection of existing materials, and the creation of necessary novel resources. The page www.keepbeesalive.org was created to house reputable information on varroa mite monitoring. It contains videos and resources for beekeepers to help them monitor and manage for the varroa mite. This page links to two resource pages: Varroa mite monitoring (925 page views), and Planning for varroa (584 page views). We created three online videos: Why did my honey bees die (28K views) Understanding Varroa Risk (10K views) Making a Plan for the Varroa Mite (25 views) Increase the availability of monitoring kits and resources by expanding distribution of premade kits and kit making information. We created a sugar roll monitoring kit, and sold over 650 units directly to small-scale beekeepers. We then partnered with two major beekeeping supply companies to make the kits nationally accessible, and the kits are currently available at Mann Lake and Kelley Bee Supply. Carry out a media campaign to promote varroa mite monitoring and management We partnered with a variety of organizations to develop a national media campaign. We partnered with the Pollinator Partnership (along with the American Honey Producers Association, the Bee Informed Partnership, the USDA, the Honey Bee Health Coalition, the Canadian Honey Council, Project Apis m., and California Almonds to promote "Mite-a-thon" 2018, which was a national campaign to promote mite testing during one key week. The program was promoted through multiple outlets, to drive individuals to post their data on our MiteCheck platform. Over 900 beekeepers reported data on 3,026 colonies from across the continent in 2017, 684 reported on 2323 hives in 2018, and 545 beekeepers reported on 1,842 colonies in 2019. This nation-wide campaign occurred again in September 2020. The Bee Squad (with over 4.6k followers) has made multiple posts of training videos, monitoring reminders, and announcements through facebook, as well as Twitter (1758 followers), Bee Lab YouTube channel, and email newsletter list (2801). Messages were sent through the Bee Informed Partnership email list (12,000), website (430,000 page views per year, 46,610 page views the last month), and Facebook (3,451 likes). Mitecheck resides on the BIPresearch portal that received over 20,000 pageviews each year of the project. Expand and improve the data display heat maps that reveal the reported data to the public, acting as an early warning system of the national distribution of colonies at risk. The existing maps were improved to have more specific data collection. We made it easier for beekeepers to report the location of their mite sample by allowing multiple ways to enter their location. We also expanded to allow viewers to get more detail on the varroa level within a county and make regional and seasonal comparisons. Larger regional aggregate views were made to visualize percentage of colonies at risk and how that is changing over time to indicate how our current levels relate to past observations, other BIP programs such as Sentinel Apiaries and APHIS samples and our understanding of thresholds. Specific research objectives Create an interactive smart phone application that educates and guides beekeepers through a standardized best method for varroa mite monitoring and facilitates data collection. We created an app that is available on both the iOS and android platforms. It was released at the American Bee Federation meeting in January 2019, and has been used by over 1200 beekeepers in the United States, and 200 beekeepers in 9 other countries (Germany, Canada, India, Hungary, Mexico, France, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and China.) . The app, freely available on both the Apple iTunes App Store for iPhone users, and the Google Play Store for Android users. The app has been used over 3,500 times, with almost 40% new sessions, indicating both repeat use and a continued reach to new beekeepers. Quantify the variability in varroa mite monitoring methods, by lab validation of citizen reported results. We used 5810 samples collected during 787 sampling events between January and December 2018 to determine accuracy of reported results. We had participants perform a mite check, and then send the same samples to the lab for confirmation. We found that there was very high variability in the number of bees collected, which was a very important finding, because the results of the field tests are given as a percent infestation. Variability in the number of bees, can mean that beekeepers are getting incorrect information from their field sampling. In our collection, 11.3% of the colonies that should be considered at risk for mite infestation were falsely recorded as negative by the beekeeper due to an overestimation of the number of bees collected. At the yard level, 98.9 % of the negative yards were correctly assessed, but 8.7% of the yards requiring action would have been missed. With training, we were able to greatly improve the precision and accuracy of our tech teams in bee collection, and we will use the lessons learned from that experience to improve collection techniques of beekeepers. We will also use the results of this study to define the variability in the analysis of the data collected through the mite check citizen science project. Our data show that, a field test reading at 3 mites/100 (a standard IPM threshold) has a 95% chance to actually be somewhere between 2.4 and 4.8 mites/100. Expand and improve a database for collection of longitudinal and cross sectional mite monitoring data. The email and contact fields auto-populate from the last entry made on the appto make data entry easier, and more specifically to improve data quality for those beekeepers that take repeated measures. That along with the colony # entrywill allow tracking longitudinal data. We also partnered with the popular beekeeping record keeping app Hive tracks, which has provided about 25% of the entries to the Mite Check platform. Since the creation in 2018, the survey was taken almost 10,000 times (2,160 in 2018, and 7481 in 2019- 2020). Determine treatment thresholds for varroa populations based on regional and seasonal mite levels. This project was carried out in partnership with the Bee Informed Project and the University of Maryland. Data were collected in the summer of 2019, and publications of this research are in preparation.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
https://research.beeinformed.org/mitecheck/
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
keepbeesalive.org
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Englesma J, Milbrath MO, Rennich K, Wilkes J. 2019. The Mite Check App. Bee Culture June.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Heck A, Milbrath MO, MiteCheck: A national strategy in the United States to Reduce honey bee colony loss from varroa among small-scale beekeepers. Apimondia 2019
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Progress 03/01/18 to 02/28/19
Outputs
Target Audience: In this reporting period we successful in providing information to a wide audience. We were able to provide a variety of resources and materials to beekeepers and educators to provide training on monitoring and managing the varroa mite in honey bee hives. Our efforts included the following activities: In state meetings. Multiple in-person training sessions were held in participating states. During these meetings we gave information on the varroa mite, introduced the Mite Check reporting platform, and provided information and/or demonstrations on varroa mite monitoring. The individuals at these meetings were almost entirely small scale beekeepers, which is the audience directly targeted by this project. Seven training sessions were held in Tennessee: Cocke CountyApril 19 - 20, 2018 (people: 25) Claiborne / HawkinsCountyMay 11-12, 2018(people: 25) CumberlandCountyJune 7-8, 2018(people: 25) FentressCountyJune 14-15, 2018(people: 25) ScottCountyAugust 9-10, 2018(people: 25) CockeCountyOctober 25-26(people: 25) Tennessee beekeepers stateassociation meeting Cookeville, TNOctober 12-13, 2018(people: 110) Two training sessions held in North Dakota: Mite Management (Joint Presentation with Garett Slater), North Dakota Beekeepers Association (Hobby Beekeeper Day), Bismarck, North Dakota, 13 October 2018 University of Minnesota Bee Lab Update, North Dakota Beekeepers Association, Bismarck (Commercial Beekeeper Day), North Dakota, 12 October 2018 forVarroadestructor, Plant Seeds for Bees Field Day, Osceola, Wisconsin, 25 July 2018 Two training sessions in Minnesota: Bee Health and University of Minnesota Bee Lab Update, Ripple River Bee Club, Aitken, Minnesota, 21 June 2018 How Beekeepers Can Be Bee Ambassadors, Scott County Beekeepers, Prior Lake, Minnesota, 17 April 2018 Nine meetings held in Michigan Michigan Beekeepers Association March, 2018 Michigan Upper Peninsula Beekeepers Association, March 2018 Freemont Beekeepers Association - April 2018 Pine River Beekeepers Association - June 2018 Cross Hatch Training program - September 2018 Michigan State Beekeepers Fall Conference - October 2018 South East Michigan Beekeepers Association - October 2018 River Raisen Beekeepers December 2018 Kalamazoo bee school - January 2019 One meeting the following states: Wisconsin: Calculated Beekeeping: Discerning Monitoring and Management Decisions Connecticut State Beekeepers Association - October 2018 Massachuetts State Beekeepres Association - November 2018 Iowa Honey Producers - Noveber 2018 Virginia State Beekeepers Association - November 2018 Nevada State Beekeepers - February 2019 Once the App was available (January 2019), we performed app demonstration sessions as part of the education. These were performed at two locations: On 2/9/2019, introduced MiteCheck to 150 students with the app demo at the Eastern Missiouri Beekeepers Association Beginning Beekeepers Course and did an app demo to an audience of 250 in the general session 1/14/2019, introduced MiteCheck at the American Bee Federation meeting to over 150 people. This was also broadcast via facebook live, where it was viewed by over 1,100 individuals. We have reached a large number of individuals with our online information as well. The three videos that were posted for the project have 4.4 k, 2.4k and 1.9 k views. The app has been downloaded by 106 android users and 89 iOS users. We developed multiple partnerships that expanded our reach. In September 2018, we partnered with the Pollinator Partnership (along with the American Honey Producers Association, the Bee Informed Partnership, the USDA, the Honey Bee Health Coalition, the Canadian Honey Council, Project Apis m., and California Almonds to promote "Mite-a-thon" 2018, which was a national campaign to promote mite testing during one key week. The program was promoted through multiple outlets, to drive individuals to post their data on the MiteCheck platform. We partnered with the Hive Tracks data collecting platform, so their users could directly import data to the MiteCheck database. Over 300 submissions came from Hive Tracks users. We partnered with the Bee Informed Partnership Sentinel Apiary Program, and collected data from their users all across the country. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The bulk of this project is to provide information to communitites of interest. We are trying to provied education to small-scale beekeepers to educate them on the varroa mite. We have given over 27 training sessions in 10 different states on how to monitor the mite. We held three webinars to answer questions and provide education, that have been posted on youtube and viewed many times (4.4k, 2.4k, and 1.6k). We have created an app that we trained over 300 individuals on, and we have created a media campaign that has reached thousands through oure partnerships and exisiting organizations. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period we will carry out the following activities: 1) Improve the individiual level data capabilities of the database 2) Add reminder features and social aspects to the app. 3) Perform the analysis of the submitted data to determine thresholds that cause disease. 4) Continue to up date the website 5) Complete editing and publication of training videos 6) Finalize partnership with a company to disseminate alcohol wash kits. 7) Perform the train-the trainer programs in key states and at regional meetings. 8) Prepare manuscripts of research outcomes for varibility of monitoring.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Implement a national train-the-trainer program that creates a network of local experts that can provide hands on demonstrations of mite monitoring and management techniques to small-scale beekeepers. At least 27 training sessions in 10 states wereheld by project members. The train-the-trainer program will be carried out in partner states in the summer of 2019, and rolled out nationally at the American Bee Federation meeting in January 2020, and at three regional meetings during the summer of 2019: the Eastern Apicultural Society, the Western Apicultural Society, and the Heartland Apicultural Society.In the past year we have developed the following: Information for the trainers (online, handouts, and power points) to be used that the training sessions, and information to give to the trainers to use at their own sessions. We held 3 live webinarscoveringkey aspects of varroa mite management: How to identify a colony that was lost to varroa, varroa mite monitoring, and varroa biology.The webinars wererecorded and posted on youTube, and have been viewed 4.4k, 2.4k, and 1.6k times, respectively. We have created one monitoring video through facebook, and a second high production video was recorded in 2018 and is currently in editing. Create a single online destination for scientifically-based varroa monitoring and management information through the curation and collection of existing materials, and the creation of necessary novel resources.The page www.keepbeesalive.org was created to house reputable information on varroa mite monitoring. It currently contains videos and resources for beekeepers to help them monitor and manage for the varroa mite. We are continuing to solicit, screen, and add resources through 2019. Increase the availability of monitoring kits and resources by expanding distribution of premade kits and kit making information.We created a sugar roll monitoring kit, and sold over 650 units to date to small-scale beekeepers. During sales, we noticed that it could be improved by not including the sugar in the kit.We are restructuring the kit in response to the feedback and will continue sales through 2019. We have partnered with the maker of a second type of kit, and will work to make those accessible in 2019. Carry out a media campaign to promote varroa mite monitoring and managementWe partnered with a variety of organizations to develop a national media campaign. In September 2018, we partnered with the Pollinator Partnership (along with the American Honey Producers Association, the Bee Informed Partnership, the USDA, the Honey Bee Health Coalition, the Canadian Honey Council, Project Apis m., and California Almonds to promote "Mite-a-thon" 2018,a national campaign to promote mite testing during one week.The program was promoted through multiple outlets, to drive individuals to post their data on the MiteCheck platform. The bee squad (over 4.6k followers) made multiple posts of training videos, monitoring reminders, and announcements through facebook and Twitter (1758 followers), Bee Lab YouTube channel, and emaillist (2801). Messages were sent through the Bee Informed Partnership email list (12,000), website (430,000 page views/year), and Facebook (3,451 likes). Mitecheck resides on the BIPresearch portal that received over 20,000 pageviews in 2018. The mitecheck sitespecifically, received 9,168 views in 2018. Expand and improve the data display heat maps that reveal the reported data to the public, acting as an early warning system of the national distribution of colonies at risk.The existing maps were improved to have more specific data collection, and the mitecheck survey was taken atotal of 2160 times in2018. We made it easier for beekeepers to report the location of their mite sample by allowing multiple ways to enter their location. Any of street address, county, zip code, or gps are now allowable entries and automatically geo-coded to the approximate representation on our map (i.e. county or zipcode.). We also expanded to allow viewers to get more detail on the varroa level within a county and make regional and seasonal comparisons. Create an interactive smart phone application that educates and guides beekeepers through a standardized best method for varroa mite monitoring and facilitates data collection.We created an appavailable on both the iOS and android platforms. It was released at the American Bee Federation meeting in January 2019, and we have 106 android users and 89 iOS users. In 2019, we will work to promote the app through our training and our social media campaigns. The app, freely available,has a three-fold mission: Educational/community awareness tool: helps beekeepers learn how to properly monitor for Varroa mites and stay abreast of current mite infestations levels in their area. Data collection tool: make it easy for beekeepers to submit their mite counts, when monitoring their colonies. Motivational tool: encourage beekeepers to monitor for and manage mites consistently over the beekeeping season. The "My Guide" areas of the app provide illustrated step by step guides for conducting either of the two mite monitoring procedures. The "Tutorial" section of the app provides a variety of professionally produced instructional videos on how to monitor. The app has training features that address the most common errors beekeepers make. The timer and the shake trainer feature are designed to help beekeepers learn to properly do the sugar roll. The app has a built-in timer with an audible alert that can be armed when the two minutes reached, ensuring that sufficient time has passed to cause the mites to fall off. In order to help new beekeepers quickly develop a sense for how hard they need to shake, and the duration of the shake step, the app implements a "Shake Trainer". Using the smart phone's accelerometer, the app senses the speed and rigor of your shake motion and gives you corrective audible feedback . As the simulated shake training session progresses towards the minute mark, the phone screen fades to an encouraging green color giving you visual feedback of progress. Quantify the variability in varroa mite monitoring methods, by lab validation of citizen reported resultsWe used 5810 samples collected during 787 sampling events in2018 to determine accuracy of reported results. We had participants perform a mite check, and then send the same samples to the lab for confirmation. We foundvery high variability in the number of bees collected, which was a very important finding, because the results of the field tests are given as a percent infestation. Variability in the denominator (number of bees), can mean that beekeepers are getting incorrect information from their field sampling.With training, we were able to greatly improve the precision and accuracy of our tech teams in bee collection, and we will use the lessons learned from that experience to improve collection techniques of beekeepers. We will also use the results of this study to define the variability in the analysis of the data collected through the mite check citizen science project. Expand and improve a database for collection of longitudinal and cross sectional mite monitoring data. The email and contact fields auto-populate from the last entry made on the appto make data entry easier, and more specifically to improve data quality for those beekeepers that take repeated measures. That along with the colony # entrywill allow tracking longitudinal data. We also partnered with the popular beekeeping record keeping app Hive tracks, which has provided about 25% of the entries to the Mite Check platform. The mite check survey was taken 2,160 timesduring 2018. In 2019 we will continue to develop individual level data collection capabilities. Determine treatment thresholds for varroa populations based on regional and seasonal mite levels.? This experiment will be carried out the summer of 2019, and the data analyzed after the end of that season.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
WWW.KEEPBEESALIVE.ORG
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