BG Bees LLC is dedicated to the education of beekeepers in hopes of shifting the paradigm of colony losses to a higher degree of survival. After all, beekeeping is overwhelmingly challenging as we struggle to appreciate the complex symbiotic relationship between nature surrounding a honey bee colony and the bees within the hive.

Three legs orchestrates through three functional educational opportunities:

On Saturday, June 24th and Sunday, June 25th 2022, The Three Legged Stool honey bee event will be offered. Why three legs you might ask? It is the individual stressors – Disease, Nutrition and Pests – which impact the girls resulting in colony losses.

This event will be both ‘in person’ at the Crag Rat Hut, a mountain-style lodge located ten minutes south of Hood River, and VIRTUAL via Zoom. Nestled into the east hills of the Hood River Valley, the two-story facility commands breathtaking views of two snow capped volcanoes and the orchard carpeted valley between them.

Three legs and three style offerings: 1) Presentations, 2) Round Table Discussions, and 3) ‘in hive’ Experience. Each of you will delve into the life of the honey bee. Taking:

• the didactic presentation materials
• to a discussion table,
• translating the information into practical management of your colonies.

Finally, you will have an opportunity to delve into a honey bee colony to assess the needs, the health and what issues may arise in the near future.

SELECT YOUR PREFERRED MEANS OF ATTENDING BELOW





Three Legged Stool Event – ‘In Person’ – PURCHASE HERE




Three Legged Stool Event – VIRTUAL – PURCHASE HERE





Three Legged Stool Event – BANQUET – PURCHASE HERE

SPEAKERS

TENTATIVE

• Samuel Ramsey PhD

  Drivers of Honey Bee Colony Losses: What the Data Actually Say
  For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong (H. L. Mencken). This sentiment is clearly evinced in the complex issue of heightened honey bee colony losses. While the data do not present a singular culprit, they do show how the interconnected web of natural and man-made stress factors have negatively impacted honey bee populations. These data further imply that there are actions we can undertake to help the bees.

• Ramesh Sagili PhD

  Optimal nutrition is crucial for honey bee colony growth and robust immune systems. Honey bee nutrition is complex and depends on the floral composition of the landscape. Foraging behavior of honey bees depends on both colony environment and external environment. There are significant gaps in knowledge regarding honey bee nutrition, and hence no optimal diet is available for honey bees, as there is for other livestock. In this review, we discuss (1) foraging behavior of honey bees, (2) nutritional needs, (3) nutritional supplements used by beekeepers, (4) probiotics, and (5) supplemental forage and efforts integrating floral diversity into cropping systems.

• Adam Dolezal PhD

  Feedbacks between nutrition and disease in honey bee health
  Declines in honey bee health have been attributed to multiple interacting environmental stressors; among the most important are forage/nutrition deficits and parasites and pathogens. Recent studies suggest poor honey bee nutrition can exacerbate the negative impacts of infectious viral and fungal diseases, and conversely, that common honey bee parasites and pathogens can adversely affect bee nutritional physiology. This sets up the potential for harmful feedbacks between poor nutrition and infectious disease that may contribute to spiraling declines in bee health. We suggest that improving bees’ nutritional resilience should be a major goal in combating challenges to bee health; this approach can buffer bees from other environmental stressors such as pathogen infection.

• Jamie Ellis PhD

  Evaluating the Efficacy of Oxalic Acid Vaporization
  A successful Integrated Pest Management approach to Varroa destructor Anderson and Trueman control in managed colonies of western honey bees Apis mellifera Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Apidae) must be an improvement over conventional control methods and include cost-effective treatments that can be readily employed by beekeepers. Herein, we tested the efficacy of oxalic acid (OA) vaporization and brood interruption as Varroa controls. Sixty experimental colonies were randomly assigned to one of six treatment groups with 10 colonies per group.

• Kelly Kulhanek PhD

  Accelerated Varroa destructor population growth in honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies is associated with visitation from non-natal bees
  A leading cause of managed honey bee colony mortality in the US, Varroa destructor populations typically exceed damaging levels in the fall. One explanation for rapid population increases is migration of mite carrying bees between colonies. Here, the degree to which bees from high and low mite donor colonies move between apiaries, and the effect visitation has on Varroa populations was monitored.




CATERING



• Lake Taco

  local restaurant where patrons may enjoy the authentic taste of mexican food



• Local Rhoots

  
  Our menus feature locally sourced produce, humanely raised meats and eggs, and sustainably caught seafood of the Pacific Northwest & Alaska