(Zacatecas, June 1st 2010) The "Small hive beetle" (Aethina tumida), native of South Africa, was detected in the United States in May 1998 and the State of Coahila, Mexico, in 2008. Recently it has been reported in the State of Zacatecas showing his steady progress in the Northern country.
In addition to the prophylactic measures recommended for beehives treatment, is to highlight the suggestion of removing the soil surrounding the colonies to cut the reproductive cycle of the beetle.
Full text on El Sol de Zacatecas

(Buenos Aires, Argentina - May 23rd, 2010) It is available now the list of conferences to be expound during the next "Fiesta Nacional de la Miel" in Azul (Buenos Aires province) from JUNE 26th to 27th. You can access it via the link on this page.

(Córdoba, Argentina - May 4th 2010) Beekeeper René Monteverdi and his brothers Raúl and Daniel from Balnearia, Córdoba, Argentina will share their updating experience next Saturday during the San Francisco api-expo. They started beekeeping activity 20 years ago in a cattle rissing area and now they have all their beehives on pallets to move along the country.
The Api Expo starts next May 7th at 16:00 with a lecture in charge of Cordovan University proffesors and finishes on Sunday 9th after several beekeepers' proposals about beehive nutrition.
The program has been updated today. Check it in www.apicultura.com.ar

Argentina (March 5th 2010) - Some colleagues from "Pampa úmeda" region told us that they harvested honeys with a little more moisture than the normal this season. Due to a lot of rainfall during the crop season.
It is advisable to control that moisture and to sell this honeys above the normal values as soon as possible.

USA (March 5th 2010) - In spite of predictions it was noticed beehives shortage for almond pollination in California, once more. Beekeepers have been received offers of U$s 200 per beehives (in fact nuclei) "with two frames of bees and above". American beekeepers, affected by CCD, would appeal to Aussies bees packages.

(March 5th 2010) - Maciá city party includes a beekeeping show, it will be visited by the president of Apimondia, Gilles Rattia, this year. Among the invited artists it will be singing "Peteco Carabajal" and "Chaqueño Palavecino" two of the most important Argentine folklore singers. The appointment is in Maciá, Entre Ríos, next March 26th to 28th.

(March 5th 2010) - The Rural Society of Chivilcoy summons to the new edition of its beekeeping exhibition next April 17th and 18th.

The "18th Fair and Beekeeping Meeting from the Center of the Country" will be carried out in San Francisco (Córdoba, Argentina), "apex of Argentine Beekeeping towards the North of the Country", on May 7th to 9th. Further informationwww.apicultura.com.ar

(Córdoba, February 13th 2010) It has Already arrived to all our subscribers the 90th edition of "Espacio Apícola" beekeeping magazine. Soon it will be available a synthesis in this site. You can read in advance the editor words and index clicking here.
The honey crop has been good in many regions of Buenos Aires province and there have been honey again, after four years, in La Pampa province.
Santa Fe, Córdoba and Mendoza suffered the effects of a lingering drought followed by virulent storms and heavy rains. Flowers washed by the rain and few sunny days in the necessary moment made the honey crops to fail in many regions of these provinces.
The rainfall forecast for the next two weeks in the Mesopotamia, added to the soil moisture saturation and the overflowing of many rivers, condition the honey crop in Entre Ríos and the south of Corrientes province.
Even when we have the capacity to control part of the natural forces and also mitigate their negative effects, the bad agricultural practices increase the destructive effect of these forces out of their own limits. Massive deforestation, clearfield and no-till sowing (siembra directa), as if it was the only agricultural technology, have eliminated the natural barriers of contention of winds and rainfalls.
Rainwater runs on compacted fields for "no till sowing" looking for the sea. The use of the "chisel" (tool of spikes to break the compacted fields and to facilitate water absorption) is not either enough, or comparable to the penetration that roots of native forests offer.
Groundwater doesn't recover their storing level and the disappearance of forests moved away the rainfalls of the natural watershed of the mountain ranges. Desertification affects not only much of Argentine Beekeeping, but also the same landowners that paradoxically will be subsidized by the disasters that in many cases have caused themselves. For our habitual subscribers, it is the chronicle of an announced catastrophe.
How does the Argentine Beekeeping advance and how are it and its relation with the world modified?
Follow this Espacio Apícola closely. Remember to update your subscription for 2010.
In Argentina $ 60 (five editions, shipping included)
Rest of the world U$S 40 (five editions, shipping included)

(Cordoba, December 13th 2009) Digital photos and computers optimize the techniques to determine bee races.
The use of digital photos and image vectorizing softwares have allowed traditional morphometrical taxonomy identify africanized bees just with a picture of the right forewing of bees.
A photographic image is transformed into vectors able to be related to one another and analyzed in logical form by a statistical softwares in a few minutes. Tiago Francoy, from USP (Brazil), applied this technique to determine africanized bees and he achieved an effectiveness of more than 99%. He made the comparative works using the Rutner collection as reference and samples from the whole Brazil. Detailed description of the technique, results and the charts that identify the main commercial bees races were published in Espacio Apicola edition No. 89. The main queenbees breeders from Argentina are considering it and its success can be significant for the international bees market. More information inform@apicultura.com.ar

(December 13th, 2009) Despite the delay, rains are arriving in the central region of Argentina. At the end of November Mr. Enrique Vairolatti, from San Francisco (northeast of Cordoba province) a region with a high concentration of beehives, told us that bees had already taken two small suppers. The area surrounding Rio Cuarto city, south of Cordoba and San Luis provinces, began to receive good rainfalls at the beginning of December. At the same time, Mr. Mario Iaconis from National Radio of Bahia Blanca city announced significant rainfalls in the Southwest of Buenos Aires province. The hydric balance is good in the whole coastal region (coast of Parana river, Center and East of Buenos Aires province and the whole Mesopotamia).

We have upgraded the information of honey and beewax exporter, suppliers of materials, machineries and inputs companies that also support this information and training Space at the service of the Argentine Beekeeping. Check the new telephone guide and E-mails in "Argentine Beekeeping Exporters and Suppliers"

(November 24th 2009) The National Union of Beekeeping of France (UNAF) ratified in Apimondia its accusation against the Imidacloprid, the Fipronil and neonicotinoids as well as the Thiametoxan but UNAF went farther and demonstrated that the Ministry of Agriculture of France hides the technical reports to the control agency of the European Union.
The president of the European Professional Beekeepers Association (EPBA), Walter Haefeker, affirmed in Montpellier that the German government, compensated beekeepers whose beehives were damaged by Bayer Crop Science products but, the German government demanded beekeepers to throw away pollen frames polluted with pesticides to eliminate any evidence of the chronic intoxication that beehives exposed to pesticides suffer. That intoxication is produced by airborne dust during coated corn seeding, by remains of coated seeds in field, by puddles polluted with pesticides and by drops of gutation of plants born from coated seeds with systemic pesticides, recently demonstrated and published in the USA.
Before the latest call to decide the approval of pesticides in the United Kingdom next January 2010, David Ramsden (Member of the Beekeepers Association of Twickenham, London) exhorted all British Beekeepers to let their delegates know what they think before voting in BBKA meetings. "As you may know, the British Beekeepers Association endorses some pesticides, and in return receives income from the manufacturers -said David- For me, it is a simple question of ethics. Not a scientific or technical one, as there is insufficient evidence to come to any absolute conclusion regarding the danger of the various products to bees. The question I beg is the ethical proposition “should the BBKA endorse these products for money?” My answer is no." affirm David in a message spread by Phil Chandler last Friday November 20. This problem is discussed in detail in "Espacio Apícola" n. 89.

(Página 12 Newspaper - Argentina - April 13th 2009) A laboratory scientific investigation confirms glyphosate is highly toxic and it causes devastating effects in embryos. Glyphosate is the Roundup® active ingredient, a total herbicide what is based the soya been production and the main source of clearfield idea, registered by Monsanto Corp. Thus, it was determined by the Laboratory of Molecular Embryology, CONICET-UBA (Faculty of Medicine) that, with dilutions dose up to 1500 less than those used in the fumigations of soya fields, it was proved intestinal and heart dysfunctions, malformations and neuronal deteriorations. The study, carried out in embryos, is the first one in its type and it refutes the supposed harmlessness of the herbicide.
The Laboratory of Molecular Embryology is twenty years working in academic investigations. It is placed in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and linked to the National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigations (CONICET). It is the most important reference on the matter in Argentina, conformed by graduates in biochemistry, genetics and biology. During the last fifteen months they studied the effect of the glyphosate in amphibious embryos, from the fecundation until the organism acquires the morphological characteristics of the species.
Next to the glyphosate they are also studing their helpings as POEA that, when working as a detergent, it is an animal fat derivated that has high toxicity and residual power.
Source and full text: http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-123111-2009-04-13.html

(Newscast of Rural Channel - Thursday 29/01/09 15:15 GMT) Images from the National Meteorological Service show the deficit of water in the soil of the central region and the Argentinean Northeast. From yellow to red it is shown that the situation is serious and extreme respectively. Only in green areas it is acceptable the water retained level of the soil. The factors that worsen the drought are several and firstly the anthropic changes play an important role. In this situation the bee hardly survives, it does not turn out.
Check the image from Google
Source: National Meteorological service

(Newscast of Rural Channel - Thursday 29/01/09 15:15 GMT) It is known that Argentina imports pollen and royal jelly. Only honey is exported and some wax; occasionally and in insignificant quantities, queen bees and propolis are also exported.
In the edition number 43 of the magazine "Alimentos Argentinos" by SAGPyA (National Secretary of Cattle Raising, Agriculture and Food) (December of 2008) it was published what is called "Numbers of beekeeping chain", where it is said that Argentina exports 93% of the honey that turns out, for more than U$S 150 million.
According to the published data, those U$S 150 million annually is enough to amortize 3,39 million beehives, the honey extraction rooms, the operative expenses of the annual calendar and to keep 100.000 jobs!.
It seems that living in Argentina is so cheap! that as the incomes (according to this data) for each job is about U$S 1500 a year, the Argentinean State maintains an export tax for honey of 10% and it would not be necessary to do away with the right customs that Argentinean honey pays to enter in Europe, about 17%... It seems this does not affect the competitiveness of Argentina in the "generous" honey market.
We beg our readers not to believe in these numbers published by SAGPyA. Because of this kind of articles, not as irresponsible as this particular one, the Argentinean beekeepers had to stand the anti-dumping sanctions that the US Department of Commerce (DOC) imposed some years ago. In Argentina U$S 1500 annually is hardly enough to pay the social insurance and the contribution for the job of a rural worker without any qualifications.
Abrir imagen guardada en Google
Source: Alimentos Argentinos nº 43 - December of 2008 - SAGPYA Argentina. Fuente: Revista Alimentos Argentinos nº 43 - Diciembre de 2008 - SAGPYA Argentina

(January 29th, 2009) The Co-op, which owns 25,000 hectares of farm land in Britain - banned the use of neonicotinoid pesticides on all its farms to protect honeybees.
Simon Press, senior technical manager at the Co-op group said: "We believe that the recent losses in bee populations need definitive action, and as a result are temporarily prohibiting the eight neonicotinoid pesticides until we have evidence that refutes their involvement in the decline." Paul Monaghan, the Co-op's head of social goals accused the UK government of failing to recognise that "pesticides could be a contributing factor" in the breakdown of nature's number one pollinating machine.
Full story http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/28/bees-coop-pesticide
BBC Interviewhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/listen_again/default.stm
Source: BeeAlert

(January 27th, 2009) It has already been distributed the edition No. 85 of our Argentine Beekeepers' Magazine "Espacio Apícola" completing the five editions of 2008. Remember to renew your subscription (Spanish only, for foreing countries U$S 40 per year.- Five editions shipping and handling included). For further information inform@apicultura.com.ar

(September 13th 2008) 400 beehives died and other 200 were affected in hardly one weekend in Venado Tuerto, Santa Fe, Argentina.
Bee illnesses were not detected. Neither there were fumigations in the area.
The main suspicions are the emanations of two local industries dispersed by the wind.
The involved industries would produce high dioxine levels, a substance generated mainly by plastic incineration.
A similar phenomenon was reported 10 years ago near Laguna Paiva, also in Santa Fe province where there was a pathogenic residues oven.
Source: Beekeepers Association of Venado Tuerto.

María Luisa Pignata PhD verified high levels of environmental contamination studying Nickel and Zinc concentrations in "Clavel del Aire" (Tillandsia spp.) around Río Tercero city, Córdoba province. "Clavel del Aire" are those small plants that we usually see in the electricity or telephone cables or sticked in tree branches. These vegetables feed on nutrients that are spread in the air and their study is used to verify the environmental contamination. The ovens where this contamination would come also emanate dioxines, that beside these heavy metals in high concentrations are also highly toxic.
Source: María Luisa Pignata PhD, FCEFyN-UNC

In areas of Córdoba province where it is practiced the pigeon hunt, 1000 annual lead tones are spread as ammunitions of shotguns, a true lead mine. As metal, lead is not necessarily toxic but, in contact with other substances in the field, it is oxidized and it becomes soluble transformed in a highly toxic substance. The small size of ammo makes them easier oxidable. This allows the absorption of heavy metals by plants and they put in risk several agricultural productions, mainly those that look for an organic certification.
Source: María Luisa Pignata PhD, FCEFyN-UNC