• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.67-81
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• 2020

The physicochemical parameters of honey are used to determine the botanic origin of honey and to specify the composition criteria for honey in regulations and standards. The parameters of honeydew and blossom honeys from Korean beekeepers were determined to investigate whether they complied with the composition criteria for honey in the food code legislated by Korean authority and to establish the parameters which should be subjected to principal component analysis for improved differentiation of honeys. The fructose and glucose contents of the honeydew honey did not comply with the composition criteria. The ash content of the honey was closely correlated with CIE a^* and CIE L^* The principal component analysis of fructose to glucose ratio, CIE a^*, CIE L^*, ash content, free acidity, and fructose and glucose contents enabled classification of honeydew, chestnut, multifloral, and acacia honeys. Additional advantage of the principal component analysis (PCA) is that the physicochemical parameters, such as fructose to glucose ratio (F/G) and color, can be determined using the analytical instruments for composition criteria and quality control of honey. This study suggested that composition criteria for honeydew honey should be established in the food code in accordance with international standards. The principal component analysis reported in this study resulted in improved classification of the honeys from Korean beekeepers.

• Journal of Apiculture
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.285-293
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• 2019

The honey bee queen shows extreme polyandry and controlling the mating partners can only be possible either by artificial insemination or having remote isolated mating locations. Here we report on the German North Sea island of Heligoland. Because of its location 60 km from the mainland, the lack of a local population of honey bees, its size of just 1.4 ㎢ and suitable weather conditions during the months of May to July, it is considered an ideal location for controlled inseminations of high-quality virgin queen bees with drones deemed genetically superior to others. Methods how to rear virgin queen bees are described and information is provided on the numbers of queen bees, their supporting workers and drone bees that are taken to the island in the mating season. The bee most commonly involved in the Heligoland mating trials has become Apis mellifera carnica strain "Baltica". In one summer, for example, 80 virgin queens (belonging to beekeepers from nine different locations in northern Germany) each with about 600 worker bees plus two drone populations of around 2,000 drones were taken by ship to Heligoland. On their return to the mainland no later than 3.5 weeks after the mating exercise, the beekeepers could register a mating success rate of 80%. This information can help operation management of the new remote mating centre of Weedo Island, Jeonbuk in Korea, which is currently under construction.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 2011

For the improvement of productivity of beekeepers and to develop new management strategy through the analysis of current honeybee-keeping management types and evaluation of related skills and basis in Korea were surveyed. The serial surveys were carried out in 2008 for a total of 253 beekeepers from different localities in Korea. The results revealed that 145.9 colonies of honeybee were managed by each beekeeper in Korea. The beekeepers group who were younger than 55 years possessed 191.7 colonies. The older age group of beekeepers kept rather smaller number of colonies. The career groups over 15 years in apiculture were keeping 176.0 colonies in average. The numbers of bee colonies were not significantly different among localities and educational backgrounds. The migratory apiaries with 145.9 hives were dominant than those fixed ones with 83.0 (p<0.01). It was observed that 57.8% of apiaries were located in the vicinity of farmer's house, whereas 30.3% were managed in mountain area; however older group (65.4%) preferred to keep it near their houses (p<0.05). The proportion (35.7%) of part-time fixed apiary was the highest among four apiary management types. The younger group and high career group operated full-time migratory apiary (38.8% and 40.3%) (p<0.05), respectively. However, the older group and low career group preferred as part-time fixed one (43.2% and 46.6%), respectively (p<0.001). There was no significant difference among localities. The surveyed beekeepers produced propolis, commercial colonies, pollen, royal jelly, and pollination hives in addition to honey. The group of less than 15 years career and mountain apiary mainly produced propolis and pollen. However, those who dwell in small and middle areas mainly produced propolis and commercial colonies. The levels related to beekeeping skills and basis were evaluated as intermediate from 3.11 and 2.86 points on 5 points scale, respectively. More careered group having skill level of 3.33 point and basis level of 3.02 showed higher levels than less careered one. The levels of skill and basis evaluated from age groups and localities were similar with each other with no significance.

• Mycobiology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.317-320
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• 2011

Honey production from approximately 1.6 million colonies owned by about 199,000 Korean beekeepers was almost 23,000 metric tons in 2009. Nosema causes significant losses in honey production and the virus decreases population size. We initiated a survey of honey bee colonies on the blooming period of Acacia to determine the prevalence of Nosema and virus in 2011. Most Korean beekeepers have moved from the south to north of Korea to get Acacia nectar for 2 mon. This provided a valuable opportunity to sample bees originating from diverse areas in one location. Twenty hives owned by 18 beekeepers were sampled in this year. Nosema spore counts ranged from zero to 1,710,000 spores per bee. The average number of nosema spores per bee was 580,000. Approximately 95% of the colonies were infected with Nosema, based on the presence of spores in the flowering period of Acacia. This indicates that Nosema is the predominant species affecting honeybee colonies. Also, the seven most important honeybee viruses were investigated by reverse transcription-PCR. Among them, four different viruses were detected in samples. Black queen cell virus was present in all samples. Chronic bee paralysis virus was detected in 10% of samples. Deformed wing virus was present in only 5% of the samples. Prevalence of Sacbrood virus was 15%. However, Cloudy wing virus, Israel acute paralysis virus and kashmir bee virus were not detected in any of samples.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2024

Vespa velutina nigrithorax du Buysson, 1905 is the invaded species in Korea since 2003. Since its importance as the honey bee pest, beekeepers use insecticides to kill the adult and immature hornets. However, its legality and effectiveness has not been confirmed. This study investigated the susceptibility of insecticides commonly used to control hornets by beekeepers in Korea. Eight insecticides were tested on adult worker and larvae by topical or oral treatment. Adults showed more than 70% mortalities from Clothianidin, Dinotefuran, and Carbosulfan treatment within 30 minutes. Bifenthrin and Cartap hydrochloride showed relatively low toxicity. The median lethal dose (LD₅₀) for Clothianidin, Dinotefuran, and Carbosulfan was 0.29, 0.65, and 2.21 ㎍/bee, respectively. In larval feeding test where 5^th instar larvae were fed 3 times every 24 hours, the mortality began after second treatments. After 3rd treatments (72 h), all insecticides showed mortality more than 70%. The LD₅₀ values of Clothianidin, Dinotefuran, and Carbosulfan to V. velutina were approximately 10 to 100 times higher than those to honey bee, Apis mellifera. This study provides the basic information of those chemical toxicities to Vespa hornet and honey bees.

• Journal of Apiculture
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.9-19
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• 2020

The questionnaire survey for Apis cerana beekeepers and professionals on improved native bee hives was carried out and we compared the temperature, relative humidity(RH), and weight changes of 4 improved hives(Chungju, Miryang, Hanam, and Suwon) from May 1, 2019 to January 31, 2020. Beekeepers need vertical feeder, hive stand, entrance block, and separating panel as hive accessory devices. The average temperatures within brood area were kept constantly (31.3~35.1℃) and the low daily variances of temperature (≤1℃) in Chungju hive among tested hives were observed. The daily temperature variances in the separated space and on the top of winter cluster were not different among 4 hives. In correlation between the temperature of brood area and the number of combs, Chungju hive showed the highest correlation(80.4%) and between the temperature on top of winter clusters and outside temperature, 4 hives showed high positive correlation(76.8~87.1%). RH of brood area(45~60%) in all hives were kept relatively low and constant compared to the outside RH(60~85%). The stablest RH on the top of winter cluster was observed in Suwon hives (65~75%) The highest cumulative weight increase among hives and the high positive correlation(65~67%) between the change of cumulative hive weight and combs number of hives were shown in the Miryang and Chungju. Based on these results, A. cerana bees are able to manage constant temperature and RH within hives area for their colony life, which also effected by the types of hive.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2022

Tilia amurensis is an important honey plant. As T. amurensis mainly distributes mountainous area with various elevations in Korea, accurate prediction of blooming time at the different elevation would benefit forest beekeepers. In this study, we measured time-dependent blooming progress of T. amurensis in Mt. Gariwang area ranging from 500-1500m. Additionally we collected blooming data from web and published literatures and estimated the variation of blooming time relative to the geographic locations. Flowers began to bloom from July 6 to July 22 with full blooming on July 14 in location where elevation is 638m in Mt. G ariwang area in 2021. Based on these databases, a growing degree day (G DD) model was developed for prediction of T. amurensis blooming progress using average daily temperatures. Using the starting date of G DD accumulation of January 1 and base temperature of 5 ℃, blooming period ranging from 10% to 90% of cumulative blooming rate was estimated as 860-1198 degree days (DD). This corresponded to the beginning to the end of July in Mt. Gariwaning area in 2021. This model could explain the phenological variations of T. amurensis flower blooming possibly affected by elevation within geographic area, latitude or year relative to the climate change, and aid forest beekeepers for better timing of nectar foraging by honey bees.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2013

It was known that many beekeepers use some acaricides to protect their bees. Among the acaricides used in bees, amitraz, bromopropylate, coumaphos, and cymiazole were used commonly in Korea. In middle of 2006, Korean government set maximum residual limit (MRL) of amitraz and coumaphos as 0.2 ppm and 0.1 ppm, respectively. Because the environment of bee farm changes every year, it is needed to monitor acaricides in honey continuously. In this work, ten samples of honey collected from local markets and internet in 2011 were tested for determination of the amount of amitraz, bromopropylate, coumaphos and cymiazole by HPLC-DAD. Levels of the acaricide residues found were less than 25 ppb.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.81-86
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• 2011

This study was designed to evaluate the beekeeper's consciousness for diagnosis and treatment on a disease of honey-bee in Daejeon and Jeollanamdo in Korea. The questionnaire consisted of 14 questions. Of 231 randomly selected respondents between February and May 2010, 47.6% was consult a 'club (colleague)', 89.2% treated a 'doctoring oneself', 84.4% was recognize a bee as 'domestic animal', 77.5% was not recognize a veterinarian as field of treatment, 38.5% was acquire know-how by a beekeeper. Therefore these results suggest that the beekeepers are relying a lot on individuals experience for the diagnosis and treatment on the disease of honey-bee, the apiculture techniques was gained much by oneself. Korean beekeeping association was played a role as well, but related-university, agriculture research & extension services and veterinary service laboratory was not played a role in the country.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.138-143
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the ergonomic risk factors in beekeeping, and to evaluate the effectiveness of assistive device hive lift. Methods: This study included 30 subjects of beekeeper in Pocheon, Korea. We assessed the ergonomic risk of main task in beekeeping with NLE, OWAS and evaluate the effectiveness of hive lift. We also surveyed prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms among the subjects based on the Korea Working Condition Survey. Results: Moving to different floral origin, internal inspection of beehives, feeding syrup is the most burdensome to musculoskeletal system (NLE LI value=2~3. OWAS action category=4). The prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms (lower and upper extremities) among the subjects was over 80 %. The introduction of assistive devices in the three hazardous tasks has dramatically reduced the risk by removing manual lifting hives (OWAS action category<1). Conclusions: Beekeeping is a heavy workload on the musculoskeletal system because it has a lot of manual lifting task. As a result of applying the hive lift, the burden could be reduced.