Certification Levels: Journeyman Study Guide

 

JOURNEYMAN WRITTEN EXAM GUIDE

These books are excellent preparation for biological ecological questions on the exam. Recommended texts across the Master Beekeeper levels are:

• Keith Delaplane’s 2007 edition of First Lessons in Beekeeping;
• Thomas D. Seeley's The Wisdom of the Hive and Honeybee Democracy;
• Jurgen Tautz's The Buzz about Bees: Biology of a Superorganism; and
  
• Mark Winston's The Biology of the Honey Bee.

 

Written exams often address the following topical areas and specific points of knowledge:

Toxicology

• Measures of toxicity, the LD₅₀, LC₅₀, chronic vs. acute toxicity

• Categories of insecticide active ingredient: pyrethroid, carbamate, organo-phosphate, organic acid, neonicotinoid and relative advantages/disadvantages of each from the points of view of beekeeper, environmentalist and crop grower

• Insecticide formulations – wettable powder, dust, solution, granules and the implications of each for honey bee toxicity

• Management measures for minimizing insecticide exposure: timing of application, residual toxicity times, reentry intervals

• How to read an insecticide label and judge its potential hazard to bees

• Special considerations for urban mosquito spray applications: drift, timing of application, whether to cover hives or move them

• Symptoms of acute bee kill; symptoms of chronic bee kill

• Restorative therapy for insecticide injured colonies

 

Pollination

• Sexual parts of a flower

• Measures of “good” pollination: fruit-set, pollen surface deposition on stigma, number of ovules fertilized

• Self-fertile vs. self-sterile crops and implications for pollination dependence

• Fruit types and their implications for pollination dependence: berry, pome, aggregate fruit, stone

• Why is California almond such a huge pollination event?

• How can honey bee pollination efficacy be optimized?

• What are the world-wide dynamics affecting pollination demand?

 

Biology of honey hoarding

• The importance of C.L. Farrar’s 1930s research on colony population and honey hoarding

• The importance of colony density on honey hoarding – when should you super and when should you crowd them?

• How did Farrar’s knowledge revolutionize beekeeping? What did beekeepers think about swarming pre- vs. post-Farrar?

• How do bees use the recruitment dance to optimize honey storage? What stimulus makes a bee forage for nectar vs. pollen vs. water?

• How can beekeepers reduce swarming?

 

Honey bee relatives and other insects

• What are the differences between wasps and bees from the standpoint of evolutionary ancestry, diet, morphology, and life strategy?

• What is mimicry and how can one distinguish a bee mimic from a real bee?

• What one clear unambiguous character can distinguish a bumble bee from a carpenter bee?

• What are some environmental benefits provided by wasps?

• What is the difference between solitary, perennially social, or annually social species? Which strategy describes honey bees? Bumble bees? Cicada killers?

 

Honey bee biology

• What are the three criteria of a “eusocial” species?

• Why do honey bees make honey?

• What is the annual life cycle of honey bees? Why do they swarm so early in spring?

• What is polyandry and why is it important?

• How many chromosomes do bees have?

• What is the difference between homozygous genes, heterozygous, and hemizygous?

• Why is inbreeding such a problem in breeding programs? What is the biggest symptom of inbreeding?

• What are the long-term triggers of swarming and near-term triggers? How can a beekeeper manage each of these to reduce swarming?

• What are some of the age-based changes in worker tasks?

• What are the most economically important honey bee races? What are their scientific names?

• How do bees regulate nest temperature? Both cold and heat.

• What is a Darwinian unit of selection? What is the superorganism?

• Understand honey bee morphology as it pertains to beekeeping. What is the crop? The corbiculum, the antenna cleaner, mandibular gland, Nasanov gland, wax gland, venom gland, stinger, mandibles, head, thorax, abdomen. How many wings and legs do bees have?

 

Honey preparation

• What are the pros / cons of using heat in the extracting process?

• What are the guidelines for a legally-labeled jar of honey?

• Be ready to distinguish good, from fair, from poor presentation of honey

• What are the criteria for comb honey? Chunk honey?

• What is HMF and why does it matter?

 

Pollinator conservation

• What are the main criteria for supplemental bee forage plants?

• Should supplemental forage plants be placed next to a crop to be pollinated?

• How can a landowner encourage solitary bee nesting?

 

Honey bee health

• Be prepared to describe the concepts and practices of Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

• What is the difference between IPM and organic beekeeping? What about “survival stock” beekeeping?

• Know all the major bee diseases and pests by symptom, name of causative agent, and treatment (if available): DWV, Israeli Acute Virus, sacbrood, black queen cell, Nosema, chalkbrood, stonebrood, Varroa mites, EFB, AFB, SHB

• Know IPM control methods for each disorder, if available

• Review the latest information on bee decline or “CCD.” What are its causes? What can be done about them?

• What are some principals of epidemiology that can be applied for bee health? Is hive density important? Propolis?

• What are some important bee traits for genetic pest resistance?

 

 

JOURNEYMAN PRACTICAL EXAM GUIDE

The jump from Certified to Journeyman is one of the most demanding steps in the Georgia Master Beekeeper sequence. One reason for this is our insistence that candidates score no less than 100% on visual diagnostics of honey bee disorders and bee-related arthropods. It is our belief that certainty of knowledge in these categories is a necessary condition for certification at the higher grades.

In this section we plainly tell you what will be on the exam, in many cases showing the actual questions. Our wish is to eliminate as much “surprise” as possible from the exam experience so that you can concentrate on learning the material you will need to know that day. Please be aware that you will be tested on real specimens on-site, and they will not necessarily be the same specimens you see in practice sessions or in the linked photographs.
 

Here is a summary of the same exam you will see on test day:

Journeyman Practical Exam
	This column examiner use only
	pass		fail	You must pass each of required questions 1-6 and any three of elective questions 7-13. Unless otherwise stated, passing is 70%.
1				Disorder identification #1
2				Disorder identification #2
3				Disorder identification #3
4				Disorder identification #4
5				Disorder identification #5
6				Identify (by common name, adequate description, or taxonomically diagnostic character) the insects or insect artifacts in the case.
7				Identify selected beekeeping items.
8				Interpret colony status from written descriptions.
9				Draw and label anatomical structures of the honey bee.
10				Evaluate extracted honey presentation for errors.
11				Evaluate comb honey presentation for errors.
12				Identify parts of a flower from a diagram, model, or fresh specimen.
13				Identify which thorax is from a true bee (Apoid).

Questions 1-5 may include any of the following:

• Be prepared to distinguish samples that are both positive and negative for each disorder: Varroa mites, small hive beetles (SHB), Nosema spores, DWV, AFB, EFB, laying worker, drone layer, SHB larvae vs. wax moth larvae.
• Be prepared to name causative agent (if not same as disorder name) and recommended treatment.

Question 6 will include the following:

Honey bee worker, honey bee queen, honey bee drone, bumble bee, sweat bee, squash bee, carpenter bee, parasitic wasp, Vespula yellow jacket, Polistes paper wasp, Vespa hornet, cicada killer, leg with corbicula, leg without corbicula, mason bee, and 2 species of fly bee mimics.

Here are links to some pictures and a powerpoint presentation that should be helpful:

• Bees
• Honey Bee
• Bumble Bee
• Sweat bee
• Squash bee
• Carpenter Bee
• Mason Bee
• Wasps
• European Hornet
• Yellow Jacket
• Cicada Killer
• Flies (Bee and Wasp Mimics)
• Flies have only 1 pair of wings, while bees and wasps have 2 pairs.
• Robber Fly
• Bee Fly

Download the Bee and Near Bee Identification for Journeymen presentation.

Question 7 will ask you to name beekeeping tools that are secondary – not essential – to the trade. It can include things such as queen catcher, grafting tool, propolis trap, wire embedder, round comb section, frame spacer, frame hanger, frame grommet punch, etc.

Question 8. Next to each set of indicators, write the letter of the one most likely explanation.

Indicators	Explanations
Few workers, lots of brood	a. Acute pesticide kill   b. Varroa mites   c. Colony has swarmed and may swarm again.   d. Colony has swarmed and will not swarm again.   e. Tracheal mites   f. Colony has recently been requeened by the beekeeper.   g. Queen is producing inbred progeny.   h. Colony is overwintering in February.   i. Colony Collapse Disorder   j. Overwintering starvation   k. Colony is superseding its queen.   l. European foulbrood..   m. American foulbrood   n Colony is overwintering in November.   o. Chalkbrood   p. Colony is not preparing to swarm.   q. Colony is preparing to swarm, but the queen is performing poorly.   r. Colony is Africanized.
Heaps of dead bees on floor board, many with tongues extended, remaining survivors staggering and uncoordinated
Heaps of dead bees between combs, hundreds dead head-first in cells
Brood cappings sunken and perforated
Moderate adult workers, moderate capped brood, no young larvae, no eggs, at least one opened queen cell present, other queen cells present opened at the sides
Brood capped, uncapped brood showing multiple visual abnormalities, adult population moderate to small, many bees with crinkled wings
Moderate adult workers, moderate capped brood, no young larvae, no eggs, ripe queen cells present, queen cells present with tips opened
Uncapped brood discolored and twisted in various positions
Plenty of food, disorganized clusters of bees, some bees crawling on grass      Bees tightly packed head-first into cells and between combs, no brood, bee density higher at edges than the center      Few adult workers, brood spotty, drone brood or drone adults not necessarily present

 

For Question 9 you will be given a blank sheet of paper and asked to draw a bee and label as many specific structures as possible (minimum 15). Don’t worry about artistic quality. Diagrammatic clarity and specificity is what counts.

For Question 10 you will be presented with four candidate jars of honey and asked the following questions:

Label	Put a check (√) in this column for the one honey presentation that is most correct.	For the other three, indicate their specific errors. You may not need all four lines.
1		_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________
2		_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________
3		_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________
4		_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________

 

For Question 11 you will be presented with four packages of comb honey and asked the following:

Label	Put a check (√) in this column for the one comb honey presentation that is most correct.	For the other three, indicate their specific errors. You may not need all four lines.
1		_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________
2		_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________
3		_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________
4		_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________

 

For Question 12 you will be given a classroom model of flower parts, along with freshly-collected flowers from outdoors that day, and asked: Identify the labeled flower parts. Some parts may be repeated among the different specimens.

Part	Name
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

 

For Question 13 you will observe dissected, mounted, and numbered insect thoraces and be asked to identify which ones belong to true bees in the superfamily Apoidea. Light and magnification will be provided. Identify apoid thorax.

Thorax	Put a check (√) in this column for each thorax that belongs to Apoidea.
1
2
3
4

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