The beekeepers of New Brunswick have suffered the worse losses of any province in Canada, this past winter. We had suspected this — but now the numbers are in to prove it.

Our Provincial Apiarist reports that the average 2006-2007 winter losses across the province are 62 percent (80% losses of colonies overwintered outdoors; 30% losses of colonies overwintered indoors).

The number of colonies dead in 2006-2007 is 5,230 — not 5,100 as given in the recent Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists (CAPA) Statement on Colony Collapse Disorder. This is by far the highest percentage loss of any province in Canada.

Continue Reading »

An article entitled Colony Collapse Disorder: Have We Seen This Before? by Robyn M. Underwood and Dennis vanEngelsdorp has just been posted on the Bee Culture website. It’s described as “a literature review essay that outlines large-scale colony losses since they were first reported in the late 1800s and what people thought was causing them. We hope this will serve as a useful reference,” the authors say.

This article will be in print in the July issue of Bee Culture magazine, but it is available (in PDF format) right now at the Bee Culture website, along with the following related articles:

• Initial Report from Malcolm Sanford

• Colony Collapse Disorder Update – Malcolm Sanford

• Colony Collapse Disorder – Editorial by Kim Flottum

• Letter from Pollinator Dave Hackenberg to his Growers about CCD

• ARS Colony Collapse Disorder Workshop, Beltsville, Maryland, April 2007

• Tracking A Serial Killer – Jim Fischer

Every beekeeper does things a bit differently, but here are the basic instructions for installing a nucleus colony.

Try not to let the bees get cold as you move them from the nuc box into their new home. As our Chief Apiary Inspector always says, “It takes heat to make bees!” Pick a warm day when there isn’t too much wind, and assemble all the equipment that you’ll need before you open up the nuc.

Set your new super (brood box) on its stand and bottom board, but don’t put any frames in it yet. Place the nuc box right beside the hive, to lessen the chances of losing your queen on the ground while you’re moving the frames.

Continue Reading »

On May 12, 2007, Dr. Peter Teal spoke on Quirks & Quarks (CBC Radio’s science program) about the decline of honeybees over the past few years.

Dr. Peter Teal is the Research Leader of the Chemistry Research Unit at the Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology of the US Department of Agriculture in Gainesville, Florida. He’s been studying one possible contributor to the bees’ tribulations: a new bee pest that has invaded North America and quickly spread among commercially raised bees. The pest is a tiny beetle that literally smells the bees’ fear, and uses that smell to locate and invade beehives.

Get the “Bees and Beetles” radio segment as an mp3 audio file at http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/pastpodcasts.html?17#ref17, and listen to it with any of these free media players: Windows Media Player, iTunes, or RealPlayer.

Could there be a link between Small Hive Beetle and Colony Collapse Disorder?

CCD is not in Canada, and we also don’t have the SHB problem that the USA experiences — it’s an interesting coincidence, at the very least…

At our last meeting, 8 May, CBA members had a brief discussion about reading material that would be useful to new beekeepers. Most members recommended these for new beekeepers:

The Honey Bee by V.R. Vickery —

You won’t find this at a regular bookstore, but it’s available in New Brunswick at the Bee Store in Maugerville or through Country Fields Beekeeping Supplies. This was written by a master beekeeper in Quebec, which means that the conditions it describes are very close to what we experience in New Brunswick (a real bonus, since so many of the beekeeping books are written with an eye to the United States market).

Beekeeping for Dummies —

Part of the popular series, so it’s widely available wherever books are sold, as well as through the local beekeeping supply stores. An excellent step-by-step introduction to the basics, highly recommended.

Ontario Beekeeping Manual (2006) —

Some of our members are familiar with this publication of the Ontario Beekeepers Association and recommended it to others. It’s available for $30.00 through the OBA. Write to info@ontariobee.com for more information.

Magazines:

Magazines are also useful, especially for up-to-date detailed information about new developments or for stories of the leading figures and events in apiculture. CBA has donated a subscription to Bee Culture to the Fredericton Public Library, so that magazine is available to anyone who wants to read it.

Also, CBA receives the Canadian Honey Council’s Hive Lights magazine and recent issues are available at our regular monthly meetings for interested members to read.