Mite-AwayII™ Single Application Formic Acid Pad is a product that is registered for use in North America (both Canada and the United States) as a treatment for varroa and tracheal mites. Formic acid is its active ingredient.

Working with formic acid as a mite control active ingredient is very different from nerve disruptors like synthetic pyrethroids (Apistan®) and organophosphates (Checkmite™). The beekeeper is turning the hive into a fumigation chamber and using an acid vapor to burn a bug off a bug. If it is not done correctly many problems can arise. Mite-Away II™ is the result of many years of direct research and, although it is the best method of using formic acid, beekeepers need to understand what they are doing.

NOD Apiary Products has produced a video that shows how to use Mite Away II…

The first section of the video talks about safety gear and precautions in handling formic acid. Then, the video goes on to give a clear demonstration of the pad in use, with a really useful explanation about how formic acid actually works to combat the Varroa mites — for example, how formic acid vapours will disperse through the hive, how this is affected by colony size and temperature conditions, etc.

The MiteAway II application video is also available in DVD disk or VHS format for a charge of $5.00 including shipping, through the NOD Apiary Products at www.miteaway.com.

The Fredericton Exhibition 2007 ran 2 - 8 September, and volunteers from the Central Beekeepers Alliance went in on the Saturday morning, 1 September, to set up the display.

The Central Beekeepers Alliance display was refreshed this year with a new backdrop display this year, and was more colourful and eye-catching than ever. You can view a slideshow of photographs of the FREX setup activities on the Flickr photo-sharing site.

Tickets were sold on an afghan made by Mae Richards. Cookbooks and honey were available for sale, and almost all the honey that was brought in by our members was sold out by the end of the exhibition week.

We saw a noticeable increase in the depth of public interest in talking to the beekeepers at the booth — probably as a result of all the “where did all the bees go?” news stories this past year.

Archaeologists working in northern Israel have discovered a 3,000-year-old apiary, complete with 30 intact hives made out of straw and unbaked clay. It’s a find that gives credence to the Biblical decription of Israel as the “land of milk and honey.”

The word “honey” appears 55 times in the Bible, but the term is widely accepted to refer to a sweet made from dates and figs. (Bees’ honey is mentioned explicitly only twice in the texts, and both references related to honey from wild bees.)

Pictorial depictions of apiaries from Pharaonic Egypt show honey being extracted from cylinder-shaped hives which are very similar to those found at Tel Rehov, and hives of this type were known throughout the ancient Mediterranean world.

While the Bible tells us nothing about beekeeping in Israel at that time, the discovery of the apiary at Tel Rehov indicates that beekeeping and the extraction of bees’ honey and honeycomb was a highly developed industry as early as the First Temple period. Thus, it is possible that the term “honey” in the Bible indeed pertains to bees’ honey.

Tel Rehov is the first discovery of beehives in situ in an apiary, however, and the room where the hives were found seems to have been intended to hold as many as 100 hives, stacked up three hives high in three long rows.

The find is particularly significant because of the apiary’s location in the heart of what is believed to have been — around the time of King Solomon, in the mid-10th to early 9th century B.C. — one of most important and thriving cities in the region.

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At 10 minutes in length, this video provides a good introduction to the lifecycle of honey bees. It is suitable for school science classes, for home-schooling activities, and even for new beekeepers who’d just like to see some excellent footage of what they can expect to see happening in the hive through the beekeeping season.

The life cycle of a honey bee is presented as an example of complete metamorphosis, the development of an insect from egg to larva, then pupa, then adult. Moths, butterflies and wasps also develop with complete metamorphosis. Some aspects of beekeeping are also discussed.

Metamorphosis is one of a series of science videos from Hila Science Camp, Ontario, Canada. Preview versions of these videos are made available for viewing online through Google Video and Youtube without charge, or for purchase as a higher quality download at http://hilaroad.com/video/.