McCormick & Company Inc announced this week that it has purchased the shares of Billy Bee Honey Products Ltd. for $75 million in cash.

Founded in 1958, Billy Bee Honey Products is Canada’s largest honey business with a 60% share of branded honey sales to retailers in Canada. In recent years, Billy Bee has developed and marketed new products using honey, including mustard, sauces and salad dressings. Billy Bee also supplies an estimated 50% of the private label honey sold to Canadian retailers and about half of the honey used as an ingredient by food manufacturers in Canada.

Including its Billy Bee® and Doyon® brands, as well as private label and industrial products, Billy Bee Honey Products has sales of approximately $37 million per year.

Alan D. Wilson, President & CEO of McCormick, said in a corporate press release that the acquisition of Billy Bee Honey Products is part of his company’s acquisition strategy to bring established brands under the McCormick umbrella.

“Consumers in Canada know Billy Bee and Doyon as trusted brands of pure, natural honey,” Wilson said. “This is a terrific complement to our savory products in Canada and a great extension of the sweet products we currently market in Europe and the Asia/Pacific region.

“Over the past 50 years, the management and employees of Billy Bee have created a well-established business, and in recent years have launched some exciting value-added products. We look forward to working together to achieve further growth through innovation and distribution expansion.”

American bee researchers are looking closely at better nutrition as a possible defence against Colony Collapse Disorder, and have developed a new “science-based” bee food to that purpose. MegaBee was developed by Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman and her colleagues at the ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, and went on the market in 2007 through Dadant.

Honey bees devour a new, nutrient-rich food. This artificial diet resulted from 5 months of research. Photo by Stephen Ausmus (ARS USDA)

Bee researcher Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman and her ARS colleagues tested nearly 1,000 different combinations of amino acids — the building blocks of proteins — in their search for the most effective bee diet supplement.

MegaBee bee diet was tested on California bees preparing to go to almond pollination in spring 2007, and again in winter 2007 with the same bees. Results of field testing showed that bees ate MegaBee at about the same rate as natural pollen, but the MegaBee-fed colonies produced more brood.

Artificial feeding can be the key to survival of struggling colonies in early spring, before forage plants are in bloom or when cold wet weather prevents the bees from flying. The developers of MegaBee also suggest that the product “might be especially useful as a late-fall and early-winter nutrition boost for bees, a time when colonies typically enter a low ebb.”

Northern beekeepers may be a bit concerned about stimulating brood production too late in the season, if the usual corresponding increase in Varroa mites are also to be expected — right before bee yards get snowed in for the winter, and colder temperatures prevent any mite-control treatments.

Future plans call for further tests to see if bees outside of California will also thrive on this new diet, and to provide more information about honey bees’ year-round nutrition needs.

Lee Valley’s Gardening Newsletter (Vol. 3, Issue 1, February 2008) has quite a nice write-up on getting started in beekeeping, written by Stephanie Harper of Sweet’s Corners Bee Co. of Lyndhurst, Ontario.

We particularly like the sound advice for beginning beekeepers to contact local beekeepers’ clubs:

“These organizations hold meetings often attended by people who are willing to take you under their wing and invite you to visit their apiaries, which is the best way to gain insight into beekeeping. You will be amazed at how excited these experienced beekeepers are about bees, and how infectious their enthusiasm is.”

The author also suggests checking the stores for local honey, and reading the labels to find contact information for a nearby beekeeper who might serve as a mentor when you’re getting started with bees.

Tuesday, 11 March 2008
Central Beekeepers Alliance Meeting
Agricultural Research Centre, Fredericton, NB
7:30 p.m.

Want to learn more about Beekeeping? Central Beekeepers meet on the second Tuesday of the month. Visitors and new beekeepers are always welcome!

Most meetings include an educational session, group discussion, or hands-on demonstration for the benefit of beginning beekeepers in central New Brunswick.

The Agricultural Research Centre (”Experimental Farm”) is located at 850 Lincoln Road, Fredericton, New Brunswick. Entry is from the parking lot at the back of the building, at door “B”.

For a map to the Agricultural Research Centre, see our Next Meeting page.

As announced in “Province to Consult with NB Agriculture Stakeholders,” Agriculture and Aquaculture Minister Ronald Ouellette is travelling the province to consult with farmers and other agriculture industry stakeholders, in preparation for the New Brunswick Agriculture Summit in April 2008.

We’ve just received word of a change in schedule for some of those pre-Summit public consultation meetings, as follows:

. . . The new dates and times are:
Sussex: Tuesday, February 19, 10:00 AM - noon
(All Seasons Inn, 1015 Main Street)
Moncton: Tuesday, February 19, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(Rodd Park House Inn, 434 Main Street)

. . . Les dates et heures révisées sont :
Sussex: mardi 19 février, de 10 h à midi
(All Seasons Inn, 1015, rue Main)
Moncton: mardi 19 février, de 14 h à 16 h
(Rodd Park House Inn, 434, rue Main)