Farm Focus reports this week that 97% of bee hives in Nova Scotia have been opened and checked, now, and the over wintered colonies in that province are looking strong.

Joanne Moran, secretary of the NS Beekeepers Association, told Farm Focus that beekeepers took extra care with management last year, and in preparing their bees for winter. “And the weather co-operated.”

Moran attributes Nova Scotia’s winterkill of 18.4% to starvation, ineffective mite managements, and/or the effects of Nosema ceranae, which has “taken over” from Nosema apis in that province.

See:
• NS Bees Look Good by Heather Jones
  Farm Focus of Atlantic Canada: 8 May 2008

Beekeepers are always experimenting with new methods and new products, looking to help our honeybees prosper while keeping the workload and expense of beekeeping under control.

As a small beekeeper who was nearly wiped out last winter (2006-07), I’ve decided to make 2008 a season for full-on experimenting — exploring new methods and products that I might not otherwise have ventured to try.

You probably know that a lot of the innovative ideas in apiculture have traditionally from small beekeepers, rather than the commercial outfits. That’s because we “little guys” the ones who are able to devote more individual attention to our colonies.

But a major driving force behind new beekeeping developments, these days, is the need for pollination by crop producers. When so many farmers’ livelihoods depend heavily on honey bees for pollination, and honey bees are in short supply as they have been in recent years, keeping the bees in good health becomes the interest of both government and private sector researchers.

That means there are a lot of new ideas floating around the beekeeping world right now. Some have a good deal of research behind them. Some are still in the early stages of testing. Others have not been scientifically tested, but carry some word-of-mouth clout from beekeepers who have tried those methods. And a lot of the new ideas are pretty controversial…

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Colony Collapse Disorder, the mysterious bee ailment that has led to the disappearance of millions of bees in the United States alone, “and in a worst-case scenario could be a threat to the food chain that humans depend on for life, has made its way to Utah,” according to a report yesterday in The Salt Lake Tribune.

Until recently, however, the state of Utah seemed to be successfully dodging CCD.

The Tribune story tells of commercial beekeeper Gary Dutson, whose family has kept bees for more than 70 years. He built up to 4000 hives last fall , then unexplained die-offs cost him half of the colonies. As a result, Dutson says he has had to sell of 500 acres of the family farm.

The replacement cost of the lost colonies is estimated at $130,000 USD, and Dutson says he has just barely enough hives to meet his pollination commitments to the Utah orchards. Any further losses may put him out of business.

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In a paper published in Environmental Microbiology, Professor Elke Genersch and colleagues in Berlin announce what’s been reported as a “major breakthrough” in honeybee pathology. A new understanding of how the bringing bee researchers one step closer to finding a way to prevent the spread of American Foulbrood disease (AFB), the only infectious disease which can kill entire colonies of bees.

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Chris Maund, Integrated Pest Management Specialist (Entomologist) and Provincial Apiarist for New Brunswick, tells us that winter losses for the province’s beekeepers are significantly down from the last couple of years, averaging around 20-25% for colonies over-wintered outdoors and 15-20% for those indoors.

Please note that these are preliminary averages and the amounts may change as more people are able to inspect their hives.