Central Beekeepers Alliance

“Chemical Warfare” Not Working for Many Canadian Beekeepers

For the third straight year, beekeepers in Alberta, Canada’s largest honey-producing province, are struggling to bounce back from unexpectedly high winterkill. And the story is much the same all over Canada. Traditional chemical controls for Varroa are failing to keep the pest below economic thresholds, as the mites build up resistance, and [...]

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PMRA Approves Emergency Use of Apivar in Canada

Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency has granted Apivar® an emergency registration for control of the varroa mite in honey bee hives from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010 for every Canadian province except Newfoundland. Apivar is a sustained-released product in the form of plastic strips impregnated with the active ingredient Amitraz. The [...]

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Invitation to Apimondia 2009

Apimondia 2009, the 41st annual congress of International Federation of Beekeepers' Associations, will be held in the south of France, 15 - 20 September 2009. The region of Montpellier, France, has a long and rich history of beekeeping -- yet has been adversely affected in recent years by the same stresses on pollinating insects that have decimated our honey bees worldwide.

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Effects of Captan on Apis mellifera Brood Development

A research report published this month in the Journal of Economic Entomology finds that Captan is not harmful to foraging honey bees. The fungicide was first introduced in the early 1950s and still regarded as highly effective against diseases such as fruit rots and leaf blight. It is widely used on a variety of [...]

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Kim Flottum Reports from US Beekeepers Conference

Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture magazine and regular columnist at The Daily Green, went to the American Beekeeping Federation’s annual meeting in Nevada last month and came back with an interesting report on the state of US beekeeping — both good news, and not so good. The good news is, and we’ve been collecting this [...]

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