Weather is often a significant issue for beekeepers as it can have a direct impact on colony survival. But this past January’s freeze event will also have an indirect effect, killing off a major source of revenue for Interior beekeepers as well as a source of spring foraging for their bees. The freeze event January …
Paul van Westendorp
Bee losses significant but not extreme
For the second year in a row, nearly a third of honey bee colonies in BC did not make it through the winter. Each spring, provincial apiculture specialist Paul van Westendorp surveys beekeepers to assess winter mortality and identify the causes. He was putting the finishing touches on the 2022 overwintering survey on June 10 …
Langley logs Asian hornet
Canadian Food Inspection Agency staff made an unexpected discovery October 22 while performing a routine monthly check of a trap set to monitor for Japanese beetle in south Langley. The decaying body of an Asian giant hornet lay within, the first confirmed report of one of the insects this year in Canada. Since no hornets …
BC watches Stateside hornets
This week will see Washington State Department of Agriculture staff destroy a third nest of Asian Giant Hornets, making this year the most active yet for hornet hunters. The invasive insect, which can measure up to five cm in length, is at the most active stage of its lifecycle right now, seeking out animal proteins …
Beekeepers suffer colony losses
High winter colony losses were among the issues discussed at the semi-annual meeting of the BC Honey Producers Association in late March. “I personally lost between 80% to 90% of my own colonies this winter and I have talked to others who have had the same results and some who have had no losses at …
Beekeepers Zoom for 100th AGM
The centennial of the BC Honey Producers Association was not the grand celebration expected, but some 90 participants nevertheless gathered via videoconference on October 30 for the associations’ annual general meeting. This compared to about 160 attendees at last fall’s event in Prince George. “We had a program lined up for our 100th in Abbotsford …