ABC Central West

/ By Hugh Hogan, Hamish Cole, Alex James, and Kim Honan

Australia was the last major honey producing country to be free of the pest before the outbreak. ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

An invasive parasite deadly to bees has been detected in central west NSW for the first time.

Key points:

• Varroa mite has been detected at Gumble near Molong, with 23 hives already destroyed
• The hives were legally moved to the area from Sackville North in Sydney and traced to the area as part of the ongoing containment effort
• Local beekeepers remain confident the outbreak can be contained

The Department of Primary Industries has euthanized 23 hives at Gumble near Molong that tested positive to varroa mite after tracing their movement from Sackville North in Sydney.

The department said the movement was legal but was then followed up after a detection in the Sydney region.

The outbreak started at the Port of Newcastle last year and has since been found in almost 200 hives across the Central Coast, Hunter, and Sydney basin.

DPI deputy incident controller Shannon Mulholland said the fact the detection was made so quickly showed the biosecurity measures were working.

The latest detection is the first time varroa mite has been found in the NSW central west. Map can be found at https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/emergencies/biosecurity/current-situation/varroa-mite-emergency-response

“The site has already been euthanized so by acting on that quite quickly we were able to get on top that situation and work to further mitigate spread of the mite,” she said.

Australia was previously the only major honey producing country in the world free of the mite before the outbreak in Newcastle.

The pest is known to weaken and kill colonies of honey bees but can also transmit deadly viruses between hives.

In the last 12 months more than 130,000 hives have been tested for the parasite, with more 25,000 destroyed, according to the DPI.

Local producers confident

The central west was previously a blue zone, meaning it was in the general emergency zone but not in any eradication or surveillance areas.

Despite the fresh outbreak, local honey producer John Lockwood remained confident the ongoing incursion could be contained.

“It is slowly spreading through the Central Coast which is a concern, I do believe they have a ring around it which is fantastic that they’ve found the outer edge and have it contained,” he said.

“This one at Gumble is from a legal hive movement and there is very low [numbers of] mite in the colonies so it is just a spot fire I believe.”

However, the president of Crop Pollination Australia Steve Fuller said the detection of varroa mite was “very concerning”.

“The problem is it is blue zone to blue zone [transmission], that is where the industry is really worried,” he said.

“If it was an illegal movement, industry would be a lot happier.”

A 10-kilometre eradication zone has been established around the discovery at Gumble where all hives will be euthanized.

A 25km surveillance zone has also been established where officials will be monitoring both domestic and wild honey bee colonies.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Varroa mite detected in central west NSW but honey producers remain confident – ABC News

Honey bees aren’t an endangered species; they’re causing chaos

Yes, everyone loves them and keeping them has become a green hobby, but they’d feel differently if a swarm besieged their home

By Antonia Hoyle

Antonia Hoyle: ‘I frantically vacuumed them up and deposited them outside as fast as they arrived’ CREDIT: Geoff Pugh for The Telegraph

For days, there were only a few, upstairs – blown in through a window, I assumed, by the late spring breeze. But then more came downstairs, gaining ominously in number until one morning three weeks ago, I walked into the living room to find hundreds of the creatures crawling, seemingly lethargic, over the carpet.

“Wasps!” I wailed to my analyst husband, Chris, who like me is 44. I frantically vacuumed them up and deposited them outside as fast as they arrived, until the pest controller arrived at our location home. Pointing at a cloud of black dots dancing around our third-floor chimney, he corrected me: “You’ve got honey bees.”

Being gatecrashed by sugar plum fairies would have been simpler, and less controversial, to navigate. While not illegal, pesticides permitted to treat honey bees in a domestic setting are strictly limited, ethically questionable, and some pest controllers refuse to deploy them.

Short of advising us to stuff the fireplaces they’d been flying in through, and spend hundreds hiring a cherry picker to send someone up to the roof to physically extract them (with no guarantee of success) there was little he could do, the pest control man apologised, letting us know, for what it was worth, that we are far from alone.

This month beekeepers reported an increase in honeybee swarms – which happen when the old queen departs the hive with half the bees to set up a new home – caused by the sudden change in weather after a long, cold spring.

Usually, this split happens in a “staggered manner,” explains Matthew Richardson, president of the Scottish Beekeepers’ Association, but because of the delay in decent weather “the bees have been queuing up waiting to swarm and they’re all going at once.”

For many, the image might gladden the heart. Chris’s eyes certainly softened when I disclosed the identity of our uninvited guests and our 12-year-old daughter Rosie was delighted: “They’re an endangered species!”

But are they? In recent years, wildlife campaigners have made huge efforts to raise awareness of the importance of bees, of which there are around 270 species in the UK, including 24 species of bumble bees and hundreds of wild solitary bees that nest alone in cavities or underground.

Many are in decline – we have already lost around 13 species, including the short-haired bumblebee, last recorded in 1956, and the great yellow bumblebee in 1974. Another 35 species are currently at risk, with the use of pesticides in farming and destruction of pollen and nectar to feed off largely to blame – the UK has lost 97 per cent of its wildflower meadows since the 1930s.

Concern around honey bees, however, seems to stem from 2007, when an unexplained condition called colony collapse disorder (CCD), in which worker bees in a honey bee colony disappear, was officially recognised. Colony losses were reported in America and Europe and the potential impact on agriculture – according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the global value of global crops pollinated by honey bees in 2005 was estimated at over £150bn – was huge.

Within a decade, the threat of CCD seemingly passed, but our passion for honey bees continued, often in cities where beekeeping has become a fashionable “green” hobby. In 2021 UK Google searches for “urban beekeeping” jumped 21 per cent in a year. Celebrities who keep bees, meanwhile, include David Beckham and Jeremy Clarkson and last month a picture of the Princess of Wales wearing a beekeeper’s suit while tending to a hive in her Norfolk estate was released to mark World Bee Day.

Yet honey bees, the only species that makes honey, are not at risk – and, experts warn, our obsession with breeding them could be detrimental to bee species that are.

“There’s definitely a popular misconception around bees,” says Andrew Whitehouse of insect conservation charity Buglife, who says honey bees are “not endangered, they’re essentially livestock” and believes misunderstandings began when charities such as his own started to raise awareness of the importance of all pollinating insects around 20 years ago: “Perhaps the conservation organisations didn’t explain things properly and well-meaning people reached for the solution which was to increase the number of honey bees.”

At the same time as charities were starting to promote the importance of “wild pollinators,” he adds, CCD was becoming widely known: “I think the two issues were conflated a bit.”

Because honey bees are good at collecting pollen and returning it straight to their hives, they are less efficient at pollinating some plants than wild bees, with whom they compete for pollen.  And honey bee hives are bigger than most……

To read the complete article go to;

Honey bees aren’t an endangered species; they’re causing chaos (telegraph.co.uk)

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Honey bees aren’t an endangered species; they’re causing chaos (telegraph.co.uk)

The CFIA is committed to its mandate to protect animal health, which includes the health of the Canadian bee population. The CFIA will continue to engage with the Canadian Honey Council, the USDA, provincial governments and apiculturists and a wide range of other stakeholders with respect to Canadian honeybee health.

In addition, the CFIA continues to put significant effort into identifying and evaluating potential new sources of packaged bees and queen bees internationally. Canada currently allows imports of honey bee queens from the United States, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Ukraine, Italy and Malta, and honey bee packages from Ukraine, Italy, Chile, Australia and New Zealand.

Sincerely,

Parthi

Dr. Parthi Muthukumarasamy (he, him, il)

Executive Director, International Programs Directorate

Canadian Food Inspection Agency / Government of Canada

Parthiban.Muthukumarasamy@inspection.gc.ca | 343-550-3542

Directeur exécutif, Direction des programmes internationaux

Agence canadienne d’inspection des aliments / Gouvernement du Canada

Parthiban.Muthukumarasamy@inspection.gc.ca | 343-550-3542

Winston Szeto · CBC News

The owner of Rushing River Apiaries in Terrace, B.C., announced last week that it had acquired 200 Carpathian queen bees from Ukraine. (Rushing River Apiaries)

A city in B.C.’s North Coast has become a buzzing haven for unique new visitors courtesy of a local beekeeper.

Christine McDonald, owner of Rushing River Apiaries in Terrace, B.C. — about 575 kilometres west of Prince George — recently took to social media to share her delight over the arrival of 200 Carpathian queen bees and 1,000 accompanying worker bees to her farm from Ukraine, through a beekeeping equipment company in Ontario.

McDonald says she acquired 200 plastic cages of the queen bees, each also containing five worker bees and food.

“I knew that these Carpathians are well known for their rugged survival like mountain honey bees, and also being very gentle,” McDonald told host Carolina de Ryk on CBC’s Daybreak North.

“Those are the two qualities that we value a lot, especially because we sell these to newer beekeepers, and we want them to be able to comfortably work with their bees.”

Imports to Canada since 2020

The Carpathian bees get their name from the Carpathian Mountains, a 1,500-kilometre range spanning Central and Eastern Europe from the Czech Republic to Romania.

Alison McAfee, a honey bee specialist at the University of British Columbia, says Ukraine has a thriving beekeeping industry involving over 600,000 people — approximately 1.5 per cent of the country’s population — working with apiaries. Ukraine ranks among the top five honey exporters globally in terms of weight.

In 2020, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) granted approval for Ukraine to export queen bees to Canada.

Prior to Russia’s invasion in 2022, which devastated apiaries throughout Ukraine and displaced tens of thousands of beekeepers, the CFIA also authorized the importation of bee packages consisting of a queen bee, several thousands of worker bees, and a brood of larvae in a hive box.

The federal agency says it has issued six permits for importing queen bees from Ukraine this year so far, and some permit holders distribute the bees to apiaries across Canada.

Bees are pictured in June 2022 at an apiary outside Melitopol, Ukraine. (Yuri Kadobnov/AFP via Getty Images)

Dancing Bee Equipment, based in Port Hope, Ont., is among distributors of Carpathian queen bees. Individual buyers must travel to Ontario to collect the bees at the airport or the company’s warehouse, while commercial buyers can request a shipment of the bees.

CEO Todd Kalisz says the company has imported over 20,000 queen bees from Ukraine since the start of the war, acknowledging the logistical challenges caused by the ongoing conflict.

“There’s no advance notice of the [shipping] schedule … it could change the day after,” he said, adding some customers who failed to check the updated schedule were disappointed after making the long drive to Ontario, only to discover their orders hadn’t arrived.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Queen bees from Ukraine find a sweet new home in northwestern B.C. | CBC News

Beekeeping is an Example

NEWS PROVIDED BY

CGTN (Chinese Global Television Network)

BEIJING /PRNewswire/ — Liu Jinliang, a second-generation beekeeper in Miyun District, the northeastern suburb of Beijing, practices multi-box beekeeping. He is China’s first beekeeper to successfully utilize the technique, introduced by the district government in 2016.

It took the young bee farmer five years to fully implement the new technique, and now it is helping his family and local beekeepers live a “sweet” life.

Spurred on by Liu and the local government, around 30 percent of bee farmers in Miyun have now adopted the new technique, greatly boosting the output and quality of their honey. Over 360 low-income farmers in Miyun have shaken off poverty since joining the beekeeping project.

“Through my example, I can motivate people around me. And those people can empower other people around them as well. In this way, we can achieve common prosperity,” Liu told CGTN.

The beekeeping industry in Miyun generated around 130 million yuan ($18.91 million) in revenue in 2020, an increase of 19.3 percent over 2019. Encouraged by what has been achieved in Miyun, more and more bee farmers across China have turned to the multi-box beekeeping technique to raise their honey output while improving quality.

Chinese President Xi Jinping once quoted an ancient Chinese proverb, “The key to running a country is to first enrich the people,” to explain why the country is striving for common prosperity. Liu’s story gives a glimpse of China’s exploration of the paths to achieve that goal.

People-centered philosophy

The saying, which comes from Shiji, or Records of the Grand Historian, a monumental history book of ancient China compiled about 2,000 years ago, sets forth the traditional Chinese philosophy of governance: the common people are considered the foundation of a country, and only when the people prosper can the country prosper.

This is a classic piece of Chinese wisdom, and it has become part of the governance philosophy of the Chinese government in modern times.

When quoting the saying at a gathering to mark China’s poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters, President Xi pledged the country would adhere to the people-centered development philosophy and unswervingly follow the path of common prosperity.

“We have always remained committed to standing on the side of the people and consistently stressed that eradicating poverty, improving people’s lives, and achieving common prosperity represent the essential requirements of socialism,” said Xi.

Behind Liu’s success is the Miyun district government. It has helped local beekeepers learn advanced apiculture techniques and provided them with high-quality queen bees at no charge.

To better help beekeepers, the district government has also provided financial aid to support about 30 projects in the sector, with an investment of about 100 million yuan, to help make commercial beekeeping standardized and industrialized.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-06-05/Why-does-China-stick-to-the-path-of-common-prosperity–1kob98IUhB6/index.html

https://youtu.be/Lom4HnpR2xI

Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lom4HnpR2xI

SOURCE CGTN

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: CGTN: Why does China stick to the path of common prosperity? (prnewswire.com)

Todd Harmer

Without bees, there is no food, so keeping hives healthy is of utmost importance. That job is becoming more difficult thanks to an outbreak of disease and the effects of climate change.

That’s where special apiary inspectors come in, who check on the health of keepers’ bees to help prevent the spread of honeybee diseases and pests.

Marie Cairns, a bee keeper who runs a small apiary in the Cowichan Valley, had her hives checked on Friday by Tara Galpin, an apiary inspector for South Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.

“First of all, it was all about the pollination, but then the more you learn about bees the more fascinating they are,” Cairns said.

Cairns has been bee keeping in the valley for nine years. She got her inspection for free, as any bee keeper can, so she can sell some of her hive.

“You have bees and you want your own bees to stay healthy, so you want their bees to be healthy because they fly and bring back disease if you don’t or mites or anything else,” she said.

Galpin is looking for a few different diseases and pests. One that comes up often is the varroa mite, a parasitic mite that feeds on honey bees and causes a disease called varroosis.

“They feed out the fat body of the bee, so it’s like if we had the size of a rat on our human body feeding on our liver,” Galpin explained.

Unfortunately, Cairns’ bees had too many mites. “My first time failing,” she said.

But this experienced bee keeper is unfazed, and will work with the inspector to apply the appropriate treatment.

Galpin says unpredictable spring weather due to climate change—that have been cooler and damper—is helping to spread fungal disease and doesn’t allow bees to forage for food when they need it most.

Keeping bees in good shape is important, as along with other native pollinators they play a key role in sustaining B.C.’s food system, and contribute an estimated $250 million to the province’s economy.

The inspector says losses this year in bee colonies is between 30 to 40 per cent—climate change and the spread of disease keeping the pressure on bees and their keepers.

“More than anything, we need diversity of plants for our bees to forage from and diversity in our food landscapes,” she said.

Importing bees plays a major role in maintaining the bee population across Canada, and combined with the work of inspectors like Galpin, they’re ensuring bees keep food on our table.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Disease and climate change put pressure on bees and their keepers: apiary inspector | CTV News

Irelands Minister Hackett launches the National Apiculture Programme 2023 – 2027

From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

The Minister of State in the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett, today launched the National Apiculture Programme supporting the Beekeeper Sector in Ireland.

Launching the Programme the Minister said:

“I am delighted to announce the introduction of the new National Apiculture Programme which will run until the end of 2027. This Programme, which supports research into production standards, demonstrates my department’s continued support to the beekeeping sector in Ireland.”

Support for beekeeping is provided through National Apiculture Programmes which aim through approved applied research projects to improve the general conditions for the production of honey and other apiculture products in the EU. Researchers are invited to submit proposals for the new National Apiculture Programme which will run until 31 December 2027.

The aims of the programme are to:

• provide technical assistance to beekeepers
• combat beehive invaders and diseases, particularly varroasis
• co-operate with specialist bodies for the implementation of applied research programmes in the field of beekeeping and apiculture products

All suitable bodies that can demonstrate the necessary research capabilities, including Universities, Institutes of Technology and Teagasc, are eligible to submit proposals. Projects that involve collaboration between institutions and/or involve the development of critical mass are encouraged.

The deadline for receipt of applications for this call is Friday 30 June 2023. Queries relating to the National Apiculture Programme 2023-2027 can be emailed to beekeeping@agriculture.gov.i

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: gov.ie – Minister Hackett launches the National Apiculture Programme 2023 – 2027 (www.gov.ie)

by Scarlett Howard, Alexander Mikheyev, Emily Remnant, Simon Tierney and Théotime Colin, The Conversation

Credit: Théotime Colin, Author provided Varroa mites—notorious honey bee parasites—have recently reached Australian shores, detected at the Port of Newcastle in New South Wales last year. If they establish here, there would be significant implications for agricultural food security, as honey bees are heavily relied on for the pollination of many crops.

However, while Australia is the last continent to be invaded by the mite, it has an opportunity to be the first to eradicate it.

Varroa destructor is a small mite that attaches to bees and eats their “fat body.” The fat bodies of honey bees are the insect equivalent of a liver. Varroa weakens bees, reduces their lifespan and increases the spread of deadly viruses.

Scientists need to be ready: this might be Australia’s best chance to collect important data on the spread and evolution of this parasite. Our new paper published today in Biology Letters outlines what questions scientists need to ask and what data they need to collect if Varroa spreads in Australia.

Such data could help us understand how parasites evolve, why Varroa are so damaging for honey bees, and how Varroa mites impact other insects and the environment.

Will Varroa establish in Australia?

Australia is in close proximity to countries that have the mite, including New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Indonesia.

This probably explains why invasive honey bee swarms are frequently intercepted at our ports, many of these carrying Varroa. Australia currently bans importation of honey bee colonies due to the biosecurity risk, so these interceptions are typically due to stowaway swarms taking up residence in shipping containers.

Previous invasions of Varroa have been successfully eradicated before establishing, but this time Varroa circumvented the biosecurity surveillance near Newcastle and spread locally.

The New South Wales Department of Primary Industries has been contact-tracing and culling hives in contaminated areas, and the spread has been slow so far. Australia has large populations of feral honey bees, which could potentially act as a reservoir for Varroa and are much harder to trace and control, so the department is tackling this with a wild honey bee baiting program.

What threats does Varroa pose?

Varroa mites are a threat to food security. Although Australia has an abundance of food and exports it to other nations, the price of food is likely to increase if Varroa escapes confinement.

Currently, pollination of crops in eradication zones such as berries in Coffs Harbor is at risk due to the removal of all honey bees in the region, which may lead to short-term increases in food costs.

Australia currently relies on pollination by commercial honey bees (yellow), supplemented by feral honey bees (brown), though we have many native bee species like stingless bees and blue banded bees that are also being used in crop pollination. Credit: Boris Yagound, adapted from Chapman et al. 2023, CC BY

However, establishment and spread of Varroa will lead to lower pollination and lower crop production across the country, which will raise the price of most fruit and vegetables that depend on bee pollination.

This could worsen the food affordability crises caused by the current inflation, affecting the ability of low income households to buy nutritious and fresh produce. Almond pollination has already noted a deficit of 80,000 hives in the last season.

Many of the honey bee colonies that pollinate our crops are thought to be feral, living in tree hollows or nest-boxes designed for native animals. These feral bees are not managed by beekeepers and so won’t be saved by the use of Varroa treatments, meaning they will most likely disappear.

To read the complete article go to; Opinion: Australia is in a unique position to eliminate the bee-killing Varroa mite. Here’s what happens if we don’t (phys.org)

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Opinion: Australia is in a unique position to eliminate the bee-killing Varroa mite. Here’s what happens if we don’t (phys.org)

Jamie Morton

Varroa mites are responsible for the loss of tens of thousands of hives in New Zealand each year, killing countless bees like this one. Photo / Supplied

A destructive mite plaguing our beekeeping industry may have been building up home-grown resistance to a widely used chemical pesticide, a new study suggests.

Flumethrin has long been a key tool for controlling varroa, but when researchers recently assessed its mite-killing performance at one apiary, they found concentrations of it needed to be 13 times higher than two decades ago.

They say the findings, just released ahead of peer review, warrant further investigation to see if miticide resistance is a wider, hidden problem for the $5 billion industry.

Since being first detected back in 2000, the varroa destructor mite has become the sector’s biggest headache, each year accounting for nearly half of colony losses and costing more than $1 million in mitigation efforts and lost honey production.

The new study, led by PhD student Rose McGruddy and co-authored by Lester, focused on two key chemical pesticides used for varroa control.

They were flumethrin and amitraz – estimated to be used by 78 and 85 per cent of commercial beekeepers respectively.

Typically, they applied one product in early spring, and another in late summer or early autumn.

“Mite resistance to flumethrin may help explain why the mite problem is getting worse,” Victoria University ecologist Professor Phil Lester says. Photo / Supplied

“We’ve heard differing reports of the effectiveness of chemical pesticides, especially flumethrin,” Lester said.

“The nationwide survey and Rose’s data suggest most beekeepers are satisfied with it.

“But there are others who think this product is much less effective than it used to be – some even stating it has failed to control varroa entirely.”

Unlike in the past, some beekeepers were now using more than two applications of it, he said.

In the study, the researchers drew on years of survey data, along with their own laboratory tests of pesticides.

“The key result was that we found that the concentration of flumethrin needed to kill mites was 13-times higher than it was in 2005,” Lester said.

“This result indicates that mites appear to have and are developing resistance to this chemical.”

There was no evidence of any resistance to amitraz, which is another key pesticide for mite control, as it appeared to be effective, he said.

The study team stressed this result didn’t mean that commercial products containing flumethrin didn’t work – and they might still be useful for mite control for many beekeepers.

“We’d also note that the mites we used for this work were from the Wellington region and we can’t be sure that selection for resistance has occurred everywhere equally,” he said.

“But the big implication is that resistance does seem to have developed. It could explain the limited success of control using flumethrin reported to us by beekeepers.

“Mite resistance to flumethrin may help explain why the mite problem is getting worse.”

While varroa resistance to the chemical had been observed around the world, the study team didn’t find any of the same genetic markers of resistance identified in overseas studies.

“The New Zealand resistance development seems to be via a different pathway for the New Zealand population of mites,” Lester said.

The study raised several questions that urgently needed answering: namely, whether such “home-grown” was occurring more widely and, if so, how.

More broadly, Lester felt new products were needed for mite control, with novel modes of action – such as new “gene-silencing” approaches his own group was researching.

“We need to carefully manage resistance, by ensuring good integrated pest management procedures, which include alternating control methods,” he said.

“New methods are desperately needed.”

The industry’s peak body, Apiculture New Zealand, also said the study’s findings needed to be interpreted with caution.

“Because there has been growing discussion that resistance to treatments may be an issue in New Zealand, this research is of interest,” it told the Herald in a statement.

“However, although these lab concentrations differ to what was detected in 2003, they remain lower than what was detected in international apiaries with resistant varroa.

“Additionally, we note that the varroa tested in this research was collected from one apiary so it may not represent all regions.”

The group said this needed to be fully tested before any conclusions could be made regarding chemical resistance.

“As outlined by the researchers and by ApiNZ and our experts, the key to varroa management is ensuring the control methods are conducted as per label and rotated between treatment groups,” it said.

“Untreated colonies die. This does not change.”

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Has the destructive varroa been building ‘home-grown’ pesticide resistance in NZ? – NZ Herald

Source: Xinhua

Editor: huaxia

A student of Master of Entomology shows a beehive frame at a research farm in the Chakwal district of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province on April 11, 2023. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

As ironclad brothers, the Chinese government is happy to share the advanced technology of beekeeping and honey-processing with Pakistani people to promote the beekeeping industry and improve people’s livelihood, said Pang Chunxue, charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan.

by Misbah Saba Malik

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan has a huge potential in honey production but due to multiple factors local beekeepers are facing challenges that can be overcome by following the Chinese style of bee-keeping, experts said.

Speaking at the China-Pakistan Apiculture Forum on Thursday, Pakistani and Chinese experts said the Pak-China apiculture cooperation is a way forward toward a successful honey production sector of Pakistan.

Nadia Rehman, a member of food security and climate change of Pakistan’s Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, told the webinar that such cooperation will lead to knowledge sharing, research collaboration and technology transfer, and result in enhanced honey yield in the South Asian country.

She added that 390,000 people in Pakistan are involved in beekeeping and produce over 4,000 tons of honey annually, and if they adopt modern technologies, honey production can surge to 70,000 tons a year and create about 87,000 green jobs.

Speaking at the event, Muhammad Naeem, vice chancellor of Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University in Rawalpindi, said many people from rural areas of Pakistan are associated with beekeeping which becomes a profitable business and a great source of livelihood.

The annual yield per colony was 30 to 35 kg, but recently due to climate change effects it decreased to 10 to 12 kg, posing a serious challenge for beekeepers to continue the business, he said.

Naeem added that to help Pakistani beekeepers overcome the challenge, his university is helping them not only to increase the yield but also find alternative ways to earn money, by introducing Chinese technology.

Now a training course on beekeeping and honey processing technology for Pakistan is being held in which 39 participants from different universities, research institutes, beekeeping associations, honey traders, and beekeepers are getting the most advanced knowledge of beekeeping from Chinese professors, Naeem said.

“As China is playing a leading role in the research and development of beekeeping in the world, the knowledge sharing by Chinese experts regarding modern beekeeping techniques can be very useful for Pakistani beekeepers and the scientific community,” he added.

A student of Master of Entomology extracts royal jelly from a Chinese-styled hive at a research farm in the Chakwal district of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province on April 11, 2023. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

Pang Chunxue, charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, told the webinar that agriculture is one of pillar industries of Pakistan and a key area for bilateral cooperation between China and Pakistan.

“Agricultural cooperation is crucial to the high-quality development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. China is committed to supporting Pakistan in revitalizing its agriculture, livestock, dairy, fisheries and food processing sectors to attain sustainable growth and meet the challenge of poverty alleviation,” she added.

The honey produced in Pakistan enjoys a good reputation for its unique taste and high quality for a long time, but has been suffering from problems of low production, low price and small scale, she said.

Pang added that China has a history of beekeeping for more than 2,000 years and is one of the earliest countries in the world to raise bees. Nowadays the beekeeping industry in China has developed rapidly and exports of related products rank top in the world.

“As ironclad brothers, the Chinese government is happy to share the advanced technology of beekeeping and honey-processing with Pakistani people to promote the beekeeping industry and improve people’s livelihood,” she said.

President of the Apicultural Science Association of China Wu Jie said that the association is willing to work with beekeeping research institutes and universities in Pakistan to strengthen cooperation, and promote common development and prosperity of the beekeeping industry in China and Pakistan.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Pakistani apiculture sector to thrive with Chinese know-how-Xinhua (news.cn)

The Princess keeps bees at Anmer Hall, on the Sandringham estate, where each batch of honey has its own distinct flavour

By Patrick Sawer,

The Princess of Wales is photographed wearing a bee suit.

An invitation to one of the garden parties at Buckingham Palace has always been regarded as quite the hot ticket.

But the invite will now be all the sweeter, following revelations that the honey being served to guests as part of the refreshments may well have been produced by royal hands.

To mark World Bee Day on Saturday May 20 and promote the importance of bees to the biodiversity of the planet, the palace released a photograph of the Princess of Wales busy tending to her hives in Norfolk.

The Princess of Wales keeps bees at Anmer Hall, on the Sandringham estate, where each batch of honey has its own distinct flavour depending on where the beehives are situated at time of collection, including lime from the trees which line the roads, or heather and lavender.

She brought a jar of the honey from the hives for schoolchildren to try on a visit to the Natural History Museum’s new biodiversity hub in June 2021.

The firm’s founders Brian and Pat Sherriff had previously designed military uniforms, but turned to making beekeeping equipment after setting up South Cornwall Honey Farm in the mid-1960s, which now has 400 colonies.

World Bee Day aims to raise awareness of the importance of bees, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development.

Apiary enthusiasm runs in the family

The Princess of Wales is not the only royal happy to don a beekeeper’s jacket and protective hood to gather the sweet harvest.

The Queen is also a keen apiarist, and keeps bees at Raymill, her six-bedroom retreat in Lacock, Wiltshire, 17 miles from the King’s Highgrove home.

During a visit to Launceston, Cornwall, last summer Queen Camilla met honey-producers selling jars in the town square, and told them she was a hands-on beekeeper and had only lost one colony during the previous winter.

King Charles in Argentina wearing a beekeeper suit for a visit to see bee keeping at Buenas Ondas organic vegetable garden CREDIT: Tim Graham

Honey produced by the Queen’s bees is sold at Fortnum & Mason to raise funds for charity. This year’s recipient is Nigeria’s first sexual assault referral centre, which the Queen supports as patron.

She is also president of Bees for Development, a charity training beekeepers and protecting bee habitats in more than 50 countries.

Buckingham Palace itself is home to four beehives on an island in a lake in the garden, and there are two hives in Clarence House’s garden.

These hives produced more than 300 jars of honey last year for the palace kitchens, which is frequently served to guests in honey madeleines, as a filling for chocolate truffles or in honey and cream sponge.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Princess of Wales tends her beehives in keeper’s suit (telegraph.co.uk)

With the ‘bombus bee’ project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, in Turkey, bombus bees are produced under laboratory conditions. These bees ensure the fertilization of the products grown in greenhouses without the use of hormones and increase the yield. Bombus bees will increase the yield and quality by ensuring the hormone-free growth of eggplant, pepper, and other vegetables, especially tomatoes. It is also important for products such as melons and strawberries. While greenhouse cultivation is carried out on 81.000 hectares in Turkey, it is estimated that this area will expand with increasing momentum due to reasons such as global warming, population growth, and price stability. Bombus bees constitute the most important group after honey bees in the pollination of plants and are widely used, especially in greenhouse cultivation. While 600,000 of bombus bee families were sold in the country in the 2022-2023 season, the price for March 2023 was determined as 27 USD per colony. While greenhouse cultivation in Turkey is carried out in large areas in the Mediterranean and Aegean regions, the Directorate of Beekeeping Research Institute, which is the only beekeeping central unit of Turkey, evaluates the project activities carried out by growers. It has been determined that the use of bombus bees in greenhouses in the Black Sea Region was not common, especially in the pollination in tomato cultivation.

Thereupon, the project ‘Determination of Colony Characteristics and Suitability for Mass Production of Bombus Population in the Central Black Sea Coast Region’ was developed by the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM). Within the scope of the project, the ‘Bombus Research and Application Laboratory’ was established in order to meet the needs of the sector and to ensure the commercialization potential of local bombus bee resources. The production of bombus bees in the laboratory environment started at the beginning of 2023. Bombus bees produced in the laboratory will be used in greenhouses in the provinces of the Black Sea Region. Within the scope of the studies carried out for the production of bombus bees, known as the ‘natural workers’ of the greenhouses, many colonies were obtained by enabling the ‘bombus terrestris’ breed queens to reproduce in the special climatization room created within the institute.

While bombus bees produced in the laboratory ensure the growth of eggplant, pepper, and other vegetables, especially tomatoes grown in greenhouses in the provinces of the Black Sea Region, without using hormones, it is aimed to increase the yield and quality of the products without disturbing the balance of nature. Thanks to bombus bees, which are used to help fertilize vegetables in greenhouse cultivation, labor costs are also reduced. A bombus bee visits 4,800 flowers in one day during its foraging activities.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Bombus bees are produced in laboratories to be used in greenhouses (hortidaily.com)

• by croatiaweek

Tvrtko Matijević (Photo credit: Nikola Zoko/Promo PR)

It is known that bee venom helps with inflammatory conditions and increases microcirculation of the blood by 200 times. It also works like natural Botox, tightening facial skin, smoothing wrinkles, and stimulating collagen production.

We spoke to Tvrtko Matijević, a Croatian beekeeper and owner of the BeeVenom brand, which has official certification for producing the highest quality bee venom and bee venom-based products in the world.

Matijević grew up in Zagreb with a love of nature and the countryside. He attended an agricultural school and graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zagreb. During his high school years, he had a mishap while helping a friend move bees from one location to another, which resulted in 46 bee stings.

“That story is actually very interesting. A friend asked me to help him move bees from an acacia pasture to a linden pasture in Virovitica, and at the time I only had a torn beekeeping suit with lots of holes. The night was extremely steamy and the bees quite aggressive, so during the migration phase I ‘earned’ as many as 46 stings. The scenes were comical – you carry a beehive with 60,000 bees in it, they sting you, and you can’t take the beehive because then the situation would be 100 times worse,” he told us.

Despite this incident, he became interested in beekeeping and eventually grew his hobby from three hives to 150.

When Matijević began beekeeping, his main focus was on producing bee venom, though he also considered other bee products.

In 2015, he developed a unique technology for extracting bee venom and received confirmation from the Dr. Andrija Štampar Institute that his product was the highest quality bee venom in the world. This encouraged him to develop a brand, and in 2021, BeeVenom products were launched on the Croatian market.

BeeVenom products are made with bee venom that contains 70% melittin, a protein that is responsible for the benefits of bee venom.

“Bee venom has been known throughout the world since ancient times. For example, the bee venom produced in the world contains 45-55% melittin, while our bee venom produced with my technology, where no bees were harmed at any time, contains 70% melittin,” he says.

Melittin is known to destroy cancer cells, boost the immune system, and reduce inflammation. Bee venom is also known to work as a natural Botox, tightening the skin, smoothing wrinkles, and stimulating collagen production.

The BeeVenom brand is unique because of its high-quality bee venom and the innovative technology used to extract it.

To read the complete article go to;

Meet the Croatian beekeeper behind the world’s best bee venom | Croatia Week

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Meet the Croatian beekeeper behind the world’s best bee venom | Croatia Week

Figure 1. Importance of traits to beekeepers in 2022. The scores given to each trait were summed and then divided by the total.

Australia 2022 Plan Bee Survey results: breeding objectives

2023 By Nadine Chapman And Elizabeth Frost

Plan Bee, Australia’s national honey bee genetic improvement program conducts an annual survey of beekeepers and breeders to determine attitudes and opinions surrounding honey bee genetics.

This annual survey is a crucial activity as it helps guide Plan Bee, ensuring that the needs of the industry are well understood, and that the future direction of the project is aligned to the future of the industry.

In 2022 82 beekeepers gave ‘weights’ to their breeding objectives. For example, they allocated 60% to honey production and 40% to temperament. Honey production (33%) and temperament (23%), were the most sought after traits, just as they were in 2021 (Figure 1). However, since 2021, the weighting of these two traits has increased even further. The next most desired trait was pest and disease resistance (a sum of individual traits relating to hygienic behaviour, chalkbrood, pest/disease, European foulbrood, small hive beetle, American foulbrood, Varroa, Nosema), this totalled 16% of the score. As for past surveys different sectors of the beekeeping community placed different weight on different traits (Figure 2).

To access the complete report go to;

2022 Plan Bee Survey results: breeding objectives – Professional Beekeepers | Professional Beekeepers (extensionaus.com.au)

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: 2022 Plan Bee Survey results: breeding objectives – Professional Beekeepers | Professional Beekeepers (extensionaus.com.au)

Source: EU Coordinated action to deter certain fraudulent practices in the honey sector, JRC Technical report

The EU market is flooded with syrup-based “honey”: finally putting a figure on foul play!
The European Commission published two joint reports on fraudulent practices in imports of honey into the EU. According to investigations, 46% of the collected samples were suspected of being adulterated with added syrups. This dramatic situation has been denounced by Copa and Cogeca for years now. Yet solutions are known and unanimously supported by the sector: it is high time for the EU to act!
Thanks to joint work by DG Sante, JRC and OLAF, the Commission has quantified an alarming reality: of the 320 samples received from competent national authorities, 147 (46%) were suspected of non-compliance with the requirements of the EU Honey Directive. Almost 74% of the Chinese, 93% of the Turkish and 100% of the British honey samples were considered “suspicious”!

Read the full Press Release here: Press Release