Our monthly meeting is this Thursday, June 11th , 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Central Saanich Seniors Citizens Association, 1229 Clarke Rd., Brentwood Bay
First, if you have a subscription to Disney+, make sure you watch the two-part series Secrets of the Bees. It provides some really interesting information coupled with stunning photography! And if you don’t, it would be worth finding a family member or friend that would let you watch it from their place…
Second, we’re now getting into that time of year called “The Dearth,” when spring flowers are over and the summer flowers haven’t really started. The severity and timing of this gap in food supply will vary depending on where your hives are, so keep an eye on your hives’ honey/nectar supplies and the weight of the boxes. Be prepared to supplement with 1:1 sugar syrup if needed.
Third, we need a few more volunteers to help at the Heritage Acres Summer Fair:
- Where: Heritage Acres, 7321 Lochside Drive, Saanich
- When: Saturday Jun 20th and Sunday Jun 21st between 10:00am-3:30pm
- Flexible shifts of 2-3 hours each. Volunteers can sell their honey at this event. If you are interested, contact Carolyn.
American Foulbrood Alert: On a more somber note, some of our members have received notices from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food that their apiary has been identified as being within 5 km of a proven case of American Foulbrood, aka AFB. This is a valuable service in raising our vigilance and helping keep this awful disease in check. Where it falls a bit short, though, is that if a beekeeper has multiple apiary sites, the notice doesn’t identify which site is affected. And yes I know we should always be vigilant in each and every hive, but if you have 20+ hives scattered over the South Island, it would be nice to know where to be extra vigilant!!
And for those of us who have been lucky enough to have avoided any personal experience with @#$#@$% AFB, here’s what to look for:
- Smell: a distinctive, strong and unpleasant odour, often compared to rotting meat. NOTE: this is NOT present in milder cases
- Spotty brood pattern due to scattered dead larvae/pupae
- Sunken, greasy-looking, or capped pupal cells with a central perforation, made by bees chewing through the cap to remove the dead pupae.
- Larvae that have died and dried into hard, black scales at the bottom of the cells
- The “Rope Test”: uncap a suspicious cell and stick a toothpick into it and slowly pull it out. IF the decaying matter stretches into a slimy dark-brown thread typically 2-3 cm long, it’s a hallmark sign. Do NOT stick your hive tool in to investigate – you’ll have just contaminated that tool with a very virulent organism.
If you believe you have, or even if you just suspect you have AFB you MUST report it to our local bee inspector:
- Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands South: Tara Stuart at 250-538-7355
- Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands North: Laura Ingram 250-882-2852