Urban beekeeping in British Columbia
We spent much of the weekend out with the bees, making those important late-winter checks to see who had survived and who had not. Some are thriving. But not a few are struggling. What made this weekend both enjoyable and worrisome was the extraordinarily mild weather. February can be a tough month here, both rainy […]
There is a debate developing in British Columbia about the concern over neonicotinoid insecticides and the effects they may be having on pollinators, both wild and domestic. We’ve been watching with interest the actions of the Ontario government to try and rein in the use of neonics (NNIs) by reducing their use by 80 per […]
It’s the beginning of February and we’re just starting to get busy for the start of the new season. If you are like me, you will have a long list of unfinished chores from the fall. From cleaning up and repairing boxes and equipment to finishing those ambitious workshop projects that are supposed to make […]
Get ready for the B.C. Honey Producers Association’s semi-annual general meeting and Education Day on March 13-14 in Kamloops. The BCHPA has organized a great education program for Saturday, March 14, following their regular business day on Friday. You can register here. They are also bringing back, by popular demand, the Certified Instructors Course, which […]
It has been long overdue, that review of Mark Winston’s book Bee Time. I started in the gloriously long summer before the honey harvest was over and read it while sitting in a beach chair at a remote Okanagan Lake cabin when I could savour the flavour of his writing without distraction. The review stalled during the […]
When we first started out beekeeping with two hives, we didn’t need anything to feed other than a bucket, some sugar and a couple of in-frame feeders. These, of course, were for those necessary periods in the fall, winter and early spring when forage isn’t around. If you had told me that we would eventually […]
I am sure that I have seen this before, this long, winding fall of sun and warmth, where even the leaves on the maples and horse chestnuts remain unreasonably green. But somehow, this fall seems different, far beyond the Indian Summer we sometimes get. The smatterings of rain we’ve had in recent weeks have been […]
Last week, as we were getting ready to treat our colonies for varroa, Amanda discovered one that had Deformed Wing Virus. It is a particularly heartbreaking disease to find, since the predominant physical issue is that the bees have either shrivelled wings or no wings at all. Watching a wingless bee crawl around on the […]
Canada’s ban on honey bee imports is folly, says B.C.’s biggest beekeeper
Canada won’t adopt EU pesticide ban, new USDA-EPA report out on colony collapse
Lessons learned from our first bee swarm of the season
Organic blueberries at the Lougheeds: picking time is here
Late-winter feeding of the bees as spring draws near
B.C. Honey Producers to hold neonicotinoid insecticide discussion
Treating bees with oxalic acid; a late-winter mite-killing exercise
B.C. Honey Producers semi-annual conference set for March 12-14
Bee Time: Mark Winston’s book opens our eyes to the plight of the bees.
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