NOVEMBER 2016 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Honey producers urged to stand up for their colonies Colony collapses are the result of a multitude of factors: pests, pathogens, pesticides


by PETER MITHAM


RICHMOND – While the collapse of bee colonies across North America has


precipitated angst among city- dwellers, beekeepers working the trenches are struggling with limiting the risks colonies face.


Presenters at the annual conference of the BC Honey Producers’ Association in Richmond last month discussed the good, the bad and the bugly of hive health and colony cultivation. The best news of the day was mycologist Paul Stamets’ announcement of a patent for a new method of fighting varroa mite, arch-enemy of colonies across the continent. “This is a paradigm-shifting discovery,” Stamets, president of Fungi Perfecti LLC in Olympia, Washington, told meeting attendees. Stamets didn’t happen upon the connection between bees, fungi and pest control by accident.


Since the mid 1980s, he’d observed bees feeding on mycelium, the vegetative part of fungus which is high in sugars. Through his work in the forest sector, he was aware that red-belted polypore was adept at metabolizing DDT while another fungi, Metarhizium anisopliae, is toxic to termites.


Working with Washington State University entomology professor Steve Sheppard, they researched the potential for M. anisopliae to fight varroa mites.


Hives that were treated with M. anisopliae exhibited greater resilience against varroa mites. Moreover, trials with red- belted polydore and amadou fungi suggested that bees that ingested these fungi have longer lifespans and greater resistance to certain viruses, thanks in part to their ability to metabolize pesticides.


Game changer The idea that fungi-


munching bees are better able resist pests and disease is a game-changer, Stamets declared.


It’s also timely.


Pests, pathogens, pesticides and poor forage are the four key enemies honeybees face, said Michele Colopy, program director at the Pollinator Stewardship Council in Akron, Ohio.


All of these work together in some combination or other to push a colony towards


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collapse, rather than a single factor.


“If we want to protect bees, we need to look at their whole, real-world environment,” she told BC beekeepers.


Hives can harbour up to 121 toxic chemicals, Colopy said, with at least 50 coming from tree fruit orchards alone. The result is toxic mess in which the sum of the


chemicals is far worse than any individual element on its own. Rather than point to neonicotinoids, the current poster-child of bad chemicals, Colopy said advocates should be looking at the full range of


substances bees encounter.


“It’s not one


thing; it’s not just one pesticide,” she says. “Our little flying dust mops encounter a ton of things.” The liveliest


discussion of the meeting,


however, focused on the bugly problem of pesticide


management.


Several in the audience challenged Virginia Abbott


PAUL STAMETS


from the Pest Management Regulatory


Agency (PMRA), a division of Health Canada, for the agency’s focus on regulation and reactive


management versus a stronger monitoring and compliance role. However,


Abbott said the PMRA can only step in when a


product has been misused. She urged apiarists to become


Honey prices spiral down


Michigan entomologist and bee business consultant Larry Connor told the annual conference of the BC Honey Producers Association that $1,000 a hive isn’t an unrealistic income.


However, a tide of honey from China is being blamed for putting that target out of reach for many commercial beekeepers. Canadian Press reported in September that prices had dropped 50% from a year ago, reflecting a glut on the market. While some producers received more than $2.00 a pound in 2015, this year prices were closer to $1.00 a pound.


According to Statistics Canada, the average price nationwide last year was $2.43 a pound, the third year in a row prices had been above $2.00.


However, the topic of falling prices didn’t come up in responses to Connor’s talk. This may be because BC beekeepers received more than twice the national average for their product last year – $5.27 a pound.


According to Statistics Canada, the provincial honey harvest totalled nearly 3.7 million pounds from 45,571 colonies from Aldergrove to Terrace.


more engaged – something that Colopy also encouraged. While beekeepers can take steps to improve the hive environment by regularly removing wax that may have become contaminated with too many toxins, she urged beekeepers to engage their neighbours and regulators. “It’s our livestock and our livelihood. And we have a right to protect that. We have to stand up for our bees, including taking legal action.”


Reporting bee kills


Key issues in Canada included the need to report bee kills, a process she said needs improvement. While her organization helps US beekeepers file reports with the right agencies, she said it wasn’t immediately obvious how beekeepers could go about doing so in Canada. Moreover, the PMRA needs to hear from beekeepers about the impacts new chemicals might have on colonies.


“We want the labels to do the right thing but when we’re not involved as beekeepers, we get bad labels,” she said. “We cannot leave this to others to educate them about what our bees do.”


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