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Capital Region Beekeepers Association

Capital Region Beekeepers AssociationBeekeeping in Victoria, BC


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0 Scrambling on the quarantine issue

Dan del Villano to beekeeping, club business, quarantine — Tags: ,  

Reps from the four Island beekeeping associations have been scrambling to put together a solid package of information for Minister Thomson for a meeting on Thursday, May 20. Apologies for not keeping you better up-to-date but we have been swamped dealing with this for the last three and a half weeks. We will get more and better information to you as soon as we can.

In the meantime, the NDP agriculture critic has set up a website where you can register your concerns about the changes: www.islandbees.ca

It was erroneously attributed to the CRBA, but is not actually our site. Our site is the one you are on right now… victoriabeekeepers.ca

The Legislature has a good page you can use to contact your MLA. I would also recommend contacting the three Liberal MLAs on the Island: Murray Coell, Ida Chong, and Ron Cantelon. The NDP seems to already be on side and clearly we need the Liberals with us too.

— Contact your MLA using this link –

Don’t know what to say? The Cowichan Beekeepers have issued a notice that might help — and gives you a good idea of the work the club reps are doing on this issue: www.cowichanbeekeepers.ca

One thing is certain: this issue has brought the four Island associations closer together faster than anything in the past. I’m glad something positive has come of this.


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0 On the radio

Dan del Villano to beekeeping, quarantine  
Stephen Quinn, host of CBCs On the Coast

Stephen Quinn, host of CBC's "On the Coast"

You can listen to my interview with Stephen Quinn from CBC’s ‘On the Coast’ here:

http://www.cbc.ca/onthecoast/

Scroll down to May 14!

Any other links I should add?  I know Brian Scullion was talking about the issue on May 12 on TV.

- Dan


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0 Text of the CRBA motion

Dan del Villano to beekeeping, quarantine  

Here is the text of the CRBA motion last night:

Moved by:  Ned Easton
Seconded by: Katie Dragert

” That the CRBA meet with the BC Provincial Minister of Agriculture to request that he initiate a 1 year moratorium on the ministry decision to reduce the restrictions on bringing honeybees to Vancouver Island from domestic sources.”

The other club reps in attendance were going to ask their members to endorse it as well. Reps from the four clubs will meet with Minister Thomson on May 20th. I talked to the mayor of Highlands today, who spoke very highly of the Minister. So I am hopeful that Mr. Thomson will be open to our suggestion of going back to where we stood in April and giving us a year to work out the best approach for the Island.

I was interviewed on CBC radio’s On the Coast today, though we ran out of time before I could make my main point: that a reasonable deal can be reached that protects us all on the Island, given a bit of time. Darn.

I was blown away with Lana Popham’s grasp of the issue at last night’s meeting. Not to mention that she deserves a medal for staying throughout the whole discussion!  We can only hope Minister Thomson is of the same calibre. It seems the NDP are on side — if you live in one of the two Liberal ridings on the Island, please contact your MLA and ask for their support.

Goodnight,

Dan


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5 The Vancouver Island Bee Quarantine: where we are at

Dan del Villano to beekeeping, quarantine — Tags: ,  

The CRBA met last night for a meeting dominated by the “quarantine issue”. It was the first chance for many to hear about the issues and discuss our response. Everything has been dumped on us so fast, getting information has been so hard, and the club executive has been scrambling to get on top of it. At the same time, I really sympathize with those who feel they need a primer on the issue.

So here is my attempt at a one page explanation:

The CRBA decided last night to ask Minister Thomson to delay the change for a year, so that the Island industry has time to discuss and come to a reasonable position on what level of bee imports will work best. A coalition of reps from the four Island clubs will be meeting with the Minister on May 20th to ask for that, assuming that the other clubs agree. (This is the hard part — with no time for consultation, we still need to present a unified front. Note: I don’t have the actual wording of last night’s motion.)

The history

According the Paul Van Westendorp (the provincial apiarist), an Island beekeeper and two from the Mainland threatened legal action if the quarantine was not lifted. Several people noted that the Island beekeeper in question had bragged to them about taking this step back in October 2009.

On April 22, reps from the Island club and the BCHPA were summoned to a teleconference and told that the quarantine was down effective May 1. Most beekeepers found out on May 2, when the Times Colonist printed an article about the change. There just wasn’t time to figure out what was going on and get everyone up to speed.  The club reps on the call asked for a month extension so they could meet with their members. They didn’t get it and began organizing themselves to respond. In the meantime, of course, many people were phoning, e-mailing, and doing whatever they could to reverse the decision or to at least get firm information. (Please keep it up, by the way.)

The quarantine dates back to 1987 and was put in place originally to prevent the spread of varroa mite to the Island, in part so that the Island would be able to produce stock to replace mounting bee losses elsewhere. There have been at least a couple of concerted attempts (the last by Mr. Van Westendorp in 2003) to lift the ban since. Presumeably, this is in response to pressure from those who want to sell or move bees to the Island from the Mainland.

The disease profile

The quarantine is important because there are pests and diseases on the Mainland that do not exist here. Several come to mind:

  • antibiotic-resistant American Foulbrood
  • European Foulbrood
  • Greater Wax Moth
  • Small Hive Beetle (in the US and now Quebec, not BC)
  • Africanized Honey Bee (’killer bees’) — I don’t think these are in Canada, but they sure are on the rest of the continent

Now, beekeeping goes on in places that have all of these things — but they cause losses and expense and heartache. They are best avoided and, being on islands, we can actually do that.  Even if the diseases eventually work their way here, the quarantine delays them. It buys us time and it saves us money. We heard last night that European Foulbrood is particularly difficult to detect and treat. Given our recent heavy losses (95% in parts of the Island), we really don’t need any more to contend with.

In addition, we just had the worst winter losses ever on the Island. What if there is a new pathogen here? Shouldn’t we be restricting movement of bees on and off the Island? What if the Fraser Valley and Okanagan and Alberta have 95% losses next winter?

Options

In the conference call, we were offered two options: “my way or the highway”. Oops, I am editorializing. Actually, the only option on the table was “the ban is lifted”. Briefly, Mr. Van Westendorp and his colleague intimated that there was another option — a total ban on movements of bees on and off the Island. But that was quickly taken back off the table.

The thing is, there are a wide range of issues and options on how to protect the Island… and we have time to discuss them.

The two favourites right now are that bee imports be allowed, from areas with a similar disease profile to ours, but only breeding queens or packages (from places without small hive beetle) — not any used equipment or comb. The former is safer, but doesn’t allow people who have been wiped out to rebuild. The latter allows bee imports, but in a way that they can be easily inspected. Most disease lurks in used brood comb or honey comb. Restrict that and you pretty much maintain the quarantine, without making it impossible to replenish losses (this, incidentally is where we were up until April 30, 2010).

There are a range of other options — more later on that. I have to go to work.

Where we go from here

We hope that Minister Thomson was as surprised as the rest of us by Apriary Branch’s decision. We hope he will agree to give us a year to properly consider changes and keep the quarantine as it existed prior to May 1 in place during that time.

Many people have been talking to their MLAs and to others who can lend a hand. NDP reps (including agriculture critic Lana Popham, who attended our meeting last night) are on side. Personally, though, I don’t see this as an issue that respects party lines — reasonable consultation and a workable ban are in both parties’ intests. They are also in the interests of the hundreds of beekeepers — small, medium and large — represented by our clubs. A threat brought by three people should not stampede the Ministry into doing something so agains the interest of hundreds of us.

Questions and clarifications

Last night’s meeting went a long way to clearing the air. But we haven’t been very successful in getting good hard information into the hands of Island beekeepers. I’m going to try to fix that problem on this website.

If you have a question, leave a comment and I will try to find and post an answer for you. (I’ve got a job and bees and young children and a wife I like to spend time with — so this is purely voluntary, you understand. But I’ll do my best.)

I am going to allow comments by anyone — expect that there will be a ton of spam on the site soon. I’ll do my best to keep up, but lots of it will get past me. My apologies in advance.

-Dan


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0 May Meeting: the 13th, at 7:30

Dan del Villano to Uncategorized  

The monthly meeting is tomorrow evening, starting at 7:30. We’ll be discussing the club response to the lifting of the quarantine. Personally, I am strongly against lifting the ban. But Brian (the club prez) quite rightly wants to consult the membership before taking a stand on behalf of the club. I expect a not-quite normal meeting: there will be plenty of people wanting to discuss this issue. Lana Popham, the NDP agriculture critic, will be joining us.

Newbies can show up at 7 for a new beekeeper question and answer. All are welcome in any case!


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0 Write to the Minister

Dan del Villano to Uncategorized  

To register your concern about the lifting of the ban on bee imports to the Island, e-mail Steve Thomson, Minister of Agriculture and Lands. His e-mail address is AL.Minister@gov.bc.ca


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0 Quarantine: Very BAD News

Dan del Villano to beekeeping, club business  

This story is very bad news: the quarantine on importing bees and equipment to the Island has been lifted.

The decision appears to have been taken by Paul Van Westendorp, the Provincial Apiarist. That means we have some hope of getting it overturned.

Write to
The Honourable Steven Thomson
Minister of Agriculture and Lands

This page lists his phone, fax, e-mail, and postal addresses:
http://www.leg.bc.ca/mla/39thParl/thomsonS.htm

Tell him how upset you are and ask him to investigate how Ministry staff came to this decision. Details are still pretty sketchy — it would be nice if he could fill in the blanks for us.

Why is the quarantine important?
1. There are diseases and pests on the Mainland that don’t exist here yet.
2. The quarantine has slowed the spread of diseases. Varroa arrived here years after it decimated the Mainland. And then only because a twit knowingly brought bees in illegally.
3. We’ve just come through the worst winter of losses that the lower Island has seen — do we really need an influx of new problems just now?
4. The losses were up to 90% — what if we have something new on the Island that we are about to export now?
5. Local stock is adapted to local conditions. Outside bees aren’t.
6. Surely there was plenty of time for consultations… but were you involved? No? Me neither. Neither were the Island clubs. Neither was the BCHPA.

We can overturn this decision. We need to.


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0 Thank you everyone!

Dan del Villano to Uncategorized — Tags:  

Well our fund raiser was a blast last night, and thank you to those who were able to come and help out or just hang out in support– Alan, Adaline, Katie, Jennifer, Lee, Elaine, Joan, David P., Paul. We raised $1742.63, and had a good time. The music was wonderful– Sian Elen played first and wow is she talented. And then the McGillicudys got us all clapping and toe tapping, they’re terrific.

The mood in the room was incredible and we just can’t get over the generosity of people!


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0 Just Bee Cause

Dan del Villano to Uncategorized  

Just Bee CauseCome out for a chili-by-donation fundraiser this Thursday to support the Woodwynn Farm beekeeping group.

Live music! Cheap eats! Door prizes! Fun!

  • Where: Cabin 12 Restaurant, 607 Pandora (at Government)
  • When: 6 to 11 pm, Thursday, April 22 — Earth Day!

All welcome! There will be plentiful beekeepers on hand to ask any bee-related questions you might have, too.

Hope to see you there.


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0 Bee club meeting tonight

Dan del Villano to Uncategorized  

All are welcome!

Tonight is the CRBA’s monthly meeting. At St Aiden’s Church, near Shelbourne and Cedar Hill Cross Road.  The meeting is down in the basement at 7:30.

Newbees are welcome. In fact, at 7 p.m. there is a session just for beginners.

Click here for a map to St Aidan’s.