How a Good, Reliable supply of Package Bees can Reduce Chemical Use in Canada

Just when I think I've remembered all the salient details, I remember one more thing.  One of the big concerns in Canadian beekeeping is that chemical use for mite control in beehives will result in detectible residues that make the honey unmarketable.  Beekeepers, desperate to keep their bees alive because of the uncertain and limited supply -- and high cost -- of replacement bees are forced to use dangerous chemicals in their hives more than they would if good replacement bees were less difficult to obtain.  In Alberta, even beekeepers who are still getting good control with a moderate application of Apistan are being strongly encouraged to use Coumaphos, and many who have no need to are doing so.

Wake up people! Coumaphos is a chemical that safety regulators in both Canada and the USA are trying to withdraw completely from the market ASAP, due to its noxiousness.  It has no place in a beehive that is producing honey, and apparently no place in a beehive that is used to produce queens.

What are we doing?  At the very least, we're making our beeswax unsaleable and committing to replacing all our combs on a five year rotation!  I'm told Horace Bell melted his entire outfit -- 35,000 hives -- and started over with fresh wax after the chemicals caught up with him.  That is easier to do in Florida than it is in Canada.  Drawn comb is a prairie beekeeper's best asset, and we are fouling it with a poison.

Frankly one of the many considerations that caused me to sell when I did is the prospect of having to use coumaphos.  A few years ago, we did not know what we know now, and it looked inevitable.  I could see a lot of comb replacement would become necessary within a few years, if we were forced to use coumaphos, and that the value of our wax would be further degraded.

I think, however -- now that we have had a chance to consider alternatives like oxalic acid and now that varroa-resistant bees are a reality -- that , non-emergency use of coumaphos will prove to have been unnecessary, and a big mistake for many Alberta beekeepers.  IMO, those using coumaphos today, up here in the north where winter and spring bee survival is tough, will soon be paying the price in terms of poorer winter survival and other vague problems.  We're going to need a lot more packages to keep our numbers up.

Other perfectly good alternatives have been ignored in the rush to buy one more expensive and dangerous commercial pesticide. In Canada and in the USA, for whatever reason, we have done the damage.  Alternate treatments have not been followed up, perfected and approved.  Many beekeepers who have never had a problem with Apistan have rushed to Checkmite+™.   I can understand Checkmite+'s emergency application where resistant mites have been proven to exist, but I cannot understand using Checkmite+ until absolutely necessary or continuing its use after emergency control is achieved..

 I also cannot understand why Canadians have failed to develop and approve known safe, cheap, effective treatment treatments that likely will never encounter resistance or foul our honey and wax -- like oxalic acid --  but continue to promote using a noxious, dangerous chemical like coumaphos.

The amount of money that has been spent -- in Alberta alone -- using Apistan™ and Checkmite+, compared to the cost of using oxalic acid, would have paid for the research and approval of oxalic many times over.

Go figure.

Anyhow... back to the main subject...  How a better supply of package bees could reduce chemical use in honey producing hives by 50% or more...

We Can Cut Chemical Use in Half!

• Pre-treated package bees: Package producers in California with sufficient business devote their hives strictly to bee production.  They never produce honey, just bees.  Any honey gathered is used in producing more bees.  The income from queens and bees sustains these beekeepers.  Because they never produce honey, they can treat for mites at any time of year and keep levels very low.  Bees shaken from their hives have very low mite loads.

• Easy, reliable, low-chemical dose treatments possible: Nonetheless, if a Canadian beekeeper feels that treatment is desirable on arrival, packages are very cheap and easy to treat, with a minimum of chemical.  Because package bees have no brood for several days after introduction in Canada, a yard of newly installed packages can be given a very brief treatment, rather than the 42 day treatment necessary for wintered hives.  Because the quantity of bees in each hive has been measured (2 lbs), and all hives are at exactly the same stage of development, treatments can be measured and applied very accurately.

• Reduce the use of chemicals in the hive by more than half: Usually no treatment is needed on packages the first year, so one whole treatment is saved in Canadian hives -- the bees were treated in the states before shipment. perhaps drop tests show they need treatment the second year.  By then -- using an industry average loss figure for attrition over one year -- one third of the original colonies die before the spring treatment, so only 2/3rds, of the originals, if any, need treatment.  If they can wait until fall, and additional 10% has dropped off, and little more than half the original colonies purchased need chemicals, and only after a year and a half!

The use of chemicals in the hive is reduced by more than half, and up to three quarters! In operations running package bees and selling or otherwise eliminating the bees in fall, possibly NO chemicals might be required, especially if brood chambers are irradiated periodically.

• Wider use of radiation to sterilize brood combs: When forced to winter bees, beekeepers do not get a chance to examine the frames in their brood chambers the way they do when using package bees as part or all of their replacement supply.  In most overwintering schemes, bees occupy as many hives as possible, year round.

In a combined wintering/package bee operation, hive bodies can be removed from service in a scheduled fashion and examined carefully and/or put through radiation facilities.  Wider use of radiation to sterilize brood combs could reduce OTC and Tylosin™ use to almost nil, according to reports from those who have experimented with electron-beam radiation.

• Mite resistant bees:  Additionally, when imports of US package bees and queens resume, it will be possible to obtain US-developed mite resistant bees in mass quantities and upgrade the bee population in Canada to require less chemical use than current unselected stock.

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