BEE BULLETINS

Tibor P Szabo spent Saturday afternoon at Clovermead Bees & Honey, near Aylmer (ON), where he took part in their Annual Bee-Beard Competition. He won the “Crowd Pleaser” award, but lost the judging for bee weight and beard form to Albert de Vries of St. Thomas, Ontario. Tibor’s beard weighed in at 4.5 lbs, while Albert’s beard weighed 5.0 lbs. Find out more about the competition here.

Run by the Hiemstra family, Clovermead offers an Adventure Farm, Settlement with Heritage Buildings, Honey Gift Shop, and Apiary Tours. If you are passing by the London/Woodstock Ontario area in the summertime, you will want to follow the signs on the 401 and head to Clovermead to find out what’s buzzing!

Here are some photos from the competition:

Sign reads “Bee Beard Huts: The site of our annual bee beard competition. Each hut will be screened and contain a hive of bees and two beekeepers. To feel the itch and see the close shave you need to bee here.”

The Elgin Oxford Middlesex Beekeepers Club and Bee Beard Champion Trophy

Chris Hiemstra (left) introduces and weighs the contestants.

Tibor in his tent starting a smoker.

Tibor’s groomer attaches the caged queen bee to his chin.

The bees are shaken onto newspaper.

The bees are gently scooped and dumped onto the Tibor’s chest.

The bees are encouraged to walk up the Tibor’s chest and form a beard. Tibor’s neice oversees from the other side of the screened hut.

Tibor is ready to make his way back to the stage for judging.

On the way he stops to give out hugs.

Tibor makes it to the stage…

…and greets his fellow contestants.

After all contestants are re-weighed and march up and down the catwalk, Albert de Vries is announced the Champion!

Tibor is awarded the Crowd Pleaser plaque!

Albert de Vries with his trophy.

After the judging the contestants pose for photos with spectators.

…and all go about enjoying Clovermead!

It is finally legal to keep bees in New York City!

Read more in the New York Times. Congratulations to the New York City Beekeeper’s Association! Hopefully the actions of your members and the resultant legalization of beekeeping in NYC will encourage other community groups to petition their local governments to protect honey bees and ensure that it is not against the law for these beneficial insects to live and be cared for in our communities.

Watch CBC-TV’s:
The Nature of Things - To Bee or Not To Bee

“Could bees be an early warning sign of a larger problem with our ecology?
Are they the canary in the coal mine for the health of planet earth?”

Photo by feverblue on flikr and used under this Creative Commons license.

This article describes a study from the Journal of Human Evolution that compares a complex tool set invented by chimpanzees to acquire honey with Stone Age human tools. It makes me wonder: If we went back far enough, did the common ancestors of humans and chimpanzees use tools to obtain honey or did this behaviour emerge separately in both species?

When you consider estimates that humans branched off from our common ancestor with chimpanzees 5–7 million years ago (source: Wikipedia) and that honey bees have been thriving for at least 40 million years, it is hypothesized that honey bees have been a major influence in shaping the evolution of the human species and societies (eg favouring tool use, feeding on honey bee pollinated foods, developing agriculture, etc). Vice-versa, with feral colonies disappearing at an alarming rate, the role of beekeepers with integrated pest management and the role of bee breeders in selecting honey bees for disease resistance, gentleness, honey production, hygienic behaviour, etc has probably never been more important, influencial, and essential in establishing the future of the honey bee.

I just spent some time in Washington, DC and snapped these photos of Obama’s backyard and beehive. The hive had two standard Langstroth brood chambers and two shallow honey supers. I was too far away to identify the red flowers planted around the bee's drinking fountain, but hope that they are a source of nectar and pollen for the honey bees. If anyone knows what they are, please add a comment or send me an email.

It is great that Obama has taken this step to promote an understanding and appreciation of honey bees. Hopefully people will be inspired by this to keep bees in their own backyards and call their cities to task if bylaws exist preventing them from doing so. A theme that I picked up from Washington is that “Freedom Is Not Free”; does your municipality allow you the freedom to keep bees?

This slideshow is from February 2008, when I joined my brother Tibor P Szabo and colleague and friend Dan Douma to experience beekeeping in Chile.  We were guests of Francisco Rey who owns and runs Pacific Queens, Sociedad Comercial Rey, and the www.apicultura.cl website. We also visited with Italo Terrezza and his family. Both Francisco and Italo are excellent beekeepers from a very beautiful part of the world.

During my short stay we spent several afternoons queen catching with Francisco’s team of beekeepers near Limache. Tibor and Dan spent the entire season working and visiting in Chile (Tibor’s second full season in Chile and Dan’s first). We were also fortunate to meet a beekeeper named Augustine and to learn about setting up an apiary for wheelchair use and accessible beekeeping.

photo: Italo and Francisco.

photo: Tibor, Augustine, and Francisco.

One of the most reported facts about honey bees:

One mouthful in three of the foods you eat directly or indirectly depends on pollination by honey bees.

This quote comes from a 2004 United States Department of Agriculture Report on honey bee benefits to agriculture and is referenced on countless honey bee-related web sites and news bulletins.

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Another commonly reported fact is that around the world we are experiencing decreasing honey bee populations:

Canada: Where have the bees gone? (Thanks Gary for posting this to our facebook site.)

New Zealand: Bee alert and alarmed

UK: Battle to save the honey bee

The solution?

Keep bees.

Plant nectar and pollen producing plants.

Support local beekeepers.

You should always consult a health care practitioner or a pharmacist when you have questions about the health of your child. When you do, ask about the following studies on the effect of Honey, DM Cough Medicine, and No Treatment on nocturnal cough and sleep quality for children and their parents. The studies claim:

Significant differences in symptom improvement were detected between treatment groups, with honey consistently scoring the best and no treatment scoring the worst.

Sources from the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine:

Effect of Honey, Dextromethorphan, and No Treatment on Nocturnal Cough and Sleep Quality for Coughing Children and Their Parents

The Effect of Honey on Nocturnal Cough and Sleep Quality for Children and Their Parents

The rest of the story… Health Canada has decided that:

the labelling of cough and cold medicines for use in children must be changed by fall 2009 to say they should not be used in children less than 6 years of age. These products will also require enhanced labelling for children aged 6 to under 12, child resistant packaging…

Health Canada Advisories:

December 18 2008 - Health Canada Releases Decision on the Labelling of Cough and Cold Products for Children

October 11 2007 - Recommendations for the Appropriate Use of Cough and Cold Products in Children

March 12, 2005 - Health Canada Advises Consumers Not to Use “Cough Syrup Dm” Din 02015781 with Lot Numbers Starting with 2J29 and 3J29

These clips are a video advisory from Health Canada and a CBC News report on the topic: