Trouble in Paradise

I've been having trouble with my Google accounts which has prevented me from posting here on the blog. Hopefully that will bee resolved soon enough.
More importantly, I just wanted to get the word out about the upcoming KBee meeting. We'll bee meeting at our usual place (the Electronic and Technology Building) at KCC in two weeks on Saturday Oct 15 from 5:00pm to 6:30pm.
Francis and Joyce Takahashi will give us an update from the recent Western Apicultural Society Conference that happened last week on the Big Island. We'll also bee talking about upcoming courses at the KCC Apiary. Our first one will be a three session course for beginners wanting to learn more about beekeeping and how to get started. The course will be begin on Thursday Oct.27 at 6pm for two hours. The next class will follow on Friday Oct.28 at 6pm and end by 8:00pm. Both classes will bee in a classroom with the final session beeing starting on Saturday Oct.29 at 8:30 am at the KCC Apiary.
Hope you can make it to the meeting on the 15th. For more details about the meeting or the upcoming beekeeping courses please feel free to contact KBee Chair Jimmy Trujillo at 346 7725 or e.mail at jtrujill@hawaii.edu. You can also leave a message in the comment section on this post.

See You Today at the Seed Exchange

In case you haven't heard there will bee a great community event near Kilauea today. The 8th Biannual Kaua'i Community Seed and Plant Exchange is happening on the grounds of the Kilauea Community Gardens. Follow the signs along Kahiliholo Road. Its free and family friendly; the fun starts at noon. There will bee information booths, presentations and lots of smiles. Good fun and live music with the Malama Pono All Stars. We'll bee there : )

Mahalo to everyone who came by the KBee booth at the Fair. Click the link and scroll to the Honey Tasting photo by Dennis Fujimoto of the Garden Island Newspaper. It was a sweet event for sure.

 And here is a link from a friend to a video about some one concerned about pesticides. We gotta do something about that.

Today on Kaua'i Community Radio

There was a nice write up in today's Garden Island News. Mahalo to Nathan and Dennis for helping to get the word out. Also today, State Apiarist Danielle Downey will be a featured guest on KKCR's  (91.9fm) Back to the Garden Show.  Danielle will be joining hosts Paul and Kamran on the phone from Hilo and will be on Kaua'i tomorrow for the Honey Tasting at the KCFB Fair. The show is from 12pm til 1pm right after Democracy Now!  You can listen online  by clicking the live stream option.  Tune in and catch the buzz.
Hope to see you at the fair : )

Sweet !

Just a quick post about the upcoming Honey Tasting at the KCFB Farm Fair.  In a collaborative fashion, the Hawaii State Department of Agriculture and the Kauai Beekeepers Association will be hosting a honey tasting, featuring local honey from some of Kauai's beekeepers, on opening night, Thursday August 25, 2011 in the Kauai Grown Ag Demonstration area located in the Ag & Livestock Area. Here's a link to a map of the fair. 

This event will be an opportunity for local honey producers to showcase their wares and for consumers to sample some of Kauai's finest and ask questions about honey production and meet local beekeepers. The HDOA Apiary Program folks like Danielle Downey  and Jacqui Robson will be there to share information about the state of honeybees in Hawaii. Honey from KBee members will be for sale at the KBee booth during the fair but not at the tasting. If you are interested in showcasing your honey or know someone who might, please contact Joyce Takahashi at 245 9072. 

We'll bee at the Fair all weekend long so stop by our booth if you have questions about beekeeping  ,want to purchase some honey or just like to talk story about the bee's knees. If you're free next Thursday, come on down to the fair and sample the sweetness of Kauai's bees.  Hope to see you there !

Summertime Blues

Kauai Beekeepers Association

is hosting an

Informational Meeting

on

Saturday July 30, 2011

4:00pm - 5:30pm

Our featured speaker will be Jacquie Robson, who has been recently hired by the state to assist the HDOA with apiary support and planning. We will learn more about the state's plan to address the issues of varroa mite, small hive beetles and other issues related to beekeeping. We will also bee discussing plans for a honey tasting exhibit at the upcoming KCFB Fair in August. Please join us in welcoming Jacquie and learning more about beekeeping on Kaua'i.

 

Rm 114 Multipurpose Room 

Electronic and Technology Building 

Kauai Community College

For more information contact

 Jimmy Trujillo 346 7725

jtrujill@hawaii.edu

*************************************************************************

It's been a while since I've had time to sit and log on to a computer to share more about beekeeping on Kaua'i. It didn't help to leave for the mainland for three weeks either. But it was a great trip and it's nice to bee home to tend to the garden and the boxes of bees that reside in the yard. I've got a few removals to do soon and the frames are getting full so my blogging time will be limited to announcements about upcoming KBee events and activities (and maybe posting some photos of beekeeping on Kaua'i).

My inbox was full as well and here are two related items of interest that folks e.mailed me while I was away. The first is a Maui News article  about the work of Danielle Downey , the state's new apiarist. She was to visit Maui and inspect local hives. The second item is a HDOA Press Release with the results of the inspections. Not good news for Maui beekeepers.

The upcoming KBee meeting this Saturday will feature the state's recently hired apiary planner. Ms Jacquie Robson will be our guest for the first half of the meeting. KBee events planning and discussions will follow Jacquie's presentation. Here's a map of KCC to help find our meeting location (in the ETRO building). If lost look for the KBee banner. Hope to see you there. Bee well and have a great day !

Today's Buzz

A reminder of today's KBEE meeting at KCC. The meeting will start at 4pm and be finished around 5:30pm. We'll be in the Electronic & Technology Building . Look for the KBee banner at the north end of the campus' Performing Arts Center main parking lot and you can't miss us. We'll bee discussing at length the work involved with removing unwanted bees from buildings and relocating them to where they will be wanted ( and easier to manage).

Kapahi beekeeper Roy Kawamoto has been invited to share his expertise in this area. We'll also talk a little about a project by the Marin County Beekeepers and the Penn State CCD research team to study the effect of pesticides on local pollinators. We'll see if there's interest to do something similar here.

We'll wrap up the meeting with an update on upcoming beekeeping courses from KCC. Most likely these will begin in August and run through the fall. State apiarist Danielle Downey will provide much of the instruction along with local beekeepers.

Hopefully we'll bee seeing you today or at an upcoming event to share more info about keeping Kaua'i bees clean, healthy and free of the maladies that are so common elsewhere.

Untill then, bee well, bee happy and if you can't bee with the one you love, love the one you're with. Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there : )

Staying Bizzy!

The Kauai Beekeeper's Association (KBee)

invites the public to attend

an informational meeting on

 Saturday June 18, 2011

4:00-5:30pm

KCC-Technology Building

Open Invitation to all beekeepers, farmers and anyone

concerned about honeybees on Kaua'i.

 Learn about Small Hive Beetle & Varroa Mite Prevention

Strategies for Kauai

and how to become involved with KBEE's effort

 to keep Kaua'i bees stay clean & varroa mite free.

For more information please visit us on the internet at:

 http://kauaibuzz.blogspot.com/

or contact

Jimmy Trujillo 346 7725 or Erik Coopersmith 335 0710

We will bee briefly discussing :

*County Sunshine Market Draft Legislation

*Interest in KCFB Fair-Booth & Honey Tasting

*KCC Apiary Program Update

* COK OED Grant

We will also bee discussing in great detail, 'How to Remove and Relocate Honeybee Colonies' featuring KBee member Roy Kawamoto.  Roy and his wife Diane recently moved back to Kaua'i and have been building up their apiary by capturing swarms and removing unwanted honeybee colonies and relocating them to their yard. This is a task that requires some skills and tools and Roy will share tips and techniques that can help make your first colony extraction a success. 

Swarming season

It's been a while since our last post. The calendar says spring is on the run and summer is right behind but it sometimes feel like winter won't let go. Talking to some folks, this past winter has been a hard one for our foraging friends. Honey stores are down and the harsh weather's toll has been significant for some. For others, they fared well with little to no losses from the rain, wind and dearth of blossoms and nectar.

It's getting on swarming season and folks are calling about unwanted bees in their back yards. So far I've removed one from a house in town and caught one in trap, while another got away because I didn' t secure it well, and have two houses that will be free of bees soon. It's getting busy for sure! Check out You Tube for some video action on different ways folks collect collect swarms.
collect swarms

 Meanwhile, later today,  I'm doing a presentation on pollinators and pesticides at 2pm in the Kapaa Library. The Wailua Kapaa Neighborhood Association invited Wainiha organic gardener Caren Diamond and myself to discuss the impacts of pesticides on our pollinating friends and our environment. Should be good and I thank the WKNA for helping KBee get the word out about the harmful effects of pesticides on Kauai bees.

Busy as a Bee

There's so much going on these day; it almost hard to stop and smell the flowers and admire the scenery. With the KCFB's Garden Fair coming up this weekend and the KCC EarthDay Celebration next Wednesday there's hardly any time for blogging but I did want to share a couple of links and a little good news for a change.

First there's a national survey about winter hive loss and another regarding hive management. This is all part of the on going work to help beekeepers record, document and analyze their labors. The surveys are being coordinated by Bee Informed, part of a national agricultural extension project.

And finally some good news about bees coming back in California. Hopefully this is a trend that will continue and will help farmers and beekeepers stay busy like their nectar loving winged friends. Hope to see you at KCC one of these days if you're not too busy.

Back for More

KBee will bee very busy this month with the KCFB Garden Fair at KCC on Saturday April 16 2011 followed by KCC Earthday 2011.


Here's the copy from a KBee press release:

The Kaua’i Beekeepers Association (KBee), will be hosting a public meeting on Friday April 15 at KCC in the Electronic and Technology Building’s Multi- Purpose Rm114. The featured speaker will be Danielle Downey, the state's newly hired apiary specialist. The meeting will start at 6pm with Danielle’s presentation followed by a question and answer discussion to wrap up the evening’s event.    
          
Ms. Downey will be focusing her discussion on common honeybee diseases and how to identify, treat and prevent them from becoming problematic for beekeepers.  A brief update on the state's plan for assisting local beekeepers and helping Kaua'i keep the small hive beetle and varroa mite off the Garden Island will be inlcuded in the discussion. 

Danielle will also be making a presentation along with Jimmy Trujillo from the Kauai Beekeepers Association at the Kauai County Farm Bureau’s Garden Fair on the following day April 16. Their mid-day presentation, titled “The Buzz about Beekeeping: Beekeeping Basics and How to Get Started” will be a lecture and demonstration on the methods, techniques and equipment necessary to start keeping bees for honey production or increased pollination for your farm or garden.  KBee will also have a booth at the Garden Fair to share additional information on how to get involved and learn more about beekeeping on Kauai.

Both events are free and open to the public. For more information contact KBee Chair Jimmy Trujillo at 346 7725 or jtrujill@hawaii.edu

Here's a link to a few stories forwarded to me; one about beekeepers in Africa  
and this one about 10 lessons we can learn from bees

Enjoy the reading and hope to see you at KCC in April. Bee kind and Bee well : )

KBee Public Meeting

FOR Immediate Release:

March 13, 2011

The Kaua’i Beekeepers Association will be hosting a public meeting this Tuesday, March 15 at KCC in the Electronic and Technology Building. Darci Oishi from the Hawaii Department of Agriculture will introduce Danielle Downey, the state's newly hired apiary specialist. The meeting will start at 6pm and we will learn from Darci and Danielle what is the state's plan for assisting local beekeepers and helping Kaua'i keep the small hive beetle and varroa mite off the Garden Island.

Kauai Beekeepers Association

Open Meeting

Public Invited

 Tuesday, March 15 at 6 pm

Rm 114 Multipurpose Room 

Electronic and Technology Building 

Kauai Community College

Queen Rearing

If you are a beginner like me  queen rearing  sounds like an impossible task to pull off. It 's even more difficult to do without the right equipment or without the correct technique. You also have to choose your preferred method. Here's a video from the mainland and another that show a low tech method; there is a ton of information online about the subject. This site explains a preferred low tech method as well.

For someone who keeps bees, there are a number of good reasons why this skill and knowledge is important. This may be the best place to get started online. Dr Hubertus Kohn handed it out as part of his workshop on queen rearing.  This different link provides the basic information on the method that Dr Kohn is demonstrating to some local beekeepers. It's been rather hectic lately with all the prep work for the workshop as we have had to battle the elements and arrange and rearrange schedules to coax the bees into being cooperative with us.

So far we have had limited success. The rain and wind along with a dearth of flowering flora has convinced Dr Kohn that we may be a little early with this workshop. The process is rather straight forward but having the right conditions are essential for success. Learning from someone more knowledgeable than you are will also increase your chance for success.  I'll post more about our workshop with Dr Kohn. We still have some work to do before we're pau but it's been very educational and gives me more insight at to what we need on Kaua'i to help beekeepers maintain strong hives and healthy bees.

On that note, KBee will be hosting another public meeting this Tuesday, March 16 at KCC in the Electronic and Technology Building. Darci Oishi from the Hawaii Department of Agriculture will introduce Danielle Downey, the state's newly hired apiary specialist. The meeting will start at 6pm and we will learn for Darci and Danielle what is the state's plan for assisting local beekeepers and helping Kaua'i keep the small hive beetle and varroa mite off the Garden Island.

Kauai Beekeepers Association

Public Invited Open Meeting

 Tuesday, March 16 at 6 pm

Electronic and Technology Building 

Rm 114 Multipurpose Room 

Kauai Community College

Hope to see you there

Kaua'i Beekeeper Association invites the public to their monthly meeting this Sunday Feb 20 at 4pm. The meeting will be held in the multi-purpose room in the Electronic Technology Building on campus at Kaua'i Community College. There will be a presentation by visiting beekeeper Dr. Humbertus Kohn, Professor Emeritus at Western Washington University. Will post more on what Dr Kohn will be discussing at this Sunday's KBee meeting. Hope to see you there.

 

Long Live The Queen!

A queen bee found on the suit of Joyce Takahasi. The queen was placed in the box amongst brood comb during an extraction at the Takahashi's family farm in Kalaheo. This hive was established behind a bathroom wall and needed to be removed and relocated somewhere else on the farm

Now for the bad news : (

Well, originally I was going to post about my discovery of wax moth in one of my hives. I posted earlier about it and upon inspection found that the colony had vacated and wax moth was to be found in both brood boxes. Very disappointing but that pales in comparison to the news from Rep. Mina Morita who informed me that HB 1387 would not be heard as was indicated by an earlier hearing notice sent from the legislature.
Rep. Morita shared that the AGR chair, Rep Clift Tsuji , did not want to hear this bill. She mentioned that the influence of big ag had reared it's ugly head and persuaded the chair of the AGR committee to pull this bill from the agenda. This is the worst of our representative form of democracy; when legislative action is held up due to the influence of moneyed interest. It is sad that a simple bill such as HB1387 would draw opposition from those who claim to have the best interests of the state's agriculture in mind.
Pesticides and pollinators don't mix. We need to have a sensible policy regarding pesticide use in Hawaii and HB 1387 would help develop that policy. If you feel likewise, please e.mail the chair at   or give him a call (phone: 808-586-8480 or fax: 808-586-8484) and let him know you'd like to see HB 1387 scheduled for a hearing. Maybe an e.mail, phone or fax to Rep Tokioka would help steer the chair in the right direction.

Good news and Bad news

First the good news. Our recent meeting with the Kauai legislative team was very productive. All four elected officials were present as we discussed HCR 203 and shared a myriad of concerns with them. Mahalo to District 15  Rep. Jimmy Tokioka and his staff for helping to coordinate the meeting.  District 14 Rep. Mina Morita  along with District 16 Rep. Dee Morikawa and State Senator Ron Kouchi attended with some of our regulars and a few new faces. After wards we submitted a request that they consider reintroducing SB 463. Mahalo to everyone in attendance for your participation.

Yes, this is still part of the good news, but it gets better. HB 1387 was introduced by Reps. Morita and Morikawa. A simple request for the Department of Agriculture (DOA) to publish an annual report on pesticide use in the State including investigations of health complaints by the Department of Health. In addition it will requires users of pesticides to report usage to DOA and allows DOA to impose a fee to recover costs.

The issue of pesticide use in our community is of great importance. This simple request for our government to monitor the safety and well being of our community may be opposed by pesticide users but most reasonable people would agree that we have to start looking at this closely and determine what are the concerns and how do we address them. This bill is a good starting point and helps us all understand how far reaching the issue is.

Testimony can be sent via the internet or can be e.mailed to repmorita@Capitol.hawaii.gov
Include the bill number and the committee in the subject line. The bill is being heard in the Energy and Environmental Protection (EEP) committee and may scheduled for a hearing next week. Hopefully we can move this bill out of committee with out any significant changes and usher it forward to being signed into law.

I'll skip the bad news for now and just say mahalo to all the bee lovers out there who understand the connection between healthy bees and a healthy environment. Have a beautiful day and bee well : )

Save The Bees!

Here's another request to save the bees and ask the EPA to ban clothianidin. I've received numerous e.mails with the similar request. It's an issue that's tied to the Wiki Leaks story and how our government often does not listen to the experts who have done the research and testified one way or another.

According to the article linked above,"Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid insecticide that is both persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis. Although EFED does not conduct RQ based risk assessments on non-target insects, information from standard tests and field studies, as well as incident reports involving other neonicotinoids insecticides (e.g., imidacloprid) suggest the potential for long-term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects.

Neonicotinoids have come up before in a previous post and are banned in Italy because of the harmful impact they have on honeybees. The effort to ban clothianidin has gone viral.  Saving the bees maybe trendy but we gotta do something.

First of the Year! pt 2

Sorry for the short notice but wanted to get this out there; KBee will be hosting a public informational meeting today, January 22, 2011 at KCC in the Electronics and Technology Building. The meeting will start at 4:00pm and conclude at 5:30pm.
We'll be meeting w/some of our Kaua'i state legislators to discuss issues related to beekeeping (imagine that!) on Kaua'i and around the state. This was scheduled for our December meeting but with the holidaze and all.....
Here's a cut and paste agenda from an e.mail generated by Amy Luke of Rep. Tokokia's office. A big mahalo to Rep Tokioka and his staff for helping Kaua'i beekeepers have a voice in the state legislature
********************************************************************************

Beekeeper Agenda

1/22/2011

KCC

4pm

1) 2010 HCR 203

Recognizing the efforts of the Kauai beekeepers association and other key stakeholders for their efforts to assist the department of agriculture with education and prevention of the Varroa Mite and other invasive species

http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2010/bills/HCR203_.htm

                Discuss potential influences in Dept. of Agriculture (DOA) and being proactive in Varroa Mite      and Small Hive Beetle issue. 

                Working together  (w/ cuts in funding and positions) on being proactive/relying on community for back up and support.

2) Pesticides- take a look back at pesticide legislation

 2009 SB 463

Requires the DOA to publish an annual report on pesticide use in the State including investigations of health related complaints by the DOH; requires users of pesticides to report usage to the DOA; permits the DOA to impose a fee to recover costs.

(http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2009/lists/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=SB&billnumber=463)

(http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2009/bills/SB463_.htm)

3) Dept. of Agriculture regulations and restrictions- Interim rule in place from Big Island to Oahu on shipping has lapsed. 

                *Inspections are required for movements of goods and travel.

                *Limited source of funding/limited inspectors

                *What will it take for us to get there/ engaging- Ag side?  Industry side?  Fruits? Flowers?

                *Look at a stakeholders list and tap into where the funds will support invasive species   prevention.

                *Harmful effects of unwanted pests << Grant in aid applications/ federal fund matching               grants>>

4) University of Hawaii and their bee program - CTAHR or DOA –Support for a Queen rearing program-

               

5) Future Forward

                Registration program-beekeepers registrations-Getting active on education

*********************************************************************************

On another note and will post more about this later, a HUGE mahalo to Oliver Shagnasty for his generous donation of 6 hives( boxes and all!) to the KCC apiary program. KBee members were able to assist in the packaging and transporting of the colonies last week under the supervision of Francis Takahashi from KCC and Oliver himself. This donation will help to develop an apiary program at KCC to enhance beekeeping activities and support the related industries that benefit from honeybee management on Kaua'i.

First of the Year!

Been a while, but we survived the holidaze.  I hope the bees did too; the rain was pretty heavy and steady. I had harvested some honey off my strongest hive but now am wondering if I might have robbed the colony of it's precious winter stores. It hasn't been the best of foraging weather lately so I am concerned about the overall health of that colony. The colony next to it I have even greater concerns for. It seems to have had a reduction of bees in and out of the box. The last two times out in the yard the amount of bees in and out has been less and less. I opened up the box to check the hive after first noticing the lack of activity around the entrance. There were plenty of bees in the top box.

I must explain; this colony of bees was recently brought to this property in July from an old hive that had  swarmed and vacated and then was repopulated with a feral swarm afterward. It was a healthy colony with plenty of brood but the boxes were beat and the wax moth had completely decimated the bottom box and frames. I removed  the good frames and burned the rest. It was quite a chore but I enjoyed the work and was hoping to salvage enough brood to relocate them closer to my property. Of the twenty frames in the original two boxes, I ended up with 8 full frames of comb and a little honey. I put another box of empty frames once they were placed in their new yard. They seemed to be transitioning well in their new home and had moved up into the upper deep box. I was ready to put a super on top when i noticed the decline of bees.

So now, after writing this post, I've got check on the bees and find out how they're doing. I have a suspicion that I transferred some wax moth and larvae when I salvaged the original frames and they have started to wreak havoc in the bottom box. We'll find out and keep you posted on the welfare of this colony. The other 3 hives seem to be doing fine except for the chalk brood that I mentioned in an earlier post. I'll spend some time soon opening up the boxes and taking notes of the overall condition of the hives. Hopefully the weather will provide some drier conditions to work the yard and let the bees forage on whatever flowers are in bloom.

Just like I am concerned about the health and welfare of the bees in my neighbor's yard I am concerned about the bees across the state and across the globe. I recently received several e.mails all touching on the issues of pesticides being sprayed in proximity of bees and their overall harmful effects on our environment.  Primarily, it's clothianidin that is causing great concern for many recently. The fact that our government often has a role in this environmental calamity is quite sickening. From the feds to our own HDOA we are often harmed by their interventions or lack of that help to create crisis conditions all over the place.

And things may get worse before they get better. It looks like it's going to be wet again today.