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 : )