Fellow Bee-L'er's FYI & enjoy
 
REPORT
WESTERN APICULTURE SOCIETY CONFERENCE
AUGUST 5th. to 9th, 1996. KONA SURF HOTEL, KONA, HAWAII
Walter Patton
 
      The Western Apiculture Society Conference was a very interesting
experience with the gathering of entomologists, beekeepers and government
aficionados. The meetings were held at the Kona Surf Hotel and the weather
was near perfect. Starting on Tuesday the 6th was our fellow Big Island
Beekeepers Association bee club members Dr. Lorna Arita- Tsutsumi and
Kevin Roddy gave a very informative presentation on the history of Hawaii's
beekeeping . Lot's of very interesting details have been gathered together and
professionally presented .Congratulations to Lorna and Kevin  for a well done
job. Next on Tuesday was a hobbyist beekeeper, Alan Spencer, from Kauai
who talked about eliminating foundation. Next Gus Rouse owner of Kona
Queens who produces more queen bees then anyone else in the United States
shared some of his observations about Queen rearing in Hawaii. That
afternoon Dr. Michael Burgett-Oregan State University spoke of honey bees
and religion. And Dr. Eric Erickson explained about Varroa mite resistant
research in Tucson.
      On Wednesday the 7th the president of B.I.B.A. ,Walter Patton, spoke
about the problems of trans-shipments of New Zealand honey bees through
Hawaii. Next speaker Dr. Tom Culliney Hawaii Dept. of Agriculture showed
slides and gave details about the safety steps taken by New Zealand package
bee contractors with the transshipments. Following Tom's talk Dr. Hachiro
Shimanuki of the Bee Research Laboratory and Robert Flanders of Animal
Plant Health Inspection Service , APHIS, both from Washington D.C. talked
about the new directions that are being developed to allow for more flexibility
for future research of honey bees and the new test available to screen for
Afrcanized Honey bee genetics in honey bee semen and the ability of
U.S.D.A. to test for honey bee viruses. They also invited the Hawaii honey
bee industry to submit honey bees for viruses screening. That afternoon the
group went and toured the Kona Queen Co. and the Captain Cook Honey
Co.
      Thursday the last day of the conference the first speaker of the day was
Dr. Walter S. Sheppard Washington State U. talking about the Africanization
of American Bee Stock  in America, then Dr. Eric Mussen U. of California
 reminded us about the seriousness of American Foul Broad in beekeeping
and the final speaker was Dr. Adrian Wenner U. of California about the use of
Varroa mites to eradicate honey bee colonies on Santa Cruz island in
California.
      Several of our Hawaii beekeepers were able to attend part or all of the
meeting and all felt that the time had been well spent and hoped that we could
get other bee club meetings to come to Hawaii. The sharing of information
and ideas is what we need more of to promote the advancement of
beekeeping. More details will be shared at the August 20th. meeting. The Big
Island Beekeepers Association was well represented at the meeting and some
new ideas are forth coming.
       At the quarterly meeting, August, 20th, 1996 of B.I.B.A. I plan to
introduce to the club for consideration and agreement the idea that all of our
club members agree to participate in the gathering of samples to be sent for
virus evaluation by U.S.D.A. and possibly one or two other labs. I spent a
considerable amount of time on Thursday talking with Dr. Shimanuki about
our  clubs desire to participate with the U.S.D.A. in getting Hawaii honey
bees tested to allow for more informed decision making in the future. Dr.
Shimanuki explained the details of how many bees from each yard and how
to handle the bees . Mr. Robert Flanders of APHIS may be able to assist us
with the use of APHIS personal. This testing information will be invaluable to
Hawaii beekeepers in the future as our industry grows. I will attempt to get
participation in the testing program on all of the islands so that we can get a
broad base look at our island bees. Dr. Shimanuki indicated that the testing
will be done with out charge to the individual beekeeper and we could
develop our own procedure of data gathering. All interested beekeepers are
invited to come to our August 20th, 1996 meeting to discuss and vote on this
very important issue.
     I believe this process of testing will provide us with the information that
will allow us to make informed and enlightened decisions about future
importation and or embargoes between islands if necessary. Please give this
some thought and talk with your fellow beekeepers about this issue and come
to our quarterly meeting August 20th.1996.
      Hawaii beekeepers need to become better organized to be better
equipped to deal with threats to our mite free honey bees in the future. I will
continue to push for a state organization for the beekeepers of Hawaii and
hope to get state wide support for such an endeavor during 1996 and 1997.
Anyone able to help is needed and is encouraged to volunteer and will be
appreciated.   Sincerely Walter Patton
 
Walter & Elisabeth Patton,  27-703 A Ka' ie'ie Rd., Papaikou HI.,96781
    Ph./Fax. 808-964-5401       E-Mail  hihoney@ilhawaii
 
Beekeeper and Bed  & Breakfast Owner in Hawaii
 
  http://www.alohamall.com/hamakua/hihoney.htm
http://www.alohamall.com/hamakua/beeware.htm
   http://www.alohamall.com/hamakua/lamalani.htm