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