All Southland farmers, horticulturalists and home gardeners will need to know about the state of our honeybees and the situation we find ourselves now that the varroa mite has arrived in the South Island. The impact from the loss of pollinating honeybees will be felt well beyond the apiaries and will have a significant economic impact on our region. I attended the Ministry of Agriculture’s public meeting at Gore last week and heard about steps being taken to help beekeepers survive the effects of the mite. There is a way through the expected ‘blitz’ and details of the methods proposed can be found here on the Ministry’s website.
4 comments:
Juniper smoke will reputedly drive of the varroa and I've heard that shaking up the bees with icing sugar does the same thing - hard to shake a whole hive though. Are there other 'softer' options that anyone knows of? The apistrips etc. are pretty toxic.
It is heartening to hear Southland is on the ball
Yeah bioneer, are they? There is lots of talk but no action. Bellyaching about letting it in is easy but its on its way and getting ready is the thing to concentrate on. But I don't think toxic is the answer - who wants honey that is tainted with mite-a-cides? What does DoC say? Nothing.
You'd think that the farmers would be worried by this, but no, the clover thing isn't worrying any dairy farmers, they don't sow clover any more it gives the cows bloat, they just pour on the urea.
Post a Comment