AFB Awareness Month:

Club Guest Speaker

I’ve been on the trail speaking at clubs from Blue Mountains to Northern Beaches about biosecurity topics.  No prizes for the most commonly requested topic.  Even when I do presentations on AFB, the Q&A session still moves to Varroa.  There are more clubs joining the Varroa party as time slides by.  For many, this will likely be the last season you’ll be free.  Those in QLD and NT might be lucky for a while longer.

Some clubs are inviting me to talk about my pet project, Slovenian beehives for Australia.  Anyone who knows what a Slovenian or AZ hive is will understand the back saving benefits of this no lift design.  In Slovenia, there’s a wheelchair beekeeper movement, proving almost anyone can keep bees.  No heavy lifting.

I was also invited to speak at the Ballarat Beekeepers club.  They’ll be facing Varroa either this season or next and the members were keen to learn about the experience of Varroa rather than the theory.  Some of the Geelong Beekeepers were there and invited me to their club next year.  Maybe we’ll see our first Victorian clubs join the ABA.

Let me know if you’d like me speak at your club – biosecurity@beekeepers.asn.au

Own Use Exemption

Thanks to all those that signed the petition.  By the time this issue is published, the petition will be closed and the next stage begins.  At last count, there’s enough support to compel a response from the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, The Hon Julie Collins MP. 

Unfortunately, she’s Tasmanian, so we don’t have any ABA members in her electorate.  If you have any beekeeper friends in Hobart, it could be a foot in her door for a meeting.  Let me know.

I’ve received some good feedback from ABA members who’ve contacted their federal and state members to inform them of the importance of broader choices of varroa treatment options.

As it stands, there is only one registered treatment, Apiguard.  There are emergency permits for Bayvarol, Apistan, FormicPro, Apivar, Apitraz and Api-bioxal.

There are pending registrations for Bayvarol, FormicPro, Apitraz and Aluen CAP. 

Bayvarol is the only synthetic treatment that allow supers on during treatment.  As a consequence, it’s overuse by some (or many) will quickly lead to resistance, perhaps even before registration is approved. 

When the emergency permits expire, we’ll be left with five products assuming those pending registrations are successful.  Five products with which to treat and rotate treatments in an environment that often has near year-round nectar flows and no natural brood breaks.

Is it any wonder beekeepers look elsewhere for solutions and by far the most common alternative is oxalic acid dihydrate.  There are many more options used throughout the world, developed over decades.

Some developments are for alternative delivery systems of formic acid and oxalic acid, but there are also alternative compounds such as hops, available elsewhere as HopGuard-3.

With our current laws, prohibitive registration requirements and small market size, we are unlikely to see any of the latest developments available for use here.

This is why our proposal to amend the law governing agricultural chemical treatments for bees, to include a New Zealand style Own Use Exemption clause.  I believe this is vital to Australian sustainable apiculture. 

Call your local federal member, invite them to your apiary to suit up and see the bees (and mites) first hand.  They’ll love the photo opportunity, but most importantly it puts bees and beekeeping in the front of their minds.  Remind them how essential bees are to our food security while they hold a frame of brood.

If you don’t feel confident to talk to a politician, invite me along and I’ll do the talking.  The more connected to the bees the politicians are, the more likely they are to support our proposal.

Until next time.

Mike Allerton

*Header image courtesy The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) Crown Copyright