A Spring conference, a spring in my step

A Spring conference, a spring in my step

Every spring I go through this phase, and every time I come out rejuvenated, reinvigorated and inspired.
Yes, it’s that time when Amanda and I and a disparate group of like-minded individuals get together for the BC Honey Producers’ spring education conference.
It is nominally a time for the executive to get together and tell the membership what we’ve been doing over the fall and winter. But with those requirements dispensed with in a Friday meeting, the rest of the weekend was a time for listening, to interesting speakers, and to rub elbows with fellow beekeepers, to catch up on news of the farm, and news of the industry.

To me, this is no small event. It is that touchstone just before the spring awakening of our hives, just before the work of getting our apiaries up and running. That time when we begin to put into place all the promises we’ve made to ourselves over the quiet winter.
This spring’s event was held in Cranbrook. It was the first time in more than 20 years we did not hold the spring semi-annual in Kamloops. This change was sparked by a desire to reach out to other parts of B.C. To reach beekeepers who, due to spring snows or long distances, usually can’t make the trek to Kamloops.

Some Terrific Speakers

Paul van Westendorp, the provincial apiarist who runs B.C.’s Provincial Apiculture Program, is always an engaging speaker. But with his retirement now planned after 35+ years at the helm, he turned his talks towards where he’s come from, what he’s seen, and how beekeeping has changed. His video is not yet posted, but here’s a talk he gave a while ago “In Defence of Bees”.
Andony Melathopoulos, a product of Canada’s great university bee labs, is now an associate professor of Pollinator Health Extension in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University. Always engaging, he had two talks. One, in combination with Liz Huxter, was about how to “keep bees out of trees”.

This is the artful efforts new or small-scale beekeepers can make to prevent swarms and how to make splits or increase hives.
However, it was his look back at nearly 100 years of OSU research into pollinators and the relationship to plants, nectar and pollen that kept me engaged. He’s now the third OSU researcher to quantify the types of plants that support bees (the first being Herman Scullen in the 1920’s).
This kind of research, which takes a lifetime, is so important as we document the effect of climate change, urbanization and changing farming practices on our wild and managed pollinators.

Christine McDonald, a director on the BCHPA, gave a terrific talk about the growth of her Rushing Rivers Apiaries in Terrace, where growing bees and producing honey have their own challenges. She also has a pretty solid handle on social media, and has one of those great and appealing stories; that nexus of entrepreneurship, pioneering spirit and living in a remote area.

Shelley Hoover, from the University of Lethbridge, is always a great catch at our meetings. But this time she also put a firm finger on the challenges we all face – and not just beekeepers – as we observe and encounter the effects of climate change on plants and wildlife. Yes, we know seasons can change. But exactly how will rising heat, drought, or even unpredictable weather patterns change plant behaviour and their relationship with pollinators? The answers are complex, and unsettling.

Gillian Sanders has addressed conflicts with grizzly and black bears for many years. She has shown how humans – and not just farmers or beekeepers – can co-exist with bears (.pdf). She lives up at the end of Kootenay Lake, and her common-sense ideals about electrified fencing show that we can keep bears out of garbage dumps, chicken coops and bee yards.

Amanda and I are, I think, experts at the electrified fencing game since most of our bee yards are in bear-dense areas. We don’t usually have problems because we follow the rules Gilian espouses. So it was good to hear her message to other beekeepers that they too can keep their hives safe from Papa, Momma and Baby Bear.

A Grand Dame of BC Beekeeping

Liz Huxter, a Grand Dame of beekeeping in BC, is one of my all-time favourite speakers. Her talk, in combination with Andony’s observations, offered elegant ways for small-scale beekeepers to take advantage of bees’ natural instincts. Liz is that kind of pragmatic individual who is so focused on common sense that she eschews having her own website in favour of simply communicating “the old fashioned way.” Call her phone and you’ll find out she’s more often in the bee yard.

Liz is one of the finest queen breeders I have ever met. She and her daughter Emily, who owns Wild Antho, practice the much-needed art of producing localized stock. Every year Amanda and I make sure that some of their localized genetic efforts get into our hives. I am certain that when I assess the survival of our bees I will find that the strongest will have Huxter queens in charge.

There’s much more to write and say about the event in Cranbrook, but it will have to wait. I am often fairly accused of over-writing, or writing more when less can be said, so for now this is enough.

But one last comment: when I woke up this morning, I felt a sense of empowerment and a lightness in my step as I begin again the job and joy of being a beekeeper in British Columbia. That is in part because of the efforts of the folks I mentioned above who share their stories with us.