Whanganui to host Beekeepers Conference 2024 this weekend

The Beekeepers Conference 2024 starts this weekend in Whanganui. Photo / Warren Buckland

Whanganui is going to be buzzing this weekend.

The Beekeepers Conference 2024, hosted by the Southern North Island Beekeepers Group, starts on Sunday at the Whanganui Racecourse and runs until Tuesday, August 13.

For hobby beekeepers or honey producers, this is a chance to gain a wealth of knowledge, some good networking and maybe answers to some of those questions they have been wanting answers to when it comes to bees.

The group pulled the conference together in just over three months.

Interest had been high and the group hoped for 100 attendees each day.

Featuring guest speaker biologist Randy Oliver from the United States, as well as many other experienced beekeepers, the event is an opportunity to get invaluable bee knowledge in one room.

Oliver is also a commercial beekeeper.

He is working on ways to eradicate pests and diseases attacking bee populations such as varroa mite.

Oliver is trialling organic acids as a natural way to kill the mite.

In New Zealand, varroa mites are starting to get resistant to synthetic miticides, as well as killing up to 30% of hives.

Varroa reproduce in the cell in the larval stage of developing bees.

Varroa is a pest, (an ectoparacite) that feeds on the fat bodies and hemolymph of the bees, leaving a puncture wound that doesn’t heal.

During the feeding action, viruses are introduced into the body of the larvae and bees.

Normally these would have difficulty getting into a bee.

A close-up view of what a varroa mite looks like. They live their entire life cycle inside beehives feeding off larvae and adult bees and spreading viruses. Photo / NZME

Affected bees (having their fat body removed) cannot feed the next generation of larvae so the hive goes into a gradual decline.

When the virus levels get high, the bees lose their ability to thermoregulate (keep the temperature of the cluster in the hive at an even temperature) during winter and will die.

The Ministry for Primary Industries says the varroa mite (Varroa destructor) was first detected in New Zealand in 2000 and has since spread throughout the country.

The Chatham Islands’ bee population is the only significant one in New Zealand that remains free of this mite.

Varroa mites are one of the most problematic pests of honey bees (Apis mellifera).

If not controlled, varroa can seriously undermine a bee by feeding on their body tissues and enhancing the transmission of bee viruses.

When left unchecked, varroa can spread throughout a hive very quickly, causing parasitic mite syndrome and the eventual death of the colony.

The main virus beekeepers see is deformed wing virus which causes the bees to have deformed wings.

Find out more about the conference here.