The Cowichan Beekeepers Society has been a buzz-worthy club in the Cowichan Valley since it was first founded in 1954.
The club’s mandate is to support local beekeepers, provide education, and assist them in the selling of their wares, while providing a way for like-minded individuals to connect, and share common interests.
“Sharing information and teaching other beekeepers is extremely important,” said president Marie Cairns. “Belonging to the club helps to find those sources of support. The majority of our members are new, which requires a lot of teaching.
“Beekeeping has become a trendy thing to do these days so we try to make sure that people are aware that it is more costly than just buying mason bees and sticking them in your backyard. There’s a very large learning curve and it costs over $1,000 just to get started. It is always recommended that newbies start with two hives because the losses are typically 50 per cent.”
It was bookkeeping to beekeeping for Cairns who has been both a beekeeper and involved with the society for just over a decade.
Her own beekeeping journey began around 2011 after a friend brought her bees to the Cairns’ property in South Cowichan. This catapulted the decision for Cairns to get bees of her own for their own pollination services.
Aspiring beekeepers can buy their hard equipment through Cowichan Beekeepers or Buckerfield’s as Cairns did, when she first bee-lined to her new hobby. Cairns loves all the different facets this pastime offers from tending to the bees, to making honey and a variety of other products using beeswax. She admits when she first got started she was a true new-bee.
“Sometimes the best way to learn is by diving in and getting involved,” said Cairns. “A few years ago I attended UBC and took their one week Bee Masters course. It explored the science of it such as disease, viruses, and genetics which was a real eye-opener; the more you learn, the more fascinating they become.
“We have a display demonstration hive so the best part for us with having community members come to visit is watching them experience the bees. People are always in awe by them, and their byproducts. I sometimes take bees with me to markets and they just draw people in.”
Cowichan Valley is home to the western honeybee and beekeeping season typically starts in March and continues until early fall when the winterizing process begins.
“I always call our bees here mutts,” said Cairns. “The only way to have a purebred bee is if you were on an isolated island, and that is all you had there. Bees are not native to North America, they came here in the 1600s. A virgin queen will go out and mate with 15 to 20 drones from who knows where so you end up with mutts.”
“The season essentially starts after the last large frost, typically in February, but the bees are already probably making babies by that time,” said fellow beekeeper and the Victoria Beekeepers vice-president Don Lambert. “We are up and running and into the hives in the first week of March.
“By the time we get into mating season they are already well established, and have already been making drones. That is when we start seeing swarms which is when a colony divides. Half of the bees will leave to find a new home, while the ones left behind will raise a new queen, then they start a new colony and everything goes full tilt at that point.”
Lambert and Cairns have been busy bees themselves getting their hives ready for winter, which includes wrapping them, and covering them to keep the water off.
“We have to make sure the bees have food, that they are treated, and that their mite counts are down, ” said Cairns. “There are all sorts of tricks like tilting the hive so that rain water runs out, not in. I wrap my hive in homemade wraps made out of construction garbage bags and insulation. They sit for the whole winter. I might go in, in December or January, and treat them once with a oxalic acid vaporization treatment which works well when they are brood-less.”
There are roughly 450 beekeepers throughout Cowichan Valley but out of that estimated number, only 200 are currently club members. Membership is $20 per person or $32 per family, and has many benefits including contacts for all those who sell bees, and ongoing resources and education.
Cairns said one of the most rewarding parts for her since becoming a member has been all the wonderful connections she has made. Folks who attended the Cobble Hill Fair and Cowichan Exhibition may have had the chance to meet and connect with members who decided to enter their products this year.
Only 30 members entered the competitions this year which included club vice-president Jane Wines who won first place for her white honey, and will receive her plaque on Nov. 15. Cairns said the club always advises new members not to enter their honey the first year as the bees need it to survive their first winter.
“Entering the fair is a wonderful way of promoting the bee club and beekeeping as a hobby,” said Wines. “Preparing the entries is great fun — making sure that there are no bits in the honey, and that it is crystal clear. Winning first prize is a lovely reward for the hard work of the bees and the preparation we put into the entries. We have a fun and friendly rivalry amongst all of the entrants and are so happy for each other when we see everyone getting a prize or recognition.”
“What is really rewarding to me is the joy of sharing the experiences of beekeeping and passing that knowledge on to someone else,” said Cairns. “The learning I’ve done myself has been fascinating. You can ask any beekeeper of any age and they are always learning. For instance the island never had mites until the 1980s. We have older beekeepers that never had to treat for mites, so now that is something we are teaching them how to do.”
“I like seeing the new beekeepers come on in the spring, and then watch them grow and develop as the season goes on,” said Lambert.
“If their bees have done well though the fall then they have grasped everything that has been thrown at them and when they put it into practice and their bees get through the winter it gives you a huge sense of accomplishment. It’s really great when you get your bees through the winter for the first time, and then see them come out in spring and do well. For a lot of us once we’ve done that, the big key is passing it on and teach others and hopefully they learn from our mistakes. Everybody wins.”
Society members are working on a project that is the bee’s knees. A trailer which was recently donated will be outfitted to be a mobile education unit and will tour schools from Ladysmith to the Malahat. The cost for this will be $20,000, and the society will be looking to the local Kinsmen and Rotary clubs to assist with fundraising.
“I’m hoping we can form a committee and do the fundraising part, and then find someone who is good with the electrical because it all has to be certified,” said Cairns. “I ideally would like this all complete before May.”
Former club president Ian Low, who is a math teacher at Cowichan Secondary, is already looking at ways to involve his students and has developed a program they can take, and for which they get credit that applies physics, biology, and math, while also teaching them about bees and beekeeping.
“Being a beekeeper gives you a sense of giving back,” said Lambert. “We are all looking for that holy grail like we are doing something for the environment, and this is one thing that we can do that makes us feel like we are giving back, and doing something right.
“We need bees, they pollinate and are part of the environment and our eco-system and by supporting that we feel like we are doing something positive.”
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
The European Space Agency is fast-tracking a new mission called Ramses, which will fly to near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis and join the space rock in 2029 when it comes very close to our planet — closer even than the region where geosynchronous satellites sit.
Ramses is short for Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety and, as its name suggests, is the next phase in humanity’s efforts to learn more about near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) and how we might deflect them should one ever be discovered on a collision course with planet Earth.
In order to launch in time to rendezvous with Apophis in February 2029, scientists at the European Space Agency have been given permission to start planning Ramses even before the multinational space agency officially adopts the mission. The sanctioning and appropriation of funding for the Ramses mission will hopefully take place at ESA’s Ministerial Council meeting (involving representatives from each of ESA’s member states) in November of 2025. To arrive at Apophis in February 2029, launch would have to take place in April 2028, the agency says.
This is a big deal because large asteroids don’t come this close to Earth very often. It is thus scientifically precious that, on April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass within 19,794 miles (31,860 kilometers) of Earth. For comparison, geosynchronous orbit is 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above Earth’s surface. Such close fly-bys by asteroids hundreds of meters across (Apophis is about 1,230 feet, or 375 meters, across) only occur on average once every 5,000 to 10,000 years. Miss this one, and we’ve got a long time to wait for the next.
When Apophis was discovered in 2004, it was for a short time the most dangerous asteroid known, being classified as having the potential to impact with Earth possibly in 2029, 2036, or 2068. Should an asteroid of its size strike Earth, it could gouge out a crater several kilometers across and devastate a country with shock waves, flash heating and earth tremors. If it crashed down in the ocean, it could send a towering tsunami to devastate coastlines in multiple countries.
Over time, as our knowledge of Apophis’ orbit became more refined, however, the risk of impact greatly went down. Radar observations of the asteroid in March of 2021 reduced the uncertainty in Apophis’ orbit from hundreds of kilometers to just a few kilometers, finally removing any lingering worries about an impact — at least for the next 100 years. (Beyond 100 years, asteroid orbits can become too unpredictable to plot with any accuracy, but there’s currently no suggestion that an impact will occur after 100 years.) So, Earth is expected to be perfectly safe in 2029 when Apophis comes through. Still, scientists want to see how Apophis responds by coming so close to Earth and entering our planet’s gravitational field.
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“There is still so much we have yet to learn about asteroids but, until now, we have had to travel deep into the solar system to study them and perform experiments ourselves to interact with their surface,” said Patrick Michel, who is the Director of Research at CNRS at Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, in a statement. “Nature is bringing one to us and conducting the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and squeezed by strong tidal forces that may trigger landslides and other disturbances and reveal new material from beneath the surface.”
The Goldstone radar’s imagery of asteroid 99942 Apophis as it made its closest approach to Earth, in March 2021. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/NSF/AUI/GBO)
By arriving at Apophis before the asteroid’s close encounter with Earth, and sticking with it throughout the flyby and beyond, Ramses will be in prime position to conduct before-and-after surveys to see how Apophis reacts to Earth. By looking for disturbances Earth’s gravitational tidal forces trigger on the asteroid’s surface, Ramses will be able to learn about Apophis’ internal structure, density, porosity and composition, all of which are characteristics that we would need to first understand before considering how best to deflect a similar asteroid were one ever found to be on a collision course with our world.
Besides assisting in protecting Earth, learning about Apophis will give scientists further insights into how similar asteroids formed in the early solar system, and, in the process, how planets (including Earth) formed out of the same material.
One way we already know Earth will affect Apophis is by changing its orbit. Currently, Apophis is categorized as an Aten-type asteroid, which is what we call the class of near-Earth objects that have a shorter orbit around the sun than Earth does. Apophis currently gets as far as 0.92 astronomical units (137.6 million km, or 85.5 million miles) from the sun. However, our planet will give Apophis a gravitational nudge that will enlarge its orbit to 1.1 astronomical units (164.6 million km, or 102 million miles), such that its orbital period becomes longer than Earth’s.
It will then be classed as an Apollo-type asteroid.
Ramses won’t be alone in tracking Apophis. NASA has repurposed their OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned a sample from another near-Earth asteroid, 101955 Bennu, in 2023. However, the spacecraft, renamed OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer), won’t arrive at the asteroid until April 23, 2029, ten days after the close encounter with Earth. OSIRIS-APEX will initially perform a flyby of Apophis at a distance of about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the object, then return in June that year to settle into orbit around Apophis for an 18-month mission.
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Furthermore, the European Space Agency still plans on launching its Hera spacecraft in October 2024 to follow-up on the DART mission to the double asteroid Didymos and Dimorphos. DART impacted the latter in a test of kinetic impactor capabilities for potentially changing a hazardous asteroid’s orbit around our planet. Hera will survey the binary asteroid system and observe the crater made by DART’s sacrifice to gain a better understanding of Dimorphos’ structure and composition post-impact, so that we can place the results in context.
The more near-Earth asteroids like Dimorphos and Apophis that we study, the greater that context becomes. Perhaps, one day, the understanding that we have gained from these missions will indeed save our planet.
