Crop Pollination and Victorian Apiarist Association Conferences 2025

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CROP POLLINATION AND VICTORIAN APIARIST ASSOCIATION

In Beechworth in the forested hills of northeast Victoria the weather is cold and crisp, the oaks that line the streets flutter their yellow autumnal leaves, which also colorfully cover the ground. I am here for the Crop Pollination and Victorian Apiarist Association conference both in the Grand Oaks resort, on a hill just outside the historic downtown area. I stayed in the art deco former asylum the Linaker Hotel, which looked like it should be haunted but a very convenient 50 meters or so from the venue, an easy walk on the crunching frost-encrusted grass through the thick fog to the venue in the morning.

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© The picturesque setting just outside the Grand Oaks, Beechworth.

Photo by K Fricke “Two years ago the Crop Pollination Association of Australia was down to 16 members,” CPAA President Steve Fuller addressed the room of about 80 gathered for this year's meeting, highlighting the ups and downs the association has had. Every year the CPAA has their AGM in association with a different state convention, in this case the Victorian Apiarists Association will meet in the same venue later in the week. Also highlighting the current momentum of the association, while many beekeeping groups at all levels struggle to find enough willing volunteers to hold offices, they had nine very qualified candidates vying for election to the seven executive seats.

The CPAA differs from the various state and national beekeeping associations in that, of course, it represents the pollination industry very specifically. Pollination very often brings beekeepers across interstate borders, necessitating such an interstate group as the CPAA.

Oneinteresting speaker was arepresentative of the cotton industry, Doug McCollum. Cotton does not require pollination, but it is often located near crops that do. Cotton had gotten a very bad reputation for insecticide use as the industry battled against cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera), although as explained, with the advent of genetically modified cotton in 1996 they've been able to drasitcally reduce the amount of pesticides used. However there was still concern about the use of Fipronil, which is very deadly to bees (see news item last issue), and is still used. The speaker explained that in current usage it breaks down very quickly in the field from UV light. Members of the CPAA were still concerned about this, there was some valuable and substantive back amd forth discussion with the speaker and as a result a member made a motion which was carried with no opposition that the CPAA see about lobbying the APVMA to reevaluate the bee safety of that miticide and potential label change advising not to use within 28 days of bees being known to be located nearby.

A major highlight of the conference was the presence of American varroa experts Drs Cameron Jack and Lewis Bartlett, who both presented and then after the dinner had a panel session in which they answered questions.

Both the questions and answers were very insightful. One of my key takeaways was that while many Australian beekeepers have observed they can keep hives alive well beyond the “nine mites per wash” threshold, Cameron Jack pointed out that the larger the mite population is, the more likely there is to be mites with genetics that have happened to mutate in a way to give them resistance. Keeping numbers down will preserve our synthetics longer. Additionally I was surprised to learn varroa don't just passively carry Deformed Wing Virus, they actually are sick with themselves. I asked Dr Jack if that meant that we're not better off without it, if it might have significantly negative effect on the mites but he said no he thinks it's worse for the bees. Also, after the American mites developed Amitraz resistance (see news item in this issue), Amitraz treatment does still weaken the mites' immune system without killing them, thus making them more susceptible to viruses, leading to the really high viral loads they have been detected with.

: LANES ssiahatte extracts some in the Grand Oaks bar with his new tiicro-haresting device.

Photo by K Fricke After a day off, which some from out of town used to explore the beautiful area, though some others complained unnecessarily lengthened their trip to the area, the VAA conference began on Thursday. It began very strong out the gate witha talk titled “Optimizing the Effectiveness of Oxalic Acid”

by Dr Cameron Jack followed by a presentation via zoom by Randy Oliver. My main takeaway from Dr Jack's presentation was that while OA has its positives, it really struggles to even prevent mite numbers from increasing during Spring and peak times. He highlighted that “fogging” and “vaporization” refer to different forms of application and noted that fogging is particularly not very effective. Randy emphasized constant mite monitoring and the ease of selecting for resistance merely by breeding off your best queens — in his case beginning with just a handful of queens from 1000 hives. He also mentioned the need to maintain genetic diversity and run a minimum of 30 breeding lines. These summations of course are only pulling out key points I recall without the context around them, I highly recommend attending annual conferences to get the complete explanations direct from the world experts such as these.

On the subject of queen breeding we also had a presentation from Peter Czeti of the Australian Queen Bee Breeders Association. It's good to know the queen breeders of Australia are already preparing to extensively collaborate.

Habitual multi-conference-goer Mike Allerton of the Amateur Beekeepers Australia association for whom the VAA conference was his fourth of the year noted that VAA conferences are his favorite, and that “The VAA stands apart from most other apiarist’s associations in that they actively embrace all beekeepers, not just the professionals.”

Writing for New Zealand's Apiarist's Advocate, NZ Beeswax General Manager Nick Taylor, who was in attendance, summarized’ “What Kiwibeekeepers in NewZealandlearnedaboutdealing with varroa over several years — through trial, error, and experimentation, Australian beekeepers have picked up in around six months, Taylor believes. This rapid learning has been driven by Australia’s unique environment and climate, particularly the high density of feral colonies and the long brood period. These conditions have accelerated the spread and visibility of challenges like varroa, forcing Australian beekeepers to adapt quickly, essentially compressing years of learning into a much shorter time.

I regrettably missed the AGM portion and banquet so I cannot report on what bureaucratic dramas they may or may not have had nor provide more insightful critiques of how the food compared to the other conferences, I do apologize (though the CPAA, which you'll recall was in the same venue, had some delicious butter chicken).

44 The VAA stands apart from most other apiarist’s associations in that they actively embrace all beekeepers,

notjust the professionals. 5 I5

9 A surreal walk through the evening fog back to Hotel Linaker. Photo by K Fricke The next day, Saturday (by which point some of us had been Beechworth five days, feeling like We were growing roots) was one of the Advanced Varroa Management Workshops, of which there seems to be one attached to every state conference. This differed substantially from the original varroa workshops, with a section on financial planning for varroa and several well produced videos about case studies of beekeepers who have already been dealing with varroa.

After this the last of us could finally disperse. No visit to Beechworth is complete without a visit to the very nice Beechworth Honey shop where not surprisingly we ran into a number of other beekeepers doing the same thing.

Beechworth was and isa lovely little town, bundling up with coats and scarves and drinking mulled wine at the Hotel Nicholas is fun for a week but I'm looking forward to the Queensland conference, which I leave for only two days after arriving home from this (though it'll probably not make this magazine issue), for a week in the sun!

Endnotes Martyn, Eloise “Hopping the Tasman — Roving Kiwis Rerport from Australia's Beekeeping Conferences” 2025 June 15th Apiarist's Advocate email “Addition”

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