News
2015 Vita international honeybee and beekeeping photo competition
The fourth annual Vita photo competition is now open for entries to anyone with an interest in beekeeping or honeybees.
Winners’ photographs will appear in the 2016 Vita (Europe) Ltd Calendar and they will each receive a copy of the limited edition calendar. There will also be a cash prize plus beekeeping products for the best as judged by an international panel of beekeeping journalists and suppliers.
All suitable entries will also be added to the Vita Gallery, a free online resource of more than 600 honeybee-related photos which is used by beekeeping lecturers and associations across the globe.
HopGuard approval process
At Vita’s offices yesterday, Max, Alexandra and Zahir met to discuss the next stages in the process to achieve pan-European approval for HopGuard, a varroa control treatment.
One of the next steps is residue assessment: when applied how much, if any, Hopguard will find its way into wax and honey.
To be able to assess residues accurately, a benchmarking test must be performed by independent laboratory. they take samples of wax and honey and impregnate them separately with known amounts of Hopguard.
The laboratory then measures the amount of Hopguard that can be detected in the samples. This measurement then provides the benchmark for subsequent field tests.
Here, Max is pictured taking some comb with honey (from a bell jar) to send to the testing laboratory.
This is just one of the many tests that a regulated treatment such as Hopguard must undergo.
The process is quite expensive, but when approvals are granted it does give beekeepers the assurance that they are dealing with a thoroughly tested and safe treatment.
Vita website goes multi-lingual
Buzz … жужжание … Zumbido … Bourdonnent … and even Ronzio!
Vita website goes multi-lingual in four of the top ten internet languages
To meet the growing global demand for information about products to tackle honeybee diseases, the website of Vita (Europe) Ltd is now available in four of the top ten languages used on the internet: English, Russian, Spanish, and French. A separate website in Italian is also available.
Vita lance un concours pour récompenser les initiatives en faveur de la santé de l’abeille
Les associations apicoles du monde entier sont invitées à participer au nouveau concours de Vita visant à récompenser les initiatives en faveur de l’abeille. Le concours Vita Bee Initiative Award mettra en avant les travaux de groupes d’apiculteurs désireux de combattre les maladies de l’abeille et de transmettre leurs bonnes pratiques apicoles. Les lauréats du concours recevront des trophées et des équipements dont des microscopes d’une valeur de 250€ afin de les aider à garder leurs abeilles en bonne santé. Les participants recevront également le livret des meilleurs projets en édition limitée. Plusieurs initiatives seront également publiées en ligne, pour le bénéfice de toute la communauté apicole internationale.
Les lauréats du concours photo 2014
La photo gagnante de Boštjan Tovornik du concours photo 2014 de Vita
Parmi toutes les candidatures reçues du monde entier, Boštjan Tovornik (Slovénie) a remporté le premier prix 2014 grâce à sa photographie d’abeilles alignées se nourrissant dans des réserves de miel.
Les lauréats apparaitront dans le calendrier 2015 de Vita et dans la galerie photo en ligne.