News
Asian hornet trap launched to combat honeybee pest
Asian hornet (Vespa velutina)
Beekeepers now have a weapon to counter the Asian hornet, a new invasive honeybee pest that is threatening honeybee colonies across Europe.
ApiShield, just launched by Vita (Europe) Ltd, has been designed specifically to trap the Asian hornet (Vespa velutina). The trap doesn’t require any bait or chemicals and beekeepers can easily incorporate it into existing husbandry routines.
2013 Vita Photo Competition Winner
The winner of this year’s Vita Photo Competition is Trevor Fiddy with his image of honeybees lined up at the hive entrance apparently asking “Who’s first?”
Overall winning photograph by Trevor Fiddy
Other winners whose photographs will appear in the Vita 2014 calendar are:
2000 bees travelling 2000 miles in a flying beehive
Help Alex spread the word about honeybees to young people throughout Greece
A flying beehive is set to educate young people across Greece about the value of honeybees. Support for the extraordinary venture is being sought through crowd-funding on the internet and there are already plans to extend the project to other European countries.
Alexandros Papachristoforou, Vita’s research collaborator at Greek and Cypriot Universities, is raising funds so that he can fly an observation hive of 2000 bees over 2000 miles to schools in remote parts of Greece. His aim is to spread the word to the next generation about the importance of honeybees to our planet. After Greece, he plans to extend his project to other EU countries.
Honeybee health specialists Vita (Europe) Ltd is one of the first companies to make a substantial contribution to the venture and urges anyone with an interest in honeybees to support the venture through the crowd-funding website: http://tinyurl.com/2000beemiles The crowd-funding campaign closes on 23 November 2013.
Vita launches 2013 international beekeeping photo competition
Entry from Nick Gibson to the 2012 Vita Photo Competition
Vita (Europe) Ltd is calling on beekeepers internationally to enter its 2013 photographic competition.
There will be cash prizes and beekeeping products for the winners, and the best pictures will feature in the Vita 2014 Calendar. The entries will also be added to the hundreds of honeybee-related photos in the free, online Vita Gallery (www.vita-europe.com/beehealth/gallery) which is proving highly popular with beekeeping speakers looking for photographs for their presentations and with beekeepers wanting to learn more about beekeeping experiences across the world.
Entrants can submit up to four photos (up to 1mb each) relating to honeybees or beekeeping by emailing them to gallery@vita-europe.com. Photos can be on any relevant topic: from honeybee behaviour, to beekeeping practices, foraging honeybees and honeybee produce.
The deadline for entries is 20 October 2013.
Vita launches smartphone app about keeping healthy bees
The first-ever smartphone app about keeping healthy honeybees has been launched by Vita (Europe) Ltd, the world’s largest dedicated bee health company. The web app is free and gives beekeepers easy mobile access to information and photographs about honeybee disease identification and treatment.