2018 Vita Bee Health Photo Competition
The outright winner of 2018 Vita Bee Health photo competition is Christine Balshaw for her image of a worker honey bee, proboscis extended, drinking from a small pool of rainwater.
Winning entries, selected by an international panel of judges, have been featured in the 2019 Vita Bee Health calendar, a pdf file of which can be downloaded free of charge via the Vita gallery here.
Everyone whose photographs feature in the calendar will receive a free limited edition of the printed desk calendar.
The 2019 Vita Calendar includes photographs by Carole Baker, Christine Balshaw, Katrien Berckmoes, Ann Chilcott, Sue Davies, Margaret Edge, Sue Howe, Leka Huie, Geoffrey Leister and David Ramsay.
Sebastian Owen, commercial director of Vita Bee Health, said, “Once again, it has been a pleasure to see the skill of beekeepers in capturing so many aspects of beekeeping. Starting in January with David Ramsay’s snowy apiary wonderland, we move through the beekeeping season with the arrival of a swarm of a bait hive by Katrien Berckmoes to Sue Howe’s dreamy autumnal smoker. We thank all the entrants to the competition and of course the international judging panel who have told us how difficult but enjoyable their task has been.”
The international judging panel for the 2018 competition was: Peter S Berthelsen of the Bee & Butterfly Habitat Fund (USA), Tiago Brás of HiFarmaX in Portugal, Jerry Hayes of Vita Bee Health North America, Svetlana Pantyukhina of Vita CIS in Russia, Tsai Shang-Yan of Well Ching International in Taiwan, Miguel Tejerina of Apilab in Argentina, plus Paulo Mielgo and Alastair Taylor on behalf of Vita Bee Health in the UK.
About Vita Bee Health
Vita Bee Health is a mite control and honeybee health specialist. It is the world’s largest dedicated supplier of honeybee health products to the honey and pollination industries. With a rigorous and ethical approach to research and development into honeybee health, Vita has no commercial interests in crop pesticides or crop breeding that may be harmful to honeybees.
Vita researches, develops, and manufactures a range of honeybee health products. Its headquarters are in the UK, it has offices in Italy, France and Russia, and partners across the globe. These products are marketed internationally through a network of 60 distributors in 50 countries.
Vita’s honeybee health product range includes anti-varroa acaricides – Apistan® (outside the USA/Canada) and Apiguard® – chalkbrood and wax moth controls, foulbrood diagnostic kits and health-promoting feeds. Vita also supplies Asian hornet traps, Small Hive Beetle traps, a Bee Gym varroa grooming aid and swarm lures. Vita products have been registered by more than 60 veterinary authorities.
Vita promotes sustainable beekeeping through Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Its treatments are designed to inhibit the build-up of resistance and wherever possible contain natural compounds and biological controls that are benign to all but the target pests.
Vita invests a very high proportion of its turnover in research and development. Research partners include universities such as Thessaloniki, Cardiff, Milan, Udine and Naples and institutes such as the FERA Laboratories in the UK and the USDA in America. Vita’s innovative research and development work has been recognised by and has received support from the UK Government.
As a result of its primary research of natural control agents, Vita is currently engaged in new projects exploring mite control in the agriculture, veterinary, and horticulture industries as well as public health and human allergen control.