There’s good news for Alberta beekeepers – the industry has recovered from its past losses and bee colonies are again healthy.
“We started 2006 with 250,000 hives and in three years, we lost 90 per cent of those bees. Right now we are sitting at 260,000 hives,” Alberta Agriculture provincial apiculturist Medhat Nasr said at the recent Alberta Beekeepers Commission annual general meeting.
For the past three years, 35 per cent of the province’s bees were lost to winterkill and 10 per cent were lost due to weak colonies. This year’s winterkill was 17.5 per cent.
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“We are back to what we call normal winterkill and the average for the last 20 years,” said Nasr.
Some beekeepers in the province still suffered high losses, but that number is shrinking, said Nasr. However, he noted, beekeepers still face the challenge of dealing with varroa mites and other diseases.
The beekeeping program at Alberta Agriculture stresses education in its extension and outreach services and that’s been paying dividends, said Nasr.
“Over the past three years, we have started to see the value of education,” he said. “If you want to run a business, you have to change. You have to change to better management and you have to change and learn new ways of keeping your bees.”
Each year, the apiculture division runs a beginner’s beekeeping course which is attended by about 30 to 40 participants, some of whom go on to become commercial beekeepers. For the past eight years, the division has also run an integrated pest management workshop which brings in internationally recognized speakers. The division also runs a queen rearing course that began a couple of years ago.
“With support from the Growing Forward program, we were able to run six courses this year,” said Nasr.
Future courses will include pollination workshops, courses on bee genetics and breeding, and a master beekeeping course for commercial beekeepers or hobbyists.
The division is also creating a booklet on best management practices. Another team will be creating a one-stop website, which will appear on the Alberta Agriculture website in the near future.
Over the last three years, several missions from Japan have come to learn about Alberta’s honey and tour some of the province’s facilities.
“We designed a program to let them know what we are doing for honeybee health and disease control,” said Nasr. “They are looking for honey free from antibiotics or residues. They are quite impressed by the way we are running our business and we have created trust between the Japanese and our industry here.”
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“We started 2006 with 250,000 hives and in three years, we lost 90 per cent of those bees. Right now we are sitting at 260,000 hives.”
MEDHAT NASR
PROVINCIAL APICULTURIST
