Beekeepers association continues to buzz

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

The Saskatchewan Beekeepers Association (SBA) has been around for 85 years, but this energetic organization does not intended to slow down anytime soon. In fact, it is buzzing with continued progress and the opportunity to further its research.

Recently, the SBA was given a $366,729 grant under the Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food in Saskatchewan (ACAAFS) program to continue its important work for another three years. The grant is targeted at the organization's ongoing project breed productive, gentle honeybee lines with improved tolerance to mites and brood diseases.

The SBA's continued research will help to establish breeding methods to develop bees with genetic resistance to parasitic mites, eliminating or reducing the need for chemicals. This practice protects the environment from harmful organophosphates, the consumer from food safety or quality concerns, and the beekeeper from bee colony losses.

"This research is essential, due to the fact that two mites, the tracheal mite and the varroa mite, have made their way to Canada, and have become devastating over the last 10 years," said John Gruszka, Provincial Apiculturist for Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food. "These mites have caused the honey production industry in Western Canada to re-think and change how it operates."

Gruszka says that, beginning in the early 1940s, Western Canadian beekeeping developed as what is known as a package bee industry. "We used to be able to purchase two pounds of bees and a new queen from the southern states. They would be trucked up here in April, installed in the colonies, and produce a honey crop. Then the bees would be destroyed and the same process would be repeated the following year," he stated.

"Since the advent of these mites and the concerns over how devastating they are going to be, along with rapid increase in the price of the honey, there has been a movement to learn how to keep bees in our climate. It was re-thinking an old technology and applying new methodology."

The SBA was at the forefront of this movement. When the tracheal mite first gained prominence, the organization applied for and received money from Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food's Agriculture Development Fund to test how much of an impact it would have on the industry.

When the varroa mite appeared, the industry approached government to change the regulations on importing honeybees into Canada. This resulted in a certification program that permitted only mite-free honeybees to be imported into the country.

"The SBA has been working on breeding a honeybee stock that is suitable to our climate and that minimizes winter losses, which allows the bees to come through the winter in much stronger colonies, enhancing honey production. They are now showing almost complete resistance to the honeybee tracheal mite and some resistance to the varroa mite," Gruszka said.

"The SBA has been instrumental in getting research done in order to tackle the concerns and threats to the honey production industry, and in working towards a long-term solution that will alleviate some of our current dependence on chemical applications to keep these mites under control."

The SBA has more recently established the Saskatchewan Beekeepers Development Commission to administer a producer-based development fund.

The commission collects approximately $38,000 per year from Saskatchewan beekeepers, which is used for the genetic breeding program, as well as for advertising and promotion on the provincial and national scale.

There are roughly 140 commercial beekeeping producers in Saskatchewan (and another 1,000 hobby beekeepers) who provide around 1,000 summer jobs bringing in the honey crop during the extracting season. On a per-colony basis, Saskatchewan is one of the largest honey producers in the world, with a 10-year average of about 200 pounds per colony.

"Saskatchewan produces between 20 and 25 million pounds of honey per year, most of which is exported to other parts of Canada, the United States and the world," said Gruszka.

For more information, contact:
John Gruszka, Provincial Apiculturist
Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food
Phone: (306) 953-2790