24 BEE research


diseases.” He credited his audience with much of his own knowledge for the presentation. Carlos Castilla of the National Bee Diagnostic Centre provided an overview of his work on the Canadian honey bee health survey “We are developing a bee health baseline,” says Castilla, adding that the fourth annual report will be available in mid- May. He outlined the lab expansion currently winding up at the National Bee Diagnostic Centre. “Our new lab will be four


times larger to be able to support the bee health diagnostic work the lab does for producers across Canada,” he says.


The BC Bee Breeders


Association (BCBBA), which holds its meetings in conjunction with BCHPA, is working to breed bees for better winter survival. Heather Higo presented on behalf of BCBBA. “It is possible to over winter queens successfully in BC with no loss,” reported Higo, who rears her own queens. “It is something to think about and it will cut down on the number of imported packages.”


Bill Stagg of Sweetacre Apiaries in Tappen repeated the message in his talk, “Managing a Sustainable Apiary Without Imports.” Stagg, a former provincial bee inspector who gives beginner beekeeping workshops across the province, gave an overview of


nfrom page 23


his business and bee management model. A sole operator who aims to support his family from the apiary, Stagg likes to keep things small and simple. “You can make more money with 200 carefully managed colonies than you can with 300 that are poorly managed,” Stagg maintains. He raises queens to maintain his own colonies and cannot afford the expense or risk of importing packages. He sells queens and nucleus (starter) colonies in addition to honey. “My management isn’t


anything new or exciting,” says Stagg. “It’s just doing the basic things well. “March is not the beginning of the bee season. Your year should start in the fall when you take off the honey. Poor fall management sets up for a disappointing spring.” Melathopoulos’s final


presentation was of particular relevance given apiarists’ concerns with bee health as they provide pollination services. Melathopoulos works to improve pollinator health on behalf of the Oregon government, which includes training attendees at pesticide applicator courses on how to reduce pesticide exposure to pollinating insects. “The message you need to send is that we are both working hard to make a living,” he advises. “We are in this together. Growers need pollinators and the bees need the pollen.”


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • MAY 2018


BCHPA launches pollinator health study


by TOM WALKER KAMLOOPS – Blueberries are the top fruit


export from BC, with some 9,500 hectares (23,500 acres) planted. Depending on the variety and age of the blueberry plants, each acre requires at least four bee hives, meaning that close to 90,000 hives are needed each year to pollinate the province’s blueberry crop. But when bees come back from working in blueberry fields, they are not healthy. “Some growers report that their colonies languish after blueberry pollination,” says researcher Heather Higo, who discussed the issue at the semi-annual BC Honey Producers Association (BCHPA) education day in Kamloops, March 10. “Alberta growers tell us when they move their bees back hoping to get a honey crop up there, the bees are in such poor condition that they are not able to produce a good honey crop. … We have reports of 10% to 15% of colonies dying in the late summer plus another 15% in decline.” Higo was part of a blueberry pollination panel that discussed the issue, and a new study that hopes to address it. “We are not making any accusations about practice, or speculations; we are launching a study to investigate,” says BCHPA president Kerry Clark. Fraser Valley blueberry growers use both local colonies and approximately 20,000 hives from Alberta to pollinate their bushes each spring. But this year, three beekeepers


representing about 6,000 colonies say they’re withholding colonies. “That’s a lose/lose scenario,” Clark points


out. “It is serious for the beekeepers in BC and Alberta and it is serious for the


blueberry growers.” Beekeepers receive $100 to $150 per hive


for pollination, notes Creston beekeeper Jeff Lee.


“But the blueberry growers will lose thousands per acre if they don’t get proper pollination,” he says. “It is distressing to see that we don’t have buy-in from the one berry group that is most at risk in this.” A report out of Alberta describes the symptoms bees are exhibiting as similar to those associated with European Foul Brood. Higo outlined the new study on behalf of


lead investigator Marta Guarna, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. “We consider this a preliminary project to


investigate and try to mitigate bee health issues in blueberry pollination,” she says. “We need to know if it is an issue of nutrition – are blueberries just so lacking in what our bees need to stay healthy as they grow in the spring? Or is it possibly insecticides and fungicides used in blueberries crops, or maybe a combination of both?”


The study will work with five beekeepers whose bees pollinate blueberries. Colony health and growth will be monitored three times throughout the nine-week pollination period and researchers will sample bees, bee bread and honey three times. “Every time we go into those colonies we will be looking for signs of sick bees,” says Higo. “Because we think it may be a nutrition issue, we are providing a protein supplement to half of the colonies in each yard that we work in.” The researchers hope to access spray


records from blueberry growers so they know which chemicals may be present, something that will focus their tests.


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