Hugh will cover the basics about honey bees and beekeeping with focus on how he is adapting to changes in the natural and manufactured Ag environment. This session will leave plenty of time for interaction and question period.

1. Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week
2014
Hive and the
Honey Bee
Beekeeping and Beekeepers
Grey/Bruce County
Hugh Simpson
Commercial Beekeeper
www.ospreybluffshoney.ca

7. Background
 3000
Beekeepers in Ontario
 87,000
hives
 200
Commercial beekeepers 80% of
beehives
 Grey
County:
 Approx.
120 hobby Beekeepers
 Approx.
16 Commercial with over 7000 hives
 One
of the most productive areas for Nectar
in Eastern Canada

8.  Grey/Bruce
region has a number of
large- scale Beekeepers each with 1000
hives or more
 Many are multigenerational with hives
in the same bee yards for over 50 years
 Commercial pollination continues to be
important in this region
 The region also supplies honey bee
Queens and bees in nucleus (nucs)
colonies and full sized colonies to
other parts of Ontario and Canada

9.  Pollination
is responsible and necessary for
1/3 of the world’s food - “if its colorful and
juicy” its insect pollinated
 Honey bee is the most significant of the
pollinators
 Over 1500 Grey County hives go out to fruit
growers for pollination within this region
 Common for Honey bee pollination to
increase a canola crop yield 25% and critical
for apple crop
 In
the US almond pollination involves “millions of
beehives” and honey production is secondary
 Honey
production for Grey and Bruce ranges
upwards of 1,000,000 lbs

10. Honey Bee Health
 “So
how are the bees?”
 Average
Winter losses in Ontario approx
30% with wide ranges both above and
below
 Threats include:
Disease
Pesticides
Parasites
Wildlife
damage
Forage, quality and amount
Weather
and yes…..Beekeeper error

12. Honey Bee Health

The Varroa “Mite” is prolific and is believed to be
the vector for many problems affecting the health
of the hive

Pesticide exposure and its effects is under great
scrutiny right now--”neonics”

A strong hive with lots of healthy bees has a better
chance of surviving threats - Beekeepers’ work is all
about building and keeping strong hives

13. BioSecurity -- Bees and our
Borders
 Keeping
the Canada US Border closed to the
importation of bees from the United States to
Canada
 This policy is under pressure as trade
between US and Canada opens further and as
bee colony losses remain high - but it is
critical for us to preserve the healthy bee
genetics work which is being done in Canada
and specifically in Ontario

14.  Many
of the health issues related to bee
mortality have over time been imported
or are threatened to be imported thru the
transport of bees from high risk /
affected areas:
 Varroa
Mites - key threat now found in
Canada
 Small Hive Beetles- now found in Canada
 American Foul Brood- found in Canada today
 Africanized Bee genetics - not yet
 Colony Collapse Disorder CCD - yet to be
confirmed here in Canada

16. Partners with Growers,
Government and Industry
Growers:
Provide access to their land for
beeyards
 Consider honey bee health in Ag
practices; crop spray, seed treatments
(IPM), crop rotation, mtnce of fence
rows
 Include crops with nectar yields,
clovers, alfalfa, trefoil, canola and let
natural wildflowers dandelions,
goldenrod, joe pye weed etc flourish in
fence rows
 Employ local hives for their pollination
needs
 Buy local honey :)


17. Government:
 Acknowledge
and promote the importance of the
honey bee to the food and agriculture system
 Introduce and pass laws/ policies and programs
that support the health of the honeybee and the
beekeeping sector e.g.
 Promote
 Support
the use of local / domestic honey
objective scientific research with funding
 Monitoring
and enforcement of Ag crop spray/seed
treatment, IPM and Best Management programs
 Allowances
for beeyards within rural municipalities
 Promotion
of natural forage areas in municipal and
provincial parks, ditches, fence row retention
 Retention
of the Provincial Bees Act as separate and
distinct from the Animal health Act for Ontario

18. Industry:
 Crop
Protection product mftr’s / distributors
 Continued
research, development, commercialization
and education for effective and economic
pollinator/environmentally -safe products and their
usage
 Planting
Equipment mftr’s / distributors
 Ramp
up on engineering, production and training for
equipment and use that considers the threat of
unintended consequences toward pollinators and the
environment in general
 Crop
Insurers
 Modeling
and introducing fair insurance programs that
include non-treated crop applications

20. Beekeeping = Managing the
risks and leveraging the
opportunities
(sound familiar?)

21. Managing Production and Leveraging
Opportunity
Production risks:
Pests - IPM natural and other treatment applications and practices for
Varroa Mites, lethal Brood Diseases, even for Bears and Coons/skunks
and …yes….even Bee Hive Rustlers :(
Forage quality - work closely with farmers on cooperative use of
pesticides, crop selections, access and Ag practice, promotion of fence
rows and natural landscapes for forage variety
Weather - just wait or hurry up
Market risks:
Honey prices - diversify markets between, commodity,
wholesale and retail Buyers
Market development - Network, Educate, Cooperate
Get on-line - @twitter, Facebook, Instagram

24. Time for Questions?
 Thank
you for your support of the Honey
bee and Grey/Bruce County Beekeepers
Hugh Simpson
Beekeeper@ospreybluffshoney.ca
Twitter @ospreybeekeeper
Facebook OspreyBluffsBeekeeper