Beekeeping in Alberta - a great Canadian success story

Everyone has heard about the value of honeybees to the food chain, and no one is more aware of that than those of us that manage these bees across Canada. There has been a great deal of discussion regarding the plight of the honeybee, and while there are numerous challenges before us as beekeepers we have also experienced great success in recent years.

Back in the mid-2000s, beekeepers from across Alberta began to notice that the health of their bees was deteriorating and we had no clear reason as to why this was happening. In a short few years we experienced our worst wintering losses in decades and were struggling to find solutions. It finally occurred to us that we had to not only look among ourselves to solve the issue, but to also include all our partners in agriculture.

This led to the creation of a bee health program that was strongly supported by beekeepers, government, and seed companies in southern Alberta. The purpose of this program was to offer extension and education services to beekeepers from across the province for a minimal fee. Participation in the program was high and we improved our ability to diagnose and treat the numerous diseases and pests that were harming bee health in the province. As a result of this initiative and the cooperation of all the parties involved, we saw a colony increase of 20% and 33% increase in beekeepers in Alberta by 2014.

What we learned from this program was even more important than the increased colony and beekeeper numbers within the province. This cooperation taught us better ways to control the varroa mite and nosema, which are the two main stressors our bees experience. We also gained a better understanding as to how modern agricultural practices affect bees, and vice versa. It became very clear that this relationship is symbiotic, and that the current technologies available in modern agriculture are vital to the survival of all sectors of agriculture in Canada. What Alberta did was not groundbreaking, and it could be easily accomplished in other provinces as well.

So where does that put us in 2015? Beekeepers in Alberta had phenomenal wintering success this past winter, and that has put us in a good position heading into both honey production and pollination services that our colonies are used for across the province. We also continue to have a strong relationship with government, growers, and seed manufacturers in Alberta due to our continued willingness to work together and find solutions that help everyone involved.

Lee Townsend is a commercial beekeeper in Alberta