Lethbridge Research Centre Duo Participate in National Bee Breeding Study.

Both have worked on several selective breeding projects trying to bring honey bee breeding into the modern era.

Their research will be used in a Canada-wide $7.3 Million dollar “BeeOMICS” project to selectively breed queen bees for various economically valuable traits. The study has the widest range of participants, greatest amount of funding, and largest number of institutions involved than another other bee study of its kind in Canada.

Right now, the majority of Canada’s honeybees are imported from warmer southern climates, such as Australia and the southern U.S. However, research conducted by Professor Amro Zayed of York University, shows about a quarter of the colonies die each winter because of our cold climate. In turn, that die off forces beekeepers to import more bees. The optimum solution, is to breed bee stock that can withstand Canada’s climate.

For the current project, Dr. Hoover is a co-investigator, screening 100 of the 1000 colonies used in the study.

LethbridgeNewsNow.com sat down with Dr. Hoover and Lynae Ovinge to discuss the status of honey bees in the province.

WHY IS BEE BREEDING NOT AS STRONG AS OTHER LIVESTOCK BREEDING?

Dr. Hoover: Compared to other livestock breeding it is not very advanced, they [researchers] are trying to bring some monocular techniques into honey bee breeding.

Bee breeding is difficult for a number of reasons: one they’re tiny. I can extract semen from a male bee, but it’s a really specialized skill and it’s not easy. Inseminating bees… there are only a few people around the world who are really good at that, it is a niche skill.

Another reason is that a honey bee queen, unlike a cow, will mate once in her life, but she’ll mate with a dozen or 20 drones and then never mate again. They also do this in the air flying multiple kilometres from their home. Imagine if you are a cattle breeder and you have to let your cows wander 20 kilometres away, mate with a random assortment of bulls and wait for them to come home. That’s sort of where we’re at right now.

Bee keepers need mated queens around this time of year available for requeening, but we haven’t had enough summer-time conditions for beekeepers to rear their own queens so they import them from Hawaii, California or the southern hemisphere. The queens bred in those areas are not selected for harsh Canadian climates.

WHAT ARE THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND MAN-MADE IMPACTS AFFECTING BEES?

Lynae Ovinge: Apart from winter… inconsistent weather. The queens need to have 20-30 degree weather. If so if we get a week in June that rains, all of the queens don’t get mated and it is a failed experiment. Hawaii is always guaranteeing queens that are mated well.

Dr. Hoover: No matter where you are in Canada you can’t accomplish it [breeding] until June. There’s been some evidence that pesticides can affect the semen, whether it is in the drone or subsequently in the seed. The other thing is that shipping queens can be hard on them. If they are exposed to high temperature it can reduce the liability of their semen.

Lynae Ovinge: The biggest bee farms are in Alberta, we have 40 per-cent of Canada’s hives. Most of the large farms are in Southern Alberta because of the pollination.

WHAT THE BEEKEEPERS GREATEST CONCERNS?

Dr. Hoover: The number one concern is always varroa mites which are a parasitic mite that affects honey bees. Right now we have a chemical that is put in the hives to kill the mites but it’s not an easy task to kill a mite on a bee without harming a bee.

We have had products useful in the past, but they are no longer useful, the mites develop resistance. Right now we have one product that works very well and other ones that sort of work. They [beekeepers] have some management options, but that’s it.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTIONS YOU HEAR ABOUT THE INDUSTRY?

Dr. Hoover: I think that bees have been in the media a lot recently and that bee keepers really appreciate the support. I think what they don’t like is when they hear ‘honey bees are going extinct,’ the very melodramatic statements.
The one positive message that we have is that the number of honey bee colonies are growing. We have more honey bee colonies in Canada right now than we have ever had.

Lynae Ovinge: People often view agriculture as being opposed to bees because the pesticides which are killing the bees are in agriculture. However, the reason why we have so many bee hives is because of these large areas of agricultural land. Huge areas of canola and hay fields can support way more honey bees than native prairie lands can. That’s why this province has so many hives; it allows us to keep more bees.

WHAT ELSE HAS ATTRIBUTED TO THIS GROWTH?

Dr. Hoover: Economics. The honey prices have been high until recently and pollination markets have been growing. The value of pollination far exceeds the value of honey in terms of dollars into the economy.

The bee keepers work closely with the farmers and they have a good relationship; whereas, in other jurisdictions in Canada or the U.S. sometimes agriculture ends up being at odds with bee keeping because farmers don’t need bees to produce soy or corn. So the bee keepers don’t like it when they spray things that may be necessary for the crops. Farmers don’t like the restrictions being placed on them to enhance bee health because they don’t need bees. In Alberta, the crops we have need bees.

WHAT CAN THE PUBLIC DO TO HELP BEEKEEPERS?

Dr. Hoover: Buy honey that is made in Canada. It is not always easy to tell, and Canada “Number One,” is only a grading, it doesn’t mean it was actually produced in Canada. Also eat more honey because it will drive the price up so bee keepers will have money to invest in the health of their stock.

by Charlotte Morritt-Jacobs - (@morrittjacobs on Twitter) - Patrick Burles (@PatrickBurles)

Lethbridge Research Centre Duo Participate in National Bee Breeding Study.

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