This past weekend ATTTA was pleased to attend the Atlantic Bee Tour held in Antigonish! The Atlantic Bee Tour, previously known as the Maritime Bee Tour, is a biennial beekeeper event that had a couple of postponements due to COVID-19. It is an informative and community building experience in which beekeepers from the Atlantic Provinces are invited to gather at a local beekeeping operation for tours, workshops, and an opportunity to connect with one another. In this week’s blog, we will reflect on the events of this most recent Bee Tour.
Atlantic Bee Tour 2022
Well known local beekeepers, Mario Swinkels
and Ben Cornect were the hosts of the 2022 Atlantic Bee Tour which was organized
by the Nova Scotia Beekeepers Association. The event began at Pins Bowling
Center in Antigonish, which provided a very pleasant environment to gather and
listen to presentations. The first speaker was Chris Lockhart, a prominent NB
Beekeeper, who spoke about the benefits of running single deep brood chambers
as compared to doubles. He addressed concerns about overwintering starvation
and excessive swarming and was convincing that with proper management, single
brood chamber colonies are a valid and intriguing option in Atlantic
Canada. Some of the benefits he suggested included: increase honey collection,
easier maintenance of burr comb build up, finding the queen, and the overall
reduced quantity of hive bodies!
Next, NS beekeeper Lauren Park
presented about queen raising in Atlantic Canada, providing a broad overview of
the steps involved in queen rearing, from choosing the colonies to use in
raising queens to harvesting the mature cells for mating. Raising queens
locally, better supports our industry and has the potential to lead to more a
climatically-hardy, locally adapted stock of Atlantic honey bees.
The next portion of the evening split the
group into commercial and small-scale beekeepers. While the commercial beekeepers
engaged in a round table discussion about the state of the industry, ATTTA presented
on managing varroa mites throughout the beekeeping season. Having a solid grasp
on varroa mite management will be integral to the success of all beekeeping
operations in the Maritime region. We
suggest an integrated pest management approach, which includes regular
monitoring and diversity of treatments.
The event resumed the following morning,
which was a beautiful sunny day. The day began with a thorough tour of Cornect Family Farm. We
toured the extraction facility, honey house, and an overwintering nuc yard. One
unique aspect of this operation is a hydraulic crane used for hive
transportation. With this machine, Ben is able to more rapidly and smoothly
transport beehives to wild blueberry fields for pollination. The crane is fast,
efficient, and causes almost no disturbance to the bees within, making a much
more pleasant experience for late night hive loading.
Next, was a tour of Swinkels Bee Products and
afternoon workshops. The Swinkels’ operation was interesting to see, as it is
in a transitional period while they are expanding their extraction facility to
increase their capacity. Seeing the current operation and the progress of the
expansion allowed both new and established beekeepers to imagine the potential
of their own operation and learn from the experience of an established and
successful beekeeper. After the tour, the day wrapped up with four small-group workshops.
ATTTA and others led workshops on a range of beekeeping topics.
Overall, the Atlantic Bee Tour was a lovely
and informative event. Thank you to everyone involved and we look forward to the
next event in 2024, held
in another yet to be determined Atlantic Canadian province!
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