The time of year has begun for beekeeper gatherings and meetings. Winter is a great opportunity to connect with the community, reflect on the season past, and start planning for the year to come! This past Saturday, the Prince Edward Island Beekeepers Association held their Annual General Meeting in Charlottetown. ATTTA was pleased to be a part of this lovely event and will reflect on the highlights of the meeting in this week’s blog.
Report on the Prince Edward Island Beekeepers Association AGM 2022
Members of the PEIBA came together this weekend and were
joined by guest speakers from across the country. The day began with an
informative update from Provincial Apiarist, Cameron Menzies, who provided a
snapshot of the PEI beekeeping industry. The growing industry continues to
pursue the goal of being self-sufficient for honey bee pollination of wild
blueberry fields. Towards this end, the 2022 Pollination Expansion Program
approved over $300 thousand year to support beekeepers. Since the program
began, the industry has seen 25% hive increase on the island. To fill the existing
pollination gap, additional hives are imported primarily from Ontario. Brood
inspections by Cameron and his team indicated no signs of biosecurity threats
in these colonies. Conditions for pollination were good this year, and the island
saw high yields of wild blueberries, the second largest yield to date! This is
optimistic for the province, as productive wild blueberry land continues to
expand.
Beekeeper Ian Steppler joined the meeting remotely from
Alberta, where he produces his popular YouTube Channel, A Canadian
Beekeeper’s Blog. Ian offered
insight into techniques to improve apiary sustainability by maintaining a
reliable stock of nucleus colonies to replace seasonal losses. The cycle begins
by overwintering a collection of healthy nucs to replace winter losses. Next, spring
assessments reveal additional unproductive colonies to be replaced and identify
prolific colonies which are used to resupply the nuc bank. Ian also discussed
his queen production system. Internal queen rearing facilitates rapid nuc
production during the beekeeping season, which can then be used to replace weak
hives in the fall and provide an abundance of strong nucleus colonies to
overwinter. In cyclical fashion, the sustainability of the apiary is supported
by an abundance of available nucs to replace dead or failing colonies.
Paul Kelly, from the University
of Guelph Honey Bee Research Centre, participated in the meeting as well.
Paul emphasized ways that a beekeeping community can move towards
self-sufficiency by support from within. Speaking from his experience, Paul
discussed how the Ontario industry improved their regional self-sufficiency by
reducing overwintering losses, improving queen production techniques, replacing
losses internally with hive splits, and overwintering nucs to restore winter
hive losses.
ATTTA provided our team and research updates, as well, as we
continue to make our way across the Atlantic Region to join the beekeeping and
wild blueberry associations in their annual gatherings. Starting with an encouraging
address to association members, President Troy Fraser concluded the event with
a constructive business meeting. Overall, it was a successful event and ATTTA
looks forward to the coming year for PEI beekeepers!
Connecting with ATTTA Specialists