This past weekend the Atlantic Tech Transfer Team for Apiculture had the pleasure of participating in the 2024 Atlantic Bee Tour hosted by the New Brunswick Beekeepers Association in Bathurst and Charlo, NB. There were upwards of 50 attendees, with representation across the Atlantic region. The event consisted of blueberry field tours, a commercial beekeeper's meeting, presentations from industry representatives, a tour of the Charlo Honey House, and a variety of workshops for beekeepers to partake in. The Atlantic Bee Tour is an important event to our industry providing an opportunity for beekeepers to network and learn. Read this week’s blog to learn the details of this successful event.
Review of 2024 Atlantic Bee Tour
Beekeepers
across the Atlantic region gathered in Bathurst, NB on Friday July 26th
for the 2024 Atlantic Bee Tour. The event started with a visit to a local wild
blueberry field in Lavillette, NB owned by John Schenkels. Lots of discussion
occurred around the fields, including topics such as pollination requirements
of wild blueberries in New Brunswick, outlook of the 2024 wild blueberry
season, and both the history/current operations of John Schenkels’ blueberry
fields.
Later in the
day a commercial beekeeper meeting took place in Bathurst, NB. Dr. Andrew Byers
(The Tech Transfer Lead) gave an overview of the 2024 beekeeping season so far.
Dr. Byers discussed the preliminary report from the Canadian Association for
Professional Apiculturists (CAPA) on honey bee winter losses in Canada. Dr.
Byers also discussed the Varroa mite research currently being done by the ATTTA
Team. Next week’s blog will provide a mid-season summary on ATTTA’s Varroa mite
research for 2024.
Michel
Melanson (New Brunswick Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries)
discussed details of the New Brunswick Wild Blueberry Pollination Strategy on
behalf of the Joint Pollination Committee. The strategy is a 5-year plan that
will work towards increasing pollination resources for New Brunswick blueberry
producers by 60% from 47,000 to 75,000 pollinating units by spring of 2029. The
strategy consists of five goals, including: increase the number of New Brunswick
honey bee colonies available for pollination by 79%; increase the number of
honey bee colonies available for importation by 74%; increase the number of
alfalfa leafcutting bee gallons in New Brunswick by 27%; increase the number of
bumble bee quads in New Brunswick by 22%; and support native bees as
pollinators. Each goal has distinct initiatives to help achieve the goal by
2029. More details of the strategy can be found in the published executive
summary on the Government of New Brunswick website.
The evening
of Friday the 26th consisted of 2 excellent presentations. Pascale
Michaud (University of Moncton) discussed 3 projects that are occurring at the University.
Dr. Michaud discussed how low concentrations of pesticides (particularly the
insecticide imidacloprid) have impacts on the longevity of the western honey
bee lifespan. The second project the University has been researching is the
effect of overwintering on the honey bee immune system. The project looked at
the difference in phagocytosis occurring in summer versus winter. Finally, the
University of Moncton has been researching the relationship between colony
infections and honey bee health. There were 50 colonies followed for
approximately 1 year, and for each hive a swab was taken from the entrance and
bottom board. The team assesses for a variety of honey bee diseases, and
classifies the infection as “not detected”, “low level”, or “high level”. This
service is also offered to beekeepers who are interested in knowing their honey
bee disease profile through AgroGene Solutions.
Fletcher
Colpitts (New Brunswick Chief Apiary Inspector, retired) gave a talk on the
early days of beekeeping and pollination in New Brunswick. Mr. Colpitts
discussed how beekeeping practices have changed from decade to decade,
including the challenges that occurred once Varroa mites were introduced into
New Brunswick beekeeping. He also discussed how pollination services continued
to become more efficient with the introduction of new equipment/practices, and
how his family’s operation changed over the years.
On Saturday
July 27th the Atlantic Bee Tour continued in Charlo, NB at the
Charlo Honey House, which is owned and operated by Eric and Chantal Neil. Eric
gave a tour of the honey house showing everyone the various extraction
equipment and the variety of products sold at the shop. The Charlo Honey House
is a local tourist attraction and is well worth a visit.
Karen
Thurlow (Chief Apiary Inspector) gave a talk during the morning sharing all her
tips and tricks to make beekeeping as efficient as possible.
Simultaneously,
during the morning session, Nathan Mutch (President of New Brunswick Beekeepers
Association) successfully performed a beard of bees, which had the audience
highly entertained. If you have never seen a bee beard, be sure to look this up
online. We sincerely thank Nathan for enduring multiple stings for the team,
and we recommend serious caution to any beekeeper considering attempting this
in their future.
During the
afternoon session various workshops occurred throughout the apiary. Kayla
Gaudet and John MacDonald (Atlantic Tech Transfer Team for Apiculture) gave a
workshop on monitoring for Varroa mites throughout the beekeeping season.
Nathan Mutch discussed how to make splits. Karen Thurlow gave a workshop on
doing a hive inspection from top to bottom. Finally, Chris Lockhart (New
Brunswick Beekeepers Association board member) discussed various systems of
palletization.
On behalf of
the ATTTA team we would like to thank everyone involved with making this year’s
Bee Tour a success. Thank you to Brain Pond (New Brunswick Beekeepers
Association) for all his work coordinating and running this event. Thank you to
other NBBA members including Nathan Mutch and Chris Lockhart for all their work
educating and mentoring beekeepers throughout the event. We would like to thank
John Schenkels for allowing the group to tour his fields, and our other hosts
Eric and Chantel Neil for the use of the Charlo Honey House for Saturday’s
events. Finally, we would like to thank all of the presenters throughout the
event, including Michel Melanson, Pascal Michaud, Fletcher Colpitts and Karen
Thurlow - we appreciation the knowledge each of you bring to these events. We
hope to see everyone at the Atlantic Bee Tour 2026.
Connecting with ATTTA Specialists
If you’d like to connect with ATTTA specialists or learn more about our program, you can:
visit our website at https://www.perennia.ca/portfolio-items/honey-bees/
Email abyers@perennia.ca