The Atlantic Tech Transfer Team for Apiculture has been busy this past summer conducting research in apiaries, wild blueberry fields and within our own lab facilities. This past season our team consisted of Dr. Andrew Byers (senior apiculturist and program lead), Kayla Gaudet (full-time apiculturist), and 3 seasonal apiculturist (John MacDonald, Greg Dugas and Kaitlyn Newton). Our projects have largely focused on supporting the pollination industry and on honey bee health. Read this week’s blog for a brief summary of our main projects from summer 2025. We will be providing more in-depth reports on various projects throughout the coming months.
Summary of ATTTA Summer Field Work 2025
ATTTA
Regional Varroa Mite Survey
For the
second season, ATTTA is conducting a regional varroa mite survey to assess
temporal trends in mite levels and to assess the efficacy of amitraz (active
ingredient in Apivar® - a synthetic miticide). The year the survey consisted of
23 beekeepers (9 in Nova Scotia, 7 in New Brunswick and 7 on Prince Edward
Island). Our team aims to include as many commercial beekeepers representing
the 3 Maritime provinces as possible, and we often reach out to more beekeepers
than reflected by those who are able to participate. These beekeepers represent
a significant portion of Maritime beekeeping operations, and are all commercial
beekeepers who provide pollination services.
The survey is intended to broadly sample across the Maritime region. Those who participate have been asked to provide ATTTA with 3 to 6 samples of approximately 300 honey bees 3 times throughout this beekeeping season (prior to pollination, after pollination and late season). The survey has several main goals, including determine Varroa mite levels across the region at three important time points during the current season; collect Varroa mites for miticide efficacy testing; establish temporal measurements for annual comparison of Varroa burden for the Maritime region; and create a stored bank of samples for possible future testing. We will be reporting on the results of ATTTA’s varroa mite survey in the coming weeks.
Pollination
Efficiencies for Wild Blueberry Production
ATTTA has a
continued goal of supporting the wild blueberry pollination industry. This year
ATTTA had a couple of continued projects that focused on assessing wild
blueberry bloom, and the requirements of pollination units. The first project
involved assessing wild blueberry bloom during the months of May and June. The
aim of this project is the creation of a growing degree day bloom model, using
local weather stations, to better predict the timing for placement of
pollination units. This improved model will also include the endodormancy and
ecodormancy requirements of the wild blueberry plant to establish a starting
point for GDD modeling. This was the
third and final year of data collection for this collaborative project with
Dalhousie University and ATTTA.
The second
project involved assessments of sprout year fields. The goal of the project is
to assess how early in the year floral and leaf buds can be distinguished, and
how early accurate bud counts can be achieved. This will help to determine the
crop year floral density as a predictor of pollination requirements. The hope
is to support blueberry producers and beekeepers through a better understanding
of bloom as one component of a predictive model determining the demand for
pollination services.
Queen
Production and Training
Last summer
the ATTTA team started to resume producing queens for research purposes. For
the past two summers our team has focused on building up colony numbers, as any
queen producer knows it takes an abundance of bees and resources to raise
queens. Following the return of bees from wild blueberry pollination in late
June, the team did several rounds of grafting queens using the cloake board
method (see previous blog “Cloake Board Method” published on August 29, 2024) and produced a number
of mated queens to use within their own operation. The goal
for next year will be to continue to grow colony numbers in order to support
enough queen production to create a queen bank. The idea of mass banking queens
through the winter in a queen bank is a high-interest topic among beekeepers in
the Maritimes, and is key component to supporting early season local queens.
In addition to ATTTA’s own steps towards queen production, the team
organized and hosted queen production training, taught by guest instructor
Alison Van Alten, to help support a sustainable queen production industry
within the Maritime region. There was a total of 12 students who successfully
completed this training. Feedback from those who participated in the course has
been consistently and highly positive.
Bumble
Bee Captive Breeding and Overwintering
The final project
to discuss is ATTTA’s work involving captive breeding, housing and
overwintering Bombus impatiens. As a continuation from last year’s trials,
the ATTTA team captively bred Bombus impatiens queens on a weekly basis
throughout July and August. After mating, queens were cared for daily in
ATTTA’s indoor facility. Each queen was kept in a temperature-controlled
environment and fed both pollen and sugar water. The team also exposed each
queen to the needed conditions to stimulate her to start producing brood. These
conditions included a small amount of carbon dioxide exposure and a low
temperature environment for a period of time. The intention of the project is
to now manage these queens into the winter months. Overall, this project allows
the team to gain a deeper insight into these important pollinators and to
better support producers relying on insect pollination.
Continue
reading our blog on a weekly basis as we report on the results of the various
projects for 2025!
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 attta@perennia.ca