President's Report

I hope everyone had a relaxing Christmas and holiday break. We now begin to make plans for what will no doubt be another challenging season. I recently made the trip to Las Vegas for the American Beekeepers Federation meeting, and while it was good to meet some new beekeepers and talk to many familiar faces in the tradeshow, COVID once again put a big damper on an otherwise excellent convention. Many speakers were forced to cancel or send in pre-recorded talks, and many booths sat empty or were backfilled with unrelated suppliers and sales people.

Some of the highlights included a keynote speaker who presented on a major environmental incident where an ethanol plant was being utilized to process all unused treated seed from across North America. The spent product was then being sold to farmers as fertilizer without proper testing on the pesticide residues still found within it. You can find out more at the Project Apis m. blog page https://www.projectapism.org/projectapis-m-blog.

Another keynote speaker was Dr. David Tarpy who spoke about the relationship between the queen and the environment she lives in. One of his experiments took good queens and swapped them out into the hives of poor queens and vice versa. The results were that the qood queen did poorly and the “poor” queen did better. It was a good reminder that blaming the queen, or the queen producer is not always the answer. We hope to get Dr. Tarpy at the 2022 Convention.

To that point the board has been working hard at several projects aimed at improving the hive environment. Top of the list is and will continue to be funding research to kill mites. We are in discussions with Dr. Rassol Bahreini to continue some of the work the Commission supported between 2013 – 2018 looking at orphan compounds. Dr. Bahreini and Dr. Olav Rueppel at the University of Alberta have submitted a research proposal to the Commission. Dr. Medhat Nasr is also continuing this work in Saskatchewan.

The Commission had an opportunity to meet with Ministers Horner and Orr to present the irradiation project. The presentation was well received. Two industry partners have expressed interest in partnering with beekeepers which will increase the viability of this project. Edmonton International Airport business development group has expressed interest as the site where an irradiation facility would be established once all the financing is in place. There will be a presentation on this project at the upcoming Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Workshop that is taking place February 10 and 11. Another side project we have been working on is looking at recycling of plastics as we cull our frames.

We hope you can join us at the upcoming IPM Workshop this month that is being hosted as a hybrid meeting by our Tech Transfer Program (TTP) team. The TTP will also be hosting a Queen Breeders Day on Saturday, February 12, following the IPM. CHC will also be hosting their Annual General Meeting (AGM) on February 9, 2022.

A reminder that there will be a Special Commission Meeting at the IPM to discuss a possible hive levy increase and how this increase will be utilised and I encourage everyone to make an effort to make it out for this meeting either in person or virtually and voice your opinion.

Jeremy Olthof

Notice of Special Commission Meeting

The Alberta Beekeepers Commission (ABC) is calling a special Commission meeting of Alberta eligible producers.

The meeting is scheduled to take place as follows:

• Date: Friday, February 11, 2022 • Time: 7:30am – 9:00am • Meeting format: Hybrid (Producers can participate in- person at the venue, or online via Zoom) • Location of the meeting: Hilton DoubleTree West Edmonton, 16615 109 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB T5P 4K8 • Registration: To register your attendance and participate in voting, please visit the link below.

Agenda and papers: Agenda and papers (including the revised Regulations (final draft) and new By-laws (final draft) will be sent to producers prior to the meeting.

https://www.albertabeekeepers.ca/about/2022special-commission-meeting/