BY ALEXIS KIENLEN • PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN JACKSON
Alberta’s chief apiculturist examines province’s perennial pollinators
Buzz feed
MEDHAT NASR HAS BEEN FASCINATED BY INSECTS SINCE HE WAS A BOY, GROWING UP NEAR THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA.
He majored in entomology while pursuing his undergraduate degree at Cairo University. Honeybees interested him because of their
unique social structure and their role in crop pollination. Nasr chose to focus his master’s degree on honeybees, and his head has been
filled with bees ever since.
He left his homeland of Egypt to complete his doctorate at the University of California, Davis, and, in 1990, he moved to Guelph,
ON, with the mission of breeding honeybees that were resistant to tracheal mites. He worked at the University of Guelph for three
years and then at the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association as a technology transfer specialist. His position represented one of the first
times in North America that the beekeeping industry and researchers had collaborated on a research program. In 2000, Nasr was
recruited by Rutgers University—New Brunswick, New Jersey, to spearhead a bee-health program.
Nasr took the position of provincial apiculturist with Alberta Agriculture in 2002. Since then, his guidance and leadership have
improved bee health in Alberta, and he has established several new bee-related initiatives within the province.
GrainsWest:
What does the provincial
apiculturist do?
MN:
The position itself involves mainly
regulatory and extension work. In Alber-
ta, similar to any province or country,
we have the Bee Act and Bee Regulation,
which protect the industry from the
spread of diseases and maintain surveil-
lance to ensure disease containment. The
Act helps beekeepers apply biosecurity
to keep healthy bees. The provincial
apiculturist also does extension work to
educate beekeepers about new technol-
ogies and how to apply them. Because of
my qualifications as a researcher, I also do
applied research. Before I was hired, there
were no bee scientists in Alberta Agricul-
ture. Being able to do research has been
advantageous, because it allows us to react
quickly to problems that arise.
GW:
Can you give us a basic overview of
Alberta’s bee industry?
MN:
Alberta is a large honey producer.
We have about 285,000 hives, about 43
per cent of the bees in Canada. Our indus-
try is mostly commercial. Ninety-five per
cent of the bees are managed by about 120
commercial beekeepers, each with about
2,250 hives. The highest concentration of
bees in the province is north of Red Deer
to Athabasca and the Westlock area. That
area has almost 125,000 hives. Between
Calgary and Red Deer, there are about
25,000 hives, and south of Calgary, about
75,000 hives. The Peace River area has
about 60,000 hives. There are about 950
registered beekeepers in the province.
GW:
What can farmers do to help bee-
keepers maintain bee health?
MN:
Farmers and beekeepers rely on
each other. Beekeepers rely on farmers to
provide land. Farmers get a free service
of pollination, and beekeepers get honey.
Alberta has the largest number of colonies
in Canada that are moved for pollination.
About 75,000 hives are moved to Leth-
bridge, Medicine Hat and the Calgary area
for hybrid canola-seed production. That
industry contributes about $650 million to
Alberta’s economy.
Since those farmers rely on honeybees
for pollination, they have to take care
of the bees by using best management
practices on their crops. When farmers
use pesticides, they need to follow the
labels to make sure they are applied safely
and don’t kill the bees. Both parties need
to communicate. Farmers need to tell
beekeepers when they are going to be
applying pesticides so that beekeepers can
move their bees if needed.
In Alberta, we have been quite suc-
cessful working with both farmers and
beekeepers to make sure they understand
each other’s needs. Once in a while, bees
do die from pesticides, and we investigate.
If we find that pesticides have been used
improperly, there are ways to mitigate this
problem. We rely on communication, and
if there’s a problem, we talk with the farm-
ers about how to remedy the situation.
GW:
What kinds of challenges has
Alberta’s bee industry faced?
MN:
Varroa mites made it to Alberta in
1990. Varroa are external parasitic mites
that suck the blood of honeybees, leaving
them compromised and prone to infec-
tion. Initially, beekeepers learned how to
manage mites with reliance on miticides.
Unfortunately, the mites developed resist-
ance to the chemicals.
Fall
2015
grainswest.com
15
