When I came here in 2002, we had
to find a new way to control mites. We
switched to a product called CheckMite.
By 2006, the mites had developed resist-
ance to it, and Alberta beekeepers lost 44
per cent of their bees. This coincided with
worldwide colony collapse disorder, which
Alberta never had.
We didn’t have a product available to re-
place CheckMite. We had access to several
other products, which were mostly or-
ganic products like formic acid and oxalic
acid. These products were only effective
in temperatures ranging from 15 to 25°C,
and oxalic acid could only be applied late
in the fall when there was no brood. All of
these products only worked under certain
weather conditions, so they had variable
efficacy, which was problematic.
In 2007, I worked with the Pest Man-
agement Regulatory Agency to register
Apivar, a product from France, in Canada.
It took us about a year and a half to prove
that Apivar was safe for use and wouldn’t
affect the quality of honey. By the fall
of 2008, we got the product registered
for use with a special permit. At the
time, I was a member of the Canadian
Association of Professional Apiculturists
and chair of its chemical committee, so
I spearheaded a program to register the
product across Canada.
GW:
How are the bees doing now?
MN:
It took a couple years for beekeepers
to learn how to apply the product properly
and find out the most effective time to
apply it to bee hives. Through our research
and followup programs, we were able to
recommend best management practices.
With the support of the Alberta Crop
Industry Development Fund, we created
a proactive beekeeping program in 2009.
Beekeepers believed that the chemicals
they were applying in the hives worked,
but they had never monitored the results
or the development of resistance. The pro-
active bee-health program we developed
was initially for Alberta, but other prov-
inces soon began to copy the program,
which was based on a preventive model.
Beekeepers had to monitor their hives
for any pathogens or parasites, and we
established thresholds for parasites. When
parasites reached the thresholds, beekeep-
ers treated their hives right away.
We established an integrated pest man-
agement system for honeybees. A team of
about 15 people worked with the beekeep-
ers, helping them monitor and interpret
the results so they could make their own
decisions about whether or not to treat.
Mostly, we tried to encourage people to
use products other than Apivar, so that
resistance would take longer to develop.
Beekeepers saw how things changed
in their operations by monitoring and
treating properly. This program was so
effective that, by 2011, our winterkill
went down by half. From 2011 to now, our
winterkill is averaging 18 per cent, which
is close to the long-term expected winter
losses by beekeepers. During part of this
period, beekeepers can’t treat the bees be-
cause the hive is wrapped for the winter.
This year, because the winter was mild,
we had one of the lowest levels of win-
terkill in the last 20 years: 10.6 per cent.
GW:
Are beekeepers dealing with any
diseases or parasites other than varroa
mites right now?
MN:
The other challenge is nosema, a
fungus that grows inside bees’ guts, which
gives them diarrhea and dehydrates them.
There are about 20,000 bees in the winter
and about 60,000 bees in the summer.
Healthy bees don’t defecate inside hives,
but when bees get sick with nosema, they
do. The younger bees clean up the fecal
matter, ingest the spores and re-infect
themselves.
The disease affects the bees from De-
cember until about May. For part of this
period, beekeepers can’t treat the bees
because the hives are covered. We’re try-
ing to figure out the best timing to protect
the bees from nosema. Beekeepers used
to feed medication to their bees in the fall
so the medication would be available in
the winter, but our research has shown
that treating the bees for nosema in the
spring is more effective, because it reduces
the level of spores in the bees, and fewer
spores build up during the winter. We’re
trying to limit the damage, get a better
understanding of the disease and reduce
the chance of infestation.
GW:
What are some major areas of
research in the province?
MN:
One of the major concerns we have
is sustainability. If Apivar quits working
because of resistance, do we have an
alternative for it? This is one of the issues
that keep us awake at night. Most of my
research right now involves screening mit-
icides to find new ones that could replace
the ones we’re using right now.
Winter
2015
Grains
West
16
HIVE-FIVE:
Medhat Nasr says beekeepers
and their farmer neighbours need to
communicate and work together to keep
Alberta’s bee population healthy.
