“We kept hearing anecdotally that these Californian honeybees were surviving with way fewer treatments. I wanted to test them rigorously and understand the driving force behind what the beekeepers were seeing,” said Genesis Chong-Echavez, a UCR graduate student and lead author of the study, in an article from the university.

WHY IT MATTERS: Varroa mites can devastate Canadian beekeepers’ hives, and go-to control methods have become less effective, leading producers to look for new methods to protect honeybees.

Varroa mites are an invasive parasite that has plagued North American beekeepers since the late 1980s. The mites weaken the bees by feeding on their fat stores, and also can carry viruses. Varroa mites are a consistent contender among the top four causes of winter bee loss in Canada, as noted by the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists.

Chong-Echavez’s team found bee colonies led by locally-raised Californian hybrid honeybee queens had about 68 per cent fewer mites, on average, than hives with commercial queens.

While these populations were not entirely varroa mite-free, they were more than five times less likely to hit the threshold at which chemical treatment is necessary.

Local bee larvae attract fewer mites

The resistant bees came from a genetically-mixed population established in southern California — often from “feral” colonies living in trees, the UC Riverside article said. They were found to have mixed ancestry steming from African, eastern European, Middle Eastern and western European genetics.

Varroa mites must enter bee brood cells to reproduce. In lab experiments with developing honeybee larvae, researchers found mites were less attracted to the locally-adapted bees than commercial bees.

“What surprised me most was the differences showed up even at the larval stage,” Chong-Echavez said. “This suggests the resistance mechanism may go deeper than some kind of behaviour and may be genetically built into the bees themselves.”

The research team next intends to investigate the signals that may make the locally-adapted larvae less attractive to mites.

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The study followed nine honey bee colonies during a “particularly hot” Arizona summer to assess the limits of the bees’ ability to control the hive’s temperature according to a release from the University of Chicago Press Journals.

Honey bees maintain their hive temperature between 32°C and 36°C, according to Oregon State University’s extension service. Outside that temperature window, bee larvae and pupae won’t develop and may die.

When the temperature inside the hive gets too hot, the bees line up at the entrance and fan their wings. Other bees will also bring water to the hive to assist with cooling.

Temperature swings

In the study, researchers found that while the bees were able to keep the average temperature around their brood within the acceptable range, the temperature inside the hive still swung widely throughout the day. Developing bees in the centre of the brood experienced about 1.7 hours below the optimal range and 1.6 above the range per day.

Young bees toward the edge of the brood saw nearly eight hours per day outside the safe temperature window.

Larger colonies were better able to regulate temperature than small ones.

Colonies exposed to higher peak air temperatures and greater internal temperature swings saw their populations decline, the researchers found. They concluded that temperatures exceeding 40°C can impair the hive’s ability to regulate temperatures.

This could also shorten adult bees’ lifespan.

The authors of the study noted that extreme heat events are expected to be come more common due to a warming climate.

To help bees regulate temperature, the researchers suggested placing hives in shaded areas, improving hive design and insulation and providing supplemental water. Access to high quality forage may also become increasingly important, they added.

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The first 15 are already out. From tariff tensions to invasive wild pigs to weather, here’s a taste of what farmers wanted to read most over the last year:

No. 25 — Port of Churchill searches for year-round trade: In November, KAP hosted Arctic Gateway Group’s CEO to talk future plans for Manitoba’s northern port. Part of the big expansion planned is a goal to keeping the ice open, and trade flowing, all year long.

No. 24 — Weather school: It’s all about the clouds: Do you know your cumulus from your nimbostratus? This piece from way back in 2020 re-emerged on our most-read list for 2025.

No.23 — Fishing the deep water of Manitoba: Want fishing success farther from shore? Our outdoors columnist Tim Sopuck ran readers down some tips and tricks for catching deep water fish in Manitoba.

No. 22 — Manitoba’s wild pigs not headed for population boom, expert says: The co-ordinator for Manitoba’s Squeal on Pigs program says our cold climate situation isn’t comparable to U.S.

No. 21 — We’ve seen trade wars before, but this time is different: Throwing back all the way to January for this one. This early 2025 editorial looked down the barrel of changing U.S. trade policy and what it could mean for Canadian agriculture.

Nov. 20 — Riverside Hutterite Colony gets top honours: It was a western Manitoba sweep at this year’s Royal Manitoba Winter Fair Pork Quality Competition back in spring.

Other highlights so far include beekeepers battling for survival, more trade and tariff stories and Manitoba’s first bovine tuberculosis case in years.

Want to see the full list? Check out our top stories landing page in the top-left corner of our website. Keep checking back until Jan. 31 as we unveil our top 10.

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When honeybees forage, they collect nectar, pollen and water from nearby flowers. These flowers contain traces of the chemicals in the soil and water where they grow.

As honeybees fly, they also pick up dust and other tiny particles from the air and any surfaces they touch. Some of these particles include metals from human activities like burning fossil fuels or industrial pollution.

By the time the bee has returned to its nest it is covered, inside and out, with the chemicals found in its local area. In this way, the honey in a beehive is a mix of everything the bees gather within about a three-kilometer area. Learning how to read the composition of honey will allow us to understand the chemical makeup of any given environment.

The honey produced by the tireless work of the honeybee is nothing short of an untapped goldmine of environmental data that could help us better understand the spread of environmental pollutants.

Bees can help map pollution

Our research — focusing on the Manchester area in the U.K. — proposes using honey as a window into the chemical make-up of a local area. Our team comprised of researchers from Dalhousie University in Canada and the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. We measured metal concentrations in honey collected by citizen scientist beekeepers in northwest England.

Greater Manchester was a major industrial powerhouse. Unfortunately, historical industrial activities often leave behind a legacy of pollution and have been linked to environmental contamination.

Metal contaminants in soil and water from historical industrial activities do not easily disappear. They can be remobilized as dust during activities like building and road construction, or farming. Likewise, metals in surface water and groundwater may also be transferred into flowers via plant roots.

Honey samples were collected by local citizen scientist beekeepers to help determine the distribution of metal pollution across Greater Manchester. Honey samples were gathered over a single season to establish baseline metal concentrations from urban, industrial, residential and agricultural zoning districts. This baseline data can be used in future studies to monitor long-term trends and changes in metal concentrations in the environment.

Average arsenic and cadmium concentrations in Manchester were higher than global averages. Cadmium and lead concentrations were also higher than the recommended World Health Organization and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization guidelines.

These high metal concentrations reflect Manchester’s heavy industrial past. They also reveal pollution patterns from current human activities like transportation and construction.

Natural biomonitors

Rapid urbanization, transportation, industrialization and other human activities has resulted in increased global water, air and soil pollution. Interest in measuring local and global pollution is also increasing.

Current pollution monitoring and reporting in Canada is expensive and focuses on air pollution monitoring under the National Air Pollution Surveillance program. This program was established in 1969 to monitor and assess the long-term air quality in populated regions of Canada and the dataset can be used by governments to assess air pollution trends.

The National Air Pollution Surveillance network comprises 286 sites in 203 communities located in every province and territory across Canada and is managed by the provinces, territories and some municipal governments.

Pollutant releases to air and water from industrial facilities are self-reported by the industries themselves under the National Pollutant Release Inventory. However, this inventory has been criticized for under-reporting of pollutants, and a lack of information related to how toxic the pollution can be.

Because these traditional methods can be expensive and time-consuming, government agencies and researchers need cost-effective monitoring tools to holistically track environmental pollutants such as heavy metals. Our research suggests that honey could be just the cost-effective monitoring tool governments are looking for.

Researchers in Vancouver have already run studies to measure metals like lead and cadmium in honey from hives in Vancouver’s downtown core. Analysis in 2019 found that the honey was clean, well below global averages for heavy metals like lead.

Although the honey in downtown Vancouver was perfectly safe to eat, they also discovered higher levels of metals in honey collected from nearby industries or densely populated areas. Efforts to map pollution using honey in Australia and Italy have also been effective.

Biomonitoring pollution in Canada

Because bees collect nectar, pollen and water from flowers within a three-kilometer area, they offer a seasonal snapshot of local environmental pollution.

Although there are nearly 300 National Air Pollution Surveillance sites across Canada, there are nearly one million bee hives offering even greater national coverage. These cost-effective pollution monitoring sites would complement existing pollution monitoring networks.

With beekeeping rising in popularity, this allows for community participation in biomonitoring studies like ours. Canada’s more than 13,000 beekeepers are a critical untapped resource of citizen scientists that could be vital to measuring long-term trends of harmful metals and other contaminants across Canada.

—Tony Robert Walker is a professor at the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University. Simon Harper is a professor of computer science at the University of Manchester.

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The feds on Friday announced their 60 per cent, or $219 million, share of AgriRecovery program funding for the three westernmost provinces.

“I’ve had the opportunity to meet with farmers and producers from across Western Canada and they’ve shared just how challenging this growing season has been for their operations,” federal Ag Minister Lawrence MacAulay said in a release.

Program details are still being worked out, the Alberta government said, but its federal-provincial program will see livestock producers with grazing animals able to apply for financial support to cover losses incurred in managing and maintaining breeding herds. Eligible producers could access up to $150 per head for breeding animals, the province said.

In Saskatchewan, the program will cover 70 per cent of extraordinary costs related to feed and freight incurred after May 1, 2023 through to the application deadline of March 1, 2024 with initial payments of up to $150 per head to eligible producers to help maintain the breeding herd in the drought regions, with additional payments to be based on availability of funding. The province had already committed up to $70 million toward its share of AgriRecovery funds.

In B.C., farmers will be able to seek up to 70 per cent support for transportation costs to move livestock to feed and water through the recovery period, and for feed testing for additionally purchased forage, plus support of up to $160 per animal for “extraordinary replacement costs” where breeding herds were downsized.

In areas of B.C. where Crown range or pasture were lost due to wildfire, supports will also be offered for alternative grazing requirements, with up to $80 per head to re-establish safe winter-feeding facilities and general cleanup; and up to 70 per cent of extraordinary wildfire-related costs for veterinary services, mustering of livestock, mortality of breeding animals, uninsurable irrigation and infrastructure repairs, labour costs to repair private fences; and reseeding and re-establishing tame forage.

Also, up to 70 per cent of the extraordinary costs will also be covered for B.C. beekeepers and honey producers to replace lost colonies, apiaries and equipment, the province said.

More details to come.

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The 15,000-square-foot Luckevich Pinchin Honey Bee Research Centre (HBRC) should be operational by 2025 and house North America’s most significant number of honeybee research colonies.

Why it matters: The HBRC has operated since 1894, most recently out of a repurposed 1960s bungalow near the U of G Arboretum, and is in dire need of upgrading to accommodate the 4,000 annual visitors and research.

“The new facility will give the centre space to grow its engagement with apiarists, with community members interested in learning more about pollinators and honeybees, and with young people looking to be part of a positive change to support pollinators and to ensure a healthy environment and a safe food supply,” said Dr. John Cranfield, Ontario Agriculture College’s (OAC) associate dean, external relations.

Located near Townsend House, the longtime HBRC home on Stone Road, the new facility will feature indoor and outdoor education spaces, classrooms, event space, a laboratory, bee-breeding facilities and pollinator gardens.

Paul Kelly, HBRC research and apiary manager, said the centre investigates the causes and potential solutions for the recent decline of pollinators, including research into the viability of naturally occurring miticides in essential plant oils and organic acids, prebiotics, probiotics and protein-based nutrition supplement to counter bee gut parasites and breeding for varroa mite-resistant bees.

The new facility’s improved laboratory space will enhance bee breeding and incubation and accommodate research, teaching, demonstrations and queen breeding in the same apiary.

U of G manages 100 hives at the university apiary, 200 at Arkell Research Station and 12 on privately-run farms within 20 minutes of the university, making it the largest number of honeybee research colonies of any institute in North America.

“We’re teaching every day, and we lack space here,” said Kelly. “Of all the things you can do to benefit bees, the number one thing is to provide bee habitat and forage.”

Fortunately, the new facility will adjoin a planned bee tree forest of pollinator-friendly tresses such as basswood, maples and willows with other shrubs and a nearby garden. Moriyama Teshima Architects, who designed the OAC Centennial Arboretum Centre in 1974, are designing the new HBRC.

As of mid-June, U of G had raised 80 per cent of the funds required for the build through OAC alums.

Lydia Luckevich, a 1979 U of G chemistry alumna, donated $7.5 million, which is why the centre is named after her and her late husband, Dan Pinchin, founder of Pinchin Ltd., an environmental consulting firm.

“I feel gratitude for everybody who has worked so hard to make this centre happen,” she said.

– This article was originally published at Farmtario.

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“I’m not getting the absolute demoralizing reports from beekeepers,” said Manitoba Beekeepers Association president Ian Steppler. “I think we still have a high winter loss, but not as severe as last year’s.”

Why it matters: The honey industry needs a break after navigating last year’s high losses and supply issues with replacement stock.

Manitoba saw the worst winter bee losses in the country last year. A survey from the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists (CAPA) put 2022 mortality at 57.2 per cent, well above the national average of 45.5.

Canada’s beekeepers had a bad winter in general coming into 2022. That national average of 45.5 per cent was the worst reported between 2007-22, according to CAPA data. Average loss in that window was 27 per cent.

Provincial apiarist Derek Micholson expects Manitoba’s bee losses this year will be closer to the norm of 20 to 25 per cent.

“That’s a very good sign,” he said.

But while winter may have been friendlier, spring 2023 was not. Similar to last year, this spring was slow to get going. Cold weather clung to the province and temperatures didn’t warm past freezing in the entire month of March.

Smaller colonies do not have the “girth” to deal with that extended cold when they should be building themselves for the season, Steppler said. He expects spring losses to be much the same as last year.

However, Micholson noted that, although it was cold, the province did not see the relentless string of Colorado lows as it did in 2022. Spring dwindle might be slightly more than average, he said, but “I wouldn’t say it’s as extreme as last year. Things have been a lot drier.”

Pest issues

Steppler and Micholson both said pest pressure is a key underlying issue.

“The reason why the weather’s the issue is because the colonies are just dragged down because of disease,” Steppler said.

Early reports have noted high nosema fungal infections, an illness that impacts bees’ ability to absorb nutrients. Varroa mites, which weaken bees through parasitism and as a vector for infection, continue to be the sector’s bane.

Viruses brought in by mites come and go in waves, Steppler noted.

“I think we’re in a bad viral cycle right now.”

Varroa issues were also caused major losses in 2022, according to the national survey. The five provinces with the worst losses (Manitoba included) were also the five provinces to point a finger at ineffective mite control.

“Basically, in 2021 we had a really extended season, which allowed the mite to take a stronger hold on the colonies over the winter last year,” Micholson said.

Some beekeepers were too late in their monitoring and treatment going into winter, CAPA noted. It also cited burgeoning issues with Apivar, one of the industry’s most popular mite control products. Producers have raised concern that mites may be becoming resistant to the product.

That concern extends to Manitoba. Anecdotal evidence of control issues led the provincial beekeepers association to launch its own trials into the product’s efficacy. Those trials found some sites where Apivar still provided good control, but control slipped in others. Anecdotal reports continue to flow in.

It has led experts like Micholson to emphasize multi-pronged varroa control, as well as regular and meticulous monitoring.

Scaled-up tests on Apivar are in the works for 2023. The Manitoba Beekeepers’ Association Knowledge and Research Transfer Program will also run trials this year on novel varroa control.

Echoes of past seasons

Parts of the sector are still shaking off the impact of 2022, Micholson said. With losses so high, producers last year would have been looking for replacement stock.

Unfortunately, bees are in short supply. There is only so much imported stock to go around, and suppliers may be dealing with their own losses.

As a result, some producers split their hives, which reduces production as bees put more energy into building numbers than producing honey.

“They’re still kind of suffering those economic losses a bit and still trying to recoup their numbers,” Micholson said. “Hopefully those beekeepers who had high losses last year aren’t suffering high losses again this year.”

The apiary expert has also seen what he suspects is delayed impact from 2022’s stress. A number of producers who dodged loss issues last year are seeing higher mortality this spring.

Confirmed numbers on winter loss won’t be known until after Micholson’s annual producer survey goes out at the end of May.

– This article was originally published at the Manitoba Co-operator.

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Witnesses at a meeting of the House of Commons standing committee on agriculture and agri-food last Wednesday presented recommendations for what the government could do to resolve issues of honeybee health decline and bee mortality.

The most recent risk assessment on the subject was done in 2013. It concluded there was a “high probability of introducing diseases and pests into Canada due to importation of honeybees from the continental United States.”

Several of the witnesses said they believe new regulations are needed.

Jeremy Olthof, past-president of the Alberta Beekeepers Commission (ABC), recommended the U.S./Canada border be reopened — specifically to northern California, where many package bees originate from.

He said the 2013 risk assessment was “based on confirmation bias, not fact” according to peer review.

ABC’s Ron Greidanus said in the meeting that the border measures are ineffective at keeping out pests such as varroa mite, as they could easily cross the border on their own.

It’s a “fallacy,” he said, to consider the border as “a wall or a force-field. It is a figment of human imagination; pests and pathogens do not see it.”

Current regulations allow queens to be imported from Hawaii and California, but not package bees. A 2022 report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada lists only Australia, New Zealand and Chile as sources of package honeybee imports since 2017.

One of Greidanus’s suggestions for mitigating risks was for Canada to work jointly with the U.S. to develop a North American bee strategy.

The 2013 report identified four main threats: resistant American foulbrood, Amitraz-resistant varroa mite, small hive beetle, and Africanized honeybees.

Greidanus said that resistant American foulbrood and Amitraz-resistant varroa both exist in Canada already, while small hive beetle and Africanized honeybees both fail to establish and thrive in Canada’s climate.

B.C. apiculture specialist Paul Van Westendorp said he endorsed the idea of a new risk assessment. “A lot of things can change in 10 years,” he said.

He also said the 2013 assessment was not universally supported by the scientific community, meaning it may be time for an update.

— Jonah Grignon reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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The so-called stinging “murder hornets,” the world’s largest hornets, can grow to five centimetres in length and prey on native bee and wasp populations, consuming honeybee hives and threatening agriculture.

The hornets are not native to North America. They were first detected in the U.S. in 2019, when a hornet was reported in Washington’s Whatcom County, near the Canadian border, according to the WSDA.

This latest nest was uncovered in the base of a dead alder tree in Whatcom County and was eradicated on Wednesday.

“They did actually attempt to sting us this time,” said Sven Spichiger, the department’s managing entomologist, during a virtual news conference Thursday.

“We are all very happy to say that our hornet suits worked very well and no injuries were sustained. We responded to this by blocking off the second entrance, which stopped them from coming out,” he said.

In addition to the 113 worker hornets vacuumed out, staff netted another 67 other hornets in the area. The nest itself had nearly 1,500 hornets in various stages of development, the WSDA said in a statement.

Some of the live hornets were sent to USDA for research. The others will be destroyed, the agency said.

WSDA said it will continue to trap for Asian giant hornets through the end of November.

Once spotted and captured, hornets are fitted with a radio transmitter and released in the hope they can be followed back to the nest.

After a nest is confirmed to be in a tree by thermal imaging, the tree is wrapped in plastic while its trunk is hit with a piece of wood to get the hornets out so they can be vacuumed up and eradicated.

According to the Invasive Species Council of B.C., Asian giant hornet nests have yet to be found in mainland British Columbia — except for one nest Washington state officials found and destroyed directly over the border line at Blaine in Whatcom County last October.

That said, several dead Asian giant hornets were found in B.C.’s southern Fraser Valley in 2020, the council said. The lone nest seen on the Canadian side of the border was found and destroyed at Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, in 2019.

— Reporting for Reuters by Alexandra Ulmer. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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The so-called stinging “murder hornets,” the world’s largest hornets, can grow to five centimetres in length and prey on native bee and wasp populations, consuming honeybee hives and threatening agriculture.

“Any time you get any organism that is not native to an area move in, the consequences are really immeasurable,” said Sven Spichiger, the department’s managing entomologist.

A day before the nest was located, Washington and Oregon state Department of Agriculture employees gathered in an open-air classroom just south of the British Columbia border to learn how to trap, track and eradicate the invasive species.

The employees donned protective suits, complete with black boots and blue gloves, and practised using telemetry systems to find the hornets, tag them and then destroy their nests.

Thousands of traps baited with orange juice or jam are hung in trees along likely hornet flight paths. Once spotted, the hornet must be tracked to its nest, so its queen and other hornets can be destroyed, ideally before reproducing.

When a hornet is captured, it’s fitted with a radio transmitter and released, in the hope it can be followed back to its nest.

Once a nest of Asian giant hornets is confirmed by thermal imaging to be in a tree, the tree is wrapped in plastic wrap to prevent escape while its trunk is hit with a piece of wood to get the hornets out so they can be vacuumed up and eradicated.

“My biggest fear for this year is that there will be lots of nests out in our county and we just don’t know where they are, that’s the biggest problem, is nests going undetected. So that’s why it’s so important for the public to continue telling us when they think they see one,” Looney said.

According to the Invasive Species Council of B.C., Asian giant hornet nests have yet to be found in mainland B.C. — except for one nest Washington state officials found and destroyed directly over the border line at Blaine last October.

That said, several dead Asian giant hornets were found in B.C.’s southern Fraser Valley in 2020, the council said. The lone nest seen on the Canadian side of the border was found and destroyed at Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, in 2019.

The Washington state ag department today maintains a map of Asian giant hornet sightings in both the U.S. and Canada.

— Reporting for Reuters by Tim Exton. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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