PAUL KELLY: Hi there, we're here today to talk about the Ontario
beekeepers' association's tech transfer program.
I'm here with my supervisor Dr Ernesto
Guzman and my colleague Les Eccles.
Les is the lead of the tech transfer program.
I just like to talk a little bit about the history of the program.
Back in the 90s we were, most of our research here at
the University of Guelph was with tracheal mites,
they were a significant new problem and so we started
breeding for resistance to tracheal mites.
That became so popular within the beekeeping community,
the Ontario beekeepers association set up what,
like they called the tech transfer program,
to continue this breeding work and to continue
with some very applied education and research.
So that program has been running ever since,
it's been used as a model for programs
throughout North America and we found it's really worked out very well.
To be able to get the information we're working
on directly in the hands of the beekeepers
and Ernesto is gonna talk a little bit
about the collaboration that we have,
with the tech transfer program and how that benefits both of us.
ERNESTO GUZMAN>: Hi, I'm Ernesto Guzman.
I want to highlight the importance of the collaboration between
the tech transfer program and the Honey Bee Research Center.
It has been fundamental from several standpoint,
from the research standpoint,
from the beekeeping education standpoint.
We have conducted a number of studies in, and workshops together,
that have been very successful.
One example of that is when we studied the different causes that,
result in colony collapse during winter and because
of that collaboration that involved hundreds of colonies
and assessments of different types in the lab,
resulted in the knowledge that more than
85% of the fatality cases of colonies
in Ontario are due to the varroa mite,
which led to another collaboration.
Studies on differing products used to control the varroa mite,
most of these products are organic products that don't compromised
the health of the bees and are safe for high products.
And we have another group of studies that have been conducted,
including the current one on breeding for low varroa growth,
which is intended to develop strains for
honey bees resistant to the varroa mite.
And we could number many more studies that we have successfully
conducted together and this collaboration
is based on the fact that many of the technicians
that have work and work today,
the tech transfer program were trained here,
at the Honey Bee Research Center and then
they move to the tech transfer program.
So, to conclude basically, this collaboration has
been very successful and beneficial to science,
to beekeeping education and hopefully to
the beekeeping industry of Ontario.
PAUL KELLY: Thanks Ernesto.
Yeah, I like to refer to us as the farm team for the big leagues,
working with the tech transfer program.
We get some great people graded in off the street here,
Les showed up as a volunteer and now he's industry
leader and a queen breeder in his own right
and so it's really great that we are able to nurture
these people and see the success that they've have,
in directly communicating with beekeepers.
So Les is gonna to talk about the breeding work
that the tech transfer program is doing, Les.
LES ECCLES: Hey, thanks Paul.
Yeah.
Like Ernesto and Paul mentioned the collaboration
between the Honey Bee Research Center
at the University of Guelph and the OBA
tech transfer program is essential.
The work that tech transfer does is basically divided into two parts,
extension and education.
So training, beekeepers on best management practices,
current recommendations and just keeping them up to date on
how they can keep their honey bees healthy and productive.
And then the second part is research,
by specifically field applied research.
So where the tech transfer program comes in is when,
there's promising research done at important
institutions like the University of Guelph,
that can be applied to the beekeeping industry.
The tech transfer program becomes involved
to get it into the field and show that
it's field realistic and successful
and reasonable to apply into an operation.
So it's just this natural match that really doesn't
exist in a lot of areas and it's a huge benefit to
the Ontario beekeeping industry and that spreads really
well outside of the province and the country.
So it's a really important relationship that we have.
The tech transfer program, you know,
it really did start with a concept that was based on,
how to keep honey bees healthy.
Previous to varroa mites and the impact it had on the industry,
beekeeping was relatively simple as far as keeping healthy honey bees.
The beekeeping manuals were about this thick and about
this big and top mostly about American (INAUDIBLE).
Varroa mites completely changed that,
as did trachea mite when it first came in.
And that's really what started the work on creating
more information on honey bee health,
through treatments and through breeding.
So we work with the university of Guelph on both those aspects
when it comes to research and applied field research,
today what we're talking mostly about
is the breeding part of beekeeping.
And that's really, I think it's important to
divide two aspects of breeding and queening.
So one is rearing queens, raising queens and the other is breeding bees.
We often say queen breeding, but we're actually breeding for
honey bees and the workers and all their characteristics.
You can't become a queen breeder until you're a good queen rearer.
So those are two very different things.
If you're interested in queen breeding you need
to get well trained on queen rearing first,
the tech transfer program has workshops on queen rearing,
manuals on queen rearing that you can find on the ŌBA website,
but that's by far the first part before you even consider
getting into selection and breeding for honey bees.
Ontario has a breeding program called the Ontario Resistant
Honey Bee Selection's program or ORHBS for short,
it really started back in the early 90s for breeding,
for resistance to trachea mite.
That was very, very successful to the point where we don't find tracheal
mites in our honeybee local stock anymore, in our breeding program,
we still check and our stock with our breeders
to make sure it's not coming back,
but we haven't found tracheal mite in Ontario
stock for at least 15 years now.
We also select for resistance to Nosema, chalkbrood, American foulbrood,
mostly through selection for something called hygienic behavior.
So the bees ability to identify sick or infected brood
and clean that out before that disease can spread,
to a point of no return in a colony.
That's been a very successful program,
the tech transfer program supplies the hygienic
testing services to the breeders in
the ORHBS program and along with that we,
as mentioned in previous videos this kind of link, this one,
is the new research into low varroa growth.
And as far as I know, we are the first breeding program to integrate
that formally into a breeding program for breeders,
something called low varroa growth in colony.
So direct resistance to varroa mite resistance.
So it's a very exciting time in the breeding program to be doing that,
because varroa mite is the number one colony health aspect that we
need to control and so bringing that into resistance and breeding,
is complementary to the other work we do with treatments.
In order to keep our treatments working,
we can't be totally dependent on them,
we also need a genetic aspect,
so the bees have resistance, supply some of that resistance to
varroa that goes along with the treatments that we're using.
We need both to work together.
Besides, so there's kind of two parts to breeding
that we kind of consider important as far as,
what we're looking for in honey bees.
So I mentioned the breeding for resistance
to different diseases and pests,
the other part is kind of the more enjoyable part to bee keeping,
the nice things that we like to work about with these,
so low defensive behavior is really important.
Some people may think that's not, we put gloves up and suit up
that's all you need to worry about low defensive behavior,
but when you think about having bees in the public.
And frankly when you're working bees the calmer
your bees are there, the better your work is.
You're more efficient working, whether it's making splits, moving bees,
if those bees are calm with whatever
your work you're doing in that hive.
So it's not a purely enjoyable aspect,
it's actually for the work efficiency in the yard as well.
Other things include low swarming,
combs stability and just longevity of queens.
So we actually in our breeding program we have a list,
a fairly extensive list of characteristics that we breed for.
What's important to know about the ORHBS program
and like what we like to reiterate
is we're not saying our programs are the best
or the only way to breed honey bees,
but what we've outlined with our program are breeders is well defined.
So when we work with our various breeders which
we have about 25 breeders in the province,
when we talk about defensive behavior we all know
what defensive behavior means for our program.
If we're talking about low swarming,
we have the same definition for low swarming.
So every characteristic that we're talking about in our program
is well defined and is graded in a defined five point system.
What was important in formalizing our program,
because there's lots of ways to evaluate,
grade, bees and that can be very passionate
discussions about what the best way is,
but what we wanted to do was to be on
the same page and work together as breeders.
So that I think is one of the most important
things about the ORHBS program,
is that it's a collaborative program amongst breeders in our industry,
that allows us to communicate,
select on a consistent level and keep a very
large pool of genetics that we can work together on the same page.
One of the biggest challenges with breeding is
having a large enough pool to select from.
Individual breeders can only manage so many breeder colonies,
but when you pull them together you actually
end up with a large pool of,
in a consistent breeding program that can be used between breeders.
So that's why we breed for honey bees is to,
really to benefit the industry as a whole.
Obviously there's a profit to be made when you sell queens and that,
but the amount of work that goes into breeding
isn't nearly offset by sales.
It really is something breeders are passionate about
and think are important and add value to the industry.
So that's why and what we do for breeding.
You'll see in this video a selection process,
so we use an evaluation process to weigh the criteria
and that's part of the ORHBS program.
So that's I think another important part when you're trying
to integrate many characteristics into your program,
you need a organized way of doing that.
So that's another important aspect of our breeding program.
PAUL KELLY: Well, Les that's a really great overview,
tough to capture it all in a short little video here.
So what I would suggest you do is go to the Ontario beekeepers
association website and have a look through that website,
there's all kinds of information on the ORHBS program and on
the courses that the tech transfer program offer as well,
both for bee breeding, but just beekeeping, general beekeeping as well.
Lots of great information there.
So thanks very much Les and thank you for watching.