John Gruszka served as the Provincial Apiculturalist in Saskatchewan, Canada between 1978 and 2011. As John mentions in the interview, Saskatchewan is one of the most productive honey producing places on the planet, but it suffers from quite an inhospitable winter (John says it’s the closest you get to ‘Siberia’ on the continent). In this episode, John describes how Saskatchewan beekeepers learned to become less dependent on imported package honey bees during the 1980’s. John has a biology degree from the University of Waterloo, and a Masters degree in Entomology (Apiculture major) from the University of Manitoba. He worked in Tanzania from 1971-1975, 3 years of which was on Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) sponsored beekeeping training, research and development. During his term as Provincial Apiculturalist, he served three terms as President of the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturalist (CAPA).
Listen in to hear about the history of pollinators in Northern Canada, wintering techniques, and how packages of bees have changed the beekeeping industry.
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“I will never forget Dr. Don Peer telling me, ‘I’m a 2 percenter. If I can improve by having 2% less winter losses, 2% more honey, 2% less aggression in my hives – whatever else you are selecting for – over five years I am 10% better’.” – John Gruszka
Four colonies pushed together and insulated
into a four-pack (Southern Alberta, photo: Lynae Ovinge)
Show Notes:
- Why anybody would keep bees in such cold climates
- How bees were kept alive during the harsh winters of the past
- What makes Northern Canada so ideal for pollinators
- When the trend changed from wintering bees to relying on packages for winter
- The key innovations afforded by packages of bees
- How different ways of wintering bees can provide different benefits
- Where many wintering techniques come from
- The history of the Carniolan bee in Saskatchewan
“Beekeepers need to recognize that when it comes to queen rearing, you can do this!“ – John Gruszka
Links Mentioned:
- Learn more about the history of beekeeping in Saskatchewan
- Check out these online publications on wintering bees
- Find out more about John’s book, “Beekeeping in Western Canada” (Purchase/Download)
- Watch a video about John’s favorite tool, the smoker
- Learn more about John’s favorite bee, “a well-managed Western Canadian bee colony making a lot of honey”
Great conversation. It would have been nice to hear John’s thoughts on our reliance, and perhaps over-dependance, on these vast acreages of canola. Especially, being that it produces a honey that is not widely sold in speciality honey market. Largely sold in bulk in international markets is leaves beekeepers at mercy of a volatile market. While I do not doubt the quality of the honey, I’ve found few honeys around the world that I would not consider of high”quality” and certainly a floral diversity adds a certain complexity that can sometimes be appealing.
I would only like to comment on the link “Canola and Bees”. While bees and canola certainly do have a “sweet” relationship, this representation has details carefully cherry-picked, without any mention of some of the issues that any large-scale grain farmers, including canola growers cause for apis mellifera and native bees. Lack of a diversity of pollen sources and spaces for wildflowers due to this model of farming with an absolute deterrence to any other floral sources or “weeds” has its impact, as I’m certain those many of those provincial apiculturists and beekeepers would have expanded on. Obviously my distaste for the bias promotions by the Canola Council is clear. I’m not expert on the subject, but I would love to hear more conversation about it in the Western Canadian context. And I haven’t listened to all of the podcasts, so please excuse me if I have missed something like that. For example this 2016 study Linking “Measures of Colony and Individual Honey Bee Health to Survival among Apiaries” by Matthew Smart , Jeff Pettis, Nathan Rice, Zac Browning, Marla Spivak – is an interesting starting point on the subject.
Exposed to Varying Agricultural Land Use” by
Thanks Matthew, we always appreciate thoughtful feedback on the episodes – it personally makes my day! We will be having another show from Western Canadian nuc producers in an upcoming show, so stay tuned. On your suggestion of pollen diversity and prairie landscapes, it reminds me to reach out to USGS to hear about their recent research in the Dakotas. Thanks for the suggestion.
Let me also respond to some of your thoughtful, articulate and considered points.
First, John Gruszka did, in fact, comment on the difficulties associated with the increased precision of canola seeding, pointing out that it results in a tighter window of bloom. He said this has had a downward effect on yields compared to the 1980s. As he stated during the interview, the effect of a week of bad weather during full bloom can now be devastating, in a way it would not have been had the crop not been literally all seeded in a week (like it is today).
On honey quality, I agree that varietal, direct marketed honey sells for higher price. You are also correct that predominant business model on the Canadian prairies has been towards the bulk market. It is worth noting, however, in the bulk market, lighter colored honey (like canola and clover) tends to sell for more, as supermarket honey tends to be blended to a color standard and the world honey market tends to have a higher supply of dark vs. light honey. There has certainly been increased opportunities for varietal products in other sectors, but I don’t know of an example where the entire sector has gone in that direction. Take coffee – while there has been an explosion of very specific and unique coffee available to consumers, this seems not to have done away with generic coffee, but rather, led to market segmentation (which has paradoxically not resulted more uniformity in the prices paid to producers compared to the quota systems of the 1960s and 1970s). So I do suspect that there is a saturation point for varietal honey, and that it does not offer a general avenue for beekeepers around the world to escape competition on the world bulk market. I fear it only becomes a path forward for a lucky few (i.e., those who have the marketing budget to get into and maintain those high value markets).
Finally on the Canola Council video. I am not sure if you caught this, but it was jointly produced video by Canola Council and Canadian Honey Council (i.e., they are partners on this campaign). This is why the video included prominent Western Canadian beekeepers, including the President of the Canadian Honey Council. It is also why it included the current President of the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturalists. I certainly agree that most beekeepers would welcome more weeds in the landscape. But I also think it makes sense that the CHC would also like to see the expansion of canola (particularly if the alternatives were soybean or corn). Its worth noting that colony losses among the Canadian prairie provinces across the last 10 years have been far lower compared to the US. This is certainly not to take away from your point of the desirability for a diversity of bloom, both in space and time. It is also not to say that this landscape is particularly good for native bees; there is good work around from around the world that is starting to show that these massive nectar and pollen pulses can just lead to intense competition for limited resources after bloom (particularly the case with bumble bees). It is only to point out that there is a reason why the provincial honey yields in John’s province of Saskatchewan are 192 lbs/colony (using 2010-2014 Stats Can figures).
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-630-x/11-630-x2016004-eng.htm