# Canadian Senate Report on Bee Health



## pleasantvalley (May 22, 2014)

*The Importance of Bee Health**[URL="http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/SEN/Committee/412/agfo/rms/02may15/home-e.htm"] to Sustainable Food Production in Canada[/URL]*

Assuming Ontario doesn't gum up the works, the lineup for package bees starts right behind me fellows.


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

You can safely assume Ontario and probably Quebec will gum up the works.


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

And no doubt SK and BC.


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## Faith Apiaries (Apr 28, 2015)

You don't think this respected group of experienced beekeepers will do a good job in laying out more bureaucratic red tape for the rest of us?


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

It makes so very little sense to keep US packages out of Canada. An awful lot of growth potential for package production off all those bees coming off almonds and west coast fruit pollination. I am not looking forward to the prices going up for bees here, but I am pretty self sufficient in bees myself. 

Hopefully the treaty gods will let me buy Saskatraz and other Canadian genetics reciprocally.


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Vance:

You can buy them, taking them across the border legally is another issue. There is far too much red tape for a few queens or even 100 or 1000. That is why very little genetics from Canada makes it south.

Jean-Marc


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## PerryBee (Dec 3, 2007)

Yet *another* reason why the Senate up here needs to abolished in my opinion!


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## joens (Apr 24, 2003)

http://www.saskatraz.com/stock.htm on the saskatraz website it says queens are being raised in California . is there no way we could get some ?


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Phone them to see if you cannot get any. I would if I were in your shoes, especially if you overwinter in Montana and avoid the almond thing.

Jean-Marc


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## Honeybeezen (Feb 29, 2012)

One reason why the Americans - not the Canadians - may be the most reluctant to open the border to packages and free-wheeling cross-border business: the North American Free Trade Agreement. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. And in this case, Mexican gander, heading straight for the almond grounds.
Canadians might also want to rethink the idea of where those post-almond packages are coming from to Canada? It may be that Africanized honey bees haven't survived up here, but will Canadian authorities be willing to risk bringing in genetics from potentially aggressive bees? I'd like to think saner heads might prevail. But then all you need to do is look at the decision to bring Atlantic salmon - notice the word, Atlantic - into Pacific salmon waters and let them be raised in sea pens. Man has a wonderful propensity for screwing up genetics and not thinking about the outcome.

The Senate report might seem to suggest the border should be opened to U.S. packages. But read the fine print. It's highly unlikely to happen.
Just my two cents.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

A couple years ago I enquired about getting some saskatraz queens but they wanted to sell me at least 50. I could not find enough people interested to need anything like that number. I guess I had forgotten about that, but I still see no realistic reason to have the Canadian/US border closed. I don't think we have to worry much about Africanized genetics up North or even West. I think they are about as far north as they can winter already. 



joens said:


> http://www.saskatraz.com/stock.htm on the saskatraz website it says queens are being raised in California . is there no way we could get some ?


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## PerryBee (Dec 3, 2007)

"no realistic reason to have the Canadian/US border closed"

What about the fact that there are provinces up here with no SHB?


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

I don't think SHB is an issue for this cold climate. I've had many nucs from FL with some SHB in them. They die out in a year and don't seem to breed up here. Or maybe it's the soil and they can't mature in it?


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