As of October 2022, the University of Guelph Board of Governors approved the capital project for our new Honey Bee Research Centre Building. This means the project will go ahead, as we have met the 75 % funding criteria. We are still actively fundraising for the last 25 % of 16 million dollars.
In mid-January 2023, we hired a construction manager. A few trees will need to be removed in the coming weeks before the excavation process can begin. The new location is only two hundred metres from our original building, Townsend House. Please see our website for images of the new building, and for updates on the construction progress. To compensate for the tree removal, we will be spending $180,000 to plant a Bee Tree Forest behind the new building. After seven years of working towards this goal we are all excited to see the construction starting.
This year we are hosting two weekend-long introductory beekeeping courses. One will be hosted at the end of April, and the other in the middle of May. There are still spaces available for the May courses, so please pass this information on to anyone interested in starting beekeeping and see our website for more information.
For about 20 years we have been producing life-size images of what can be seen inside a beehive. The pictures are double sided and laminated so they can be inserted into frames for teaching and demonstrating purposes. Over the last couple of years, we have developed three different sets; a set of four healthy-looking frames, a set of ten healthy-looking frames, and a set of ten unhealthy frames showing a wide range of diseases, pests, and parasites. For more information see our YouTube channel or our website.
Paul’s Presentations – August 2022 to August 2023:
- 16 x Local Beekeeper’s Associations (Canada and US in person and online)
- 15 x Service Clubs
- 50 plus Group Tours
- 6 plus Education/Sales Booths
- 20 plus Press Interviews
- 2 x Weekend Beekeeping Courses
Provincial Associations:
- Ontario Beekeepers Association – In person
- Alberta Beekeepers Commission – In person
- Prince Edward Island Beekeepers Association – Virtual
- Saskatchewan Beekeepers Association – Virtual
International Associations:
- Cambridgeshire Beekeepers Association
- Hive Life in Tennessee, US – In person
- Rhode Island
- West Virginia – In person
- Massachusetts Eastern Apiculture Society – In-person
- Maine – In-person
Dr. Ernesto Guzman has been attending a wide variety of online and in-person meetings from the beginning of last year to now (January 2022 to February 2023):
- Zacoalco de Torres, Mexico
- Tenerife, Spain
- National University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
- Rochester, New York
- Apimondia in Istanbul, Turkey
- Nea Moudania, Greece
- Whittlesford, UK – Virtual
- Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Kingston, Ontario, Canada
- Zaldibia, Spain – Virtual
- Clanton, AL, USA – Virtual
- Zamora, Spain – Virtual
Our PhD Student Alvaro De la Mora Pena will have made the following presentations between August 2022 and August 2023:
- Ithaca, New York, USA
- New York, USA
- Orangeville, Canada
- Saskatchewan, Canada
- Connecticut, USA
- Jerseyville, ON, Canada
