Agriculture committee  We are currently doing research with imported and local stock of queens, so we are reporting from a few sources. Most beekeepers in Canada are buying their queens, and we are evaluating how they arrive here in Canada. They say the queen has a storage of sperm. They mate and fly o

Agriculture committee  Probably you have heard before of CAPA. They have stated that one of the main issues of beekeeping is the [Inaudible—Editor] so the queens are not lasting enough time in the hives to produce enough progeny or they have been replaced very quickly. Because of this concern, we are d

Agriculture committee  I think talking with beekeepers recently.... Again, they are having a very good winter for the beekeeper in western Canada. What they use are commercial supplements for their hives. I haven't heard anything about using the new supplement. I assume it is being tested in Ontario an

Agriculture committee  I would like to answer this question. When you say 20,000 diagnostics, it depends on how many diagnostics you need per sample. If I did five analyses per sample, then we'd be talking about 4,000 samples. Probably half of those samples come in from research, so we have 2,000 sam

Agriculture committee  I agree with the other witness here that there is an increase in the need for pollination in the canola areas and also blueberries in the Atlantic provinces. That, I think, gives an incentive to probably [Inaudible—Editor] and some of the beekeepers will spray their colonies to

Agriculture committee  Our policy is that as soon as the sample arrives in our lab, we have a two-week period to report back to the beekeeper. We have been able to provide the results in an even shorter time, around 10 days.

Agriculture committee  There are several facilities around the country. A laboratory in Abbotsford, B.C., provides some services to B.C. beekeepers only. There are some facilities in Quebec that provide services only to Quebec beekeepers. I believe the University of Guelph also provides services to the

Agriculture committee  Right now we are a full operation, with a normal shift of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 or 5 p.m. The capacity is there and the equipment is there to provide additional services, if needed, but of course we would need additional staff if we had different shifts.

Agriculture committee  Of the 20,000 diagnostics, probably half of them are research samples coming from Manitoba, from Ontario, from Alberta, and from B.C. Half of them are coming from beekeepers from Newfoundland and Labrador through to New Brunswick, with some from Quebec.