A photo of bees living in the insulated hive designed by Master Beekeeper Sheldon Hill at Medicine Hat College.--SUPPLIED PHOTO
newsdesk@medicinehatnews.com
Sheldon Hill knows his bees.
Hill is a Master Beekeeper, working with honeybees for more than 30 years, and he is reimagining the design of hives in an effort to increase yields by improving the conditions for bees.
Hill co-owns Sweet Pure Honey, a Saskatchewan Bee Farm in Porcupine Plain, known for producing Canada Raw White Honey, Raw White Honey and Ice Honey.
Recently, Hill has been working with the Medicine Hat College Centre for Innovation, known as C4i, to reassess current hive designs for producers.
As a producer, Hill has noticed a variety of challenges affecting the production of honey, especially during the peak season in the summer.
“The honey industry has been having a very tough go in the last five to 10 years, especially in the last two,” explains Hill, who cites high losses in hive population, high production costs and a lower yield of honey.
According to Hill these factors may be caused by pests, viruses and increasing climate events that can affect bees’ ability to survive.
As well, Hill says persistently low commodity prices are also causing a financial strain on many producers.
“Hopefully through our research, we can start to eliminate the stressors,” said Hill, who explains current bee hives are designed to emphasize ventilation and airflow during the summer months.
Hill wants to find out if adding more insulation in the summer can enhance the bees ability to regulate the temperature and humidity inside the hive, hopefully leading to better brood development, increased honey production and overall increased colony health.
The simplified version of Hill’s idea: providing bees air conditioning during the summer, an idea that up until recently hasn’t yet been taken into consideration.
“If you had a well-insulated house and a poorly insulated house that are air conditioned, the air conditioner runs a lot more in the poorly insulated house,” compares Hill. “The bees are the ones air conditioning the space, so they’re working harder theoretically than the ones that are well-insulated.”
C4i provided Hull grant funding and the space needed to property test and validate his idea, which found early success.
“We saw 40% more brood before honey flow and over 70% greater production during honey flow,” said Hill. “Those are significant, significant amounts.”
Moving forward, Hill says he hopes to continue his research exploring other innovations in beekeeping equipment and practices that could benefit the industry.
The college says the plan is to expand the project next summer, and honey harvested from the college was used by Business & Continuing Studies students who participated in an annual innovative tournament.
Read that story in Thursday’s edition of the News.
