> > An unknown is the US - Canada situation.  With varroa moving >
> > into Canada ,there is less reason for the border closure, and
> >there is some pressure for a reopening of the border.  Our
> >Canadian friends may be able to comment better on the possibility.
 
> The only people I can find who want the border opened are commercial
> bee keepers who based their business on killing their bees every
> winter, then re-starting again in the spring with new packages.
 
Well, there are *some* who would like to go back to that, but for the
most part, the people pressing for opening the border in the west
 (which is Canada's major honey producing area) are those who
have had some disasterous wintering results, particularly if they are
also in the (slowly expanding) areas where both mites are present.
 
Many are tired of working hard, using resources that could better be
spent on honey production to ensure that they have bees for the next
year.  Splitting, raising queens, etc. competes with honey production for
attention during a *very* short season up here near north of the 49th.
 
Parts of Canada near Detroit/Windsor  are *south* of parts of
Northern California.  Therefore, in Ontario, this urgency is not
felt, since the climate is mild and the season is literally several months
longer than in the Peace.
 
BC also  has limited areas that are suitable for raising queens and
packages.
 
Unfortunately, however, the seasons in these areas are not
sufficiently far ahead of the honey producing regions to be able to
reliably produce packages and queens in sufficient quantities for
the market, in spite of repeated attempts to do so.  These areas have
never been able to support the number of hives necessary to provide
surplus bees in more than small quantities.
 
Ontario and BC breeders have yet to match the timing, the volume, and
the quality that we once took for granted from the Southern States,
and it is not from lack of trying and government support.
 
Moreover, the bee breeding areas of both BC and Ontario are -- for the
most part -- overrun now with both mites.  And the trucking distance is
considerably *greater* from Toronto to Alberta than from Northern
California. (From my place, Mexico is closer than the Quebec border).
 
bees are currently being brought in from Australia and New Zealand to
make up for disasters and to provide increase, however the cost is
sufficiently high to make the enterprise risky, especially when one
compared the quality from these offshore sources to what was
routinely available from the US.
 
Moreover, Western Canadian beekeepers are pretty well interbred with
 US beekeepers.  A fair number came from the USA originally or worked
closely with some California operations.  Believe me, the decision to
close the border was not taken lightly here in Alberta.  The measure
still has only 50/50 support.
 
> There is one main area of concern, Africanized bees. While packages
> are kept out, then the chances are we can keep our gene pool clean,
> and that is possibly our strongest argument for keeping the border
> closed.
 
The border closure will likely expire in a couple of years.   For
the most part AHB is already proving to be a non-event in the USA.
(Many have forgotten that AHB samples were deliberately imported to
the Southern US for research purposes some decades ago and is likely
already part of our commercial North American  gene pool).
 
Having said that, you'll likely be amazed to find that I personally
have -- at present --  limited enthusiasm for opening the border
immediately.
 
My reasons:
 
1.  So far we have no varroa, and none near (as far as we know).
 
2. I am not convinced that if the border were opened for imports that
   the Southeren States could supply bees at prices any better than
   the current ones.
 
FWIW
 
Regards
 
Allen
 
W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper                                         VE6CFK
RR#1, Swalwell, Alberta  Canada T0M 1Y0
Internet:[log in to unmask] & [log in to unmask]
Honey. Bees, & Art <http://www.internode.net/~allend/>