> The background for the question is that in north eastern qu�bec
I assume you mean the area abutting Newfoundland, not the real north,
up by Ungava. If so, then your latitude is comparable to Southern Alberta,
but there will be maritime effects we don't experience.
Chances are there will be little forage for more than a few colonies of bees
other than the blueberries. Moreover, blueberry pollination is notoriously
hard on the bees to boot, so building a sustainable bee population there
could be somewhere between difficult and impossible.
Achieving adequate colony strength before bloom will also be difficult
in that region, I imagine, while outside pollinators could show up reliably with
strong colonies, if the right contracts are set up.
Your best reference base will be the experience of those growing
blueberries farther south in Canada and in Maine. Many have found that
importing migratory colonies for the pollination period from areas farther south
and with varied forage, better wintering and spring build-up is the only
economic solution since the value of the berry crop far exceeds the cost of hired
pollination performed by professionals and even one pollination failure could be
disastrous. Why risk it?
Honey will not be supporting the operations in that area, I'm, guessing, and
heavy off-season feeding will probably be required as well.
Seeing as the purpose of keeping bees there will be to pollinate the crop,
any risk and unreasonable expense is not likely in the cards. Finding and
keeping qualified and reliable managers for the bees is always a problem.
I can cite large berry operations in ideal bee country which attempted to
maintain bees for pollination and had huge wrecks, requiring sudden locating
of outside sources of bees, taking what they could get at whatever price
was asked, and considering themselves lucky to have bees at all.
> It's quite expensive to bring bees into this area so the local ag department
> is interested in beekeeping in these areas.
Unless your local ag department has bee specialists experienced with crop
pollination, they should seek help from the likes of Pierre Giovenazzo
and some of the Western Provincial Apiculturalists. Lots of ag types think
beekeeping is simple, but in the north, it is very technical and risk management
is an essential ingredient, since unexpected losses are common and hard to
replace in time for spring pollination.
I'm guessing that it will be far more expensive to try to maintain stock, and
then there will always be the risk of not having bees when you need them.
> To me it seems logical to start with hives not infested with varroa which
> could be brought in from NewFoundland but most beekeepers here argue
> that we have to learn to deal with varroa.
If these beekeepers are already in the region and have experience with the
difficulties, they will be the best source of realistic information.
> With all the direct and indirect problems related to varroa and treatments
> against it I find this strange.
It is simply a matter of economics. If the berry growers are willing to commit
unlimited resources to the project, then, of course it may be possible, but
in my experience, after a year or two of variable results, the funding dries up.
When we consider the history of beekeeping in the Belle Province, and the
huge crash in colony numbers that took place, worse than any other province
in Canada, I believe, it might be wise to also employ outside beekeepers with
actual blueberry experience and northern experience as consultants.
Varroa may well prove to be the least of your problems.
But, of course, YMMV.
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