ANNOUNCING the PUBLICATION of the BOOK

       HISTORY OF BEEKEEPING IN ONTARIO
                        (Click on the above link for order form)
                         By Professor Gordon A. Townsend

Beekeeping is one of the oldest agricultural pursuits. But honey bees were not 
native to North America. They arrived here with the early settlers and were kept 
in logs, straw skeps and crude hive boxes. The swarms that issued from these 
hives became fair game to honey-hunters. This uncertain supply of honey was the 
uncertain beginning of beekeeping in Ontario and North America.

Today’s beekeeping industry in Ontario evolved from the developments made in the half-century from 1860 to 1910. Developments which included:

• the founding of the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association

• the printing of the first Ontario Bee Journal

• the establishment of several bee supply companies

• the passage of legislation with respect to disease control and the marketing of honey

• the appointment of the first official Foulbrood Inspector, and Lecturer in Apiculture at the Ontario Agricultural College

• the formation of the Department of Apiculture at the OAC

• the establishment of the position of Provincial Apiarist
  

The next half century saw the development of beekeeping the way we know it now.  Some of which include:

• pure foods standards for honey

• standardization of honey containers

• the formation of the Ontario Honey Producers’ Co-operative

• the opening of an export market for honey

• the Dyce Process for controlling crystallization in honey

• honey grading regulations

• perfecting honey pasteurizing, processing and straining equipment

• a 20 year queen breeding project on Pelee Island

• the development of Northern Ontario for beekeeping

• legume and fruit pollination techniques

• detailed study of factors influencing nectar secretion

• large-scale royal jelly production methods

• mode of action of royal jelly in honey bee development
  
  While all this was happening at the OAC, the Apiculture Department was gaining a world-wide reputation; primarily through its initiation of apiculture projects in Third World countries. The beekeeping project carried out in Kenya in Africa in the 1970s and early 1980s was an outstanding example.
  
  From 1940 to 1985, five individuals - G.F. Townsend, A. Adie, P.W. Burke, M.V. Smith, R.W. Shuel - worked together in the Apiculture Department at the OAC. By the end of their careers, they were dubbed the “original five.” Some of their life’s work and experiences in the beekeeping fields are recorded in this book.
  
  But, this is also the story of beekeepers throughout Ontario. Some of the major changes they have encountered over the years with regard to bee diseases, apiary management and honey marketing are documented.
  
  For more than a century, the beekeeping community has been an integral and unique sector of the agricultural system. This is the first book to document, including numerous photographs, the history of beekeeping in Ontario. It is hoped that beekeepers across Canada and throughout the world will appreciate its value and enjoy its story.
  
  History of Beekeeping in Ontario contains 200 pages with over 300 black and white photographs plus a coloured section on how to date honey cans.