Julia Common is a BCHPA certified beekeeping instructor and member of the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists. Julia has been involved in beekeeping since her university days. What started as a summer job became first a hobby, and later a career. From 2012 through to 2019 she acted as Chief Beekeeper for the Vancouver-based society Hives for Humanity, which she co-founded with her daughter Sarah Common.
​Urban beekeeping has led her to a number of epiphanies concerning the health and welfare of both bees and humans. Pollination work has led her to focus on how to better the conditions under which we expect our bees to live and work. Julia is passionate about bees and teaching and she has participated in a number of research projects over the past decade. Since her retirement from Hives for Humanity in 2019, Julia has built the company, Bees Actually, to include nuc and honey sales, greenhouse and field pollination, consulting, presenting and teaching.

​Julia is a member of the Richmond and Langley bee clubs in the Fraser Valley, and of the BCHPA. She is also a member of the Native Bee Society of British Columbia, and recently become a member of the Western Apicultural Society. Julia fosters collaborative thinking across many divides as we face the ongoing and future challenges for our bees and this wonderful art and practice of beekeeping.

Dr. Nuria Morfin is the current lead of the British Columbia Technology Transfer Program (BC–TTP) and is an Adjunct Professor at The University of British Columbia. Nuria has been working with honey bees since 2006 as a researcher, extensionist and beekeeper. Prior to leading BC–TTP, Nuria worked as a researcher at the Honey Bee Research Centre, University of Guelph, and as a Bee Inspector in Ontario. Her research has focused on the effect of stressors on health and behaviour, the mechanisms behind behavioural immunity, and the use of Integrated Pest Management strategies to control diseases.

 

Dr. Jeff Pettis, Research Scientist and Consultant, Pettis and Associates LLC As former research leader of the USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, MDand now an independent consultant, Dr. Pettis has focused on improving colony health by limiting the impact of pests, diseases and pesticides on honey bees.  His research areas include: IPM techniques to reduce the impacts of parasitic mites and disease, effects of pesticides, pathogens, and temperature on queen health and longevity, host-parasiterelationships and bee behavior. Dr. Pettis is the current President of Apimondia, the International Federation of Beekeeper’s Associations and serves on several international committees including the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and With more than 35 years of research experience conducted in more than 15 countries; he is frequently interviewed by the media for his opinions on worldwide pollinator declinesand honey bee health. Dr. Pettis received undergraduate and MS degrees in Entomology from the University of Georgia and his doctoral degree in Entomology from Texas A&M University in 1992.  

Dr. Leonard Foster is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Dr. Foster comes from a family of beekeepers and got his introduction to academic bee research at Simon Fraser University while doing his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry – at SFU he worked with Drs. Winston and Slessor on honey bee pheromones, particularly the components of queen mandibular pheromone. He then did a Ph.D. in Toronto and post-doctoral studies in Denmark before starting his current position in 2005. The first independent operating grant that Dr. Foster secured was to study how bee pathogens were able to manipulate the protein machinery within bee cells. Since that time, he has led three very large-scale projects that have investigated some of the molecular mechanisms behind disease resistance in bees. This effort has recently moved into trying to apply this knowledge by using the information they have learned to guide selective breeding for hygienic behavior in honey bees. He is very active in extension and frequently engages the public on various aspects of honey bee biology. He currently lives in Richmond and keeps bees himself.

My name is Ian Steppler, married to Sandy, father of 5.  I farm with my family near Miami Manitoba Canada.  We are third-generation farmers started by my grandfather and carried forward by my parents.  Nearly 10 years ago, my 3 brothers, parents and I restructured the farm into a company and have since expanded into a large grain, cattle and beekeeping operation.  We crop 3500 acres of land, calve 5-600 head of purebred Charolais cattle and manage a 1200-1500 hive apiary. Since I bought my first 4 hives 20 years ago I have dedicated my life passion towards beekeeping.  I credit the current standing of my apiary to others on whom I have leaned on over the years to help guide me through many management, logistical and husbandry issues.  I am a big believer in paying it forward which motivates me to share my successes and failures with others. I share my farm experience and offers advice through social media and our website at www.stepplerfarms.com/StepplerHoney

Doug Gordon – Okanagan Honey Company is a family owned and managed small honey farm in Armstrong, BC. First established as “Valley Vista Apiaries” in 2013, we have since changed names and continue to market honey and bees in the Okanagan. The main apiary (also referred to as the “home yard”) is nestled just north of town, on our family’s land. Doug has smaller bee yards scattered around Armstrong and Enderby where his many bees make their living.  We are happy to offer the unique honeys that come each year based on yearly changes of forage and weather. We are proud to extract and tend to high quality, delicious honey right at home. Doug has been working in the commercial bee space for nearly a decade, originally apprenticing under Jamie Macdonald with Armstrong Apiaries and later with off seasons in Otago, New Zealand working with Alpine Honey Specialties. Previously employed as an apiary inspector, he is passionate about exciting topics such as mite control and disease prevention! He runs a small nuc production and honey operation in Spallumcheen, where he lives on an old family farm with his wife Katie, two sons Gus and Iver, and their dog Tizzy.

Etienne has a mechanical engineering background. He got his start in beekeeping with a geologist friend as part of mine reclamation project. The beekeeping was done after work hours. It was learn as they go operation as they were the only beekeepers in the area and Beekeeping for Dummies was their primary source of information. He now lives in the Yukon Territory and has kept bees for the last 12 years in northern cold climates where he takes a very data driven approach to keeping his bees. He has collected data to understand the annual bee cycle, mapped out the bloom calendar along with the nectar and pollen flows. He loves everything to do with bees/native pollinators and continuously seeks to expand northern best practice beekeeping. His current focus is winter thermoregulation, bee nutrition and bee health. In 2021, he received CAP funding to conduct a Yukon honey origins projects to better understand Yukon/Boreal/Subarctic nectar sources (pollen analysis) as well as the local honey chemical characteristics (NMR). He is also president of WAS – Western Apicultural Society.

Dr. Plettner is a faculty profession in the Department of Chemistry at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby.  She received her B.Sc & Ph.D. at SFU and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at both the University of Toronto and University of Utah. Erika is 1 of 3 researchers awarded funding through the Agritech Innovation Challenge. Dr. Plettner will be testing a compound that paralyzes varroa mites that parasitize honey bees and transmit crippling diseases to them.

Scandia Honey Company is Canada’s largest producer of 100% Canadian Honey, located in beautiful Scandia, Alberta. Proudly in operation since 1937.  Scandia Honey produces hundreds of thousands of pounds of high-quality, 100% pure wholesale honey every year. The dry climate in Southern Alberta results in low-humidity honey, and the prairie flowers produce a stunning “white” colour of honey. The taste is mild, sweet, and smooth.  In our state-of-the-art facilities that we recently renovated in 2019, we are able to homogenize batches and perform NMR testing, which allows you to have confidence in the purity and origin of the honey. Homogenization is the process of manually mixing the honey for uniformity, but it does not involve any heating or chemical processing. Having four large tanks allows Scandia Honey to take special requests for moisture content, Pfund colour, and NMR testing. As a result, you can be assured you are buying world-class honey that exactly meets your requirements.