Geoff Wilson

Geoff grew up in rural southwestern Ontario.  He started beekeeping at the age of 15 helping a small scale neighbor beekeeper with his 100 colony operation and got his own colonies the next year.  He has been involved with the bee industry ever since.  Geoff obtained both his B.Sc. (Agr.) and M.Sc. from the University of Guelph where he studied agrology as an undergraduate and bee health and genetics in graduate school, while paying his way through school by working for a large commercial beekeeper in southern Ontario.  After a few years of working with the Ontario Beekeepers Tech Transfer Program and then commercial beekeeping in Eastern Ontario, Geoff moved to Saskatchewan to work with the Ministry of Agriculture.  Geoff has been Saskatchewan Provincial Specialist, Apiculture since 2009, with the primary goal of helping beekeepers to maintain bee health and keep a healthy beekeeping industry.  He keeps approximately 100 colonies plus nucs with his wife for breeding and trialing new products and beekeeping techniques.

Talk Title: Keys to Successfully Outdoor Wintering Singles in Northern Climates

We keep bees in singles, 3 miles from the Northern edge of Agriculture in Saskatchewan.  We winter 10 frame singles and 6 frame nucs outdoors.  Winters always hit -40, sometimes for multiple weeks in a row.