Pepinelli Lab

Renée is an ecologist and the commercial beekeeper for Vale Canada Ltd. Following her degree she continued on to take the Commercial Beekeeping program at Niagara College and started her own operation. She moved on to work as an ecologist and took over the Vale beekeeping operation. She is now conducting her MSc/PhD research in partnership with Vale, focused on improving land restoration practices with the help of managed bumble bees and the genetic adaptations expressed by bees caused by heavy metal pollution.

Dawn is the Owner – Operator of Mikkola Family Farm & Apiary and Chief Apiarist of True North Honey Company located in Lively.

Dawn started beekeeping nearly a decade ago as a hobby and as her passion for honey bees grew so did the number of hives and beeyards she maintained. In addition to the honey production Dawn expanded her business to include an educational portion and retail supply portion which at one time was the largest in Northern Ontario.

At the onset of 2024 season Dawn was pleased to see her winter survival would have her operation reaching commercial status with well over 50 colonies. By June her operation saw a massive loss to the livestock at more than one of her beeyards. Analytical test results and supporting data shows the loss was caused by the non-agricultural use of permethrin; used in the spraying of mosquitoes in residential yards.

Now as Dawn focuses her attention on rebuilding her own operation, she continues to educate new young beekeepers, advocate all bodies of government which govern and regulate the use of the products which are having a negative impact on not just honeybees but also the native pollinators, species at risk and all wildlife found in our environment.

Dawn’s future goal is to turn her attention to Apitherapy including Apipuncture, a complementary medicine that uses bee products, including bee venom, to treat a variety of conditions.