Island beekeepers still losing stock; Crop pollinators are struggling to survive mites
Stan Reist’s bees struggle to survive each winter, forcing him to increase his stock to meet the demand from mid-Island farmers who need his pollinators.
Derek Spalding, Times Colonist
NANAIMO — Some British Columbia beekeepers have recovered from four years of declining hive numbers, but several operators are still experiencing losses that could soon reduce the valuable supply of bees that pollinate the province’s agriculture sector every year.
The B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Lands will survey beekeepers over the next few months to find out who are still losing stock because of mites that plagued the industry and decimated honey yields last year.
Operators have seen some significant successes so far this year, according to Paul van Westendorp, provincial apiculturist for the ministry, but numbers so early in the season may be misleading and his staff want to know the cause behind any continuing decline.
Nanaimo’s Stan Reist has been operating at a 40-per-cent loss for several years.
His bees struggle to survive each winter and that forces him to focus on increasing his stock so he can meet the demand from mid-Island farmers who need his bees to pollinate cranberries, blueberries and other fruit trees.
Reist will invest everything he has to ensure he meets his quota, but he will lose 60 per cent of the bees that he normally sells to beekeepers in Alberta. Such a loss could cost him nearly $50,000.
Some success stories have come from the Lower Mainland and other parts of the province, including Babe’s Honey Farm in Saanich, the largest beekeeper on Vancouver Island.
Babe’s has problems of its own, however, as wet weather has drastically reduced honey production.
“Beekeeping has become a very savvy and challenging livestock husbandry. The diseases are no longer straightforward,” said van Westendorp. “Plus, beekeepers are in an incredible struggle because input costs rise continuously, yet their return on the final product doesn’t move upward.”
Apiary inspectors have found no evidence of Colony Collapse Disorder in B.C., a lasting plague that has devastated the beekeeping industry in the United States. The disorder is now linked to two mites — Varroa destructors and Acarapis woodi — and a fungi, Nosema ceranae, that cause adult bees to leave the hive and not return, leaving remaining worker bees incapable of raising the brood.
As of last year, industry experts estimated a 40 per cent loss in the U.S honey bee.
The province is now testing bee samples to see if B.C. bees are exposed to similar diseases and mites, but that could take months, according to van Westendorp.
In the meantime, beekeepers have to deal with mites that have caused the industry havoc.
The varroa mite arrived in 2000 and changed the industry, according to the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists. There are 2,354 fewer beekeepers and 6,714 fewer hives since the mite arrived.
B.C. alone has lost 450 beekeepers since 1999, though bee colonies increased by 4,000 in the same time period.
Perhaps the most telling numbers is the honey yields that dropped from 105 pounds per colony to 50 — a yield barely makes it worth doing the work, according to van Westendorp.
The advent of new mites, coupled with poor weather conditions, has reduced the winter survival rate, Reist explained. Three years ago, he took an 80-per-cent hit to his bee stock. Last year, he lost 50 per cent and already has lost 40 per cent this year.
“Until we breed better stock, we’re stuck with the mites,” he said.
A better breed of bees that can fight off mites are slowly making their way around the province, thanks to an experiment conducted by two operators in the B.C. Interior.
Elizabeth and Terry Huxter have been the leads on a three-year bee breeding project that has produced about 600 queen bees that will produce healthier brood that can survive disease and poor weather conditions, according to the B.C. Bee Breeders’ Association.
The project brought in queens from across the country previously tested in other areas for resistance to the varroa mite.
The husband-and-wife team subjected the bees to several tests to see which ones work the best in the B.C. climate and then began breeding more queens.
With the project ending this summer, the Huxters will provide 20 to 50 beekeepers with healthier breeders.
Success stories this year have some industry experts optimistic that the province’s bee stock will once again thrive, but others fear that B.C. could soon lack enough bees to pollinate the agriculture industry.
Reist said that beekeepers collectively could be short 28,000 hives necessary for pollination in the next five years.
The Ministry of Agriculture does not have accurate numbers about the potential loss. Though this number “sounds wonderfully dramatic,” van Westendorp said “without a good explanation attached to it, [the estimation] could be anything.”
“If current trends continue, we will see an escalation in the shortage of bees needed to meet the pollination requirements,” he added.
Vancouver Island also has its success stories for bee survival, but other problems around honey production has hit the Island’s largest honey farmer hard.
Babe’s Honey Farm lost 40 per cent of its honey supply this year because of a cool and wet summer last year.
Under such conditions, the bees did not fly to collect normal amounts of pollen. Instead, the farm’s 2,800 colonies used the honey for their own food supply, according to owner Mark Pitcher. He said that Vancouver Island beekeepers could be without his regular supply of bees this year because he has chosen to replenish his own stock before selling to others.
The bees could be back to stay, according to some keepers.
John Gibeau of Surrey said he had the best year ever for wintering, having only lost five per cent of his bees.
The president of the B.C. Bee Keepers’ Association said that the devastating years of 30 per cent losses or 60 per cent losses for the industry as a whole should be over.