A break in the cold, wet spring weather is finally giving beekeepers like Kim Eliason in the Cowichan Valley a chance to check on her bees.
So far, anecdotal reports have not been promising.
“The bees are not great, they had a sad winter,” said Eliason.
Bees don’t like being bothered when it’s cold and wet so keepers are just beginning to open their boxes for a peek inside. Many appear to be seeing a higher winter die-off than usual.
“A lot of bees are lost this year,” added Elias. “Just the cold winter, then it got warmer then it got cold again.”
Sunny skies and warmer temperatures in Merville on Friday were just what Rachel Halliwell’s bees have been waiting for as they were seen exiting the boxes and flying around in the sun.
“This is just the outside temperature they have been waiting for and we have been waiting for as beekeepers,” she said.
Halliwell loves bees. She sells bees, teaches people about bees and just opened her own store Home Grown Bee in Merville selling cool bee stuff.
When she slid open a bee box Friday she was very happy to see the tray humming full of bees.
However, it is not the same story for everyone.
“I’ve seen incredible successes but then I’m also helping identify why there was a hive loss for some people so it feels very 50-50 for me,” Halliwell told CHEK News. “It will be very interesting to find out.”
And she’ll likely find out later this spring when a local survey is completed by the Comox Valley Bee Club.
BC’s top bee expert is also keeping a close eye on a provincial survey.
“We don’t know, really we can not tell you with any definitive information as to what has transpired so far,” said Paul van Westdorp, an apiculturist for the B.C. Government. “Bees are superbly sensitive to the environment in which they live and when the weather is lousy they stay indoors. However, the current survey will provide some interesting information at the end of the month and then we will have a much better picture.”
He says bees can perish due to numerous factors including starvation and Varroa mites, which are external parasitic mites that attack and feed on honey bees.
The Prairie provinces have seen a particularly bad spring for honey bees with losses up to 50 per cent while beekeepers in Quebec have seen losses around 60 per cent.
Van Westdorp does not expect losses to be nearly that bad in B.C.
Dean Stoltz
