Vancouver Island beekeepers keep eye on colonies as Prairies report massive winter die-offs

Saanich, B.C., beekeeper Bill Fosdick is about to inspect his backyard hive. It consists of about 1,000 bees.

He's inspecting his bees to see if they've been infected by the varroa destructor mite, a tiny insect which will attach itself to the larva of the bees and slowly weaken some to the point of death.

The mites have become a problem for beekeepers in Canada's Prairie provinces.

"There are certainly producers in the province (of Saskatchewan) who are reporting big loss numbers in the 60 to 70 to 80 per cent of their colonies this year," said Nathan Wendell, president of the Saskatchewan Beekeepers Development Commission.

Back in Saanich, Foswick says his hive appears healthy. His worry though is that the problem on the Prairies could make its way out west.

"One of the things it does is that it opens a doorway to other viruses and infections that can affect the bees," said the beekeeper.

The Prairies could be referred to as our country's breadbasket. Three quarters of the honey produced in Canada comes from the Prairies and bees are also the primary pollinators of many food crops.

"So far the indications for British Columbia seem to be quite promising," said Paul Van Westendorp, the provincial apiculturist of British Columbia.

But that’s not to say we're out of the woods yet.

WINTER COUNTS

The 2020 winter die-off of bees was well above the average of 12 per cent in B.C., and extreme weather events are becoming more common in the province.

"Average winter loss last year in British Columbia was something like 32 per cent," said Van Westendorp. "Thirty-two per cent, that’s almost like one third of the colonies are gone."

For now, this bee expert says we can only estimate what the losses will be this year.

Beekeepers in the province and across Canada will begin officially reporting this winter's numbers next month.

"We may end up having a smorgasbord of numbers, and hopefully the statistics will help us to interpret this in a way that gives us some better picture," said Van Westendorp.

As Fosdick inspects his backyard colony, he says beekeepers on Vancouver Island are small in scale, like his operation.

He says for now, if a massive die-off does happen, it can often be attributed to the producers themselves and not the varroa destructor mite.

"There is no single disease or predator that’s going after honeybees on Vancouver Island that we can say, 'There it is, that’s the problem, we now have to prepare ourselves and defend against that,'" said Fosdick.