Beehives having a difficult season, Regina beekeeper says

Yens Pedersen is busy tending to his new beehive in his front yard. This is his first season with his new beehive, after his previous hive died in the spring.

“With honeybees, keeping them alive over the winter can be quite the challenge,” Pedersen said. “Running out of food is actually the number one cause of death for honeybees in the wintertime.”

Pedersen said he pulls excess honeycomb clumps off of the edge of his frame every two weeks. This maintenance is important, he said, so the bees have enough room to move around and don’t swarm. A swarm is when half the hive leaves the colony because they do not have enough room. He has been taking extra care of his new hive to make sure it develops properly.

Pedersen keeps bees as a recreational hobby, but he comes from a long line of commercial beekeepers who own their colony near Cutknife. He is also the President of the Regina & District Bee Club and maintains a single hive in his front yard in the Regina Cathedral neighbourhood.

According to Pedersen, many beekeepers’ hives died since last fall.

“I have heard many other beekeepers are struggling with spring and winter losses,” he said.

Colony losses in Saskatchewan are currently at 35 per cent according to Graham Parsons, a pollinator biosecurity specialist with Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Agriculture who reported to farmernewsNOW. Parsons said these numbers are 15 to 20 per cent higher than the provincial average.

“I have heard Saskatchewan’s provincial agriculturalist say many times that ‘Saskatchewan is one of the best places in the world to produce honey, and one of the hardest places in the world to keep bees alive.”

Saskatchewan’s damage rate was low, however, compared to the national rate. Bee colonies across Canada lost 50 per cent of their population over the winter this year.

Pedersen said many beekeepers are struggling with the large losses. There are a couple of factors he noted that have caused bee populations to falter. One of them was a longer spring.

(Gillian Massie/980 CJME)

“Even once winter is done and spring is arriving, the bees aren’t completely out of the woods,” said Pedersen.

Pedersen said every colony experiences losses at the start of spring. The “spring dwindle” happens every spring when the older bees from the year prior die off. While the cold in Saskatchewan can be brutal, he said bees can normally withstand the cold in hibernation, but major losses start to occur when spring goes longer than normal because the bees have nothing to eat.

“A cool, wet spring means it takes longer for the flowers going, and the flowers are what the bees get there food from,” said Pedersen.

The second reason for large losses was a spike in varroa mite numbers.

“Mites are an ongoing problem; they will always be with us,” said Pedersen. “Probably the biggest economic problem for beekeepers rights now.”

According to Pedersen, mite numbers go up when there is a successful honey harvest season, like there was last year.

“The years that the honeybees build up quick and strong, so will the varroa mites,” said Pedersen.

Mites are often managed by different chemicals, but Pedersen explained it is difficult to get rid of an entire mite population without harming the bees.

“The issue isn’t the little bit of the blood that they suck,” Pederson said. “The issue is that they might be carrying some sort of disease.”

Just moments ago, standing withYens Pedersen who is doing biweekly upkeep on his new beehive. Many SK colonies took a big hit over the winter months. #regina @CJMENews @CKOMNews pic.twitter.com/ulZ7sswEnv

— Gillian Massie (@massie_gillian) July 28, 2022