Beekeepers and honey houses in the red

The compensation paid to Quebec beekeepers has reached record amounts this year following the loss of half of their colonies in the spring, which weighs on their harvest insurance fund, now in the red, by six million dollars. Some fear that the industry’s difficulties will cause collateral damage to blueberry and cranberry crops, which depend on pollination.

“It was when we opened the hives in the spring that we found that we had lost 57% of our colonies,” says Mathieu Gauthier, co-owner of the Miellerie du cratère. Of the 300 hives that the Charlevoix company owns, it is therefore the equivalent of 171 that did not survive the winter.

The spring thaw caused a melting of the snow that protects the hives and gave free rein to the parasite Varroa destructor, a mite that attacks bees. “We made the decision to close our doors. And that’s what we’re going to do officially at Thanksgiving, at the end of the season,” he said. The adventure lasted seven years.

Import of bees

However, the Miellerie du cratère is not the only beekeeping company going through a difficult season. In Quebec, 48% of colonies did not survive the last winter, according to data compiled by the Canadian Association of Professional Beekeepers. This represents a mortality twice as high as the national average for the past 15 years.

The repercussions are inevitably felt during honey flows. “It is to be expected that the total production of honey will not be up to par with many producers compared to their usual average. That’s for sure,” says Raphaël Vacher, owner of Miels Raphaël and president of the Quebec Beekeepers Association.

The summer of 2022 has been a “rebuilding” season for many beekeepers forced to start new colonies to restore their production capacity by taking a percentage of bees from healthy hives. “The colonies are smaller, but with a bit of luck, over the season, they grow big enough to make a little honey,” he explains, adding that this manipulation often results in the loss of up to 50% of the production of existing colonies.

Others are turning to importing “packages of bees” and the queens needed for new hives. Each year, Canada imports nearly 150,000 queens from California, Chile, Australia and New Zealand.

However, in Quebec, the import sector has been slowed down since the start of the pandemic. “Canadian imports have mainly been concentrated in the Prairie provinces, because that is where there are the most hives in Canada. Quebec passed second. In reality, very few beekeepers have had access to packages of bees over the past three springs,” adds Raphaël Vacher.

dependent cultures

So, to keep their heads above water, beekeepers have resorted more to the crop insurance program, which gives them financial assistance when the mortality rate is high and when production is affected. In 2021, their fund was already in the red by $2.2 million.

“And with this year’s offsets, I’m afraid the fund will stall,” says Vacher. This is $ 3.9 million in aid that was granted in the spring to try to reduce the impact of the spring hecatomb, according to figures from the Financière agricole du Québec. Result: the fund is currently weighed down by nearly six million dollars.

“And if we lose yield, the effect is also felt for several crops that depend on pollination,” he recalls. Because the value of beekeeping production — estimated at $17.9 million in 2020 — comes not only from honey sales ($8.1 million), but also from the rental of colonies ($7.9 million) to producers of small fruits, such as blueberries and cranberries, for pollination purposes. The productivity of these crops is closely linked to the rental of hives.

Already, beekeepers who specialize in pollination services have had to readjust the situation in recent years. “When we started, nearly 20 years ago, we signed agreements estimating that we could lose 15% of our colonies. It’s the leeway we gave ourselves, ”explains Guillaume Picard, owner of the Bee Market, located in Saint-Sylvère, in the Centre-du-Québec region.

The company now produces a number of hives and bees estimating its potential losses at 30%. This year, “losses slightly exceeded this percentage,” he said, adding that he did not rule out the option of “giving himself a game of 40% losses” to be sure of being able to honor his contracts.

“Do you know of a sector that can function by losing 40% or 50% of its resource, on which other cultures depend? This is the question that I would like someone from the government to answer,” said Mr. Vacher, pointing out that no extraordinary assistance has been granted to the industry this year.

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