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For the past twenty years, bees have become scarce, due to intensive agriculture and the use of pesticides. Beekeepers decided to save them.
The bees arrive on sunny days, with the flowers. This year, many were still missing. The hives record 30% mortality, sometimes much more. So beekeepers are mobilizing to find solutions. Yves Delaunay, beekeeper in Perpezac-le-Noir (Corrèze), now raises his queens to renew his hives. “There is a need for new queens, to replace queens who are tired”he notes. The breeders found new colonies to replace those that have died.
In order for the hives to survive pesticides, the loss of biodiversity and global warming, Yves Delaunay devotes a significant part of his time to his queens, which are essential for obtaining honey. “It’s the future of the whole farm, and it’s the future of all French beekeeping”he warns.
Denis Siguier, organic beekeeper in Champagne-Mouton (Charente), shares the same concerns. The heat wave has weakened its culture. “When it’s too hot and too dry, the flowers no longer produce nectar, so the bees can no longer feed, can no longer collect nectar”, explains the beekeeper. So he has been taking them for three years to forage at David Coiffard, a farmer in Availles-Limouzine (Vienne), where they find sunflowers, squash or even buckwheat.