This spring, many beekeepers across Canada opened their hives to find that their honey bees had not survived the winter, highlighting the serious issue of honey bee colony loss. In Quebec, the average hive mortality rate was 60% – three times higher than previous years. Other provinces suffered higher than average winter losses as well. This mirrors a broader trend, as the US has seen a 90 percent decline in the number of bee colonies per hectare since 1962, further emphasizing the global scale of the crisis.
There’s a reason this news has hit mainstream media. It is devastating for beekeepers who make their living off of their bees, but it should also serve as a wake-up call for the rest of us. The health of honey bees affects us all, and the consequences go far beyond just having fewer bees to enjoy this year.
The loss of worker bees, critical pollinators for our food systems, has a long-term impact on pollinator health, agriculture, and ultimately, human consumption.
What is happening to the bees?
Emily McBean, Beekeeping Field Specialist at Alvéole, says there are multiple factors that may have contributed to the loss of so many rural hives, further emphasizing the alarming trend of honey bee colony loss. “Varroa has been one of the bigger reasons for hive mortality for a long time,” she explained. Though there are treatment plans that beekeepers have used for years, climate change is rendering those treatments less effective. Pesticides, drought, habitat loss, nutrition deficit, and global warming are among the causes of bee declines, creating a multifaceted challenge for beekeepers.
What does the varroa mite do to honey bees?
The varroa destructor is an external parasitic mite that feeds off of developing and adult honey bees, transmitting disease. Varroa mites have become one of the biggest loss threats to honeybee health, contributing to significant honeybee deaths each year.
“Last year, we saw an incredibly early and hot spring and summer. This means the varroa got to reproduce in an exponential fashion. As beekeepers, we all try to use the same treatment plan every year. But mite loads would have been high earlier in the season, so they might have gotten too high before anyone got to their treatment plan.”
Seasonal weather patterns that were predictable for so many years just aren’t anymore, leaving many beekeepers struggling to cope with unexpected outbreaks. It’s clear that the beekeeping industry is facing greater challenges than ever before.
Varroa mites cause anxiety for all beekeepers
Urban and commercial beekeepers are both struggling with increased varroa, which significantly impacts honey bee colony loss, but with different consequences. For urban beekeepers like us at Alvéole, it’s essential that we keep mite loads low to prevent spreading varroa to neighboring hives, including those of other urban beekeepers.
But for a rural commercial beekeeper who keeps up to 100 hives at the same site, losing the majority of their honeybee colonies in one shot is absolutely devastating. Their career depends on honey production and renting their bees out to other farmers for crop pollination services.
What does colony loss mean for the rest of us?
One could argue that a honey bee’s most important job isn’t making honey, but pollinating crops. “Beekeepers will transport their hives in the spring to crops that need pollination and charge the farmers for pollination services. This season, there are fewer hives available to provide that service, which means we have a risk of some crops going unpollinated”, Emily explained.
Honey bees perform about 80 percent of all pollination worldwide, making their role in food production indispensable.
Wild bees also play a critical role in pollinating many types of plants and crops, yet they are increasingly at risk due to habitat destruction and pesticide exposure.
Meaning that while commercial beekeepers and farmers are feeling the effects of a reduced honey bee population now, city dwellers may see the effects on the shelves at their local grocery stores or farmers markets in the coming months(recognizing this, companies like Sobeys have implemented local initiatives to increase awareness of the importance of bees).
The loss of honeybees is beginning to limit the supply of some food crops in the US, a trend that could have far-reaching implications for food security. Beekeepers are already seeing winter losses impacting their ability to meet the demands for crop pollination, and researchers are warning that continued declines could lead to a colony collapse affecting many more regions in the coming years.
In fact, Project Apis, an organization supporting pollinator health, has collected samples from hives across the country to monitor the ongoing effects of colony collapse disorder.
“This level of mortality for honey bees is scary because it’s one of many reminders that the systems we rely on to feed people – like neonicotinoid pesticides, monocultures, and managed pollination – are not a certainty with climate change affecting our world.”
According to NBC News, the past decade has seen an alarming rise in chemical residues found in honeybee hives, further highlighting the urgent need for change.
Using social beekeeping to connect more people with nature
At Alvéole, our main objective isn’t honey production or pollination (though they are sweet benefits!). We think of ourselves as social beekeepers. We use urban beehives as a way to educate more city dwellers about the environment and sustainable food systems.
“We put honey bee hives on rooftops with the goal of making people fall in love with bees and let that be the catalyst for these larger conversations about what is going on around us and how our actions impact not only honey bees, but save the bees, all pollinators and nature as a whole”
Emily can speak to how powerful an interaction with the bees can be. She herself first fell in love with them when she joined Alvéole as a beekeeper 4 years ago. “The first time I saw the bees I was like ‘okay, this is the only thing I want to do for the rest of my life’.”
Protecting what we love
“Especially when the information is scary, it’s easy for us to just tune it out because it feels far away. But when people interact with the hive on top of their building, they really fall in love with the bees. When they read an article about bees and beekeepers having a hard year, that person has a deeper connection to that conversation and has a harder time ignoring it”.
So the next time you bite into a delicious piece of fruit (or most any of the food that ends up on your plate), think about the beekeeper, their hundreds of thousands of bees who helped it grow, and how we all play a part in addressing honey bee colony loss for their future. Because after all, pollinators are responsible for three bites of every meal we eat.
