Bees are all the buzz: Cold weather affects beekeeping operations

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

Although the Greidanus Honey Mill fared better than the provincial average in their bees’ winter mortality last year – despite attending to dry spells and varroa mites – a colder winter and lack of chinooks is forcing the honey farm to enter the season blind.
Greidanus Honey Mill is located just north of Strathmore on Highway 817 and nurtures over 4,000 hives. Normally by this time, the farm’s beekeepers would already be checking in on the bees’ activity that stretches to Rockyford and Gleichen, and have an idea of this year’s survival rate. Yet with the amount of snowfall and fewer chinook winds, the business is among many other beekeepers in the province itching to visit their hive locations.
“It’s got us nervous and we are simply walking in blind,” said Grace Strom, owner of Greidanus Honey Mill.
“Normally we have a few chinooks, we go out and check things, we make sure that when we drive by the hives we see activity, and we know they’re alive. But we haven’t even been able to get into our bee locations to have a look.”
According to the 2017 Alberta Provincial Apiculturist annual report, the winter mortality was the highest in the past five years at 28.8 per cent last spring, and information taken from the 1,591 Alberta beekeepers showed bee colonies suffered from high Nosema infections – a spore-forming parasite that may cause serious losses of adult bees and colonies in autumn and spring. Because bees don’t defecate inside the hive and colder weather has prevented them from flying around, Strom is concerned about Nosema infections among her colonies this season.
“What we are anticipating is that bees do not defecate in the hives and when there is no warm weather for flying, their system is full of garbage. When that happens you run the risk of Nosema, and that can flare up and will set the hives back,” Strom said.
“Then you have a much lower bee population inside the hive and a lower bee population is going to do two things: it’s going to reduce the amount of pollination that that hive is able to accomplish, and it’s also going to result in a smaller honey crop. It’s one of those things where Mother Nature determines everything.”
For over 40 years, Greidanus Honey Mill has battled Alberta’s unpredictable climate. Strom recalled extremely dry spells in the 1980s, better crops in the 1990s, and an average crop last year due to moisture in July.
In 2013, the bee operation experienced similar weather conditions and wasn’t able to dig the beehives out of the snow until May. For now, Strom is one of many Alberta beekeepers – there are a total of 315,128 producing colonies provincially – eager for a spell of warm weather to tend to the bees and assess the situation.