Thousands of dead bees outside the hive (above). Healthy hive (below right) and dying hive (lower left)

A beekeeper from La Broquerie is calling foul following the death of thousands of his bees.  David Dawson has been keeping bees for 55 years, started in England and came to Canada.  He has often heard people say they are not seeing insects in their garden pollinating their cucumbers, apples or raspberries and they are not getting very good crops.  Bees are the creatures that get this job done while they are collecting nectar to make honey.

He explains beekeepers tend to take their bees and put them on fields of canola and sunflowers and other crops that produce honey.  At some point the farmer may spray their fields to control insect pests and when they spray with insecticides it kills the bees.  Dawson reports he has hives near Steinbach that have piles of dead bees at the entrance to the hive and it's pretty obvious that some farmer has sprayed a field that the bees are working on.

Dawson says not only does this ruin the potential honey crop for the beekeeper but it also may kill the hive as bees return with the poison which then kills other bees.  He is always amazed there are no consequences for doing this.  Dawson believes if there were ten cows in a field that died because of indiscriminate spraying there would be serious consequences but when it comes to bees no one seems to care about it except the beekeepers.  He adds if farmers must spray they are supposed to do it once the crop has stopped flowering or last thing at night when the bees have stopped working.

Another concern Dawson has is when a field is sprayed it kills all the insects, not just the bees.  These insects die and become easy food for birds in the area which are eating insects that have been poisoned.  He alleges this in turn results in large numbers of dead birds as well.

Dawson wants to raise awareness
of this because the city dwellers should know more about what is going on with poisoning our countryside.  He admits it's very difficult to pinpoint which field was sprayed that harmed the bees because the bees can fly up to three miles in search of nectar and that can cover thousands of acres of crops.

Another concern is that beekeepers rely on the goodwill of people who own these crops and beekeepers don't want to lose the opportunity to place hives on a farmers land because they have been complaining.

Meanwhile Provincial Apiarist Rheal Lafreniere says this year there are concerns about diamond back moths in some of the canola fields in the Southeast.  The control options are Lorsban, Matador and Decis.  The product Lorsban has some residual activity on the canola beyond when it's sprayed and has a greater potential to do harm to the bees because the bees will visit the field the next day and then come back and die in front of the hive.  There is no general insurance program for beekeepers who lose bees due to spraying.

He notes choosing spray products is a big part of protecting bees.  Lorsban has residuals that can be harmful to bees for two to three days while other products like Matador or Decis have a shorter period of time where they can do harm to bees.  If a farmer were to use Matador, by the next day the harm to the bees would be so small they could go back in the field and not be harmed by the insecticide.

He notes it's an ongoing education to remind farmers about the potential harm their spray can cause the bees.  If a beekeeper is planning to locate hives along a field of canola it's important to have good communication with the farmer and if they are planning to spray to let you know well in advance.  The beekeeper can then protect the bees by closing the hive or moving the bees away. 

Lafreniere says the responsibility falls on all of us with regards to communication.  The beekeepers need to communicate to the farmer how important bees are to the field and inform farmers that there are bees in the area.  Farmers can then do their best to protect the bees by choosing the spray products that have the least residual and then informing beekeepers when they are going to spray.

There are two main ways for farmers to protect the bees:  if you have to use products, use them in the evening when there is little bee activity; second use spray products that leave little residual chemical that will harm the bees.

He notes beekeepers realize the farmer is trying to protect their crop and understand sometimes they have to use products to protect their livelihood.  If that crop wasn't there it would hurt the bees as well because there would be no nectar for the bees to make honey.  Lafreniere thinks sometimes the concern is when there options that are lees impacting on the bees, beekeepers would love to have the farmer make that choice.

He says so far this spraying concern is not widespread and seems to be located in pockets in the Southeast.  There have been some years where there have been outbreaks across the province and it becomes a huge concern for the entire beekeeping industry.  Lafreniere is not sure if that will happen this year and feels this may not be a widespread problem for this year.