'IT WAS A DISASTROUS YEAR'

It would have been a buzzing year for Brian Burgener to expand his beekeeping operations, but the unexpectedly high bee deaths this spring left him feeling the sting instead.

Coming out of the winter, Burgener, owner of Humber Honey, said he lost about half of his beehives at all 10 operation locations including Nobleton, Holland Marsh and Oak Ridges.

"It's disheartening," the Oak Ridges resident said. "As we're going through March and April, I'm opening more hives and I'm seeing more that are already dead or about to die."

While it is fairly normal to see some bee losses in any given year, it was unusual to lose half the colonies, said Burgener, who is also with the Toronto District Beekeepers' Association.

Humber Honey is not alone facing this year's devastation of honey bees.

The Greater Toronto and Hamilton region reported a loss of 50 per cent of beehives this season, with some areas like Niagara and Central Ontario suffering even higher losses, according to the Ontario Beekeepers' Association.

Gregg Scott, owner of the Richmond Hill-based Circling Hawk Honey Farm & Meadery, said 90 to 95 per cent of their bees died at a number of remote yards throughout York Region this year.

The bees at his home yard located on a farm in Richmond Hill fared a bit better as they were bred for resistance to Varroa destructor, a parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on western honeybees. However, there was still a slightly above average loss at 42 per cent, he said.

"Losing half of the managed bee population in Ontario is staggering and unsustainable," Melanie Kempers with the OBA said.

However, the association has not yet pinned down the exact cause for the sudden massive deaths of honey bees.

Kempers listed a number of possible factors such as pests and disease as well as environmental aspects, noting a deductive analysis is needed.

Both Burgener and Scott noted that mite infestations as well as the cold temperatures in the winter and spring could have contributed to the beehive losses this year.

Another possible factor would be pesticide use.

Bees collect the pollen and nectar from the trees in spring and summer, which is stored as winter food. If laced with a pesticide, the winter food can lead to a dwindling bee population as new bees are not being born. As a result, the colony would freeze to death as they can't provide enough heart to stay warm, Scott said.

The massive bee losses could be detrimental to smaller business owners and hobby beekeepers who don't have many beehives to begin with, and they may not have the resources to recover, Burgener

said.

He was fortunate to have made the preorder for queen bees from Chile last year as he was prepared to expand his beekeeping operations. It would be a challenge for those who started to order queen bees this year after the losses occurred, Burgener said.

"It was a disastrous year. It could have been catastrophic in the sense that I'd lost everything. I feel I'm still able to recover," Burgener said on his way to pick up the imported queen bees.

The beekeeper who used to harvest three times a year said he didn't expect to have much — if any — of the spring harvest this year, since the weather had not cooperated.

The Circling Hawk Honey Farm is helping many struggling beekeepers, Scott said, but their stock is limited.

The impact is not limited to the beekeeping industry, since honey bees are of great importance to the yield and quality of various fruits, vegetable and farm crops in Ontario.

"If there aren't the bees, you don't get the pollination ... the downstream impacts are, really, what is available is more scarce

and therefore will be more expensive," Burgener said.

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Having learned of honey bee devastation in other areas of Ontario this spring, Reporter Sheila Wang reached out to York Region beekeepers to find out its impact.