Overwintering bee losses in Canada on the decline: What Ontario can learn from the rest of the country

Despite a cold, hard winter in many parts of the country beekeepers in all regions except one reported better than average winter survival rates.

The one region that still has a problem? Ontario, where some beekeepers have aligned themselves with environmental activist groups and fought successfully to hobble farmers by essentially banning a highly effective seed protection. They also won the right to seek compensation for bee losses without any scrutiny of their own livestock-tending practices.

According to the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists (CAPA), the Canadian average overwintering loss of bees was 15.9 per cent. Now, if you’re a cattle rancher, a 15 per cent loss seems high, but for beekeeping that’s a normal loss for several reasons, not the least of which is that bees are not native to Canada and are not able to survive our winters without significant human intervention and management.

Of course there are other factors, too. Bee health, like human health, is complex, and a whole host of factors including pests and parasites (particularly the Varroa mite), diseases, nutrition, habitat and more all affect bee health.

So what, then, is causing Ontario bees to falter while bees in other regions thrive?

According to some it’s all about neonicotinoids, a type of insecticide that is applied in small amounts directly to seeds and then planted in the ground where bees are incredibly unlikely to come across it. In fact, the Ontario government is so convinced of this that they recently implemented what is in all but name a ban on the products.

But that narrative simply doesn’t fit. In Western Canada, where almost all 20 million acres of canola is protected using these same products, bee populations are thriving.

And look at Quebec, which has a very similar agricultural system and weather to Ontario. Quebec beekeepers reported losses of only 18 per cent, compared to Ontario’s 37.8 this year.

Maybe it’s time Ontario looks at the situation through a different lens.

About a decade ago Alberta beekeepers faced problems with overwintering similar to those being experienced in Ontario today. They created a bee health program designed to offer beekeepers additional education and improve their ability to diagnose and treat the numerous diseases and pests that were compromising bee health. The result? Well, in 2015 overwintering losses in Alberta were just over 10 per cent.

According to CAPA’s report, beekeepers in Ontario cited starvation and weak colonies as two of the main contributors to above average overwintering numbers. These stressors are in line with what experts widely agree are the biggest threats to pollinator health.

It’s also worth noting that Ontario’s overwintering losses decreased from 58 per cent in 2014 to 38 per cent in 2015. This reduction happened in spite of very similar winters and without any ill-informed government restrictions.

It’s time those Ontario beekeepers who want to take a holistic, science-based approach to bee health be heard.

Beekeepers in other parts of the country have made enormous progress in creating strong, vibrant colonies that, with proper care, are robust enough to survive the harshness of Canadian winters. These beekeepers might just have some important knowledge to share with their counterparts in Ontario, the question is whether those beekeepers can drag their attention away from divisive politics long enough to listen.

Ted Menzies,
President & CEO of CropLife Canada