Photo by © Tim Singh | Dreamstime.com
Bees on blueberry
The Vancouver Sun reported in April that many beekeepers are refusing to put their bee colonies into blueberry fields in BC due to fears something in the fields is making the colonies sick.
The story by the Sun’s Larry Pynn says beekeepers are refusing to put thousands of their colonies in the Fraser Valley this spring due to health concerns related to blueberry pollination.
But is there really a reason for beekeepers to fear their colonies could be seriously affected? That’s up for debate.
Kerry Clark of the BC Honey Producers’ Association says such a move would be disastrous for crops this year.
“It could be a big problem for blueberry growers,” said Clark. “If you don’t have bees, you don’t get berries … all that investment in the fields won’t produce.”
The main concern for the beekeepers right now is that blueberry fields present bees with a ‘monoculture’ environment. In other words, the bees can only create nectar from a single plant, which affects their overall nutrition and could make the colony susceptible to diseases like European Foulbrood (EFB). Some beekeepers also believe the use of fungicide and other chemicals may be affecting their bees.
The BC Honey Producer Association is now trying to get better data to see if there is in fact a link between EFB symptoms and blueberry pollination. The Association is running a survey on their website bchoneyproducers.ca to gather information from beekeepers.
Not everyone believes blueberries are to blame, however.
In his report Sweet Deal: The value of bees to British Columbia’s economy, bee expert Mark Winston of Simon Fraser University says local bee colonies have actually fared better than most during a time of widespread colony die-offs, with some of the lowest mortality rates in the world.
In fact, Winston argues that beekeepers should be increasing their exposure to BC crops, which could increase revenue by $20 million for blueberries alone.
Winston does acknowledge blueberries face a bigger issue than other crops, however, saying, “"Because pesticide use in blueberries is a bit on the high side, there are simply not enough wild bees around to contribute to the pollination.”
That said, Winston says BC growers generally use less pesticide than growers in other regions, and combined with more diverse habitat and the skill of local beekeepers, that has lowered the mortality rate.
Nevertheless, higher die-offs in the blueberry industry has beekeepers worried, and many are now saying they will save their colonies for use with other crops, leaving blueberry growers in a potentially awkward position this spring.
