After another winter of high honeybee death, 2025 will be the first time a beekeeper’s bee loss insurance will be based on all their overwinter hives in Manitoba.
Tag Archives honeybees
Manitoba updates bee mortality insurance for 2025
2025 will be the first year a beekeeper’s winter bee loss insurance will be based on all their overwintered hives, up from 90 per cent
Beekeepers frustrated with denial on U.S. bulk bees
Federal agency says industry proposals on risk management not sufficient to let shipments in
Heavy winter loss of Canadian bees has some beekeepers calling for the reopening of trade for packaged bees from the United States, but others in the industry are still wary of imported pest issues.
COMMENT: How honeybees can help us monitor pollution across Canada
The honey produced by the tireless work of the honeybee is nothing short of an untapped goldmine of environmental data that could help us better understand the spread of environmental pollutants.
Canadian honey production down in 2024
Canadian honey production was down by 18 per cent in 2024 despite an increase in the number of beekeepers and colonies.
Comment: Bee clustering knowledge based on faulty guidance
Honeybees cluster together when it’s cold but we’ve been completely wrong about why
Honeybees in human-made hives may have suffered the cold unnecessarily for over a century because commercial hive designs are based on erroneous science. For 119 years, a belief that the way honeybees cluster together provides a kind of evolutionary insulation has been fundamental for beekeeping practice, hive design and honeybee study. In the modern day,
‘We’ve always taken for granted that the sugar’s always been there’
Sugar shortage highlights beekeeper feed vulnerability
Beekeeping groups on the Prairies say it’s a good thing Western Canada’s sugar shortage didn’t happen a few months ago. The bees are now tucked away for the winter, but August and September are prime feeding seasons when beekeepers condition their colonies for winter and natural nectar sources are drying up. “We’ve always taken for granted that the
Beekeepers call to reopen cross-border package bee trade
Ten years after the last risk assessment, some say it’s time to re-evaluate
Canadian beekeepers are calling for the federal government to reopen the border to the importation of U.S. package honeybees. Witnesses at a meeting of the House of Commons standing committee on agriculture and agri-food last Wednesday presented recommendations for what the government could do to resolve issues of honeybee health decline and bee mortality. The
New control for varroa mites on the horizon
University of Manitoba researchers look to CO2 to help beat back the parasite
Research at the University of Manitoba involves a promising and inexpensive control for varroa mites in honeybee colonies. Professor Rob Currie, head of the school’s department of entomology, is exploring the use of carbon dioxide to help mitigate mite infestations. The elevator pitch behind the treatment is that varroa mites have a higher sensitivity to
Two more ‘murder hornets’ turn up on B.C. mainland
One nest found last month in neighbouring U.S. town
Beekeepers in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland are asked to keep an eye out for so-called “murder hornets” after two were found in the region within a week. A single Asian giant hornet was found Saturday at Aldergrove, near the intersection of Fraser Highway and Highway 13 — about five km from where
Queens, drones and bees that fly backwards
Three beekeeping experts explain honeybee breeding in Manitoba
To most of us, a bee is probably just a bee. Sure, there’s honeybees, bumblebees, and whatever that bee is that lives in huts on farmers’ fields (leafcutters, of course). But otherwise, a bee’s a bee, right? No, as it turns out. Like cattle ranchers and horse breeders, beekeepers pay a lot of attention to
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