Some Nova Scotia bee farmers are reporting losses in their hives as high as 50 per cent over the past winter.

That means more hives must be imported to keep up with the demand for pollinators in the growing blueberry industry.

“It wasn’t the best year, that’s for sure,” Joe Goetz, president of the Nova Scotia Beekeepers Association, said in an interview Thursday.

Goetz went into last winter with 380 hives. Fewer than 200 survived the long, cold season.

He said the association will get a better idea of the health of the bee industry once the province’s beekeepers get their winter survival reports in this month.

“Then we’ll have a better sense of the losses,” said Goetz, who owns Scotian Bee Honey and Gifts in Windsor Forks, near Martock in Hants County.

There are about 200 bee farmers in the province. Most are hobbyists. About 25 run large commercial operations, with a total of about 11,000 hives.

Bees are hugely important to many crops for pollination, particularly fruit and berries. It’s estimated that they pollinate about 30 per cent of the food people consume.

Expansion in the lowbush blueberry industry in Nova Scotia, where there are about 18,000 hectares in production, is driving demand for more bees. Natural pollinators like honey bees, wasps and flies cannot meet the demand, and farmers are turning to managed bee populations.

Blueberry growers have found that more bees means better pollination of their crop and a larger harvest. Some say a sufficient supply of pollinators can increase the blueberry crop as much as tenfold.

That has led some farmers to call on the province to drop restrictions on importing bees from other provinces, particularly Ontario. The Bee Industry Act says the importation of honey bees is prohibited without a special permit from the government.

It’s expected about 4,400 hives will be approved for importation this year.

“It would be great if Nova Scotia beekeepers could provide those 4,000-plus hives to growers who need them,” said Goetz, who underwent an expansion in hives from 30 to 380 last year.

He has managed to meet his rental contracts to apple and blueberry growers by dividing hives, buying some from local beekeepers and importing some from Australia.

“Every hive I have is rented out to apple and blueberry growers. They are in the apple orchards right now waiting for the apples to bloom and then they’ll go to blueberries.”

Other beekeepers are reporting their best winter survival rates in years.

“I’ve heard some bad stories,” said Tom Cosman, owner of Whidden and Cosman Honey in Greenwich, Kings County.

“But we actually did better than we have in years.”

The mortality rate in his 1,500 hives dropped to about 20 per cent from 30 per cent in recent years.

“We’ve had some years with 50 per cent losses, as well.”

He said it’s difficult to know what caused the improvement on his farm. It could have been a combination of more constant winter conditions, good weather in the fall, the state of the bees going into the winter and better management of mites.

“There are so many little factors all added together.”

Cosman said it has been a struggle in recent years to replace lost hives.

“All the blueberry growers are dependent on you.

“The demand is just endless.”

Paul Dickie of Maitland said he was surprised to discover only about a 30 per cent loss in his hives after the winter, compared to as much as 45 per cent in previous years.

“There seemed to be fewer mites in the fall,” Dickie said.

“If the bees are good and healthy and not bothered too much by mites in the fall, that seems to set them up pretty good for the spring.”

Source - http://thechronicleherald.ca/