P.E.I. beekeepers confront another fall and winter season tough on pollinators

Winter is coming, and beekeepers in P.E.I. know the colder season is going to be tough on pollinators.

Brian McInnis, co-owner of D&B's Farm near P.E.I.'s western tip, says his operation lost 97 beehives out of a total 100 last winter.

This year, McInnis told The Guardian on Sept. 16, he is starting with 52 hives in hopes of making it to spring with close to 40.

McInnis thinks last year’s losses were due to the damp winter the province experienced. Bees are not sustainable in wet weather conditions.

This is McInnis’s third year beekeeping, having lost five hives out of 75 during his inaugural season, and then lived through post-tropical storm Fiona in 2022.

“There was a bit of damage done to the beehives, but not too bad," McInnis said about the storm that brought hurricane-force winds to P.E.I. two years ago. "I think there's been ongoing climate change, like Fiona's (aftermath) hardened our blueberry fields in many ways, too."

Fiona also wiped out all of McInnis’s flowers, which are essential not only to his business but also to the bees for their survival.

“We had to feed heavily, meaning we had to buy more sugar, mix it up and make a sugar solution,” he said.

The flowers have since fared pretty well, McInnis noted.

For a bee farmer like McInnis, two concerns beyond weather that make things difficult are disease and pests.

“It's an expensive operation to run and it's hard. If I can get some honey out of it and some pollinators out of it, I can do alright. But, if I don't, I've got to get something out of it, but it's just tricky,” he said.

Over in Queens County, Kevin McKenna of Iona, P.E.I., says his main concern is the weather.

“Hopefully, I have time to do my treatments and get my honey off and ready them for winter so that they’ll survive,” he said.

McKenna has been in the beekeeping industry for the past 15 years. This year, he told The Guardian during an interview on Sept. 17, he plans to grow his hives from his current number at 450 to 575.

“I have my bees all over the Island,” he said.

Like McInnis, McKenna also found the bees haven’t experienced good winters recently.

“The best winter for bees, lots of snow,” he said.

The beekeeping business is year-round. With the season starting in the fall, McInnis said the bees must survive the winter with constant monitoring.

Come spring, McInnis has to factor in whether he wants to double his hives or not to prepare for the next season while the bees are out pollinating the surrounding area or to places he sells them. He said his farms aim to reproduce as many queens as possible in the summer.

Finding the right queen bee for the hive can be difficult if it's purchased, said McKenna.

“I say they're no good because we don't know until you get them in the hive (to see) how good they are,” he said.

McKenna says the queen bees are crucial for stable hives.

“If you want to have a strong colony through the winter and have a good pollinator in the spring, you have to have a new queen. And they run at $50 a queen right now, so it's a big expense,” he said.

For McInnis and McKenna, their main beekeeping business is pollination services, but this year, McInnis also started extracting honey for human consumption.

“Maybe the first year had good numbers, the second year at 100 hives was too high maybe, but eventually, I need to get on the learning curve,” McInnis said.

Looking into the future, McInnis wants a sustainable beekeeping industry.

“Because every year people need bees for pollination, but in the past, they've been really hard to come by. What happened last winter has occurred across the Island with some other beekeepers losing numerous bees,” McInnis said.

As for McKenna, says healthy bee colonies are necessary for the Island to have a sustainable future.

“I hope the government has enough money to keep an eye on the bees that are coming in,” he said