A Canadian beekeeper has admitted shedding bitter tears when one of her colonies perished.
Shirley Stapley said she cried when one of her strongest honeybee hives died at the end of a harsh Ontario winter a few years ago.
Shirley – from the small town of North Gower – told broadcaster CBC: “It’s just heartbreaking. Every beekeeper feels for their bees.”
She emphasised: “When there are losses you feel them deeply.”
Shirley even abandoned apiculture. She argued: “A lot of the beekeepers are seeing 75 per cent of their hives being lost over winter.”
Speaking about what beekeepers have to deal with during winter in east-central Canada, Shirley told CBC: “No matter what sort of insulation we put in, we find that the bees just can’t make it through winter here.”
She added: “That is climate change because there is such a drastic change in temperature here and there’s a lot of condensation happening in the hives.”
Ontario officials and the federal Canadian government recently unveiled a project called Honey Bee Health Initiative which allows apiarists with fewer than 50 hives to apply for subsidies of CDN 4,500 (EUR 3,060, GBP 2,610).
Anyone in charge of more than 50 alvearies can now even ask for up to CDN 25,000 (EUR 17,000, GBP 14,500).
The initiative – which has an overall volume of CDN 1.3 million (EUR 884,000, GBP 755,000) – is supposed to enable beekeepers to purchase state-of-the-art equipment.
Shirley warned that the Honey Bee Health Initiative may not be enough considering the enormous challenges apiarists were facing.
She nevertheless welcomed the project as a step in the right direction – and revealed her decision to restart her own beekeeping activity next year.
Shirley said: “I am cautiously optimistic.”
