Canola fields are blooming, and honey producers are very much aware of the stresses their honey bees have encountered throughout the winter, as well as new stresses facing them on a daily basis.

Rheal Lafreniere is the Industry Development Specialist, Provincial Apiarist, for Manitoba Agriculture. He has been working with Manitoba Agriculture, in the bee program, for 20 years. He says there are always losses during the wintering period, but the variables change on a regular basis. However, beekeepers have been experiencing an unanticipated higher mortality rate over the past few years.

Lafreniere says they have seen a lot of challenges with diseases. However, the varroa mite is one of the most significant of the challenges that affect honey producers today.
The varroa mite is one of the most severe threats to honey bees and can be detrimental to an entire bee colony. The mite is an external parasite that feeds on the body fluids of both adult and developing honey bees. It was introduced into Canada in the 1980’s and has been extremely difficult to manage. 

Lafreniere explains how the varroa mite is a constant and threatening problem throughout the beekeeping season. “The challenges that really start to have an impact is when we start to see resistant strains of the Varroa Mite, where the treatment that we’re using is no longer effective against the mite.” Lafreniere says beekeepers must be vigilant to maintain low levels of the varroa mite in their hives.

In addition to winter loss and disease, beekeepers have an additional challenge this year, that being the drop in world market prices. “This year we saw a dramatic decrease in the price of honey, especially bulk honey,” he says. “We saw a significant drop from the $2.00 a pound range to approximately $1.25 per pound.” He adds that with low market prices, many honey producers are looking seriously at the dilemma and wondering whether they can afford to be a beekeeper.

Lafreniere, says the drop in price can be attributed to the Chinese honey making its way into the Canadian market. As Canadian honey-producers have significantly higher operating costs in just keeping their bees alive and colonies thriving, they’re unable to compete with China’s very low in-put costs.

Lafreniere describes the plight of the Canadian bee-keeper somewhat close to “the perfect storm” in that beekeepers were still able to manage with losses, prior to the drop in market prices. However, as the price in bulk honey continues to stay low, honey producers struggle even more with winter and disease loss in their bee population.

In summary, Lafreniere shares, “The low-priced honey is what we’re concerned about, when talking about what beekeepers have had to deal with, that is the really strong drop in bulk price. And that’s because we sell a lot of bulk honey. We generally produce much more honey than our domestic population can consume so we have to export a lot of our product. The Canadian product has a good reputation for being a quality product, so we do have access to a very large market that way. But when we are dealing with large volumes of low-cost Chinese honey directly competing with the sale of bulk honey, it really makes it a challenge. There’s no way we can compete head-to-head with China. It’s just their operating costs are so much lower.”

Canada’s biggest trading partner is the U.S. However, we also export overseas to countries like Japan , as well as in Europe.
There are an estimated 650 beekeepers in Manitoba with some 200 being commercial honey producers, the remaining considered as hobby-beekeepers. There are approximately 95,000 bee colonies in the province. Our Manitoba yearly average production is usually around 170 pounds per honey producer.

Approximately 80% of the honey produced in Canada is produced in the Prairie Provinces. Prairie honey is also marketed into areas of Canada where there is greater population, such as Ontario and BC.