Honeybees have played an important role in Canadian agriculture for decades, with past stressors and tough seasons humming along under the radar, for the most part. That all changed a few years ago when it became a political imperative to “save the bees.”
Maryam Sultan, bee health associate with Bayer, recently discussed the subject of bee health with Shaun Haney, founder of RealAgriculture, and explains how the success or failure of a hive hinges on a multitude of factors.
“We’ve never had as many honeybee colonies in Canada as we do right now,” says Sultan, but she adds that a large portion of these hives are mobile, being used for pollination work of commercial crops. This leads to stress, and the impact of that stress is not fully understood.
Also discussed is the difference between honeybees vs. wild bees (spoiler alert: honeybees are an introduced species to Canada), and what impact, if any, backyard gardens and urban feeding may have on bee species.
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