North Okanagan bees seem to have overwintered well, early signs point to minimal losses

Minimal losses for bees

Photo: Chelsey Mutter

Bees at Planet Bee in March 2023.

It’s still too soon to say how bees have overwintered, but two North Okanagan honey farms say things are looking good.

Vernon’s Planet Bee owner Olivia Hoffart said it’s up and down, but so far things are up.

“Early indications are 10 to 15 per cent losses at most, which is quite low. Our hives on site, five out of seven survived,” said Hoffart. “Last year we had none of them on site here survive. Signs are all really positive, so fingers crossed it continues that way this year.”

Owner of Armstrong Apiaries James Macdonald said bees have done well over the winter.

Macdonald has 585 hives, and expects to see 20 to 30 per cent losses this year. A loss percentage that’s pretty common these days.

The mild winter helped bee populations after the last few years of tough winters with cold snaps, but beekeepers are still waiting to see exactly how bees have done.

“In the United States, they've lost over a million colonies. So we don't really know what the Canadian situation is yet,” said Macdonald. “So we're just waiting to see, we're waiting to find out.”

Macdonald said the exact number of losses should be known sometime in mid to late April.

“We have had a lot of problems with bees over the last number of years, and we're fortunate in our operation to have good wintering success,” said Macdonald.

“All our bees are locally raised, and we use organic acids to control the parasitic mites. It's a very fragile environment that we work in. So this year, it looks good.”