Bees in New Brunswick have suffered a dramatic population drop this year. The New Brunswick Conservation Council said the province saw a 40 per cent die-off of domestic honeybees last winter. The effect could be just as deadly for blueberry farms, one of the biggest cash crops in the province, which rely on bees for pollination. Paul Vautour, president of the New Brunswick Beekeepers Association, said the decline has worsened in the past five years. There used to be a five to 10 per cent drop in the harshest winters. He said the decline is bad news for the close to two dozen commercial bee farmers located mostly around Fredericton, Moncton and Sackville, who each own about 1,500 hives. Their bees are also rented out to pollinate blueberry farms - which at 33 million pounds harvested and profits of $19.8 million in 2008 - are the province's second biggest cash crop next to potatoes. "It's devastating because every hive is important," said New Brunswick Beekeepers Association vice-president Richard Duplain. The province's 8,000 to 10,000 hives need to be doubled by imports to sustain blueberry, cranberry and canola crops.
Duplain said 40 to 60 per cent of harvested berries are due to pollination. "If pollination services are not there, production won't be up to par." But beekeepers said homeowners can keep bees healthy by keeping cosmetic pesticides off their lawns. "There's nothing wrong with dandelions; in fact, I think they're beautiful because they keep my bees alive during the spring," said Vautour, who owns a small bee farm north of Moncton."They need something right after winter, when nothing else is in bloom. So many bees die without them, or with them if they're filled with pesticides."
Tracy Glynn, Acadian forest campaign co-ordinator for the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, said wild native bees are much better pollinators for those crops than keepers' honey bees. She said pesticides are a big threat to both types. She said the provincial government has a big role to play in bringing pollination back up. "The time to act is now,'' Glynn said in a news release. "It's imperative that the provincial government determine the status of New Brunswick's native bee populations, ban the cosmetic use of pesticides and protect pollinator habitat.'' "I don't believe in bans, I believe in common sense," Duplain said, adding moderation is the key for New Brunswickers to green their lawns without harming the environment.
"People have to try to do what's right for them and for their neighbour." "We're not holier than thou when it comes to using antibiotics and pesticides," said Vautour, adding beekeepers use miticides on parasites that clog bees breathing tubes and suffocate them, among several other pesticides for other pests. "In a perfect world it would be nice to ban pesticides and go all natural," he said. "But intensive farming crops are so close together it makes it easy for pests to thrive, and you just can't live without them at all. "Cosmetic pesticides we can do without."
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