Adrian Lam & Katie DeRosa The Province March 8:
Vancouver Island beekeepers are reeling from the worst commercial honeybee die-off in recent memory, with some estimating almost 90 per cent of colonies have been wiped out in the last few months. Many blame a harmful parasite called varroa mites that have become immune to some pesticides. They fear the shortage of bees could affect spring pollination and drastically raise the price of honey on the Island. "The amount of bees that have been lost is just phenomenal," said Sol Nowitz, a veteran commercial beekeeper who breeds bees and produces honey at the Jingle Pot Apiary in Nanaimo. "It's the biggest catastrophe to kill bees on the Island ever." He estimates there are between 2,000 and 3,000 colonies on the Island, about a quarter of the 12,000 colonies that flourished a few years ago. In 2007, Nowitz had 275 colonies. Now left with 15, he is sold out of honey and can no longer afford to sell bees to other beekeepers.
Steve Mitchell, owner of Bee Haven Farms in Duncan, said he started out the winter with 18 colonies and came out with one. "Other farmers lost their whole stocks," he said. Nowitz said the hardest-hit areas are in Nanaimo and the mid-Island. The last major die-off was in 2007 and 2008, when some breeders lost 55 to 65 per cent of their stock. This year, however, the almost total depletion is a full-blown disaster, Nowitz said.
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