Many of us love the goodness of honey but did you know that not all beekeepers love their bees?
Recently, I was purchasing raw (unpasteurized) local honey from Vancouver’s Weigh to Go Bulk Foods.
As he was ringing up my items, I told the shopkeeper that I had just learned from a beekeeper at the farmers’ market how incredibly stressful it is for commercialized bees to be transported from farm-to-farm, rented for their pollinating power. He not only vehemently agreed but went on to share that there are beekeepers who deplete their beehives entirely of their hard-earned honey, only to be given high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to survive the harsh winter season.
I was horrified.
Responsible for much of the commercial crop pollination in North America, the non-native western honeybee is a generalist, pollinating any crop and returning to their hives with a high rate of efficiency. For decades now, commercial beekeepers have their hives travel extensive miles to provide this service. (Our native bumblebees, however, are efficient pollinators themselves.)
As you may have heard, colony collapse disorder is a very real threat. Honeybees are failing to return to the hives once released — they simply disappear. The causes may be manifold; in addition to the widespread use of highly toxic neonic pesticides, fungal infection, parasites, bacterial or viral infections may all play a part due to the over-commercialized treatment of honeybees.
To have any chance of getting through the winter, bees need honey — lots of honey — according to perfectbee.com. The amount of honey required varies considerably, from 50 to 150 lb., depending on the severity of the winter. Since the 1970s, however, apiarists have been feeding high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to their colonies as a cheap food substitute in exchange for depriving their hives of nutritious honey. (Similar to the way we prevent our dairy cows from feeding their offspring.)
The literature now indicates that HFCS weakens honeybees’ defences. Tragically, the bees need all the help they can get in order to survive our modern onslaught of neonic pesticides and toxic air pollutants.
Their fuzzy legs literally act like dust mops so, when honeybees collect nectar from flowers, they also gather pollen and a substance called propolis, used to make their waxy honeycombs. Pollen and propolis contain three compounds that University of Illinois entomologists discovered can help the bees detoxify their cells and protect against pesticides and parasites.
Researchers have shown that bees fed HFCS fail to activate their immune (anti-infection) genes as well as the enzymes needed to break down pesticides compared with bees allowed to feed on their own honey. Moreover, the bee bread given to baby bees is unique. Any substitute may affect bee development.
The bees are also likely suffering from being forced to pollinate vast numbers of the same plant (mono-cultured crops), instead of being able to pollinate many different plants, as they would in a natural environment.
Melissa Chaun of Port Moody is an ecologist with a passion for all things sustainable. She is events co-ordinator with the Rivershed Society of BC and volunteers on various city committees. Her column runs monthly.
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HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO
Previously, I have written to encourage those who like to garden to incorporate pollinator-friendly native plants into their planting palette to help these life-giving insects have access to a greater variety of nectar and pollen resources over more months of the growing season. Not surprisingly, there is more we can do, including:
• Support ethical beekeeping. Find out which products are looking out for their bees — which ones allow their bees to overwinter naturally with their own honey, in addition to ensuring hives are not harvested until after their first year of development. It’s time we share more honey with the honeybees that make it.
• Bee-ware of “Made in Canada” products on grocery store shelves. Many labels may only have a drop of Canadian honey in them (comprising predominantly cheaper foreign product). Know your beekeeper, shop locally (e.g., farmers’ market) and do your homework. Ask specific questions.
• Support native wild pollinators. Provide habitat for the native mason bee and some of our 46 North American bumblebee species. See www.bumblebee.org/nestbox_plans.
• Sign this petition: davidsuzuki.org/action/canada-must-ban-neonics-now.
• Let others know. Unless we ask wise questions and share important information, unethical beekeeping will continue. With a changing climate — more intense storms, unpredictable droughts and smoke-filled summers — together with the very real threat of colony collapse disorder, our bees need our active support more than ever.
