The Canadian Honey Council is asking for $50 million for disaster
relief from the government after another year of bee losses across the
country.

In Canada, the average loss of hives was 33 per cent last year. Some
areas, like Peace River in Alberta and Vancouver, lost 70 per cent of
hives this past winter.

President of the honey council and owner of Planet Bee in Vernon, Ed
Nowek, wants solutions.

"If you can imagine someone losing 70 per cent of their livelihood,"
said Nowek, "it's not just the loss of the bees, but also the income
of those bees. Then the cost of replacing them, which can be
insurmountable for some people if you don't have bees to generate the
income."

Last year Planet Bee had losses of more than 50 per cent, and this
year his losses were 15 per cent.

"There has been two years now of way over average losses," he said.

It was a similar story at Stawn's Honey. They lost 25 per cent this
year, which is better than half their population like in 2007, but the
trend still leaves part-owner Kristy Anderson worried.

"We didn't lose as much, but still have losses," said Anderson, "but
that is normal for everyone now."

Anderson knows a beekeeper who had 500 hives, and lost everything this year.

She has seen beekeepers selling their businesses because of losses,
and it takes constant monitoring and money to keep their bees healthy.

"People are just getting discouraged, and many of the people in this
business are older and it is really hard work to keep up," she said.

"We have a project called Hive Health that we want government funding
for," said Nowek. "We need government help bad, so in addition to our
$50 million disaster relief, we are asking for $10 million over five
years to fund this Hive Health initiative."

Source: vernonmorningstar.com

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