Bee concerns
Asked if there are enough hives in the province to meet the pollination requirements during the March 29 committee meeting, HANSARD records indicate Agriculture and Food Operations Branch senior director Loretta Robichaud said: “For this current year, yes.”
Brandt could understand the need for imported bees when it seemed there were not enough homegrown hives to do the job. Now he’s having a difficult time determining how the reward could possibly be worth the potential risk.
“It’s absolutely mind-boggling… why would the Minister of Agriculture even be entertaining this? It’s so black and white it’s not funny,” said Brandt, who started beekeeping as a hobby 15 years ago and eventually turned that passion into a small business, Brandt’s Bees.
Assessing the risk
It has taken Mckaigue 17 years to build up to producing roughly four tons of honey per year.
“We’ve got a lot of time, energy and money invested in our businesses,” he said.
The beekeepers are concerned the last report evaluating the risk of allowing hives from Ontario in and around the wild blueberry fields of Cumberland County was filed in January 2016, reflecting data collected the previous year. They’d like to see a current assessment that looks at how far the beetle infestation has spread since 2015.
The assessment filed in 2016, a report prepared by Andony Melathopoulos from the University of Calgary called “Risk Assessment on the Movement of Honey Bee Colonies into Nova Scotia and Introduction and Establishment of Small Hive Beetle,” concluded there was a low risk.
Agriculture Minister Keith Colwell recently told Kings County News the risk has not been reevaluated since 2015, as the information in the resulting analysis is still relevant.
“We haven’t reviewed it because it wouldn’t change… and the risk showed to be minimum to none,” he said in a phone interview April 21.
Thousands spent on inspections
Colwell said the government only permits the importation of hives that have undergone a “rigid,” government-funded inspection process, anticipated to cost $8,000 this year. He added he is more concerned about New Brunswick importing thousands upon thousands of bees each year, and domestic beekeepers bringing in queens from outside of the country.
“We’re the last ones that want the small hive beetle in the province… and the company, which I can’t name, I believe is the largest beekeeper in the province by far,” Colwell said.
This point brings Brandt and Mckaigue little comfort. They feel the honey producers, and beekeepers rearing queens or raising nucs, would be far more impacted by the small hive beetle than large companies in the pollination business.
“This literally doesn’t make any sense and it puts so many of us at risk. It really does,” said Brandt. “To satisfy what?”
The buy local buzz
Colwell said the beekeepers’ association has informed the provincial government there are 28,000 hives in Nova Scotia now, making it possible for the pollination needs to be met without importing bees. These numbers have yet to be confirmed by the Department of Agriculture, he says.
“We’re not convinced there’s enough hives in Nova Scotia yet,” said Colwell.
“We’re going to do a complete inventory on the beehives to make sure that they’re actually active beehives and they have enough bees in them to actually be credited as pollinators.”
If the government is satisfied the pollination requirements can be met with Nova Scotian hives, Colwell said it will be time to review the Pollination Expansion Program that was established to encourage the creation of more beehives.
“If indeed, there are enough hives after we do an inspection here in the province, we’re going to take that quarter of a million dollars and put it into something else.”
Imported hives expected in May
In 2016, one applicant was awarded a permit to import 4,100 hives for pollination services. A Small Hive Beetle Inspection Claims document prepared by the Department of Agriculture for claims submitted between May 8 to 16, 2016 showed inspection costs were $35,672.91.
Colwell said a single applicant is interested in importing up to 500 hives from Ontario this year.
“When they come to Nova Scotia, they’re only allowed to come to Cumberland County and they’re not allowed to be moved out of that area,” he added.
The minister was unable to confirm the exact dates the importation would take place.
“It would be sometime in May all of this would transpire, but I don’t know the dates,” he said.
Mckaigue does not believe confining the bees to Cumberland County is a sufficient safeguard if other bees from throughout Nova Scotia are also temporarily moved to that same county, at the same time, to pol- linate the blueberry fields.
“Then they get spread back through the province,” he said.
In Mckaigue’s mind, this situation is nothing short of dire. “Once I don’t have honey production, I’m out of business,” he said.