Of Hives, Honey & Honey Bees

We are often asked if we will have honey from our bees this year, and the short answer is no.

Last year was a difficult year for our bees, with a short bloom of blackberries, the only significant forage on Hornby. Our hives were under stress and we experienced colony losses in the fall and winter.

This spring we needed to decide what our beekeeping future would look like here on Hornby. The bees are special to us as they were our first venture into farming and over the past 10 years we have kept as many as 125 colonies, raised hundreds of queens and produced thousands of kilograms of honey. But this was in areas with diverse and abundant forage.

Hornby lacks the diversity in forage that is present in other areas like Vancouver Island or the mainland, with major nectar ‘flows’ available at different times through the seasons. On Hornby, there is the maple blossom in the spring and limited fruit and flower blossom, followed by the abundance of blackberry. But then that is it.

To provide prospective on the amount of forage it takes to produce honey, bees need to make 50,000 flower visits to collect enough nectar to make one pound of honey. We like our colonies to have at least 40 pounds to go into winter and harvest any amount above this. That takes a lot of flower visits and a lot of flowers.

Our other consideration is pressure on native pollinators. Although many species of natural pollinators forage plants that honey bees don’t, they share many plants in common. Too many introduced species without sufficient forage can have a negative effect on native species and we need to keep things in balance.

Time is a crucial consideration as not enough time leads to neglect of the bees or other farm enterprises. With the two of us managing all the work on the farm this year we had to be sure we can manage bees when there is uncertainty about the practical and financial viability of them here.

Where did all this leave us?

We decided to continue with lower number of colonies that we can manage, both in time and financially, and use this season to rebuild our lost colonies by raising new queens and splitting our existing strong hives into new colonies. This takes time and it takes extra feed (honey and pollen) and by the end of summer we should have 20 strong colonies to go into winter.

We did have help in July with a veterinary student doing a placement with us and part of her placement was to get experience with chickens, sheep and bees. We did sampling and testing to ensure healthy bees, raised new queens and split the existing hives as part of their placement experience. It was motivating to work with someone keen to learn and help.

To ensure the bees remain strong, we need to have sufficient forage so we will be planting cover crops. In addition to supporting pollinators, the cover crops will be planted in our new orchard, market garden, and pasture areas in the spring to provide nitrogen fixing to improve the soil health.

Making things work on a small farm takes patience and persistence to find the right solution that benefits the farm and the community while supporting the biodiversity of the area. Our hope is to be able to provide honey next year and see the bees thrive here in the valley.