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Alberta Beekeepers Having a Devastating Year

Alberta beekeepers are confirming what many of them knew already. It's been a devastating year for them, thanks to a long cold winter and the impact of the ongoing pandemic that started early this spring.
 
The Alberta beekeepers commission says producers lost anywhere between 50 and 60 thousand hives over the winter and that's certainly going to impact honey production. The impact of the pandemic and subsequent lock down, meant fewer flights. That kept producers from bringing in shipments of bees from other countries, to make up for their lost colonies. Issues surrounding temporary foreign workers meant some of those seasonal workers didn't arrive in time to help and some bees starved to death. Alberta produces the lions share of honey in Canada where we are the sixth largest producer in the world.
 
Speaking to local beekeepers in the Drumheller valley, Paul Andrew commented that his hives did not make it through this past winter.  The government has offered a program to commercial beekeepers to offset some of the costs related to the impact of COVID-19 on their hives. 
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