It's looking like a good year for honey producers in the region. That's from MacGregor's Prairie Honeyworks owner Marc Nichol, who says it's a better spring than 2015.
"I would consider we're on time. We're even a little bit ahead of schedule. I'd say most of the bees have come through the winter for most producers in reasonably good shape. That's always a good start," he says.
He notes diseases don't seem to be a problem right now.
"Nothing that's out of control. Every year, spring and fall, we kind of go through our checklist and ensure that we've got everything covered. And so far it looks like things are pretty much in check," he says, adding that hopefully this will continue throughout the summer.
Nichol says at the moment, they're giving the bees a pollen substitute.
"We feed them a sugar syrup, or what we call a high fructose corn syrup," he explains, "that's kind of a supplement for them until we start seeing some fruit bloom, or dandelions that we hope will come out, and people don't spray them on us. We expect, probably here in the next warm-up, we'll see a bit of nectar coming in from that. The pollen sources probably started a couple of weeks ago."
Nichol says the small hive beetle has been in the news lately, wreaking havoc for honey producers, but that's seemingly restricted to Ontario and B.C. where the beetle is more likely to survive. He says Manitoba's climate controls a lot of that, adding it's new on the horizon and he doesn't think it's an issue here. However, it is something they'll keep an eye on.
Source : Steinbachonline