2023-04-28 04:11:21
Suisse
“Beekeeping has become very complicated”
Climate change, weather, lack of flowers, new predators, the year 2023 gives many hive owners gray hairs.
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If it rains too long in the spring, the bees cannot collect enough nectar to make honey (illustrative image).
Getty Images/EyeEm
The capricious weather at the start of spring is worrying Swiss beekeepers. Added to other factors (read box), the cool temperatures of this month of april prevent bees from coming out to forage. In the canton of Aargau, the beekeepers’ association speaks of a “catastrophe” this year and fears a zero harvest if the weather does not change, we learn in the “Aargauer Zeitung” on Thursday.
If the year promises to be difficult, in French-speaking Switzerland we do not give in to panic. “For me, things are going quite normally for the moment,” says the president of the Société romande d’apiculture (SAR), Francis Saucy, who has hives in the canton of Fribourg. But he confirms: “The next two weeks will be decisive. If it rains, there will be no harvest. But that’s how it happens.”
“Full speed”
The maintenance of colonies today requires “more skills than thirty or forty years ago”, notes Francis Saucy, who says he checks the state of his colonies every week. At the time, according to him, a visit three to four times a year was enough. “Now we have to be on the job,” he adds. Beekeeping has become very complicated.”
But what has changed? “The problem is that there are so many fewer flowers in the agricultural regions.” And to cite the example of dandelions. These flowers are now essential to ensure its spring harvest. They flower for ten days and the bees have to be operational right at that time to bring enough nectar back to the hive. In the presence of more other flowers, the bees could compensate for the harvest if the weather did not allow them to rush on the dandelions, explains Francis Saucy.
Chilly weather isn’t the only challenge for beekeepers. In general, the search for food is increasingly difficult for bees. Monocultures, urbanization and surfaces like lawns without flowers do not provide honey bees with the necessary environment. Not to mention the harmful effects of viruses, toxic products and parasites. The arrival of asian hornet, noted for example in the Jura last week, constitutes a new threat, even if its presence remains rare. Regarding pesticides, observers note that agriculture has made progress in recent years to preserve bees.
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