The buzz on bees in Alberta

CTV Calgary: Bees thrive in Alberta As bee populations plummet in some parts of the world, a site near High River has nearly 200 million of the insects. Kevin Fleming explains.

There’s growing concern that the bee population in North America is in trouble.

The Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists says on its website “worryingly, for the past few years North American beekeepers have lost approximately one third of their bees every year – roughly three times the historical average.”

However, Terry Greidanus from Mountain View Honey in Cayley, Alberta, says his bees are doing well.

He also says as far as he knows other producers in Southern Alberta also have healthy colonies.

Greidanus says "dandelions have been really good for us for the growth of our bee hives, the population of our hives."

A Harvard University study indicates that pesticides are directly responsible for a massive decline in the bee population in North America and Europe.

The report, which is published in the June edition of the Bulletin of Insectology, concludes that corn, potato and soybean pesticides containing neonicotinoid chemicals are directly to blame for a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder (CCD).

Worker bees are thought to absorb trace amounts of the neonicotinoids during the pollination process before bringing those chemicals back to the hive. Eventually, the neonicotinoid buildup begins to neurologically impair the bees, causing them to abandon the hive.

Greidanus says in his experience "I have not seen any detrimental effect to my bee hives period from my bees foraging on fields that are genetically modified, or have been treated with neonicitoinoids products."