Vancouver Island community charts significant loss of honeybee hives

Honeybees pictured in the Cowichan Valley of British Columbia in May 2025. (CTV News)

According to the Cowichan Beekeepers Association, 75 per cent of the honeybee hives in the valley were lost over winter.

“I had 34 last year and I got knocked down to 11 hives,” says Ian Low, president of the Cowichan Beekeepers Association.

The association says 60 per cent of its hives usually make it through the winter but this year there was only 25 per cent survival.

“It’s a big deal for agriculture and pollination in the spring,” says Low.

Mites are the main cause of hives being wiped out, which have decimated colonies since the early 1990s.

“They’d be the equivalent of a Dungeness crab sitting on your liver and sucking off your liver,” added Low. “So they cause quite a health issue for bees.”

As experts try to find a solution, thousands of bee colonies are imported from different countries every year to supplement the losses.

The Cowichan Beekeepers Association want to change that narrative by teaching amateur beekeepers how to make hives “so that we can actually have a sustainable apiary system,” says Low.

The association has also created an educational trailer called the ‘Bee-Mobile’ which will soon be buzzing around the Cowichan Valley.

It will be set up at schools and public events from Malahat to Ladysmith, teaching the younger generations about the importance of bees.

“We get 75 per cent of our food pollination from the bees,” says Marie Cairns from the Cowichan Beekeepers Association.

The ‘Bee-Mobile’ is equipped with microscopes, simulated beehive frames and a live observation hive.