Lakefield Herald Special Report

Beekeepers expect a good year

At a meeting of the Central Ontario Beekeepers Executive recently, at the McMullen Farm in Warsaw, there was encouraging news that the local honeybee population seems to have wintered well and like the rest of us is eagerly awaiting the coming spring and summer season.

After years of discouraging winter survival rates due to the arrival of mites and subsequent diseases they carry for which the local bee population had little or no immunity, beekeepers have discovered with careful management and weather cooperation, bees can overcome the challenges the mites have to offer.

At the present time our winged friends are busy working willow, poplar and maple blossoms, along with the early flowers like colts foot, blood root, croci and soon the dandelion to provide their growing families back in the hive with the protein and carbohydrates necessary to build up the hive populations needed to give us a surplus crop of honey.

Look forward to a good crop of local honey to appear near you in the middle of summer.

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