Gregg Edwards’s organic blueberry farm was buzzing last year after he introduced several honeybee hives to his production.
Edwards converted his family’s apple orchard to highbush blueberries in 2007. He explained that between 35 and 40 per cent of all food, including fruit, vegetables, soybeans, nuts, and flowers rely on pollinators such as bees. At the optimal time, pollination improves fruit size, yield, ripening, and shelf life for crops like blueberries or apples.
Bees also support biodiversity, soil protection, and the overall ecosystem at the farm, which is becoming increasingly important with climate change and evolving agricultural practices. On Covey Hill, Edwards benefits from his honeybees as well as native bumblebees.
“Apple trees like honeybees, while blueberries like honeybees and bumblebees because the flower on a blueberry plant is very long and deep and some of the worker bees cannot get into them, whereas the bumblebee can,” explained Edwards. And while some suggest imported species like honeybees compete with indigenous bees, he said the bees at his farm seem to work well together.
Edwards and his nephew, Eric Barrette, who helps him tend to the hives, extracted honey for the first time last year as well. “It’s quite an experience. There is no shortage of stickiness, but it was great fun,” he reports, noting they are looking forward to harvesting even more of the golden elixir this year with the addition of several more hives.
“Bees are amazing little creatures to watch. They are a society all of their own,” he commented. “They require a lot of work and a lot of attention,” he added, recalling how last summer’s hot and dry conditions rendered beekeeping particularly challenging. “The flower population withered and just literally dried up, so there we were, watering bees,” he said, describing how they installed waterers to get through the season.
Bees in general are quite sensitive to temperature. Edwards brought his hives out for the season from a controlled climate in an apple storage facility in early April. They lost one of five hives over the winter, which Edwards admits did not come as a surprise. According to his agronomist, bee loss was quite high in some parts of the province, so they were happy to see their remaining colonies buzzing along when they were first opened.
The bees will be ready when the blossoms are at full tilt. “Timing is really important for pollination,” said Edwards. Fruit producers who bring hives into their orchards time their arrival for when flowers are in full bloom, and hope for sunny weather.
“Bees like warm weather. Our bees have a southeastern exposure at their entrance. They will not come out of that hive until we reach 12 degrees Celsius,” he explained, noting this year’s cold and wet spring has kept his bees inside their hives more often than not.
Edwards expects his new hives will arrive toward the end of May, along with higher temperatures. He is looking forward to meeting his new workers, but admits he still has a lot to learn about these “fascinating creatures.”