One day about a decade ago while he was in the garden, Troy Moodie noticed that he didn’t see any bees flying around.
He and his wife, Kelly Bowers-Moodie, knew this was a problem because, as Bowers-Moodie noted, the vast majority of the fruits and vegetables humans eat “comes from plants that bees pollinate.”
So, the couple decided they were going to do what they could to help. They joined the Haldimand Norfolk Beekeepers Association (HNBA) and started beekeeping. Today, the pair and their five children run Moodie Bees Apiaries in Walsingham, which has 48 hives and sells honey, bee pollen, and beeswax products.
Bowers-Moodie focuses her efforts behind the scenes on tasks such as advertising, marketing and packaging; she’s also been the Queen Bee of the HNBA since 2018, and amongst other tasks, gives informational presentations about bees and beekeeping on behalf of the association.
This was a necessary shift when, a few years into their beekeeping journey, “I found out the hard way that I am anaphylactic allergic to honey bees,” she said. “I tried desensitization therapy, but it didn’t work. Needless to say, I don’t work directly in the field with the bees anymore.”
But while she can’t be hands-on with that aspect of beekeeping, Bowers-Moodie does a lot for the field through her work with the association, helping new beekeepers get started.
“We always need more beekeepers. More bees equals more food,” Bowers-Moodie said.
This support includes finding suppliers; connecting new beekeepers with each other and helping them connect with established beekeepers; being an information source for things like which tasks need to be completed with the hives each month; and giving the general public more information about bees and their vital role in the environment, and especially in agriculture.
As an example, laypeople may not know that some farmers will get beekeepers to bring their hives to their farm so the bees can pollinate their crops.
“Every year, farmers are finding it harder to find beekeepers to pollinate,” Bowers-Moodie said.
That’s because beekeepers and their hives are facing many challenges.
For instance, many bees are getting infected with mites that carry diseases and can cause deformities. “To keep hives healthy, beekeepers need to treat for mites in the spring and fall,” Bowers-Moodie said.
In addition, hives need to be regularly monitored and treated to prevent the spread of American and European foulbrood, a fatal bacterial disease.
“If hives are infected with the spores, they need to be burned and buried,” Bowers-Moodie said, adding that bee populations can also be vulnerable to pesticides.
Winter brings a whole other set of challenges.
“When winter temperatures fluctuate too much, the bees will eat their honey stores too fast or break cluster and freeze,” she said. And while some beekeepers will wrap their hives in extra insulation to try and prevent heat loss, “There is always the risk of holding too much moisture in the hive by doing this, and the bees will die.”
In the end, “There’s too many variables to find the perfect balance to keeping bees,” Bowers-Moodie said.
And when an apiary does suffer a loss of bees, it’s getting harder to recuperate afterwards – assuming you can start in the first place.
“Start-up costs are rising, and if you don’t make enough from pollination or honey sales, then you are borrowing to do so.”
Over the years, Bowers-Moodie said she’s seen “Many beekeepers … throwing in the towel.”
But there are those who hang on.
“Every year, we dust ourselves off and try again ... crossing our fingers that we’ll have spring survivors,” she said. “Every year we struggle with bee losses, but we keep going, ‘bee-cause’ someone has to.”
Another person who knows all too well the challenges that beekeeping can bring is Glenn Buchner.
“We have encountered 100 per cent winter survival and up to 90 per cent winter losses of hives,” he said.
It’s a wide range to have experienced, especially considering Buchner and his family “have been beekeeping for five years now, so (are) relative newcomer(s) to this.”
It all started back in 2019, when Glenn and Cheryl Buchner’s son, Zach, purchased two hives and started beekeeping; the next year, he and his then-girlfriend (now wife) Holly bought 10 full hives and 10 nucleus colonies.
“He realized that he needed help in managing those hives, so I started assisting,” Buchner said. “My wife and I stepped into the business in 2021 by purchasing 10 nucleus colonies and some wooden ware. … The challenge of maintaining the number hives we have set as a goal and the many ways one can achieve this keeps us interested along with pride in watching the colonies thrive.”
B’s Honey Products is based in Tillsonburg, but has three remote bee yards in the area.
“We currently have 18 double deep hives, down from 40 of last year due to winter losses,” Buchner said. This roughly translates into almost 2 million bees; there are around 40,000 to 70,000 bees per deep box.
The company sells honey and beeswax paste, which they both sell and use in their wood manufacturing business, Solid Edge Wood Products; Holly also makes body products using beeswax as a base.
Buchner said they’re members of the Ontario Beekeepers Association, “which gives us educational opportunities, reduced group insurance options, and keeps us up to date on relevant industry information though regular publications.”
An important part of their agricultural operation includes communicating with other area producers.
“We have had the opportunity to speak with area farmers about the timing and method of application of herbicides and fungicides, which affects the bees,” Buchner said.
They also try to spread the word about responsible beekeeping, particularly to those who are doing it as a hobby.
“Some hobbyists do not realize the work involved in successfully keeping bees,” Buchner said, noting that if a beekeeper doesn’t treat their hive for mites, for instance, “that can infect hives up to five kilometers around.”
He strongly recommends that anyone considering getting into beekeeping do their research first – talk to a beekeeper, take some educational courses, etc.
“Learn more before jumping into it,” he said.
Even those who don’t plan on becoming beekeepers themselves can benefit from learning more about what’s involved. Buchner said helping to educate the public is an ongoing task.
“When the opportunity arises, we try to educate individuals. I find that most people are interested in finding out more about bees once they start asking questions and get honest answers. We try to inform them that is very much a symbiotic relationship, where the beekeeper helps the hive thrive and gets the benefit of the excess honey the bees produce,” he said.
Ultimately, “Beekeeping is interesting, challenging and rewarding,” Buchner said, and being involved in it “makes us more aware of our environmental footprint.”
Because of that, “We have changed our personal as well as business practices to be better stewards of the environment.”
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