In response to last winter’s heavy losses of honeybee colonies, the Province of New Brunswick has announced its 2007 Honey Bee Revitalization Initiative.

The objective of this program is “to assist New Brunswick beekeepers to revitalize the honey bee industry in the province by rebuilding 3,100 colonies through the purchase of colonies, nuclei colonies and /or provision of financial incentives to encourage splitting of existing strong colonies.”

Rationale:

Many New Brunswick beekeepers manage honey bee colonies and provide pollination services to wild blueberry, apple, cranberry and vegetable crops, with the largest requirement for pollination coming from the blueberry industry. The New Brunswick wild blueberry industry requires a minimum of 12,000 colonies annually (based on 1 hive per acre). It is estimated that pollination from honey bees contributed 5.5-6.5 million pounds of blueberries (valued at $5.5-6.5 million) to the overall crop yield in 2006. Beekeepers also extract honey from their colonies and market either bulk, wholesale, and/or retail honey (2006 production of 230,000 lbs).

The number of New Brunswick colonies available for pollination has been slowly increasing over the last five years from 4,700 colonies in 2002 to approximately 6,000 colonies in 2006. After severe overwintering losses suffered in the winter of 2006-2007, it is estimated that only 3,500 colonies from provincial beekeepers were available for blueberry pollination in 2007. In order to rebuild to the number of colonies which were available in 2006 and eventually work towards self sufficiency for blueberry pollination in New Brunswick, a honey bee revitalization initiative is required.

Financial assistance will be directed at those beekeepers who plan to remain part of the industry and rebuild their colonies. The funding is not intended to take the form of a payout to all beekeepers who suffered a loss. This targeted approach will help ensure that financial contributions will go to those beekeepers who are intending to rebuild. The Honey Bee Revitalization Initiative will assist beekeepers with the purchase of new colonies and nuclei colonies and will encourage them to split strong New Brunswick colonies. It is anticipated, that with this assistance, industry may be able to rebuild approximately 3,100 colonies by fall.

The deadline for applications is November 16, 2007.

Beekeepers are asked to review the Guidelines (english/french) to determine whether or not they are eligible for this program.