Brandon-area man, apiary at odds over bees

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/08/2016 (3329 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bees are affecting Richard Baker’s quality of life.

Baker, who lives south of Brandon, said his family and friends are frightened by the bees that swarm to his backyard pool.

The problem started in 2010 when an apiary was established less than 500 metres from his home.

Immediately, bees started collecting water from his above-ground pool.

After speaking with the honeybee colony’s owner and trying several methods over two years to try to divert the bees from Baker’s pool, the beekeeper decided that his animals were a nuisance and removed them.

A new beekeeper, however, stepped in to fill the void in 2012. And the problem persisted.

“On numerous occasions throughout the summer months, anywhere from a couple of dozen to hundreds of bees come to my yard,” Baker said.

His son is petrified of the bees and his father is allergic.

While it’s not unusual for residential sprawl and agriculture to collide, Baker said this is not one of those cases.

The home he lives in has been part of his family farm for more than 100 years. He said he understands the “realities and responsibilities” of raising livestock.

He also believes the colony’s owners, Grysiuk Honey Farms, aren’t holding up their end of the deal.

After exhausting his options with provincial representatives, including the former agriculture minister, Baker took the company before the Manitoba Farm Industry Practices Board.

Baker argued that Grysiuk wasn’t adhering to the regulations because it didn’t post a sign at the operation and the beekeeper wasn’t providing an “adequate source of food and water,” according to the Animal Care Act.

Furthermore, the bees had a negative impact on his family’s life.

“It is like being a prisoner in your home,” Baker said, referencing the inability to use his deck, pool or barbecue in the summer due to the bees.

On Feb. 26, the board made its decision following an investigation into Baker’s complaints.

While there were a number of conclusions, the key one states that “in the opinion of the board, the disturbance from honey bees coming to the yard site and the swimming pool … to the extent that it can be said to emanate from the (Grysiuk’s) beekeeping practices, is a result of normal farm practice.”

Bryan Grysiuk, owner of Grysiuk Honey Farms out of Neepawa, said that in his 45 years in the industry, this is the first complaint against his bees.

“(Baker’s) in the middle of an agricultural area and if the board is OK with us having bees there, then there should be no other problems,” Grysiuk said.

“Right from the get-go, (Baker) hasn’t tried to prevent the bees from coming onto his property.”

The land that Grysiuk is on is rented.

“(The landowner) really wants bees there to pollenate his crops and various other farmers feel the same way in that area,” Grysiuk said.

To fully understand the problem, however, one first has to understand the internal hardwire of a bee.

Manitoba Agriculture apiarist Rhéal Lafrenière said water serves several functions for the flying insects that are closely related to wasps and ants.

In the spring, bees use water to help liquify sugar or granulated honey into feed for the hive. And during the hottest time of the year, they use water as a primitive way of altering the properties of the air in the hive.

“In the summer, one of the biggest uses for water is to try to cool off the hive — it acts as air conditioning,” Lafrenière said. “They collect water and basically fan the droplets to create a biological air conditioner.”

Bees don’t store water, however, meaning every time they need to cool down the hive, they have to source it.

“Pools are an attractive source of water for bees because there is often a place where they can hang on and collect the water,” Lafrenière said.

Compounding the problem is residential pools’ blue-green colour is highly visible, and attractive to bees, from the air.

When water is in high demand, bees send out “scouts,” according to Lafrenière.

These scouts go out in different directions in search for a water source and typically want to travel within 600 metres to find it. When they do find a source, they return to the hive and recruit other bees to collect water from the same area.

“You can intercept them along the way,” Lafrenière said, adding that bees don’t have any long-term memory of where the pool or water source they forage from is. Instead, they rely on finding it again and again.

“If you can set up water stations as close as possible, where their efficiency is very high, like in the beekeeper’s yard, that will help stop them. And that’s what we encourage beekeepers to do.”

Adding a little salt to the water will help make the water stations, which are most often large rain barrels, more attractive to the bees, but too much salt will actually serve to deter them.

Most important, however, is getting the barrels in the right spot, Lafrenière said, taking into consideration the layout of the hive, wind direction and any obstacles that may be in their way.

“You always have to consider their efficiency of collection,” Lafrenière said.

Barriers between pools, such as trees, can also mitigate the number of scouts that find the water.

Lafrenière said he couldn’t comment specifically about Baker’s concerns, but did confirm that he has spoken to him and tried to work out a solution.

The province doesn’t have an official complaint system for beekeepers, according to Lafrenière, who estimated he receives two to three complaints each year. That number has been on the rise. Lafrenière said in the past it wasn’t unusual to get only a single complaint over a two- to three-year stretch.

The majority of those complaints stem from rural residential expansion into traditional agricultural area, he said, adding that it’s in everyone’s best interest to work together to resolve any issues.

“I think there will be a growing trend of beekeepers trying to avoid situations like this, especially if they are locating bees close to where residences are,” Lafrenière said.

Baker said there needs to be clearer rules and regulations about when and where beekeeping operations are allowed.

In recent years, several cities have developed urban beekeeping programs designed to increase the number of hives in the community.

The City of Edmonton’s website promotes urban beekeeping as a way to “improve the overall biodiversity and resilience of our city.” The website even goes as far as to list the step to become a beekeeper.

“I know there are many good reasons for bees and the function that they provide, but I think more people need to be aware of the problems that can persist,” Baker said.

» ctweed@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @CharlesTweed