Bees in our garden

Bee at our flowering almond

Bees are active in our garden.

Great concern has been expressed about the decline of bees due to the use of insecticides and to some extent, climate change.

But in a 2015 article in the Globe & Mail, Margaret Wente says things are not that bad.

"I have great news for honey lovers everywhere. The Canadian honeybee industry is thriving. Despite those headlines about mass die-offs and and killer pesticides, the number of honeybee colonies is at a record high. Last year, according to Statistics Canada, nearly 700,000 honeybee colonies produced $200-million worth of honey. Bee survival rates have rebounded even in Ontario, which was hard hit by unusually high winter die-offs."

Let's hope she's right.  Because scientists say that if the bees disappear, so do we.  We rely that heavily on bees to pollinate crops for our food.