French Beekeepers Face Worst Production Of Honey This Year – Know The Reason!

The honey bee population is rapidly decreasing worldwide due to several factors. First, the collapse of honey bee provinces because of environmental change and the utilization of pesticides threaten to destroy one more year of French honey harvests. Across the country, beekeepers are too worried as their bees are dying, and honey production is decreasing.

Honey production has been varying throughout the long term, yet generally down. For example, in 1995, France delivered around 32,000 tons of honey, while in 2019, it oversaw less than 10,000 tons. Nonetheless, things worked on in Covid-hit 2020 with a genuinely good yield of as much as 20,000 tons.

According to UNAF, the climatic disturbance felt by beekeepers for a decent 15 years is evident. Many regions in the country had experienced long periods of frost, cold, and rain in 2021, which are the main reasons behind the worst production rate of honey.

How Climatic Factors Affected Honey Production?

The French honey bee population decline has been the highest in the past twenty years, from a normal of 5% of the state each year during the 1990s to at least 30% today which is nearly a third of the colony every year, a decline that has been generally attributed to environmental change.

Henri Clément, secretary-general for the National Union of French Beekeepers (UNAF), said, "We've been frightened for a while now about environmental change." "It's the greatest worry for beekeepers. Recently we had late frosts and winds from the north that shriveled blossoms, preventing them from creating any nectar."

"The winter was so temperate that the bees had no trouble reproducing; however, the colonies are quickly imploding without blossoms or nectar," a French Farming Union MODEF added. "In the hives, nothing remains to be eaten. Beekeepers take care of the bees with syrup since they risk dying from hunger."

The unusual late frosts in May have killed off numerous beautiful plants that attract the bees. As a result, three-quarters of the land in France produced no harvests, and the remaining regions have produced less than average harvests.

The Problem of Pesticides –

The regular utilization of pesticides and fungicides was also blamed for debilitating hives by attacking both the bees' memories and their immune system. This loss in memory makes it difficult for the honey bees to forage. As foraging is a complex process and pesticide effects make honey bees make only one trip to the nectar source, bringing less food.

A healthy honey bee usually makes four trips per hour to gather the nectar, but exposure to pesticides attacks their brains and hinders their foraging capability. This year, the principal little place of relief for beekeepers is that hornet predation was exceptionally low. But, like the honey bees, they also have experienced troublesome weather conditions.

According to Mr. Basem Barry, founder & CEO of Geohoney, there are a ton of misguided judgments going around about honey bees and that they are so critical to the world we live in - now is the right time to teach ourselves! Our responsibility is to share our help by planting a variety of spices and blossoms that draw in honey bees and save them from dying.