All abuzz about trashed beehives

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This article was published 19/09/2024 (600 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba apiarists have a bee in their bonnet after a photo of a hive tossed in a downtown Winnipeg garbage bin circulated earlier this week.

An image of what appeared to be several beehives in a dumpster near the Fort Garry Hotel buzzed around social media and landed in the hands of the province’s chief apiarist.

Derek Micholson, who oversees beehives across the province, had an inspector check out the tip and it was confirmed several old beehives had been thrown in the trash.

“That’s not the proper manner, typically, to dispose of beekeeping equipment,” Micholson told the Free Press.

Micholson conferred with the hotel, who said the equipment needed to be tossed to make way for a crew filming a movie on the property that day.

The apiary was on the hotel’s rooftop but hadn’t been active in several years and was being stored there, hotel employees told Micholson. On Wednesday, garbage crews came and removed the bin with the hives in it.

Repeated attempts to contact the Fort Garry Hotel were unsuccessful Wednesday and Thursday.

The manner in which the hive was disposed was an issue for two reasons, Micholson said: the location comes with an increased risk to the public because bees will flock to the comb in search of leftover honey — known as “robbing” — and people in the vicinity can be stung by stray bees.

The disposed hives also pose a biosecurity risk.

“Old equipment can harbour different bacterial or fungal diseases within it,” Micholson said. “And if it’s just kind of left out in the open, then bees from nearby hives can actually bring back that disease to their active hives.”

While he’s unsure if the hives carried any diseases, Micholson is confident no bees would have been harmed in the hive’s disposal since it was an inactive apiary.

The ideal way to dispose of old hives is to scrape off old beeswax and then burn the wooden ware, or take it to the dump where it can be covered and the risk of disease spread is minimized, the apiarist said.

Micholson suspects the hotel wouldn’t have known to dispose of the hives in such a manner, as it is the job of the beekeeper.

“Ninety-nine per cent of the time, beekeepers are doing a great job,” Micholson said.

Chris Kirouac, who used to run a beekeeping business in Manitoba and installed most of the urban hives in Winnipeg (but not the Fort Garry hive) said most beekeepers in the city are responsible and he’s not sure why the apiary would be tossed in such a manner.

“That’s really not helpful for the urban beekeeping and urban agriculture movement, because we’re really counting on wise behaviour by the beekeepers,” Kirouac said.

Kirouac, along with his wife Lindsay, operated Beeproject Apiaries which provided professional installation and care of hives on downtown rooftops like RRC Polytech, University of Winnipeg, Manitoba Hydro, The Forks and Fairmont Winnipeg.

The couple moved away from Manitoba last year and ceased operations, giving their hives over to other beekeepers and hobbyists.

According to city data, the city has issued 16 beekeeping permits within downtown Winnipeg since 2016 when legislation changed to allow for apiaries within city limits.

Citywide, there’s approximately 200 beekeepers with about 400 hives, provincial data show.

The improper disposal won’t come with any fines, Micholson said, only a discussion with the contractor who owned the hives about best disposal practices.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca