Sheldon Hill doing a quick queen check at his farm in Porcupine Plain SK ( Smokeybeekeeper/Instagram)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Beekeeper encouraging people to support local as industry sees shortage in bees

Jun 5, 2021 | 12:12 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB- A local beekeeper is encouraging others to support local honey producers as the industry continues to grapple with bee shortages and other impacts.

Sheldon Hill is the owner of Sweet Pure Honey, and has a farm in Porcupine Plain SK.

“ The last five years we have been impacted partially by low commodity prices. Along with that there have been heavy losses” he said, referring to hive losses, ranging as much as 30 to 40 per cent in some areas

Most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the reduction of bee imports from New Zealand and Australia, two countries beekeepers rely on.

Hill, however, considers himself lucky. He has been able to produce his own hives and started selling them, as a way to pivot from the lack of imports overseas. But others in the industry haven’t had the same fate, he said.

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This year, in particular, the value and demand of honey have risen, but without bees, producing honey can be a difficult feat.

“This is the boom year that you are going to be missing out on if you don’t have your hive numbers up where you would like them to be,” he said,

The ongoing ups, downs, isolation, and unpredictability that come with being a beekeeper have taken a toll on Hill’s mental health. He has been very vocal about his struggles on his Instagram, Smokey Beekeeper.

“Farming is a very stressful vocation because you are risking so much, all the time. I don’t expect people not in the industry to understand that, but we are really high rolling every year. We are sticking our necks out in a big way, and so if we don’t get a return it really affects our bottom line, and our future, really. We don’t work for someone else, we are our own employers,” he said

Right now, he said a lot of farmers are caught between honey production, and keeping hive numbers up. Balancing the two can be a very slippery slope, but it is a difficult decision many beekeepers will have to make this season, according to Hill.

“I think the public really needs to know that this is a very serious situation because Beekeepers are, I’d like to think kind of the guardians of pollination and if we lose, and I’ve seen it already happen, some multi-generational beekeeping families, you lose a lot of knowledge, when you lose people like that out of the industry,”