Spring Honey Production in Danger

Due to the unusually cold weather, the bees have hardly flown out of the hives so far, and 50-60% of the acacia trees have frozen over, so there will be hardly any honey this spring, the president of the Hungarian National Beekeepers' Association Péter Bross told InfoRadio.

It has been an extremely unfavorable spring for beekeepers and bee colonies so far, with some northern counties having only three spring days, while in the more favorable southern counties there have been 7-9 days, which is all the bees have been able to fly. If the weather is around 10 degrees Celsius or colder, if there is even a little drizzle or wind, the bees cannot fly, Péter Bross is quoted by napi.hu.

Without external nectar and pollen, bee colonies cannot develop because the mother bee inside the hive senses that no nutrients are coming in and stops laying eggs. At this time in an average year, she lays 1,500-2,000 eggs, but now she only lays a few hundred, meaning that generations of bees are missing, which means that there will be no so-called 'outgoing bees' for the acacia blossom. Partly because of this, there will be less acacia honey, and partly because the early spring frosts have hit the acacia growers again this year.

Although it will be a few days before a final assessment of the damage is made, it is already clear that the absence of bee generations is expected to be reflected not only in the lack of acacia honey, but also in the fact that with the onset of good weather, there will not be enough bees coming out to collect pollen when the rapeseed flowers bloom, further worsening the situation for already struggling domestic beekeepers. There will be hardly any spring honey (honey made from the nectar of the flowers of willows and fruit trees) before the rapeseed blossom in 2021.

For years now, the weather has been unfavorable, 'abnormal': very unfavorable not only for beekeepers but also for agricultural workers in general, because the 'timetable' has been upset: spring in winter and winter in spring.