![]() In 2017, there were 10,544 beekeepers in Canada managing 789,598 colonies. ![]() The estimated economic contribution of honey bees is around $4 to $5.5 billion a year in Canada-mainly due to pollination services for crops such as canola, apples, blueberries, cranberries and soybeans. That's a temperature they shouldn't normally experience, but we were seeing drones getting stressed to the point of death," McAfee says.Ī large portion of our diet is dependent on honey bee pollination. The more sensitive ones start to perish at two, or three hours. "We know that after six hours at 42 degrees, half of drones will die of heat stress. Huxter's bees should have been able to cope with warm weather, but the heat wave pushed them to the brink. It's a stable environment that maintains a temperature of around 35 degrees Celsius. But as she reviewed the pictures from Huxter, she realized heat stress in drones could be a big issue, too.Īlthough bee researchers have studied heat stress and bee health, the inside of a colony is thermoregulated. McAfee's focus had long been queen bees, which can serve as bio-monitors, allowing researchers to understand subtle changes in the environment. The proteins serve as fingerprints, allowing us to understand how colonies react to different events. Leonard Foster, who works in the Michael Smith Laboratories, McAfee had discovered protein markers in bees that show how they cope with changes in their environment, for example, exposure to cold, heat or pesticides. ![]() McAfee got in touch with other beekeepers around BC who were witnessing the same mass die-off of drones, prompting real concerns about the survival of colonies.Ī few years before, in the research lab of UBC biochemist Prof. She took photos and e-mailed them to McAfee. In the midst of the province's 2021 summer heat wave, Huxter began noticing dozens of dead drones on the ground. McAfee maintains contact with a network of honey producers and beekeepers across British Columbia, including Emily Huxter, a beekeeper in Armstrong. "They have this elaborate endophallus that comes out and is about the size of their own abdomen. Alison McAfee, a postdoctoral fellow at UBC's Michael Smith Laboratories who has long studied bee health. "When drones die from shock, they spontaneously ejaculate," explains Dr.
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