Bad summer for Swiss bees

Wild bees, which are not artificially fed, may have had an even worse summer. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Weather conditions this summer meant Swiss bees were almost unable to produce any honey and even had to be fed artificially, reports Swiss national broadcaster SRF on Saturday.

If the bees had not received sugar water, many would probably have died, Martin Schwegler of the national bee association Bienen Schweiz, told SRFExternal link. There were also unusually few wasps this year, he added, and they too may have been struggling for lack of food. But he is most worried about wild bees, which are not artificially fed by humans. “We probably have to worry more about them than about the 200,000 or so honey bee colonies that are looked after by beekeepers.”

First it was wet for a long time, then it was suddenly very dry again. “That messed everything up,” explains Thomas Wegmüller, President of the Federation of Bernese Beekeepers’ Associations. “Then, when the plants were in flower, the bees couldn’t fly because it rained.” The spring honey harvest was an almost total failure, and it is now certain the summer harvest will also be poor, reports SRF. Only in canton Ticino and at altitudes higher than 1,000 metres above sea level were the conditions for bees better.

Beekeeper Schwegler says he had to feed his bees already in spring with sugar water so that they could produce enough honey, but they needed the honey for themselves and almost none was left over for humans. Normally, the approximately 18,000 beekeepers in Switzerland would only feed their colonies in winter.