Bees endangered by drought

Bee colonies are in danger, as this year’s drought affected honey collection. The beekeepers are currently thinking not about selling honey, but about how to feed the bees, considering that a bee colony needs 8 kilos of honey during winter, stated Stefan Condratiuc, head of the National Association of Beekeepers, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The collection of acacia honey, lime honey, practically all kinds of honey, was compromised by the drought. It also affected the collecting from sunflower, a spontaneous flower, and there’ll be no honey of this kind either. Even the small plantations for essential oils didn’t bloom enough. We’re in a difficult situation regarding the preparation of colonies for winter”, said Stefan Condratiuc. The head of the Association said that last week the beekeepers gathered for a meeting and decided to ask the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry and the government to help them supply the food reserves for bees, or otherwise the majority of colonies will perish. “It’s an emergency. We don’t know the amount of collected honey yet. In some places, it rained a little more and they gathered some honey from sunflowers, in north especially, but the south is lost”, added Stefan Condratiuc. Info-Prim Neo found out from the representatives of a company that buys honey and prepares desserts that the price of honey had rose recently. A kilogram of honey can be bought for 50-80 lei from producers.