Beekeepers all over France claim that this year has been a tragic year for fruit, with production declining by up to 80 % and flies starving to death. Mickael Isambert, a farmer in Saint-Ours-les-Roches in northern France, lost 70 % of his sweet and had to feed his provinces honey to help them survive after a chilly, rainy spring. ” It has been a severe time”, said Isambert, 44, who looks after 450 blisters.
Beehives generally produce 15 kilos of fruit per year, but Isambert claimed that his farm had merely produced five to seven kilos this time.
When it rains, bees “do n’t fly, they do n’t go out, so they eat their own honey reserves”, said his co-manager and fellow beekeeper Marie Mior.
Bees were unable to gather sufficient pollen and plants from producing honey, which the insects collected to produce honey, due to low temperatures and heavy rainfall.
Honey producers across the country have experienced a decline in spring production that the French national beekeeping union ( Unaf ) expects to struggle to recover from, according to the French national beekeeping union ( Unaf ).
Heat stagnated below 18Celsius, the least temperatures needed for plants to create honey, said Jean-Luc Hascoet, a farmer in Brittany in northern France who lost about 15 colonies. ” In June, the butterfly population increases and the demands of the provinces grow but as nothing was coming in, some died of hunger”, said Hascoet.
