“All the working bees died in June”: problems with honey started due to rapeseed production for Europe in Russia

Bashkiria, Buzdyaksky district, Novotavlarovo village. About 120 km from Ufa. On the gate in front of the house of Lena and Ildar warning: "Caution! Bees! ”In a relatively small area between the apple trees - 40 hives. A sunny day is the time to collect nectar. However, the bees do rustle in summer houses (cracks in the hives, insect entrances), but they do not curl.

“Here I stand, you stand - zero attention. There is no one to sting, to drive us away. In families (beehive - one bee family. - RT ), only young growth remained. Almost all worker bees died in June. Many are right on that field, ”Lena explains and shows with her hand somewhere off the outskirts.

Once upon a time there are once collective farm lands. Some remained behind the villagers, some were transferred to the local agricultural enterprise. A neighbor who lives on the same street poisoned weeds in his field - he took a barrel of Elamet herbicide and right in broad daylight flooded the blooming sprouts. To warn the beekeepers, who are about a dozen in the village, did not consider it necessary. The agronomist of an agricultural enterprise already did so on a scale of hundreds of hectares. In the afternoon and in silence. Although, according to the rules, the processing of fields with pesticides is allowed only at night (when the bees do not fly). And about this it is necessary to warn the beekeepers in advance - to advertise at least in the local newspaper, at least at the door of the village council. Then the owners of the bees will either not let them out of the hives, or they will transport them away from the poisoned fields. There was none of this. As a result, poison was poured directly over living insects on flowers. Some working bees, of which about 60% in the family, died right in the fields, the rest were already in the hive.

“Here, a beginner farmer planted 300 hectares of mustard,” says beekeeper Amir Mardanov from Iglinsky district. “He also said nothing to anyone.” And we have apiaries nearby. We both saw that he began processing, rushed to him. We were hardly persuaded to wait two days, so that we could take out the hives. It is impossible to close them in the heat - the bees will boil. He did not want to be interrupted at all - he said that he had invested 50 million rubles in the field. Apparently, credit. And then the cabbage moth or some other bug there eats. But when we caught up with his car, there were three of us, and he was alone. And persuaded. "

Often, farmers, if they comply with the warning requirement, are very formal.

“In my village near the store they post an ad that the fields will be chemically treated from August 29 to September 29. I can’t lock the bees for a month, ”says Ivan Vavilov, head of the public organization Beekeepers of Bashkiria.

Amir transported his 130 beehives in a few walkers on a caravan. At the Iglino beekeepers, some of the bees managed to die - families are weakened, but on the whole saved. But Lena with Ildar and most of their neighbors will have to actually restore the apiaries from scratch. From sick bees, a full-fledged family will not be reborn. Have to buy new ones. Yes, and the hives need to be changed - the old ones are poisoned with introduced poison.

The losses are serious. The bee colonies of the Central Russian breed with a hive - about 10 thousand rubles. 40 hives - 400 thousand rubles. And this is not counting more than a ton of honey (one bee family - about 30 kg), which the apiary could give this season.

“We will gradually recover. And what to do when for us selling honey now is the main source of income, ”says Lena.

Getting compensation from the farmer is almost impossible. At least there were no precedents in Russia.

World market vs agricultural

Similar stories - not only in Bashkiria, but also in the whole country. This happens every year, but it was this summer that the death of the bees acquired some disastrous volumes.

“According to my estimates, there are about 500 thousand bee families in Bashkiria. About 40-50 thousand of them died. That is, almost 10%, ”Sergei Muliukov, the head of the Bashkir Apiary + trade and production company, estimates.

In recent years, the demand for biodiesel in the world is growing. The best raw material for its production is rapeseed. Under it in Russia began to give more and more sown area. On the one hand, beekeepers enjoy joy - unlike, for example, the same export wheat, rape is a honey plant. But in order to protect from pests, it is necessary much more often than other cultures to treat it with poison.

“This year, rapeseed was sown even more. In theory, all treatment with herbicides from the same cabbage moth should be completed before flowering begins. But the rains had passed - the poison had completely washed off, the pest remained. I had to persecute again, ”explained RT at the Bashkir Ministry of Agriculture.

A common problem is the low level of farmers' qualifications and, in general, the farming culture. Firstly, if you observe the principle of crop rotation, then you need to treat less with herbicides. Secondly, the required concentration of the herbicide is calculated only in agricultural holdings, and an ordinary farmer pours a horse dose - “for sure”. And finally, everyone is trying to use the cheapest herbicides - powerful, wide spectrum, from which it’s not only that bees, cows die.

“There are herbicides that have already been banned in Europe precisely because of bees - that’s how they sell them to us,” says Amir Ishemgulov, general director of the Bashkir Research Center for Beekeeping and Apitherapy.

At the same time, nobody controls what chemistry the farmer uses now - this function was removed from the Rosselkhoznadzor several years ago.

In Canada and a number of other countries, beekeepers do not even make money on honey - growers pay them to place an apiary next to their plantations. More bees - better pollination and higher yield.

“Only in Krasnodar Territory and Altai we have seen this: they pay 1.5-3 thousand rubles per bee family,” says Professor Alexei Nikolenko, head of the laboratory for insect adaptability biochemistry at the Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics of the Ufa Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Others rely on forest bees and other insects or simply plant self-pollinated hybrids.

“When I go to negotiate with a farmer to bring an apiary to his land, I immediately bring a three-liter jar of honey,” Amir Mardanov notes. - Well, yes, it turns out, I’m also crying. The only thing you can expect is that they will look after the hives. ”

• From spring to autumn, nomad apiaries can move several times
• © Alexey Boyarsky / RT

But if nothing changes, then very soon we will have “like in Canada”. And this is by no means great.

“Europe and America have already passed all this,” says Vladimir Kuznetsov, director of the Bashkir National Park. - Rapeseed, mustard cannot be grown without a lot of chemicals. Modern drugs not only poison existing ones on the field, but attract insects from surrounding territories. They want to poison, for example, cabbage moth. But bees, other pollinators also fly there and die. Even those who would have ignored this plant before fly. For bees, this chemistry has a bewitching effect, like sugar syrup. Killing pollinating insects, we lose biodiversity - a number of plants on the territory disappear, because of this a number of insects, animals disappear. In Europe, due to the massive use of herbicides, insect problems. For example, in Poland today there is no one program to return bees to forests. And now Europe is lowering its rapeseed plantations - it is throwing off its production to us as a third world country.

Beekeeper

“Why Bashkiria, Bashkir honey? - explains businessman Sergey Mulukov. - It has historically happened. Someone in the Soviet Gosplan decided that Bashkiria would become the main supplier of honey to the country. He was packed in cans, like canned food. And they wrote "Bashkir honey." It was a brand like black caviar or Armenian brandy. If it was necessary to solve some issue in Moscow, they took these banks with them for offerings. ”

Muliukov leads to the packaging workshop and demonstrates a metal can - here they began to revive the legendary packaging.

Of course, it was no coincidence that Bashkortostan was chosen. According to one of the etymological versions, the Bashkir (Bashkort) means “lord of the bees” (“bash” - the head, “court” - the bee). The historical background is there. And they are understandable - in the republic today 60% of all linden forests of the country. It is linden honey that is most loved in Russia. Yes, and forest honey is clearly more useful than that collected from agricultural crops on fields processed by chemistry.

• Honey can be called linden only if linden in it is more than 30%
• © Alexey Boyarsky / RT

Once upon a time there were large apiaries from 1000 beehives at state farms, and just specialized bee farms. Today, more than 90% of bee colonies are owned by private owners holding 20-100 hives (this is an estimate of the Bashkir Ministry of Agriculture).

And honey in factory jars on the shelves of the supermarket, unless it is Chinese, was bought by such beekeepers.

A farm of 200 bee colonies is considered “professional”. The maintenance of more than 800 hives is already industrial beekeeping. But “industrialists” in the republic can now be counted on the fingers of one hand. The state’s attitude to beekeeping as part of agriculture is clearly characterized by a simple fact - even in the Ministry of Agriculture of the “honey” Bashkiria there is no separate specialist responsible for apiaries. Beekeeping was entrusted to a horse breeding supervisor.

Industry Hobbies

It's funny, but the observation of Winnie the Pooh that honey is a “very strange thing” is very accurate. It is unclear whether he is, or whether he is not. It seems that we buy it in stores, eat. We choose to taste, we argue about which is considered real and correct. But for the state, this sector of agriculture does not seem to exist.

• Only tourists and truckers buy honey on the routes - locals take it only from familiar beekeepers
• © Alexey Boyarsky / RT

The lion's share of beehives is not registered at all - the total number was estimated taking into account the fact that the owners, when applying for an apiary passport, underestimate its size by an average of three to five times. Even almost none of these beekeepers, for whom 90% of the market pay, pay taxes - they sell honey from hand to hand. Yes, and the volume of trade is ridiculous. Today in Russia, the consumption of honey per capita is less than 0.5 kg. Moreover, for example, in Japan and Germany - a few kilograms.

“Our task is to move from a hobby to a business,” said Amir Ishemgulov from the Bashkir Research Center for Beekeeping and Apitherapy. - Today in Russia only 70 thousand tons of honey are collected. And the honey potential of plants in Bashkiria alone is 175 thousand tons of a commercial product. ”

Beekeeping in Russia is reviving today - both as a hobby and as a business. The business is good and profitable. Substitution of sugar in honey in the diet of citizens - for the benefit of health. But there is also export. Russia has every chance to become the largest seller of honey. Forests, fields we have. And everything else is a matter of technology and investment.

“In Canada, there are apiaries for 20 thousand hives that are served by a family of three,” says the beekeeper Sergei Mulukov. “There are hives made of light materials, special loaders, autocars, pumping lines, etc.”

Such a plant for the production of honey at current costs is cheaper than a pig factory or poultry farm: a minimum of electricity, and if there are fields and forests near, then the feed is free. Yes, and small home apiaries will also not be superfluous. Considering the low cost of starting investments and the low risk of crop failure, beekeeping is most likely to be given grants for regional programs to eliminate unemployment and develop small businesses.

Migrant Workers with Proboscis

But in order to raise the industry, it is necessary to solve not only the coordination of farmers and beekeepers, but also a bunch of seemingly minor but important problems. For example, just as the cheap labor of unskilled Asian migrant workers significantly reduces the quality of services, so Uzbek bees threaten Russian beekeeping. In the spring they are delivered by trucks. And they sell bee colonies in boxes (bee package) directly from the board. Without veterinary and other documents. But the point is not that this smuggling can bring infection. Mixing with the Central Russian bee, the southern one gradually crowds it out.

“No chauvinism,” Professor Nikolenko explains. - A normal working bee. It works clearly and hard. But in each region, the local breed works best. Firstly, adapted to the climate. Uzbek does not tolerate our winter. Secondly, imprisonment under traditional melliferous plants. Central Russian bee prefers linden. And in a short period of linden flowering, nothing else will be distracted. But the Uzbek is all the same. It will be closer linden - will take from the linden. The sunflower field will be closer (the cheapest honey is obtained from it. - RT ) - it will fly to it. We need to protect the breed. For example, in Australia, which has now launched its honey on the world market, it is forbidden to import foreign bees. ”

• The laboratory of the Institute of Biochemistry accurately determines which bees and where they collected nectar
• © Alexey Boyarsky / RT

Southern bees are noticeably cheaper than the central Russian ones: 2 thousand rubles per package versus 5 thousand rubles.

In the traditional approach, the bee is like a cow-nurse. They take care of her. For the winter, the beehive is cleaned, the bees are left with a noticeable part of the collected honey for food until spring, and sugar syrup is added. But if it is not a hobby, but a business, an industrial approach, then it is often more convenient to buy a bee package in spring, let the bees work until the fall, and then destroy it. In the spring to buy new ones. It turns out more profitable than feeding in the winter.

“We are not letting these Uzbek trucks into our area,” said Iglinsky district beekeepers in the community. - As soon as we see the car, we immediately go out to talk, we call the police. Those never have normal documents for the goods. Therefore, they prefer not to scandal and quietly get out. ”

Towards Apimondia

Two years later, in Bashkiria, the international congress of beekeepers Apimondia-2021 will be held. This is such a "Olympics of honey." The first and only time Russia received it in 1971. The fact that this time the country won the right to host Apimondia can be considered a recognition. They love Russian honey abroad. But its export is just a few tons, and its antibiotic content exceeds the requirements of the EU and even China. Many beekeepers do not use modern medicines at all - they carry out disinfection in the hives with wormwood. But with commercial volumes, this approach is unacceptable. Therefore, large manufacturers use antibiotics.

Given that the industry, in fact, does not exist, there is no necessary infrastructure. First of all, laboratories that could determine the content of antibiotics and other parameters necessary to obtain a European certificate. For example, now, in order to prove that the bees died due to chemical poisoning, they were sent from Bashkiria to the laboratories of other regions. Local - exclusively veterinary, can only find the disease. Another caveat - unlike, for example, from cows or pigs, bees are not considered an asset. No insurance company in Russia will undertake to insure them. And the bank will not issue a loan under such buzzing collateral. Perhaps that is why big business does not seek to buy Canadian industrial apiaries yet. But sooner or later they will appear. How large pig-breeding plants appeared. The main thing is that at the same time some kind of “plague of bees” does not appear and the small apiaries are not destroyed, like pigs used to be in private courtyards.

• Amir Ishemgulov sees the holding of Apimondia-2021 in Russia as a global recognition of our beekeepers
• © Alexey Boyarsky / RT