SWABI: Honey production may be affected this year as frosty and dry weather has killed a large number of honeybees in the district.

The people associated with the beekeeping told Dawn that the harsh winter and dry spell had killed many bees usually staying in their hives in winter.

They said that as bees were unable to collect nectar and pollens from plants in harsh winter days, they didn’t have enough resistance to bear the intense cold.

The dry weather has also delayed the blooming of brassica plant, which might be another reason for death of so many honeybees, which could affect honey production in the district,” said Rasool Khan, a beekeeper.

If there are no flowers of brassica of other plants for bees to feed on when they come out of hives at the end of winter, they would face starvation, he added.

The beekeepers said that there were heaps of killed bees just below the hives hanging from plants.

Asif Ali of Topi said that in his entire life he had never seen killing of such a large number of honeybees. He said that he had no remedy to protect honeybees from the frosty weather.

“The butterflies spend the winter as larva, surviving without any food in winter,” said Dr Abid Ali, who recently completed his study from the Agriculture University, Peshawar.

The beekeepers said that the bees grew in the district were well adapted to the Pakistani weather conditions and could easily survive in the normal cold weather, but they certainly couldn’t stay alive for a long time in extreme cold conditions.

Mohammad Ikram, an entomologist, said the frost penetration into the hives could expose hibernating insects to lower temperatures, thus causing their deaths.

However, he said that it might be difficult for entomologists to predict what happened to each species of insects during harsh winter. “Each insect responds to cold temperatures in a different way,” he said.

Some insects have anti-freeze that stops them from freezing in chilly climate. A number of them avoid cold temperatures by going down into the soil and into tree trunks, he maintained.

Mr Ikram said that some insects usually left towns and countries altogether in winter to the areas where they could easily survive.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2014