Some Ontario beekeepers are finding their hives lifeless this spring, realizing fears raised by the mass die-off of bees across the U.S.

Ontario beekeepers are now checking to see how their hives fared over the winter, and for many such as Brent Halsall, the news is not good.

On Thursday, Halsall opened his beehives about 15 kilometres southeast of Ottawa. He pulled out one rectangular wooden frame stacked inside to find it filled with handfuls of brittle remains.

Beekeeper Brent Halsall opened his hives Thursday to find the dry lifeless remains of bees inside.
(CBC)

"These bees are all dry, so that means they died early in the season," said Halsall, as he pushed the lifeless bees into a pile with his fingers.

Halsall, who is head of the Ontario Beekeepers' Association, has spoken to other beekeepers in Ontario, and he knows of similar occurrences across the province.

"Some guys in southwestern Ontario have had very high losses," he said. "I heard of one commercial beekeeper with 90 per cent losses."

Halsall said most Canadian beekeepers have stored honey from last year, so he doubts there will be an immediate shortage.

But University of Manitoba entomology professor Rob Currie said the large-scale death of honeybees could hurt the production of other foods in the long run.

"Things like vegetables, a lot of the fruit that you eat, require bees to pollinate them," he said, adding that the value of bee pollination is estimated to be about 10 times the value of the honey they produce, or about $700 million to $800 million a year in Canada.

Halsall, shown in front of his hives on Thursday, said one southwestern Ontario beekeeper lost 90 per cent of his bees over the winter.
(CBC)

Currie said that while he has heard of a few isolated cases in Manitoba where bee colonies have been wiped out, he thinks so far the problem is not huge in Canada compared with the U.S.

On Thursday, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee held hearings on the deaths of honey bee colonies across the country, which has been called "colony collapse disorder."

Witnesses admitted they did not know whether a virus, mite, insecticides, genetically modified crops or something else might be killing the bees.

New York beekeeper Jim Doan called for more research, and said Canada needed to be included in the discussion.

Beekeepers from at least 22 states have reported unusual colony deaths, and some commercial beekeepers have reported losing more than 50 per cent of their colonies.