It's been another challenging season for Alberta beekeepers, some of whom say their honey production has plummeted 20 to 50 per cent this year because of bad weather.

Kevin Nixon, who owns a honey farm about 140 kilometres northeast of Calgary, says his bees and crops looked promising to start with, but summer temperatures didn't rise high enough and weren't consistently warm enough to sustain healthy nectar production.

"If you're hovering around 18 degrees all summer long, the bees might be flying around, but they're really just flying around. They're really not producing a whole lot," he said in an interview with the Calgary Eyeopener.

Nixon Honey Farm typically produces more than 450,000 kilograms of honey a year, but it's down about 20 to 25 per cent this year, Nixon said.

"Poor crops just compound it all, but we're coming off of a few years of depressed honey markets globally."

Compounded problems discourage farmers

Those low honey prices, combined with stringent food regulations and pest and disease pressures, have led some producers to question whether it's time to leave the industry, he said.

"Younger people that have gotten into it recently, I think, are coming to the realization that the cost of production is high and the payback is low. And even for the guys that are getting into the later years, there's a lot of pressures and stresses in business," he said.

"We try to do everything right and keep our bees healthy, but sometimes you can do everything right, and nature will take its course. And there's some things that are out of our hands that we can't manage."

Nixon said he's still hopeful that next year's weather will be better and that the market will stabilize so local beekeepers can earn a fair price for their honey.

The latest data from Statistics Canada shows Alberta's total honey production in 2018 was valued at $64 million, compared with $73 million five years prior. This, even though Alberta produced nearly 2 million kilograms more honey in 2018 than in 2013.

Alberta is the largest honey producer in Canada. The province was responsible for more than 40 per cent of total Canadian honey production in 2018, nearly doubling Saskatchewan's second place share of 22 per cent.

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener.