The largest number of bee colonies was registered in Lääne-Viru County, where PRIA received 5,747 notifications of different bee colonies. Pärnu County was second with 4,310 registered colonies, followed by Harju County (4,131) and Tartu County (3,968). There are a total of 2,079 beekeepers in Estonia.

"We are pleased to say that the number of bee colonies in PRIA's farm animal registry has increased over the last years and has now stabilized," said PRIA deputy director Ahti Bleive. "The numbers have certainly been helped by the subsidies paid to beekeepers over the last years."

Considering how important bees are from an ecosystem perspective, Bleive said it is good to know the number of colonies as they head to their hives for the winter. This gives the state options for analysis. "We ask all beekeepers to check if the e-mail address they have registered at PRIA is correct. We can forward important information to beekeepers as fast as possible," Bleive noted.

The Ministry of Rural Affairs is currently drawing up a regulation, which would change the procedure of registering bee colonies.

Editor's note: Since 2018, PRIA has asked beekeepers to register their bee colonies twice a year - in May and in November. The graph published above does not display the numbers of registered colonies for November for the sake of comparison.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!