Tetovo: Every day, Magda Miloseska wears a white protective suit and enters the bee area in the backyard of her small house in North Macedonia.
He has been producing honey in this beautiful corner of the country for over 20 years. Climate change and disease have made simple pleasures more difficult, she said.
Stence is a mountainous village in the west of the country, surrounded by mountains and at an altitude of 650 meters (2,130 ft). June temperatures have topped 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), three degrees above normal, according to the National Weather Service.
“Beekeeping was easier in the old days,” says Miloseska, 63. “Beekeeping has been therapeutic.
“Now we just have to deal with climate and beekeeping related diseases.”
Just a hobby for some but a source of income for others, beekeeping has grown in recent years in all regions of the country.
According to the Food and Animal Department, in 2023 there will be 6,900 registered bees and 306,000 bees nationally.
But according to a European Commission survey in July 2023, 10 percent of bees and butterflies are at risk of extinction in Europe, mainly due to human activities.
North Macedonia’s beekeepers face climate change challenge
