Temperatures soared above 42 C for days in Western Canada in June 2021, with Lytton, B.C., registering 49.6 C, the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada. Wildfires scorched the province, sparking a 56-day state of emergency and nearly 600 additional sudden deaths compared to the same time in 2020.
But humans were not the only ones affected by the heat. Beekeepers in the Okanagan Valley reported unusual deaths of honeybee queens, drones and small colonies. Drones, which are the reproductive males, spontaneously ejaculate when they die from stress, and Emily Huxter, a beekeeper in Armstrong, saw dozens of drones suddenly lying dead on the lids of her hives with their male bits poking out.
