Bees, High Pollination Fees Hurt Farmers
Monday, March 6, 2006
(03-06) 01:30 PST Trenton, N.J. (AP) --
With all the sophisticated technology farmers use, little honeybees remain crucial, pollinating billions of dollars of fruit, vegetable and nut crops each year.
But the number of honeybees and managed beehives is down so much that production of pollinated plants has fallen by about a third in the last two years from the usual $15 billion per year.
"I've heard people complaining about bee shortages all over the country," said Kevin Hackett, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's research program for bees and pollination. Fifteen years ago, "there were twice as many hives as there are now," he said.
Honeybees and some wild insects and birds, in extracting nectar and pollen from the flowers of crops and transferring pollen grains among plants, increase the size and total yield of crops ranging from apples to zucchini.
The big drop in the honeybee population the last several years is mostly due to the parasitic varroa mite, which has destroyed more than half of some beekeepers' hives and wiped out most wild honeybees.
Commercial beekeepers, crunched by huge bee losses and rising costs for fuel and chemicals to kill varroa mites, have boosted the fees they charge farmers to rent honeybees.
Given the varroa mite epidemic, other environmental pressures and a drop in the number of beekeepers, government agencies and even the National Honey Board are pouring money into research to help the honeybees bounce back and grant programs to get more people into beekeeping.
The National Academy of Sciences has even appointed a group to investigate whether all bees, butterflies, birds and other pollinators in North America are endangered by habitat loss, insecticide use, invasive species and other influences.
For farmers dependent on pollination, the shortage means they must pay higher bee fees that they generally can't recoup or risk a big drop in crop production.
Ned Lipman, who raises cranberries on two 50-acre farms in New Jersey, will have to pay $55 for each of the 200 honeybee hives he normally rents each spring, up from $42 last year.
"I think some of the growers are going to rent less hives this year and take a chance" yield holds up, Lipman said.
New Jersey's Department of Agriculture has started a new program giving $300 grants to first-time beekeepers to cover costs of starting up a hive — after completing the "Bee-ginning Beekeepers" training course offered each spring by Rutgers University's agricultural school, Cook College.
The grant program aims "to get more people interested in keeping bees, in hopes of some people getting into it commercially," said Bob Hughes, president of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association.
Hughes, 72, tends more than 200 hives set up on a couple dozen farms and in gardens on large properties around the state. Some of his hives are used for the field training on the final day of the beekeepers course, when students learn how to safely handle bees, remove honey and maintain the hives.
The new grants generated so much interest that the 50-person class in early April is booked and for the first time a second class will be given, in early May, said Lipman, the cranberry farmer. He also runs the Cook College continuing education program where the course is taught.
In North Carolina, a similar program last year that gave two beehives and Russian honeybees free to startup beekeepers quickly drew more than twice as many applicants as the hives available.
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On the Net:
American Beekeeping Federation:
New Jersey Beekeepers Association:
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