3-21-97
 
Vandals "Bite the Hand that Feeds Them"
 
   A young beekeeper, just getting started, has been dealt at devastating
blow by vandals who destroyed about $20,000 worth of bees that he had leased
from another beekeeper to be his breeding stock.  Losses could total more, if
he finds that the frames of comb are contaminated and unusable for
replacement bees.
 
    Gary Ford of Newport in northern NY had hoped to start up his own
beekeeping operation.  He had joined a group of beekeepers who brings bees to
South Carolina during the winter, to relieve the bees from the stresses of
winter, and to raise additional bees in the spring.  Yesterday, he went to
his bee yard in the Deep Creek community of Georgetown County, expecting to
be a midwife to his 120 hives.  Instead he found the three story hives
toppled and killed by vandals who sprayed some kind of liquid over them,
possibly diesel fuel.  He was only able to salvage less than 30 hives.
 
    Each of the 100 lost hives was like a fat, pregnant cow, ready to deliver
twin calves.  A few weeks ago, he had added boxes to them to give the queen
brood space, and fed them heavily with sugar and corn syrup.  Since then,
they had been gathering the plentiful pollen, which is their protein source.
The hives were full of young bees and ready to be split, each one into three
new hives.
 
   Three hundred hives is half a tractor-trailer load of bees, which could
have been trucked into apple growing areas in May to pollinate a million
dollars worth of apples.
 
    Apple and melon growers have been scrambling to line up bees for their
crops  this year, and are finding the supply less than the need.  As wild
bees have disappeared, farmers have been forced to increase the number of
bees they lease for pollination.  New York, Gary's home state, requires about
30,000 hives just for apples.
 
   Despite a growing shortage of bees for US pollination needs, there are few
young beekeepers. There are only about 1600 graying beekeepers left in
America to pollinate the bulk of our apples, melons, almonds, and many other
fruits and vegetables.  Who will pollinate the next generation's food?
 
    Now Gary is faced with the questions of the salvageability of the
equipment, how he will pay back the owner, and how he can establish his own
bee farm, with so much of his stock destroyed.
 
    When he started his operation in January, Gary sought a place to put his
leased bees.  He made an agreement with "Doc" Marsh, a local farmer, who
appreciated the need for pollination. Marsh has been worried over the lack of
bees in his own watermelons.
 
    In his inexperience, and with only an old school bus to move the bees,
Gary made a mistake.  Of the possible sites, he chose a site too near
people's homes. He looked over a more remote site, but concluded, "I didn't
think I could manoever the bus through the brush.  And I was afraid of
bogging down."
 
    After he placed the bees, some neighbors complained of the bee activity,
mostly of the bee droppings spotting vehicles and homes.  Gary had talked
with neighbors after receiving some complaints, but the problem of bee
droppings had died down after the first few days.  Bees in the cold north had
not had opportunity to fly and relieve themselves, but had done so en masse,
when they arrived in the sunny south.
 
   Because of complaints, Gary had already decided to move the bees to a more
isolated site, provided by another beekeeper. But the vandals spoiled that
plan.
 
    South Carolina and Florida are the main wintering grounds for honeybees
from the northeast.  In Florida beekeepers are discouraged with the very poor
honey crops in the orange groves, due to the January freeze damage to the
buds.
 
   Some are now on the way to South Carolina to try to salvage some income
from our blackberry blossoms, which make a high-quality honey.  Then they
will move on north to pollinate apples, blueberries, and other fruit,
followed by a summer in the clover pastures to make honey again.
 
   Most commercial beekeepers today are migratory, moving with the season to
pollination contracts and honey producing areas.  It costs about $100 per
year to maintain each beehive in this mode. Today's apple growers now
maintain high density orchards of dwarf trees on trellises, rather than the
old-fashioned, but marginally productive, big trees.  Likewise,  beekeepers
have had to switch to a high-intensity form of beekeeping to survive.
 
    Dave Green, of Hemingway, a local beekeeper who supplies bees for South
Carolina melon, squash, kiwifruit, and cucumber growers, notes that vandalism
has been increasing in recent years.
 
   "Bees have become so scarce that people no longer accept them as normal.
Two generations ago, there were many farmer-beekeepers in the area, and no
one thought much of them, except to leave them alone.  Today, many people are
fearful.  And the Hollywood 'killer bee' hype has made some folks panicky and
hostile.
 
    Green has had frequent losses when he places hives in the fields, from
vandals who burn hives, shoot at them, or run over them.  "Some young buck,
probably high on beer and testosterone, ran a four-wheel drive through one of
my bee yards recently, smashing up hives and equipment."
 
    Beekeepers are frequently up against a lack of understanding in the
community. A panicky woman from Center Crossroad community recently stopped
at Green's Hemingway workshop, complaining of bees "swarming" around her
home.  Janice and Dave, went, expecting to find a swarm in a bush or tree.
Instead they found bees visiting the blossoms of her Chinese holly hedge.
 
    "She was spraying them with insecticide, trying to stop them!"
 
    "Don't you want berries on your holly?"  he told her.  "That's the
natural order of things.  Bees visit the blossoms and get fed.  They
pollinate the blossoms, and the berries form, so the birds get fed too!  They
aren't the least bit interested in stinging you!"
 
    These bees are from a nearby apiary owned by a young couple who also
migrate to South Carolina for the winter.  They are also beginning their own
beekeeping operation, with help from her father-in-law, who once had a large
bee farm.
 
    "These bees are our livestock.  They must range free to feed themselves,
and do their job, which is to pollinate our fruits and vegetables, and the
feed for a lot of birds and wildlife."
 
    "Of course, the worst vandals are the insecticide applicators, who fail
to check for bees visiting the blossoms in the fields they spray.  Pesticides
that are toxic to bees, have directions that prohibit application while bees
are visiting.  A lot of blooming cotton is sprayed, without any thought for
the bees that are so badly needed.   This kind of vandalism keeps us in
poverty."
 
    "I feel sorry for Gary.  He's invested everything he has in the bees.
 He's a fine, Christian young man, and he has a young family to support.  Now
he's lost most of his livestock."
 
(Perhaps other beekeepers could help him get back up?)
 
[log in to unmask]    Dave Green,  PO Box 1200,  Hemingway,  SC
29554        (Dave & Jan's Pollination Service,  Pot o'Gold Honey Co.)
 
Business Phone 803-558-9598   or Home 803-558-0133
 
Pollination for lay people, students, teachers
....Of bees, beekeepers, and food
http://users.aol.com/queenbjan/primbees.htm
 
Pollination for the pros - those involved in doing it:
Practical Pollination Home Page            Dave & Janice Green
http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html
 
Jan's Sweetness and Light         Varietal Honeys and Gift Sets
http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm