Certainly, as one of our Canadian colleagues has stated, CCD has in many
cases become Cash Cow Disease from the research perspective.
However, CCD has also stimulated nation wide interest in beekeeping. This
is far more significant than one might expect since the media has more or
less ignored this.
We're seeing a grass roots renewal of interest in, and the practice of
beekeeping.
I don't have stats for the greater US, but I can reasonably address this
issue in my own state - Montana. Over the ~ 40 years that I've been working
with bees and beekeepers, the beekeepers of the state have mainly been
large-scale, commercial. These operations tend to be multi-generational (3-4
at least) families, with established, successful businesses. About 60-70
people manage approximately 175-200,000 colonies, and about 3/4 of these
migrate to the west coast to pollinate almonds, fruit, and nuts.
Small scale (hobby) beekeepers have been few and far between and generally
have not organized into clubs and have not joined the MT Beekeepers
Association, which has always been made up of large scale beekeepers (1,000 -
15,000 colonies).
The few hobby beekeepers were scattered about the state. They almost
universally lost their bees one winter, a few years after tracheal and then
varroa mite appeared on the scene. Given a lack of any clubs, and I suspect,
subscription to bee magazines, these folks were wiped out, had no idea what
had happened, and most gave up.
Due to the encouragement of Lance and Patty Sundberg, the one exception
was a beekeeping club in Billings. However, since CCD we've seen a
remarkable increase in interest in beekeeping, and in the past year, we've seen bee
clubs popping up all over. In Western MT there is a Bitterroot club, a
Missoula club, and clubs in the Flathead Lake, Columbia Falls, Great Falls,
and Helena. I'm still trying to run all of them to ground.
We've been asked to provide more frequent and a more diverse array of
beekeeping courses. This spring we launched a fee-based Master Beekeeping
series and we will add short courses through our University's College of
Extended and Life-Long Learning.
Participants are expected to attend all classes, take tests, show hands on
proficiency. They can elect to pay a basic fee and get a Certificate upon
passing/completing the course or workshop, or they can pay processing fees
and get academic credit from the University. Response to these courses
has been very good, with requests to extend them to the eastern and northern
parts of the state via some form of distance learning and local hands on
opportunities. We're still sorting all of this out.
In addition, there is one other major indicator of change in our state and
the greater US.
Western Bee is located in Polson, Montana. The firm produces all of the
woodenware distributed by Dadant. The firm was established in MT several
decades ago to take advantage of the local lumber mills - since MT produces a
significant amount of lumber from pine and fir. Western Bee also sells
directly to western beekeepers. Most of our larger beekeepers pull up with
their flatbeds and 18 wheelers to get their annual order.
When I first started out in bee-related research about 40 years ago, the
Western Bee mill ran three shifts per day. At that time, the estimated
number of bee colonies in the US was about 11M. In more recent years, with US
beekeepers down to less than 3M, Western Bee was down to one work shift per
day (40 hr week), and they had diversified their products, adding wood
pellets made from the sawdust and shavings, and even wooden toys. The plus
side for me - I could buy anything I wanted, get it the same day. And,
they'd produce custom orders - such as modified nuc hives that I used in my
research.
The good news for Western Bee nowdays is that their business has increased
to the point that they are once again running at two shifts per day. For
the first time in my association with them, they are sometimes back
ordered by one-two weeks. I can't just jump in my pickup, drive up, and get
anything I want on the spot.
In addition, their customer base used to be comprised almost solely of
Dadant and large scale beekeepers. Their factory had a little walk-in
counter, and Vicki took all of the orders. But, now they've lots of smaller
beekeepers, who began showing up, and wanting to know where they could see all
of the products. So, Western Bee knocked out a wall and converted an office
into a small display area.
In addition, Vicki had customers who knew exactly what they wanted, and
how many. The newbies often had only a vague idea of what they need. As of
this summer, Rick added another person to the order desk to help Vicki.
So, its clear that there has been a major change in my state.
Jerry
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm
|
