Honey Production Suffering
By ELLIOTT MINOR, Associated Press Writer
June 27, 2000
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/000627/00/farm-scene

FARGO, Ga. (AP) - Bees buzzing around the gallberry bushes near south
Georgia's
Okefenokee Swamp this spring found less nectar for making honey and less
pollen for
food, thanks to a third straight year of drought.

Dry conditions mean flowering plants don't produce as much pollen, a main
source of
protein and vitamins for bees. They also don't produce as much nectar, the
sweet liquid
bees collect from flowers to make honey.

The result for beekeepers: a drop in honey production.

"We made honey, but not as much," said Barry Hart, an employee of the
Griffis Honey
Co. "I think we'll have 75 percent of a normal crop."

Griffis Honey, owned by Josh Griffis, has about 2,500 hives at 40 to 50
sites. The
company is located in the remote logging community of Fargo, west of the
Okefenokee
Swamp.

Georgia ranks 14th nationally in honey production with a crop that's worth
about $2.1
million, said Keith Delaplane, a bee specialist with the University of
Georgia Extension
Service in Athens.

But beekeepers also make money by renting their bees out to pollinate crops
or selling
"packaged bees" for establishing new hives. Buyers can purchase a queen
only, or a
queen and worker bees.

With those ventures included, the overall economic impact of Georgia bees
jumps to
about $70 million a year, Delaplane said.

Ideally, honey bees need ample rainfall in the early spring and then dry
conditions in May,
when the bulk of the honey is produced.

But "when there's enough of a drought, something has to give," Delaplane
said. "Nectar
production is the first to go."

Fred Rossman, president of Rossman Apiaries Inc. in Moultrie, said bees need
water just
as people do.

Rossman said his bees are getting sufficient moisture from occasional
showers and from
irrigation systems. But he has decided to postpone honey collection until
fall so that his
bees will have food through the summer.

Hart said wildfires linked to the drought also are a big threat to
beekeepers, who must be
prepared to move their hives quickly.

"We've had several fires burning close to our hives," Hart said. "We didn't
have to move
any, but there has been some danger."

Bears have become another problem for the south Georgia bee industry,
particularly near
the Okefenokee, which is a national wildlife refuge. Sometimes even an
electrified fence
won't prevent hungry bears from ripping the hives apart and feasting on the
honey.

"Bears will go through a fence when they realize all it's going to do is
shock them," Hart
said. "We have a lot of damage every year."

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