Beekeeper Doug Cleveland and I sit by the wood stove
of his Idaho wood shop and compare beekeeping in Idaho’s Treasure Valley with
that in the Arkansas Delta. Doug is the president of the large and active
Treasure Valley Beekeepers Club with commercial operators, sideliners, and
backyard beekeepers gathering in Boise. Treasure Valley is protected by
surrounding mountains. Although considerably farther north, the valley’s winter
conditions are similar to those experienced in the Arkansas Delta. Treasure
Valley, a high desert, supports a diverse agriculture through the use of an
extensive system of irrigation canals that carry water from melting snow in the
mountains. Throughout the valley, I see pallets of bee hives. Honey bees
pollinate large fields of peas, beans, and mint. Treasure Valley spearmint is
grown for its aromatic oil in 40 acre fields. Blue wooden boxes house alkali
bees that pollinate alfalfa fields cultivated for seed production. The assembly
points of commercial beekeeping operations today are littered with dead
colonies. Recent reports show over-winter bee colony losses of 50 percent or
more. See http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/science/earth/government-study-cites-mix-of-factors-in-death-of-honeybees.html?hpw.
Numerous factors seem to lead to the heavy losses of bee colonies, including
queen failure, starvation, parasitic mites, winter weather conditions, Colony
Collapse Disorder, pesticides, Nosema disease, small hive beetles, and general
colony weakness. This US report comes as Europeans ban neonicotinoid
insecticides, widely questioned as leading to honey bee colony decline. See http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/business/global/30iht-eubees30.html.
Having the systemic insecticides banned in Europe while extensively used in
North America, there is the opportunity to make comparisons and study the
effect these insecticides have upon honey bees. Let’s hope that independent
researchers can learn from this two-year break in neonicotinoid insecticide
usage.
Doug Cleveland and I share many beekeeping
techniques. We both rely upon the hygienic behavior of resistant strains of
bees to remove parasitic mites from the hives. We avoid harsh chemicals, and we
both use thymol, derived from the oil of the thyme plant, to reduce colony mite
loads. Today’s photo: Treasure Valley bee hives.
--Richard
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