Cold winter hurts bee business in Indiana

Purdue University Entomologist Greg Hunt said that winter and factors like viruses transmitted by parasitic mites, as well as new pesticides that while less toxic to humans are "orders of magnitude" more toxic to the honeybees, are the likely causes for die-off.

Matthew Merritt, president of the Northeast Indiana Beekeepers Association, said that his hives were generally in the range Bee Informed had reported, saying he had about 20 percent die-off for the past winter. He did say that some beekeepers were not as fortunate saying that die-offs could be from 50 to 70 percent.

Merritt attributed his relatively low number of losses to certain practices he does to make sure hives can survive bad winters. One of the ways he said was using queen bees from northern regions as opposed to insects from southern areas like Georgia. He said the theory was northern brood would be more resistant to a cold winter than an animal from the south.

Merritt said that ventilation is also a factor to take into consideration when coping with winter.

"Basically their breath turns into water, then they freeze themselves out if there's no airflow," Merritt said. He added that using some sort of structure to block wind would also prevent wind chills from killing off hives.

Merritt said that the start of pollination has been postponed due to the weather not warming up for the plants to be ready themselves. He used the analogy of building a house to describe why the bees need the plants to be ready for them to begin pollination.

"It's like going to build a house and there's no foundation," Merritt said. "You're going to wait until the foundation is there."

Locally the winter had not been kind. Cindy Sheets, owner of the BeeHive, which features products based on locally grown honey, said that the Sweet Life Honey Farm associated with her business has seen numerous individuals looking to purchase bees due to significant losses this past winter.

Sheets also remarked on the late start to the warm seasons which has made Sweet Life have to catch up to meet demands for the insects they sell.

"Our spring just came three to four weeks ago," Sheets remarked, "and we are still having bouts of cold, which is significant to queen raising."

Both Sheets and Merritt spoke about the importance of having a strong honeybee population due to their importance to agriculture.

"Honeybees pollinate about a third of what we eat," Sheets said. "If you start thinking on down the food chain, a lot of grasses that are raised for cattle, honeybees pollinate that so it effects even the meat we eat."

When beekeepers are strained to make by after a die-off Sheets said it's important for individuals in the community to take initiative and buy honey from local sellers.

"A lot of the grocery store honey is imported from Argentina, China, a lot of different areas," Sheets said. "Any time people buy honey locally it's supporting their local beekeepers."