Georgia’s wild bee population has been all but wiped out by
parasites. A resurgence
in hobby beekeeping is helping bees, gardeners and farmers
alike, say University of
Georgia experts.

Few bees = few
veggies

“There’s no doubt there’s a limit in bee pollination in
Georgia,” said Keith Delaplane,
an Extension
Service entomologist with the UGA College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

“That’s the big problem for home gardeners,” he
said. “Most gardeners
and farmers will tell you they don’t see the bees they
used to. Many aren’t seeing the
yields they used to, either.”

Grim future

F. Peppers, UGA, CAES

TAKING A CLOSER LOOK through the safety of an observation hive lets this student see how bees build their honeycombs. 4-H Clubs and UGA-led beekeeping clubs are learning more about bees and their importance to agriculture and home gardening.

Since the 1980s, Georgia’s wild bee population has been
under attack by tracheal mites
and varroa mites that have decimated the population. New
threats are still emerging.

“The future for our wild bee population is pretty
grim,” Delaplane said.
“You always find new colonies because beekeepers’ colonies
split and swarm. But they
can no longer self-sustain.”

Once the bees split from the beekeeper, they survive
only about a year in the wild
before they die from parasites.

“You can argue that bees are no longer wild animals,”
Delaplane said.
“They’re domestic, because they require care to stay alive
for the long term.”

Clubs keep hives
alive

North of Atlanta, the Cherokee Beekeepers Club has
about 50 active beekeepers. And the
number is growing.

“When I came here, people were getting out of
beekeeping because their hives were
going down,” said Marco
Fonseca, a county agent
with the UGA Extension Service. “Very few knew the mites
were the cause of the
problems.”

Fonseca helped organize the Cherokee Beekeepers Club
with a goal of teaching members
how to care for the hives.

“Now,” he said, “we have an annual training program
that spiraled into
year-round education and management practices.”

Causing a buzz in
schools

They also have school bee programs. Local schools can
get an observation hive for their
library or science class.

“Not only is the school program teaching students about
bees and their
relationship to flowers and food production, but
beekeepers are getting involved in the
school,” Fonseca said.

“The added reward of working with children kept the
beekeepers involved,” he
said. “They now do a part of the whole program. We assign
bees to a school, and the
beekeepers keep a check on the bees and work with the
teachers.”

Results are
showing

The beekeeping program seems to be showing results.

“Once people understand the bees’ role, and once you
tell them the vegetables
aren’t setting fruit from lack of pollination, they get
interested,” Fonseca said.
“We have increased the number of hives from about 30 to
more than 500.”

Having more managed bees generally increases wild bee
populations. That helps wild
fruit and flower production that supports wildlife.

Swarmingÿ to bees

“That’s happening in Cherokee County,” Fonseca said. “I
can tell by the
number of swarm calls I get. The callers see swarms as a
problem. But I see them as great,
because I know we’re increasing the wild bee
population.”

Most of the beekeepers in Georgia’s metro areas are
hobbyists. But some are tapping
into the business of bees.

“When we started, no one in the county had a business
based on bees,” Fonseca
said. “One of our keepers, B.J. Weeks, has gone into full-
time business. His honey is
sold in every Kroger store in north Georgia. Others are
selling small amounts in specialty
shops.”

Last year more than 100 residents entered honey in the
county fair.

“We have a quality control and marketing program on how
to make good honey and how
to present it,” Fonseca said.

For more information on honey bees, check the extension
entomology Web
publications at www.ces.uga.edu.

Or attend the Beekeepers Institute May 22 at the
Biological Science Building on the UGA
campus in Athens. To sign up, call your county Extension
Service office.

>