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07/10/2006Photo Story
The Bees' Needs
“If you play with bees, you're going to get stung,” said Hathaway. “I’ll get stung a half a dozen times today. It hurts every time ... every time.” Bill Hathaway first became interested in bees when a swarm moved into a tree next to his house in 1966. "I stood there watching them and said, 'This is stupid, I want to know what's going on inside.'' That and a kit from Sears started Hathaway on a career in beekeeping. "I will keep a hive of bees around as long as I live," he said. This time of year, Hathaway works to ensure the health of his colonies, which he rents to farmers so the bees can pollinate their fields. In the fall, he packs up his hives and ships them to Florida, where they pollinate watermelons. Migratory beekeeping has become increasingly more important as mites have depleted the numbers of bees in the wild. In the past decade, up to 90 percent of the feral, or wild, bees in the Midwest have been wiped out by mite varieties that attack a bee's trachea and larva. "We have very few feral hives because of these mites," said Nikki Rothwell, a district pest management agent at the Michigan State University Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station in Elmwood Township. "You're lucky to find a feral hive anymore." Hathaway said the number of his bee colonies dive-bombed from 650 colonies to 150 over three years in the late 1990s. Now, the number is back to about 300 after letting natural selection weed out bees not resistant to the mites. Pesticides were time consuming, expensive and if not used at the right time could end up in the honey, he said. This drives up the cost of bees. Rothwell said the rate farmers pay for bees has gone up in places like California, where almonds are in increasing demand. Farmers in this area can rent hives for about $45 to $55 a hive until petal drop, which is when the plants can't be pollinated anymore. Petal drop can take as long as six weeks, depending on the plant and other conditions. In California, hives are being rented for as much as $150 each until petal drop. "I expect our costs will go up in coming years," Rothwell said.
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