{"id":139,"date":"2012-05-06T14:51:23","date_gmt":"2012-05-06T14:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/?p=139"},"modified":"2020-01-07T14:53:26","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T14:53:26","slug":"chesterfield-residents-preserve-threatened-honeybee-population","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/?p=139","title":{"rendered":"Chesterfield Residents Preserve Threatened Honeybee Population"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Originally posted<\/a>\u00a0on 5\/6\/2012 by Donna C. Gregory in the Chesterfield Observer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a kid, honeybees fascinated county beekeeper Ken Woodard.\nHe\u2019d catch honeybees in his yard while growing up in Georgia and then put them\nin jars with pieces of blooming clover, hoping they\u2019d make honey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later as an adult, that interest led to Woodard ordering his\nfirst hive from the Sears & Roebuck farming catalogue in 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI still get fascinated by them,\u201d Woodard said. \u201cI sit down\nnext to a beehive, and my stress level goes down to nothing, watching them go\nin and out, in and out. It\u2019s just a love affair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woodard is president of the Rockwood Backyard Beekeepers\nAssociation, the newest beekeeping group in metro Richmond. Based at Rockwood\nPark, the group formed in 2010 to support local beekeepers as they do their\npart to sustain the honeybee population. It currently has about 25 members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, national news has been abuzz with the\nplight of the honeybee as the population of the nation\u2019s top pollinator\ncontinues to decline due to disease, parasites, pesticides and habitat\ndestruction. About one-third of Virginia\u2019s hives die each year. Nationally,\nthat number is around 40 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, honeybee\npollination contributes to about one-third of the U.S. diet. Pollination\nperformed by honeybees is valued at $15 billion annually. In Virginia, about 80\ncrops rely primarily on honeybees for pollination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the honeybee population continues to decline, it could\nultimately change the foods that are available for purchase at grocery stores\nand farm stands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be left with grains, corn [and other crops that don\u2019t\nrequire pollination],\u201d said Kristi Orcutt, Rockwood\u2019s vice president. \u201cWe\u2019ll\nhave to become accustomed to not having apples, and almonds and cranberries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery third bite of food is connected to the honeybee,\u201d said John Adams, a Rockwood member. \u201cIn no other agricultural endeavor do we have as much of our livestock dying as with the honeybee, and it is a challenge to keep them alive, mainly because of pesticides and also lack of bee habitat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Chesterfield, it\u2019s hard for beekeepers to find viable\nlocations for hives as the county becomes more urbanized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe encroachment of the housing and shopping centers is\nreally squeezing us out of here,\u201d Woodard said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He currently cares for about 30 hives throughout the county,\nbut is planning to move some of his hives to Goochland County because it\u2019s more\nrural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When developers clear land for the latest strip mall or\nhousing community, they destroy precious natural habitat for bees and other\nwildlife. The loss of established flowering trees, such as the tulip poplar,\nblack locust, maple and redbud, is particularly devastating. Developers usually\nreplant landscaping, but the replacements may not be a suitable food source for\nhoneybees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe more bee [habitat] that\u2019s cut down, the less nectar and\nfood there is for the bees,\u201d Adams said. \u201cThe young trees are nice \u2013 they\u2019re\nbetter than nothing \u2013 but it\u2019s not like an old tree that\u2019s large and will give\noff an incredible amount of nectar. There are just no big trees around like\nthere used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pesticide use on farms and yards also is responsible for the\ndecline of the honeybee. Some pesticides kill bees immediately, while others\naccumulate in the bees\u2019 tissues over time, making them more susceptible to\ndisease. Mass die-offs can occur when bees mistakenly carry the pesticides back\nto the hive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several years ago, commercial beekeepers began reporting a\nphenomenon called colony collapse disorder where members of honeybee hives\nmysteriously disappeared, sometimes overnight. Recent research suggests CCD may\nbe linked to the use of common pesticides on agricultural crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plight of the honeybee also has brought attention to\npopulation decreases in other bee species. Virginia has about 400 native bee\nspecies, many of which are on the decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you take care of the honeybee, you\u2019re also taking care\nof all these other native bees,\u201d Orcutt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the state\u2019s beekeeping groups educate the public on\nhow the use of pesticides impacts the honeybee population, encouraging people\nto use more natural methods to deal with troublesome weeds and insects in their\nyards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood crop management can eliminate the need for spraying,\u201d\nsaid Orcutt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the average beekeeper, the biggest menace to their hives\nis the varroa mite, a parasite that feeds on the bees\u2019 blood and weakens their\nimmune systems against viruses and diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woodard and other beekeepers nationwide are using genetics\nto develop bees that are resistant to the varroa mite, but it\u2019s a slow process\nsince queen bees don\u2019t always mate with varroa-resistant male bees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, local beekeepers are doing their part to sustain\nthe honeybee population by tending and increasing their hives. Orcutt began\nbeekeeping four years ago, and now has two hives at her home near Pocahontas\nState Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was a kid, I was terrified of insects, so it\u2019s kind\nof odd that I keep bees now,\u201d Orcutt said. \u201cBy studying honeybees, it\u2019s a great\nway for me to learn about social insects, and I\u2019ve found that once I get over\nmy fear of insects, it\u2019s fun and very calming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big, white suits with hoods that most people associate\nwith beekeeping are mostly a thing of the past. Woodard and Orcutt usually work\ntheir hives without protective clothing, but use a smoker to sedate the bees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes I\u2019ll wear a face mask, but typically I won\u2019t wear\nanything,\u201d Orcutt explained. \u201cI wear light colors. If I stay calm and make\ndeliberate, quiet motions, I can usually get in and out of a hive and do what I\nneed to do without a sting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

County beekeepers usually harvest their honey in late spring\n\u2013 just in time for the Third Annual Honeybee Festival at Rockwood Nature\nCenter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally posted\u00a0on 5\/6\/2012 by Donna C. Gregory in the Chesterfield Observer As a kid, honeybees fascinated county beekeeper Ken Woodard. He\u2019d catch honeybees in his yard while growing up in Georgia and then put them in jars with pieces of blooming clover, hoping they\u2019d make honey. Later as an adult, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}