Bud break in the tree fruit industry is a site to be seen. Pink, red and white dots of color slowly overtake the previously dormant skeletons of apple, pear, plum and almond trees, concluding with a flush of color blanketing the trees.

For onlookers, this tranquil first hint of spring is soothing and calm. For our tiniest of workers, however, this is a time of little rest.

According to local experts, at its height the county has a readily employable workforce of approximately 8 billion honey bees or between 70,000 and 80,000 hives. Buzzing from blossom to blossom, these little workers are an agriculturist's best friend.

Honey bees are responsible for approximately one-third of the United States' commercial pollination for produce that includes almonds, peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, pumpkins, cucumbers, cherries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries.

It is estimated that out of a total of 2 million hives in the United States, California almond producers require approximately 1.5 million hives to pollinate their more than 580,000 acres of almonds.

That figure is projected to grow by 30 percent to 750,000 acres by 2010. Each acre of almonds requires two hives to adequately pollinate between 75 and 120 trees.

Nationwide, the bee industry is undergoing an attack from an aggressor no larger than the head of a pin. Between one and two microns in size, the Varroa destructor mite, an external parasitic mite, attacks honey bees and other flower-feeding insects.

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The mite implants itself on the bee, where it feeds like a vampire, and spreads such RNA viruses as deformed wing virus.

A significant mite infestation leads to the death of a honey bee colony and is a major contributor to what the bee industry has dubbed “colony collapse disorder.”

The serious affliction has led to an increase in the loss of honey bees, escalating in early 2006 to the present. Other contributing factors of the sudden decline are suggested to be from unknown pathogens, other mites and pesticides.

Importation of honey bees from out of state and Australia has helped prevent a collapse in the industry, but growing demand for pollinators in the almond industry means a serious solution must be found.

Scott Jefferies, professor and beekeeper at Cal Poly, is working on a project to genetically select mite-resistant queens to repopulate the industry.

“In the last year we have identified queens that express a resistance to the mites,” Jefferies says. “We plan to breed these queens to create new colonies that will not be as susceptible to the colony collapse disorder.”

That is good news for local beekeepers.

Paul Stoltey of Stoltey's Bee Farm, who tends around 1,100 beehives and has sold his honey at local farmers markets since they began, says he has seen losses in his hives of 󈬢 to 70 percent in the last year.”

In the wake of those extreme losses, he, too, has augmented his worker force with bees from outside the United States in hopes of shoring up the losses and procuring resistant hives.

Stoltey, like many other local beekeepers, prefers fighting the mites organically to using newly introduced chemicals.

“I use powdered sugar and garlic powder to kill the mites,” he said.

After the bees finish pollinating the almond crop in the Central Valley, they disperse across the state to other locations more conducive to honey production.

There is big money to be made in almond pollination, with growers paying up to $140 per hive, but there is still good money to be made in honey production elsewhere.

Jefferies said San Luis Obispo County has the perfect climate and native plants for bees.

“With its plentiful supply of blue gum eucalyptus trees, our county is the best honey plant in California,” he said.

Plants that contribute to high-quality, light-colored honey are sage, clover, orange, alfalfa, vetch and yellow-star thistle. Dark honey comes from manzanita, eucalyptus and poison oak.

One bee colony of 100,000 bees can produce, on average, 60 pounds of honey during peak months of May through July.

A recent report shows that the state's honey production dropped 34 percent last year, compared with 2005, while a lack of rainfall for much of this winter is leaving beekeepers doubtful that honey production will rebound significantly this year.

The San Luis Obispo County Agriculture Commissioner's Office regulates both permanent and seasonal apiaries located in the county under specific guidelines listed in County Code 5.04.

The ordinance includes specific language for setbacks from public roads and buildings, the allocation of sufficient water sources and abatement of a public hazard resulting in stings.

Martin Settevendemie, deputy agriculture commissioner, stresses that “it is important for land owners to know the county codes before allowing a beekeeper to place their hives on their land.”

One good reason to consider renting to a beekeeper is that a beehive may prevent Africanized bees from moving onto your property.

In the last two or three years, higher concentrations of Africanized honey bees have migrated to the Central Coast.

“The best way to prevent Africanized bees from moving in is to have a high concentration of European honey bees on your property,” Jefferies said.

Both wild and commercialized honey bees aid in reducing the available food supply, making the land less attractive to the unwanted guests.

Another benefit of having a commercial beekeeper on your property is that the keeper will capture and eradicate Africanized colonies so they don't harm the commercial colonies.

Jim Reider, owner of Buzzy Bee, eradicated three separate Africanized swarms last year alone. He attributes the higher concentrations of Africanized colonies to the loss of feral European bee colonies.

“A beehive on your property may turn out to be a sweet partnership between you and the beekeeper,” Reider said.

Steven Knudsen is outreach coordinator for the San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureau. He can be reached at 543-3654 or steven@slofarmbureau.org

April 15, 2007