Tennessee beekeepers hope for better 2004

The Tennessee Agriculture Statistics Service said 280,000 pounds of honey were produced last year, the lowest since 1995.

Dayton beekeeper Kenneth Keith said rain and bee mites cut down his crop last year.

“I’ve lost 20 to 25 hives,” he said. “We’ve had mites the last five to seven years.”

The weather also kept bees in their hives, said Keith, who has been a beekeeper for 38 years. It’s estimated that it takes 8 million trips between flowers and a hive to produce one pound of honey.

Tennessee Beekeepers Association president Barry Richards said that honey figures nationally were up 5 percent.

“On rainy days, bees won’t fly,” he said. “They are not bringing nectar in and are consuming their stored honey.”

Richards said that production will rebound with better weather.

“Just because you have poor honey production one year doesn’t have an effect on how strong your colonies are,” Richards said.

Honey production typically lasts two months for bees. This year, Keith has bought more hives and colonies to replace his recent losses.

“The bees, they’ll come back,” he said. “Honey production, bees, it’s all cyclical.”

———

Information from: Chattanooga Times Free Press, http://www.timesfreepress.com