Honeybee colonies have collapsed at an unsustainable rate in the 21st century – which is a big deal, considering how much we rely on bees and other pollinators to produce food.
But in Texas, the honeybee is starting to come back with some help from humans. Since 2012, landowners have been able to get a tax break for raising bees on their property. So many people have taken advantage of that, that the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service recently hired a statewide bee specialist to help up-and-coming beekeepers.
Garrett Slater, the new bee specialist and an assistant professor of entomology at Texas A&M University, spoke to the Texas Standard about the state’s bee health.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: I don’t want to overstate the comeback. So how would you rate the collective health of the country’s bees at the moment?
Garrett Slater: So it’s really difficult for beekeepers across the entire country. You know, we’ve been doing surveys for the past 10 years, when colony collapse sort of really became a big thing. And beekeepers lose 45 to 50% of their colonies every single year. So imagine losing 50% of your colony. That’s massive.
Is it getting better, though? I mean, is having more people in the beekeeping game adding to the viability of honeybees?
Yeah. So it’s really difficult. So beekeepers are still losing 50% of their colonies, right. There’s management practices beekeepers can use to, you know, split their colonies and make up those numbers. But the health of the colonies are still a major issue.
So honeybee colonies are smaller in size. They have more of these diseases and pest issues. Pesticides are being more used across the country. And so even though the overall colony numbers are increasing, beekeepers are still losing a high proportion of their colonies.
Well, you mentioned a couple of the factors. There are diseases; there are pesticides. Are there other conditions that we should focus on when it comes to those that are leading to this decline?
Number one is varroa. So varroa are these small parasitic mites. And just imagine having like a dinner plate on your chest: That’s how big a mite is to an individual bee.
And these mites have been around for about 30 to 40 years now. They lower the immune system of the bees, and they transmit all these deadly viruses. And so if the mites get to a really high level, colonies are likely to crash and die at the end of the season.
And so we haven’t really developed a really great solution for varroa. But that’s really the number one cause, along with associated viruses.
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It sounds like that’s a problem nationwide. When it comes to raising bees here in Texas, are there unique challenges here? I’m thinking this excessive heat right now might be tough on all kinds of creatures.
The problem with the treatments for varroa, most of them are heat-specific. And so because the temperatures are so high, there’s not many treatment options for beekeepers in Texas. There’s really only one treatment beekeepers can use during the summertime. Whereas if you go to the Midwest they have about three to five different options. And so managing varroa is really difficult here in Texas.
We also have the heat stress. So yeah, I’m getting new to Texas, but it’s really hot here. So you know, just with the bees dealing with the heat can be really problematic.
And we’re also seeing that, you know, honeybees have these males and they go on these mating flights – when the temperatures get really high, these males tend to kind of fall and die on the ground. And so that’s a really unique challenge to the southern United States, especially Texas, is how do colonies deal with this heat challenge?
Well, this is a beginner question, and I don’t know the answer: Are there certain types of honeybees that do better in Texas, or are people pretty much raising the same types of bees, no matter where they are in the U.S.?
We have about, six or seven different breeding programs, and they’re mostly based in the Midwest. And so we don’t know how certain, I guess, breeding lines perform in the heat temperature in Texas. And so that’s something I really want to evaluate here.
Bees, fortunately, they’ve survived in every part of the world. So they probably do have genetics that allow them to survive in these heat temperatures. We just don’t know which stocks in the United States and how well they perform in Texas.
Well, if someone’s hearing this conversation and thinking to themselves, “maybe I could raise some bees,” where would you advise them to start?
So first off, we have online resources: There’s a beekeeping 101 course, and I think that’s perfect to learn just about the basics of beekeeping and managing bees. And really for a lot of new beekeepers, they don’t realize how much work’s involved with keeping bees, you know?
And if you do plan on buying your own colonies, there’s clubs across the entire state. If you’re in a certain region of Texas, I would find a local beekeeping club, because they’re a really great resource of mentoring and helping you get started with beekeeping.
