honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, August 15, 2005

Low prices, high costs sting beekeeping business

By Jonathan Dubin
Knight Ridder News Service

spacer

MIAMI — In a moment of whimsy, back in 1976, Lee Del Signore bought 3 pounds of mail-order bees and a queen through an ad in Organic Gardening magazine for about $35.

His fledgling hobby led to a job as a bee inspector, which eventually blossomed into a full-time occupation with lots of natural rewards, hazards and barrels flowing with honey.

That may sound sweet — and indeed Del Signore loves keeping bees — but the buzz among beekeepers is the industry is struggling. Among a bevy of challenges are slumping honey prices, low fees for pollination services and pests.

Today the 54-year-old runs an apiary 45 minutes south of Miami with 3,500 beehives housing 60,000 bees apiece — a total of about 210 million bees.

Surrounded by nurseries and open fields, Del Signore's small farm is alive with activity. In springtime, south Florida's tropical plants provide the nectar for delicious local varieties of honey. Beekeeping involves maintaining a delicate balance between natural processes that keep the bees happy and the honey flowing.

Beyond that, Del Signore and his peers struggle with some of the issues common to other U.S. businesses these days: foreign competitors with lower costs and the strain of rising energy prices.

Florida, with its year-round warmth, is an important player in the beekeeping industry. The state produces about 20 million gooey pounds a year. According to Jerry Hayes, chief of the apiary section at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, roughly 1,200 beekeepers operate in the state.

The American Beekeeping Federation says one in every three bites of food consumed in the United States comes from crops pollinated by insects.

Del Signore, however, is exasperated by the pressures weighing on the bee business. "It's getting tougher and tougher. Insurance is high. Labor costs are high. And the price of honey is terrible," he said. Record fuel prices are only making things worse.

In late 2003, Del Signore's honey was fetching about $1.45 a pound. Now, he's getting just 55 cents for that amount.

Cheap imports are to blame for the drastic price drop, and efforts to curb them through unfair-trade actions have had little impact, beekeepers say.

Del Signore needs to get about a dollar a pound to make a living.

While cheap honey may appeal to suppliers in the near term, Hayes says that it may come back to sting them in the long run. The nation needs domestic bees.

"Consumers will be hit the hardest," says Hayes. "Without bees, we will have a dramatic drop in the quality and quantity of domestic foods."

Meanwhile, bees are under attack by invasive species that weren't a threat 30 years ago.

Hive beetles, which arrived in Florida less than a decade ago, produce larvae that hatch inside the hives, ruining honey and upsetting the bees. Then there's American foulbrood bacteria, which go after bees during their metamorphosis from larvae.

And though it never gets cold in south Florida, summer rains damage beehives, and intense heat stifles honey production. June's unusually wet weather and the prospect of another active hurricane season has made the situation even more challenging.

Still, Everald "Steve" Corniffe, a beekeeper at the Del Signore apiary, says it's worth it: "It's a tough life. But you don't mind doing it."