Local beekeepers are buzzing about upcoming year (VIDEO)

CRESTLINE — Local beekeepers are reporting that bee hives are in healthy condition at the onset of spring blooming season despite record cold in late January.

According to Crestline beekeeper Dave Duncan, owner of BeeOlogy, “Last fall there were good golden rod food sources and the bees were well nourished and in good condition going into winter. I had 30 hives in the fall and still have 25 after the winter. Dandelions still have yet to blossom however.”

Duncan says he has heard other beekeepers are also having great success this spring.

Hager Hicks, a twenty-year beekeeper from Plymouth and former President of the Richland County Beekeepers Association says that all fourteen of his bee hives survived the winter.

“The key for bees right now is getting a good early nectar source like dandelions, cherry blossoms, skunk cabbage, and maple trees. “Presently I am still feeding them right now, ” says Hicks.

The winter was no friend to beekeepers in 2017-18.

The general consensus according to the Department of Agriculture was that wild bees from feral hives did not survive the 2017-18 winter. As a result, the following Spring of 2018 did not start well since many died due to a dry period the previous fall. Bees ate what leftover golden rod honey was remaining. and then a mite build up occurred.

Hager, who treats his bees for mites, commented “It was a long cold winter in 2017-18. I had 17 hives but had to combine several hives to ensure hives remained healthy. He estimates that he had seven swarms last year and thought last year was better than most.

Swarming for Duncan last spring was non-existent. Duncan assists other beekeepers with the swarming process but received no phone call requests between April-June 2018.

“Typically on a bad year I get on the average of between ten and twenty swarms,” says Duncan.

The presence of bee swarms can indicate that bees are leaving a healthy colony to start a new colony. If all goes well, that swarm will become a new colony. if it can make it through the winter.

According to Douglas Kahn of the National Weather Service/ Cleveland office, while record low temperatures were set on January 30, 2019 (-10 degrees F), and January 31, 2019 (-7 degrees F), the winter overall was warmer than normal with a few exceptions of short-lived cold shots.

March, 2019 ranked as the seventeenth coldest March for monthly low temperatures in Mansfield, with a low of 3 degrees F on March 5, 2019.  Record keeping goes back to 1916.

Duncan manages several observation hives which serves as a useful educational tool to attract interest in beekeeping. His Malabar Farm observation hive died over the winter, but his two other observation hives at Apple Hill and Put-In-Bay survived.

“We are always trying to attract new beekeepers for the future. Bees help pollinate at least thirty-percent of the world’s crops and ninety-percent of wild plants. Without bees to spread seeds, many plants—including food crops—would die off.”

Twelve new beekeepers this spring are taking a local three-part training class. In all, there are fifty beekeepers with membership in the Richland County Beekeeper Association. The association hopes to provide a beekeeper mentoring program.

Hicks first got in to beekeeping because of his uncle.

“I have known Dave Duncan for fifteen years. I usually go to him or to Sonny Barker when I need some advice.”