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Beekeeper, Michael McAvoy, checks on his bees at his apiary on October 15, 2016. "MICHAEL JOHNSON | FOR THE POST"

Athens community members and beekeepers adjust to new beekeeping norms

Michael McAvoy’s five-year-old son, Sean, likes to help his dad collect honey from the 15 hives in their backyard.

That was about the age McAvoy started helping his dad with beekeeping. Over the years, though, he said beekeeping methods have drastically changed.

“When I was a child, you could just let the bees take care of themselves,” McAvoy said. “Now, it’s more like animal husbandry.”

The introduction of the varroa mite — a parasite that attacks honey bees — shook the bee population in the '80s, and also changed the amount of care and time needed to keep a hive alive, Barbara Bloetscher state apiary inspector with the Ohio Department of Agriculture, said.

Now, local beekeepers and community members are doing what they can to support the bees.

When McAvoy tends to his 15 hives, he suits up in protection gear, including gloves and a veil, to avoid the bee’s stingers.

Cracking open each hive, McAvoy searches for small beetles that could be harmful to the colony, crushing them with a tool as he goes. After the pests are taken care of, he decides which hives need supplements of sugar water when temperatures are low and flowers are scarce.

“If they don’t have enough honey, they can starve because they have all of these new mouths to feed,” McAvoy said.

In the next few weeks, McAvoy said he’ll spend anywhere between $60 to $70 on sugar for his bees.

The initial capital investment for new beekeepers can be costly, McAvoy added.

A starter pack includes a three pound package of bees who have never met each other, a queen bee and a can of sugar water that could cost up to $110 in total, McAvoy said. 

He added that the hive where the bees will eventually live could cost between $250 and $300 to build.

Sometimes, new beekeepers make that initial investment, only to see their hive die during its first winter.

The deaths start the spending expenditure over again, McAvoy said.

“You can see how a new beekeeper would get frustrated,” he said.

While the bees in McAvoy's collection have him to protect them from the varroa mite, wild bees, which are also affected by the mite, are on their own. 

Beekeepers are able to treat for the varroa mite with oxalic acid, which is a natural compound in powder form that vaporizes into a hive when placed on a hot plate, McAvoy said.

“It’ll hook onto any bee it finds on a bush,” McAvoy said.

In 2015, the Ohio Department of Agriculture recorded four hives with the varroa mite in Athens County.

That doesn’t mean the hive died from the mite, Bloetscher said, adding that the number was quite low compared to other counties in Ohio.

The United States Department of Agriculture tracks bees, but only the ones kept by individuals like McAvoy, leaving wild bees out of the equation.

Wild bees are hard to track, McAvoy added, saying experts often make estimates on the population.

In 2015, the Ohio Department of Agriculture documented about 36,235 colonies, which are groups of working bees paired with a queen, in Ohio.

Of those, 608 buzz around Athens County. 

A big problem for wild bees has been the destruction of their habitat, McAvoy said.

“The more forage the better,” Bloetscher said. “We always need more forage for bees; it’s not just the honey bees, it’s all of the pollinators.”

The Ohio University Bee Corps wants to take steps to help the wild bee population.

Ellie Moore, the president of the club, started a fundraising campaign in order to build gardens around campus and uptown.

Moore, a sophomore studying commercial photography, is a former Post photographer.

The club has a $400 goal, and has raised $150 in the first 19 days of the fundraising campaign.

“We’re really just trying to save the bees,” Moore said.

She hopes to plant two feet by three feet garden plots around town where the OU Hammock Club will set up hammock areas, due to the two clubs' partnership. 

“If bees stopped pollinating, we would have to change our diet drastically,” Moore said. 

@Fair3Julia

Jf311013@ohio.edu 

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