The state lost half its honey bee population between April 2014 and the following April, according to Dwight Wells, a master beekeeper and a member of the board of directors of the Ohio State Beekeepers Association.
“It’s not sustainable,” said Wells, who helped set up the bees Tuesday in their new hive at an abandoned ground water monitoring well. “That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
A White House report this year called for more public land set aside for pollinators and stricter regulation of pesticides, newspaper archives show. The White House urged seven million acres be set aside over the next five years for the effort.
“It’s a national concern and we want to be part of the solution,” said Michael L. Howe, deputy director of the 88th Civil Engineer Group at Wright-Patterson.
Tiny parasitic and virus-spreading varroa mites coupled with a hard winter and inexperienced beekeepers contributed to the decline of honey bees the past year, Wells said.
“A third of the food that we eat is pollinated by honeybees,” he said, rattling off a grocery list of crops, from apples, almonds and blueberries to pears, peaches and plums. “Anything that’s good and nutritious, the bees pollinate.”
Blood-sucking varroa mites, which feed on bees and their colonies, were the biggest threat to the bees, he said.
“That’s our No. 1 enemy,” he said. “They cause viruses in our colonies and the viruses (are) what kill the bees.”
Bred with the help of Purdue University, “Buckeye Bees” have a genetic trait researchers say should help the bees withstand viruses and harsh winters. Growing the bees in Ohio, versus relocating bees bred in the south, has bolstered hopes they can live through northern winters.
“We need Ohio hardy bees that will survive the winter,” said Barbara Bloetscher, a state apiarist or beekeeper in the Ohio Department of Agriculture. “The bees have that trait that they can fight the mites and survive the winter.”
What effect some farming chemicals may have on honey bees is an issue that’s still debated, Wells said.
“There’s a finger-pointing contest going on right now between the chemical companies, the farmers and the beekeepers and the environmentalists as to what the problems are,” he said. “It’s obvious that there are some problems with chemicals (but) to what degree the research still really hasn’t told us.”
The Levin Family Foundation of Dayton has launched the Propolis Project to breed a more virus-resistant bee and to restore pollinators’ habitat at Wright-Patterson and the Dayton Aviation Heritage Museum in the Paul Laurence Dunbar Historic District in Dayton.
“This is an issue that you have to have the fervency of an evangelist and failure is not an option on this,” said foundation executive director Karen Levin.
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