BEYOND THE HIVE
onies with excellent pollination potential are competing on price with those producing weak, substandard colonies. In- credibly, tales surface of beekeepers throwing in a few empty hives along with the good ones, effectively raising the pay rate per hive. Obviously, this hurts both the growers and other bee-
keepers, but here too the value of a colony is not always perfectly clear. We can agree that an empty hive is useless, but assessing strength of a normal colony is subjective. One keeper’s exceptionally strong colony is another keeper’s aver- age colony, which doesn’t indicate dishonesty but only differ- ences of opinion.
Agricultural Tax Breaks Stories of substandard colonies remind me of complaints
from beekeepers in some of the southern states, particular- ly Texas, where a landowner with a minimum number of colonies on a prescribed amount of acreage can receive ag- ricultural tax relief. The details vary between counties, but produced, meaning the owner can simply eat his own honey or give it away.
receive a tax break on their land. The adjacent landown- er erected six hives three years ago, added bees, and never returned. Terry is angry about the abuse of both bees and taxpayers. “You know those bees are gone because nothing moves over there,” she said. “But every year the county guy comes by with a clipboard. Six hives. Check.” Jim nodded. “I think the enforcement guy is afraid of
bees. He never gets out of his pickup and doesn’t look for live bees, even at our place. Fifty-three hives. Check.” Like so many gray areas, however, good can come from
these programs. Some people hire professional beekeepers to maintain their hives, which helps the local economy, and the bees are a boon to agricultural endeavors. Sadly, it’s im- possible to design a program that’s immune to abuse, and it’s natural for those who comply to feel cheated.
How Big is Our Footprint? Many ethical dilemmas lack right or wrong answers, but
they make us think. Ultimately, we cannot change honey bees or make them behave, but we can make ourselves aware of the burdens our bees place on others.
of homeowners, businesses, conservationists, or government agencies. We will be better served by trying to understand our own footprint and allowing other pollinators their space. Leave the conservation areas to wildlife, treat your neighbors with respect, and be empathetic toward those who don’t un- derstand your fascination with bees. Each beekeeper needs to draw a line between what is ac-
ceptable behavior and what is not. Since the demarcation will be different for every individual, we will never completely agree on what is right and proper. Nevertheless, my greatest
How gentle are our footprints?
hope is that we have the collective wisdom to draw our line in a reasonable and agreeable place before lawmakers are forced to draw it for us with complex and restrictive legislation.
Reference
1. Peck DT, Seeley TD. 2019. Mite bombs or robber lures? The roles of drifting and robbing in Varroa destructor transmission from collapsing hon- ey bee colonies to their neighbors. PloS One.
https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0218392
2. Alger SA, Burnham PA, Boncristiani HF, and Brody AK. 2019. RNA virus spillover from managed honeybees (Apis mellifera) to wild bumble- bees (Bombus spp.) PLoS One 14(6): e0217822.
https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0217822.
Rusty Burlew is a master beekeeper in Washington State. She has been fascinated by honey bees since child- hood and, in recent years, has become enthralled with the native bees that share pollination duty with honey bees. She has an undergraduate degree in agro- nomic crops and a master’s degree in environmental studies with an emphasis in pollination ecology. Besides writing for her website,
HoneyBeeSuite.com, Rusty has published in many magazines, fre- quently speaks about bee conservation, and has served as an expert witness in bee sting litigation.
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