Honey sales pay for research

The money helps pay for studies into health problems that afflict honey bees.

By JACKIE RIPLEY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 15, 2002

UPPER TAMPA BAY -- The Tampa Bay Beekeepers Association has an apiary at Upper Tampa Bay Park to raise money for bee research.

Money from honey sales helps pay for research into health problems afflicting honey bees, problems such as a mite infestation that threatened to devastate the state's beekeeping industry in the mid-1980s.

Back then scientists introduced a strand of mite-resistant bees to the state's commercial queen stock. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency began pesticide testing of new products to treat bees, said Jim Alderman, Jr., an inspector for the Florida Department of Agriculture.

Money from the sale of honey goes to research at the University of Florida as well as the USDA, Alderman said.

The hives at Upper Tampa Bay Park are kept far enough off the beaten path to discourage parkgoers from wandering too close to them.

"There are signs up warning the public not to approach, mainly because we don't want anybody to get stung," Alderman said.

However, honey bees are gentle and only sting when they feel their life is threatened, Alderman said.

"They don't want to commit suicide," he said. "They're very reluctant to sting and most people get stung when (the bees) get trapped in their hair, or in their clothing."

In the event that you are stung it's best to quickly scratch the stinger off with a fingernail or a card in a raking motion that stops the venom from flowing, Alderman said.

Pulling the stinger out injects the venom into the skin.

Bee stings are harmless to most people, and unless a person is allergic, most can withstand 10 stings per pound of body weight, he said.

"I've worked with bees for the state for 11 years, and its either been due to weather or the fact that the bees were dropped off the truck that I got several stings," Alderman said. "Most bees in the state have bloodlines that are bred for gentleness and honey production."

You can see bees at work at Upper Tampa Bay Park at an observation hive that was donated to the park. There about 10,000 bees are at work from the queen bee to the drones to the young bees emerging from the cells.

Beekeeping facts:

-- There were 34,845 acres of fruit and vegetable crops pollinated by honey bees in 1999.

-- Thirty-one percent of the state's growers reported using pollination services for their crops in the past five years.

-- Growers using bees said they noticed an increase in yield between 20 and 62 percent, depending on the crop.

-- The value of honey bee pollination to growers in Florida was estimated at $26.4-million in 1999. Nationwide, $14.6-billion.

-- Florida has approximately 1,500 hobbyist beekeepers, having five or fewer "backyard" colonies. Also present in the state are 700 commercial or sideline beekeepers.

-- More than 75,000 honey bee colonies have been lost over the past five years, mostly due to exotic pests.

-- Source: Florida Farm Bureau

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