{"id":7432,"date":"2023-07-07T23:50:45","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T20:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/?p=7432"},"modified":"2023-07-07T23:53:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T20:53:15","slug":"ohios-buzzing-backyard-beekeeping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/ohios-buzzing-backyard-beekeeping","title":{"rendered":"Ohio’s Buzzing Backyard Beekeeping"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin and Liz Jones walk slowly toward one of the brightly colored wooden boxes that line the yard of their farm in Batavia, just east of Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

Each box holds around 60,000 bees, working to make honey. The Joneses, who have been the owner of HappBee Acres Bee Supply for the last two years, are checking in on their progress. Puffs of smoke waft from a metal tool in Liz\u2019s hand. It calms the bees, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the bees that do see us come up don’t make everybody else upset,\u201d Liz said.<\/p>\n

In white veiled caps, they work together to slide out a frame, covered in a jumble of buzzing bees. The colony has been pollinating<\/a> nearby flowers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSee the glistening inside those cells?\u201d she said. \u201cAll of that is spring honey. So that’ll all be from honeysuckle, dandelions, black locusts starting to bloom.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kendall Crawford\/The Ohio Newsroom<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
Kevin and Liz Jones say that beekeeping is a relaxing experience for them. They want to pass on the experience to more Ohioans who are interested in honeybees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Ohio\u2019s honey production is on the rise. Last year, the state saw a\u00a0more than 20% jump<\/a>\u00a0in commercially produced honey. And, commercial hives aren\u2019t the only ones that are growing: More and more Ohioans are becoming hobbyists, or \u201cbackyard beekeepers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welcoming new-bees
\n<\/b>Once a month, Kevin and Liz take people from across the state on inspections of honeybee colonies. They offer free beginner beekeeping classes, which have grown rapidly in attendance. Their last class had 50 people, some from as far as two hours away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have concrete truck drivers and janitors and heart surgeons and lawyers,\u201d Kevin said. \u201cThere’s not any one larger percentage of people than the other that are interested in keeping bees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around 7,000 beekeepers across the state care for more than 50,000 colonies. Last year<\/a>, 500 Ohioans decided to suit up for the first time and start keeping bees.<\/p>\n

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\u201cA third of everything that we bite into, all of our food, benefit from honeybees.” Barbara Bloetscher, state apiarist<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Liz said many people tell her that during the COVID-19 pandemic, they started thinking harder about the food they eat \u2014 and the ecosystem<\/a> behind it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if this one box of bugs can give you more than just honey \u2014 they give you the pollination<\/a> in your garden, they make your strawberries bloom better, all of these different things \u2014 then why not do it?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

More than just honey
\n<\/b>But, the trend started with an even earlier crisis: colony collapse disorder. In\u00a02006,<\/a>\u00a0varroa mites began killing off colonies. By 2010, Ohio had lost\u00a0more than half<\/a><\/u>\u00a0of its honeybee population.<\/p>\n

State apiarist Barbara Bloetscher said since the sharp decline, Ohio has seen a steady climb of beekeepers every year. She thinks that\u2019s partly due to a campaign to save the bees.<\/p>\n

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\"<\/picture>\n
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Kendall Crawford\/ The Ohio Newsroom<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
Honeybees, like this one, play a large role in pollinating Ohio’s food.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Bloetscher said more people became aware of bees\u2019 role in our ecosystem. They learned it\u2019s not just about honey, it\u2019s about what the bees pollinate and their impact on the larger food chain.<\/p>\n

\u201cA third of everything that we bite into, all of our food, benefit from honeybees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Keeping busy
\n<\/b>Even with more people interested in raising honeybees, the state is a long way from its peak. In the 1940s, Ohio was one of the top four states for honey production. Now, it ranks\u00a023rd<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"<\/picture>\n
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Kendall Crawford\/ The Ohio Newsroom<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
The Joneses produce more than 4,000 pounds of honey per year to sell to their local community<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe do have some younger generations that are going into beekeeping, which is very exciting,\u201d Bloetscher said. \u201cBut I don’t know if we’re ever going to reclaim our kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Ohio does, it\u2019ll be thanks to people like Kevin and Liz, who are showing dozens of Ohio\u2019s newest beekeepers the ropes. Liz gets excited each time she can share the calming experience of tending to a hive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only sound you can hear is the bees buzzing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just makes life peaceful for the time that you are in a colony.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jones\u2019 shop has a different kind of buzz. The couple can hardly keep up with the amount of people who come through their doors, looking for equipment or advice on how to get started.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re busy. As busy as a\u2026 Well, you get the idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin and Liz Jones walk slowly toward one of the brightly colored wooden boxes that line the yard of their farm in Batavia, just east of Cincinnati. Each box holds around 60,000 bees, working to make honey. The Joneses, who have been the owner of HappBee Acres Bee Supply for the last two years, are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7432"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7441,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7432\/revisions\/7441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}