History of Modern Beekeeping

History of Modern Beekeeping
in West Virginia George Clutter, State Apiarist and Paul Poling, Apiary Specialist, WVDA Marketing and Development Division
This article was published in the February 2006 issue of “The Market Bulletin”
In 1969, West Virginia honeybee colonies were primarily
being kept in log gums or non-movable frame box hives.
These methods had a very low economic return for the
farmer and posed an impossible situation for disease control.
Conversion to legal, - movable-frame equipment was instituted
by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture
(WVDA) under the leadership of Earl Cochran, and continued
under the supervision of Bard Montgomery, Matt Cochran
and current State Apiarist George Clutter. Today most
colonies are kept in legal movable frame hives which are five
times more profitable for farmers and can be monitored for
disease control purposes.
In 1977, the WVDA purchased a fumigator which utilized
the pesticide etholine oxide to help control the outbreaks of
American Foul Brood (AFB). This proved to be expensive
and dangerous for apiary staff to use. In 1991, apiary staff
converted this device into a portable, steam autoclave that
could do in one hour what previously took eight hours with
less expense. To date, this is the only such unit in the country
built entirely by apiary staff.
In the late 1980s two parasitic mites - the tracheal mite and
the varroa mite - decimated the country's honeybee population,
reducing pollination and threatening the food supply.
Today, honeybees cannot survive in the wild for any great
length of time as in the past. Therefore the majority of honey
bees in West Virginia are maintained by beekeepers.
In 1991, the apiary law was amended to mandate that apiary
staff provide educational programs. WVDA's apiary staff
teaches an average of 70 educational seminars for beekeeping
and master gardening clubs each year. These classes
have helped state beekeepers to achieve one of the lowest
incidences of disease and winter kill on the east coast, and
have helped increase their per-colony productivity.
The high expense of the necessary medications to combat
bee pests and the lack of knowledge on how to safely use
them prompted the state legislature in 1995 to institute the
beekeeper assistance program. This program also provided
extra colony inspection in an effort to bring rampant bee diseases
and parasites under control and to increase beekeeper
success and profitability. At that time the state had
fewer than 200 beekeepers maintaining fewer than 2,000
colonies. Ten years later the state has 1,200 beekeepers
maintaining more than 15,600 colonies. In years past, beekeeping
in West Virginia was considered primarily a hobby,
but today many commercial and sideliner beekeeping operations
flourish. During this time of growth, beekeeper assistance
funding has decreased from $70,000 to $32,000, and
a part-time inspector position had to be eliminated. Apiary
staff has tried to keep up with the increasing workload and
have ranked for the last three seasons at the top of the
country for number of colonies inspected per inspector.
In 2001, WVDA assisted state beekeepers in starting a
non-profit beekeeping cooperative in Weston with $50,000
in funds from the state legislature and a USDA specialty
crop grant of $42,000. This facility has provided a place
where beekeepers have been able to purchase their supplies
at a wholesale price, saving thousands of dollars in
shipping charges. To date, co-op sales have exceeded
$118,000. This facility also offers a custom extracting facility
where farmers can have their crop extracted in a Health
Department-approved facility. Extracting equipment is an
expensive obstacle for most beekeepers. This facility gives
producers time to grow until they can set up their own
honey houses.
In 2002, the West Virginia Legislature adopted the honeybee
as the state insect. During this same year, apiary staff
reared honeybee queens for both the USDA and Cornell
University that exhibited useful traits.
In 2003 WVDA apiary staff cooperated with the USDA in
testing the usefulness of new antibiotics, which has contributed
to apiculture on the national level. In addition to this
efficacy study, the apiary staff assisted with honeybee research
at West Virginia University, Penn State, University
of Delaware and Cornell University.
In 2004, apiary staff wrote a book entitled "Beekeeping in
West Virginia" that is distributed to state beekeepers free of
charge, courtesy of the beekeeper assistance program.
This booklet covers every basic topic of beekeeping, including
those unique to our state. A second booklet containing
beekeeping equipment patterns was also published. WVDA
has helped bring beekeeping in the southwest part of the
state to the point where over 20 tons of honey worth
$44,000 was produced and marketed to an out-of-state
packer in 2004. This shipment of honey left Charleston with
the assistance of the WVDA and the beekeeper assistance
program. Another load, primarily from the Ohio River basin,
was transported in March of 2005.
The WVDA is working with growers and beekeepers to
facilitate quality pollination of crops, such as apples, blueberries,
cranberries and various melon crops on the eastern
shore. The WVDA also works with state orchards that are
concerned about the quality of pollination they are receiving
from out-of-state bee colonies. For the last two seasons
apiary staff has certified pollination for any group of colonies
in question.