Raising Queen Honey Bees

Ray Olivarez says his bee business is not typical. He owns and operates Olivarez Honeybees near the Glenn County, Calif. community of Orland.

Though he pretty much does it all – rearing queen honeybees for commercial sale, selling package bees to other beekeepers and leasing bees for pollination – his success is seen in his sustainability.

With annual losses in the range of 10 percent, versus the 30-50 percent reportedly common throughout the rest of the bee industry, he’s got a point.

You could say that Marty Hanks is as busy as a bee.

Hanks owns and runs, “Just Bee Apiary,” a chemical-free business that focuses on raising and managing colonies of honey bees. The 30 hives on his Chapel Hill farm account for half of his inventory, while the other 30 hives are spread across rooftops and balconies in Pittsboro, Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

“We who live in a house or have land are all beekeepers by default because we have resources they can choose,” Hanks said.

The bee population has been declining over the past 40 years, with the most drastic decreases happening since 2000. According to Bee Informed, the leading bee research group in America, U.S beekeepers lost 44 percent of their total colonies between April of 2015 and March of 2016. Hanks attributes the loss of bees to several factors, including a loss of habitat and food resources. But the most deadly threat to the bees he said, can be found in your garage.

“Homeowners are buying products, the DOT is spraying and the power companies are spraying. So suddenly we’re looking at this widespread use of products.”

Those products include harmful pesticides that start a chain reaction for the bees, Hanks says, forcing them to travel farther for their food, and return with less.