Honey festival has the buzz on bees

By JOHN BURNETT

Tribune-Herald staff writer

The fourth annual Hawaii Honey Festival drew hundreds to Nani Mau Gardens in Hilo on Saturday for honey and crafts sales, a honey tasting competition, music, food, keiki activities and beekeeping and mead-making demonstrations.

While the event itself was festive, its purpose was serious, “to give an awareness to the public of how important the bees are to agriculture, especially on this island where you have so many farmers,” said Carol Conner, Big Island Beekeepers Association secretary and festival chairwoman.

“The bees were killed off a couple of years ago by the parasites that invaded Hawaii, the varroa mite and the small hive beetle,” she said. “This has really hurt the farmers of the island, especially the macadamia nut growers, the coffee growers, the lychee growers, because they don’t get as much fruit and their fruits are much smaller and their crops have 30 percent less yield if they don’t have bees.”

Danielle Downey, state apiarist, said that Hawaii beekeepers produce almost a million pounds of honey yearly, statewide, and that the state’s managed bee colonies produce an average of 75 pounds of honey a year, third highest in the nation. But as she pointed out, the impact honeybees have on agriculture is far beyond production of honey, beeswax and other bee-related products.

“Bee-pollinated produce is estimated at $200 million per year in Hawaii,” said Downey, who was hired by the state three years ago to help educate local beekeepers about methods to mitigate parasite infestation and promote healthy bee colonies.

A popular quote — probably apocryphal — attributed to Albert Einstein states that if bees were to become extinct, humans would follow suit in about four years. While the quote’s accuracy and origin are speculative, Downey asserted: “The food we would have access to would be a lot more limited and a lot more expensive.”

Conner said that Downey’s efforts have been largely successful and the Big Island’s managed bee colonies are making a comeback.

“What a lot of Big Island residents don’t realize is that the biggest value, dollar-wise, in the crop of bees is the queen bees that the producers over on the Kona side are shipping to the mainland every year. So our biggest (bee-related) agricultural crop is queen bees. It’s worth far, far more than the honey,” she said.

Rod Vanderhoff, BIBA treasurer said another reason for the honey-fest “is to increase awareness of natural honey.”

“Instead of being cooked and processed, the natural honey out of the hive is healthier for you,” he said. “If you overheat the honey, it destroys all the good enzymes.”

Natural, unadulterated honey is said to be a “super food” — and may crystallize over time, but stored properly, will not spoil.

“They have found it in Egyptian tombs and it’s still good.” Downey said.

Richard “Diki” Short, who manages the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s 115-acre Panaewa farm, said that another beehive pest that hasn’t received the attention paid to the varroa mite and small hive beetle is the little fire ant.

“It consumes protein rather than sugar,” he said. “It will consume sugar also but that’s not its major diet. So what it does in the hive is it attacks the larvae, because that’s the protein source, and eats the larvae. And once they’re dead, you don’t have any babies. You’ve got colony collapse.”

Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, a well-publicized phenomenon that plagued mainland beehives a couple of years ago, did not affect the Big Island, Downey said.

“The bottom line is, it’s harder to keep healthy bees that it ever has been,” she noted. “There are so many factors that influence bee health, such as environmental factors, agricultural practices, introduced pests and parasites, and it’s really difficult managing honeybees in Hawaii. Not only have the feral bees been wiped out, but the beekeepers spend more time to invest more money in treatment and really learn how to keep healthy bees.”

In addition to colonies managed by beekeepers, feral bee colonies are vital to agricultural pollination, and have been negatively affected by various parasitic infestations, as well, Downey said.

“We don’t know how many feral bee colonies there were before this, but we know that there’s a lot less now,” she said. “On the mainland, the varroa mite really wiped out feral colonies. Almost all of them are gone. But we are getting swarm calls now, so I think they’re starting to rebound. And there are also beekeepers having success, and their colonies are putting out swarms, so it’s getting better. Only Big Island and Oahu have the varroa mite, so the other islands are doing pretty well with feral bees.” She added that the small hive beetle has been found on all Hawaiian islands.

On the mainland, a lot of attention has also been paid to the so-called “Africanized honey bee” — an aggressive hybrid known colloquially as “killer bees” that were originally produced by cross-breeding African honeybees with European varieties. Although Africanized bees have received little attention in Hawaii, it is possible they could take a foothold here.

“Biosecurity is a big part of what I do at the Department of Agriculture,” she said. We have over 100 swarm traps around airports and shipping ports to intercept bee swarms and bees that could come in accidentally. And we actually have had interception of bees that tested as Africanized. We destroyed them, so our program was successful.”

If Africanized bees were to become a larger presence in Hawaii, Downey said: “It would be devastating.”

“I think beekeepers can tolerate some nicer or meaner bees, a spectrum of bee behaviors,” she said. “But the Africanized bees are much more aggressive. They keep smaller colonies and they would naturally blend into the environment and be everywhere. Hikers would have to learn what to do if they get a bee sting. Emergency response crews, firemen, policemen would have to deal with it. It would be a big public health nuisance.”

Downey said there is a number of things beekeepers and others can do to promote a healthy bee population in Hawaii.

“First of all, support your local beekeepers,” she said. “They need your support more than ever because it’s costing them more than ever to keep bees healthy, and those bees are serving our ecosystems and the agricultural systems. Another thing is, limit your pesticide use and use them as a last resort. Choose pesticides that are not so hard on bees. Even Wikipedia has a list of pesticides that you can look up to see which ones are better for bees. And thirdly, plant plants that are supporting pollinators. You can look online for planting guides, and there’s one for Hawaii. Choose plants that provide habitat for birds and bees. You don’t have to be a beekeeper to help.”

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.