Harvesting Honeybees

Justin Messner/Tribune Photo David Lamb (left) gets into position on a ladder to strike a tree branch containing thousands of honeybees in his backyard, while Matt Brock (right) positions himself below the bee swarm in order to capture it when it falls off the limb.

One Bourbon County resident has decided to take his long-time interest and turn it into a hobby, while aiding a national effort to protect the environment.

Matt Brock, Redfield, decided earlier this year to turn his fascination with honeybees into a regular part of his life. Brock purchased his first set of three nucs (short for nucleuses -- man-made bee hives) this spring and began collecting honeybees from areas where they were unwanted.

When Dave Lamb, Fort Scott, returned home from work Thursday afternoon, he was shocked to see a swarm of approximately 20,000 honeybees in his backyard.

"I just happened to see all the bees flying around the yard," said Lamb. "I noticed they were all going into a tree."

Lamb immediately contacted Brock to remove the swarm.

Brock said this was his first attempt at collecting a swarm, though, he had collected several hives over the past few months.

He explained the difference between a swarm and hive is that a swarm has no home.

"Usually bees swarm because there are too many for the hive," he said. "There get to be too many for the hive so they follow a queen to find somewhere new."

Brock, owner of Brock Electric, works as a full-time electrician and said bee collecting is just a hobby. But, aside from his interest in the insects, he claims to perform this work for the betterment of the environment.

Beekeepers all across the nation began reporting a loss of honeybees in 2006. Most keepers claimed a loss of 30-90 percent. So far in 2008, beekeepers have reported losses at approximately 36 percent, according to information from the Associated Press. This drastic loss in the honeybee population has been named Colony Collapse Disorder and has already caused major effects in several industries.

Without honeybees to pollinate crops and throughout the nation, harvests of everything from nuts to berries to vegetables will suffer. Prices for retail groceries have seen a large increase already due to this phenomenon, according to AP.

So, how are Brock's efforts beneficial to the bee population? He believes bees are generally looked at as aggressive and harmful. Therefore, when a hive or swarm is stumbled upon in an undesired location, most people decide to kill the bees with pesticides to avoid injury.

"As long as we can get it (swarm)," he said, "it is better than someone finding them in their attic and saying 'get out the spray (pesticide)."'

Although Brock was able to collect the bee swarm from Lamb's tree, he said it is late in the year for a swarm to appear. They generally do not leave a hive after the spring season. According to Brock, starting honey production this late in the year would not leave adequate time to create enough food for the bees to survive the winter months.

"What I was gonna harvest this year I will have to give to this hive," he said. "They won't have enough food for winter ... it will kill them."

Once Brock's operation becomes fully functional, he said there will be one additional reward for his efforts. Honey.

"I love honey," he said.

Several large corporations have donated funds for research into Colony Collapse Disorder including Haagen-Daz and Burt's Bees. For more information on the disorder visit the United States Department of Agriculture's Web site at www.ars.usda.gov.