Trending
PARKERSBURG -- While honeybees huddled around their queens in hives to generate the warmth to make it through the winter, area beekeepers gathered Saturday at West Virginia University at Parkersburg for the 2019 Honey Bee Expo.
"They don't hibernate," said Kenny Bach, president of the Mid-Ohio Valley Beekeepers Association, which organized the expo. "They still consume honey. They shiver their wing muscles and create heat."
Even when it's freezing outside, a cluster of bees can generate 92 to 94 degrees of heat around the queen and her brood, Bach said.
The expo offered nearly two dozen classes, both for veteran beekeepers and those new to the activity. Topics included controlling pests without the use of chemicals, hive nutrition and queen and drone reproductive biology. A number of vendors of beekeeping and related products were set up in WVU-P's multipurpose room, including Dave Huffer, owner of the Bee Barn of South East Ohio in Marietta.
"It's probably one of the better-attended conferences in West Virginia," he said.
Bach estimated 350 people attended Saturday, about average for the group, which meets monthly at the Washington County Career Center and draws members from both sides of the Ohio River. Bach kept bees from the 1970s until the late '80s, before resuming in 2009.
"I guess with me it's an ego thing," he said when asked what kept him going with beekeeping. "I hate to admit defeat."
But he said he also realizes the importance of bees, noting that one-third of the food people eat depends on pollinators. That's not only items derived directly from plants, Bach said. Milk, for example, comes from cows that are fed alfalfa hay that needs pollinated to grow.
That's why it's important to draw new folks into the fold, said Wade Stitler, West Virginia state apiarist.
"You've got to have young people stepping up," he said.
It's up to veteran beekeepers to help the newcomers out, Stitler said. If something goes wrong, "it's a costly mistake," he said. "You're looking at investing probably $500 per colony."
That cost includes a box of bees, protective suit and smoker, Stitler said.
The expo offered a three-part class on Beginning Beekeeping, taught by Shanda King, with the Mountaineer Beekeepers Association in Ritchie County. King said she wanted to tell prospective beekeepers what to expect and how to prepare for their bees. It's not a hobby someone can start on the spur of the moment and getting the bees to make it through the winter is the first goal. Honey production is, at best, a bonus that first year.
"I'm not going to tell you as a new beekeeper you're going to (get) honey," she said, adding it is possible.
St. Albans resident Mark Benson learned about the expo while he was online researching beekeeping. He said some family members keep bees and he's interested in doing so on his farm.
"There's a lot to it," he said. "There's a lot of variations to equipment, different things you can do."
Bach said joining a group like the Mid-Ohio Valley association is valuable, because new keepers can learn from the experience of others. People can also share resources and learn whether folks selling bees or equipment are reputable. Buying used equipment online, for example, is generally a bad idea, Bach said.
"Unless you know that beekeeper and know what the situation is, why he doesn't have bees anymore ... don't buy it," he said.
King and others will be leading a four-week beginning beekeeping class at WVU-P for four Tuesdays in February. Each session is two hours, and the cost for the course is $45.
More information is available online at the Mountaineer Beekeepers Association and Mid Ohio Valley Beekeepers Association Facebook pages.