Commentary: Declining health of bees in Durham are a warning sign of climate change

Thirty years ago I worked as an assistant beekeeper for a friend and his father and knew that someday I wanted my own hives, my own bees and my own business. About five years ago, my wife Karen and I started up JimmyK’sBees in Durham. From a couple of hives at the outset, we have grown to 28 hives and in the past year sold more than 2,000 pounds of honey. We now partner with a farm in town to pollinate an apple orchard, flowers, and vegetables.

We have rapidly learned that beekeeping is not what it was 30 years ago. There are challenges my friend and his dad never confronted. Like a lot of beekeepers in New England, and around the world, Karen and I began to see that changes in the climate – in temperature, in storms, insect populations, in the timing of the seasons − were affecting bees, their care, and their future. And their future is our future. Bees pollinate a third of the food we eat, and 80 percent of the world’s flowers. Honeybee populations worldwide have declined almost 40 percent according to one recent survey.

One of the major reasons bee populations are in peril is the same globally as it is in our hives in Durham: the sudden prevalence of parasites, Varroa mites, which are deadly to bees. Every beekeeper now faces the problem of mites, which a British study has linked at least in part to increased temperatures.

While mites are the most aggressive problem beekeepers face, other factors in the weather are also making it harder to keep healthy hives.

When I was beekeeping in the 1980s, we made sure the hives had enough resources (honey) for the bees to survive the winter. This was typically completed in early October. After that we really didn’t have to worry about them until March or April. With the onset of freezing weather, they cluster and do not consume much honey.

In recent years there has been a shift, and the warmer weather has been keeping the bees very active through November. There are no external resources available for the bees; therefore, they consume resources from their hive only.

Given the bees are staying active into November, they can end up depleting food supplies and beekeepers can find themselves needing to supplement that nutrition. Bees that are still active past October can freeze to death if they attempt to forage and a sudden cold snap prevents their return to the hive.

Over the last couple of years changes in the weather have also created a new challenge: Difficulty getting access to apiaries at the farm. Last year due to the amount of rain, and then mud, we couldn’t gain access to hives, couldn’t perform health checks we needed, and that resulted in two lost hives. At the same time, the torrential rains caused a very big issue with queen-raising this past year. Queens cannot get out and mate in weather that bad. For beekeepers who raise queens to sell, last year’s rain certainly reduced the queen’s capability to mate.

The New Hampshire beekeepers I’ve grown to know in the last few years say it has always been a challenge to keep their bees healthy. But many of us also recognize those challenges are growing as the climate changes and becomes far, far more unpredictable. Very large apiaries are even keeping bees stored in climate-controlled housing during the winter assuring they remain clustered and have a better opportunity to survive through to spring. For the smaller beekeeper, that’s an economic hurdle that is probably too high.

When we moved to Durham, we learned that the town is a part of the Bee City USA program. This means Durham endorses a set of commitments for creating sustainable habitats for pollinators. It is a community commitment to keeping bees – and by extension our plants, vegetables, fruits, and flowers – flourishing.

But the changes we are seeing are bigger than one community’s best efforts. As someone working with nature, and seeing it up close daily, I hope we can recognize that every step we take to put our ecosystem back in balance helps. Right now, ours is the only state in New England that has not set legally binding deadlines to cut carbon emissions and is the only state that has said it will not set a date to transition to all-electric new car sales. New Hampshire also trails in incentives to switch to green energy like solar.

We need to recognize that it is not too late to make some changes that can help all of us, including the bees.

Jim Spargo owns and operates JimmyK'sBees with his wife, Karen, in Durham, NH.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Commentary: Declining health of bees in Durham due to climate change