Florida beekeepers rally community in Hurricane Ian recovery efforts

B. Keith Councell is a beekeeper stripped of his bees – 2,800 of them unfold throughout his farms in Arcadia, Cape Coral, Pine Island and Fort Myers. 

His honeybees have been among the many 400,000 Florida bee colonies in Hurricane Ian’s path in September.

Ian decimated 100,000 complete hives, which have been toppled and drowned in 12-foot storm surges as excessive as eight beehives. The state’s surviving bees have been left ravenous from the storm’s destruction of foliage, the bees’ supply of power and protein. 

Deprived of bees, feed and tools, beekeepers discovered aid amongst themselves. 

“No one complained. No one said a bad thing,” mentioned Florida State Beekeepers Association President John Coldwell. 

Men, ladies and youngsters, he mentioned, simply acquired again to work. 

To hold their remaining bees alive, beekeepers has to complement the lack of plant nectar and pollen. 

The affiliation collaborated with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) to solicit nonprofit assist, mentioned Amy Vu, IFAS program extension agent in apiculture. 

Greater Good Charities, a world nonprofit, distributed 508,800 kilos of syrup and 96,900 kilos of pollen to over 100 beekeepers throughout occasions in Arcadia, Fort Myers and Winter Haven. 

National beekeeping provider Mann Lake Bee Ag & Supply coordinated logistics, offering syrup, tools and the distribution website for the Winter Haven donation occasion. 

“Everybody put the business on the back burner and the compassion on the front,” Coldwell mentioned.

Mann Lake’s opponents, Dadant & Sons Inc. and South Florida Bee Supplies LLC, additionally donated merchandise in Winter Haven, in keeping with Coldwell.

The recovery efforts reunited beekeepers who hadn’t spoken in a long time. 

Councell, 49, mentioned he obtained calls from beekeepers he knew in his 20s, whom he hadn’t talked to in 20 years.

“We saw a reconnection of the commercial beekeeping operation that Florida hasn’t seen in 25, probably 30 years,” Coldwell mentioned. 

“And the camaraderie and the conversation was just — it was spectacular.”

Eli Mendes, beekeeper and proprietor of Tropic Trailer, advised Central Florida Ag News he misplaced 500 of his 5,000 hives. 

That didn’t cease him from shutting his enterprise down to maneuver supplies and supply the distribution website for the Fort Myers donation occasion, Coldwell mentioned. 

Mendes reached out to beekeepers like Michael and Tammy Sadler, co-owners of Bee-Haven Honey Farm Inc., to evaluate their wants and coordinate aid.  

“It was a grassroots effort that started with a phone call,” Tammy Sadler mentioned. 

The Sadlers obtained 12,000 kilos of liquid feed and a pair of,000 kilos of pollen on the Winter Haven donation occasion. They’ve since exhausted the liquid feed and utilized the pollen to 1,400 of their hives. 

The couple misplaced 140 hives and 80 barrels of honey in the hurricane – $120,000 misplaced in honey gross sales alone.

Bees usually produce surplus honey from September to December, bolstering their inhabitants because of the abundance of nectar from the Brazilian peppertree. 

Hurricane Ian hit through the shrub’s peak bloom. 

Flooded forage and crushed colonies will power beekeepers to play catch-up for the following yr.

“Our overall number [of bees] going into next year is going to be down,” Michael Sadler defined. “Everyone’s going to be starting the year off behind.” 

For Councell, the yr received’t begin in any respect. 

He predicted he’ll undergo a two- to three-year hole earlier than his enterprise returns to its pre-Ian state. 

“Since the hurricane, I haven’t made one dollar,” he mentioned. 

Councell’s essential problem isn’t the shortage of pollen – it’s his lack of pollinators. 

The variety of bees he misplaced prevents him from doing his typical pollination this yr, he mentioned. 

“Some of us just need bees.” 

At one in all his Pine Island retailers, simply three hives, two phone poles and a wall stay standing. 

The storm decreased his extraction tools to scraps. It tore half of the shingles off of the roof of his house, leaking rain inside and forcing his household to maneuver to a camper.

But he has his daughters and his well being, he mentioned. And his truck.

When two beekeepers had no method to safe syrup on the Arcadia donation occasion, Councell drove it to them. 

“For me, it was better to help out some of my friends that have bees to get the supplies they needed.” 

Anyone wishing to help recovering beekeepers can donate to the GoFundMe created by the Florida State Beekeepers Association.