Bees like bananas. Taken in happier times a couple months ago.
About half the honey bees are dead at Bee Heaven Farm, according to Miguel Bode, the beekeeper. He checked his hives after the last freeze and again this past weekend. The bottom of the hives had a layer about an inch thick of dead bees, and there were plenty more dead bees outside the hive entrances. And hives he keeps down the road at Paradise Farms also suffered casualties, but not quite as many, and bees there were more active.
Without a doubt, Miguel suspects pesticide spraying [in the mass casualties in one hive]. No telling where it occurred, because a bee can range as far as a mile from the hive in its search for food. When a bee brings back contaminated pollen to the hive, it will get distributed to the other bees, which will also sicken and die.
Miguel was surprised by the huge quantity of deaths because the hives were in decent shape before the cold weather rolled in. The bulk of his hives, which he keeps in the suburbs, remain in good condition.
It’s not likely that it was the cold that caused the mass die off. Miguel pointed out that bees which live Up North make it through much harsher winters than ours without significant problems. Bees can survive cold weather. When the temperatures drop, the bees inside the hive cluster into a ball, and vibrate the muscles of their wings to generate heat to stay warm. The temperature inside the cluster is about 90 degrees. The bees rotate from the warm inside of the cluster to the cooler outside, so that all can get warm. [But on the other hand, if the bees didn’t have enough food to make it though the abnormally long cold spell, they could have very well been affected by the cold, Miguel told me on Jan 30th.]
So, because the bees have been diminished, it doesn’t look like there will be much avocado honey this next season. The trees are putting out buds and will start blooming in a couple weeks. By the time the next generation of bees is old enough to go out and forage (about six weeks from now), the blooming season might be past its peak. There’s also a chance there may not be as many avocados this summer. [All of this is might and maybe, because mother nature doesn’t work on an exact schedule. A lot of variables are involved.]
This incident is all the more reason why Miguel is searching for that special yard somewhere in the suburbs where he can move his bees. (There isn’t as much mass spraying of pesticides there.) If you have a big yard and love bees and honey, contact him at beemyhoneymiami(at)yahoo.com for the details of the deal.
Redland Rambles 
Oh no!!!! I hate hearing this. Esp. since I’m going out of town and was looking forward to at least getting my honey share upon return. DRAT! I’ll think of someone with a yard…..
This situation may or may not affect the honey shares. Will check with Margie on Friday when I go to photograph the share. There are still some bottles in reserve in the barn. Will venture a guess that the honey you’re getting is from earlier in the season, when the bees were still plentiful and productive. It takes some time to get honey from the hive to the bottle. (Will ask Miguel what that process is, to blog about it at a later date.)
Marian I just put out a plea on my FB page for a yard for Miguel with a link to this post. You don’t know how much I hate hearing this!
The honey we are getting now is from last season. It takes the bees some time to make the comb and deposit the honey. Then Miguel comes to harvest. So depending on how the bee population thrives and what’s blooming when, there may be very little avocado honey for next season.
Marian, I might have two yards for Miguel! I will email you info! yay!
Laura, you rock! Got your email, and reminded Miguel to call Sandee and Annie. Hopefully the some of the bees will find a new home. In summer, there’s not that much blooming in farm country, and the bees get hungry. Miguel is revising his opinion on what could have caused the die-off. One hive he thinks might have been affected by pesticide (or something evil like it). The other hives might have been affected by the extreme cold, especially if the bees didn’t have enough food.