Honey Short and Sweet
Cause of local honey shortage hard to pinpoint this year
By KELLY JASPER
Northern Augusta Journal (Harrisonburg, Va.)
September 19, 2005
WEYERS CAVE ─ The phone rings and the machine answers.
It’s an older woman’s voice, soft and sweet as honey, pleading with Rudy Tucker.
“I was just hoping I could drop off some jars for you, Rudy,” she says. She called Tucker, a beekeeper near Weyers Cave, for a little bit of honey. Problem is, he, and most beekeepers around Augusta County, don’t have any.
Tucker listens to the message.
“This year I’ve broken some hearts.
They bring me honey jars, but I can’t ─ no one can ─ fill them,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ll have to call her back later. I always do this year.”
Why the shortage?
Worse still, Tucker said he isn’t even sure why.
Too hot or too dry and nectar dries up. Too cold or too wet and the bees can’t find enough pollen.
And some years, you can do everything right and things still go wrong.
“Who knows,” Tucker said. “There are some problems we can’t pinpoint.”
Historically, Valley beekeepers have had a problem with pests.
“Up until three or four years ago, there were no wild bees,” he said. “They were all devastated by mites.
“They’re like fleas to a dog. They attach on and get to the hive,” Tucker said seated in a wicker chair pulled up to the giant glass arches in his sunroom that overlooks his garden and hives. His dog Jack ─ his “bee dog,” he says ─ sits at his feet.
On his 82-acre farm, the retired professor manages about 12 hives, far fewer than the 30 that once thrived at his home.
At 82 years old, some of the work has gotten too tedious for him but, for the most part, it’s still work he says he loves.
For hours, Tucker can talk about his bees. With hives since 1969, he’s learned, and has to tell, a lot.
He uses that experience to help other beekeepers. As librarian of the Shenandoah Valley Beekeepers Association, Tucker builds and maintains the, club’s book selection.
Every spring, Tucker teaches a bee-keeping course at Blue Ridge Community College. The SVBA provides class textbooks.
“A lot of our club members now have been in that class,”‘ Tucker said. He teaches anywhere from 12 to 36 students, taking them out to his own: bee yard for hands-on experience.
He’s been teaching for eight years now and can’t say for certain when he’ll stop.
“I like it so much,” he said. “It’s just intriguing. You’re very close to nature. It has a lot to do with problem solving.”
‘We’ll Keep Trying’
Putting his problem-solving skills to work, Tucker is investigating methods to encourage local bee populations.
Tucker has stopped medicating his bees for the mites that once devastated local populations.
“Hopefully, they’ll develop through the phenomenon of survival of the fittest,” he said. Tucker has continued developing colonies using the bees that form the strongest colonies. Each colony can have about 60,000 bees, which can produce about 90 pounds of honey.
“By taking queen cells, using those judiciously, purposefully, you develop new colonies,” he said. “In one summer, by next year, that hive can be producing honey.”
For now, Tucker said he’s content to experiment with his hives.
“There are so many things you can do; you’re constantly thinking,” he said. “You’re always learning each time you go into the hive.”
And this year was certainly an eye-opener in itself. “This is the very first year we don’t have honey. I usually sell it right here on this table,” he said pointing across his sunroom.
“But we’ll keep trying. It’s been said that the only year that you think you know everything about bees is the year you start,” Tucker said. “Well, each year, I know less and less.”
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