Queen-bee breeders say lack of rain may intensify demand
“We’re kindof the backbone of keeping the bees alive,” said Matt Stayer, a queen bee producer in Shasta County. “We can take one queen andmake thousands out of her.” This time of year, Stayer’s Quality Queens—which Stayer runs with his wife Sara and which raises queen bees in 36 locations in Northern California— typically catches and ships about 1,000 queens a day. As withmost California queen breed- ers, the Stayers join other commercial beekeepers in almond orchards earlier in the year, renting their bees to polli- nate the crop. But in April and May,
they focus on queen production, selling queens to beekeepers throughout the U.S. and Canada. “The demand is so high, we have to turn people down. We can’t produce enoughof them,”Matt Stayer said, adding that his queens are typically presold and he’s “booked tight.” Beekeepers need queens when they divide hives into multiple colonies that have been swelling since February, when the insects collect their first big meal of the winter by pollinating California’s 1.3 million acres of almond trees.
ByChing Lee Warm, sunny spring days have been ideal for beekeepers who produce queen bees, but those beekeepers warn that lack of rain this season will make for a difficult year for the polli- nators to find enough forage to sustain their colonies. If colonies fail due to lack of nutri- tion, more queens will be needed to produce more bees, keeping queen Greenhouse gas inventory shows industries’ roles The latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report from the U.S. Environmental Protect ion Agency of fers what the American Farm Bureau Federation de- scribes as good news for agriculture. The annua l repor t of fers a sec- tor-by-sector emissions inventory. AFBF Economist Shelby Myers said emissions attributed to agriculture re- mained “relatively neutral,” compared to last year. “U.S. agriculture greenhouse gas emissions contribute just 10.2% over- all,” Myers said, noting that that pro- portion compares favorably to other economic sectors, such as transporta- tion (29%), electricity (25%), industry (23%), and commercial and residen- tial (13%). Myer s sa i d the f ind ings re f l ec t cons e r va t i on e f f o r t s by f a rme r s and ranchers. “We’re actively trying to make our footpr int even smal ler,” she said, “converting waste into energy, apply- ing conservation and working-lands programs into our everyday cropping system, and really utilizing the tools at hand to work on things like carbon sequestration.” During the last 70 years, “U.S. farms have nearly tr ipled in product ion, but the amount of resources we put into that—like land, energy and fer- tilizer—have remained nearly stable,” Myers said. As Congress debates climate pol- icy, she said farmers and ranchers should make sure others know about their success. “We’ve been doing such great work over the last 100-plus years in our abil- ity to conserve resources and produce food,” she said, encouraging farmers and ranchers to “talk about the im- provements that we’ve made through innovation and technology, and how it’s contributed to reducing our emis- sions and reducing our overall environ- mental footprint.” AFBFhas collected informationonline about climate-smart farmingpractices, at fb.org/sustainability.
breeders as busy as the bees they work with. Demand for queen bees soars in the spring. April and May represent the highest production months for queen producers, as this is when other com- mercial beekeepers need new queens to replace old ones, try to increase colonies by splitting them and make up for losses they experienced during the winter.
See BEES, Page 16
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April 28, 2021 Ag Alert 3
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