Source: Amanda Bryant Culp, NATIONAL ASSOC. OF STATE DEPTS. OF AGRICULTURE, 6/21/16


USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Bee Research Laboratory and Geezer Ridge Farm apiary have begun an unusual partnership that may help honey bees take another step up the survival ladder.

“Usually with science, researchers finish a study and turn the results over to beekeepers to apply; then researchers start on the next experiments and so on,” explains entomologist Jay Evans, research leader of the Beltsville, Maryland lab and one of the USDA’s pioneers in bee health science.

This time, the Bee Research Lab is studying the success Geezer Ridge Farm in Hedgesville, West Virginia, has had improving honey bee health after applying USDA research results.

Last winter, beekeepers Cheryl and Ed Forney lost only 4 percent of their bee colonies compared to the national average of 30 percent.

“We believe strongly in science-based beekeeping. It’s the Bee Research Lab—some of the most talented and published researchers in the country—that helped us get our colonies as healthy as they are now. From their (ARS’) information, we’ve adapted management strategies and bred bees that are tailored to the Mid-Atlantic’s climate,” Ed Forney said.

To see if this success is scientifically repeatable, Geezer Ridge Farm and the ARS Bee Research Lab are exchanging colonies. Forty USDA hives have already taken up residence in West Virginia and another 80 may join them to see if they will survive the 2016-2017 winter in better condition under Geezer Ridge Farm management.