Inland Mendocino County contributing to beekeepers movement

by Adam Randall for the Ukiah Daily Journal

While beekeeping continues to grow in popularity locally and nationally, several in the inland Mendocino County area have been doing it for years, leading to locally produced products, and further sustaining the overall bee population, as the health of honeybees continues to be an ongoing concern for researchers and agriculturists.

United States Department of Agriculture officials said that in 2015 alone, commercial beekeepers reported losing at least 40 percent of their honeybee colonies. Honeybee pollination is critical in the world’s food chain, according to the USDA. Pollination itself adds $15 billion in value to crops each year.

“Colony Collapse Disorder,” a phenomenon where worker bees disappear from a colony and leave the queen behind, is part of the issue, along with man-made pollution sources, including pesticides, that appear to be affecting 16 percent of the world’s other vertebrate pollinators besides honeybees, according to a study released earlier this year by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Even though there continues to be an influx of beekeepers, this hasn’t stopped the overall decline in commercial bee businesses, which not only produce honey, but other products and services.