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Bees play an integral role in pollinating important crops in Nebraska.

July 22, 2022

6 Slides

The honeybee is vital to Nebraska’s agricultural industry. No other insect is more managed or relocated for specific pollination, nor does any other insect pollinate such a wide range of plants.

Honeybees pollinate more than 90 cultivated crops with a combined value of $10 billion annually, according to the Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA). Nebraska crops that are dependent upon bees for pollination include alfalfa, vetch, sweet clover, sunflower and other seed crops.

Many fruit and vegetable crops also benefit from bee pollination, including watermelons, cucumbers, cantaloupe, pumpkins, apples, cherries and pears. Wildflowers that cover woodlands and meadows also depend on honeybee pollination. Plus, they provide honey and wax — products used in many households.

For Megan Vetter, the desire to add honeybees to the farm went beyond the honey that bees provide.

“In 2016, I was home with little kids helping my husband, Curran, on our Vetter family’s fifth-generation farm west of Aurora, Neb.,” she says. “I wanted to diversify, so I planted fruit trees, a vegetable garden, native sunflowers, and even turned a border area into native wildflowers. I researched the benefits of pollinators and found they’re the No. 1 resource for having good gardens.”

All in

Megan wanted to learn all that she could about beehive management before the bee packages arrived. She enrolled in a beginning beekeeping class, offered by Central Community College on the Grand Island campus. “That’s when my hobby started to snowball,” she jokes.

Along with her husband and children, Phoebe and Michael, the family now runs Vetter Bees. They sell local, fresh honey and lotion bars. “Our motto is ‘Happy Bees Make Vetter Honey.’ And the bees — they’re our wild pets,” Megan says.

In 2020, Megan went from beekeeping student to educator, now teaching in the same setting where she learned the basics of beekeeping. “I’m just finishing my second year teaching the beginning beekeeping class at Central Community College, so you could say that I’ve come full circle,” she says.

Today, Megan is president of the Nebraska Beekeepers Association, a nonprofit organization. The group’s aim is to educate beekeepers, large and small, throughout Nebraska. NBA works closely with Great Plains Master Beekeeping, as well as the University of Nebraska Bee Lab, as a resource for educational materials and field training activities.

“Nebraska Beekeepers has a booth at the Nebraska State Fair, selling Nebraska honey, wax products and honey ice cream. The state fair booth is our major fundraiser for the NBA’s youth scholarship,” Megan explains. “Each year, eight to 10 youth are accepted into the program, encouraging young beekeepers to start a new hive. The students build their own hive, participate in field activities and are paired with an experienced beekeeping mentor.”

This yearlong program helps youth have a better understanding of the value of honeybees to the environment and food chain. It has been successful in providing a base for future generations of beekeepers in Nebraska.

On the rise

Craig Romary, NDA environmental programs specialistmonitors BeeCheck for the state — an online mapping service designed for reporting field locations of commercial apiary sites for pesticide applicators. An apiary is a place where bees are kept, sometimes called a bee yard.

Nebraska beekeepers have registered 720 apiaries in BeeCheck. Romary says the actual number of beekeepers is expectantly higher. “Since registration of hives on BeeCheck is voluntary, those numbers likely do not account for all of the state’s beekeepers, including the hobbyists,” he says.

USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service reports 39,000 colonies and more than 1.8 million pounds of honey production in Nebraska last year based on self-reporting producers. The number of beehive colonies reported are on the rise from 2021, which is good news for the state’s most important pollinator.

If you want better yields for your crops, orchards and gardens, Megan recommends planting a variety of forages for the healthy bee. “Perennial fall flowers such as asters and native sunflowers give the bee storage right before winter,” she says. “And in the spring, maple trees offer early nectar and pollen sources. A bee will travel up to 7 miles for food, gathering pollen and nectar. Water sources are also good for healthy bees.

“One in every three bites of food is pollinated by bees,” she adds. "From almond orchards in California to the apple orchards in the Northwest and across the Dakotas, to alfalfa and blueberries in the Upper Midwest, there’s a nationwide circular movement of bees. The best-looking food in the store’s produce department — apples, strawberries, pumpkins — they’re all pollinated by bees and hundreds of smaller pollinators. The impact is great on all persons. We must protect and conserve our pollinators and educate each other about the survival of the bee for all humanity.”

Bees close to home

If you are interested in keeping bees on your property, there are things to consider.

Basic beekeeping is having new, viable queens, feed (natural or artificial), sound equipment and disease-free hives (good medication program or integrated pest management).

“Sometimes that first year can be a tough one,” Megan says, “but I recommend taking a class a year before starting. Beekeeping is a multiyear project and does take time, especially in the fall. Budget for the cost of beekeeping upfront, which could run up to $250-$300 for one hive. Most importantly, join a beekeeping community. It's a good family to be part of.”

For more information on beekeeping and how to get started, visit nebraskabeekeepers.org.

Wortmann writes from Crofton, Neb.

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