Enterprise State Hosts Honeybee conference geared toward solving industry problems

Enterprise State Hosts Honeybee conference geared toward solving industry problems

ENTERPRISE, Ala. (WTVY) -While students are on spring break, class is still in session at Enterprise State Community College.

This comes as different partners join forces to solve issues facing the honeybee population.

Honeybees might be small but these mighty insects contribute to a third of the world’s food production.

However, scientists have noted a crisis on the horizon. This year, honeybee colonies could face 70 percent losses due to mite infestations and other factors.

“If they (all honeybees) die today, within 4 years, human beings could start dying off because we couldn’t feed ourselves. Honeybees are critical to our survival. There are many other pollinators, but honeybees by far are the most important,” Richard Woodham, an Apiarist at ESCC, says.

In response, industry leaders are working to find a response.

At Enterprise State, industry professionals from Texas and Missouri are teaching a honeybee insemination class.

The goal? Finding the perfect traits to create a population of honeybees that are fit to survive.

“We know that there are certain traits that honey bees have that we can breed for that are already in there, and it gives them a massive edge on mites and viruses. With this, we can really concentrate it and get that out to beekeepers,” Cory Stevens, A breeding consultant who owns Stevens bee company out of Missouri.

The controlled mating technique taught in this conference will produce queen bees capable of helping themselves against deadly pests, thus strengthening the pollinating bee population.

“It is a very unique skill. There are very few people in the world and the United States that know how to do this,” Adler Salem, with the East Alabama Bee Company, said.

conferences like this with those who have a vested interest in the industry could shape its future.

“Beekeepers are really passionate, and they are getting tired of having these high colony losses. For people to come here and do some of these courses is not easy, but when we start training people, we can make those sustainable long-term changes for the industry that not only support the businesses and beekeepers but support every type of industry that depends on honeybees for pollination and even for consumers,” Garett Slater, an assistant professor and honeybee specialist with Texas A&M, said.

This knowledge and technique from the conference will also be spread to other community colleges and high schools.

“Our hope is to be able to bring this back to the students to be able to learn a new niche in the agricultural market. We have an Ag academy and a great partnership with Enterprise State. Bees are a necessary part of life, so to be able to get our students involved in this at an early age to be able to potentially go on to Auburn to work in this or anywhere else, or to have it as a hobby is a good thing,” Jeremy Knox, the CTE director, Troy-Pike Center for Technology, said.

This new step in bee research marks the enterprise state’s second after opening the state apiary unit diagnostic lab last year.

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