By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Shocked, panicked, saddened and yet determined to rebuild, Florida beekeepers have been navigating the aftermath of multiple hurricanes that have devastated the colonies of hundreds of millions of bees.
Count among them Rein Verbeek, of Verbeeks’ Bees, and Bert Blackburn, of Bert’s Beekeeping, who serve as treasurer and president, respectively, of the Tampa Bay Beekeepers Association, which meets monthly at Hillsborough County Extension in Seffner.
On display at the 2024 Hillsborough County Fair, at the Tampa Bay Beekeepers exhibit, protective gear for beekeepers
Tampa Bay Beekeepers Association President Bert Blackburn, left, and Rein Verbeek, treasurer, at the 2024 Hillsborough County Fair
“I was standing in water, and my heart just sank,” Verbeek said, about his first view after Hurricane Milton, on his property in Dover, where his flooded beehives stood 16 to 24 inches off the ground. “I was happy my family was okay, and that the house, for the most part, was okay. But to see your bees like that, it’s horrible.”
Blackburn said his bee colonies made it through hurricanes Debby and Helene, no problem, because after Hurricane Ian in 2017, he knew to raise up his beehive boxes.
“But with Milton, the rain was so bad, it was just pure flooding,” said Blackburn, who visited his two fields for beekeeping the morning after Milton’s strike. “It was worrisome when I saw the first yard,” Blackburn said. “When I went to the second yard, it was shocking. I went out not expecting any problem, just to check to make sure the lids hadn’t blown off the hives, and I found them underwater.”
As for the financial loss, “I don’t even want to think about it,” Blackburn said, noting that he has been phasing out the family business in automotive chemical sales to build his commercial beekeeping business, which includes work in Wimauma and Plant City to help pollinate blueberry farms.
“There’s roughly 60,000 bees per hive and I lost around 150 hives,” Blackburn said. Before Milton, set to go into the new year with 300 hives, Blackburn said he “bought a Bobcat and I bought a truck so I could move 100 hives at one time.” He said he’s left now with “a Bobcat payment and no bees to rent out.”
Verbeek said his Hurricane Milton losses were formidable as well. “I’ve lived 25 years in my location, and I’ve never had water come this high into my yard,” said Verbeek, who with Ani Verbeek, sells raw honey. “I had 46 hives, and I lost 40, although one colony swarmed into an empty box that I had sitting around.”
The colony is comprised of one queen bee with her worker bees, who in a hive structure use wax to build combs essential for survival and productivity. “We call a colony anything that’s in a single structure, whether it’s one box, two boxes or three boxes on top of each other,” Verbeek said. “Together, that becomes a hive.”
Verbeek said he has been helping the Florida State Beekeepers Association keep track of the number of hives lost from inclement weather. According to Verbeek, that amounts to 148, 2,800 and 3,900 hives lost, respectively, from hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton, which struck Florida in August, September and October.
“These were the winter bees that were going to be used for pollination in the spring,” Verbeek said. For commercial beekeepers, that means losing their income both from pollination and the honey they sell.
Blackburn said some disaster aid is available, which he said amounts to $129 per feedbox, through the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP), administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA). The aid is for producers who suffer losses from specific adverse conditions not covered by other U.S. Department of Agriculture (USA) disaster assistance programs.
While the aid will not cover the entirety of his losses and rebuilding costs, Blackburn said that will not deter him from commercial beekeeping.
Blackburn said he started beekeeping in 2008, with a passion to ensure his kids ate natural food. And that includes ice cream, he added, which without the bees pollinating the grass that cows eat, there would be no milk to make ice cream.
Then, he saw a video about colony collapse disorder, which is the sudden die-off of honey bee colonies, and beekeeping for him “became both a mission and an obsession,” Blackburn said.
“When I got started, I never wanted more than three hives, but now I’m looking at 300,” Blackburn said. “Without the bees, our food supply would diminish greatly.”
Linda Chion Kenney Photos
Seen here with an active bee colony at the 2024 Hillsborough County Fair is Bert Blackburn, left, and Rein Verbeek.
According to USDA officials, “one-third of our diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination.” Moreover, “pollination is vital to our survival and the existence of nearly all ecosystems on earth.”
As for Verbeek, his life as a honeybee enthusiast started after his daughter at college, working in an apiary, sent him a pamphlet on the topic, which led to his association with the Tampa Bay Beekeepers Association.
There, Verbeek met Blackburn, who “on a field day showed me how you actually can go into a hive and see how the individual bees work together,” Verbeek said. “I was hooked, and 22 days later I had my own bees.”
For more on association meetings, field days and resources, visit www.tampabaybeekeepersassociation.com/. Likewise, visit the state association at www.flstatebeekeepers.org/. To help support the association’s work, consider purchasing a pre-sale “Save the Bees” specialty license plate. Visit www.savethebeesplate.com/.
For ELAP financial aid, visit www.fsa.usda.gov/, and search for ELAP.