By NANCY TULLIS

By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
NEW WATERFORD -- Honey prices are up these days. That's good news if you're a beekeeper, but bad news if you're a bee.
Local beekeeper Bruce Deafenbaugh said honey prices are high because the bee population is down.
With a smaller population of bees available, less honey is produced, he explained. The price of honey is up because the supply is low, he said.
A lot of honey bees were killed during the winter. They also died during the spring and summer because of the excessive rain and because of below-normal spring and summer temperatures.
A Wall Street Journal report stated honey prices are up to as much as $1.75 per pound, compared with an average of about 50 cents per pound for several decades.
Deafenbaugh said the price will soon begin to drop, however, because the hives are replenishing and bees are now pollenating fall plants such as pumpkins.
Prices paid bulk producers in the Mahoning Valley are about $1.50 per pound. The more hives a beekeeper has, the lower the price, he said.
Deafenbaugh said most of the beekeepers in the Columbiana and Mahoning County Beekeepers Association operate as he does, with the bee business a hobby.
Canfield Fair
He has 10 hives with about 80,000 bees to a hive. He will sell his honey at the Canfield Fair for $3 per pound.
Deafenbaugh said beekeepers were selling the honey for less than that, but fair board members told them they were giving it away.
Besides honey, the club members at the fair will offer honey candy in different flavors, honey in a straw, beeswax candles and blocks of beeswax. Members also have compiled a cookbook of honey recipes.
Deafenbaugh said members will have beehives on display at the fairgrounds' hay and grain building.
The members are also preparing entries to be judged at the fair. They can be judged on the quality of their honey, honeycombs and other bee products, he said.
Fighting mites
Deafenbaugh said he and his wife, Andrea, work with the bees. She helps with the honey production and wax molds, but also will handle the bee boxes and help treat the bees for diseases.
A mixture of cooking oil and sugar, for example, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration and helps protect the bees from parasitic mites.
Deafenbaugh said beekeepers are learning how to manage mites, but for years the pests severely inhibited honey production.
The mites attach themselves to the bees and when the bees are flying around, they grow tired because of the extra weight, he said.
Deafenbaugh mixes cooking oil and sugar in a blender and when the bees eat the sugar, they are coated in the cooking oil. They like the sugar, the oil doesn't hurt them, but the oil prevents the mites from attaching themselves to the bees, he said.
Effect of terrorism
Deafenbaugh said not only has the bee population been hurt by parasites and the weather, the threat of terrorism has also harmed the industry because of the increased security as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The U.S. Postal Service did not allow shipment of bees for a while because of security concerns about packages.
He said beekeepers can build hive populations either by ordering bees from a producer or by capturing a swarm of bees.
When ordering bees from a producer, the beekeeper places an order with a company, usually located in the southern U.S. states such as Georgia or South Carolina.
The producer will isolate a queen bee in a small screened box and then place that in a beebox. The producer than randomly selects bees from his hives and shakes them into the box with the queen. By weighing the box, the producer can tell when the number of bees are close to what the beekeeper wants to order.
The bees are then shipped by the postal service, and the local post office will notify the beekeeper that the bees have arrived and are ready for pickup, Deafenbaugh said.
tullis@vindy.com