By Amy Eddings
The phrase "busy as a bee" applies not only to bees this time of year, when flowering plants are in bloom, but to beekeepers, too. Just ask Michael Lablonski of Mike's Bees and Honey of neighboring Forest.
"I've probably got 40 to 50 orders for queens going back to last year that I've got to fill," he told the Ada Icon. The long, cool spring, he said, has meant sluggish hives, and that, in turn, has meant fewer bees, fewer queens and less honey. This week's warm weather has been welcomed by bee and beekeeper alike.
"It's absolutely fabulous that things are finally going better," he said.
Lablonski keeps and breeds bees. He builds and sells hives. He's also an auto mechanic and a wood worker. He's a former hive inspector. The lawn of his brick home in Forest, in Hardin County, is peppered with brightly painted wooden hives housing about 100 colonies. He was painting one of the hives when we called.
“I’m that little geeky kid, sitting on a stump,” said the divorced 56-year old Lablonski. “Ask me how to get a girl, I couldn’t tell you. But I can tear a tractor engine apart and put it back together again, and then do something as delicate as inseminate a bee.”
His grandfather got him interested in bees when he was 9 years old. He started his first colony when he was 13. He is one of 4,838 registered beekeepers in Ohio and their hobby has grown in importance. That’s because there’s been an alarming decline in the country’s honey bee population. Fewer bees means fewer pollinators for crops such as apples, cantaloupes, cucumber and almonds. The global economic cost of bee decline has been estimated to be as high as $5.7 billion per year, according to Natural Resources Defense Council.
Researchers say bee loss is due to four factors: global warming, which has caused flowers to bloom earlier or later than usual; pesticides; pests and pathogens, like varroa mites and foulbrood; and habitat loss, which leads to malnourished bees. Since 2006, nearly one-third of all honey bee colonies in the United States has vanished, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Ohio’s beekeepers are feeling the strain. Even though last winter was a mild one, Ohio’s apiaries lost 50.07 percent of their bees, according to a survey by the Bee Informed Partnership. The typical winter loss is around 15 percent to 20 percent.
Some people, alarmed at the plight of the honey bee, appear to be taking action by raising them. Beekeepers report an uptick in interest. St Marys beekeeper Mike Doseck, president of the Great Grand Lake Beekeepers Association, said membership has grown from 20 to 70. And participation in the group’s introductory beekeeping class has doubled. He said other beekeeping clubs are experiencing similar growth.
Lablonski said he can’t keep up with demand for queens, the heart of every hive. He’s sold out through mid-June, and is now taking orders for late summer.
Lablonski prides himself on breeding docile bees. He performed his beekeeping duties in just a short-sleeved T-shirt and sweatpants.
He slowly lifted the lid of a hive. Bees drifted out. Some landed on his shirt and bare forearm. Lablonski paid them no mind. He worked slowly and deliberately.
“You don’t want to roll or crush your queen, or have her fall out and fly away,” he said, gently lifting up a frame of honey comb. “Then you’d need to get a new queen and that can get expensive.”
A starter package of three pounds of bees and a mated queen, delivered through the mail, can run around $100 to $150. A pine hive box with frames, a landing board and lid costs around $150. Then there’s the gear: hive tools, honey filters and extractors, honey knives, beetle screens, mouse guards and supplements to help battle mites and disease.
Beekeeping is not a rainy-day hobby, though it can be presented that way. “Simple step-by-step instructions!” promises one website, which sells a “quick start” beekeeping kit. But an afternoon with Lablonski shows it’s not quick and easy at all.
“One of most important things to do is read,” said Lablonski. “Get into a beekeeping club. Immerse yourself.”
Just like this self-described geeky kid did nearly 50 years ago. In the process, Mike Lablonski found a passion that has not only shaped his life but is shaping the future for Ohio’s honey bees.
