by Jackie Nunnery
Like many farmers this time of year, Todd Trotte is in the process of evaluating how well his farm made it through the winter. For beekeepers like Trotte, that means an early spring inspection to get information on the health of the hive—are the bees active? Is the queen laying eggs? Is there healthy larvae?
That information is vital as beekeepers have continued to struggle with disease, colony collapse disorder and major die-offs. Commercial beekeepers in North Dakota, the nation’s top honey producer according to the USDA, with nearly 40 million pounds of honey annually, have reported losses of 30% to 80% of their colonies this year. There are no definitive answers to these massive die-offs, but the USDA attributes the….
