Fri, Nov 21 2008
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Published August 04, 2008 02:32 pm - Steve Meador is not a typical beekeeper. Keeper tries to ‘build’ a better bee By GINA KINSLOW Glasgow Daily Times FOUNTAIN RUN — Steve Meador is not a typical beekeeper.
In fact, he has taken normal beekeeping and kicked it up a notch by conducting laboratory research on honeybees. Meador became a beekeeper about nine years ago when a friend at work, who was also a beekeeper, spurred his interest in it. He started out with two hives and shortly thereafter he ordered three more. “Over the years it’s just kind of grown,” he said. Meador now maintains between 14 and 25 beehives. His research projects over the years have revolved around honeybee diseases and pests, pollen studies, pollen debris and analysis and marketing products made with honey and beeswax, such as lip balm and candles. Meador helped develop the Allen County Beekeepers Association, which has close to 50 members and was created to promote better beekeeping. According to the organization’s Web site, honeybees are not native to the United States. They are European in origin and were brought to North America by the settlers. Honeybees are very important to agriculture, specifically for cross pollination, which is the transfer of pollen from one plant to another. Honeybees pollinate about $10 billion worth of U.S. crops and produce about $150 million worth of honey each year, according to the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service. According to an Associated Press article, the number of honey-producing colonies has dropped from 5 million in the 1940s to 2.5 million currently. In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 to 90 percent of their beehives, a phenomenon that has come to be known as Colony Collapse Disorder. One problem beekeepers are currently dealing with is the infiltration of parasites — the Tracheal mite and the Varroa mite. Tracheal mites live in the air tubes inside bees and make it hard for them to breathe. Varroa mites live in bee colonies and feed on developing bee larvae. Both types of mites attack wild and managed bees, said the UK Cooperative Extension Service. “In 1984 and 1987 Varroa mites and Tracheal mites wiped out all feral honeybee colonies and hit beekeepers’ hives ever since,” Meador said. “It’s a battle every beekeeper faces.” 
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