In the words of Towner beekeeper Daniel Gunter, “Bees are fascinating little bugs!”

Will Nissen, who has been working with bees for the last 25 years, said when he and his wife, Peggy, started 5-Star Honey, they had a lot of learning to do. The couple operate their Minot business with the help of local workers and some workers who come from Nicaragua for the busy season. The operation has typically eight to 11 people who work across the nine counties used by the bees to make their honey.

“Two things people know about bees – they sting and they make honey,” Nissen said. He said it’s better public relations to keep them out of sight and out of mind. It’s common for beekeepers to place their hives farther into property, away from the highway.

“There is plenty of space for bees and people both,” said Gunter, who runs Gunter Honey, Inc. “Keepers need to educate landowners to allow them to place bees deeper into land and further into properties to protect people’s windshields and motorcycle riders from coming into contact with bees at highway speeds. Beekeepers also need to be respectful of land owners and get permission to place bee boxes where they would like to.”

Active bee hives are shown during a tour at 5 Star Honey.

Bees are not aggressive when approached correctly, according to the Nissens. Will Nissen explained much of bees’ behavior toward humans is driven by the temperament of the human during the encounter.

As he stood near hives with his wife, bees flew around and crawled on them but never stung them. Slow, steady movements, and a calm, quiet approach is the way to stay on the good side of the colony, Nissen said.

“If you get jumpy around them, they get real fidgety. The main thing is to be gentle,” Nissen said.

When speaking of so-called “killer bees,” people are often unknowingly referring to africanized bees. Africanized bees are hybrids between an invasive species originating in Africa and the European honey bees that people are familiar with.

These africanized bees do not make as much honey and cannot handle colder climates, so they aren’t prevalent here. As Gunter explains, africanized bees are adapted to being more active throughout the year and have a higher tendency to swarm and travel. European honey bees are more “winterized” and store more honey to survive through the year.

Last season’s comb remains in the frame at 5-Star Honey. This comb will be cleaned out by bees for use again this year.

The africanized bees still make honey, but not as much and cannot handle colder climates. The africanized bees are also in general “more crabby.” The beekeepers have to suit up a little tighter when dealing with them because they are generally more defensive of the hive.

This is not a problem in North Dakota, but it is a problem in places such as Texas and Southern California, where many keepers winter their bees. According to Nissen, African bees are docile, but it is when they were introduced to South America and began to cross with indigenous bees that they became more aggressive.

According to Gunter, the problems the beekeeping industry faces in North Dakota are air quality, mites and agricultural spraying.

“It’s a struggle to keep them healthy with mites,” he said. Mites feed on bees much the same way ticks do humans, and the larvae are much more susceptible to predation.

One way keepers check for mites is by inspecting the “brood,” or the place where the bees raise their young. The mites lay eggs in the hive among the bee eggs, and a heavy infestation can cause birth defects with the bees, such as weakness and wing deformities. Too heavy of an infestation will kill a hive.

Ben Pifher/MDN

“It’s hard to kill a bug on a bug,” said Gunter.

Another pest that plagues the bees are hive beetles, which feed on pollen, honey and dead bees.

Agricultural spraying wasn’t as prevalent in the past, but with evolution in farming technology, as well as rising demand for crops, there is an increasing need for increasing yields. Because of many factors, spraying pesticides has become imperative in farming, but if bees are considered in agricultural practices, hives can be saved.

Gunter said if the spraying is done in the morning before the bees wake up, it is not as big of a problem. Spray pilots will often call farmers and let them know ahead of time when spraying is planned so the beekeepers have an opportunity to move the hives. If farmers keep open communication with beekeepers who lease their land before spraying, hives can be saved from the lethal chemicals.

Nissen’s’ bees spend their winter pollinating in California, then are moved back to North Dakota to produce honey. During pollination, farmers pay for about 2.5 million colonies of high quality bees from various areas to be placed on their property to pollinate crops such as almonds, cherries, kiwis and blueberries.

At market price, honey is between $1 and $2 per pound, and a colony can cost as much as $300, making bees a valuable commodity. Beekeepers face theft when hiring out their hives to help pollinate crops elsewhere. Even though keepers brand their beeboxes to make them distinct, sometimes thieves are caught with trailer loads of stolen hives. Nissen has faced this issue and has been in a lawsuit in the past. To combat this, he brands his boxes, uses trailcams typically used by hunters and employs live GPS trackers in his bee boxes.

The size of the stacks of bee boxes seen in fields depends on the number of bees in each. The beekeepers will add boxes when the current stack is at capacity, or if there are fewer bees in the hive, they will take a box away. Doing this ensures the bees are comfortable in their home and will help prevent what is known as “swarming,” during which bees leave the hive in search of a new home. If a swarm of bees is found, local beekeepers can collect them safely and relocate them to a safe home.

Bees are tidy insects. They each have a job to do and they work to make sure the hive is clean. They sweep out their dead, clean up old honeycomb, groom themselves and each other and do other chores to keep the hive happy and healthy. This helps prevent disease, but beekeepers must stop by every two weeks or so to check the health of the hive and medicate the bees against mites and other ailments, if needed.

According to Nissen, when he started keeping bees, there was one disease that could threaten his hives. Now he deals with around 24.

Loss of habitat also affects bees in North Dakota. The bees have lost significant variety in their diet due to agriculture.

Bees do not eat just honey. They require pollen for proper nutrition, so beekeepers often supplement their bees with pollen patties to help keep them healthy in the early months of summer.

Beekeepers are excellent networkers, Nissen said, and when there is a problem affecting one keeper, they have peers to reach out to for help. It is critical that beekeepers keep in touch to identify problems and find fixes together. Regarding what the general public can do to help ensure bees have proper nutrition, Nissen said, “Don’t spray the dandelions! Watch what you’re spraying and buy bee friendly herbicides and pesticides.”

At this time of year, the bees are hard at work producing honey, and in a few weeks, the keepers will be rewarded with the fruit of their and their insect partners’ labor. Each hive can potentially produce up to 100 pounds of honey per year. That honey will be extracted, ensuring the bees have enough for themselves to stay fed, and sent on its way to consumers.