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    Beekeepers Lament

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    John Miller is a fourth generation beekeeper who owns Miller Honey Farms and operates around 17,000 beehives. He migrates his bee colonies throughout California, Idaho, Washington and North Dakota to pollinate crops. The book follows Miller through a year in his beekeeping activities and gives historical context on the development of the beekeeping industry. It discusses many issues currently facing bees and beekeepers, such as mites, pesticides and colony collapse disorder, and how beekeepers must constantly adapt to increasing losses.

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    Beekeepers Lament

    Uploaded by

    api-564011299
    209 views15 pages
    John Miller is a fourth generation beekeeper who owns Miller Honey Farms and operates around 17,000 beehives. He migrates his bee colonies throughout California, Idaho, Washington and North Dakota to pollinate crops. The book follows Miller through a year in his beekeeping activities and gives historical context on the development of the beekeeping industry. It discusses many issues currently facing bees and beekeepers, such as mites, pesticides and colony collapse disorder, and how beekeepers must constantly adapt to increasing losses.

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    John Miller is a fourth generation beekeeper who owns Miller Honey Farms and operates around 17,000 beehives. He migrates his bee colonies throughout California, Idaho, Washington and North Dakota to pollinate crops. The book follows Miller through a year in his beekeeping activities and gives historical context on the development of the beekeeping industry. It discusses many issues currently facing bees and beekeepers, such as mites, pesticides and colony collapse disorder, and how beekeepers must constantly adapt to increasing losses.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    209 views15 pages

    Beekeepers Lament

    Uploaded by

    api-564011299
    John Miller is a fourth generation beekeeper who owns Miller Honey Farms and operates around 17,000 beehives. He migrates his bee colonies throughout California, Idaho, Washington and North Dakota to pollinate crops. The book follows Miller through a year in his beekeeping activities and gives historical context on the development of the beekeeping industry. It discusses many issues currently facing bees and beekeepers, such as mites, pesticides and colony collapse disorder, and how beekeepers must constantly adapt to increasing losses.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    You are on page 1of 15

    Beekeeper’s Lament:

    How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America
    Introductions
    Arman Angeles

    • 3rd Year Neuroscience Major


    • Connersville, IN
    Esther Hughes

    • 5th Year Environmental Engineering


    Alex Madzia
    5th Year majoring in Biomedical Engineering
    Griffin Miller

    • 1st year Mechanical Engineering Major


    Overview

    • The book starts with an introduction to beekeeper John Miller, who is


    very different from what most would imagine a beekeeper to be.
    • The author follows John Miller throughout his beekeeping activities
    throughout the year
    • Traveling pollination, breeding, honey harvesting
    • Gives historical context about beekeeping & Langstroth's findings
    • Langstroth invented the modern hive, and faced similar challenges to the ones
    beekeepers face today (disease, swarming, etc)
    • Talks about the many developing economic, ecological, and scientific
    issues facing bees and beekeeping
    • The book personalizes the bee problem by introducing many people who
    have a stake in the issue (John Miller, his beekeeper friends, his
    employees & family)
    About John Miller

    • 4th Generation Beekeeper


    • Owner of Miller Honey
    Farms
    • Has ~ 17,000 beehives
    • Typically migrates his bees
    throughout California,
    Idaho, Washington and
    California
    • Considers himself more
    business-oriented than
    many other beekeepers
    A Look Into John Miller's Year

    • Where are the bees (and John Miller)?


    • February-March: The bees begin the year pollinating in the almond, plum,
    and cherry orchards of Northern and Central California
    • April-June: Half of the bees stay in California while the other half travel to
    Washington state pollinating apple orchards
    • July-October: When things start to get dry in California, John and his bees
    travel by semi-truck to North Dakota where the bees continue making honey
    throughout the summer. John harvests honey.
    • November-January: The bees spend the winter dormant in North Dakota
    preparing for the big pollinating season ahead
    The Beekeeping Community

    • Close-knit, but not without conflict


    • Different regions have different beekeeping reputations. California
    beekeepers dislike Florida beekeepers and their strategies, while Florida
    beekeepers feel the same about California beekeepers.
    • Rule (and law in some states) to stay on your own territory and away
    from other beekeepers. During almond season, this rule gets
    broken quite often.
    • Bee theft is also not uncommon during pollination season, with
    thefts going back and forth between keepers.
    • Good things coming out of the community too, like beekeepers working
    with research universities to try and track down the cause of CCD.
    History of Beekeeping in the U.S.

    • Key innovations in the mid 1800s transformed beekeeping from a hobby


    to an industry (Langstroth hive, premade honeycombs, honey extractor)
    • N.E. Miller, John's great-grandfather, pioneered migratory beekeeping to
    maximize honey production
    • Beekeeping promoted for disfigured and shell-shocked WWI veterans
    because they could work on their own
    • Almond boom has reshaped migratory beekeeping industry (can charge
    $210/hive)
    • Beekeepers have had to adapt to yearly losses that would have seemed
    unimaginable 20 years ago (10% used to be bad, now 20% is good
    Issues Facing Bees/Beekeepers

    • Varroa Mites
    • CCD
    • Insecticides/Pesticides
    • Honey market value
    • Competition
    between beekeepers
    • Lack of interest in
    beekeeping
    • Weather/Climate Change
    Provocative Quotes

    • "Bee guys are not reasonable people."


    • "It took seven or eight generations – two or three years, countless
    stings, and lots of packages from Pat Heitkam and the Koehnens –
    to restore Miller's bloodlines to something close to their original
    benevolent slate."
    • "There are seventy thousand farmers producing sixty percent of
    the nation's crops, only 6 percent are under the age of thirty-five."
    • "In a solitary state, a single bee is almost as helpless as a new-
    born child."
    John Miller Quotes

    • "If he weren't a beekeeper, he'd be a mortician, with a 'black suit


    and a synthetic smile.'"
    • "Miller had set himself the modest goal of 'total global domination'
    of the beekeeping industry."
    • "A 'fat, bald guy,' as he likes to describe himself."
    • "Honey bees are free-flying insects, and though a beekeeper may
    provide habitation, shelter, or equipment to house them, the
    beekeeper owns the equipment but not the bees."
    Significant Themes/Takeaways

    • Comparison of humans to bees/bees to humans


    • "Small towns like Gackle are like beehives. They rely on a fine-tuned social
    balance that is, if not fragile, then at least fixed, yielding little."
    • Many struggles that bees (and beekeepers) are facing
    • Short term success vs. Long term sustainability
    • E.g., Almond demand and monoculture in California
    • Importance of collaboration

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