Climate change makes Winnebago County beekeeper adapt to unreliable weather - WREX.com

Climate change makes Winnebago County beekeeper adapt to unreliable weather | News | wrex.com
13 WREX's Nathan Langley finds beekeepers like Raines Honey Farm find challenges in Illinois' increasingly unpredictable climate.

CHERRY VALLEY, Ill. – There isn't a buzz yards away from a pickup truck with several bee hives stacked on one another. But when you step closer, the hive hums.

"Two thirds of the food we eat, you need beekeepers to pollinate those crops," says Phillip Raines – Raines Honey Farm's head beekeeper.

On Tuesday morning, Raines suits me up for a ride in his red pickup and a meeting. Through the brief journey into Cherry Valley's Valley Orchard, the beekeeper prepares me for the bee-zare confrontation – meeting up to 80,000 bees.

"The bees are able to transfer pollen between the flowers," says Raines. The farm's honeybees aren't at the orchard for honey production. Rather, they provide pollination for the orchard's apple and cherry trees. "The more pollen is transferred, the better looking your fruit. And without the beekeeper to bring bees out to this orchard, there is no fruit."

Raines provides the service to those such as Valley Orchard due to a lack in native pollinators. With his "one hive for every two acres of apple/cherry trees," the bees awake from a morning chill into the day's sweeping sun and warmth.

The United States Department of Agriculture reports honeybees"pollinate $15 billion worth of crops in the United States each year, including more than 130 types of fruits, nuts and vegetables.
13 WREX's Nathaniel Langley gives us a first hand at why bees are so important to keeping our ecosystem stable

However, a changing climate threatens a bee's production and life. Rollercoaster seasons bring unreliable weather: Illinois' winter featured record-breaking warmth as well as a recent killing freeze.

"In Illinois, you can have four seasons all in one day, right? And that's becoming more and more extreme," says the veteran beekeeper – tending the fuzzy insects for nearly three decades.

Smoking the hives – making the bees more lethargic and easier to manage –, Raines pollinates the area's produce in April for the first time.

"Typically we bring bees in between May 5 and May 9 to this orchard," says the head beekeeper. "We've been here for a little over 10 years. And we ended up bringing them in like the 24th of April this year, which is the earliest we've ever brought bees out to any orchard here in Winnebago County."

Honeybees and Valley Orchard's produce share a crucial agricultural relationship. However, a warm winter compelled trees to blossom earlier – before honeybees were prepared. Instead, they were returning from a California winter.
With increasingly harsher and unreliable winters in the Stateline, Raines Honey Farm sells his pollinators to almond and tree producers in California.

With harsher winters in recent years, beekeepers like Raines ship their buzzing creatures across the country. The move protects them as well brings new business to those in the Rockford area such as the Honey Farm.

Moreover, the Golden State relies on honeybees. Almonds, peaches and more utilize honeybees for pollination; Raines sees the export more as a fair trade.

"The almond pollen is a perfect protein for bees to grow on. So they're able to not only survive the winter, but there it helps us with our revenue it because they pay us to pollinate it. And it keeps them alive," says Raines. "And then when we get them back we get nice big strong bees in order to make more bees to produce more honey.

Nevertheless, a disruption in Illinois' seasonal handoff between winter and spring damages a foundational factor in one's grocery store visit.

According to the beekeeper, climate change's "making it tougher... Instead of having the right aged bees at the right time to pollinate an orchard, you might be at 50% of where you need to be. So that means you got to bring more hives out because the bees haven't built up."

The future isn't clear either for the honey farmer. Raines concedes the "jury's still out" for managing the inconsistent climate.

Besides an eye to the future, the head beekeeper prepares for "bee-sy" season. Honey production soon commences as the Edgebrook Farmers Market returns with the warmth.

Raines promotes his honey at Edgebrook – offering the sweet treat, candles, skin care and more. The farmers market runs every Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., May 1 through October 30.

"95% of your dollars stay in the community," says Raines – encouraging the purchase of local honey. "Whereas, if you go to a large box store, that stuff is being shipped in from up to 2000 miles away, and that money leaves our community. So the health of the local community is to help us keep us going."

More information on Raines Honey Farm, including where else the honey is sold, can be found on his website here.