To be or not to be a beekeeper is a difficult decision, says Sanpete County's official bee inspector, paraphrasing a famous Shakespearean quotation.
R. Lynn Nielson, a retired federal official and part-time beekeeper with two apiaries - one in the Black Hills and another at Christianburg for a total of 40 colonies - has just completed his yearly count.He inspected 49 apiaries - most of them in isolated locations but near alfalfa fields - inhabited by 1,871 colonies. Seven colonies had to be destroyed because of disease.
"Disease can be devastating to a honey bee colony," Nielson said. During his tour he was directed to an apparently abandoned apiary that contained 12 colonies.
"The bees - around a million willing workers - were dead in their boxes from disease," Nielson said. "Treatment is expensive and somewhat ineffective. The diseased colony is usually destroyed by burning."
As Sanpete's official bee man, Nielson is called on for advice. One family, for example, received a package of bees as a present and needed help in making a home for them.
Another family that was visited by a swarm of what they thought were bees was told that they were not honeymakers but hornets - with longer stingers.
Disease is only one of several principal beekeeper enemies, Nielson said. Loss of habitat, the use of pesticides by farmers and the loss of the federal support money have also hurt.
Robert Graham, Spring City, is now Sanpete's only commercial beekeeper whose main business is bees.
The other beekeepers - including Nielson himself - are hobbyists. For some the income from the bees pays the property tax or the college tuition. Rex Brown, Centerfield, says he keeps a colony because he likes the taste of home-grown honey on his breakfast toast.
"This summer was a bad one for the bee man," said Graham, who has apiaries hidden away in obscure places like Dry Botton,all over Sanpete.
He blames the dearth of pollen on the drought that drastically limited the growth of second and third crop alfalfa. He says he may even have to feed some of his colonies sugar water this winter.
Success as a beekeeper requires both know-how and hard work, Nielson said. And he doesn't recommend beekeeping as a hobby for the back yard. "Try rabbits or pigeons," he says. "Bees don't make good pets."