As a small boy, Bill Winkler would carry the smoke kettle as his father harvested honey on the family bee farm south of Moody.

His grandfathers gave him his first beehive when he was 16 years old, encouraging him to carry on the family business for the next 58 years.

Jimmy Bartley, 84, works on a bee hive near the Brazos River. Bartley said all area beekeepers have been hurt by the drought.
Rod Aydelotte / Waco Tribune-Herald

But this year’s drought may finish that tradition.

A dry spring and parched summer mean wildflowers are few and bees are fighting for them. As a result, local honey producers say honey production is down about 80 percent from normal years.

Winkler, 74, once had more than 1,500 hives on his farm near Lake Belton, but is now down to 12 and he may get rid of those, too.

“The blooms are so dry, they’re not getting any nectar right now,” Winkler said. “I don’t know how long we can survive.”

The drought is just the latest blow to Texas beekeepers, who have spent recent years fighting increasing problems with pests and diseases. Many have lost beehives to “colony collapse disorder,” a still-mysterious phenomenon that causes bees to suddenly abandon the hive.

Clint Walker III, owner of Walker Honey Farm near Rogers, said he sees commercial beekeepers go out of business every year and this drought may be the last straw for many.

“We’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “This is certainly the lowest crop year since the 1950s, since before I was born.”

Walker’s grandfather started the business in 1930 and now Walker Honey Farm is the largest commercial bee operation in the region, with more than 1,000 hives and statewide distribution.

The honey farm southeast of Temple has honey for sale in more than 100 H-E-B stores.

Bee rotation

Bill Winkler, owner of Winkler Pecan and Honey Farm, looks over some beehives he is selling after scaling back his operation south of Moody. Winkler’s family has had a honey farm for more than a century, but Winkler said this drought may finish it off.
Duane A. Laverty / Waco Tribune-Herald

Walker rotates his bees throughout the area, allowing them to feed on yaupon holly in the early spring and Blackland prairie wildflowers such as Indian blanket and horsemint in late spring. He said his mostly unprocessed honey has more flavor than national commercial brands, which are pasteurized and microfiltered.

Walker said he will survive this drought, but it’s driving his costs up and his profits down.

In a normal year, he harvests 5 gallons per hive, a yield that can double in a good year. This year, the harvest is less than a gallon per hive.

Walker is now feeding his bees a mixture that includes sugars, proteins and minerals. He usually feeds the supplements in the depth of winter, but this is the first time he’s had to feed through the summer.

Honey is the reserve fuel that bees use to get through the winter, and colonies that don’t get supplemental feeding may struggle to survive, Walker said.

“It’s going to be a tough year on wild bees, unless we get some rain,” he said.

Chris Sansone, a San Angelo entomologist with the Texas Agrilife Extension Service, said this has been a difficult year for flowers because rain has been short since last fall. The drought also dried up creeks and other water sources for bees.

Bees can survive droughts and even desert conditions, but their numbers dwindle along with food sources, he said.

“It’s no different from livestock producers selling their cattle in a drought so they have the right amount,” he said.

Honey for sale at the Winkler farm near Lake Belton.
Duane A. Laverty / Waco Tribune-Herald

The good news is that bees, like most insects, can quickly rebuild their populations in good conditions, Sansone said.

“This is the fourth drought in the past 15 years,” he said. “Every time there’s a rebound period and the bee populations come back up.”

He said the bigger, long-term problems are diseases and pests, such as the varroa mite that infests hives.

Fortunately, the Africanized bees that now dominate Texas are more resistant to the mites than the pure European honeybee, Sansone said.

African honeybees, an aggressive subspecies of honeybee, were introduced decades ago to South America and have spread north, interbreeding with European honeybees.

The drought is affecting Greater Waco-area honey production, which is small-scale compared to Walker Honey Farm. Homestead Heritage and World Hunger Relief sell homegrown honey onsite and a Heart of Texas Beekeepers club connects part-time beekeepers.

Weather complaints

Jimmy Bartley of Waco, a retired missionary who belongs to the club, said everyone is struggling with drought.

“All the beekeepers are complaining about that,” Bartley said.

Bill Winkler, 74, has participated in his family’s honey business for 58 years, but the drought has made him think about giving it all up. He once had 1,500 hives on his farm near Lake Belton. He now has only 12.
Duane A. Laverty / Waco Tribune-Herald

The 84-year-old Bartley does bee removals and keeps a few hives at his North Waco house and 10 more in a pecan grove near the Brazos River south of LaSalle Avenue.

This week he removed bees from a Waco house, packed them in a wooden bee box and drove them to the Brazos River site. As he set the hive into position Thursday afternoon, a cloud of bees dive-bombed him, bouncing off his white bee suit while he calmly explained the process.

Bartley said he has had to feed bees gallons of corn syrup to keep them alive through the summer.

“If bees can’t bring in nectar, the queen stops laying, and the hive goes down,” he said.

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

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