4-18 IAT Popular Bees

 Move over backyard chickens. Here come honeybees. They're an emerging homesteading trend, according to a honeybee expert at Oregon State University. OSU Prof. and researcher Ramesh Sagili says "People are starting to see the importance of bees as pollinators and added that interest in beekeeping has picked up in the wake of news about a national decline in honeybees.

As a result, he helped create the three-part Oregon Master Beekeeper Program, which teaches people how to raise the honey producers, which are crucial pollinators for blueberries, pears, cherries, apples and other crops. Bill Ahaus is the former secretary-treasurer of the Idaho Honey Industry Association and he says that here in Idaho there is also a huge interest in all things honeybee: “There is a bee club in Boise, the Treasure Valley beekeepers club and they are in their 4th or 5th new building for meetings because they are getting bigger and bigger. They must have 300 members now, it has just gone crazy.”

"There's a lot of interest in bees, and we want to satisfy the needs of citizens," said Sagili, a honeybee research specialist with the OSU Extension Service and one of the instructors for the training.