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