Northeastern Oklahoma Honeybee Population Impacted By Winter Weather

Local beekeepers said last month’s storm wiped out honeybee colonies all over the region and now, they are struggling to keep their business going. 

“They didn’t have the energy to maintain their warmth; it’s just sad. I just don’t know any other way to put it," said Jay Ide. 

Ide is just now getting a chance to check on his bee hives for the first time since last month's storm. He said most of the colonies look like the ones he keeps on the Hotel Indigo rooftop in Tulsa. 

“They were all in here, and they all didn’t make it. These were ready to emerge, they simply got too cold," said Ide.

He said last month's winter weather killed nearly 60% of his bee colonies across northeastern Oklahoma.

The OSU Agricultural Extension office said it's the same problem for beekeepers across the region. 

“So, they essentially starve to death because they can’t break that cluster to go to new food and then they run out of energy and freeze," said Olivia Toothman.

Toothman is an OSU Extension Educator. She said bees produce their own heat within the hive, but with last month’s extreme cold for several days in a row, many colonies didn’t survive, including two of her own. 

“For a lot of beekeepers, it’ll be a rebuilding type of year. So, honey production is definitely going to be down because we just don’t have the numbers that we had before to produce that much," said Toothman.

Toothman said honeybees can reproduce quickly and the queen can lay up to 2,500 eggs per day, but it won’t be an easy recovery for beekeepers like Ide. 

“We’ll take this out, we’ll break this down, put bees in it again and those frames of honey that are there, we’ll stick them in and the new bees will eat it and drive on," said Ide.

Ide said if you see bees swarming in your yard building a hive, call your local beekeeper so they can come out, remove it, and take it to one of their protected colonies.