If you are reading this column shortly after this newspaper hits the street and you have any interest at all in agriculture in Robeson County, I encourage you to change your plans for the evening and get on over to the O. P. Owens Agriculture Center in Lumberton. The Annual Awards and Recognition Banquet will be held tonight at 6:30 p.m., and you are invited.

This banquet is sponsored by the Robeson County Crop Promotion Association to recognize those individuals in the county who have made significant contributions to agriculture during the past year and to recognize the local, regional, and state yield contest winners for the major commodities that are produced in the county. You will be both pleased and surprised to learn more about what has happened in the county related to agriculture during the past year.

The featured speakers for this banquet will be Chancellor Jim Oblinger, the new Chancellor of North Carolina State University, and Dean Johnny Wynne, the Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at NCSU. Special guests will include Congressman Mike McIntyre and Senator David Weinstein.

If you are reading this column after finishing dinner, it is too late to get to the banquet, but please watch this newspaper during the next few days for more information about those receiving awards and recognition at this banquet. You can also go to our homepage at www.ces.ncsu.edu/robeson for all the details. If you happen to run into any of those who were recognized, please make a point to congratulate them and thank them for all the hard work they do every day to produce the food you enjoy.

Now let me change directions. How familiar are you with honeybees? Did you know that honeybees and the products they produce, such as honey, pollen, and bees wax, account for approximately $10 million income annually for commercial and hobby beekeepers in North Carolina?

But did you know this is not the most important value of honeybees to our state's economy? Honeybees are responsible for pollinating many of the food crops you enjoy, such as cucumbers, strawberries, blueberries, melons, and many others. Without honeybees for pollination, the yield of these crops would fall drastically, which would affect both the supply and price. The economic value of honeybee pollination exceeds $100 million annually, just for the state of North Carolina.

Unfortunately, insect and disease pests have caused the honeybee population to decline drastically. It is estimated that 98 percent of the wild honeybee colonies have disappeared in the past 20 years. These pests have affected the managed colonies of honeybees as well. The number of managed colonies in the state have dropped from 180,000 in the early 1980s to less than 100,000 today.

North Carolina State University, with funding from the Golden LEAF Foundation of North Carolina, has developed a cost-share program that is designed to increase the number of active beekeepers and the number of honeybee colonies in the state. This program is open to all residents of North Carolina who are interested in learning the art of beekeeping and are interested in generating additional income for their family.

Applications for this program are available at the Robeson County Center of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Center, which is located at the O. P. Owens Agriculture Center, Highway 72 West, in Lumberton. Applications will be accepted until Friday, February 11.

Those selected to participate in this program will be provided up to two colonies of special honeybees, which have a greater resistance to disease and insect pests, and the equipment necessary to manage them. Additional materials, such as protective clothing, smokers, and other hive equipment, must be purchased by the participant.

The participants will be assigned to an experienced beekeeper mentor to assist in developing their beekeeping skills. They must be a member, or be willing to join, of our local Beekeeper Association, which meets on the second Tuesday of each month at the Extension Center. They must be willing to assist in picking up the grant-funded materials when they are ready and must be willing to participate in educational and research programs related to honeybees.

I have shared information in this column many times about ways to generate additional income for the family. This may be the opportunity for a part-time business that you have been looking for. It does take some time and a little investment in equipment to get into the honeybee business. But there is a very active Beekeepers Association in Robeson County and a lot of good beekeepers who are eager to help you learn what you need to learn. Unless you get into beekeeping in a mighty big way, this is a part-time business that can be done after regular work hours and on weekends.

There is a big demand for honey. In fact, our local beekeepers have a hard time keeping honey on hand. They usually sell all they can gather and have to turn customers away. In addition, beekeepers rent their hives to local vegetable producers to help pollinate their crops, so they are receiving income both from rentals and the sell of honey.

If you want more information about this beekeeping cost-share program, please call us at 910-671-3276. You are always welcome to join our local beekeepers for their monthly meeting.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 6/8/05