Bees aren’t always seen as a welcome guest, but their influence stretches beyond just flowers to much of what we produce and consume every day.

Much of the bee population in Iowa has been decimated in part by pesticides and parasites, but beekeepers and members of the Iowa Honey Producers Association like Jim Marshall make a concerted effort to grow and maintain the bee population. Marshall talks about the importance of bees, “Honey bees are very critical to the survival of all of the plants that we have. If you took a walk through your supermarket and looked, approximately one third of the stuff you see in there would be gone if our honey bees disappeared.”

Marshall is the director of the 1st district of honey producers in southeast Iowa. Marshall said in 2017 there have been around 200 new beekeepers in classes in southern Iowa. This is only including beekeepers that are members of IHPA. Marshall says “This is prime time for beekeepers to try to keep their bees from swarming, which is how the bees reproduce. That’s why it always gets on the news when a big batch of bees get on the side of a building or in a tree somewhere.” Marshall says these swarming situations should be reported to a local sheriff or beekeeper in order to get the bees safely contained. Swarms of bees are not harmful, as long as you don’t bother them.

As small or pesky as bees can be, it is actually illegal to kill a bee. Marshall says the local bees are near extinction, due to the varroa destructor, a mite that’s attacking bees nationally. Marshall says the influx of new hobby bee collectors are trying to help alleviate this problem.