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Shelby beekeeper Aaron Billheimer briefs council on pollinator threats, hive management
Summary
Local beekeeper Aaron Billheimer told the Shelby City Council about how honeybees forage and orient, the varroa-mite threat, and local swarm-response resources; council thanked him but took no formal action.
Aaron Billheimer, a Shelby beekeeper and owner of a downtown shop, told the Shelby City Council on the evening the council met that honeybees are central to local food production and face persistent threats.
Billheimer, who said he has kept bees for five years and now manages dozens of hives, explained that honeybees are most active from roughly April through September and that beekeepers commonly move hives at dusk or dawn to allow the colony to reorient. “Bees orient to the spot that they are in…they can go we talked just a little bit before, about 3 to 5 miles from the hive,” Billheimer said.
He highlighted the varroa mite (varroa destructor) as the principal ongoing threat to colonies since its introduction to the U.S. in the 1980s and said mites and the diseases they spread are the “number 1” problem. Billheimer cited a figure he had seen from April 2023 that reported about a 48% nationwide colony loss; he framed that number as an alarming industry statistic but cautioned that annual data are consolidated on a delayed cycle.
Billheimer also described common beekeeper responses and recovery techniques: breeding and rearing queens, creating splits to grow new hives, and, for commercial operations, artificial insemination of queens. On costs, he said a typical starter setup for one hive can run “about a 300 to 400 range” for equipment, while a packaged load of bees with a queen may cost “150 to $185.”
He advised residents to contact local beekeepers or, failing that, municipal pest-control or public-safety officials if they encounter swarms; he said the Richland Area Beekeeper Association maintains a list of beekeepers who will respond to swarms. Billheimer recounted a recent local extermination where extraction was not feasible without cutting into a home’s interior.
Council members thanked Billheimer for his presentation and for keeping hives on city land near the wastewater treatment plant; the council did not take further action on the subject at the meeting.
