The loss of honeybees across Kentucky is attracting the interest of state lawmakers.
Members of the House Committee on Agriculture and Small Business passed a resolution urging state universities to pick up research on bee loss issues.
Eastern Kentucky University apiculturalist Tammy Horn says bee keeping could supplement family incomes in Appalachia.
“It’s relatively easy for beekeepers to supplement their incomes between you know say two and five thousand dollars, more difficult to get above that, but the opportunity is there and always has been,” says Horn.
Horn says surface mine sites in eastern Kentucky are ideal for genetic bee breeding. Committee Chair Tom McKee would like to see some money put in an “idle” state bee fund.
“Matching grants to help them where they’ve lost bees, to help them with their supplies, to help them with maybe purchasing other colonies of bees. So, I think there would be a lot of uses for it,” says McKee.
In addition to beekeeping interests, McKee says bees play a critical role in advancing agriculture across the Commonwealth through pollination.
