Treasure Valley Bees

Treasure Valley Bees

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Near Boise. I got a bee's eye view of spring beekeeping duties.

After months of snow and cold, beekeepers are checking hives and the health of honeybees after a long hard winter.

Industry expert Mark Davis of Treasure Valley Bee Rescue "Honey production here in Idaho is rather large."

There's excitement in the air. This year producers could top last year's production... an average of 34 pounds of honey per hive and more hives coming in. Davis: "We have probably between 200 and 500 large commercial beekeepers."

And while these beekeepers are trying to earn a profit, their entomological employees service a huge segment of Idaho agriculture.

"One of the things that I love so much about Idaho is we have all of this agriculture that is occurring throughout the entire state. And so you have 10,000 acres here of alfalfa. You'll have ten thousand acres of mint. And so we're able to move the bees around the valley here and around the state to allow them to do multiple crops.

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