- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Scenario: A female praying mantis, a Stagmomantis limbata, is perched on a daphne.
Pho-tog: "Good morning, Ms. Mantis! How are you today? Hope you're not thinking about catching a bee for breakfast!"
Ms. Mantis: "Oh, no! I would never think of catching a bee! I'm...ahem...allergic to bees. Yes, that's it. I'm ALLERGIC to bees. I'm just...ahem...doing my morning exercises. Gotta stay in shape."
Pho-tog: "Bend and stretch, right? Bend and stretch? No honey bees on the menu?
Ms. Mantis: "Oh, yes, bend and stretch. My morning exercises! No bees on the menu!" (Then she spots a bee below)
Pho-tog: "Hey, wait, why are dropping down in the daphne?"
Ms. Mantis: "Gotta go do my floor exercises now! Yes, that's it. My floor exercises."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
“Honey bee insurance” buzzed into the news Feb. 1 when Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appeared on the CBS Show, "Face the Nation" and blasted the state of the economy and President Obama's economic stimulus plan.
"I doubt if the government buying $600 million worth of automobiles would provide the kind of stimulus that we're talking about here," McConnell said. "And we certainly don't need honeybee insurance. Look, this thing needs to be targeted right at the problem, if we're going to spend this enormous amount of money.”
Honey bee insurance? I listened closely for more details, but none came.
What he didn’t say--or explain--is that this is a form of crop insurance, similar to what is offered to many crop producers.
One of the earliest to write about honey bee insurance was UC Davis apiculturist Eric Mussen, who discussed revenue insurance in the November/December 2002 edition of his “From the UC Apiaries” publication. At the time, beekeepers were exploring ways to protect their investments against devastating losses. The program works like this: pay a premium to an insurance company, and if a devastating loss occurs, you’re protected up to a specific portion of your loss.
The program is now under way, but is not offered yet in some states, including
So, bottom line: Beekeepers who elect to pay a premium will receive compensation if the honey crop revenue falls below the listed “trigger” value of that year. The compensation depends on the level of coverage purchased for the colonies they own.
Currently, only honey production--not pollination or queen or bulk production--can be insured through this specific honey bee insurance program, Mussen says. And this is based on weather conditions. If there’s a drought, for example, and the bees have little food, satellite images would verify the lack of plant growth.
Back in 2002, Mussen estimated that the insurance would cost a little over 6 cents for each dollar of coverage. The federal government’s subsidy would reduce the beekeeper’s premium to three cents per dollar.
It’s taking the good with the bad.
It's like the daphne (below) that offers scented flowers but beware those poisonous berries.