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Our climate with it’s endless sunshine and blooming botany, provides an exceedingly hospitable home for bees.  We enjoy a very vibrant Africanized bee population here.  This is good news, because Africanized bees are more resilient to disease, produce more honey and are able to cover a much larger land area for nectar.   Our eco-region has had no sign of Colony Collapse Disorder or virulent disease problems, which is why Carlos Robles of the UVI AG extension and the Department of Agriculture started a project last year to create a beekeeping industry here in the Virgin Islands. 

There are at least 12 active beekeepers on St Thomas, St John and St Croix.  On St Thomas we have many of whom are working on establishing healthy apiaries on their farms or at their residence.  Most beekeepers from the Virgin Islands, rescue feral honey bees and put them in boxes to create their apiaries as opposed to purchasing queens and starters from the United States.  This is a good thing, because it decreases the risks of bringing bee diseases in to our eco-region.

Francis Jackman, a St Lucian who’s family has been bee keeping and farming for 35 years was the main bee keeping instructor for the Apiculture program.  His students remark that he is a truly inspirational teacher with a great respect and love for bees.  Through the 12 week course he was able to transmit this passion to many in his class.  This gentle beekeeper has a few programs that should be of great interest to Grow VI members.

Trees for Bees
He is on a mission to educate Virgin Islanders about what trees, shrubs, flowers and plants that bee’s love in hopes that they will start planting them in their yards.  “If we want our bee population and budding Apiculture Industry to continue to grow, we need to provide more food”.
See below for a beginner’s list.

The Bee Bus
The bee bus is literally an old school bus that Francis has converted into a mobile bee farm.  He takes this bus to schools and uses it as an educational tool to reach kids who might otherwise, not be interested in bees.  He also uses it as a sort of experimental bee lab.  He raises queens and drones and checks bees for disease on his bus.  The Department of Agriculture has invited him and his bus over for our Ag Fair in December.

How you can support the bees…

First and foremost, never destroy a hive.  If you find a hive in your yard, or if a hive has decided to co-habitate with you call one of the beekeepers below.  They have all done bee rescues / re-location through the UVI AG program.  One of them is most often able to come and assess a site the same day you contact and usually have the hive removed within 24 hours.  Typical cost (depends on where the hive is located) is $300.00.   Cost for destroying a hive is much more expensive, and puts poisonous chemicals into your home or yard.

Plant more trees, shrubs and plants that provide food for our bees.  Through development many of our trees have been cut down and never replaced.  The best way to ensure a healthy bee population is to make sure they have a secure food source.

Trees for Bees
Cashew
Wild Almond
Dog Almond
Grapefruit
Tangerine
Sweet Lime
Orange
Avocado
Papaya
Coconut
Genip
Carambola (starfruit)
Flamboyant
Mango
Jojo
Manjack
Logwood
Royal Palm
Christmas Palm
Jamaican Kepit
Fig Tree
Persimmon
Seagrape