Scioto County’s “Queen Bee” was unanimously reappointed to another term during Monday’s organizational meeting.
Right after the Scioto County Commissioners selected Scottie Powell as chairman of the board and reappointed Cathy Coleman as vice chairman, they attended to the important duty of choosing the person in charge of bee inspection for the county. The official title is County Apiary Inspector.
An apiary is a place where bees are kept. Scioto County is home to 36 Apiaries which house 137 colonies of bees. That works out to an of four colonies of bees per apiary. Most colonies contain between 20,000 and 80,000 bees, all led by a single queen bee.
A single queen oversees the millions of bees in the county, Alva Queen. Bee expert, Alva Queen has been the man in charge of bee inspection in the county since January of 2000. He was unanimously reappointed to the position at Monday’s meeting.
State Inspection Requirement
County Commissioner Bryan Davis explained that it’s a state requirement that each county has an apiary inspector. The commissioner said many people don’t realize the important role bees play in the local economy. “Agriculture is huge in our community. We have to make “
It’s the duty of the apiary inspector to visit local human-maintained hives and inspect them. “They talk to the growers and make sure the bee population is healthy,” Davis said.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, “Pollination services from honey bees and other insects provide the backbone to ensuring our diets are diverse and plentiful with fruits, nuts, and vegetables. In all, there are over 100 crops grown in the United States that depend on pollination.”
The Ohio Department of Agriculture says that local apiary inspectors play an important role in protecting the state’s bee population, “The Apiary Program coordinates the state and county inspection services that help to ensure a healthy beekeeping industry for Ohio’s more than 6,000 apiaries. The Apiary Program works with several national groups and the USDA in providing samples for the study of Colony Collapse Disorder which caused massive colony deaths in various parts of the nation, including Ohio.”