A Riverside County beekeeper lost millions of bees in last week’s Verona fire, and warns that the effects of the devastation will be widespread.
Brandon Taylor, one of the county’s most prominent beekeepers, saw the fire alert while on watch duty on May 19 and went straight to his apiary.
According to Cal Fire Riverside, a brush fire was reported at 12:20 a.m. that day in the Juniper Springs neighborhood of Riverside County. That flame, which is called the Verona fire, ordered evacuation In the homeland community.
A firefighter and a civilian suffered minor injuries in a fire in Verona and were taken to hospital for treatment.
“When I got there, my landlord was already in active firefighting mode,” he told The Times. His entire farm was on fire, and flames rose into the air – about 40 feet up – to nearby palm trees.
“The bees were in that area,” Taylor said, “and once the fire got through, we tried to save the hives that weren’t on fire.”
In all, Taylor lost 80 established hives as well as 16 hives of bees that he had rescued as part of his bee-removal business. Each hive contained about 40 thousand to 60 thousand bees, the total loss was estimated at 3 million to 4 million bees.
Nine hives survived and will require rehabilitation for the remainder of the year.
Taylor’s bees were used on farms to pollinate crops such as almonds, and he rescued bees before rehabilitation and later rented them for pollination.
Although Riverside County farmers should be able to turn to other companies to rent their honey bees for pollination needs, Taylor fears downstream impacts for bee removal customers.
Since his bee boxes – the structures used to house his colonies – all burned down, Taylor’s costs would increase. “Typically the cost of eradication is the same as removing live bees,” he said, so the increased cost may lead more people to relocate bees on their property rather than destroy them.
“We could see millions of bees dying because we can’t provide that service at the price we used to,” Taylor said. “I didn’t realize the impact of something like this until it happened.”
If people destroy hives, native pollinators such as monarch butterflies, bumblebees, wasps and others may also be affected by the pesticides used. Exterminators charge extra for extraction and often leave contaminated hives behind after pesticide application.
“All of California’s native biodiversity goes into that contaminated hive, and could even be wiped out,” he said.
Taylor emphasized that native insects are vital to local ecosystems, and that his imported bees actually depend on the native ecology. “When we have a healthy ecosystem with healthy pollinators, our (bees) will do much better,” he said.
After the devastation of the Verona fire, Taylor was surprised by the support of neighbors and even his competition in the beekeeping business.
Many people have used the services of Taylor Company, purchased its honey, asked for bee removal. Now, he said, some competitors are donating their excess bees to him. He has already brought in 30 donated hives and is installing them on his property.
“It’s amazing, the support of the community,” Taylor said.
Times staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.
