The Beehive State is having a hard time living up to its name. On World Bee Day (May 20), Lawn Love announced 2023’s Best States for Beekeeping and Utah ranked third worst in the country. Up from second worst in 2022, Utah was listed just above Arizona and Wyoming as the most difficult places to raise bees.

Bountiful resident Darrell DeCow has been a beekeeper for more than a decade. He said several factors in Utah make it hard to create a supportive environment for bees.

“I think it's hard for beekeepers here in Utah because first of all, we’ve got extremely long winters and winter is hard on bees,” he said. “Second, because we tend to want to kill all the mosquitoes with the abatement stuff that they do, and because of that the bees have a hard time surviving. 

“And not only that, but the pesticides they use for around-the-house killing, they want to kill all the cockroaches, pests, whatever you’ve got in your house. That also is really hard on the bees. That gets on the flowers they want to pollinate, so they're susceptible. They take that back to the hive, and it will eventually kill the hive.”

Utah ranked low in several key metrics including annual colony loss (32nd), annual beekeeper’s salary (30th), number of farmers markets (34th) and number of beekeepers associations (27th). Lawn Love said California and New York were the best states for bees. 

DeCow first got interested in beekeeping after watching the 2009 documentary “Vanishing of the Bees.” When he learned how valuable bees are to the world’s ecosystem, he started doing research into beekeeping. He and his granddaughter, Kayla Nichols, work together to take care of their five hives, which each contain more than 60,000 bees. 

Every 10 to 14 days, they check on the hives to make sure there is activity at the entrance of the hive, look for signs of disease, check on the status of the queen, and keep pests and parasites at bay. Regular inspections help beekeepers understand the personality and patterns of the bees.

“I get to learn a lot of stuff,” Nichols said. “Bees are pretty fascinating. I was always surprised about how complex it is. There's just always something to learn. It's really cool and something we do together.”

DeCow encourages people to provide a healthy environment for bees by planting brightly-colored flowers, especially purple flowers, and doing mosquito abatement or pesticide spraying at night when bees are sleeping. He also recommends not killing dandelions or clover in the spring since those are the perfect bee food. Because humans have domesticated bees, it takes a communal effort to make sure bees survive the winter and have access to pesticide-free food.

Nichols and DeCow provide swarm response so swarming bees can be relocated instead of killed. They also sell honey and honeycomb, and offer a mentorship program for those interested in learning more about beekeeping. For more information, visit QueenBeeHaven.com. 

“Bees are fascinating because they’re like a family. They all work together. If one of them doesn't, it could be detrimental to the whole hive,” DeCow said. “What I find fascinating is if we can all work together like that, as humans, we wouldn't have nearly the problems we have.”