February’s winter storm caused an unbelievably bad honey season in Texas

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Texas honey production declined slightly with the number of bee colonies in 2021, according to an expert from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

Molly Keck, an entomologist with AgriLife Extension in Bexar County, said winter storm Uri in February and drought conditions in early spring negatively impacted honey production.

“Even at the onset of the winter storm, I think a lot of parts of Texas were considered to be drought or drier,” Keck said. “They didn’t have good rains and fall wildflowers, and then we go into winter when there’s nothing blooming, and it all started blooming a month later.”

Texas A&M surveyed all beekeepers registered in Texas, and about 37% of them said they lost hives to the winter storm.

This weather phenomenon is causing many beekeepers across Texas to tell last year to be buzzing, due to bad bee season.

“For us, in terms of honey production… we ended up producing barely a sixth of the total honey production we would have made for the year,” said John Swan, owner of Wicked Bee and the podcast The Hive Jive.

Swan owns 46 beehives that distribute honey to moms and local pop stores in Austin. This year he lost just two hives, but that’s the whirlwind that followed: the lack of food for the bees to pollinate.

“It’s really hard to be able to say ‘yes I can provide a gallon of honey a week for your restaurant’ when you don’t have a lot of honey for everyone,” Swan said.

Keck says the people of South Texas have been hit the hardest because this area is not acclimatized to deep freezes.

David Holdman, owner of Holdman Honey at Sequin, says he usually produces 100 to 140 pounds of honey per year from his 3,000 hives, but this year he’s only produced about 27 pounds.

In Corpus Christi, Bee-Grateful Honey has lost several of its hives.

The normal honey harvest season begins in April. There is hope for a normal season next year, but at the moment local production is short until then.

“2022 should be fine, but that will only close that gap until about the summer of next year,” Swan said.

Swan says you can plant native wildflowers in your garden to make sure the bees keep buzzing next year.