A Hive of Activity
David Mendes helps to build buzz about honeybee health
Local beekeeper David Mendes works to build buzz about honeybee health.
Most beekeepers don’t look for the limelight,” says David Mendes. “Most are fairly shy and reserved. We’ve always kind of gone about our work and our lives and don’t really look for a lot of attention.” Mendes may not seek out the spotlight for himself. But the operator of commercial beekeeping business Headwaters Farm in Punta Gorda has helped to bring plenty of attention to the issues affecting honeybees through his involvement with industry groups and his participation in the 2009 documentary Vanishing of the Bees.
Narrated by actress Ellen Page, the film explored the phenomenon of colony collapse disorder, whereby honeybees were abandoning their hives for unknown reasons. Mendes, friend and fellow beekeeper David Hackenberg, and others in the apian and scientific worlds discussed their experiences with the problem and possible causes of and solutions to it.
“David Mendes is quite articulate and super intelligent,” says Maryam Henein, one of the filmmakers behind Vanishing of the
Bees. “He has a scope of the bigger picture and was able to articulate things in a manner that other beekeepers weren’t.”
Like lots of other beekeepers out there, Mendes owes his love of the insect to his family. His father had a few hives, and Mendes decided he wanted to learn more about bees while a middle schooler in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. He, his father, and his brother began helping a commercial beekeeper in nearby Carver, Massachusetts, learning enough about the industry to inspire the Mendes family to start their own beekeeping operation.
“Most commercial beekeepers in the country have typically grown up in a family business,” says Mendes. “It’s the only honest work that I’ve ever really done.”
Beekeeping has been his full- time profession since high school. He made his way down to Florida with the Carver- based commercial bee-
“The expression keeps coming up that every third bite of food is dependent on bees for pollination. And it’s not just the volume of food. It’s the variety, the tasty stuff, the nuts and fruit.”
— David Mendes
“If I mention that I’m a beekeeper, then I have to be prepared to talk about bees for a long time, because people want to know what’s going on and if the bees are OK. And that didn’t used to happen.”
— David Mendes
keeper, who had a site outside of St. Petersburg. A crop- destroying freeze in 1983 drove Mendes farther south to his current Punta Gorda home base, a tenacre farm on State Road 31 across from the Babcock Ranch property. He now has close to twenty thousand hives and a crew of some forty to fifty people working for him at the location, which literally buzzes with activity.
While Mendes’s operation produces honey and breeds queen bees, its main source of income is pollination services. His bees are hired each year by almond growers in California from the middle of February to the middle of March, by blueberry farmers in Maine from the middle of May to the middle of June, and by cranberry growers in Massachusetts from the middle of June to the middle of July.
While grasses are pollinated by the wind, many plants require pollination by insects like honeybees or butterflies. “Without that, there’s no seed and they can’t reproduce,” says Mendes. “So there would be no fruits or nuts.”
Because the crops Mendes’s honeybees work with are planted on such a large scale, there aren’t enough natural pollinators to do the job. So his bees come in to get things going and help ensure that the farmers get a good crop. “In the case of the almonds, the crop would be reduced from two thousand to three thousand pounds an acre to two hundred to three hundred pounds an acre without honeybees,” says Mendes. “It’s a huge difference. And for the other crops, you wouldn’t get more than half the crop without bees.”
Mendes first met Henein and co- filmmaker George Langworthy while in California for almond pollination. They approached him and Hackenberg, who was out there from his Pennsylvania farm for the same reason. After interviewing the two beekeepers, the filmmakers decided that they wanted the friends to be a part of the movie.
“So then they showed up and we couldn’t get rid of them,” laughs Mendes. “For two years they chased us around. They were very persistent.”
Hackenberg is credited with first bringing the issue of colony collapse disorder to light. His plight and his relationship with Mendes made the two compelling subjects to follow.
“David Hackenberg is kind of the poster child for colony collapse disorder,” says Henein. “It was nice to be able to exhibit the friendship between him and David Mendes. They’re kind of in a David and Goliath fight, with them both being appropriately named David.” A former investigative journalist, Henein felt almost compelled to make the film after spending some time researching honeybee health. “I found that honeybees are a female society, and I really love the fact that they all work together for the greater good,” she says. “And the fact that the bees with colony collapse disorder abandoned the babies and the queen, I saw that as a direct parallel symbolically to us humans abandoning Mother Earth. I feel really in service to bees. They have given me purpose and encapsulate so many things I personally believe in and want to align myself with.”
The film examined possible causes for colony collapse disorder, including bees’ exposure to pesticides called neonicotinoids. Research remains ongoing to determine if there is a definite pesticide link and to gain more insight on any other factors that could affect colony health. Findings help to determine courses of action.
“The regulatory system we have, it’s like a really big ship or a long train,” says Mendes. “And it just doesn’t turn very quickly. If you look at a twelve- step program, step one is to recognize that there’s a problem. We’re still working on that one.”
Thanks to the documentary, the general public does have a greater knowledge of the challenges facing honeybees— and why their well- being matters. “The expression keeps coming up that every third bite of food is dependent on bees for pollination,” says Mendes. “And it’s not just the volume of food. It’s the variety, the tasty stuff, the nuts and fruit. If you want seed production, you
“David is the kind of person who is just everywhere and is always looking to talk to the people involved in our issues.”
need pollinators. So the economics of it are pretty compelling.”
But there’s more to it than just the cost or amount of food produced. “There’s also a general concern for environmental quality,” says Mendes. “George and Maryam didn’t make the film to get rich; they made it because they believe that something’s wrong. And there are a lot of folks working in that direction, because they think that the bees are signifying that there’s something that’s wrong in our environment.”
That’s led a lot of people, from scientists to the average citizen, to sit up and take notice. “I have to be careful if I’m on a plane or in a public place,” says Mendes. “If I mention that I’m a beekeeper, then I have to be prepared to talk about bees for a long time, because people want to know what’s going on and if the bees are OK. And that didn’t used to happen.” Though Mendes doesn’t regret his involvement in Vanishing of
the Bees, there are elements of the film with which he doesn’t totally agree. “George and Maryam are more activist than the majority of beekeepers,” he says. “I think they picked on some things, like the feeding of bees and artificial insemination, that they didn’t need to pick on. But it was their movie to make.”
And while Mendes might not consider himself an activist, he continues to work to address the challenges he faces in his own business and as a member of the country’s beekeeping industry. Though he’s lost some of his own bees in the past, he’s found ways to manage his hives that help keep them healthier.
“If you intervene before the hives collapse, you’re able to change that dynamic,” says Mendes. “High- input beekeeping is the term.”
Mendes works with the growers who contract with him in California, Maine, and Massachusetts to help limit his bees’ exposure to pesticides. When they’re not pollinating, the bees spend time resting in places away from heavy farming operations and
— George Hansen, president of the American Beekeeping Federation
the toxins that can go along with that, like in the pinewoods of North Florida, where Mendes has an offshoot of his operation.
On a larger scale, Mendes has been an active member of the American Beekeeping Federation ( ABF), recently finishing a term as president and continuing to serve on its board. “If there’s a summit, if there’s a panel, if there’s an advisory group, chances are that David’s either on it or he’s involved in the selection or developing talking points,” says George Hansen, the federation’s current president. “He is the kind of person who is just everywhere and is always looking to talk to the people involved in our issues.”
And that includes people who may have wildly different views of the issues than the beekeepers. “Prior to David’s term as a leader, the ABF had a tendency to be much less gregarious,” says Hansen. “But over time it became clear that there were other organizations that it was necessary for us to talk with, even if we didn’t agree with them all of the time. They need to know our position, and we need to know where they’re going as well.
“Now we have regular contacts with pesticide manufacturers and other stakeholders who might not be on our side all of the time,” continues Hansen. “David set the groundwork for that, and we are following his lead.”
Mendes has proven that he’s willing to speak up when needed. But he also relishes the quieter aspects of his chosen profession.
“Dealing with the politics, the poison, the trucks and loaders, and all of that equipment— it’s a necessary evil,” he says. “The joy is working with the bees and watching them and just being fascinated. There’s always something new going on; every season is different. Being in the bee yard is like a meditation. That’s where you get your peace.” An editor for TOTI Media, Beth Luberecki is a Venice, Florida– based freelance writer. Learn more about her at bethluberecki.com.