Most folks by this time have heard about the Christmas freezes in the early 80’s here in Florida that took out quite a bit of mature orange grove in Orange and Lake County. The following years freezes in the mid-80’s took out everything that was replanted and thus began the steady decline in orange groves that has resulted in all of the development of housing and retirement communities and golf courses, etc. here in what used to be the orange hub of the state of Florida.

     Well, now the latest problem to plague orange groves that remain, and there are quite a few though nowhere near the number 20 years ago, is a small sucking insect known as the citrus psyllid. This tiny insect blown in here, on a hurricane we’re told, is responsible for spreading a virus that infects the woody tissue of the citrus tree and eats the energy rich sugar laden sap. Not only does this deprive the fruit of the sugar it needs to ripen and taste good, it debilitates the tree causing its otherwise dark green foliage to turn yellow.

     Yes, this greening also affects beekeepers. The orange trees are blooming and the bloom smells as fragrant as ever. There is nectar in the flower, but the sugar content is a fraction of what it ought to be. The bees we visited yesterday were bringing lots of pollen back and there was some nectar shake from the combs, but not near what we would have expected. We did just have two very cool nights and we are expecting potential heavy rain this weekend with intermittent thunderstorms. All of these things do not bode well for what looked just the other day like an otherwise excellent potential honey crop from the orange groves. We are getting a lot of customers stopping in looking for orange blossom honey, it’s a sorry Florida beekeeper who can’t meet their need. We’re still hoping, ever the optimist, that the honey crop will materialize despite the greening and the less than stellar weather.