Beekeeping and honey production in the NMI

The CNMI has many advantages for food production over other areas. Aquaculture and agriculture are prime examples, with the islands’ benefits of a mild climate, remote location that protects against many diseases and predators, and abundant rainfall. An area of food production that has not had much press here is honey.

Currently the Food and Drug Administration has their best scientists working on the problem of colony collapse disorder. CCD causes entire colonies of bees to die, or to abandon their hives. CCD is a major problem in the United States, Hawaii and Canada, not only because of the loss of honey production, but because they are responsible for pollinating a third of the flowering plants.

Scientists suspect that CCD is caused by mites, a virus, pesticides, environmental changes, or toxins in the environment. So far no single cause has been identified and some scientists believe CCD may be caused by a combination of the suspected agents. Whatever the cause of CCD, it does not seem to be affecting the bees in the CNMI, which may indicate a potential opportunity for the CNMI.

George Haberman started bee farming in the CNMI when he came here from Samoa in 1977. Norm Smith of the Trust Territory was already doing it and Haberman took over the business from him.

According to Haberman, the bees in the CNMI are not native, but were brought here on ships by the missionaries. In starting his new hobby he quickly found out some of the difficulties of beekeeping here. The main problem was the commercially made beehives. The wooden hives rotted in the rain, and sun, and they came apart in tropical storms and typhoons.

Haberman didn’t let those small problems stop him. He made hives out of cement. The cement hives worked, but had their limitations. The main problem being cement hives are heavy, making them difficult to move; also, the bees seem to like the wooden hives better.

In addition to the cement hives, George added plastic hives that were easy to move and the bees would stay in them; and that is what he uses today; however he prefers to use actual bee wax sheets to start the egg/larva comb building on the plastic frame. The use of plastic has been proven to work well with the local bees and with the beekeeper, but extra measures must be taken to ensure they aren’t damaged from the weather.

Haberman made or purchased everything he needed to produce, harvest, and package honey. The honey produced by Saipan pollen is very dark—almost black—that is very tasty, and is easy to sell. In attempting to restart his bee colonies he purchased queens from a beekeeping business in Hawaii who distributes to the mainland, Guam and Micronesia. The first four were DOA after the five-day trip from Hawaii but the next four had two survivors that made it but also died two days later. George now plans to get his queens locally, saying that the CNMI bees are hardy because they have to fight the geckos, mites, birds, and other predators that go after them year-round. “Once the bees are put in a protected hive, they do very well,” he said.

He explained that to catch the bees requires finding where they live. This can be done by following bees, or looking in areas that bees like to live in like rotted, hollowed out trees, and old wooden buildings. Some hash runners informed George of a beehive in the jungle near Marpi. He will go there with a box designed for catching bees and knock the bees out of the wood into the box. From these bees he will raise a queen that will then be transferred to a hive.