Thousands of Guam honey bees fly to Tinian in first ever export

Guam honeybees are taking an historic flight today. 

For the first time ever, a local beekeeper successfully exported some 60,000 bees to pollinate farms in Tinian. 

Over at the Raw671 Farms Apiary in Barrigada, Owner Dennis Larson is all a buzz about honeybees. 

“Every single one of these boxes, every colony has its own queen bee,” Larson said. 

“Here’s another one. You can see some capped broods. The queen is in here somewhere. She’s upstairs laying. These guys are putting down some nectar,” Larson added as he showed off each honeybee box. 

Larson has been a beekeeper for six years.

He’s been working on a project for months, hoping these bees can take off on a historic flight in uncharted territory. 

“Tropical beekeeping is definitely a challenge but we offer colonies that we know can live in these environments. I think it's going to be interesting to see how they adapt in these other places,” he said. 

Now it’s not just a reality but a beekeeping history in the making.

Over 117 years ago, these honeybees were first brought to Guam from Hawaii. Since then, they’ve stayed disease free. and now, they are being shipped off to Tinian. 

Some 60,000 healthy honey bees onboard the Micronesia Air Cargo landed in the Northern Marianas on Tuesday morning. 

It’s Guam’s first ever export and could open the door for a global bee export industry, according to Guam Beekeepers Association President Paul Packbier. 

“Australia used to be, until three years ago, varroa free. Then they got them. They tried to burn 50,000 hives in order to see if they could stop them, but they didn’t. So we’re literally one of the last places in the world where our bees are not afflicted by this parasite,” said Packbier.  

After an inspection by customs and biosecurity, the bees are headed to Tinian farms, a growing Triple J venture in response to the military’s plans to construct a divert airfield. 

But most especially, Larson added, “They want the bees to go help pollinate the farm. So it's there for that reason, but at the same time, it's an ongoing experiment for us and Chris Rosario. The bees in Tinian and Saipan are badly infected with the varroa mite. That’s scary because they’re literally only 150 miles from here.”

These beekeepers hope this project will help save the bees in the Marianas. 

KUAM will bring us part two of the buzz in the Marianas exploring more on how these local beekeepers rescue honeybees.