MAINE MONITOR • February 25, 2023
Honeybees play an integral role in the pollination of Maine’s wild blueberries, and most of them spend their winters in the South. So when news broke that Hurricane Ian destroyed upwards of 150,000 Florida hives last September, many Mainers wondered — will the blueberries be OK? The answer is yes, says Lincoln Sennett, owner of Maine’s largest beekeeping company, Swan’s Honey. “We actually winter our bees in south Georgia,” said Sennett, speaking from the American Beekeeping Federation Conference held in Florida last month. “That topic of the hive losses has come up here. There are people struggling, but it won’t impact blueberry pollination.”