The Bee Boom in the Yakima Valley
As small-scale farming replaces large estates, beekeeping emerges as a surprisingly lucrative industry for Central Washington growers.
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The honey harvest of Central Washington promises to be the largest and most profitable in the history of the state. Bees are more numerous, and honey-producing plants are more generally cultivated. A prominent beekeeper estimates that some of the best hives will return from forty to eighty pounds of marketable honey each this season. The industry has been neglected until recent years, but with the rapid seeding of fields to alfalfa and clover, the valleys of Yakima and Kittitas are being stocked with fine swarms. One Yakima farmer reported starting with two hives and increasing to ten the first year, then selling 1,000 pounds of honey the second year while increasing his swarm count to eighteen. He noted that the bees also provided perfect fruit crops due to their role in pollinating blossoms. The shift toward smaller, intensive farms has helped this industry take root, as it requires little capital and limited land, making it an ideal companion to truck farming.
“A trust, my son, is a large body of wealth entirely surrounded by envy.”
The transition from massive, mechanized agriculture to smaller, diverse 'truck farms' was the defining change for Washington's economy in the early 1900s. Today, Yakima continues to lead in specialty crops, though the relationship between modern pesticides and bee health remains a critical environmental tension.
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