You could say that Marty Hanks is as busy as a bee.

Hanks owns and runs, “Just Bee Apiary,” a chemical-free business that focuses on raising and managing colonies of honey bees. The 30 hives on his Chapel Hill farm account for half of his inventory, while the other 30 hives are spread across rooftops and balconies in Pittsboro, Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

“We who live in a house or have land are all beekeepers by default because we have resources they can choose,” Hanks said.

The bee population has been declining over the past 40 years, with the most drastic decreases happening since 2000. According to Bee Informed, the leading bee research group in America, U.S beekeepers lost 44 percent of their total colonies between April of 2015 and March of 2016. Hanks attributes the loss of bees to several factors, including a loss of habitat and food resources. But the most deadly threat to the bees he said, can be found in your garage.

“Homeowners are buying products, the DOT is spraying and the power companies are spraying. So suddenly we’re looking at this widespread use of products.”

Those products include harmful pesticides that start a chain reaction for the bees, Hanks says, forcing them to travel farther for their food, and return with less.

“It’s kind of hard to think about it right now, but we’re actually looking at what the winter food storage for these bees is like, now in July. How can we get them ready for winter because the main nectar flow is already gone?”

Lauren Hanks holding a honey bee. Photo via Erin Wygant.

Lauren Hanks holding a honey bee. Photo via Erin Wygant.

Winter is the most dangerous time for bees and many don’t survive due to a lack of heat or food.

“Sometimes other insects will steal the bees’ honey,” said Hanks’ 10-year-old daughter Lauren. “Even yellow jackets and wasps come by and smell the honey and they don’t realize they’re robbing another person’s hive.”

Lauren is an aspiring beekeeper with a hive of her own. She painted flowers on the box where her colony lives and explained how she tells the different bees apart.

“The way you can tell a drone from a female bee is their eyes are closer together and their abdomen is wider than the female bees,” Lauren said.

Lauren is getting a head start in the local bee keeping industry. The North Carolina Bee Keeping Association has over 2,000 members and is the largest beekeeping organization in the country, making North Carolina the state with the fewest commercial and most individual beekeepers, like the Hanks family.

“I’m hoping to pass the torch to her because at the end of the day, it’s all about her and my little ones,” Hanks said. “It’s the generation of bees that we’re going to save that are going to help our kids.”

Hanks said his children’s futures depend on the survival of bees. That’s what got him interested in bee conservation and education.

“It’s amazing to think that in the 1960s we had over seven million colonies and we’re down to about 2.2 million now. If we look at it from a mathematical view, what does that mean for carbon sequestration? What does that mean for global warming? Or our air supply?”

While the answers to these questions are yet to be seen, Hanks said that’s not stopping him from advocating for the pollinators.

Hanks looking for the queen bee in the hive. Photo via Erin Wygant.

Hanks looking for the queen bee in the hive. Photo via Erin Wygant.

“We all consume food and we all breathe air, so we all have skin in the game,” Hanks said. “We have to restore as much habitat as possible and reduce the amount we’re spraying so fast because we have to compensate for what we’ve done and how many people are doing it.”

Part of his campaign to educate the public includes serving up a taste of your town. At his farmer’s market booth, Hanks has jars of honey from his hives in the surrounding areas that he says capture the town’s flavor. And what does Chapel Hill taste like?

“Very floral, which is great because we have a lot of natural areas. So if UNC students or locals want a taste of home, they better know what a tulip poplar tree tastes like.”

This is what he calls the “hometown honey concept.” It connects the community to their local product and introduces them to the delicate ecosystem where they live. It’s his way of starting a dialogue about bees and explaining his one mantra.

“Where the bees thrive, so do we.”