Peg Pelletier, right, looks at some honeybee eggs along with Dave Sleczkowski, left, as beekeeper Louis Chasse, center, talks about the queen bee and the drones.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

NORTH KINGSTOWN — In the woods of Saunderstown, near the tulip poplars and redbud trees that dot his yard, retired fire inspector Lou Chasse II waits in front of a line of beehives stacked on cinder blocks.

The drone of thousands of bees emanates from the hives, and bees fly in and out to forage.

In the warm months, Chasse invites new beekeepers to his house every second Saturday for hands-on experience with a beehive. Twenty-year-old Lauren Kenyon, of Matunuck, got to Chasse’s house early. She says her mother, Linda, an avid gardener, persuaded her to help her raise bees, and she is there to get pointers from Chasse.

It used to be that just a couple of people showed up to Saturday classes, but for the past two years he’s noticed that as many as 12 will show up to get practice at handling a real hive before they get their own. Chasse, executive vice president of the Rhode Island Beekeepers Association, said a lot of the new beekeepers are people who are growing gardens and want bees to pollinate their flowers and vegetables but soon discover very few honeybees are left in the wild.

The varroa mite nearly wiped out the wild honeybee in the 1980s, Chasse says. You don’t see feral bees’ nests in the trees anymore, he says. Try to remember the last time you saw a honeybee in the clover.

In 2006, beekeepers across the United States started sounding the alarm about a strange phenomenon that was causing their perfectly healthy honeybees to abandon their hives en masse and not come back. Scientists call it colony collapse disorder, but no one is absolutely sure what is causing it. They estimate that about a third of all bee colonies in the country have vanished. The United States is not alone, as the same phenomenon has been occurring in Europe.

Colony collapses sent shockwaves of fear among scientists and economists because more than $15 billion a year in U.S. crops are pollinated by honeybees, including tomatoes, almonds, squash, cucumbers and apples. Bees pollinate one-third of the nation’s produce. Honeybees also produce $150 million in honey.

In Chasse’s back yard, Kenyon, Angel Dean of Providence, David Sleczkowski and Peg Pelletier of Saunderstown are putting on bee gear — veils and gloves — so they can handle the hives. No sudden movements, Chasse warns. Bees are gentle but will sting if they feel the hive is threatened.

Chasse, 70, says his veil is the straw hat on his head — but don’t try that at home, he says. He doesn’t wear gloves and he is not going to use the smoker, which fans smoke into the hive to calm the bees so they don’t turn aggressive. He’s been working with bees for years. New beekeepers should use the smoker, he says. Chasse gets stung about five times while handling his bees.

He used to be a fire inspector for North Kingstown. Now he has 60 hives producing honey and sells beehive equipment under his business name Arson Alley Apiary.

Chasse opens up a hive to expose frames of comb the bees use to store honey or pollen or to raise young. Bees pile over each other moving slowly. The group will be checking for the health of the queen, the heart and soul of the hive. Is she alive? Is she laying eggs? Peg Pelletier volunteers to pull out a frame so the group can check the comb.

Betty Mencucci, who runs beekeeping classes for the beekeepers association each March at William J. Davies Jr. Career & Technical High School, in Lincoln, says the number of people taking her classes has doubled over the last five years. She attributes it mostly to concern over the disappearance of the honeybee. Two years ago, the association started offering another bee class, at East Farm at the University of Rhode Island.

Jim Lawson, the bee inspector for the Department of Environmental Management, says there are about 300 Rhode Islanders who have registered their hives with the state, as required, and about 100 more who have not. He visits beekeepers to check their hives for disease.

“The reason we would spend to keep the hobbyist going is the value it has to agriculture,” Lawson said. “It’s certainly a great benefit to farmers, especially fairly small farmers who grow a diverse number of crops. Where the feral population is down now pollination is coming from managed bees.”

Barrington and East Providence are the only communities that do not allow beekeeping. Lawson says beekeepers must strike a careful balance with neighbors. Residents from Woonsocket to Westerly keep hives on their property. Lawson said it’s best to keep hives out of the path of neighbors and to educate them about bees, which are often mistaken for the more aggressive yellow jackets (wasps) or hornets.

Ed Lafferty, of Fruit Hill Avenue in North Providence, started his hive seven years ago after a friend who raises bees captured a swarm and set up in a hive in his yard. The retired trucker keeps five hives in an elaborate garden where he has built a pond with koi and goldfish and has planted asparagus, which the bees love. He and his wife, Felice, a nurse, sell honey under the brand name Fruit Hill Apiaries.

On a recent day, Lafferty and Everett Zurlinden, president of the beekeepers association and owner of Beehavin’ Apiary in Smithfield, were headed to Johnston to deliver some of Lafferty’s hives to Cedars Edge Farm to pollinate organic strawberries, pumpkins and squash.

Lafferty says you can learn a lot from bees.

“The idea that they are a social insect ... it’s almost like each colony is a family. I look at the beehive as one person. The family acts like one person. It’s almost something spiritual when you see that the whole intent of the hive is to keep living, to keep struggling for life.”The buzz on bees

A colony contains one queen, 500 to 100 drones and 40,000 to 60,000 workers.

The worker bees are female and live 6 to 8 weeks.

Worker bees baby-sit, clean, attend the queen, collect honey and guard the hive.

Worker bees have a stinger. Once they sting, they die.

The drone is male and does only one thing, mate. Then, he dies.

The queen is the only sexually developed female in the hive.

The queen can produce up to 2,500 eggs a day. She lives 2 to 3 years.

Bees account for 80 percent of all insect pollination.

Honeybees survive the winter months by clustering for warmth.

Bees must travel 25,000 miles, or once around the world, to make one pound of honey

The First Family has a beehive in the White House garden.

Sources: Back Yard Beekeepers Association website, Natural Resource Defense Council website, Betty Mencucci, bee association teacher.

tpina@projo.com