DAYBREAK — After a massive fire destroyed a honey factory and left an American Fork beekeeper without a home for his bees, a local expert shared insight about how to care for bees during the winter and how this beekeeper and business owner can recover.

Commercial beekeeper, David Bench, knows his way around bees and the people who tend to them.

“You kind of got to be a people person as well as a bug person,” he said.

Bench monitors thousands of bees each year.

Though harvest time is over, winter is a critical time for the creatures.

“The cold isn’t really what kills them,” he said.

Bench said the real challenge is mites.

“You’ve got to keep your mite counts low, and that is really hard to do,” Bench said. “You’re trying to get rid of a bug on a bug.”

During the colder months, bees

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