Honey Bees Added to the Big ACRE!

Last year our garden apprentice, Corey, applied for and won a Sponsor-a-Hive grant through the Honey Bee Conservancy. Congrats Corey!

The Honey Bee Conservancy is doing amazing work in bee conservation and environmental stewardship all around the world. Additionally, they've made the important link between increased pollinator activity and food access. The Sponsor-a-Hive program places hives of mason, honey or leaf-cutter bees with local food and environmental initiatives where they will pollinate crops grown to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables. With this grant, we received a hive (some assembly required), bees, a bee suit, and a complete set of the other necessary beekeeping tools.

We're working with a local beekeeper, Ziva, to make sure the hive is healthy and properly taken care of. Transporting bees can be tricky, so she picked the bees up at the Coupeville ferry dock and brought them to the Big ACRE. We purchased our bees as a "nuc," short for nucleus, basically a portion of an established colony in a box. We received the bees and five filled frames: three of brood in all stages of development, and two of honey.

In a nuc, unlike a box of bees, the queen is already accepted by the rest of the colony, there are bees to fill all of the roles in the hive (nurse, guard, etc.), and they have brood to care for which makes them less likely to abandon the hive. In essence, they aren't starting from zero and have a jump-start on their new home. Overall, this is a much more reliable way to introduce a colony.

The five frames went right into our hive box and we added empty frames to fill it up.

Over the next three weeks they drew 2.5 frames of comb. We placed a second box of frames on top so they could continue building upward as well as out. Drawing comb is a material-intensive process, so we will feed them until there is a strong nectar flow. In our area, this is when the (invasive) blackberries flower in June. The bees are still very active and returning home with pollen baskets full of grey, yellow and orange pollen.In a very short time, the hive has already stirred up a lot of interest amongst employees, volunteers and the larger community. Thank you Honey Bee Conservancy for the newest addition to our farm! We look forward to many happy years of pollination for our orchard and crops!The Sponsor-a-Hive application cycle begins in the fall. Sign up for the Honey Bee Conservancy mailing list to be notified when it opens!