One Small Step

Friday afternoon Michael, his mom and myself loaded up the truck and headed down to Orwell, Vermont to pick up two nucs from Singing Cedar Apiaries. The afternoon was beautiful and the drive down Rt. 22 was picturesque. The fields were turned over, and the dandelion bloom had begun. Riding over the hills of Vermont you could feel spring and the potential of the land to feed the Champlain Valley and much of the rest of the state. I got lost only once and had to ask directions in a diner outside of Addison. I only wish I could had stayed for a good New England boiled dinner. Like all real Vermont towns, one of the old timers knew exactly where Singing Cedars was.

Singing Cedar Apiaries is located at the end of a dirt road in Orwell. The apiary is located near the house and Roland Smith came out to greet us when we arrived. He was already installing some nucs for another couple of beekeepers. I wrote a check out to Mrs. Smith, took the receipt out to her husband and we loaded up our nucs. There is no doubt that Rev. Smith is a good and righteous man, but while we ordered Carnolians we did not get them. Instead, we got something quite different, a hybrid queen. Frankly, I don’t really care about genealogy of the queen so long as the breeder knows what the genetic makeup of his queens. Genetics and artificial selection are important tool for creating mite and disease resistant, but it is important to know what traits and genomes your working with and keep good records so that you can keep track of the strains that work and those that do not.

After loading the nucs on the truck. We drove home and placed one of the hives behind the cabin in the back yard. Then we placed the feeder on top and circled it with cinnamon to prevent ants from raiding the sugar. We followed the same process in a field near my parent’s house. In both places I marked the level of the sugar water so that we could keep track of their feeding. It was a beautiful day and quite exciting to think that after all the months and planning I had become a beekeeper.

On Sunday afternoon, Michael and I opened up the entrances and checked the feeders. Both hives had taken about two cups of one to one sugar water in the past 36 hours. We started off working on the cabin hive. Looking in the bottom, we noticed a lot of dead bees. I examined them for Varroa none were to be seen. Our guess is that the 25 or 30 individuals were killed in transit or were just old and about to die anyway. One interesting thing about this hive was the presence of some large back bees mixed in with the others. They were not drones. We left the entrance wide open with the idea that bees would clean out the hive.

After a quick drive to other hive, Michael thought it would be a good idea to open up the hive and check for the queen. When we picked up this nuc we did not see her. The inspection told us that the hive was really strong and the after a little searching located the queen. She was a huge gold beast. Then we opened the entrance about two inches and left. There are lots of fields surrounding this location. The flowers are already in bloom so I think that we will have no problems so long as this hive remains disease free.

When we got back to the other hive, hundreds of bees were performing orientation flights and some were even returning with pollen clearly visible on their legs. It was a bit disconcerting especially to my wife. While we have fenced off the apiary to keep our kids and dogs from stumbling into it. The distance from the fence to the hive is about 20 ft. The bees leave the hive and travel upward about ten feet and then zoom off in the direction of their food. I don’t anticipate any problems, but I will keep a close eye on the flyways.

Since Leah and not gotten a chance to work with the bees, I gave her my suit and she and Michael opened up the hive. This hive is also incredibly strong. When they checked on the frames, the bees had even started building foundation on the other frames. I suspect that it will be just a couple of weeks before we need to add another deep. When they looked at the frames they quickly identified another strong queen with good laying pattern and plenty of pollen and caped honey. We were even able to sample just a teaspoon on the liquid gold. Most importantly, Leah loved it. Now my idea of keeping bees in the backyard does not seem so crazy.

We have separated ourselves from the land and the labor necessary to produce food. The only crop that most of us raise today is the grass in our yard. I have taken just a very small step in producing food for my family. Lets hope that this small step leads to others.