Tag Archives: beekeeping

Inside the Hive: Congratulations Bee School Graduates!

Posted on May 3, 2018 by Kelly R.

The Drumlin Bee School recently completed its ongoing five week series program and graduated 38 students as new beekeepers. The Drumlin Farm beekeeping series programs teach students everything they need to know about starting and maintaining bee hives at home. Mel Gadd, recently awarded Massachusetts’ Beekeeper Association’s 2017 Beekeeper of the Year, has been leading Drumlin Farm Students and teaching them this rewarding hobby for many years.

Instructor Mel Gadd prepares to open the hive.

The students recently visited some of the hives on the Mass Audubon Headquarters site and practiced installing new bees into two of the hives. Having a healthy population of bees is important for a healthy habitat as they provide many ecological services, most notably in the pollination of flowers and plants. Drumlin Farm, as well as the Mass Audubon Headquarters site across the street, hosts many hives in our fields and forest edges to encourage bee populations and teach program participants about these fascinating insects and their care.

©Cynthia Vogan

Suited up, Mel fills the hives with new bees.

There are many layers and parts within the artificial hives.

Beekeeping for Beginners graduates have the opportunity to advance their skills even further with Intermediate Beekeeping classes but there are many ways visitors can connect with these busy insects and the honey they provide. Children will love our Queen Bee, Honey Bunny, and Apple Honey Harvest programs, as well as the opportunity to focus on the Power of Pollen at Mini Camp. Adults can also have a merry time learning the ancient methods used in making mead, an ancient wine made from honey!

Spring has Sprung: What to do in April

Posted on April 3, 2018 by Kelly R.

Knock on wood, but we think it’s safe to say no more nor-easters for this season. Celebrate the warmer weather with some good ole fashion time outdoors. April at Drumlin Farm is filled with excited newborns to visit, special events, engaging programs, and more.

Spring Optics Sale – Now through April 8th, the Audubon Shop has binoculars, spotting scopes, and tripods on sale to get you ready for birding season. Treat yourself or a loved one to some new gear!
Visitor Education Day: All About Birds – Have you ever visited Drumlin Farm on a Visitor Education Day? We’ll have a number of special activities taking place at the farm, all included in the price of admission! On Saturday, April 7th, it’ll be “All About Birds” with live birds to meet, bird banding demonstrations, and a take home bird craft.
Spring CSA Sign Up – Produce grown right here in Boyce Field will start becoming available in May when our Spring CSA starts. Register for your share now so you can enjoy the fresh, delicious produce through June.
Sign up for Summer Camp – Get summer plans checked off of your to-do list and sign up now for Drumlin Farm camp! Our Farm Mania week makes a great first introduction to camp life for preschoolers and rising kindergarteners, or kids of any age who love farm animals. Spots are still available in our mini camps at Assabet River and Wolbach Farm as well.
City Nature Challenge – They say Boston is the City of Champions, and now there’s another chance for YOU to help prove it! From April 27–30, be a part of team Boston in the worldwide City Nature Challenge (CNC)! The CNC is an international citizen science project with cities worldwide competing to explore and record all kinds of plants, animals, fungi, and even microorganisms in their area using the iNaturalist app. Accepting submissions anywhere within the I-495 corridor, Drumlin Farm is the perfect place to explore and log sightings.
Froggy Night Walk – The frogs are awake and talking! Learn more about these ribbet-ing amphibians and the springtime chorus they proclaim at our family Froggy Night Walk on April 6th from 7-8:30 pm.
Sorting Out the Songbirds – Want to perfect your songbird identification skills? Join us for a lecture and field trip focusing specifically on songbird identification and familiarity. After these programs, your enjoyment of these melodic birds will be enriched even further with your newfound knowledge and understanding.
Intermediate Beekeeping – Intermediate Beekeeping starts Tuesday, April 24th. Lead by Massachusetts Beekeepers Association’s Beekeeper of the Year Mel Gadd, these classes will cover swarm management, splits, overwintering hives, pest and disease treatment and prevention, and other tricks of the trade.
Author Talk: Robert Thorson: The Guide to Walden Pond. Walden Pond, located just a few minutes from Drumlin Farm, is beloved for its natural beauty which inspired the famous naturalist, Henry David Thoreau. Join us for a talk and book signing by Robert Thorson, author of The Guide to Walden Pond, the first guide to this cherished natural and literary landmark.
Small Scale Agriculture: Spring is Here – If you have your own home garden, this class is perfect to take it to the next level and get the most out of your personal crop. We will cover all the basics of getting your garden started. Learn about creating a working compost system, preparing a garden bed, planting seeds, transplanting seedlings, dividing herbs, pruning blueberries, raspberries and fruit trees, and choosing cover crops.

Inside the Hive with Massachusetts Beekeepers Association’s Beekeeper of the Year: Mel Gadd

Posted on March 27, 2018 by Kelly R.

Have you ever tried Drumlin Farm honey? Our bees work hard to pollinate our crops along with providing us with delicious honey, all under the watchful eye of our beekeeper, Mel Gadd. We’re proud to announce that Mel was recently named the 2017 Beekeeper of the Year by the Massachusetts Beekeepers Association.

Mel Gadd has been keeping bees a little over ten years in Cambridge, MA. He has been involved with the Essex County Beekeepers Association (ECBA) for the past ten years, as Chair of the ECBA Bee School in 2015 and is on his second term as an ECBA Board of Director.

Mel maintains over twenty hives, with three located in his own backyard and three at schools where he works with the 1st and 5th graders as his beekeepers. He started major beekeeping programs at Drumlin Farm, both in the fields, as well as established an educational program on the bees as part of Drumlin’s regular programming. This includes a five-week Bee School where Mel teaches participants everything they need to know about how to keep bees, and maintaining many hives at Drumlin.

The 2018 Drumlin Farm Beekeeping for Beginners held its first class on the last Tuesday of February. The class was full with 38 students who were totally enthralled with the idea of keeping honey bees during the upcoming season. The idea of the class is to prepare students so that at the end of the five weeks in classroom and one day in the field, they will be able to start their beekeeping experience. Intermediate Beekeeping with Mel starts the last Tuesday in April, with registration currently open.

Mel Gadd teaching at a full class of soon-to-be beekeepers

Mel has also been involved with some of the non-traditional types of hives (top bar, Warre & Slovenian hives) and has been teaching about these at a number of forums in the region. At Drumlin, Mel has also been conducting studies using mushroom spores as an organic way to minimize/eliminate varroa mites.

Recently, he was awarded Massachusetts Beekeepers Association’s 2017 Beekeeper of the Year Award. As an integral part of our farm-to-food programming and honey supply, we congratulate Mel and invite our community to learn from the best at one of his upcoming programs. Check back in for periodical “Inside the Hive” updates from Mel and his busy bee’s as they prepare for the upcoming season and learn about this fun hobby and important skill.

Beekeeper checking on their hive.

Spring Hive Update from Beekeeper Mel

Posted on June 5, 2017 by Staff

by Drumlin Farm Beekeeper Mel Gadd

Slovenian hive located at the Farm Life Center at Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary

Hive Health

Last year, we had 10 hives at 208 South Great Road: Eight on the Drumlin Farm side of the road, and two on the Mass Audubon Headquarters side.

Since last summer, we’ve lost five hives. Considering last year’s drought and the subsequent lack of blossoming plants by the end of the summer, our losses were less than the average in the New England region.

This season we have increased the total number of hives to 14. There are now 10 hives at Drumlin Farm and four at Mass Audubon Headquarters.

Drumlin Farm Hives

1. Learning Garden Hive (Warré): This hive is slowly building up its numbers. The bees have been active on the few warm days that we have had.

2. Nature Center (Warré): In early May, we installed a new package of bees in this hive and the numbers have been increasing steadily. The queen is doing her job. As with the other hives, the bees have been very active on warm days. Once the clover in the sheep pasture blooms, we hope this hive will take off as it did two years ago with the heavy load of pollen and nectar from the clover.

3. Beeline Trail (Warré): Both of these hives were lost last fall and the hives were removed. The Warré hive is back although it has been moved slightly to take into account groundwater issues. Bees were installed in early May and the hive appears to be doing well.

4. Boyce Pond Hive (Langstroth): We thought this hive was lost over the winter, but upon closer inspection it appears to have survived. We recently cleared some of the brush and growth around the hive to make it more visible and give the bees better access.

5 & 6. Skinny Field Hives (Langstroth)*: Both of these hives are doing very well—full of bees with good levels of honey stores.

7. Skinny Field Hive (Langstroth): The Langstroth hive that had been at the Beeline Trail was moved here, and bees were added in May. The hive is doing well and already required a second brood box as it has been expanding steadily despite the cool weather.

8. Sugarbush Field Hive (Langstroth): This is not a strong hive at this point. Hopefully, as the weather warms the hive will improve. If it does not, we may be able to add bees from some of the stronger hives. The other option could be to add a swarm, if available, to build up the number of bees quickly.

9. Drumlin Community Preschool Hive (Warré): This hive has been running for five years and is doing extremely well. The hive will need an additional box soon to forestall crowding, which leads to swarming. Since it’s a Warré hive with windows, the preschool children are able to look inside and see what’s happening.

10. Farm Life Center Hive (Slovenian): This Slovenian hive, installed in a traditional kiosk structure, is the newest addition to our hive collection. Bees were recently installed, and once they have been established we will teach staff about the hive. The bees are behind interior screening so visitors can be shown the operation of the hive.

We look forward to a good beekeeping year this season. Long-term weather projections for the summer indicate more precipitation and fewer high temperature days (above 90°F) then we had last summer. Hopefully, this will insure a sufficient amount of pollen and nectar sources for the bees as well as a better season for the output at the farm. We plan to start documenting the impact of the beehives on the output and success of the farm crops this coming year.

If you have questions about any information in this update, or anything bee related, feel free to contact Mel.

*I have been experimenting with mushroom extracts to treat varro mites and the viruses they transmit in both of these hives. Based on research done at Washington State University, I have been feeding both of these hives with two different mushroom extracts since last August. The WSU entomologists found 75% reductions in mite levels in the hives using these mushroom extracts and results from these hives are excellent also with extremely low mite and virus levels. I am very pleased with this non-invasive, natural approach to dealing with the mite problem and have started using the mushroom extracts to all of the hives.

One of these hives has an experimental Flow Hive box on it. The flow hive box system, developed in Australia, allows for capturing honey directly from the box without having to open and disrupt the hive. I did not attempt to capture honey from the flow hive box last season, as the box was added late in the season and drought limited the availability of nectar. The flow hive box has a window that allows you to see the plastic flow hive frames and sometimes the bees.

The other hive has an electronic monitoring device, Brood Minder, which will record hourly temperature and humidity levels within the hive. The information can be directly uploaded and used to assess hive maintenance and also is transmitted to a national database tracking the health of bee hives across the country.