Tag Archives: honey

Inside the Hive: Congratulations Bee School Graduates!

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.

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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!

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

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.

When a Hive Loses Its Queen

By Beekeeper Mel Gadd

Learning Garden Hive

Since our spring update, several people noticed that the activity at the Learning Garden hive has dropped considerably. Initial inspection indicated that the bees might have abandoned this hive, as the normal busyness we are use to seeing this time of year is not happening.

So I performed a full inspection—opened the hive, pulled out bars with comb, checked the comb—to figure out the status of the hive. This is what I found:

  • Number of bees drastically reduced (just a handful left).
  • Very little stored honey, but a large amount of stored pollen.
  • No brood (egg, larval, or pupal cells) in the hive.
  • A number of open queen cells in the middle of the honeycomb. (Workers create these “supersedure cells” when they need to replace the queen. On the other hand, if the workers create “swarm cells”—queen cells at the bottom of the honeycomb—the hive is overcrowded and getting ready to swarm. This hive has no such cells.)

All of this indicates that the queen died or disappeared and the workers were not successful at raising a replacement before she was gone.

What’s Next

Within the next couple of weeks, I will add bees from one of the Skinny Field hives and buy and install a new queen. Both Skinny Field Hives (5 and 6, if you’re looking at the map in the spring update) are doing extremely well, which would allow me to split the bees in one of them. I will then merge these bees with those in the Learning Garden hive and introduce the new queen.

Feel free to visit the Learning Garden hive and open the windows and see if you notice the change in activity.

Questions? Contact Mel.

Spring Hive Update from Beekeeper Mel

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.

Drumlin Farm Friday to Friday: June 3–10

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Hello, June!

With the heat of Memorial Day weekend behind us, it’s time for us to throw on sunscreen and explore the farm!

Here’s what we have lined up for you:

Friday, June 3

Queen Bee
3:30–5 pm | All ages w/Adult
Buzz on in and learn about the queen bee and her court. She may have as many as 20,000 attendants catering to her needs, and she could lay up to 1,500 eggs each day!

Saturday, June 4

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Introduction to Bees and Beekeeping
1–3:30 pm | Adult
This class is all about honeybees—how they survive, what they do for us, and of course, honey. We will visit the hives and sample various honeys. If you are contemplating beekeeping or if you just want to know more about these insects, join us!

Tuesday, June 7

Baby Bugs
3:30–5 pm | All ages w/Adult
Let’s go on a bug hunt and search for caterpillars, grasshopper nymphs, dragonfly naiads, and other insect larvae!

Thursday, June 9

Home Tweet Home
10–11:30 am | All ages w/Adult
Now that spring is here, migratory birds have returned and are settling in to raise their families. We’ll examine nests, listen to songs, and meet some feathered friends!

Friday, June 10

Splish Splash
3:30–5 pm | All ages w/Adult
Meet our web-footed quackers and discover why ponds are such wonderful places to live.

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Farm-to-table Cooking: Spring Harvest
6–9 pm | Adult
Celebrate the bounty of spring at Drumlin Farm as we visit the fields to harvest our meal. Return to the kitchen for a hands-on cooking class, where we will craft these ingredients and enjoy them together!

For a look at all of our upcoming programs, visit massaudubon.org/drumlinprograms.

The Bees and the Bees

It’s well known that bee populations are on the decline. In his New York Magazine article “The Blight of the Honey Bee,” writer David Wallace-Wells states that populations have died off as much as 60 percent in some parts of North America. Even the Obama Administration has made an effort to figure out ways to help save our disappearing bee population.

bee1Which is why we’re doing our part to help keep the honey flowing! At Drumlin Farm, we have six hives that are buzzing with activity. And these little insects sure do work hard. From about 20 feet away, one can hear these lively hives, and dozens of bees can be seen hopping from flower to flower at any given time.

If you still haven’t had the chance to see our hives, but want to learn more about what we’re doing with them, be sure to sign up for our intro class in October. Tia and Mel will be there to show you our hives and teach you all about the importance of maintaining the bee population.

Although we don’t recommend getting too close to the hives (here’s a map of where you can find them), feel free to watch them at work as you roam around the farm!

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