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Bee Project Newsletter March 2015

The document summarizes news from the bee hives at the Culinary Vegetable Institute. It discusses how the bees survived the winter through forming clusters around the queen and eating stored honey. It thanks sponsors who helped support a healthy bee population and new hives. Upcoming events are announced, including a lecture on bee importance in April and new buckwheat plantings to provide an early food source for the bees.

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121 views3 pages

Bee Project Newsletter March 2015

The document summarizes news from the bee hives at the Culinary Vegetable Institute. It discusses how the bees survived the winter through forming clusters around the queen and eating stored honey. It thanks sponsors who helped support a healthy bee population and new hives. Upcoming events are announced, including a lecture on bee importance in April and new buckwheat plantings to provide an early food source for the bees.

Uploaded by

api-282034345
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Bee Sustainable

March 12, 2015

THE BIG BZZZZ


News from the Hives at the Culinary Vegetable Institute

Hive-Fives
Thank you for you support!
Your contributions are
supporting crucial work in
sustaining a healthy bee
population not just for the
farm, but for the state, the
country, and the world!
Current Hive Sponsors:
Rebecca Everrett, Jennifer
Zoll, Barbara Pearce, Jonnie
Leonhardt, Sarah R. Davis, Sue
Watkins, Connie Schmidt, Sue
Cowan, James & Leslie Smith,
Nic Snowberger, Andrew &
Kristin Newby, Chris
Snowberger

Bee There!
Join us April 16th for our first
Honey Bee Lecture and Dinner
event! Enjoy a three course
honey-driven supper using
honey from the farm and a
lecture on the importance of
bees in our ecosystem by John
Schick. A portion of each ticket
sold will support a new hive for
The Culinary Vegetable
Institute's Bee program. $40
plus tax and gratuity.
419.499.7500

Beauty is in the eye of the Bee holder.

March Madnezzz
!
As the warmer weather begins to sneak into March, it
also brings new life to the bee hives tucked away in the pine
trees at the Culinary Vegetable Institute. The bees have been
tended to all winter with warm syrup and fondant to eat, and
we are happy to report that the hives are so far healthy and
the bees seem to have survived our long winter! The hives are
buzzing and the bees are doing their early spring cleaning
flights to keep the hives clear of disease and sickness.!
!
How did the bees survive over the winter? It started in
the fall, when the queen began to lay eggs of larger winter
bees. These winter bees are responsible for keeping the
queen warm during the coldest months. Summer bees may
only live 4-6 weeks, but winter bees are bred to survive the
entire winter season, sometimes for up to 6 months. The bees
warm the queen by forming a cluster around her, a
concentrated bundle of bees that flap their wings and shiver to
raise their body temperature and in turn, keep the queen warm
(temperatures can reach up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit!) at the
core. To keep the entire hive alive, the bees are constantly
rotating positions, bringing the bees on the outside of the
cluster inwards so that no bee succumbs to the cold. !
1

Bee Sustainable

March 12, 2015

!
Obviously all of this buzzing, flapping, shivering, and
repositioning takes up precious energy, and the bees need to
eat honey to survive. The worker bees in the late summer and
fall left a surplus of honey for the winter bees to eat, and the
Culinary Vegetable Institute helped out by feeding the bees
warm syrup all winter long, which the bees processed into
honey for food. This cooperation amongst the bees and their
keepers helps to ensure that the bees stay alive throughout
the winter, and that the queen survives to start a new brood of
pollinators come spring. !

Plan Bee
As the hives begin to come
alive, the first point of action
for the bees is food. While the
queen takes to laying new
eggs, the other bees are out
foraging for nectar and pollen
to feed the new brood. March
can be the hardest time of the
year for a hive, its a tightrope
situation between laying eggs
to establish a thriving colony
and making sure there is
enough food to keep the new
colony fed and healthy enough
to forage. !
The Chefs Garden has
devoted 80 acres of land to
plants that provide bees with
optimum nutrition. We have
selected specific cover crops
and scheduled plantings to
ensure a constant blooming
source throughout the warm
seasons. The proper balance
of nutrients ensures that every
edible crop hand-harvested at
The Chefs Garden is full of
flavor and high-quality
nutrition. Providing a plentiful,
diverse, and long-lasting
source of food within easy
reach of the hives offers the
same benefit to the bees. And
the effort is undoubtedly worth
it for all of us!

Beauty is in the eye of the Bee holder.

Your generous gifts"


!
We are also happy to announce that our fundraising
efforts over the winter have brought us to a maximum capacity
of hives for this year. Through your generous donations, you
have not only supported the largest community of bees we
have ever had, but you have ensured that the farmlands
around The Culinary Vegetable Institute and The Chefs
Garden will be thriving with natures movers and shakers!
Each hive begins with
around 5,000 bees and
can grow quite quickly
to 10,000 or more
inhabitants. Those
bees will be
responsible for doing
quite a bit of work
throughout their life
cycle, a work that we,
as humans, simply
cannot accomplish on
our own. If we reach
the maximum
population for all of our hives, your sponsorship could be part
of a new neighborhood of about 100,000 bees! Thats about
the population of Erie, Pennsylvania!!
!
The new hives are being washed and assembled, and
are almost ready to paint and have names placarded on the
outside. Afterwards they will be transported to their new home
on the grounds of The Culinary Vegetable Institute, and the
new queens, surrounded by the first of her brood, will be
gently deposited into a new hive to start the new ecosystem.!
!
Acres of land surrounding the hives, also sponsored
through fundraising, will be planted with buckwheat when the
ground thaws. Bees love buckwheat and are able to find
pollen early and late in the season, when pollen sources tend
to be slim. Buckwheat honey is also one of the most delicious
varieties we can think of! Get ready for a rich and deliciously
dark treat from your bees!!
2

Bee Sustainable

Beauty is in the eye of the Bee holder.

March 12, 2015

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