LOCALadk Magazine

18 Summer 2017 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk Sweet As Honey How does one get into beekeeping? Good question. Beekeeping's a peculiar hobby, known for leading to lots of bee stings. For me, I was drawn to beekeeping by being immersed in the culture that surrounded me. Living in the Adirondacks, there is a natural inclination to learn more and more about the natural resources around us. As I grew out of my teens I dove into gardening, fishing, forestry, and all different types of outdoorsy things. These things started to define who I was and how I wanted to live. It was because I wanted to try something really new that I asked, "Why not apiculture?" (beekeeping). It may have been somewhat of a butterfly effect: one small instance that caused a distant outcome. Maybe the initial idea came when I was reading a honey jar while indulging in the golden goodness, but the Adirondack paradigm – living in harmony with nature – was my main motivation. That may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of bees – people usually try to keep their distance – but it was in the spirit of living harmoniously with natural creatures that I decided to give beekeeping a go. Is beekeeping hard? This is usually the first question I'm asked. Honeybees are complex social insects – they organize and communicate with each other to accomplish a common goal. Honeybees live in colonies that can weigh nearly 250 pounds and include up to 50,000 bees made up of three broad categories: queen, drone, and worker bees. So, is beekeeping hard you ask? Well, contrary to what it may seem, it doesn't take a lot of work because the bees know how to manage themselves, but due to the complex nature of bees, it takes a lot of knowledge to manipulate them and benefit from them. For a novice beekeeper, gaining knowledge about bees can mean countless hours of observing how they act, and researching what different actions mean. Some actions, like swarming, bearding, or orientation flights, can cause the beginner beekeeper to panic, as they did me when I first started. But once one is familiar with the common actions of bees, they become intriguing. Even an experienced beekeeper will enjoy an hour or more of therapeutic buzzing while sitting next to the hives. I certainly do. Sometimes I'll pull my chair up right in between my hives and just listen and watch. A quiet hour in late afternoon at the hives and you'll hear the forager bees coming back excited after a day of nectar collection, wasting no time getting into the hive, and drone bees flying around aimlessly (they really don't have any utility after mating with the queen). You'll see all the different colors of pollen coming in on pollen pants – pouches on bees' hind legs that are used to carry pollen. The bees' wings seem to make a perfect "ohmmm" sound, which I find can take my mind off just about anything. This, paired with the savory, yeasty smell of pollen and sweet smell of nectar being dehumidified by the bees, make for an intoxicating environment. All the different pollens and nectars collected by the bees reflect the beautiful Adirondack region. The Adirondacks are a unique environment for bees. The range of altitude throughout the region benefits bees with what I like to call the alpine advantage. Altitude changes within a small proximity provide multiple blooming periods for the same flowers: early blooms at lower altitudes and later blooms of the same flowers at higher altitudes. This, in effect, elongates the foraging time for honeybees.

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