Text and photos by Betsy Pinnink
from the June 2011 issue of Medford Leas Life
After Ro Wilson found out that Lumberton Leas had a beehive (Medford Leas Life, May and September 2009 and May 2010), she campaigned to get one here. It has arrived!
On April 28, Corey Melissas, the beekeeper, drove her small yellow SUV to the designated place at the far end of Beaver Meadow in Rushmore.
She lifted out the red-and-white box containing our bees and, in the excited but subdued presence of Ro and Karel and Betsy Pennink, placed it carefully on the platform created for it. As she loosened the wooden stick blocking the entrance to the hive, bees crawled out to investigate.
While she worked to free an opening on the top, Corey enthusiastically explained the life of a bee (workers, drones, and queen). Obviously an expert on bee psychology, Corey gave us some tips. For instance, although our honeybees are a gentle Italian strain, you don’t want to stand directly in front of the hive. This is because bees returning from foraging are always in a hurry and literally make a beeline for the hive. You might get hit! After 4:00 pm it’s even more important as the forager bees coming in for the last time of that day are “taking on their nighttime job which is protection.”
Corey continues to come back to the apiary. She has brought another box to put directly on top of the first, an upper story so to speak, with more frames hung in it. (Frames are flat panels on which bees build their wax cells to hatch eggs and store honey. Frames are hung side by side in the box.) The bees are already at work there and may need a third story or “super” when the nectar flow is “in full swing.”
Corey has also been bringing a tray of sugar water to supplement the bees’ food while nectar is still scarce. She places this on top of the apiary. On top of that is the aluminum cover to protect the bees and a rock to hold it on. The boxes are painted in bright colors to help the bees find them, says Corey.
Everyone is looking forward to harvesting honey. In the meantime the bees are doing their essential work of pollination.