Beekeeping builds buzz across Lakes Region

By R.D. Frum

Looking to embark on a buzzworthy adventure? Look no further than beekeeping: the sweetest form of multitasking. Not only does one get to produce liquid gold, but one also gets to become the ultimate wingperson for Mother Nature. Local beekeepers Isabel Kelley and Mark Cooper of Windham unveil the secrets behind the captivating world of nurturing bees.

Beekeeping is a year-round activity in the Lakes Region and
some beekeepers and farmers in Windham and Raymond
choose to sell or gift the honey that they collect from the hives
they tend. COURTESY PHOTO 

The only bees that get kept for honey production are honeybees, scientifically named Apis Mellifera. Honeybees are of Italian and Mediterranean origin, and they are the only type of bee that produce surplus amounts of honey.

Contrastingly, bumblebees are native pollinators, meaning they pollinate plants, and they may collect a small amount of nectar. But bumblebee colonies are not managed, they survive in the wild and their natural nests are typically very small with a maximum of 10 or 20 bees, or a large colony might be 100 bees. On the other hand, a honeybee hive at peak season can have 20,000 to 50,000 bees.

“You do mark the queen and if you buy a package of bees to install in a hive, the queen will usually come separated and marked with a dot on her abdomen,” Kelley says.

Honeybees are very docile and easy to work with and typically, to manage, Cooper says.

“Bumblebees are fun if you leave them alone but there’s no way to manage them,” he said. “They don’t live in hives and won’t live in manageable conditions.”

Cooper has around 100 hives on his farm Cooper Charolais Farm & Apiary in Windham.

Mites are the biggest challenger of honeybees because the bees have no way to defend themselves against the mites and the viruses and diseases they carry. Varroa mites are the most significant threat to honeybees. The immune systems of the bees are weakened as a result of the hemolymph, bee blood, that these parasitic mites feed on while attaching themselves to adult bees and their offspring. If left uncontrolled, varroa mites can spread illnesses and viruses and cause colony decline and loss.

The natural lifespan of an average honeybee is around six weeks from the time they emerge from a cell as a fully-grown adult bee. The colony can survive the chilly months thanks to the bees that start raising new baby bees known as winter bees. The winter bees emerge as autumn approaches and have a longer life span. They protect the hive and have different responsibilities and don’t forage every day, which helps to extend their life.

Bees don't hibernate throughout the winter; instead, they gather in a close-knit cluster to keep warm and gorge on honey reserves. They start brood rearing in the middle of winter to increase their population and get ready for the spring's honey and nectar flows. The hive, which is made of three-quarter-inch hardwood boards and frames, is subjected to a variety of protective methods to conserve warmth, from insulating wrapping to tar paper coverings, helping the colony's management of temperature and survival.

“I do wrap my bees up in the winter and I'll also put guards around all the entrances so that no mice can get in there,” Kelley says.

Insulating material is stapled on to lessen wind impact, while insulation sleeves and specially made plastic form a barrier around the hive to maintain temperature without obstructing bee movement. A further alternative for coping with severe weather is polystyrene insulation, which can be found in the shape of sleeves or attached panels. This enables bees to endure the elements more easily.

In the art of beekeeping, a smoker is used which suppresses the bees' natural pheromones, which are essential for communication inside the hive. The colony can continue working unhindered since this smoke calms the bees and stops the distribution of alarm pheromones. Beekeepers typically cover their faces with a mesh veil and handle frames and bees with gloves designed of thin leather specially made for beekeeping.

“Some people wear gloves all the time, some people will occasionally, and some beekeepers never wear them,” Cooper says.

“The bees go through the process of capping the honey frames, so you'll know when they're ready. They're quite heavy; they'll have a fresh coat of wax on them that's little whitish,” Kelley says. “I usually wait like many beekeepers till the end of summer, early fall to make sure that they have done as much as they can before things get too cold and they’re not out there harvesting as much.”

Beekeeping can be a costly pursuit. “For somebody starting out brand new, a complete hive we call a Langstroth hive, which is the most common commercially made hive set up in the world basically is roughly $250 for a basic setup,” Cooper says.

“The beekeeper also needs things like a smoker, hive tool and some kind of personal protective gear such as a veil, some gloves, just for protection and comfort while working with the bees,” Cooper says. “So reality is probably $500 to $1,000 expenditure for somebody getting started out is in the ballpark.”

Beekeepers decide whether they choose to sell or to gift their honey.

“We do sell honey,” Cooper says. “We sell it at the farm year-round. A typical one-pound jar of honey is around $10 and that’s probably a pretty common thing for local raw pure honey.”

Kelley said she sold the honey that she had in 2020 but that I hadn't sold it since.

“I was doing $20 for a pint mason jar and mostly it's just some neighbors that were buying it from me,” Kelley says. “But I don't typically sell it. I just kind of hang on to it and give it away as gifts for family or friends who are looking for some.” <