We are having a gathering here on Saturday January 19, and we invite you to join us. The winter meeting of the Champlain Valley Honey Bee Cooperative is at 4:30 PM at the honey house, with a pot blessing dinner at 5 PM, and at 6 PM Ross Conrad will speak on the subject of his book, “Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture”, Colony Collapse Disorder: the current state of beekeeping and organic solutions.

Ross will talk about the alternatives to chemical practices. He has worked with Charles Mraz, the Vermont pioneer in beekeeping and bee venom therapy. This gathering is significant for honey bees and is typical of people all around the country coming together to collaborate on how to take care of the bees. As honey bees do not know political borders, the support of beekeeping spans people of all ages; we know that high school students to those in the retirement community to commercial beekeepers working with 1,500 colonies are coming on Saturday.

Around the turn of the century, people had a hive or two on their land just as they have animals or chickens now. This de-centralized hobby level of beekeeping is good for the bees. Organic policies are more apt to be followed, innovations pursued, and a strong mutual relationship develops. It is true that beekeeping is a challenge these days ~ after you get started, you will probably lose them after some winters. While a hive and equipment is an investment, the return is even greater – gallons of honey and also wax, pollen, and propolis if you gather these. Working with the bees is great exercise, and allows you to be outside and close to the land. Most learn to let go of the gloves and allow a few bee stings now and then. This is one of the strong anti-cancer programs one can be a part of; the bee sting is very good for you (if you are not allergic; seek advice first).

We have learned from the bees that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts; the bee hive is a model community, all working together for the common good. The worker bees go through a process of cross training and working for three or so days in every job in the hive, each directed to their survival and success of the family, such as gathering nectar, pollen or propolis, making beeswax from honey, guarding the hive from the aggressive cousins (wasps & hornets), feeding the queen, and other duties.

As we work with the bees to be their stewards, they bless us with the pollination of much of what we eat. The interest in communities working together to help the bees and neighbor teaching neighbor has never been more vibrant. We are all stronger by working together.

The light is returning. As the days get longer with more sunny minutes, the queen bees are laying more eggs and helping to prepare her families for the Spring that is coming.

While I have only logged a few hours with the bees at the hives in my young beekeeping career, my entire understanding of bees and everything that has to do with them is growing exponentially. Before walking into Honey Gardens this summer, simply looking for a summer job, I knew very little about bees and frankly didn’t really care to learn much about them. As time went on, bottling countless pounds of honey, I was able to observe the bees that had wandered into the honey house. After being frightened of the bees, I realized that I had been working at Honey Gardens, with thousands of bees, for about a month and I hadn’t been stung. Through my observations I noticed how gentle, calm, and even how cute the bees were. How could something so much smaller then myself ever frighten me?

I was in love with the bees. I would preach to everyone I knew about how gentle the bees are and how important they are for just about everything.

I wanted to start working in close quarters with the bees and I got the chance from my teacher, Matt Schlein, founder and director of the Willowell Foundation (www.willowell.org) . One of their projects, Walden project is a program coming out of the Vergennes Union High School based on the teachings of Henry David Thoreau. It is a program for kids who want to direct their own education while learning outside of the building and in the woods. Through an independent study and a land-based project for my ecology class I was able to choose to learn about the art of beekeeping from the bee hives on the land of my school. At this point my project has composed of giving the bees organic medicine, observing the bees, winterizing the hives, basic bee research, and working at Honey Gardens.

My beekeeping career and work at Honey Gardens has taught me a lot about life, business, agriculture, and myself. Since learning the importance of bees in Vermont and the rest of the world, I feel I care for the bees as I care for some of the most important things in my life. After learning the power of the raw honey it was such a great experience extracting honey from our very own Walden bees. Taking a fully capped frame and scooping a spoon right into the freshest honey possible was so fulfilling for me.

I am thankful for this life changing opportunity from Honey Gardens and for the Walden Project for making it happen; I am especially thankful for the bees and the work they do.

Joseph Chugg

A core value of Honey Garden’s mission is to share the honey bees with youth. We believe that this has been mutually beneficial; agricultural is very labor intensive, and the help of our youth over the years of working with the bees and bottling honey is significant. At the same time, they have learned about the value of pollination, the web of the natural world and the delicate balance our earth is now in. It is a blessing when our student workers go off to college, start beekeeping clubs, and continue to raise honey bees on their own. One of these helpers made an appointment with the college president, gave her presentation for a new beekeeping project on the school land, and he was so inspired that he walked over to his desk, pulled out his checkbook and funded the project on the spot.

The honey crop in the northeast was light in volume this season, due to a drought and ongoing challenges to the health of the bees. With the dry conditions, the color of much of the honey was darker. At Honey Gardens, we are grateful to continue our diversification into plant medicine and honey wine. Thank you for asking for our elderberry syrup at your local stores and co-ops; this makes a huge difference. Raw honey, organic elderberry, organic apple cider vinegar, and propolis are effective allies to fight the common cold.

Around the honey house, the snow has now covered the nectar and pollen plants, providing insulation protection, fertilizer, and water for the coming season. Next week, after the solstice, more light will return to the earth each day, and the queen bees will start to lay more eggs.

Thank you for all of your support of the bees, plant medicine, and those who work in agriculture.

Expectations are such a double edged sword. You have to have them since that’s what keeps us looking ahead, but it is so difficult when fate intervenes and alters our plans.

I became a beekeeper quite suddenly around this time last fall when a dear friend of mine, a brother, gave me two colonies of honey bees. I had never really considered keeping bees before and this started an entirely new journey for me filled with expectations.

I loved those bees. I enjoyed wrapping them up for the winter and checking on them so often. They were a new part of me as I cleared snow from their entrance and took such delight seeing an occasional bee flying out and then back into the hive during a sunny winter day. We were going to have a long and mutually productive relationship. I knew it. I expected it. I spent many a winter evening in the basement building honey supers and frames, reading my bee keeping books and looking forward to the activities of these wonderful bees come spring and summer.

Then came spring and I noticed there weren’t as many bees around as I expected. What happened? I did everything I could, didn’t I? They should be happy & thriving. For reasons beyond my control, these bees didn’t survive the winter. This is not uncommon as we have all learned, but it was still sad. I had grand hopes and expectations.

My friend knew all too well how I must have been feeling and provided me with two more colonies of bees. This was a blessing, considering how unfortunate I felt after losing my original two colonies.

This was going to be great. I was back as a beekeeper. It was spring, flowers were blossoming, and I was seeing honey bees everywhere. My expectations were back. I WAS going to be a successful beekeeper. I so loved watching the girls fly back to the hive with their pollen baskets full of the different colors of cargo. I spent time with my friend, watching & observing his skill, methods and love as he cared for his bees. I went to the Vermont Beekeepers’ lessons and observed how others cared for and loved the bees. I was back in the game; I expected lots from my bees with my new borne knowledge and the history of losing my last colonies.

Then, later in the summer, my bees were diagnosed with American Foulbrood, a seriously contagious disease to honey bees. The only remedy to prevent the spread of this disease to other bees is to destroy the colony and burn the hives. My bees, flying in from the field with their pollen sacs filled with goldenrod pollen, had to die. And much of my past winter’s work of building frames in the basement had to be burned to prevent further spread of this horrible disease. Once again, my expectations were shattered.

Before they passed on, my bees gave me a lot of honey – 100+ lbs. I am so appreciative for their work and think of them every morning as I take my spoonful of honey or when I give a jar or two of honey away. They gave me everything they could.

My friend has pledged to give me two more colonies and I am grateful. He has helped me to not give up on the bees. They are a part of me now and will continue to be as long as I live here.

The bees have sent me a message that I needed to hear. The relationships that I build in this life, whether it is with honey bees or any other on this earth, comes with my own expectations and I truly need to work on letting such pre-conditions go. I often like to think that I am in control of such outcomes and the bees have taught me to loosen my grip a bit. I believe that the Great Mother is in control. My purpose here on this planet is for my diligence, my love, my prayers and my acceptance in believing that there is a higher power looking after things.

This doesn’t mean that the bees are on their own. We, as beekeepers, have to be there to help them through their difficult times, especially as of late. But it does mean, at least to me, that it is not so much about me and my expectations.

Bless the bees.

Honey and Medicine: Past, Present and Future

P C Molan, Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Honey Research Unit University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

[Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of abstracts from the 1st International Conference on the Medicinal Uses of Honey (From Hive to Therapy) held by Universiti Sains Malaysia in August of 2006. The abstracts have been published by the Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences (Vol.14 No.1, January 2007).]

…”It is predicted that in the future it will be widely used prophylactically to prevent infection of patients with “superbugs” in hospitals, and will come into use as standard treatment for: leprosy; for all surgical wounds to prevent infection, prevent scarring, and speed healing; for burns, to prevent infection and prevent further damage to tissues caused by inflammation resulting from the thermal damage; to minimise burning from radiotherapy for cancer; to minimise effects on the gut of chemotherapy for cancer; and will be fully accepted by the medical profession as a legitimate modern medicine.”

Study: Honey Could Play ‘Important Role’ in Preventing Cell Damage

Influence of Honey on the Suppression of Human Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) Peroxidation (In vitro)

Evidence-based Compl. and Alt. Medicine, 10/18/2007

…”Our study provides (for the first time) primary evidence suggesting that these honeys in further in vivo studies could play an important role in inhibiting lipid peroxidation in biological systems through their antioxidant, metal chelating and free radical scavenging activities…”