Local beeyard enjoys sweet success
Post on: 2011-11-02 By: admin
An apiary, or as Guy Anderson (owner of Hive'n Hoe Country Store and Lazy J Ranch with wife Gail) terms it, the bee yard, is a world onto it's own.Thousands of bees can call a single hive home, and if you ever stumbled by one you will know the sheer magnitude of activity which occurs around a hive. A literal highway of buzzing bees zooms to and fro collecting pollen and working around the hive.So what would ever provoke someone to plant themselves in the middle of swarming, buzzing bees? An interest in a very ancient art, which stems from our days as hunters and gatherers."I started out helping this older fellow with his bees because he was getting too old. One day I caught a swarm and he said I could have it. I wasn't looking to get into beekeeping, but 12 to 13 years later, I've gone from 35 hives to 1,200," said Anderson."It started as a hobby, but it's a family business now and it's nice to be able to work with family. We've met a lot of great people over the years," said his wife Gail, who says you never get used to all the bees. "Sometimes I put my hand down on something and there will be a bee there."According to Gail, it's not the honeybees one has to worry about, it's the yellow jackets, hornets and wasps. "They get a bit of a bad rap," she said of the honeybee.Beginning in July and finishing in mid-October is the honey harvest. A complex extraction process which gears up to full speed in the middle of September and has now finished with the help of seasonal employees.Just this past year, the Hive'n Hoe updated their extracting equipment. The process is nearly fully automatic now. The machine is capable of popping the frames free of the honey boxes, decapping the honeycomb, separat ing the honey and pumping it into large containers."Our brand new extracting machine is twice as fast, it's very good," said Anderson.Making honey wasn't always so modern and mechanized. Hidden in the back of the Hive'n Hoe store is an interesting contraption. It's an antique honey extractor, a type of hand-cranked centrifuge. Despite owning the equipment, the Anderson's have never had the need to use it."There's so much effort involved, you couldn't even think of doing our quantity of honey with this kind of equipment," explained Anderson.
In a modern-day bee yard not much goes to waste. The Andersons make use of all the products the bees produce, in one way or another. When you are making 114,000 lbs of honey a year, limiting waste becomes important.The structure of the honeycomb is left over on most of the frames. They are reinserted into their honey boxes and wrapped in plastic to await a return to the fields next spring. Scraped off cappings are pressed through an auger to extract what is left of the honey and the excess material is melted down into wax for candles."We don't lose much in the process, it all goes into candles and human food production," added Anderson.On top of honey, the Andersons use the honeycomb, pollen, beeswax and propolis (bee glue).Most people in North America eat honey or even honeycomb on a weekly basis. If not on their toast then in their tea, or in a large number of consumer products from cereal to sauces. However, the act of eating pollen or propolis is less widespread."Propolis is a product that bees use to fill holes in the hive, it's also a popular antiseptic used especially in Eastern Europe to help heal cuts and burns faster," said Anderson.Traditionally it's usually made into a tincture and ingested orally, or else made into a salve and applied topically to wounds.Pollen, according to Anderson, is full of vitamins and minerals and when eaten regularly can help allergy sufferers gain resistance to local pollens.So how do people eat pollen? Well sometimes spread on toast with other toppings such as honey, butter or jam. Although many companies sell pollen dried, it's effectiveness is reduced by 40%, which is why the Andersons keep their pollen frozen.Beeswax is another product the Hive'n Hoe doesn't waste. It is used in products such as candles and cosmetics. The majority of beeswax produced at the Hive'n Hoe is sent off to commercial companies. In fact, most of the honey produced is also sent to large packagers."We sell 85-90% of what we make wholesale to big packers. They blend all the honey they receive, darker with lighter, so it's usually always an amber or light amber honey in stores," said Anderson.Because of this process large packaging companies have little control over quality, colour or flavour of honey.See 'At the Hive'n At the Hive'n Hoe the honey is naturally flavoured by the crops which the hives are near and is kept separate to maintain the integrity of the flavour. They usually have clover, spring wildflower, fall wildflower and buckwheat honeys. Although as the crops vary by year, so do the honey flavours."Each crop produces a different type of honey and each has a different taste. We can have up to six different types a year and our hives are at about 50 different sites," said Anderson.The Anderson's bees are scattered across Bruce County, from south of Lucknow to Southampton at 50 different farms. Although the bees are still busy around the hive, winter will soon be on it's way, and with it a dangerous time for the average bee."Bee losses in the winter are one of the most difficult challenges faced by bee yards. The biggest cause are mites, the Varroa mite came from Europe and then moved up the coast from Florida about 12 to 14 years ago," said Anderson.The mites chew the wings of the bee, weak-e ning them. They also carry with them a slew of viruses which bees are prone to contracting. In Ontario the average bee losses in the winter due to mites are about 30%, and the Hive'n Hoe experienced a 25% loss last winter."Most people are around average but some hives can lose 85% and some 100% with the mi tes," he added.If you've heard of Colony Collapse Disorder, these mites and their viruses are considered by many to be a significant con-t ributing factor, according to Anderson."With Colony Collapse Di s o r d e r, we don't know what causes it. It can be so many things, it's too cold, too wet, too windy, diseases and mite damage, it's probably a series of problems or it could be one we don't know about," he said.There is plenty bee yards can do to help their hives, from making sure there is available food, to treating the bees with formic acid and other medications in the fall to help prevent mites."We treat the bees in the fall because we don't want the medications to seep into the honey. We can only treat with formic acid in the spring because it doesn't leave traces in the honey," said Anderson.Bee yards do what they can, but at the beginning of each spring these new problems compound with natural "spring dwindling" to significantly impact and weaken hives."Spring dwindling is a natural occurrence when old bees die off quicker than they are replaced. So at the beginning of each spring the hives need to replenish what they've lost before they can get working on the hive," he added.Bee keepers must also build new hives to replenish losses, which means weakening strong hives by taking new bees from the hive to build a new one.There are plenty of problems facing North American bee yards to day, including an intrusion into the market by cheap "illegal honey" - honey from China banned due to use of antibiotics not approved in North Ameri c a , according to Anderson. However, the Anderson's aren't going to let it get them down and the Hive'n Hoe will go on producing local honey for years to come."I'll probably be here until I die," joked Anderson about the family's much-loved farm. The Andersons have also recently planted a young apple orchard in at their as part of plans to expand their operation.To learn more about local honey production stop by the Hive'n Hoe on Kincardine Ave.
Pick or Treat!Sustainable connections sought within KincardineAll eyes on Kincardine for ARC voteSouth Bruce OPP gives lesson on Internet safetyIntoxicated man found inside homeKDSS class researching plants with Penetangore Watershed GroupWomen's House Gala raises $20,000Bruce Power Nuclear Response takes first in TulsaSwing the night away at annual Sunset Gala Nov. 12 at PavilionOperation Christmas Child aims high for 2011 shoe box collectionsMore Local News
▪Community/Local happenings/BlogThe Love Affair with the gun in the US of A We are spending our winter away from the white stuff in Fort Myers Beach Florida. Today I was reading the local newspapers - The News-Press and[...]By: ruler | Comments▪Community/Local happenings/BlogIt is not unreasonablefor any individual to believe in some construct that relieves them of the stress of having to deal with an unknowable situation. Of course choosing a[...]By: Bill M | Comments▪Community/Local happenings/BlogFurther as to why parliament must vote...Before the last vote took place in parliament to extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan to 2011, Harper stated that, even though all parties have declared in[...]By: DJWood | Comments▪Community/Politics/BlogA healthy outlet for free speech..DJW, your blogs seem to be soliciting good pro and con replies.I only wish many more residents would take the time to air their views through[...]By: skyhawk | Comments▪Community/Local happenings/BlogWhy the train has left the station?Contrary to the opinion of Fred Rinne (Buy American Deal gets us back on track - Sun Times, Feb. 8[IMAGE=""]) the only track that Canadian businesses[...]By: DJWood | Comments
TodayAn Exhibit - Growing Up VictorianAn Exhibit - Ridin' the RailsAn Exhibit: Cornerstones and FoundationsAn Exhibit: Owen Sound's Harbour JewelArt for the Anxious Arthritis Self Management ProgramBeyond the Garage DoorDaytime Beginner Classes Taoist Tai ChiFall Lecture Series - The Discovery of RadioactivityFriends of Camp Aneesh first meeting after incorporationPraise and WorshipToddler Time and Story Hour
News | Sports | Special Sections | Arts/Life | Multimedia | Features | Contact Us
, Sun Media Corporation |
Article original from: http://www.kincardinenews.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3330130
