SUSAN JONES, Apiculture Specialist
APICULTURE
The goal of the Apiculture and Pollinator Program is to incorporate teaching and interaction with pollinators into all of the agricultural pathways at John de la Howe.
This will provide each student an opportunity to experience the impact that pollinators have on their specific area of focus, and as a result, develop a principled approach to protecting and sustaining them. More in-depth instruction and certification are provided to those students selecting Apiculture and/or Pollinators as their Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE).
Managed honey bee colonies are used as the primary tool of instruction due to the ability to better interact with them over other pollinators. However, instruction is not limited to just this one type of pollinator. Attention is also given to natural habitats for native bees, butterflies, bats, and birds – all playing various roles in the overall pollination process.
Building Our Program
Six honey bee colonies were established on the campus in Spring 2024. Current plans are on track to increase the number of colonies to 20 in Spring 2025 to best serve the needs of the bees and the students.
Bees are managed, but wild, requiring careful management of not being over-disturbed in a teaching environment. They need to be allowed to do their work with minimal interruption. Having an apiary of 20 colonies will allow weekly interaction for all students without causing undue stress on the bees.
As the bees work to pollinate, they will also collect nectar – the wonderful reward for their pollination services. A well-managed honey bee colony can easily produce a surplus of between 30 to 60 pounds of honey per year. Multiplied by 20 colonies, that could easily be 1,200 pounds of honey each year!
Club Apis
Club APIS was established in 2024 to support students and members of the community interested in learning more about our valued pollinators and honey bees. Each monthly meeting will feature a guest speaker or a fieldwork activity.
Club Apris meets monthly on the fourth Tuesday from 4-5 p.m. in the Apiculture Classroom at the Education Center. Meeting dates for 2025 are January 28, February 25, March 25 and April 29.
Community Support
A generous grant by Duke Energy has funded the Apiculture Program expansion to include the addition of a Certified Honey House on the John de la Howe campus. This will permit the students to not only interact with the bees, but also harvest, bottle, label, and market this product of the hive – bringing the experience full circle. Learning through this process will prove invaluable to the students as they develop their own agricultural endeavors, impact their communities, and strengthen South Carolina agriculture.
What's Happenin' In The Hive
Pollinators and honey bees are pretty quiet this time of year. When temperatures dip below 50 degrees, the bees are unable to maintain warmth to fly and stay clustered together in the hive keeping each other warm. They vibrate their wings, creating heat with friction slowly consuming the honey they have stored.
Brood is minimal as the colony must keep the developing bees at 95-97 degrees. Our beekeepers have used this broodless period to treat for varroa mites using Oxalic Acid Vapor which kills the phoretic mites on contact. On a warm 60-degree day, you may see bees out flying taking a cleansing flight, in that healthy bees will not defecate in the hive.
On December 21st, we experienced the Winter Solstice. As the days begin to lengthen, the queen bee will begin laying more eggs, increasing the population of the colony in anticipation of Spring. Our beekeepers are also anticipating spring by assembling and building new brood boxes - preparing for the arrival of new colonies, and new honey supers - eagerly awaiting our first crop of honey!