This is a guest post from our summer intern Kara Harrison.
Something is buzzing over at the Food Innovation Center –
bees! Since June, the Food Innovation Center has been home to four beehives. When
I went over there last week, I was able to help feed a hive and learn about how
bees live and work. They are some of the most efficient and unique animals I’ve
ever seen!
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| With the outer and inner covers removed, you can see the frames on which the bees build their comb. The queen lays eggs inside the cells of the comb, and it is also used to store honey (not in the same cells at the same time!) |
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| KVCC's hives were custom built by local beekeeper Cathy King. |
That’s right, the bees use the same space for eggs/larvae
and honey (I told you they’re efficient!). Inside the hive, there is one queen.
The queen bee is vital to the hive, because without her, the rest of the hive
has no direction. The queen is responsible for laying ALL of the eggs; if a
hive loses a queen, other bees may try to start laying eggs or no eggs will be
laid. While the queen and drones (male bees) are busy inside the hive, the
worker bees (females) are out gathering pollen and nectar to bring back that
will eventually be made into food/honey/wax.
When we went out to feed the bees, we poured sugar water
into the topmost super. This way, the bees can hang onto the wire and collect
the food without drowning. Sugar water from humans is only needed until the
bees produce enough honey to feed themselves; we were simply expediting the
process!
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| This frame of comb contains both honey (top and bottom) AND "brood", or larvae (in the capped cells in the middle). |
Bees aren’t only interesting, but they’re very significant
to our ecosystem, too! When the worker bees are out collecting pollen and
nectar, they’re also pollinating plants and crops. According to Greendustries, honeybees
are major pollinators of almonds, apples, avocados, blueberries, cantaloupes,
cherries, cranberries, cucumbers, sunflowers, watermelon, and many more.
Without the bees, supply of those crops would drastically decrease.
Therefore, let’s be kind to the honeybees, so that they will
continue to help us produce all of those delicious foods. I encourage you to
learn more about honeybees, and I will do the same!
Want to learn about beekeeping yourself? KVCC is offering a course this fall in Beekeeping 101! It will be held Tuesdays from 6-8pm at the Food Innovation Center, 224 E Crosstown Parkway.
Register at kvcc.edu/trainingschedule
And check out the WWMT News story about our apiary and the class!
