The Hive

By Danielle Grant

I waited a long time to be able to say the words, “I’m a beekeeper.” I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of keeping bees. I love nature. All of it. The plants and animals, the fresh air and digging in the dirt feeds my soul. The plan was to start a backyard apiary when I retired and had lots of time to spare. Then Covid happened, and something shifted. Why wait to start a hobby I knew would bring me joy?

I started my journey like everything else I do - with a LOT of research. I joined PCBA right away which was over a year before I got bees. I bought books and really read them. How many people have read Beekeeping for Dummies cover to cover? I did. I read everything I could get my hands on. I signed up for workshops and online classes. I registered for weekly, live MDAR webinars. I couldn’t wait to sign up for Bee School. I wanted to learn the local stuff. I wanted to learn from people who know our local seasons and what it takes to keep bees in my area. I started talking to other beekeepers and joining lots of Facebook groups dedicated to beginners. I went into beekeeping with a Failure is NOT an Option mentality.

It didn’t take me long into my research to realize that before I got my bees, I really needed a mentor. I had been to the PCBA meetings and I was signed up for Bee School, but I just hadn’t met anyone I clicked with. I’m painfully introverted. I’d rather light myself on fire than try to break into a conversation at a bee meeting. I really needed to make a connection with an experienced beekeeper who was open-minded. The more I learned, the more I found myself leaning away from the standard beekeeping practices (10-frame Langstroth double-deep setups, foundation, alcohol washes, honey extraction equipment, etc.).

By Christmas that year, I had purchased my first hive (a Flow Hive) and was keeping busy wood burning those beautiful cedar boxes and putting frames together. I took Flow’s online course made up of 72 modules taught by beekeepers and entomologists from all over the globe. I was gaining confidence in my knowledge, but I was worried about finding a mentor. The summer before, I had seen a video on our town Facebook page of a local woman catching a swarm in shorts with a feather (no veil) and I told my husband, “THAT is who I want to teach me about bees.” Well didn’t he get me a gift certificate to her apiary for Christmas, so I’d have to step out of my comfort zone, go buy her honey and meet her! And meet her, I did. We talked bees. We talked honey. I told her about my Flow Hives and showed her pictures. She told me my hives were very fancy – but she had always been curious about them and how they worked. She told me I had a good foundation of knowledge and I just needed bees. I asked her if she would sell me my first nucs. She was delighted.

On May 13, 2023, with her help, I installed two nucleus colonies into my Flow Hives. The first 4 weeks were absolute bliss. I spent hours just sitting watching and observing and learning from them. I couldn’t wait for hive inspection days. I developed my IPM plan. I started making my swarm prevention preparations…. And then I found a capped swarm cell. And I absolutely panicked. Instead of calling my mentor, I called another beekeeper friend and offered up a split from the hive. He came over and drove off with my queen and three full frames of brood and nurse bees. The following week, two days before I planned to do a split, my second hive swarmed.

I cringe thinking about it. What colossal mistakes. NEVER give your queen away. If your bees don’t successfully requeen, you will need her. I just wasn’t prepared. I didn’t have enough extra equipment to make a third hive. I didn’t have a nuc box laying around to split them to prevent the swarm in time. I lacked confidence and experience. Luckily, my mentor came to my rescue. She helped me requeen – not once, but twice. She talked me off the ledge too many times to count and gave me stellar advice when I needed it. I will eternally be grateful for her wisdom and patience…but mostly for her open mind. She didn’t make me feel stupid for the missteps I took. She actually thought it was good for it all to happen my first year so I could learn from it. My bees did start building out their honey supers – but we lost the momentum of that nectar flow when we were queenless. The silver lining of that was our extended brood break which kept the mites low.

My first bee season has been full of ups and downs. I’ve learned so much – but I feel like I will never be done learning about these incredible creatures. My plans for my little backyard apiary are, what some would consider, controversial. Running single brood chambers with foundationless frames the first year is rarely recommended unless you find people who started out with this method. I found people I trusted that had solid experience and practices, and I modeled my plan around what I’ve learned from them. I spend a lot of time listening to, watching and inspecting my bees. I try to intervene if I see signs that they need my help. If not, I let them do what they do best. These are living creatures who may or may not need intervention to keep them healthy and thriving which has always been the goal. Honey is the bonus that, if I’m lucky, will come next year.

C. Marina Marchese is the author of The Honey Connoisseur: Selecting, Tasting and Pairing Honey with a Guide to More than 30 Varietals (with Kim Flottum), Honey for Dummies (with Howland Blackiston) and her beekeeping memoir, Honeybee Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper. In 2011, Marina established The American Honey Tasting Society as the leading resource for honey sensory education in the United States.

1. Our club members would like to hear more from you on how you began your journey to

becoming a honey sensory expert and what accomplishment you are most proud of, so far.

I became an accidental beekeeper in 2000, when a neighbor invited me to visit his apiary, I could never image that first taste of warm, fresh honey straight from the hive would change the course of my life. It took 2 years to harvest my own honey and I was surprised to see that more experienced beekeepers were selling their hard earned honey for very little. Like all beekeepers, I began to collected honey from my travels and became fascinated by the diversity of colors, aromas and flavors and with almost 100 unique honeys on my shelf I had no tools to understand or completely appreciate what was inside these jars. I naively thought there might be a database for beekeepers to match the honey from various botanical sources to their flavors, for example if my bees visit sweet clover the honey I would look for dry hay and cinnamon or if they visited buckwheat my honey would be dark, pungent and malty. In 2012, on a visit to my family in Italy I figured I would learn about wine tasting and transfer it to honey – makes sense, right? I found myself at a honey festival in Montalcino, (The City of Honey) where I stumbled upon a honey tasting session. They passed around samples of honey and described each one by its color, smells, flavors and botanical source exactly how we would talk about wine. I learned about the Italian honey sensory program and attended my first of 3 courses in Guspini, Sardinia in 2013.

Needless to say, it was everything I expected to learn about honey and even more. I completed the training and was accepted into the Italian Register in 2015. Back then, the courses were only taught in Italian. Today, I am an instructor for my educational organization the AHTS and am passionate about teaching beekeepers and culinary professionals about the diversity of honey and the methods to taste and evaluate honey developed in Italy.

2. We know that honey tasting can be quite nuanced. In your experience, what are some of the key elements a taster should pay attention too as well as avoiding common misconceptions?

The most challenging part of tasting honey is describing the aromas and flavors using words beside sweet, yummy and delicious. Sensory training starts with building a foundation through olfactory and gustatory exercises to sharpen your senses also understanding the psychology and physiology of how humans experience taste and flavor. Humans actually experience flavor in our noses because our tongue and taste buds are limited to sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Whereas flavor is all the words on a honey wheel we use to describe what we smell. Once we understand how our brain interprets the smells, tastes and flavors in a honey sample we can use sensory analysis training to evaluate, describe and memorize any honey by their unique sensory characteristics. More detailed info in my books Honey for Dummies and The Honey Connoisseur.

3. Lastly, in addition to your books, speaking engagements and on-line classes, we would be

interested in any other honey tasting resources you have come across.

This method of using SA to taste and evaluate honey was developed in Italy over 40 years of collecting honey samples and performing chemical and pollen analyses then evaluating them by a trained panel of honey tasting experts. The panel establishes parameters for the sensory characteristics of each botanical source by establishing its sensory characteristics – basically establishing what each honey should look, smell and taste like.

As a member of the Register and docent, I am required to take refresher courses online or in person and participate in their annual honey judging competitions to keep my senses sharp and continue to learn about new developments, practices and honeys. Italy is the leader and only country that is this advanced in honey education and literacy. Basically, everything I know about honey, I learned from my training under the experts in Italy who continue to learn from them and share this knowledge through The American Honey Tasting Society. The methods are easy to learn but require practice and like beekeeping can take years to master.

Founded in 1973, Wildlands Trust is one of the largest and oldest regional land trusts in

Massachusetts and has helped to ensure the protection of nearly 14,000 acres of natural and

agricultural lands. Wildlands Trust works throughout Southeastern Massachusetts to permanently protect native habitats, farmland, and lands of high ecological and scenic value that serve local communities. Max Phelps, programming coordinator, answers a few questions for PCBA.

1. Max, your bio indicates, in your free time, you tend to a Wildlands Trust community

garden plot at Davis-Douglas Farm. The garden provides an opportunity for community

members to grow foods and flowers of their own and meet fellow gardeners in the area. In

your experience, how has the garden promoted your organization’s mission and what are some of the program’s successes?

Wildlands Trust’s community garden is one way that we are able to provide our members

with the opportunity to connect with nature. Many avid gardeners will say that gardening is a

meditative experience, and I would agree with that. It is a good reminder of where our food

comes from and helps reconnect you with the natural world. Facilitating positive relationships

between people and the environment is part of how Wildlands works to preserve the natural

heritage of Southeastern Massachusetts. And eating hyper-local foods, like ones grown in your own garden, is an important part of living sustainably. I think growing your own food also helps grow an appreciation for farmers who are easy to forget about even though they are so

important. Our community garden is also an area where we are working to expand programming so that it can be a more collaborative experience where people with plots share recipes, tips, and tricks with others.

2. Davis-Douglas Farm, in 2020 created a native plants garden. Can you share a bit about

how the project evolved, from the idea of using an old barn foundation on the farm, to becoming a successful pollinator oasis?

The native pollinator garden at Davis-Douglas Farm started as a need to transform the old barn foundation from a nuisance and safety concern to an attractive feature at our

Headquarters. That’s when Karen Grey, President of Wildlands Trust, had the idea to create a

garden within the foundation. From there, the creation of the garden was a massive group effort.

Jerry Richmond and his team completed the necessary structural work, followed by masterful

design from Love Albrecht Howard who led a group of volunteers to make his vision a reality.

Morrison’s Home and Garden Center contributed by selecting a variety of native flowering plants that would bloom at different times throughout the year. And the native pollinator garden does not end within the bounds of the old barn foundation. Across Davis-Douglas Farm you will find native plants that appeal to a variety of pollinators, including a monarch waystation. Marilynn Atterbury, one of our master gardeners, maintains the area today and has done outstanding work to make Davis-Douglas Farm a successful pollinator oasis.

3. Wildlands Trust partners with dozens of agencies and non-governmental organizations. In addition to your website Wildlands Trust, what other resources would you recommend for our members to explore? Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

The Instagram account @sustainableplymouth is a great resource for finding conservation-

oriented events and news in the Plymouth area and beyond. Your town's official website can also be a good spot to find town owned conservation lands. For staying updated on Wildlands Trust, sign up for our monthly E-News and follow our Instagram account @wildlandstrust. 2023 is an exciting year for us as we are celebrating our 50th anniversary!

3 Cups total of Chex - I use heaping cups for the Rice Chex and Corn Chex so they are more like 1.25 cups. I use 1 cup of the wheat Chex. So it’s a bit more than 3.5 Cups

1 Cup Pretzels - I use the small square ones from Market Basket

1 Cup Cheese It crackers - I used Gold Fish — that’s what I had

1 Cup salted peanuts

1/4 Cup butter

2 T brown sugar

2 T honey

1 t vanilla extract

1 T coarse salt - like pretzel salt or 1 t fine salt if you have no coarse salt

——————————————————————————————————————————

Directions:

• I use a large foil baking pan (i use it over and over) or you can use a large bowl to mix the dry ingredients
• Preheat oven to 300 F
• Line a large sheet pan - cookie sheet - with parchment paper or foil
• Mix the Chex mix, pretzels, crackers and peanuts together in the pan or large bowl
• Melt the butter in a pan
• Add the brown sugar, honey and vanilla extract
• Cook until it froths - cook for a few minutes: 2 or 3
• Pour the mixture over the cereal and toss until everything is completely coated. I toss it with a spoon until it cools enough to toss with one hand and a spoon!
• Spread the mixture evenly on the sheet pan. It should not be piled up - make as even as possible Sprinkle with the coarse salt
• Bake for 30 minutes, turning the mixture after 10 - 15 minutes. Watch it - if it is getting too “toasty” or getting brown, turn the oven down. Honey can easily burn.
• The mixture should be kind of “glazed” and not too sticky
• I found that in the summer when it’s kind of humid it stays a bit sticky so I put it in a low oven — like 200 F and check it every 10 minutes or so.
• Cool completely - I leave it in the oven until both the oven and the mix are cool - it gives the mix a little more time to “dry”
• Store in airtight container. Enjoy!

-Thanks to Vickie McDonough for the recipe!

This month’s PCBA speaker is Bryce Williams, from the national weather service. The NOAA Outreach Center works to promote and support the overall NOAA mission and vision of science, service, and stewardship. They provide educational and outreach materials and field questions related to NOAA science, data, and policy. Many of their resources are only available online.

“Bryce Williams is a Lead Meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s forecast office in Norton, Massachusetts. He is responsible for observing and forecasting the weather for much of Southern New England. He received his bachelor’s degree in Meteorology from Mississippi State University and his Master’s degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He previously worked as a meteorologist for the NWS in Spokane, Washington and in his current position focuses much of his spare time on education and outreach to the public and NWS partners.”

The Hanson Clubhouse, MA ~ 228 High St, Hanson, MA

Join Lee-Anne Burton and Matthew Leighton for a club honey tasting! More details to follow.

The Hanson Clubhouse, MA ~ 228 High St, Hanson, MA

This is your club, this is your meeting. Get involved, volunteer and let your voice be heard! Club members are welcome to discuss the Club’s business.

Hanson Clubhouse ~ 228 High St, Hanson, MA

This is your club, this is your meeting. Get involved, volunteer and let your voice be heard! Club members are welcome to discuss the Club’s business.

Hanson Clubhouse ~ 228 High St, Hanson, MA

*Please note Holiday Party is held in lieu of monthly meeting.

Please mark your calendars for the Mass Bee Fall Meeting + Honey Show on 11/04/2023 in Fall River, Massachusetts.

• Date: Saturday, November 4, 2023
• Location: Fall River, MA
• Venue: Bristol Community College

We hope you can join us! For more details as the meeting approaches, please visit https://massbee.wildapricot.org/.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The Plymouth County Beekeepers Association (the “PCBA”), is a non-profit organization established in 1977. We are dedicated to the support of local agriculture and to educating the public about beekeeping through our school and participation in local fairs and festivals.

PCBA focuses on education, agriculture, and stewardship through many of the public outreach programs the club participates in and provides throughout the year. We have members who speak at schools, community centers, and professional meetings.

Website: plymouthcountybeekeepers.org
Location: 228 High Street, Hanson, MA, USA