Heather Nayback

The Munising High School honeybees did not survive the winter. The death was not due to cold temperatures, but to the lack of snow, which typically insulates the hive. Winter 2023-2024 was a see-saw of warm and cold trends. The frequent change in weather created condensation in the hive, so mold formed, killing the bees.

Natural Resources Instructor Hilary Ludecke has been teaching the students beekeeping and trying to make the garden area more sustainable and more adaptable for rapidly changing weather conditions, attributed to global warming. This is the second attempt to establish an apiary near the hoop house as the previous hives were covered in mold inside, so an entirely new hive had to be constructed.

A queen bee is housed separately in a different container with a cork. The cork is replaced with candy (like a marshmallow or sugar paste) and then, once the worker bees are combined with the queen and adjust to their new house, the workers will chew through the candy to release and claim/save their new queen.

Alex Goss, a senior, is in the beekeeping group. Goss described putting on the protective suit. “It was heavy and it was really hot in there. Sam [Cain] and I had to shake the bees to make them active and angry. There is a little lid on the bees. Bees were flying everywhere. They were all over my arms. All over my face mask. Everyone else had to stay back and away from us.”

Samanth Cain, junior, said, “So we got our suits on and made sure the area was clear [of other students]. We had to get the old [hive] boxes out of there and get the new hive in.”

Goss, “We had to quickly take the queen out and hang her on the inside of the hive. The bees were all piled on top of one another. I had to plug her hole with sugar paste and to try to get the bees into the holes of the hive. I had to gently use my gloves to move them. They felt like pushing leaves away. There were hundreds of them. I wasn’t really scared, and Ms. Ludecke told us what to do. I just put the suit on and went! You could feel them vibrating.”

“Our part for the whole project is part of a grant project,” explained senior Ryley Zortman “The bees are bred for UP weather, so they are more able to stand the cold weather. The [shipment] box is plastic and Ms. Ludecke purchased the bees online. I didn’t choose to go out there for the placement, but I helped to place the honeycomb, so, since it was from what the last bees made, we used that honeycomb to help them adjust to their new environment. The bees are fed sugar water until they go into their new hive.”

“The bees are in a crate and they have food in there so they can survive shipment. The sugar water is used because we don’t have many flowers in bloom right now and to get them started to make them honey and stuff like that,” said Samantha Cain, a junior. “I went in and grabbed the queen. You have to extract the queen first. She is in her own container and you can tell because she is bigger anyway. It sounds aggressive, but you shake the bees and then quickly take the stopper out to move them.”

Olivia Lester made the sugar water and said it is a 1:1 mixture. “Ms. Ludecke had the mixture in a mason jar with holes in the lid and we brought it out. The cover is supposed to be like that so that the bees can go down into the jar and eat it.”

“Yeah, you shake them to make them drop into the hive. We did have a couple of bees escape the container, but we were outside by then.” Lester, another junior, explained, “I was out there. It’s easy to put the suit on. You step into it, and it zips in the front, and there is a flap that secures the hood over your head. The gloves go up to here,” Lester showed while gesturing up to her elbows.

“We did this at the hoophouse. The bees were in the hoop house shed for a few hours until we could move them into their new hive,” said Cain. “The queen goes in between the honeycomb areas, and then after that, you have to take the can out.”

“We are going to start planting wildflowers around their hive this year.” Goss described the whole experience as cool and said she would do it again.

“I didn’t want to watch the hive placement, but I tried on the bee suit. It’s like a hazmat suit, it’s made of a heavy fabric, like a coat, and it’s tight around the wrists so the bees cannot get inside” Zortman described the suit as being similar to a set of scrubs with booties. “The bees didn’t need to be sedated with smoke this time.”

“We unleashed the bees” Hunter Merryman, senior, described his encounter. “We literally slapped the container on the top of the hive and then all of the bees went out. We sifted them into the hives physically. It was really fun. We didn’t necessarily have to stay quiet. We didn’t obviously slap the air or flap our arms around. Wearing a bee suit is like wearing a full suit of armor.”

Zortman said, “My dad and I also want to raise bees, so it’s great to learn about this without having to just watch YouTube. I can be hands-on.”

Four students, Hunter Merryman, Samantha Cain, Olivia Lester, and Alex Goss, were in bee suits.

When asked what the bees look like during the release, Cain responded “The bees kind of like puffed out around it [the hive]. The bees stay in their area. I worked with the bees earlier this year when we were preparing them for winter. So I wasn’t afraid.” Lester continued,”I’ve saved bees before in a pool of water in Florida. I’m a bug gal. I like insects. If you are gentle and you don’t aggravate them, they don’t sting you.”

Zortman ended with, “It’s kind of cool to save the bees and to feel like I did something.”

Ludecke reported that there were no stings and no bees were injured during the new hive placement.

Author’s note: Avoid using pesticides that will harm bees, try to avoid cutting dandelions right away in the spring since spring flowers are scarce, and if possible, maintain some native plants and flowers in your yards. Corporate farmers are now moving bee hives around in semi trucks to fertilize produce in the United States, so try to do your part in saving and maintaining our local bees. You will not be able to eat many fruits, grains or vegetables without these key pollinators! Example video: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Chvi_VKLxkA