LOCAL

A look at local apiaries

Brittany Schenk
Voice Correspondent
The fenced apiary at Lakeview Nature Area is a new addition to the prairie and currently contains two beehives.

McDONOUGH COUNTY — Between local parks commemorating state-wide programs to beekeepers selling the fruits of their labor, McDonough County has been abuzz this summer with plenty of bee activity. The week of June 22 marked National Pollinator Week, a time to appreciate some of nature’s hardest workers such as the bee.

While bees may seem scary to some, they are vital to the ecosystem due to their important role as pollinators. Not only do many bees provide products like honey, but they are also responsible for pollinating many of our food-producing crops such as apples, almonds, and blueberries. However, extensive problems caused by various diseases, pests, and certain pesticides have been eliminating entire colonies of bees at an alarming rate. In addition to planting more bee-attracting flowers and reducing the usage of certain pesticides, managed apiaries are just one method to help with plant pollination.

Meet the bees and their keepers

A beehive is a man-made structure that houses bees while a nest is naturally occurring. An apiary is a collection of beehives. Apiaries can vary in size and are often utilized to collect bee-made products such as honey, beeswax, and propolis.

According to the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s annual apiary report, there were 22 active beekeepers, 28 active apiaries, and 105 active colonies registered in McDonough County as of 2019. This article will highlight just a few of McDonough County’s apiaries.

Visitors of Lakeview Nature Area in Macomb need only cross Conner’s Creek Bridge behind Lakeview Nature Center and look to the east to locate two fenced-in hives filled with colonies of Italian honey bees. According to Natalie Shelly, Lakeview naturalist educator and owner of one of these hives, the apiary is a new addition to the prairie.

Beekeepers Julie and Tom Lerczak also have a hive at the Lakeview Nature Area apiary. The married couple had kept bees for a few years at their home in the country prior to moving to Macomb. Julie estimated that their hive produced 60 pounds of honey a year. With concerns surrounding the proximity of their bees to neighbors in Macomb but not wanting to give up their hobby, the Lerczaks collaborated with Shelly in adding an apiary to Lakeview.

“The goal for the site is to get other people who want to get into beekeeping to keep bees there as well as learn from us. We want to form a group that supports one another, teaches one another, and helps one another share resources,” said Julie, who is also a former Master Gardener through the University of Illinois Extension Program.

Julie was inspired to pursue beekeeping after hearing stories from a fellow Master Gardener whom Julie estimated owned 50 beehives. As they approached retirement, Julie and Tom took the plunge and began attending beekeeping classes through the Mississippi Valley Beekeepers Association in Quincy, IL.

Julie encourages anyone interested in beekeeping or looking to set up a hive at Lakeview to reach out to them. Currently, there is a team of four beekeepers at Lakeview and Julie estimated that there is room for another 10-12 hives in the apiary.

“Honeybees are very important for pollinating food crops, flowers, trees, and all kinds of plants. It’s really important that we protect them,” said Tom. “They’re an important part of our ecology.”

Last Saturday, Lakeview Nature Area promoted the sixth annual BeeBlitz project, in which the community was encouraged to photograph honey and bumble bees found in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, and Ohio. The goal of the project was to help researchers document what species of honey and bumblebees can be found in these states and where they can be found at this time of the year.

Pennington Point Honey and Mushrooms is another local apiary. With his home in Macomb and his hives in the forests near Pennington Point, owner and operator Theodore Nelson sells honey and mushrooms at various markets year-round. He can be found at the Macomb Farmers Market on Thursday and Saturdays.

Nelson said that someone in his family has always raised bees. What started as a Christmas gift of a starter bee kit from his wife in the ‘90s soon turned into a business. Nelson currently owns 23 active hives and five starter hives. He sells honey, beeswax, propolis, queen bees, and nucs (small bee colonies for starter beekeepers.)

“My favorite part in working with the bees is the satisfaction of just knowing that we’re helping to sustain the honeybee because they’ve been so damaged by crop sprays,” said Nelson. “I think it’s also fascinating to watch a social system take place there in front of your eyes — how [the bees] work.”

Nelson stated that beekeeping helps to keep him active at the age of 68. Additionally, he enjoys teaching beginner beekeepers how to raise their own hives and educating kids on the importance of bees.

Spring Lake Park, in partnership with Western Illinois University’s Recreation, Park, and Tourism Administration department, has also recently received an apiary of its own.

The Macomb Food Co-op, located at 211 S McArthur St., sells locally produced honey from groups such as Honeycomb Hill Apiary.

The basics of beekeeping

Nelson gave this reporter a rundown of his beehives and how he harvests honey.

According to Nelson, there can be anywhere from 80 to 100,000 honeybees in a hive at a time during the summer. Hives consist of hexagonal honeycomb made of beeswax. Bees will store food (honey and pollen) as well as their brood (eggs, larvae, and pupae) in the cells.

Honeybees make honey from plant nectar and store it in the hive as a food source during the winter or droughts. Bees will often produce more honey than they can use, which is then harvested by beekeepers.

Hive bodies are wooden boxes at the bottom of the hive that serve as the living quarters for the colony. This is where the queen bee will lay her eggs and where the brood will be raised. Honey supers are located above the hive bodies. Honey is stored in frames within the honey supers. A queen excluder, which has holes only large enough for worker bees to crawl through, separates these sections and keeps the queen bee from laying her brood in the honey supers.

Nelson stated that he checks his hives almost every week and will pull off the honey supers once full. To extract the honey, Nelson will place a cloth over the honey super and put a product on it to make the bees temporarily leave.

Once the bees have left and the frames are removed, the wax-sealed honeycomb must be uncapped with a serrated knife. Honey is then extracted by a machine that utilizes centripetal force. The honey supers are placed back in the hive, leaving much of the bees’ work still intact. The honey is then filtered and bottled.

According to Tom, beekeepers are required to register their colonies with the Illinois Department of Agriculture under the Illinois Bees and Apiaries Act, which is designed to assist beekeepers with the management and protection of honeybee colonies. Free colony inspections provided by the program help determine the hive’s health and whether diseases or pests are present.

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