Bees
2022-2023
Who knew bees were so complicated!!!
The bees kept us busy this summer. Several students volunteered to help Mrs. Rica Vert look after them during the summer. This is our second year and we still seem to be struggling to keep our hive growing
2021-2022
Bee Production Manager -Elementary students and Mrs. Rica Vert
After a long winter, we have decided to start our bee program again this year.
In the fall the group took a vote and decided not to get a new queen; we lost our hive because without a queen the hive can not survive. We learned so much in the past year about beekeeping and honey making it was a learning curve for everyone. At the end of May we will be getting our new bees. Come back to visit our site we will be keeping it updated all summer long.
It's back to school here in Altario, which means our beekeepers are back to work as well! Throughout the summer, a few students checked in on the bees. We were pleased with their work through July, especially in the crazy heatwave we had! We had watered them a few times. At the end of July though, we noticed something strange happening in the Hive. There were these peanut shell looking chambers on some of the frames, as well as lots of other fresh brood (eggs!). After some research, we found out our bees were swarming! It's not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that our hive was growing more quickly than we expected, and that the Queen decided she needed a new home. After Ms. Almberg talked with some beekeeper mentors, we decided to let the bees be for a few weeks while they sorted out the swarm and making a new Queen. We checked them again later in August, and things were ticking along!
This morning, on the second day of school, a few beekeepers went out to check in on our bees. We found A LOT of honey, and no fresh eggs, which means our hive is Queenless. Now, we'll have to meet and decide how we're going to solve this. Our options are to not worry about re-Queening our hive and just harvesting the honey, or to find a mated Queen, install her, and hope she can lay enough eggs to get the hive ready for winter.
2020-2021
Sunday May 30th 2021 Ms. Bailey Almberg drove to Red Deer to collect the box of bees. Reuben and Devon where very excited to help her take the bees to thier new homes
