Rosebud beekeepers persevere despite setbacks

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

When John Moerschbacher moved to Rosebud in 2012, bringing years of beekeeping experience, he began sharing his knowledge with others. By the summer of 2013, about a dozen beekeepers were keeping hives around Rosebud.
Two of them were friends Jordan Cutbill and Kelsey Krogman, who started three hives in 2012, learning from Moerschbacher step-by-step.
When they install a new hive, Krogman explained, they put in the queen, then the other bees on top. They also leave honey for bees to eat until they gather pollen and nectar. The hive’s first goal is to make more bees.
“You need lots of population to collect all the nectar and pollen, and then to get the bees through the winter because they need each other to stay warm,” she said.
The bees’ second goal is to produce honey. Beekeepers won’t harvest until the bees have enough for themselves.
When honey stops flowing in fall, beekeepers winterize the hives.
“That means wrapping them closely, making sure they have enough honey to get through the winter, and making sure there’s enough ventilation … but also that they stay warm enough,” said Krogman. “Over and above taking honey, you want to have hives that survive year after year.”
Following Moerschbacher’s example, Krogman and Cutbill practice gentle, chemical-free beekeeping.
“I haven’t been stung yet in three years of beekeeping, and I don’t wear equipment,” said Krogman.
To handle mites, they sprinkle bees with icing sugar, which the bees clean off, making the mites fall off as well.
“(The mites) fall to the bottom of the hive and they can’t jump back onto the bees,” she said.
In October 2014, Krogman and Cutbill went to wrap their hives for winter, only to find all three hives almost empty. The few bees left were dead.
“They had actually frozen to death,” she said. “The bulk of the bee population was just gone.”
They can only speculate, Krogman said, but the most likely explanation is that a nearby crop, re-flowering in the unusually warm weather, had been sprayed one afternoon, the time when bees usually feed.
When the weather turned cool, the hives didn’t have enough bees to keep each other warm.
Despite the setback, Krogman and Cutbill expanded this spring – from three hives to 13.
“If it was strictly about (selling) honey, we couldn’t do what we’re doing,” said Krogman. “We’re just barely able to expand our equipment and our expenses.”
Her primary commitment is more basic.
“I believe, first of all, in the necessity of pollinators in this world … and sort of working alongside them,” she said. “That’s really all that we’re doing.”
They’re doing a few things differently after last year’s loss.
“The one thing that we’ve added to our approach is to find a second location on the other side of the valley,” she said.
They’re also planning conversations with local farmers.
“We’re here trying to practice (beekeeping) and you’re here trying to raise a crop,” she said. “How can we work together?”
This year’s dry conditions hampered the early production of pollen and nectar, Krogman said, and they needed to re-queen one hive. But after recent rains, 12 of the new hives are doing well and look like they’ll be well-prepared for their first Alberta winter.