Teaching Apiary

[Bakersdozen]

I spent Sunday afternoon at our local bee club's teaching apiary.  It was established through a grant from the Great Plains Master Beekeeping program.  We started last year with 4 colonies. This year the goal was to grow to 10. A dead out was given from a Veteran's Scholarship recipient that had to move out of state.  The donated woodenware with the split will be auctioned off in June to fund future scholarships. With 6 students observing, I helped my friends demonstrate package installation under extremely windy conditions. At times the wind could almost knock you over. Then we made two splits from 3 colonies.
I got some good pictures of entombed pollen. In the last few years entombed pollen has become something for us to be aware of.  It's stored pollen that is contaminated with pesticides. The bees are aware that it's contaminated, so they seal it off so it's never used. We have to rotate this out if there becomes too much of it on one frame.