What's Next?
Well, in short, more bees! What more could bee keepers want? I guess there's more to it, but we'd love to get you involved in what we have in store....
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What's that you ask? Keep scrolling...
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With bees in a decline, and the challenges of raising them in a northern climate we are putting Project Pollen together as a hope to educate participators, save bee populations in our area, and grow our apiary. This project is crowd funding at a local level.
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We have had many people ask us about bees. We often get questions about splits, how we tell if it's a boy or a girl, how do bees grow, what to expect as the year progresses, and the list goes on.
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We also know that a majority of our population is becoming aware of the dangers of a world without bees. Enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning? Not without our pollinators.
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It was these two things that gave us the idea for this project.
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So.... What is Project Pollen?
We are looking for individuals interested in helping the bee population, and learning about our buzzing friends.
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Our goal is to find enough people interested in crowd funding a bee hive that will be maintained in our apiary. A small commemorative item will be given to all those who participate in the project with us.
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The best part for those interested in participating isn't the commemorative gift, but what will be shared all year long....
Bees are a fascinating creature and through this process we would like to invite you to view the growth of the hive by forwarding either short videos or pictures and a letter once every 2 to 4 weeks. This is because we want to not only be sustainable and green, but also to educate people on the workings of a hive.
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We will begin by building the boxes in early 2019 for the arriving nuc in spring. From there you will be with us every step as we watch the colony grow through the summer. We'll take you through concerns we are watching for, and even show winter preparation in the later fall.
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The project would conclude in the spring of 2020 when we look one last time at the hive and see first if it survived the winter and then finally recording the split from 1 to 2 hives.
What's it cost?
You can see in the picture here a hive has a bottom board, 2 brood boxes, an inner cover and outer cover.
The bees also need 20 frames and foundations to build comb on and raise the brood, and an entrance reducer which is necessary for early spring and wintering the hive. (Not Pictured)
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The project will cost approximately $500.00/hive funded.
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We've asked each person wanting to participate give a minimum of $40.00 in the crowd funding process. Of this, $20.00 will go to funding the hive and the remaining amount to cover the commemorative mug and seeds. A breakdown of costs is below:
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Screened Bottom Board - $45.95
Deep Supers x 2 - $27.95 each
Inner Cover - $18.00
Outer Cover - $34.95
Frames x 20 - $1.65 each
Foundations x 20 - $2.15 each
Nuc (Bees) - $200.00 - Estimate using current (2018 Price and an additional $20.00 accounting for increase)
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Total with HST - $495.42
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This means for every 25 people participating, 1 hive will be funded.
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