Apiaries educate and encourage more people to get into backyard beekeeping

Apiaries educate and encourage more people to get into backyard beekeeping


They’re tiny creatures with a big purpose, facing exponential threats. We are talking about the honey bee.

At the Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary in Newtown, busy bees could be heard buzzing around a healthy home.

“We need the honeybees, we can’t survive without them,” Ryan Griffeth with Necker's Farm said.

He is the beekeeper for the sanctuary on top of doing pollinator rescue operations, and honeybee farming education.

He is incredibly comfortable around a species that might scare people, but he insists there is nothing to worry about.

“I don’t think people realize how closely intertwined we are. I can’t think of another species that is so closely tied to our survival,” Griffeth said.

Unfortunately, he said native pollinators like bumble bees, native honeybees and others are struggling and have been for a long time. Apiaries around the country (the technical name for honeybee operations) are, too.

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“We obviously had a really tough year, this year as well as all the other beekeepers in the USA,” he said.

He said commercial operations lost about 62% of their bees in the last year, and no one has a solid answer as to why. He said it could be new disease or habitat factors, but will require more investment and study for sure.

That compounded with the loss of native pollinators, and you have a real crisis brewing.

“The native pollinators are the first choice, but we just don’t have the numbers anymore, that’s why I rescue bumble bees, and keep them next to my honeybees,” Griffeth said.

He said about two-thirds of the food you eat involves pollinators at some point in their lives.

He is working to allow farmed honeybees to thrive, and he expects they will continue to be a cornerstone of a healthy food system. So, he is spreading the word.

“Having the apiary here and using it as not only a place where been populations can grow, but also people can learn so they can have bee populations that can thrive and grow,” Jenny Hubbard, owner of the sanctuary, said.

She said bees were the first creature they brought to the sanctuary. Now with Ryan’s help, they are teaching courses about backyard honeybee operations. From the early phases, right up to helping them survive the winter.

“We can provide a space people can learn, and create sanctuaries in their own backyard,” Hubbard said.

The hope is that more people will bring honeybees to their own backyard to keep up pollination at a time natives and even farmers are struggling.

There are classes currently at the end of April, May and June on topics such as nectar flow and parasites, maintaining a healthy colony and honey harvesting.

Griffeth notes you don’t have to worry too much about oversaturating an area with pollinators because it would take a lot of colonies in a small area to oversaturate.

There are also steps you can take at home if you don’t want to start up an operation.

“Bees are facing a lot of threats from humans, so bees need flowers, they need green space, and they need natural material to live and work and nest in,” Melissa DeFrancesco with the Nature Conservancy said.

She said you can limit the amount you mow your lawn, and plant native plants to offer pollen sources. One of the most important options, limiting or stopping the usage of pesticides and fertilizers that are hurting the pollinators.

“We need to change some of our practices,” Griffeth said.

He said the bottom line is it’s hard work. But it’s incredibly rewarding and therapeutic work once you get the hang of it.

He hopes more people will jump in, helping these tiny creatures who are doing so much for us.

“These creatures are right there alongside us, working, they are workhorses, keeping us alive, keeping us fed,” he said.