New Hope aims for sweet success with honeybee project

In celebration of Earth Day on Tuesday, New Hope kicked off a project to help turn around the declining honeybee population. New Hope staff have been working with beekeepers and conservationists

Tom Heinrich (right) of Horn’s Honey is assisted by New Hope Director of Maintenance Kurt Lux in setting up beehiveon the east side of the New Hope grounds.

Photo submitted

Tom Heinrich, of Horn’s Honey of Carroll, welcomed New Hope’s invitation to begin establishing a colony on the east side of New Hope’s grounds on East 18th Street. A New Hope statement says, “To support their mission of enriching lives, New Hope has partnered with a local group of conservationists whose beekeeping hobby supports biodiversity and helps preserve our natural environment. Beekeepers have worked closely with New Hope staff to make the project a reality. New Hope is excited to share their beautiful field of wildflowers with the bees.” Kurt Lux, New Hope’s director of maintenance, said he believes New Hope’s campus area, with native grasses and wildflowers plus nearby farm fields is ideal, for getting bee activity buzzing there. Heinrich on Tuesday morning set up a hive with a queen and 3,000 bees. Heinrich said that by the middle of summer there will be approximately 60,000 bees just in that hive, with worker bees keeping the hive functioning, including collecting nectar, and the queen laying eggs. He said bees’ life cycle is about 28 days, therefore new workers have to be reproduced all the time. Heinrich said that successfully starting the hive will require feeding the bees a sugar water solution for a couple of weeks “until the nectar starts flowing good and then they’re on their own.” “They’ll go through quite a bit of (sugar water),” he said. “It takes a lot of energy to build up a hive.” New Hope says, “The hives will be located in a quiet area of the property, and we’re looking forward to the positive impact this will have for our campus and the wildflowers we grow here.” Lux said of the project, “I’m a conservation person, and we (Lux and Heinrich) are both outdoorsmen. We like to keep nature going. That’s important.” Heinrich noted bees will travel up to 2 miles away to collect nectar for making honey. “They’ll pollinate all over the place,” Lux said. “We know the world is short on bees right now, so this is a way Tom can contribute and hopefully make things a little better.” According to the USDA Forest Service website, Forest Service researchers found that since 2007, some bee populations have fallen by more than 80%. Pesticides, parasites, and habitat loss are cited as factors in the decline. An NBC News article says implications of the decline could be huge. The article reports that according to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture about 35% of the world’s food depends on pollinators. The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service says, “Beehives are often important elements of urban gardens due to the pollination services they provide. They’re also big business. Honeybees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops in the United States each year, including more than 130 types of fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Honeybees also produce honey, worth about $3.2 million in 2017.” Heinrich said if New Hope’s first hive does well, he will be able to put in a few more. “We’re just kind of testing the grounds here first,” he said. “It might be a year. It’s hard telling.” “The point is for New Hope to help with the bee population,” Lux said. “We need pollinators. We need to bring that back. They’re going to have a lot of opportunities with corn fields, soybean fields, all of our wildflowers that grow here. They should be very healthy bees.” Lux said the hive may also provide an educational element for residents and students. Heinrich, a Carroll native who’s operated his Heinrich’s Flooring, said he began beekeeping as a hobby five or six years ago, with help from a friend and a cousin who showed him the ropes. “It’s always kind of fascinated me, so I got into it a little bit,” he said. Checking on hives is a good way is a good way to get out into nature, he said. He also placed a hive south of Coon Rapids on Tuesday.

In celebration of Earth Day on Tuesday, New Hope kicked off a project to help turn around the declining honeybee population.

New Hope staff have been working with beekeepers and conservationists

Tom Heinrich (right) of Horn’s Honey is assisted by New Hope Director of Maintenance Kurt Lux in setting up beehiveon the east side of the New Hope grounds.

Photo submitted

Tom Heinrich, of Horn’s Honey of Carroll, welcomed New Hope’s invitation to begin establishing a colony on the east side of New Hope’s grounds on East 18th Street.

A New Hope statement says, “To support their mission of enriching lives, New Hope has partnered with a local group of conservationists whose beekeeping hobby supports biodiversity and helps preserve our natural environment. Beekeepers have worked closely with New Hope staff to make the project a reality. New Hope is excited to share their beautiful field of wildflowers with the bees.”

Kurt Lux, New Hope’s director of maintenance, said he believes New Hope’s campus area, with native grasses and wildflowers plus nearby farm fields is ideal, for getting bee activity buzzing there.

Heinrich on Tuesday morning set up a hive with a queen and 3,000 bees. Heinrich said that by the middle of summer there will be approximately 60,000 bees just in that hive, with worker bees keeping the hive functioning, including collecting nectar, and the queen laying eggs. He said bees’ life cycle is about 28 days, therefore new workers have to be reproduced all the time.

Heinrich said that successfully starting the hive will require feeding the bees a sugar water solution for a couple of weeks “until the nectar starts flowing good and then they’re on their own.”

“They’ll go through quite a bit of (sugar water),” he said. “It takes a lot of energy to build up a hive.”

New Hope says, “The hives will be located in a quiet area of the property, and we’re looking forward to the positive impact this will have for our campus and the wildflowers we grow here.”

Lux said of the project, “I’m a conservation person, and we (Lux and Heinrich) are both outdoorsmen. We like to keep nature going. That’s important.”

Heinrich noted bees will travel up to 2 miles away to collect nectar for making honey.

“They’ll pollinate all over the place,” Lux said. “We know the world is short on bees right now, so this is a way Tom can contribute and hopefully make things a little better.”

According to the USDA Forest Service website, Forest Service researchers found that since 2007, some bee populations have fallen by more than 80%.

Pesticides, parasites, and habitat loss are cited as factors in the decline.

An NBC News article says implications of the decline could be huge. The article reports that according to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture about 35% of the world’s food depends on pollinators.

The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service says, “Beehives are often important elements of urban gardens due to the pollination services they provide. They’re also big business. Honeybees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops in the United States each year, including more than 130 types of fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Honeybees also produce honey, worth about $3.2 million in 2017.”

Heinrich said if New Hope’s first hive does well, he will be able to put in a few more. “We’re just kind of testing the grounds here first,” he said. “It might be a year. It’s hard telling.”

“The point is for New Hope to help with the bee population,” Lux said. “We need pollinators. We need to bring that back. They’re going to have a lot of opportunities with corn fields, soybean fields, all of our wildflowers that grow here. They should be very healthy bees.”

Lux said the hive may also provide an educational element for residents and students.

Heinrich, a Carroll native who’s operated his Heinrich’s Flooring, said he began beekeeping as a hobby five or six years ago, with help from a friend and a cousin who showed him the ropes.

“It’s always kind of fascinated me, so I got into it a little bit,” he said.

Checking on hives is a good way is a good way to get out into nature, he said. He also placed a hive south of Coon Rapids on Tuesday.