Last Thursday was honey extraction time at Red Roof Retreat’s Concession 6 site.
For the past two years, Red Roof has been home to a colony of honeybees, thanks to Niagara Beeway’s Host a Hive program, and the sponsorship of NOTL residents Lauren and Vaughn Goettler.
Host a Hive is an innovative program designed to lessen the stress on one individual bee farm by spreading out the hives throughout the Niagara region. This allows bees to forage in multiple locations, reducing the risks of chemical poisoning due to pesticides, thereby strengthening colonies.
Niagara Beeway also collects data from its hives, which will help them map out the safest pollinator-friendly locations for the future.
As it turns out, Red Roof Retreat is a good site for beehives. “Niagara is the best place, maybe even in the world, for honeybees because of our moisture, because of the lakes, because of our predominantly agricultural area,” said George Scott, president of Niagara Beeway and fourth generation beekeeper.
In front of an audience of Red Roof clients and staff, Scott and his beekeeping apprentice, Jolene Karanfilis, removed frames from the hive, scraped the wax off of the cells, and placed the frames into a manual honey extractor. They took turns spinning the extractor, often with help from Red Roof clients and staff, and soon enough, had honey flowing from a valve and into a double filter before collecting at the bottom of a large pail.
As Sandra Ozkur filled small cups for tastings, she explained that she and George started the Host a Hive program two years ago as an initiative to get honey bees to survive in the area. “George had an apiary of 100 hives and lost them all in one year, which is a phenomenon happening throughout the region and the country,” she said.
They came up with a novel idea for this region. “Let's ask people who have land, usually an acre to 10 acres, that's not sprayed with pesticides, to host hives on their property and give a little safe haven to these honey bees,” said Ozkur, a photographer who also is the communication manager of Niagara Beeway.
This year Niagara Beeway placed 40 hives throughout the Niagara region. “We're collecting data to see how well they're doing in certain areas, how they're proliferating, even in the cities,” she said.
Farmers and urban users are releasing more pest control products than ever. “It's no longer safe for bees and we're not even getting 11 months out of our queen. We're replacing our queens and we're trying to adjust to it,” said Scott.
Ozkur added that smoke from this summer’s forest fires also affected the health of queens in a colony, which are expensive to replace.
Niagara Beeway used to purchase bees from Ukraine. “They are without our income now,” she said. “We're not able to buy from them because they've shut down all the transportation” out of Ukraine. “It's not just affecting Niagara, it's affecting the world as far as Ukraine. What we do here in Canada is very important.”
Host a Hive participants “don't have to do anything,” explained Ozkur. “Our beekeepers go around throughout the season, servicing the hives, checking on the bees, making sure everything is healthy with them. Now we're at the fun time where we get to do the honey harvesting.”
“Our Host a Hive participants have been great because they have literally suited up and came out with us to learn and go ‘mano a mano’ with the bees,” said Karanfilis, whose job includes catching swarms, which can occur when an old queen leaves with about two-thirds of the workforce to find a new location. “I also service and inspect the hives. This is the time of season where we also move into equipment assembly, getting ready for next year.”
Education is at the forefront of each harvest. “We want more knowledge about what's going on with our bees in terms of the connection to nature,” said Ozkur. “If the bees can't pollinate plants, we don't have flowers and vegetables.”
Frank Racioppo, president of Queenston Quarry Reclamation Company, has offered his site to house the bees during winter. “The bees don't have to travel back to Wainfleet for overwintering,” said Ozkur. “That way we can monitor Niagara-on-the-Lake bees, as opposed to other regions, to see how well they survive the winter.”
Steffanie Bjorgan, founder of Red Roof Retreat, explained that they keep the colony “in the back 40, which we just call our green space. It's near water and wildflowers, and it's far away enough from all the sprays from the vineyards around us.”
Wonder, a Red Roof horse, and two mini horses have their habitat near the hives. Clients often visit the horses and have never been bothered by bees. “We all live copacetically,” said Bjorgan.