September 25, 2025 Honeybee Presentation

Summary of September 2025 Honeybee Presentation

Hill Farms beekeeper Chris Pierce introduced us to his hives and helped us to understand what it means to be a honeybee colony and what it means to know and care for them.

I used to think of hives as worthwhile things that I should keep at a respectful distance. Beyond that I knew next to nothing, just fragmented bits: bees pollinate, good; honey, good; there’s a queen and workers; hives fail increasingly often, bad.

But Chris gave us a glimpse into the rich and complex world that exists inside those hive boxes.  A colony has a mind and a purpose. Its rhythms are perfectly optimized to the seasons and the food sources available. Its ability to locate and gather food is built on amazing gps capabilities. It can recognize the beekeeper and know them not to be a threat. Some hives are more “opinionated” than others.

We got some insight into the structure of the hive boxes and the role of the beekeeper: helping the bees maintain the temperature inside the hive, inspecting the hives, helping to mitigate the spread of pathogens,  introducing new queens. and harvesting the honey

Chris had many kinds of honey on display, each type harvested at a different time of the year.  In mid-September, it was peak goldenrod season.

He has many hives in the neighborhood and is offering an adopt-a-hive program.  I’m pretty sure we will be in line to adopt.