What is “Foster-a-Hive?”
What is "Foster-a-Hive?"
Foster-a-Hive is a program designed to support honeybee populations, typically by providing resources for beekeepers to maintain and nurture healthy bee colonies. These programs can vary by organization but generally share common objectives related to bee conservation and education.
Here are some key aspects of the Foster-a-Hive program:
A Complete and Active Hive: Those who Foster-a-Hive are sponsoring a full hive including bees from Nuc, and the hive itself. You will be providing a new home for a colony of bees with your sponsorship!
Bee Support: The program allows individuals or organizations to “foster” a beehive. This means they can contribute resources, funds, or time to help support the maintenance of the hive or colonies that may be facing challenges, such as hive loss due to environmental factors or pests (like Varroa mites).
Educational Component: Foster-a-Hive programs often include educational resources for participants. This might involve workshops, materials on beekeeping practices, and information on the importance of bees to ecosystems and agriculture. Pictures, videos, and updates for your particular hive or bees.
Community Engagement: Many Foster-a-Hive initiatives encourage community participation and awareness about the significance of honeybees. Hood Brook Apiary & Learning Center is working on building a Learning Center building as well as traveling to schools to teach youth the importance of pollinators and saving the bees.
Support for Local Beekeepers: The program helps local beekeepers by providing them with necessary funding, equipment, or mentoring.
Conservation Goals: Ultimately, when someone chooses to “Foster-a-Hive” the aim is to contribute to the health and vitality of bee populations, countering decline due to various factors, including habitat loss, pesticides, and disease.
Foster-a-Hive Participants: Participants who “Foster-a-Hive,” meaning their contributions go directly toward the care and upkeep of that hive, and they may receive updates or even visits to see their hive in action.
It is important to note that the specifics of a Foster-a-Hive program can vary among different organizations and regions, so exact details may differ. Beekeeping associations or environmental organizations often run these initiatives, contributing to both local bee conservation efforts and global awareness about the importance of pollinators.
Most organizations or Apiaries offering these programs offer the reward of knowing you are playing a part in saving the bees and other pollinators. Additionally, some reward those who “Foster-a-Hive” with up to 1 Lb. of raw honey. Hood Brook Apiary and Learning Center offers larger rewards of honey depending on your hive’s production for the season. We also have tours of the Apiaries for Sponsors and those who Foster Hives.
AND FINALLY:
Unlike our other programs, Foster-a-Hive is a One-Time-Payment, and the hive is “yours” for the life of the hive. Typically, an average colony lives 2 to 5 years. But, do to conditions and pests Mother Nature throws at us, they could fail in the 1st year or live for 5 or more years. So, as long as it lives, when it produces honey, you are entitled to some!
Raising Honeybees is a delicate dance with Mother Nature for many reasons. You are trying to raise a strong, healthy hive and, in our case, without chemical treatments against diseases and pests that can invade the hive. Pests such as varroa mites can weaken your hive enough that bees can leave the hive or it could eventually die out.
Also, you are trying to stay ahead of their growth throughout the entire season. A strong and fast buildup is great as you have more bees to be out foraging and packing in the honey. However, if they grow too quickly and you don’t notice, the workers can sense the colony is too large for the queen to handle. When this happens, the workers start to create a situation where many of the bees take the queen or make a new one and leave the hive. Before going they eat a lot of honey to take with them and put into the new hive. This is called Swarming.
Even the most experienced beekeepers have hives swarm sometimes. However, with regular inspections, a beekeeper can often (NOT ALWAYS) notice changes in the hive caused by disease, pests, or fast buildup. With diseases and pests there are all natural treatments available now unlike ever before. If caught in time, you can turn around the fate of the hive and keep it strong and growing. With rapid growth and buildup, a beekeeper adds additional honey supers on top of the hive giving them more room. Sometimes, however, there is simply nothing you can do. If they make up their mind to swarm, they are going to swarm. It is part of their nature as it’s the hive’s way of allowing for expansion. They build a new hive to develop and increase the population of honeybees in the area.
If a beekeeper is lucky enough to find the swarm’s gathering point, he/she can often recapture them and bring them back to a new hive the beekeeper has ready and waiting back at the apiary.
So, You Foster-a-Hive and we care for it. You get:
>> You get honey every year the hive survives and produces.
>You can visit the hive by appointment as often as you like. (I’d suggest getting a suit or renting one from us for the day for $10.)
You’ll receive a monthly newsletter emailed to you discussing your hive. This will include information, updates, and, of course, videos and images!
BELOW, Watch New Hatchlings Coming Out to Spread Their Wings for the First Time While They Orientate Themselves to the Hive’s Location. They are setting their GPS, one might say!