InFocus featuring Hampden County Beekeepers President Nate Sperry

from the 22 News plus studio. [Music] This is 22 News in Focus with Patrick Barry. >> Hello everyone and welcome to today's edition of In Focus. I am your host Patrick Barry. We're here in the 22 News Plus studio. And today we're talking about your dinner table, your breakfast table, your lunch table, your restaurant visit, or whatever it might be that includes food because it all happens because of bees. And joining me today across the desk is Nate Sperry. He's with the Hamn County Beekeepers Association. Nate, thank you so very much for joining me. We have had this conversation uh a handful of times in, you know, in different venues, whether it was over on ma my time on Mass Appeal or when I had my old Westfield News Radio show. Um the importance of bees and I I you know, I say that at the start that you know, it's your breakfast table, your lunch table, your restaurant visit, whatever it might be, but bees play an important role, right? >> Yeah, they sure do. Patrick, uh thanks for number one for having us on behalf of Hammy County Beekeepers. Uh thanks for having us on the show. Uh yeah, honey bees are really important to our um to our to our food table, to uh to our food supply. Uh they're probably the most significant pollinators in the country. Um and it's interesting because a lot of people don't realize that bees actually migrate all over the all over the country uh at the hands of beekeepers uh who bring them uh from place to place to to do pollination work. And uh they say about a third of our food supply is pollinated by uh honeybees. And the reason why we can do that is because they're uh number one they're they're in hives boxes that can easily be transported. Uh they're in they're they're available in in large numbers and they can be relocated and then they fly around. They we call it an orientation flight and they can circle around a hive uh for a few minutes and then they know that that's home. And then if you come back that night and pick them up and move them at as long as the distance is more than a couple of miles away, they'll do that same process again, reorient to a new spot, and then they recognize that as home. So we have the ability to move them around the country, whether it's uh out to California to pollinate almonds or to Maine to pollinate blueberries or whatever it might be. Uh they can be transported all over the country. Um and uh because of that, they're they're very effective at at pollinating our our crops. But because of that movement around the country, north,southeast, west, is that part of the problem with the honeybee decline in population, are they picking up parasites in Maine and bringing them to California and causing problems there or vice versa or >> Sure. Yeah, I would say that that's uh absolutely true. It's it's number one, it's it is stressful on bees to to do uh migratory poll pollination. Um, I'm by no means an expert on on that aspect of beekeeping. Although I do do it locally with my bees, right? Uh, but anytime you're moving bees, you know, you have to think you're loading them on a truck. You know, they might be uh trucked across the country and it might be a, you know, say it's two days or two and a half days, three days. Um, there's a a natural stress with that. You know, temperatures rise and perhaps fall. um there's uh the you know they don't have the ability to access uh water and and and and pollen and and and and nectar during that time. So it it is stressful on a hive. In fact, you know, we even noticed like you know when we move beehives around even just locally, you know, those bees are just a little bit more grumpy sometimes than the backyard bees that someone might have as grumpy >> as a hobby. You know, a hobbyist you go into their hives that don't move and they're usually a little bit more docile to work with. But uh but the ones that we move are um are a bit uh are a bit a bit grumpier. >> So during your time um working with bees here in in western Massachusetts, have you personally seen the amount of bees drop? >> Uh no, I don't think it's dropped. In fact, so so we had so so we started noticing um a decline in we'll say a decline in honeybees uh in around the late 1990s early 2000s and that was due to a parasite that uh came from Asia uh called the uh veroamite and the veromite is kind of like a tick on our body. Okay. >> So, um you know, we've all walked out in the woods or come up into brush before and had a tick crawl up our legs and maybe it's even latched onto our bodies. And the same thing basically happens with these verouomites on honeybees. One bee from one hive goes to a flower, maybe another bee from another hive visits the same flower. That bee, that might then gets transferred to, you know, uh to to >> that other bee, >> the other bee, and then it winds up in another hive. And we're not talking about one or two mites, but really in a hive that's infested, we're talking about thousands of mites. And those mites have the ability to uh to vector or to transmit disease to that colony. And we know of I think around 20some different viruses that they um that they can transmit. So um we know that the the mites feed on what are called the fat bodies of the uh of the honeybee. And that's kind of like our liver. So, it's it's impairing their ability to filter out toxins and things that they would uh that they would run into in the environment when as they're doing their pollination and nectar collection. Uh so, that's harmful. And then also with the transmission of all the all the various diseases and and and viruses that they can get, then you're talking about a hive now that's that's weak. And so, you know, >> vulnerable >> weak and vulnerable. And we notice this as fall approaches because uh the number of mites continues to ramp up throughout the season and the honeybee population also ramps up quickly but then also starts to fall. So in the fall autumn we wind up with uh a decreasing bee population and an increasing mite population. And so then there's more mites per bee and eventually it just becomes unsustainable for the bees to be in that hive. So um so we wind up uh you know of course we have strategies and and and products that we can use to treat for these mites but that was really the cause of the uh the decline in the numbers of bees. But out of that came uh a a um an awareness of of honeybees and their um importance and significance to our food supply. And so we wound up with a lot of people becoming hobbyist beekeepers not just in western Mass but across the country. And so they say um and I think this is true uh that in that today we actually have more honeybees than ever before in the country but they're much harder to keep alive than ever before. >> Interesting. So in Massachusetts, it's not uncommon for us to lose, you know, 30 or even 40% or sometimes even a little higher of our honeybees uh throughout the winter time when they really are uh susceptible to all that um the virus load and and and and so forth that they have in the hives. >> We are up on our first commercial break. We're here with Nate Sperry from the Ham County Beekeepers Association. We'll be right back after this. >> This is 22 News in Focus with Patrick Barry. [Music] This is 22 News in Focus with Patrick Barry. [Music] Welcome back to today's edition of In Focus. Across the desk is Nate Sperry with the Ham County Beekeepers Association. We're talking about honeybees and and their importance to our food supply and so forth. Nate, how did you get involved in beekeeping? Yeah, in the early 2000s, uh I kind of, you know, was a young man, got uh established and settled down and and uh my uh grandfather's brother, uh his name was Wesley Sperry, was a beekeeper, uh kind of a just a a country guy and lived in Westfield and always enjoyed and had fond memories of uh going up to his property and uh riding minibikes as a kid and playing on the old >> he had all the toys, the old and the bees, >> the old payloader that he's going to get to fix someday. and and and that sort of stuff. And um he passed away in the '9s and I decided I kind of wanted to I wanted to keep that in my in my family. And uh so I asked the family if I could go up and take his beekeeping stuff. I knew nothing about beekeeping. Um I I I subscribed to a magazine called Bee Culture. Um which is a kind of a heavy science magazine. doesn't really necessarily take you from like hey step one and then step two you know it was just kind of information and so I uh started that way and uh started with two hives and then went up to four the next year I think and then I went up to 10 the year after that and so on and so now I'm up to you know anywhere between 50 and 100 hives per year depending on how uh how the year is going and and what time what time of the year we're we're in. So, let me ask you. So, the box that you have with you, if you could back up a second and hold it up, >> that is basically a hive, right? It's the size of a hive. >> Yeah, that's the size of a what we call an eight frame hive. We have 10 frame hives as well. This one is >> It looks like a milk crate basically. >> Yeah. And this and you would have uh two of these stacked on top of each other and they'd be full of bees. Uh in the say in June or May, May and June, we have about maybe 60,000 bees in a colony. And so this one is a teaching colony. Uh it has these wooden frames in it that have pictures, but the frames look something like this. Okay? So a healthy hive would look like that. We would have a capped brood or each one of these cells as they open up contain one uh worker bee that'll come out. She'd be a female worker bee. All the bees in a hive are are all the worker bees are female. Uh the males are what we call drones and uh they don't work. Uh so this time of year, uh Patrick, they actually get kicked out of the hive. the female worker bees say, you know, you didn't really do a whole lot of work. Um, and they kick them out. They actually haul them out and bar the door. They they will lit they will stop them from re-entering. Interesting. And the poor males will uh will unfortunately freeze to death. >> Um, but that's just the way that they organize their hive. But a cap brood frame would look like that. You'd be very excited to pull that out of your hive and see that as a beekeeper. >> Okay. Um, and then but if we back up, you know, we would have cells that look like this with little uh with larvae in them and they're in that state for uh 21 days and then they hatch out on day 21 as as worker bees. >> Okay? >> And so, uh, as the as the colony increases in population in May and June, that's when we make our honey crop. Um, primarily we also make a honey crop in the fall. Uh but sometimes that's not as significant as the spring one. >> So the the hive that you have and you maintain, you maintain it basically from the end of the first frost, end of frost season to the beginning of the next frost season, give or take. >> Yeah. I guess it depends on how you think about the beekeeping year. Um uh so if you're talking about maintaining a colony, uh there's certainly less work to do in the winter time. That's kind of when beekeepers are a little less active. >> Do you keep your hives in the winter time? >> Yep. Yeah. Yeah, they overwinter in in the boxes just like I uh I showed there before. Um they cluster together, their colony numbers uh decrease. So they're at about maybe five, six, 7 thousand bees in a colony throughout the winter time. And if they make it into spring, which you know, some don't. Um they build up really quickly. And so as we get into April and May, then our numbers go from say 67,000 bees in the winter up to maybe 50 60,000 and then maybe even a little higher than that as we approach May, June. And that's when we're in nectar production season and what we call swarm season. So during the winter to to help the hive survive, do you as a as a beekeeper put added heat in there so they don't freeze or do you kind of let nature take its course? Yeah, we don't add extra heat because we don't The bees are responding to their environmental cues, right? So, they're going to start to lay eggs at a certain time uh when they deem it is uh right. I mean, they're they're pretty smart and they know how to survive. If we can keep them dry and keep them free of those viruses that we talked about and before and well fed, then we're doing our job as a beekeeper, especially in the winter time. Uh those are the three things that you have to that you have to uh look out for. uh they're they're a living organism, so they're going to create heat. >> Okay? >> And so that heat can then uh cause condensation. So we have to provide some ventilation. Uh we have to provide food resources for them. Um especially if they run out of honey, which they can do. They can sometimes actually eat themselves to like a corner of the hive. And there might be honey on one side, but nothing on where they are. And they don't move when it's cold. So well, so they could starve to death. So we try to manipulate the hives a little bit so that we're providing them with with food. And then of course, like I said, be free of uh viruses. >> So during the winter months, how do you kind of maintain that ensure that they're free of viruses? >> So that's when we have to do our job in the fall, right? So we have to keep those veromites uh at a minimum and that will keep the viruses down. So we want to have a hive that's essentially virus free and we do that by keeping it as free from those mites that we talked about before. uh keeping it as free from mites as possible. And then we can supply food by just putting some uh simple sugar, granulated sugar on top of the frames and then the bees will come up and take that if uh you know if they need it. Um you know we can provide some supplemental some supplemental feed in the winter time if it's if if necessary. So in the 20 plus years since you've been in this, have you seen the amount of um amateur beekeepers or you know increase decrease? >> Oh yeah, it's definitely increased. Uh when I started in I think it was 2006 I started keeping bees and I went to uh the Hammond County Beekeepers uh meeting which was at the Graange in Awam. a very small building and basically it was uh um hopefully none of them will give me any any hard time for saying this but it was a bunch of old old guys basically that uh like your great uncle. >> Yeah. And that's basically what the hobby was was uh it was like that. Um I went there for some information and uh there really wasn't a lot of help there. It was just kind of a club, right? And since the bees got into the news and into the media about, you know, the um the decline of the numbers and and some of the issues that we talked about before, we noticed a huge spike. So, back in ' 06, you know, there might be five or six people that would take what we call B school at Hampton County Beekeepers Association where we teach you how to become a beekeeper. Uh now 20 years later uh we get about 140 150 people a year that that uh want to learn how to >> from half a dozen to 150 people. Wow, that's great. >> Yeah, it's great. And so we really ramped up uh the quality of our program in regards to providing some education uh to people to keep bees because I learned by the school of hard knocks, right? I I made a lot of mistakes. Um, I probably killed a lot of beehives and spent a lot of money that I didn't need to spend on fancy gadgets and uh all sorts of different things that I like any I didn't need, right? Any hobby, you know, you kind of get sucked into this world of new things and and you think, well, if I just had that. >> Really, what you need to do is learn how to keep bees >> the traditional way, most basic way basic way. And then if you want to branch out into other things from there, once you have that the basics down, then you can move into those types of things. But uh cuz there are a lot of different aspects of beekeeping you can get into. You can get into making your own queens. Um you can get into making bees for sale, like making new colonies to sell, making splits. Uh you can get into um um honey production, pollination. I mean, there's a lot of different direction you can take it. You can create a little business for yourself. Little what we call a sideline beekeeper. I'm a sideline beekeeper. It's not my primary source of income, but it is your hobby is helping you make a hobby. And it's a hobby that pays for itself, right? So, or makes you some money, which I always think is a nice hobby to have because a lot of people have hobbies that just are my golf game isn't helping me make money, nor is it helping me break even. >> You're probably not going to make money playing golf. You might, but but uh but but beekeeping, you can you can >> you can make some money at it if you're good at it and you know, you kind of scale up to a certain point that you can manage with your schedule and uh you keep healthy bees and you know, they make they make a lot of different resources that we can use and and market and sell. Fantastic. We are up on our second commercial break. We'll be right back after this. >> This is 22 News in Focus with Patrick Barry. [Music] This is 22 News in Focus with Patrick Barry. [Music] Welcome back everyone to today's edition of In Focus. I am your host, Patrick Barry. I'm here in the studio with Nate Sperry. He is uh with the Hammond County Beekeepers Association. Nate, I want to thank you so very much for joining me today. Um that's not the right camera angle. That one is. There we go. Um, thank you very much for joining me talking a lot about the importance of bees in our everyday lives and the importance of the Hammond County Beekeepers Association. So, Nate, I do want to talk a little bit uh I touch on what we talked about a little bit before about the hobby and how it can make you money. Everybody thinks you guys are, you know, pumping out honey like there's no tomorrow. Um, but there's I was reading this stat and I want to pull it up on the screen for everybody. It takes approximately 2 million flowers to make a single pound of honey. Right. >> Right. Do bees go to any flower? >> Uh no, they don't go to any flower. Um they have certain plants are are really good at producing nectar and so in our area uh you know we have plants like Russian olive. Um >> I've never even heard of that. >> Yeah, it's a I didn't buy that at my at my local farm >> in springtime. If you drive up 91 all along the side of the road, uh they're one of the first plants to flower in the spring. So they have like a silvery kind of foliage and white flower. >> Um so that would be one plant. Another one is black locust trees. Um another one would be um golden rod in the fall that we get now this time of year. Um aers's uh purple loose strife is a plant that's a it's an invasive plant that grows in wet areas. Uh but you see it usually in August. Uh that type of thing. So what you haven't there's certain plants that produce a lot of clover. >> What you haven't talked about is you know rose bushes you know mums gladiolas patunias maragold none of that. So even though we're putting these very colorful what we think are colorful that attract the bees those plants out in our in our gardens >> right >> they're they're look good but they're not really helpful to the bee population. >> Right. Yeah. There are certain perennial plants you can plant that are, you know, of some benefit, but you know, we were talking about the quantity of of plants that it takes just to produce a >> a pound of honey, >> a pound of honey, million. You know, you're never going to plant that many in your your yard, right? >> Um, I always say the best thing you can do actually if you want to support bees and and and beekeeping is number one, become a beekeeper. And if you don't want to become a beekeeper, then find a local beekeeper that you can purchase their honey, right? Because we do this hobby and it's it it's not cheap for us. I mean, there's an expense to keeping bees every year, like any business, uh, like any hobby. And, uh, we appreciate it when people buy our our product. So, the next time you're at the supermarket, you know, and, uh, you know, there's a mass- prodduced honey, uh, local, think twice and find someone who's local. There's lots of beekeepers in our area. Uh, our club represents a couple hundred beekeepers in Hammond County. And I I'm glad you segueed to that because I do want to talk about the the Hammond County Beekeepers Association. You know, you you know, you said years ago they were there were six people, half a dozen people, maybe 10 people in B school. Now you guys have, you know, well over a hundred people each year. >> Yeah. >> Let how does somebody attend BChool? >> Yeah. So the easiest way is just to go to our website which is uh www.hcb.org and there's a link there to sign up for BChool. Uh, so B school, >> is it a winter school? >> Yeah, it's a winter school. >> People are prepped for the spring. >> Yep. So we start it in the our dates aren't set yet for this year, but we we're every year we usually we we run it on the third Saturday of January and the third Saturday of February. Uh, those two dates were our classroom times. So we we start out in January assuming you know nothing about beekeeping. Um, by the end of fe the February class, the second class, you know, you would be able to hopefully look at a frame and say, "Yeah, that's got a disease." You might not necessarily know exactly which one it is, but we would we would have gone over which one it is, but but you might not have that skill set yet to but you know something is wrong, right? >> Um then we move into April and we do uh a um what we call a hive opening at our apiary down in Sufffield. We have a teaching apiary down there. So, all the beekeepers that are in bee school come down. Uh, we put on our our suits and veils and we go into hives and we reinforce all the things that we taught through a hands-on uh day at at the farm. Um, in addition to that, you get a mentor for the season. Uh, you get membership to the club for uh a year uh which is uh advantageous because you can come to our uh monthly meetings where we have information given. Um it's always the third Thursday of every month >> and um you get to attend more hive openings as we have them throughout the year too. So we have we use that apiary down in Sfield. Uh sounds like sort of a year-long process. Couple classrooms, couple visits, but the the idea is take advantage of what's being offered all year long. >> So really a year later you're ready to hit the ground running. >> You're ready to hit it. Yeah. And so we find that, you know, a lot of people take B school and then start that year keeping bees. Uh some people actually come to us after they've kept bees for a year and then take be school, which I I wouldn't recommend starting that way, but if that is what happens, uh that's actually not a bad way to do it because then you have more context, right? >> You know, you have a little more context as we're going through the classroom uh sessions. So, I mean, we really try to make ourselves available to help people throughout the season and really get a good um foundation on the practices of beekeeping, like I said, in the traditional way. So, that way you have uh you can enjoy success with it. It's frustrating when you're doing anything you don't you're not seeing success. But um I think with the education that we provide um for $90 for the year, which is you know I think a bargain um you can uh rely on your mentor a bit. You can uh uh come to our our take advantage of all the different aspects of B school and I think by the end of the year you know you would have a really good foundation to build on uh to move forward in in in your beekeeping um hobby or or what whatever you want to go with it. >> Fantastic. hcbe.org that's right.org hcbe.org Hampton County Beekeepers Association. Nate, I want to thank you so very much for joining me today. Fascinating conversation learning about bees. >> Yeah, great Patrick. Thanks a lot for having us. >> Good seeing you. Thank you. >> This is 22 News in Focus with Patrick Barry. [Music]