AN APIARY AT MEDFORD LEAS?
Many residents will remember Mickey Gray, who died last December. Mickey’s daughter, Correy, is an amateur beekeeper. A registered member of the NJ Beekeepers Association, she has completed a beekeeping course offered by Rutgers and is currently participating in an internship in Gladstone, NJ.
At the March meeting of the Arboretum Committee, Jane Weston, Director of Marketing and Community Relations, presented a proposal from Correy. It explained that an ideal location for honeybees is one with a south-facing entrance in full sun. Their hives need the protection of trees to guard them from wind. They must also have accessible water, but must avoid dampness and flooding. Correy had approached Medford Leas to ask about the possibility of placing a hive in the meadow behind the silo. Another possibility would be a hive on the Lumberton campus. The hive or hives would be made of stacked wooden boxes 16” x 20”. Correy would tend the hives herself, and they would be inspected twice a year by the State Department of Agriculture to check for disease.
The Arboretum Committee referred Correy’s proposal to John Caughey, chairman of the MLRA Nature Coordinating Committee, and Miriam Swartz, chair of the Bird Club and resident of Lumberton. If the project is approved, Correy hopes that the bees will accumulate enough food to sustain the hive through the winter. However, it will be some time before the hive can be expected to produce enough honey to be shared. On the other hand, as a direct result of the bees’ presence, there could be immediate increases in flower and vegetable production.
Medford Leas Life, September 2009
MEDFORD LEAS BEEHIVES
Medford Leas Life (May, 2009) repeyorted the possibility of an apiary being installed at Medford Leas by Correy Melissas, daughter of former resident Mickey Gray. The hive is now in place, near the community gardens behind the Mt. Holly sewage pumping station on the Lumberton campus. The hive is back from the edge of the shrub garden to be out of reach of the spray from the irrigation system. Its opening faces south.
In July, the hive had about 1,000 bees, and it is hoped that there will be some 10,000 by November. Correy visits the hive every other day feeding the bees with a 50/50 solution of sugar/water and a pollen supplement. Worker bees can be seen carrying pollen on their legs as they enter the hive. The bees have also been seen on the Butterfly Weed that blooms in the Lumberton meadow.
Because some residents are allergic to bee stings and others are just fearful of bees and other insects, the hive was placed near residents who are not allergic and who have agreed to have the hive near their homes.
by Miriam Swartz
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Medford Leas Life, May 2010
THE BEES ARE BUSY
In September 2009, Medford Leas Life reported that the promised apiary had been installed on the Lumberton campus. As everyone has noticed, it’s been an unusually warm spring, so Correy Melissas, the bee tender and daughter of the late Mickey Gray, opened the hive on a warm day in the third week of March to see what was going on.
She found the bees to be, as she put it, “happy and plentiful.” Correy issues a newsletter when she has something to report. In it she said, “The entire first level [the hive body] was empty of bees, brood, and honey. The upper body was filled with all the bees and a few frames of untouched capped honey. This is good news because it means they were able to store enough honey on which to live through the winter,” which had been a goal for the first year of the hive.
She will be taking various steps this spring that are needed to maintain the hive and stimulate the bees to produce honey that she should be able to extract this summer.
Correy’s newsletters give more information than can be shared in this space. You will find them, along with a dozen photos, at the website magazine at mlra.org.
Stay tuned.