Becky Edmiston, biology professor at Colorado Mountain College Steamboat Springs and president of the Routt County Beekeepers Association, holds a frame of bees while teaching fellow beekeepers about mites. (Photo by Dylan Anderson)
Chris Bradley’s bees aren’t doing so well this year. He keeps them at his home up on Seedhouse Road, but it isn’t the Morgan Creek Fire that has been the issue.
Last year he had seven hives each with between 30,000 and 40,000 bees. Each hive wanted to swarm, which means the bees want to split the hive into two and make a new queen.
He was optimistic, but after he split his bees into 14 hives, the flowers dried up and only four made it through the winter. This year just two of his hives are doing well and two are not. His bees are not making drones either.
Honey Stinger beekeepers, from left, Emily Scott, Kate Burleson and Shannon Grasser inspect some of the bees in the company’s new hive hosted at Colorado Mountain College Steamboat Springs. (Courtesy photo by Stephanie Stocking)
After 20 years as a Steamboat Springs-based company specializing in energy foods made from honey, Honey Stinger now has its first local, company-managed beehive.
In partnership with Colorado Mountain College Steamboat Springs and biology professor Becky Edmiston, the Honey Stinger hive was installed last month in an electrified enclosure on the hillside above the college campus. The location is home to three other hives managed by Edmiston and the college’s student Beekeeping Club that started in 2012.