A member of the Trenton FFA Chapter raises bees for his Supervised Agricultural Experience project.
Trenton High School sophomore Colton Roy started raising bees his eighth-grade year and received the Trenton FFA Chapter Specialty Animal Production and Care Proficiency Award at last school year’s Chapter Banquet. He says it is important to make sure bees are healthy and producing honey in the spring by making sure they stay up on their food levels.
The bees produce honey in the summer, and it can be extracted in the fall. Roy has fed the bees sugar water, but he is trying bee patties this winter that have pollen substitutes and sugars more natural to bees than granulated sugar. Using sugars more natural to bees is healthier for them because only using sugar water could cause bees to get sick and colonies to be lost.
There are 60,000 to 100,000 bees in each colony, and Roy has five. Many of his bees were purchased at auction, and he has spent about $2,000 so far. New hives can cost upwards of $500. He made “quite a bit” of his money back by extracting honey this year for the first time and selling 100 bottles.
Roy uses protective gear to prevent himself from being stung while spending three to four hours per week caring for his bees, sometimes with his father’s help. His protective gear includes a veil, jacket, and goatskin gloves, but it is not 100% sting-proof. As of October 18th, he estimated he had been stung about 75 to 100 times.
One of Roy’s major challenges has been two or three queen bees dying this year and having to replace them. He believes the queen bees might be dying due to age because he was not sure how old the colonies were he bought at auction. Worker bees work themselves to death in the summer and only live for about three weeks, but they can live up to four months in the winter. Male bees only breed the queen and live about a year, and queen bees can live three to four years. The types of bees can be determined by their size, shape, and number and size of eyes.
Roy plans to continue raising bees for his FFA Supervised Agricultural Experience project and into the future because he enjoys it. He believes it is an accomplishment for someone his age to have his own business and says raising bees is good for the environment because bees help produce one-third of the food humans eat.
The number of bees is in decline, and he encourages others to get involved. Roy notes there are books about raising bees and numerous sources of information can be found online.
