Bl2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 10,1982
Northeastern beekeepers collect sweet cargo
BY DONNA TOMMELLEO
OBELISK Amid high winds
and unseasonable weather, 1,500
pounds of honey bees cruised into
Perkiomen Valley Apiaries, Inc,
on Saturday, less than a day after
departing from a balmy 85 degree
Georgia climate.
No, it wasn’t an annual
migration of Southern insects
returning to their summer home.
Robert Brooks locates the queen as he explains how to re
queen a hive. Earlier in the day, Brooks, a physiologist who
specializes in bee venom for arthritis control, just completed
an 800-mile trip with $12,900 worth of honey bees.
1
Brooks, without hat, gloves and veil, introduces a colony of
bees to their new hive. His method? Shake them in!
Tiny travelers survive 800-mile iourne
Instead it was a pre-planned bee
drop that supplied several Nor
theastern beekeepers with 500
colonies
Delphi beekeeper Bill Nostadt
and PVA owner Robert Brooks
packed 500 colomes of bees, each
containing one queen and three
pounds of workers, mto an open
topped truck and accompanied the
buzzing cargo from Georgia
spingtime to Pennsylvania’s
persistent winter.
Brooks and Nostadt lined the
$12,900 cargo with cardboard and
sealed the top with plywood. The
pair stopped several tunes during
The 500 packages of honey bees begin to determine damage and loss, new bee owners
warm up a bit once unloaded into PVA’s large will cart their buzzing brood home to awaiting
ihr Follow!- )ckage inspection to hives.
W
The queen bee arrived segregated from the workers remained with her to feed the royal
colony via this tiny wire enclosure. However, heed of the hive with sugar candy contained in
she wasn’t entirely alone as a half dozen the far right compartment.
_ -, center, explains the process and operate Perkiomen Valley Aparies, Inc.,
of acquainting the queen with her new colony which maintains about 500 hives a year,
of workers. Brooks and husband Robert own
the 19-hour journey to check the
temperature of the load, said
Nostadt. Brooks estimated the
grueling trip may have claimed no
more than four or five packages,
despite whipping winds and
-&* ' N
✓ *
m
<** * J»
chilling temperatures
Northeast.
A previous trip, by Brooks,
caused more than 30 percent or
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41'
m-
(Turn to Page B 13)
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