Fall 2017 Campus Sustainability Fund Grant Proposal
Paul Smith’s College Beekeeping Association
Project Leader:Cody Kautzman Email: CP: (315)-663-8440
Coparticipants: Eric Simandle, Jessi McCarty, Kyle Gleichauf, Logan Hazard
Total Cost: $1,837.70
Project Summary
Goals
The Paul Smith’s College Beekeeping Association is looking to get funding from the campus sustainability fund grant. This grant would allow the PSC BA to purchase 5 nucleus colonies. Nucleus colonies are miniature beehives that already has been established. In hives where bees are introduced directly after purchase, they first need to build comb, this requires their added energy. In a nucleus colony, comb has already been made, and individual bees have already been acquainted. The other added benefit of a Nuc colony is that the queen that comes as part of the hives are mated queens. Generally, packaged bees come with a virgin queen, who cannot lay until she is mated. With this grant, we will also purchase 5 unassembled 10 frame hive boxes. We as a group need these boxes to expand our bee yard, and house our bees. As an added benefit, we will be able to assemble our hive boxes together, hopefully as a bonding practice, and as educational experience. For this we will also need screws and wood glue. These items will be purchased from Ace Hardware. Another item on the project supply list is 3 feeders and 1 pack of 10 pollen patties. Because of the short blooming season of our area, our bees have less time to make enough honey to survive through our brutally cold winters. To combat this, beekeepers place pollen patties and feeders in the hive in mid fall and early spring. Pollen patties are large discs of pollen that allow the bees to make nectar and honey quickly. A feeder is an attachment to the hive that holds simple sugar water that bees consume and store for energy. We also need 1 package of mite treatment. A large problem facing beekeepers today is Varroa Mites. These mites act as bloodsucking parasites to bee larva, leaving brood useless. As a maneuver to limit the destruction of the mites we have elected to use a hop based chemical, too weak to harm people or bees. This chemical is toxic to Varroa Mites, and keeps their populations low. These items will allow us to expand our bee yard and be better prepared to keep bees properly. We will get 1 pack of 100 unassembled frames. Frames are removable pieces that the bees will be able to build their comb into. The benefit of these being unassembled is, again, the club will be able to build them together. We will also get 5 bottom boards, 5 inner covers, and 5 outer covers. These are all components that are necessary to complete a hive. Lastly, we will need 5 packs of 10 wire framed foundations. These foundations are made of wax and will give the bees a head start, as well as guide them on where to build. We will be providing a more hands on experience than we are currently able to, and therefore be able to provide a better educational experience. The PSC BA will manage the apiary with the assistance of our adviser Eric Simandle and use our five year action plan to sustain and grow our beekeeping operation.
Project Justification and Relevance
The PSC BA continues to fill a niche in the college community that had long been empty. Beekeeping fits hand in hand with maple syrup production, as well as being beneficial to the crops grown by Bethany Garretson and her students at Osgood Pond. Bee yards improve the surrounding flora in a 3-mile radius of the hive. This increases’ yields of gardens and boosts pollination. When our apiary is more established, we hope to sell honey produced from our hives in the PSC bookstore and the PSC VIC store. Eventually, we would like to see this program become a class that is included in the PSC curriculum. Our project will also help to educate the next generation of beekeepers, who can take what they learned from the PSC BA into the real world and prepare them to have their own hives someday.
Methods
The PSC BA will continue to have weekly meetings to get familiar with and educate students who are interested in beekeeping, as well as go on educational trips. We will continue to educate our members on the workings of beekeeping and the addition of the hives made possible by this grant will allow more members to get hands on experience, maybe allowing every two members to have their own hive, allowing each pair to try a different method of sustainability. The PSC BA would purchase the nuc coloniesand hives from the Betterbee Company, a company we have used previously, to establish new hives at Osgood Pond. Screws and wood glue will be purchased from Ace Hardware. We will continue to use Langstroth hives, but we will also be trying a new type of hive, the Warre hives, which we hope to add a plexy glass window to, allowing students to see into the hive at all times, without disturbing the bees. It will be important to have a few different types of hives in the apiary to show the pros and cons of each. For spring and fall time we will be purchasing feeders for spring and fall feeding, this will also be from Betterbee. Our action plan is very ambitious and hopes to set up the club for future growth into other fields of beekeeping including honey production, wax making, candle making, soup making, pollen production, propolis making, nucs, queens, and other bee related products.
Long Term Management
The PSC Beekeeping Club has a very solid structure for club officials and a strong number of members. As a club, they reach out too many events and recruit new members constantly. This club has support from many facets around the campus and will be working to maintain these hives long term and help educate interested potential beekeepers.
Project Budget and Timeline
Budget Table
Budget Justification
This grant would allow us to expand our operation, allowing for more hands-on learning for each member of the club. Everything listed in our budget is needed to allow us to establish 5 healthy new hives. This would allow us to try different beekeeping techniques on different hives to determine what is the best method of beekeeping for our area. We want to purchase unassembled hives and frames because this gives the club the opportunity to learn how to build hives and allows the club to work together to build the hives we will be using for our bees, as well as being the less expensive option.
Supporting Documentation
10/17/17
To the Sustainability Council,
My name is Bethany Garretson and I’m an instructor at Paul Smith’s College. I’m writing a letter of support for the expansion of bee hives at Osgood Farm. Jessi McCarty is the President of the bee keeping organization and he has done an excellent job of educating the public on the benefit of bees. The bee keeping club has done tremendously well in the past year and doubled in size. There is a lot of support and interest from the Paul Smith’s community towards this project. Personally, I feel it is a great fit for our college and wholeheartedly support its expansion. At the Osgood Farm site, the hives are well monitored and checked in on. They are also a popular talking point on group tours. Jessi has also organized bringing a bee-keeper speaker to campus. This is a wonderful program and I’m looking forward to seeing it expand. Please email me if you have further questions.
Sincerely,
Bethany Garretson
October 23, 2017
To whom it may Concern:
I would like to take this opportunity to support the Bee Keeping Club’s request to purchase equipment for five hives and five over wintered nucleus hives. They have told me of their desire to increase their capabilities and presence on campus. These are hives that are started a year in advance and are stronger that the traditional package of bees that we got last year. They will be much stronger and that is needed at this altitude and weather conditions. This will also replace borrowed equipment that the club is using and purchase hive feeders that we will use to feed hives when needed. The club also wants to expand the number of hives so that they can get more hands on experience for members because the best educational method is to get the members in the hives. I have meet with representatives from the club and was very impressed with their knowledge, enthusiasm, and commitment to bee keeping and the educational benefits from this endeavor.
I think this project is very worthy of funding and support. It would enhance our hands on, experiential learning opportunities at Osgood site. Bee keeping has become a very popular addition to farms and landowner’s properties and would give the Environment and Society’s programs a very visible marketing tool. It is also a very responsible thing to do for the sustainability and environmental well-being of our country. The college has as part of the strategic plan to reach out to the community and be a partner on community projects and this club and project would connect people in the community, that have information to share or that want to learn about bee keeping, to the college.
We are planning on having a faculty member working the garden area at Osgood Pond for the summer time and having students work with her as well. The garden and the site will be used in the fall as well for our Immersion semester and our Sustainable Agriculture courses. Having the additional hives available at the Osgood Pond site would allow for additional discussions in these courses as well.
If there are any additional topics that I could provide information on in order to help this club and project move forward, please feel free to contact me.
Karen Edwards
Department Chair
Environment and Society
10/26/17
To Whom It May Concern
This is my letter of support for the Beekeeping Club. They are a very strong and motivated group this year. Having the support of the money from the Sustainability Fund will help their club put some great and amazing events on for the campus community and will allow them to continue to grow.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or any more information to support the group.
Sincerely,
Jill Susice