P L E N T Y SUMMER 2019 Plenty Summer 2019-joomag copy | Page 34

While there are many
native pollinators—
including butterflies,
bats, beetles, and
hummingbirds—there
were no honeybees in
North America until the
colonists brought them
over from England in
1622. Once estab-
lished, bee colonies
provided honey for
mead, baked goods,
and a variety of tra-
ditional (and modern)
medical treatments.
The beeswax was used
for making candles,
waterproofing barrels,
and for use in cosmet-
ics and shoe polish.
the Loving Charity Hall, we discovered that
among the squatters who’d made a happy
home in the collapsing old building was a
colony of honey bees. The bees, along with
the other inhabitants, would have to move
along before construction could begin.
The cats, groundhog and opossum sensed
impending upheaval associated with con-
struction and left of their own accord. The
bees did not.
As the timeline for beginning the
project moved closer, a number of sugges-
tions were made on how to get rid of the
bees. Most were the choice between a fast
death by insecticide or a slow death by bar-
ring the bees’ entry into the hive and food.
Ultimately, it became clear to me that if we
could take on the rebuilding of the Hall, we
ought to be able to include the bees in an
adaptive reuse project.
Heritage Montgomery, (HM) the or-
ganization that I am pleased to lead, is the
county- and state-designated organization
charged with protecting and stewarding
the county’s historic, cultural, and natural
resources. The building is part of our Agri-
cultural Reserve, and our local pollinators,
on which local farmers depend, are suffer-
ing from pressures which are causing their
rapid decline. Saving bees from a historic
building, in the Agricultural Reserve, is a
win-win!
Finding a New Home
Soon after the discovery of the bee
colony, our friends at Button Farm Living
History Center in Germantown offered
them a home as the centerpiece for a
new pollinators exhibit. The site’s con-
servators have restored an early 1900s
farm in Seneca Creek State Park to show-
case stories of the Underground Railroad,
farm life in the 1850s, and local African
American history. Open to the public,
Button Farm is home to both heritage
crops and animals.
On hearing of the plan to move the
hive, several local beekeepers stepped up
to help. The Montgomery County Bee-
keepers Association’s Jim Frazer and his
sons came to the building and moved the
bees, queen and all, into a portable hive.
During the move Jim noticed that the
bees were in a weakened condition.
Once settled at his apiary, he began
treating them for the Varroa mite, a tiny
parasite that can destroy a colony. Jim
suggested that the bees spend the winter
in the safety of his apiary where he could
nurse them back to health with treat-
ments of thyme oil and a constant diet of
sugar water.
Varroa mites are but one cause of
the recent decline in bee populations,