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A lot of buzz over Mustang honey

SMSU honey bee partnership thrives at wildlife area

Photo courtesy of Southwest Minnesota State University A portion of the Southwest Minnesota honey bee yard features a row of bee hives maintained by area beekeepers. The yard is located on the northeast corner of the SMSU wildlife area. T

MARSHALL — Southwest Minnesota State University is doing its part to sustain the region’s honey bee population.

The campus wildlife area is home to a bee yard in its northeast corner. Eighteen different hives are maintained by beekeepers from the Marshall area who are prohibited from keeping bees within Marshall and many other incorporated cities.

“They needed a place that would be suitable for hives,” said SMSU Dean of Arts, Letters and Sciences Aimee Shouse. “The wildlife area is perfect for it. The hives are surrounded by plenty of pollinating plants.”

The northeast corner was chosen because of how it has wind protection from a tree shelterbelt but enough open space to prevent the encroachment of grass, young trees and shrubs.

The site is kept mowed by SMSU’s groundskeeping crew. Beekeepers perform all other care and maintenance on the hives.

The project took shape in 2019 as beekeeper Bill Reilly approached SMSU administrators. The bee yard was dedicated to Reilly’s mother, Pat Reilly, an avid gardener who passed away as it was being created.

Shouse began to oversee the project after former SMSU Provost Dwight Watson left to take a college administrative position in Wisconsin.

Although her academic specialty is political science, Shouse has life experiences that provide a basic familiarity with the work of beekeepers. One of her grandfathers was a beekeeper in Arkansas. Her mother taught college level biology, and passed along her interest in plant and animal kingdoms.

The bee yard began with 11 hives. It has almost doubled in size with additional interest from area residents.

“It wouldn’t have happened without interest from the public, “ Shouse said. “It’s a really good addition to the wildlife area because it meets the needs of the beekeepers and provides an educational resource. We welcome these types of partnerships.”

She said fall is a busy time of year for beekeepers, a point when they harvest honey and prepare hives for winter weather conditions. The bees in many ways take care of themselves, producing enough of their own heat to sustain their hives.

Although not every hive survives, especially in a harsh winter, they often maintain enough of a population base to begin a new spring season without needing to be artificially re-established. A carefully maintained hive is much more likely to sustain itself than one in which bees find their own location in the wild.

Healthy hives normally have between 20,000 and 50,000 honey bees, according to several web sites. The bees typically travel about two miles in any direction to pollinate. The range varies depending on geographic location and the availability of suitable plants.

The bee yard at SMSU is fenced off to protect hives from predators. Honey bees are docile insects which are unlikely to bother people unless their hives are disturbed, meaning that they pose little if any danger to walkers on the nearby hiking trail.

SMSU biology professor Alyssa Anderson, who has a specialty in entomology, is currently using the bee yard as a teaching tool for a class in insect ecology and diversity.

She said having a working set of bee hives is useful for seeing how insect populations group together into societies. She added that the hives provide a real-life learning resource that proves interesting to students.

“It ties in with at least several of our courses,” Anderson said. “Bee hives are one of the clearest examples of the complex social behavior of insects. They perform an important set of ecological tasks in a short lifetime.”

The hives also have potential to become an attraction for school groups, who have access to an outdoor classroom located next to the wildlife area’s wetlands and pine forest. A prairie area is situated in the southwest corner.

One of the promotional methods for the bee yard has been the production of Mustang Honey, which was bottled for the first time in 2019.

“Hopefully the hives will continue to attract public interest,” Anderson said. “The project is helping to sustain the region’s bee population, which is valuable for maintaining ecological diversity.”

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