(COLORADO SPRINGS) — It’s almost time for honey harvest season in Colorado Springs, where beehives can produce up to 110 pounds, and the bees are already hard at work.
Honeybees play a critical role in agriculture and food production, so one local beekeeper is highlighting their importance and the growing need to protect both domesticated bees and native pollinators.
“All for all, and all for one, beside pollination, their societies are the best thing about them,” said Lazarus Fields, a local beekeeper.
Although they are small, they are certainly mighty–bees play a critical role in Southern Colorado.
“Besides pollination, we would not be having much food if they weren’t kept sustainable,” he said.
Fields has been a beekeeper for 15 years, and he is hoping to expand the bee population in Colorado Springs.
“I do it because I love being outside, what’s not to like about this? I love making more bees and just doing my small part of the world because, sometimes we have issues with honeybees,” said Fields.
He takes care of more than 55 colonies across Colorado Springs, and on Monday, April 28, he spent the afternoon introducing the queen to different colonies to help with reproduction.
“I think it was overall successful, everybody stayed in the box, the queen went through the inner cover. So, we’ll give it a week, maybe 10 days, and hopefully come back to see some eggs and that queen healthy,” he said.
But it stings when mother nature does not cooperate with the process.
“The main issues being various mites for sure, pesticides sometimes can become an issue depending on where your bees are foraging at the monarch crops,” said Fields.
Keeping the bees safe throughout the winter can be difficult, but like any society, they find a way to survive.
“In the winter they cluster, they physically detach their wings from their wing muscles so they can generate heat by moving their muscles,” he said.
The main harvest time is the end of summer, and he says he can’t wait for his liquid gold.
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“Besides allergies, honey has all kinds of medicinal and health positives for you. So, I’m a honey guy and I shouldn’t say drink, but I might drink at least a pound of honey a day,” he said.
