ROCHESTER, Minn. — Charlie Constans has long been fascinated by bees, butterflies and flowers.
With some encouragement, he's turned that fascination into a business.
Constans is a beekeeper who sells gallons of honey each year to Forager Brewery under the name Constans Apiary.
Six years ago, his wife, Deanna, encouraged him to become a beekeeper. Growing up, her dad and uncle experimented with beekeeping. With Charlie's love of nature, she thought it would be the perfect fit.
Setting up a bee colony
He bought his first package of bees from a supplier in Stillwater called Nature's Nectar and then started watching videos and reading blogs on how to raise bees. He installed his first package which entails moving three pounds or several thousand bees that are swarming around a container of sugar water from the original package to a prepared hive.
"The queen is transported separately and must be integrated slowly," Constans said. "The bees __have to accept her first or they will kill her."
She travels in a screened cage with a hole in the bottom. The hole is capped with a cork, so the bees cannot eat through it. When she is ready to be transferred to the hive, the cork is removed and the hole is capped with a mini marshmallow.
The queen's cage is inserted into the hive. It will take the bees about 24-48 hours to eat through the marshmallow. At this point, she will be released into the hive and accepted by the bees.
The hive is constructed with a screen bottom board that provides adequate ventilation. A 10-frame box is stacked on top, and ten frames fit into the box.
The inner cover rests on top of the frame box and acts as insulation. Then, a telescoping cover goes on top to keep the rain out. Boxes are added as the hive grows, the ones on the bottom become space for the brood, or eggs, the upper boxes are for the honey.
Constans' colony of bees is located in Whitewater Valley. The bees collect the pollen from a variety of sources in this area. The can travel up to three miles collecting pollen, and then they bring it back to the hive.
"If you __have a really good queen, she can lay up to 1,800 eggs each day," he said. "So within a few weeks, if the weather is good, your bee population can go from about 8,000 to 40,000."
Busy bees
"Each worker bee has a job to do," Constans said. "Some bees protect the entrance, some protect the brood, some protect the queen, some clean the hive and the field bees are out collecting pollen and nectar."
The bees bring in nectar which is stored in the stomach and transferred to other bees. The nectar has water in it and once the water has dissipated, the bees regurgitate honey into the comb.
Honey bee workers have four pairs of special wax-secreting glands on the undersides of their abdomens. Once the honey is regurgitated into the comb, they cap the honey with wax.
To harvest honey, the frame is extracted and the honeycomb is uncapped with an uncapping knife. The honey is strained through cheese cloth to keep the bits of wax out of the honey.
Constans was forced to move his bees from his backyard to Whitewater Valley because of the city ordinance where he lives. He said his plum tree produced 100 plums the year he had bees on his property.
When he moved the bees, his tree produced two plums. "That's what you lose when you lose honeybees."
Benefits of a bee colony
"Everybody benefits from bees when they are able to cross-pollinate," Constans said. "Your plants are much more productive."
Constans believes that bees are critical for our environment. Not only do they help plants bear fruit, but the production of honey is very important.
"Honey has many health benefits too," he said. "It's a natural antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, it aids in digestion and soothes a sore throat."
Dealing with harmful chemicals
Constans said he is frustrated with legislators who continue to allow farmers to spray their crops with neonicotinoids and other pesticides that have been shown to harm pollinators.
Minnesota DFL Gov. Mark Dayton has said he'd like to see more regulation in Minnesota on neonics, although other legislators have expressed concern over the impact on crop production were more regulations to come through.
In Europe, neonics are banned. "They should ban them in North America too," Constans said.
Bees ingest the chemical and honey production goes down, it hurts them, and they eventually die. "That stuff is bad. It's bad for the ecosystem. It's just bad," he said. The bee population is slowly declining, and that is one of the main factors.
Constans continues to harvest wildflower honey from his hive in Whitewater Valley. His honey is not only purchased by Forager Brewery, but is also sold at the small market they have onsite.
