Making the Rounds



On Koenen’s delivery route our first stop in Lake Mills is right off the highway in a McDonald’s parking lot. We meet a father and two kids, and load four packages (screened box with 5,000 female workers, sugar water feed, queen in a sub-cage for protection) into the back of their pickup. After some questions about hive maintenance, Koenen describes to the dad a new mobile app allowing better hive monitoring, to keep bees healthy.

Our next drop-off with a spectacular view is Fix Development’s rooftop garden atop the Clock Shadow Building in Walker’s Point. This 3,000-square-foot green space overlooks Downtown, Jones Island and south towards Bay View. On this stop we were installing a package into a “Beepod,” a top bar hive designed by Keonen. This Beepod had some comb from the hive that didn’t “overwinter” (survive to the spring), which we left in to save the bees some energy and give them a jumpstart on their new home.

Top bar hives are horizontal rather that vertical, and Beepods use wood bars with a mid-vein on the underside that give bees a foundation from which to build downwards. Though Beepods encourage bees to build vertical comb via tailored “bee space,” they also allow bees to build without too much structure.

Koenen’s supplier, Lee Heine, is one of the largest national distributors of packaged bees, and is well respected in our area. His queens are bred in Hawaii and are introduced to daughters in California. Essentially, a package of bees is an artificial swarm. Commercial beekeepers are mimicking a natural process where a new queen is raised in the hive, and before she hatches the old queen and half the workers leave in a “swarm,” splitting the hive. After the brutal winter we just went through, Lee Heine’s business has been booming.

Back on the roof, with the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower as a backdrop, I arm myself with a feather and a marshmallow. As Koenen’s helpful assistant, I stand by as he removes the feeder can and the queen in her darling little cage. Carefully – Koenen will be stung several times this day – he pulls out the cork and replaces it with the mini marshmallow I hand him. It will eventually be eaten by the workers to slowly release the queen. He next tips and dumps out the 5,000 workers into the hive. I assist by taking a feather (preferred over a brush) and scooping and pushing clumps of misplaced bees in to join the others. Amazingly, they immediately start orienting themselves and cleaning their new, partially-furnished residence.

With evening closing in, and bees flying out the windows, our beemobile pulls up at our next drop-offs: two backyards of inspired urban homesteaders, eagerly awaiting their new extended family members. We install both packages, and by the end we are both answering questions and educating the new parents. By now, though, it’s getting late and cold, and the bees are done moving for the day.