Spring Lake Garden Club members heard from Julio Gavancho, a beekeeper with PachaMama Bees, at a recent meeting held at the VFW. Gavancho explained how honeybees produce honey, how beekeepers keep colonies healthy and the challenges bees face.
Gavancho said beekeepers harvest only surplus honey so the colony has enough food to survive. Bees need food all year, which can come from wildflowers, trees and supplemental feeding when nectar is scarce. He said dandelions are a good food source and recommended not spraying pesticides so they can grow.
Gavancho said pesticides and insecticides can be a major threat to honeybees, and that weakened colonies can collapse over time. Other threats include wasps, ants and problems that can come from moving a colony. For people who want to help pollinators, he recommended planting a variety of flowers and flowering trees and avoiding unnecessary pesticide use.