The Bee's Need
A big part of our mission here on the reservation is connecting the community with the agricultural opportunities that are abundant in this area. Tikkun Olam President, Ken Elliott, has been teaming up with the Montana Farmers Union to help educated our youth on Bee's and the great importance they have both in our ecosystem but also as a business opportunity. This weekend Mr. Elliott drove to Great Falls, MT to pick up 4 new hives of bees to replace the 2 hives we had last year that unfortunately didn't make it through our tough winter. Out with the old in with the new!
Members of our Tikkun Olam family jumped at the opportunity to see the bee's in action and help where they could. One of our teachers, Laura was right in the middle of it and somehow came our completely unscathed. Ken, Mary Lou, Scott, and Morgan on the other hand weren't as lucky. Andy, Laura's son, was right in the middle of things helping Ken move frames from the new supers (box for hive) to make room for the new bees moving in.
We hope to continue educating our staff and community so we can keep the bee's thriving in our area. What a great way to get kids out interacting with mother nature and seeing God's creatures provide. The Wolf Point Herald did a story on our bee's and how we are working with the schools. Follow the link below to read their story!
Last year's hives with honeycomb to feed the new bees.
Ken Elliott working with Sharon and Laura on setting up new hives.
Andy helping move frames and make room for our new colony.
Ken and Laura Inspecting one of the new colonies. By the end of the summer there can be close to 50,000 bees in each hive.
Our favorite bee ladies, Laura, Sharon, and Mary Lou.