[April 10, 2017]      

Friday was bee day at Sasse's Apiary, Chestnut.  Raised on a Logan County farm NE of Lincoln, Nathan Sasse began his involvement with beekeeping at the age of 10 as a 4-H project. Now, he and his wife Elizabeth run a business http://www.sassesapiary.com/ supplying a variety of honey products to all of central Illinois.

Sasse also sells bees for one day in the spring. Beekeepers arrived all day to pick up previously ordered, newly arrived boxes to replenish local hives. Sasse said that at the Heart of Illinois Beekeepers Association meeting this year there were 80 new people interested in learning beekeeping.

Pictures by Jan Youngquist

A beekeeper prepares to install bees in two new hives.

 

Each three-pound box holds an estimated 10,000 bees, includes sugar water for the bees to feed during transport and a separate box with the queen bee attached.

 

Set up begins applying pheromones inside the hive, then the queen bee is installed.

 

The bees are gently shook into the hive. Food in the form of sugar water is provided inside the hive to help the bees get established.

 

The bees quickly adapt. In their second day they have already established themselves to their new territory and busily come and go through the small hole at the bottom of the hive.