Beekeeping continues to grow on local ‘Bee Campus’

Beekeeper Mike Der Kinderen inspecting a beehive at Georgian College in Barrie, Ont on September 22, 2024 (CTV News/ Mike Lang).

A year after being recognized as one of 19 ‘Bee Campuses’ by Bee City Canada, Georgian College continues to promote the importance of bees to agriculture, the economy and education.

“A lot of our food doesn’t produce unless it’s pollinated by pollinators,” said Melissa Greenwood from Derkwood Beekeeping Supplies. “But also just the sustainability and just helping with the ecosystem in general.”

Greenwood and her husband, Mike Der Kinderen, own Derkwood Beekeeping Supplies and look after the two beehives on Georgian’s Barrie Campus. Each hive contains between 10,000 to 50,000 bees.

On Sunday, the couple made one of several trips to inspect the hive and extract honey.

“We have to make sure we manage that and control [the bees] and give them more space to grow and bring more honey in for us,” said der Kinderen. He and Greenwood plan to extract more than a hundred pounds of honey from the two beehives, which they will take back to their shop and turn into a variety of honey-based products.

The beehives are among several initiatives by Georgian College to promote bees along with ‘No-Mow’ zones, the pollinator garden, the Bee Lodge, and the fruit and vegetable garden.

“Just demonstrating sort of a 360-degree environment for our culinary students and our agribusiness students to experience,” said Bryan Hunt, the College’s Dean of Hospitality, Tourism and Recreation. “So they can see the gardens, they can see the orchard, they can see the pollinator habitat, and they can see the pollinators themselves.”

Hunt says the College is even considering offering more education for beekeeping down the line with Greenwood and Der Kinderen’s expertise.

“We would like to have more bees and eventually do some part-time programming and continuing education on apiary and beekeeping,” added Hunt. “It is an area of growing interest for a lot of people.”

Greenwood and Der Kinderen will finish extracting honey from Georgian’s hives this week and prepare them for the winter at the end of October. They plan to keep between 5,000 to 10,000 bees through spring.