SUSAN JONES, Apiculture Specialist
APICULTURE
The goal of the Apiculture and Pollinator Program is to incorporate teaching and interaction with pollinators into all of the agricultural pathways at John de la Howe.
This will provide each student an opportunity to experience the impact that pollinators have on their specific area of focus, and as a result, develop a principled approach to protecting and sustaining them. More in-depth instruction and certification are provided to those students selecting Apiculture and/or Pollinators as their Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE).
Managed honey bee colonies are used as the primary tool of instruction due to the ability to better interact with them over other pollinators. However, instruction is not limited to just this one type of pollinator. Attention is also given to natural habitats for native bees, butterflies, bats, and birds – all playing various roles in the overall pollination process.
Building Our Program
Six honey bee colonies were established on the campus in Spring 2024. Twelve more colonies were added in the Spring of 2025 bringing our total to 18 colonies across 4 bee yards on our 1300-acre campus.
Bees are managed, but wild, requiring careful management of not being over-disturbed in a teaching environment. They need to be allowed to do their work with minimal interruption. The goal of building to 20 colonies will allow weekly interaction for all students without causing undue stress on the bees.
As the bees work to pollinate, they will also collect nectar – the wonderful reward for their pollination services. A well-managed honey bee colony can easily produce a surplus of between 30 to 60 pounds of honey per year. Multiplied by 20 colonies, that could easily be 1,200 pounds of honey each year!
Student Achievements
Two of our students: Savannah Smith and Garland Wilson were selected for the NextGen Scholarship at the North American Honey Bee Expo held in Louisville, Kentucky January 8-10. Garland placed 5th in the nation at the Expo Honey Show competition in Dark Extracted Honey, competing against a large field of experienced adult beekeepers. Congratulations girls on your hard work and achievement!
Club APIS
Club APIS was established in 2024 to support students and members of the community interested in learning more about our valued pollinators and honey bees. Each monthly meeting will feature a guest speaker or a fieldwork activity.
Club APIS meets monthly on the second Monday from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Education Center. Meeting dates for Spring 2026 are January 12 - Report from the North American Honey Bee Expo from students Garland and Savannah with Apiculturist Susan Jones; February 9 - "Creating the Pollinator Garden Action Plan" with Master Gardener Intern Phyllis Roth; March 9 - TBD; April 13 - "How to Enter a Honey Show" with AHSTC Senior Honey Judge and Master Beekeeper Sheryl Brousseau; May 11 - "Reading Frames" with Dee Olekas, SC Master Beekeeper Program Director
Community Support
A generous grant by Duke Energy has funded the Apiculture Program expansion to include the addition of a Certified Honey House on the John de la Howe campus. This will permit the students to not only interact with the bees, but also harvest, bottle, label, and market this product of the hive – bringing the experience full circle. Learning through this process will prove invaluable to the students as they develop their own agricultural endeavors, impact their communities, and strengthen South Carolina agriculture.
What's Happenin' In The Hive
Our bees are flying with purpose, bringing in pollen and nectar from a variety of sources as our landscape has transformed into a blaze of color. The red maples bloomed in February as the first visible sign that spring was on its way. Many of our trees are leafing out and we are seeing an abundant blackberry bloom. Our nectar flow came strong, then slowed as our area is now experiencing a severe drought. All our colonies have built up strong with high populations. We have actively equalized colonies and made splits to manage the natural tendency for swarming. For those colonies that have built queen cells, we have split those colonies and harvested some queen cells for replacement queens. Most colonies boast 2 to 3 honey supers and with the weather being so dry, the bees are beginning to cap the honey – quite a bit earlier than normal.
The Apiculture Classroom is a hub of activity! Our students are checking the colonies once a week in addition to tending to our Pollinator Garden. Several of the students are studying to complete their beginning level beekeeping certification.