Our Bee Program
Did you know that honeybees are the largest pollinators of our fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetables? Honeybees pollinate one third of the plants we eat and over half of the world’s diet of fat and oil.
As part of Grant Propane’s sustainability efforts, over 200,000 bees have called our propane yard their home. They have been working hard this past summer pollinating the property and surrounding area.
Here are a few pictures of us moving the bee hives to their new home at Grant Propane.
We thought you may be interested in the steps to move a hive in case you embark on such a project :
1. Wait till dusk or a cool morning when the bees are all in their colonies and not flying.
2. Tape up the entrances to make sure none escape in transit.
3. Use ratchet straps to tie all components together to ensure they don’t break apart during transit for obvious reasons.
4. Move the hives to the new location. You must move the hives at least 3 miles away from its current location. The reason for this is that bees learn their local area by sight very accurately. If the bees do not recognize their new surroundings, they will learn their new location (orientation flights). Otherwise the bees will fly back to the original site, not finding the hive and most likely perish - a very costly mistake.
5. Open up the entrances and watch the bees conduct their first orientation flight. It is a good idea to stand back a little as the bees may be a little irritated from bouncing around during the move.
Before winter hits, it's important to wrap the bee hives to keep them warm.
Here are a few photos of us making sure the bees are comfortable during our long winter months.
We look forward to continuing our bee program in the spring.
