I grew up in Ann Arbor, but school and then work took me away after high school. While an undergraduate at University of Wisconsin, I met and fell in love with my now husband. Our lives together have taken us on a tour of the Midwest, from Madison, WI, to Davenport Iowa, St. Louis, MO, and most recently Springfield, IL.
I started beekeeping in my backyard in Springfield in 2013 with a beekeeping class and a package of bees from California. By 2015 I was convinced that California bees were not for me, so I started buying locally raised colonies, raising my own bees, and catching swarms. I continue those practices today.
In 2019, I came “home” to Green Acres Farm in Dexter, the love of my parent’s lives for the past 35 years. When my parents offered me the opportunity to take over Green Acres and bring my bees to Michigan, it was an amazing opportunity. I knew the land they had spent the past 35 years restoring to forest, prairie and wetlands would be perfect for my bees. My hives are now located at or close to Green Acres Farm, where the bees can collect a large variety of nectar for their honey.
I work hard to minimize the exposure of the bees I care for to anything other than what they bring into the hives themselves. Supplemental feedings, medications, or other treatments are used only when they are needed to prevent the death of the hive. I focus on natural or organic treatments when they are needed. In 2021, for the first time, I added some non-local queens, selected for resistance to the bee mite, Varroa destructor. I decided to do this with the goal improving the mite resistance in our local honey bee population. If successful, this will help improve survival of our local honey bees without chemical treatment. Also for the first time in the spring of 2021, I started selling a limited number of nucleus hives made from splits of winter survivors with either locally raised queens or varroa resistant queens. Depending on how the bees overwinter each year, I anticipate continuing to do this on a limited basis.