Members of Clearview Elementary’s Cougar Club were excited to welcome local beekeeper Dave Goenner and Gary Gray of Grayson’s Berryland to their classroom last week, bombarding them with lots of questions.

 

The students were learning about pollinators and pollination, and Goenner and Gray were invited to talk to them about the importance of both in their lines of work.

 

Dave Goenner started out the presentations. He explained he was a bee hobbyist, and talked about varieties and types of bees, bee hives, and how honey is made and collected.

 

“Where do queen bees come from?” asked one student.

 

Goenner explained worker bees make royal jelly, which is much richer than honey, and feed it to the chosen bee for five to six days. She in turn grows much bigger than the other bees and starts laying up to 2,000 eggs a day.

 

He told them how he prepares his bees and their hives for overwintering, including treating them for mites. Each winter he loses around half his bees and has to purchase more in the spring.

 

He explained that bees don’t hibernate, instead they cluster together in a big ball in the hive and feed on the honey, which is why it can’t all be harvested at once. If it gets too cold the bees can’t move to a new source of honey in the hive and they die. The worker bees kick out all the drone bees because they’re not necessary to the success of the hive in the winter.

 

They regulate the temperature of the hive by beating their wings for cooling and contracting their abdomen muscles for heat.

 

Goenner said a combination of things have hurt the bees. Along with chemicals, the mites are a big problem as well as lack of forage. 

 

“You need a lot of flowers in the spring,” he said. “Clover and hay are good sources; corn offers them nothing.”

 

He told them a beehive in rural Minnesota yields around 50 pounds of honey, however a beehive in the city can produce 75 pounds because of all the flowers people plant.

 

Among numerous other questions, students also asked if it hurts when a person gets stung (yes, but not as much as getting stung by a wasp or hornet), if bees die after they sting someone (yes), and if Goenner names his bees (no). 

 

Gary Gray gave a presentation on growing strawberries next. He told the students Grayson’s Berryland has been in business for 35 years and has five-six acres they plant strawberries on. They get anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 pounds of berries per acre.

 

Grayson’s grows strawberry varieties based on taste, yield and how they overwinter.

 

Gray explained they plant new strawberry plants in early May, but don’t let them make berries until the following year so they will produce better. They only let the plants produce for one year, then they till them under and plant new again.

 

Grayson’s Berryland employees cover the plants with straw in the winter for protection from the weather, but they also use the straw for the plants to grow on instead of directly on the soil.

 

A student asked how berries get ‘yucky,’ to which Gray answered that they get overripe on the plant and rot.

 

He showed the students the five main parts of a strawberry plant, and explained bees are helpful to strawberries but not necessary, however, they do help them produce more berries. Blueberries on the other hand, which Grayson’s doesn’t grow anymore, do need bees because their flowers hang upside down.

 

Gray said the strawberries grown in Minnesota have a much higher water content than the ones that come from the south, which is why they’re so juicy and flavorful.

 

At the end of the presentations the students were treated to freshly picked berries from Grayson’s Berryland and honey from Goenner’s hives.