Hello, We are Karen & Gerald Posner. We own and operate a honeybee farm, farmstand & cafe located in Northern Vermont. We have been witnessing our Honeybees struggling to find plants for food during this fall season. Sadly as of 11/17/22 we already lost 18 of our hives. This loss is difficult for us on many levels. WE NEED YOUR HELP to help save our Honeybee Farm. Please donate what you can.
1st - We urgently need your help to feed & shelter hungry honeybees. This late fall, winter (2022) and early spring season (2023) our Apiary ( Swaying Daisies Honeybee Farm) will be over wintering a bee population that will bottom out at around 80,000 bees. We usually finish the season with approximately 1.1 M bees. We lost 18 hives this season due to unusal warm weather in northern Vermont. The warm temps causes the bees to be exteremly active late in the season. Conufsing to them because it feels like spring they go out looking for food and unable to find flowers this late in the year. They have been eating their winter stores of honey at a rate we havent seen. This season we've been making more food for them than ever. Plus we are forced to leave an unprecedented 65lbs of honey per hive. We leave it because the bees will need it for extra food to survive the winter. This will account for approximatley 2,200 lbs of honey we will not be able to harvest for this season. That comes to 25lbs more per hive in historical context. Which also means an income loss for us. Our current take on this years unusual record breaking temperatures well into fall of 2022 is confusing to the bees & to us as beekeepers. We (Gerald & Karen) simply cannot afford to continue to make the amount of food they require and provide the shelter they will require to survive the winter. The loss of 18 of our hives is a huge loss for us on many levels. If we lose more it'll be devastating.
We need your help to feed & shelter the honeybees & native bee pollinator populations- Please Donate what you can NOW.
2nd - Why are we in urgent need of funds to make honeybee food & a permanment shelter? Due to climate change impacts we have had record breaking high temps in northern Vermont this fall of 2022. We have been witnessing honeybees struggling to find plants for food. The rate at which we are seeing the honeybees eating their winter stores of honey is frightening. As a result we have been busy bees making more bee food than we have ever needed to. Its unlike we've ever seen in our 30+ years of beekeeping. The food we make for them contains essential oils, amino acids, protien and the sugar bees need. We will need to continue to provide a high quality food source through the winter. To date (11/17/22) our bee colonies have already consumed 500lbs of a supplemental food we've made for them. Currently they have also eaten up to 10 lbs of their own honey stores on average per colony! This is abnormal.
3) We need to build a permanment bee shelter. In order to provide protection to the bees from extreme changes in weather we are going to need to bulid "bee shelters" to midigate climate change impacts. As well as continuing to upgrade all our colonies from tradtional wood hives to Apimaye supers and brood chambers. This will give them a better chance at suriving the winter.
Gerald is an experienced beekeeper. With 38 years of experience & knowledge. We need your help so we can continue to help care for bees that take care of you & me! We have no other avialable options to accomplish what the honeybee does. They are essential in mutiple environmental services as they relate to human survival. What separates honeybees from all other pollinators is they secure 80% of our critical agricultural products.
Your donations will help us meet the above need of labor required, Apimaye bee brood boxes and supers, protective bee shelter materials, bee food ingredients.
If we take action NOW! Together we can begin to midigate the adverse climate change impact on honeybees. 1) By providing food for them and 2) bee shelters to midigate extreme temprature fluctuactions in both the summer and winter. 3) Finally, making others aware of the problem that bees now encounter is just as important. Thank You for being part of the solution. We look forward to sharing the honeybees progress with you.
Pleae donate what you can every little bit helps.
We outlined some donation amounts for bee adopters/savers to provide donations in increments to make is easier for you. But feel free to give what ever works best for you too!
350 bees @ 0.035 ea to feed = $12.25
750 bees @ 0.035 ea to feed = $26.25
2,050 bees @ 0.035 ea to feed = $71.75
10,050 bees @ 0.035 ea to feed= $351.75
You will get an honorary bee adoption certificate & you can name the queen to one of our hives!
Visit us at www.swayingdaisieshoneybeefarm.com
THANK YOU! YOU'RE THE BEES KNEES!!
