Welcome to our new Beehive page! This is where to come for more detail & ongoing updates on the hives.
McConnell Springs Park is dedicated to the mission of History, Nature & Education.
Honey Bees are a crucial part of the natural environment and have been in Kentucky since before it was a state. As well as being beneficial to the park, we are glad to have a living exhibit of this wonderfully complex creature and their society. It’s our hope to share insights into the bee colony on this page and in future programming for park visitors. We plan to have multiple events throughout the year to include the public such as bee hive box painting in the spring, Apairy exploration days with suits , honey uncapping and extraction, sugar bricks and fondant making. As well as other activities when the park has events.
If you or someone you know has a swarm of honey bees or is needing a removal done from their property please feel free to reach out to us at 859-533-9031.
*The park will be selling honey jars from the hives during Founder’s Day. The bee colonies were donated by Bluegrass Acres Honey Bee Company. Beekeeping program sponsored by the Friends of McConnell Springs.
Upcoming Events for Everyone.
The McConnell springs Beekeeping Team Year’s plans.
January – As the new year has come it is time to look for those prime warmer days to get supplemental food to all of the hives. This in the form of dry sugar and sugar bricks will allow the honey bees to have food and nutrients as even though the temperatures are starting to rise there is still no natural food source out there for them. The bees will continue to stay clustered and eat on the food source provided to stay alive this is a crucial step to make sure they come into spring healthy and ready.
February – Time to replenish the hives on sugar bricks also adding some pollen patties since we want to help the bees as they start thinking about spring and the queen prepares to to lay eggs. The extra pollen is a added nutrient to allow for a boost in numbers early in the year. Some days are warm enough to get together and build some of the bee equipment needed for the upcoming year including boxes, frames and just have all around beekeeping fellowship.
March – this is the time of year when things get a little bit tricky. If it’s an early season and things are really starting to warm up we can start reducing the amount of dry sugar and pollen patties fed depending on the local pollen and nectar flow. If any of the bees are needing extra nutrients we will continue to feed both sugar patties and pollen patties preparing for the upcoming main spring flow in April.
April – All the cold freezing night should be done for the year at this point and we are looking to judge the nectar and pollen flow to time it best to put on the “honey supers”. This is one of the most satisfying parts of being a beekeeper as we all get excited about the incoming nectar. This is also a time of the year when hives that are too big need to be split into multiple hives to prevent swarming. With all the honey flow going on this is some of the busiest times of the year for a beekeeper as you want to make sure that you are keeping a good amount of empty honey frames on each hive to give the Bee’s room to continue to store.
When Honey bees swarm the previous queen and roughly fifty percent of the bees follow her to establish a new colony. The team makes quick work of swarms to relocate them to a proper hive.
May – The honey flow is in full swing at this point and the bees are working extremely hard. We will be closely monitoring the hives at this point to make sure that they are not building any swarm cells to prevent the hive from decreasing in size when we want them focusing on bringing in as much honey as possible. The male bees are also in the hive at this time which will allow for mating of new queens through drone congregation areas.
June – This is the time of the year that the spring honey has really stopped coming in and we start switching over to more of a summer flow. The team at this point will remove the spring honey supers provide a varroa destructor mite treatment and then place new fresh supers to gather summer honey. This comes with a slightly darker tint of the honey and usually more swarms so more monitoring is continued as there is plenty of resources out in nature so the honey bees recognize that as a good time to swarm.
The McConnell springs beekeeper group offers swarm removal of honey bee colonies.
July -The summer flow has started to come to an end and it’s time to start thinking about fall and The upcoming winter months. Last chance to make splits to ensure the bees have enough time to reestablished in their new hive and bring in resources to be ready for the upcoming winter. Some varroa mite treatments can be done at this time and removals of honey supers if needed when doing treatments.
August -The summer flow has completely stopped at this point and we are into the transition to fall so it’s time to start watching the hives to make sure they don’t start robbing each other. We want to equalize hives and prepare them for the winter so making sure they are all robustfully healthy and varroa treated. Some hives will have honey supers removed for the season and will be given supplemental feed in the form of liquid sugar water as needed.
September/October – This is a heavy months for liquid sugar water feed as The weather is staying above freezing and bees active. We continue to monitor for signs of swarming as the fall flow makes the bees think swarming is still an option when that is not usually the case. There just isn’t enough resources out there for most hives to be able to gather to be able to make it through the long winter. We will continue to do mite treatments at this point and any hive that is not doing well will be either combined with another or put on a double screen bottom board to stack two hives together while keeping them separate for warmth.
November/December – The hives will have been winterized, by reducing the entrances on all of the hives as well as giving them a large amount of dry sugar and a little bit of pollen to make it through any long-term harsh winter spells. Also insulated top covers will be added to allow for the warm air rising from the cluster to stay within the hive and for condensation to build up around the edges rather than on the center ceiling of the hive. The bees will continue to stay clustered to keep the queen warm and will move in that clustered pattern around the hive.
BE AWARE – If you see anything that seems out of the ordinary, please call the Honey Bee Hotline at: (859)533 -0931 . Leave a message, and if possible, a name & return number, so we can get more details (and thank you). Sometimes immediate attention can save a hive. This is everyone’s hive, and we appreciate your help!
Honey Bee (Apis melliferia) facts.
- šHoney bees help feed the world. Honey bees pollinate many of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts we enjoy every day. As they move from flower to flower collecting nectar, they help plants produce food. About one-third of the food we eat depends on pollinators like honey bees.
- A hive is like one big family. A honey bee colony can have 20,000 to 60,000 bees working together. Each hive has one queen, thousands of hardworking female worker bees, and a smaller number of male drones. Every bee has a role, and they work as a team to keep the colony strong and healthy.
- The queen is the mother of the hive.
- The queen beeās main job is to lay eggs, sometimes over 1,500 per day during peak season. She can live for years and produces nearly all the bees in the colony. Worker bees care for and protect her so she can keep the hive thriving.
- Bees ātalkā to each other by dancing. When a bee finds a great source of nectar, she returns to the hive and performs a special movement called the waggle dance. This dance tells the other bees where to find the flowers and how far away they are. Bees also use scent signals called pheromones to communicate inside the hive.
- Girl power runs the hive! All worker bees are female, and they do almost everything, from collecting nectar and pollen to feeding baby bees and guarding the entrance. Male bees, called drones, have one main job: to mate with a queen. Drones do not have stingers.
- Bees are amazing flyers. Honey bees beat their wings thousands of times per minute, creating the buzzing sound we recognize. They can fly up to 15 to 20 miles per hour and visit thousands of flowers in a single day. They can even see ultraviolet light, which helps them find nectar guides on flowers that humans cannot see.
- Making honey takes serious teamwork. Bees collect nectar and bring it back to the hive, where other workers finish transforming it into honey. It takes millions of flower visits and thousands of miles of flight to make just one pound of honey. A single bee only produces about one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
- Bees build their own wax homes. Worker bees produce beeswax from special glands on their bodies. They use this wax to build the hexagon-shaped honeycomb inside the hive. The honeycomb stores honey, pollen, and baby bees safely and efficiently.
- Honey bees have been around a very long time. North American honey bee fossil remains indicate extinction long ago. Reintroduced from Europe in the 1620’s, they soon spread West into Kentucky and beyond. Honey bees have a close relationship with flowering plants. Together, bees and plants are key parts of the ecosystems we depend on today.
- Bees Need our help. Honey bees face challenges like habitat loss, parasites, disease, and pesticide exposure. These pressures can weaken colonies and affect pollination. Supporting local beekeepers and planting pollinator-friendly flowers are simple ways everyone can help.
Meet the Beekeeping Team.
Jeffrey Wahking – Head beekeeper
The start of home hive removal.
Jonathan Hagee
Holding one of the longest single pieces of comb the team has removed.
- Board member, *Friends of McConnell Springs
- Beekeeping Team Board Supervisor
- (Head Beekeeper 2000-2025)
- Web Developer/Admin
- Log Cabin Project
- Founder’s Day
- Traditional Musician
- Historian/Reenactor (with frontier Kentucky ancestors that were at McConnell’s Station / Fort Boonesborough / Ruddle’s Station, Fort Harrod, etc.)
Photo gallery
