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th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, Ju ne 21 ,2 01 8 | 20 Before he put his white suit on, Ray Lavender crouched on the ground and lit a fire in his small smoker. In order to calm the bees in his three hives, the Acton man fed a small fire in the canister with shavings and newspaper. When the flames began to jump above the tin, he ripped up a few handfuls of grass to put in the smoker. Lavender has been keeping bees as a hobby for over 16 years, and on average produces 350 pounds of honey from his three hives in a season. This past winter, Lavender lost one of his hives, and he is now working to build up a new population by purchasing a new queen bee, as well as a few work- er bees, in a set from a supply farm in Puslinch. They've been hatching eggs in the old hive, and now Lavender is ready to add a few more frames to the hive that looks like a stacked filing cabinet. He stepped into his white suit, pulling thick, long white gloves over his elbows. "They've never stung me through this," he said, motioning toward the bits of mesh on the arms. He placed his frames and smoker in a plastic garden wheelbarrow and trundled over to his hive - three white stacks nestled behind a fence in the shady far corner of his yard. "The fence is to keep the skunks out," he said, stepping past the wire. Skunks will stand in front of the entrance of the hives at the bottom of the boxes, eating loads of bees as the fly out. "They can decimate a popula- tion," he said. Slowly, Lavender lifted the lid off the first box, blowing smoke down the corners, and up the front entranceway. He said that when the bees get agitated, the pitch of the buzzing changes, and their movements quicken. They were calm. He pulled out frames from the box, awash in buzzing insects that continued to work as he in- spected them. As he searched for the elusive queen bee, he pointed out the pat- tern of larvae laid in the combs on the panels. The queen lays worker bees in the centre of the comb, with a few drones on the outside. An average colony is com- prised of 95 per cent female work- er bees, five per cent drone male bees, and a single queen that lays all the eggs. "She can lay 12,000 to 15,000 eggs a day for three years," he said, explaining how the miracu- lous insects work. When a queen bee dies, the workers in the hive decide to make a new one. This means that they feed one worker bee larvae nothing but royal jelly, a sub- stance secreted from the backs of NEWS Relief in sight for the bees, says local apiarist Ray Lavender taking a frame out of his beehive. Alexandra Heck/Metroland ALEXANDRA HECK aheck@metroland.com l See RAISING, page 31 Drop by to see the Coach at 18 Hawks Place 2:00-7:00pm Saturday, June 23, 2018 Call 905-873-4907 Downtown Spa Or email dorrilbland@gmail.com Surprise 80th Birthday Jules 'Coach' Russiani POWERFUL CONVERSATIONS FOR PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION Ph.D. 905-873-9393 www.forgecoachingandconsulting.com 38 Oak Street, Georgetown, ON • INDIVIDUAL & COUPLE COUNsELLINg • ANXIETY/ DEPREssION • LIFE & CAREER ChANgEs • PERsONAL gROwTh COUNSELLING & COACHING SERVICES Ph.D. RP familyhouseofworship@start.ca Services EVERY Sunday 16 Adamson Street, South Norval, Halton Hills Services starting at 10am To advertise your church services or any other church event here please contact Kelli Kosonic 905-234-1018 or email kkosonic@theifp.ca