WPAFB Responds to President Obama’s Pollinator Memorandum
To promote the health of honey bees and other pollinators, President Obama issued a presidential memorandum last year in June stating that the Department of Defense shall support habitat restoration projects for pollinators. Watch below to see how Wright-Patterson Air Fore Base, in partnership with PropolisProjects, is supporting the President’s memorandum.
Dwight Wells, director of the Ohio State Beekeepers Association, is featured in the video above. Last June, Wells served as project coordinator for the placement of four beehives in Huffman Prairie, an 84-acre patch of rough pasture on Wright Patterson Air Force Base northeast of Dayton. The hives contain 40,000 Carniolan honey bees, favored among beekeepers for its ability to defend itself successfully against insect pests while at the same time being extremely gentle in its behavior toward beekeepers.
The colonies will be carefully watched to ensure they can sustain through the winter months. Below, Wells explains just how these bees will stay warm during the winter:
During the winter months, the colony of bees cluster into a ball to keep warm. Besides having heavy coats of hair that provide them with insulation throughout the cluster, and [between] December to January, heater bees disconnect their wings and vibrate their muscles to generate heat for the colony at about 84 degrees.”
Read more about the Huffman Prairie project below. We are happy to partner with Wright Patterson Air Force Base for this initiative and look forward to placing more hives around the area where it is viable.
Read more:
The buzz is about saving the Wright Bee flyers – WPAFB
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