SHELBURNE FALLS – If you’ve seen bees on blossoms at the Bridge of Flowers this summer, chances are some of them came from John Piepul’s beehives.
Beekeeper Piepul lives on William Street, about two blocks from the bridge, which gives his bees plenty of choices for pollen and nectar gathering. At the height of summer, the bees have between 50 to 100 flower varieties to go to. And the honey, according to Constance Clarke of the Bridge of Flowers Committee, has a sweet “multi-floral aftertaste.”
“It was a spectacular year for me,” says Piepul. “I probably got close to 100 pounds (of honey). I never would have guessed I would have that much.”
And now his “Raw Local Honey from the Bridge of Flowers and surrounding Deerfield River Valley” is being sold by the Shelburne Falls Area Women’s Club, with a portion of the proceeds to benefit the flower bridge.
Clarke, who works for Warm Colors Apiary, said she and Piepul have discussed marketing the honey for the Bridge of Flowers next year. She said the honey may help raise awareness of the importance of bees to nature.
Several jars of honey were sold at a recent Shelburne Falls Area Women’s Club meeting. Piepul said more will probably be sold by the Women’s Club at the Shelburne Falls Visitor Information Center during Moonlight Magic the night after Thanksgiving.
Piepul, a carpenter, began keeping bees when he visited Warm Colors Apiary about five years ago and met Dan Conlin. Piepul said he signed up for beekeeping classes taught by Conlin, and that Conlin and beekeeper Rick Intres of Ashfield have been his mentors.
“Until now, I haven’t marketed them,” he said of his jars of honey. “I gave them away as gifts.”
Also, Piepul says he was reluctant to name his product “Bridge of Flowers” honey, because he didn’t want to capitalize on the bridge’s fame. Plus, he added, “they’re foraging all over the place.”
“What I was thinking of doing next spring is marking my worker bees and connecting with the (Bridge of Flowers) gardeners, to see if my bees are there,” he said.
How do you mark a bee?
“Very delicately,” he says. “The bee is captured in a small clear plastic cylinder with a fine screen on one end and a foam plunger on the other. The bee is carefully pushed up to the screen with the plunger and manipulated carefully to trap her back side up. A small dot of paint, used to mark queens, is put on her thorax (the middle segment of her body), which is harder than her other parts,” Piepul explains. “It does not interfere with or affect the bee’s health.”
Those who want to try the honey can buy it at the Visitor Information Center during Moonlight Magic or contact Piepul by email, at: Ourbart@comcast.net