The PWRBA club won a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant in 2008 entitled ” Promoting Sustainable Beekeeping through the local production of nucleus colonies (nucs) and local Queen production.”
The goals of our SARE project are to:
1) Increase the knowledge and skill of local beekeepers in producing nucleus colonies (nucs) from existing hives and to test the viability of hives made from locally produced nucs to those made from “packaged bees”
2) Engage local beekeepers in the study of queen rearing and initiate local queen rearing efforts.
3) Promote sustainable beekeeping practices overall by emphasizing integrated pest management (IPM) and organic beekeeping practices throughout all of our educational and outreach efforts.
We are currently collecting data and developing our database. A summary of our project can be found here: PWRBA SARE GRANT
We also have what we love to affectionately refer to as our Sister SARE Project, which is headed up by Erin Forbes of Overland Honey in Maine. You can see information about her project on her website here: Overland or a complete summary can be found on the SARE website: Overland SARE grant summary
