During the past several months, Meadowlark Hills has hosted a set of beehives on our campus. These were cared for by beekeeper, Gary LaGrange.   

Gary LaGrange is a retired US Army Colonel who served three tours of duty in combat in Vietnam. He commanded Fort Riley and retired just after the first war in Iraq. His daughter will soon become a psychologist, and they are working toward opening a farm near Manhattan for soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The farm will train soldiers and veterans on the fundamentals of farming so that they can then join a mentor farmer and learn skills to either manage or own a farm. They hope to open the farm within three years. One of the things they will learn is beekeeping. Gary agreed to become the trainer for them so he enrolled in a Master Beekeeping Program with the University of Montana where the nation’s premier course is offered. As part of the farm effort, he began beekeeping training for soldiers with PTSD and TBI last June. He has placed beehives in various locations surrounding Fort Riley so that they can be readily accessible for soldier training. He currently has 32 beehives.

Gary chose Meadowlark Hills with the recommendation of resident, Bob Klemm. Bob was serving on the Sunset Zoo Board of Directors and attended a Bee Club meeting. They received approval and three hives were placed at Meadowlark in April 2014. They are located immediately behind the maintenance building on the West side of our complex. Gary names all of his hives after biblical characters, and the three hives at Meadowlark Hills are Paul, Jonah and Mattias. They produced approximately 270 pounds of honey this year, which is well beyond the average for the state of Kansas.

Honey is usually extracted from the hives twice a year, once in mid-July and once again in early September. This year, Gary’s hives produced about 2,200 pounds of honey in total.

There are few regulations regarding keeping bees in Kansas. Gary produces his honey in a facility at Sunset Zoo that is licensed by the Kansas Department of Agriculture and the US Food and Drug Administration as a certified food processing facility. The honey at Meadowlark Hills is pure and very hygienic. It contains all the local pollens, which is very therapeutic for those with allergies. It is also very high in anti-oxidants so its goodness goes beyond the sweet floral taste.

Gary uses the standard commercial 10 frame Langstroth hives. Each hive will have about 60,000 bees during July. During the winter months the population will naturally reduce to about 30,000 and then build to 60,000 again the following year. The bees feed on many plants and flowers. In the spring elm trees, dandelions, red bud trees and many wild flowers are used as well as the flowers blooming in the Meadowlark Hills gardens. The bees fly out three miles in search of nectar and pollen. The Kansas State University fields are a good source for the hives. The bees especially like yellow sweet clover and it is abundant in the area. The five acres in front of the hives bloomed heavily with the yellow clover this year, so one of the primary ingredients in the honey is clover. As the season progresses they move to various blooms on many trees and flowers.

They hope to develop the five acre plot in front of the beehives as an orchard and gardens. The plan is to have soldiers from Fort Riley who have PTSD and TBI help them. One day there should be an area where one can walk among fruit trees and pollinator-friendly flowers. Gary planted 10 pounds of wildflowers in that plot this September. The goal is to begin work on the orchard and gardens this coming spring.

Soon, jars of the Meadowlark Hills honey will be available for purchase in Verna Belle’s Café. The cost for a 12 ounce jar will be $6 and the cost for a one-pound jar will be $8. Keep an eye out for an article in the Messenger when the honey will be available. Staff anticipates that the honey will be available just before Thanksgiving.