Hello, I’m Katherine Kirchoff, a student at The Evergreen State College. I am working this summer with the Urban Evergreen Beekeepers association as part of my Independent Learning contract. My contract is centered around beekeeping practices, grant writing and running a small non profit.It is my goal to work with The Urban Evergreen Beekeepers Association to raise awareness and ease of proper beekeeping practices. I will be spending a great deal of my time researching, writing grants, building and selling hives and working with local beekeepers. I will be utilizing our website to keep everyone up to date on my journey to a more bee friendly world.

Most know about the issues of colony collapse disorder.  In October of 2006, some beekeepers began reporting losses of 30-90 percent of their hives (USDA). While it is common to lose hives over the winter, it is not common to be losing such a large percentage at an increasing rate.  Many are speculating that poor beekeeping practices with a short term focus on profit and honey quantity are creating common practices that are detrimental to the health of the bees. It is thought that poor management practices combined with environmental stresses, including pesticides, mites, and disease are leading to colony collapse. Bees are key to pollinating a great deal of crops within our food system; apples, cantaloupe, cucumbers, squash and watermelon, jus to name a few. 

Working with the bees.

I want to do all I can to raise awareness of beekeeping practices that are in favor of the livelyhood of the bees.