First Honey Harvest At Cummins Falls

Cummins Falls State Park rangers are buzzing about harvesting honey for the first time.

After three years of taking care of their honeybees, this summer is the first year rangers were able to “rob the hive.” Park Ranger Ashley Clark said 13 gallons were harvested.

“We go in and we pull the frames with the honey on it, we have to uncap those frames, and then we stuff them in an extractor which is basically the spin cycle of a washing machine,” Clark said. “All of that liquid gold honey falls to the bottom of the extractor. From there we can strain it, bottle it, and sell it.”

During early spring park employees feed the bees sugar water until the weather warms and flowers begin to bloom. Clark said routine hive inspections are preformed to ensure each hive has a queen bee. She said the general lifespan of a honeybee is five weeks.

Clark said not only do the bees bring life to plants, but housing them serves as a hands-on educational purpose. Any visitor who wishes to learn about the hives and pollination process can contact a park ranger.

“We thought that if we could just go ahead and put in some beehives, they would be out there pollinating all of our wildflowers as well as some of our sorghum that we’ve planted at the park,” Clark said. “Even our neighbors have gardens in the area that bees are flying too and pollinating those as well.”

The hives comes from locals David and Sue Qualls. Honey will be available for sale at the visitors center.