Photos by Michael Piazza

On a rare dry and warm April afternoon, Kristin McDonnell is introducing me to several hundred thousand of her friends.

We’re paying attention to one in particular: the one who’s also paying attention to us by aggressively buzzing our heads as we talk and sit on the remnants of a large tree that damaged two nearby hives in a nor’easter earlier in the month.

“What’s up, mama? We’re not bothering you, I promise,” McDonnell reassures the straggler.

She gently asks me to put on my beekeeper’s veil, just in case. Honeybees die after stinging so they use it only as a last-ditch, defensive move. Over the course of the afternoon, McDonnell has taught me how to move and talk around bees. The bee flies off to join her compatriots.

Gentle talk and touch (in a crowded hive, bees are always bumping into one another so they are used to being touched) are a few beekeeping basics McDonnell covers as we visit five of the bee colonies she keeps at Allandale Farm in Brookline.

McDonnell’s day job is as a lecturer in biology at UMass Boston. She’s in her 16th year of beekeeping, 13 years at Allandale Farm where she keeps hives in two separate locations. Another beekeeper also maintains colonies at Allandale, which uses agricultural practices that prioritize the long-term health of the land. This includes beneficial plants and insects such as honeybees, which help pollinate its apple trees among other things.

This spring day, the bees are going full tilt on foraging for nectar and pollen. When we look inside the hives, McDonnell points out yellow bundles of pollen that some bees have tucked into pollen baskets on their legs.

“They’re bringing pollen back to enrich their diet so that they can feed the next generation that’s coming up. They’re growing their population right now so that they can get out and take advantage of all the spring flowers,” she says.

Those spring flowers currently include cherry and dandelion; maple just finished their bloom. Later, the bees will concentrate on collecting nectar and pollen from black locust, which is a major food source in New England for bee colonies. The bees also love linden, clover and buckwheat, which is used as a cover crop at some farms.

McDonnell is especially fond of honey made from black locust, which she describes as “very pale in color, light and lemony with an almost tropical, pineapple flavor.”

The nectar the bees are now collecting will be dehydrated, cured and capped with wax that will become stable so they can eat it throughout next winter.

“A lot of small-scale beekeepers like myself, we have a different philosophy than you might see in a big commercial beekeeping operation. I don’t harvest anything from my bees unless they are well situated to make it through New England winter on their own. A full-sized colony like this needs about 90 pounds of honey. I only take honey to harvest if they have a surplus,” she says.

The colonies often do have a surplus, and she has sold her Bussey Brook Apiary honey at Allandale and other farms.

Her interest in beekeeping sprang from a love of natural science, and also integrates two of her other passions: food and agriculture. McDonnell worked in the restaurant industry for years: front of house at chef Jody Adams’s Rialto in Harvard Square and later at Benedetto. Having worked with skilled chefs in great restaurants, she recognizes the special role that bees play in supporting a robust local food system.

“So this is a gorgeous way to lace all my interests together,” she says.

“I know that food grown carefully, locally, and on a small scale so that you’re eating it very fresh is just a completely different thing than food shipped in from somewhere else. The care that’s put into the very careful growing practices they use here at Allandale, I’m passionate about that and I want to do what I can to support that system,” she continues.

McDonnell began her journey to beekeeping by reading books about the biology of honeybees and the details of beekeeping.

“I love the intricate systems of the natural world around us, things like social insects including honeybees, and all sorts of complicated methods of communication that they have,” she says.

“No matter how much I read, I wanted more.”

As she began looking at what it would take to get started, McDonnell joined a local beekeeping organization, took a course, then began her own backyard colonies. With each successful season, the colonies grew.

“All of a sudden, I went from two to six to eight. I was, like, ‘Oh, this is turning into more than a backyard situation,’” McDonnell says.

That’s when she began moving her hives to Allandale. She now also maintains colonies at four other farms.

Helen Glotzer, general manager and CEO of Allandale, praises what the bees and beekeepers bring to the farm as “wonderful and critical.”

“You know the quote ‘no bees, no food’? That’s not wrong,” she says.

Another great product of the relationship: Allandale frequently carries unprocessed, raw honey from the farm’s bees at its farmstand.

“Just yesterday, I had a call from someone looking for honey harvested within five miles of their home. It’s great to be able to say yes to people who are trying to fit hyperlocal honey into their lives,” Glotzer says.

Spring is a busy time for bees, who have a rotation of jobs based on their age. Newly emerged bees serve as nurses for larvae, who have to be kept at a warm 93 degrees. Pollen, which is the source of protein for colonies, begins losing nutritional value quickly after it’s brought back to the hive. Bees are busily fermenting that pollen into “bee bread,” which preserves its nutrition for months.

Others are building wax protrusions in the hive that create the conditions where a new queen can be raised. All the work is done by female bees, with a few larger males, known as drones, on hand to mate with the queen.

Spring is also a busy time for the beekeeper.

“Tasks this time of year are essentially equalizing the strength of colonies. If I have one that’s very, very, very strong and one that came through the winter a little bit light on population, I can take some of the population from the stronger hive,” McDonnell says.

The work she’s doing now prepares for the burst of activity that will continue as the population of each colony naturally grows to as many as 40,000 bees by June. McDonnell checks the colonies that were damaged by the fallen tree in the spring nor’easter. The structures remained intact, although the bees were exposed to sleet and cold weather. One hive lost its queen, and is trying to raise a new one.

“I’m keeping an eye on that,” McDonnell says.

She’s also looking at other hives that may be ready to raise new queens, who is the only bee that produces eggs and lives for more than one season. In addition to being larger than the other bees, the queen is identified with a colored dot applied by the beekeeper. There is an international standard for each year’s color.

McDonnell is also installing special boxes called honey supers above where the colonies are now at work raising a new generation. These boxes with special hanging frames will collect the masses of honey produced during the spring season.

“Excuse me, darlings,” she says as she adjusts the frames. “The more gentle you are with them, the more gentle they are with you. So I try to be as careful as I can.”

With so much to learn about keeping bees, McDonnell recommends that new beekeepers follow the same path she did.

“Get hooked up with one of the county beekeeping clubs. Go to one of their beekeeping programs, then make sure you have mentors,” she says.

The Massachusetts Beekeepers Association (massbee. org) has links to member organizations including the Boston Area Beekeepers Association and county beekeeping clubs.

“What's wonderful about it is, I believe all of them offer a course. They usually do it starting in late January or February. You can go to an eight- or 10-week course, kind of dip your toes in, get a sense of what it takes to manage a colony, what the nuances are of the biology and disease management. And then you have this incredible network of experienced beekeepers who mentor you, which is really the most important thing for new beekeepers,” she advises.

As I return my bee suit, McDonnell returns to her remaining work for the day, which includes installing more honey supers, giving special care to two new colonies and checking on conditions in the remaining hives.

“I’ve fallen in love with beekeeping. It’s a very complex system that requires constant learning. I will be a student for the rest of my life,” she says.

allandalefarm.com

This story appeared in the Summer 2024 issue.