A few years ago, master bee keeper and advocate of the bees, Ron
Breland, established part of his bee sanctuary on the farm.
Having the bees living and working on the farm has been such a
blessing. Ron has been a wonderful mentor and the bees
greatly contribute to the health and vitality of the garden.
The devastating decline of the honey bee population in recent
decades prompts us to experiment with ways to strengthen and
support the bees. There are so many contributing factors to
their demise: loss of habitat, use of chemical pesticides and
herbicides, infestations of mites, pollution, climate change, and
commercial exploitation. A study done by Cornell University
in 2000 revealed that in the US alone, honey bees pollinate $14.6
billion worth of crops. The consequences of losing the bees
would be devastating. Scientists have not been able to offer
a solution and continue to be stumped by phenomena such as "colony
collapse disorder". We are speculating that if the honey bees
have a chance for survival, it just may be the backyard bee keeper
who helps them pull through.
For over thirty years, Ron has dedicated his life to finding
ways to help save the honey bee. Following is a brief
biography and some more detailed articles on the bees. If you
would like to support the Bee Sanctuary, contact us(link)
or Ron (link).
Ron Breland Biography
Ron has been a gardener all his life and a beekeeper since 1973.
He has regularly lectured since 1996 at organic conferences, garden
clubs, beekeeping workshops and schools. He and his wife own Bumps
& Company, an eco-friendly, sustainable, specialty nursery in
West Nyack, NY.
Ron has established "The Bee Sanctuary" in both West Nyack
and Clavarack, NY, These locations are dedicated to the development
of sustainable beekeeping practices, the use of non-toxic controls,
and the search for alternative hive designs for environmental
stress reduction.
Ron has developed and is presently researching a spherical hive
patterned after ancient designs, especially the dodecahedron of
Pythagoras, to which he has added modern features suggested by the
work of the sculptor, Constantine Brancusi and others.