Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Science-based, Innovative Winterization System on the Health and Mortality of Honey Bees

Peggy DeSanto is the owner of Northwinds BeeCo, LLC, which is a business dedicated to developing an innovative, science-based winterization system to improve honey bee health and mortality. She is a certified beekeeper through the University of Minnesota Bee Lab and has been a beekeeper for 4 years. She currently keeps 6 hives in Grasston, Minnesota. In her first year of beekeeping, when she opened a hive and discovered the colony had died, she felt personally responsible for the death of the bees. Over the following years, she tried numerous winterizing techniques, but continued to suffer 50% losses every winter. In her frustration, she became determined to develop an effective winterization system to improve honey bee survival.

Over the past year, to learn what she could about heat loss and moisture control, she worked with an expert in state-of-the-art insulation systems and an engineer in thermodynamics. She extensively researched scientific publications regarding effective ways to improve winter bee survival. She ultimately based the winterization design on the studies that were current and showed the most compelling data. In the fall of 2021, she manufactured 20 winterization systems and gave them to beekeepers for field testing of the prototype. She intends to use this "pre-trail" information to troubleshoot potential issues and streamline the logistics of this larger controlled study.

Kristy Allen is the owner and head beekeeper of The Beez Kneez, LLC, a non-migratory honey production and beekeeper education operation that was established in Minneapolis in 2010-2020 and is now based in Grantsburg, WI. She manages 150 hives in MN and WI for honey, wax and queen production. For the past 7 years, she has taught an intensive beekeeping course called Camp Beez Kneez for small scale beekeepers, both new and experienced. The course focuses on sustainable beekeeping for northern beekeepers. The goal of the course is to teach how to successfully overwinter honey bees. She has been a beekeeper for 14 years, first working for her aunt and uncle's commercial beekeeping operation in northern Minnesota. While building her business and managing her own hives, she also worked for Wozupi Tribal Gardens, University of Minnesota Bee Lab, and alongside many bee experts and local beekeepers. She has worked with beekeeping operations in Ecuador and Jamaica. She has presented to both regional and national honey associations and taught a short course at the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Conference.