Published: November 17, 2008 07:50 am      

Beekeepers’ buzz

Horn interviewed for Irish documentary

The buzz about Eastern Kentucky University’s beekeeping initiative has reached the shores of Ireland.

Irish filmmakers Ross McDonnell and Carter Gunn shot footage on the EKU campus and at the Thunder Ridge surface mining site in Leslie County for possible inclusion in their documentary, “Colony.”

Earlier this summer, McDonnell and Gunn approached Tammy Horn, researcher/apiculturalist with EKU’s Eastern Kentucky Environmental Research Institute, at a meeting of the Eastern Apiculture Society. Horn, an author and widely recognized expert on beekeeping, is spearheading an innovative effort to promote beekeeping on mine reclamation sites in Eastern Kentucky for both economic development and environmental reasons.

According to Horn, the filmmakers have interviewed beekeepers all across the U.S.

“They want to bring awareness to the importance of honeybees as pollinators,” Horn said, “and to the incredibly labor-intensive work required to be successful with beekeeping.”

In addition to their visit to the Leslie County site, McDonnell and Gunn conducted a lengthy interview of Horn on the Richmond campus.

The documentary is expected to be released in 2009, Horn said, coming on the heels of this fall’s hit movie “The Secret Life of Bees,” starring Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson and Dakota Fanning in the story of a teenage South Carolina girl who takes up beekeeping and honey making to escape a troubled home life.

Horn’s work also will be featured in an upcoming documentary feature film titled “The Greenhorns.” The documentary will tell the story of how a young farmer movement is creating hope for the future of the food system. The filmmakers are especially interested in examples of organic entrepreneurs addressing realities in the Appalachian coalfields.

A film crew is scheduled to meet with Horn on Nov. 25 at one of the four mine reclamation sites in southeastern Kentucky where bee hives have been established.

Recently, Horn received a $10,000 grant from the Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees to conduct an experiment in apiforestation, a term that describes a new form of reclamation focused on the planting of pollinator-friendly flowers and trees. Specifically, Horn is looking at the benefits of sourwood, which “makes one of the finest honeys in the United States.”

“Appalachia is the only place the sourwoods grow (so) reforesting surface mines with sourwoods means that Appalachia can compete in the honey market without having to compete with the clover fields in the Dakotas, the citrus fields in Florida or the tupelo swamps in Florida and Mississippi,” Horn said.

The funds from the foundation will provide for MegaBee pollen supplement for the 40 sentinel hives already established at the four mine sites, organic flower seeds to be provided by earthlygoods.com, a honey extractor, replacement queens and travel expenses.

Horn’s first book was “Bees in America: How the Honeybee Shaped a Nation.” Her second book, to be published in 2009 or 2010, will be titled “Piping Up: A History of Women and Bees.”