Geary County resident Alyssa Petri has undertaken a project to develop a bee sanctuary and a market garden on her property adjacent to Clarks Creek Road southeast of Junction City. It will be called Bubba's Homestead. "I'm trying to amass a few bees so I can have pollinators and a market garden for the local community to come and get some fresh produce."
Petri has been trying to get into bees after also spending two years working with some success in organic farming. " My interest peaked because I learned that beeswax burns the brightest in terms of candlelight so that is kind of what started all of this."
A market cart is being built which will be installed by Petri at the site where people can drive by and obtain produce. When it comes to the bees Petri said she has looked into purchasing them locally. "There are a couple of places that do sell bees in Kansas." Her research has led her to discover that there are bee hives that are manufactured in Australia but are built so the home does not have been destroyed to extract the honey and the wax. "You can leave the bees intact in their homes. That was what really peaked my interest because you don't have to disturb their environment."
Alyssa said estimates indicate that with two or three houses five gallons of honey could be gathered in the first year but all the funds will be reinvested into the bees. She is hoping to eventually have a harvest of approximately 30 gallons a year.
Petri said a long term goal is to have students interested in this process come out and farm with no risk since they not have to invest the capitol or assets. "They can just come and dig in and also be able to give away some honey because honey is something that is hard to acquire and its' not exactly cheap at the grocery store."
Petri has a kick starter page to help her reach her goal. "You can go to my website, bubbashomestead.com and you can follow her channel, bubbashomestead on You Tube.