{"id":24405,"date":"2019-05-28T10:08:01","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T16:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/beaver-run-puts-the-bee-in-sustainability\/"},"modified":"2019-05-28T10:08:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T16:08:01","slug":"beaver-run-puts-the-bee-in-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/beaver-run-puts-the-bee-in-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"Beaver Run puts \u2018the bee\u2019 in sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"
Beekeeper manages the four colonies of honey bees on the rooftop of Beaver Run Resort and Conference Center Thursday, May 23, in Breckenridge. The bees will produce honey for sale at the resort, and contribute to the resort\u2019s renewed mission to increase sustainability.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Beaver Run Resort and Conference Center<\/a> in Breckenridge is abuzz with 80,000 new workers coming on board last week, though none are allowed inside the resort\u2019s walls.<\/p>\n

Rather, the hum of activity is relegated to four boxes on the resort\u2019s rooftop, where Beaver Run had four colonies of honeybees installed by Don Strudinski, owner of the Honeybee Keep company.<\/p>\n

Each colony houses a queen and about 20,000 bees, Studinski said, as he explained that many people mistakenly call the colonies \u201chives,\u201d but that\u2019s not the correct terminology.<\/p>\n

The beekeeper has colonies across Colorado \u2014 from Aurora to Edwards and Fort Collins to Denver \u2014 but the ones he brought to Breckenridge are the only rooftop bees he\u2019s currently managing.<\/p>\n

The bees won\u2019t get a free ride in Breckenridge, either, as they\u2019re expected to produce a number of bee-related products, including honey, be it for guests to buy, the executive chef to cook with or inclusion in some of the resort\u2019s signature cocktails.<\/p>\n

Studinski said each colony requires 100-120 pounds of honey to get through the winter, and any production beyond that can be harvested. Asking officials at Beaver Run, though, the bees aren\u2019t just good workers; they\u2019re good for business, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a lot of urban areas, it\u2019s a pretty common practice for hotels and restaurants to do urban farming,\u201d said Jon Papineau, Beaver Run\u2019s director of food and beverage, as he described a bigger in the hospitality industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cAside from the fact that it\u2019s a good business practice, it\u2019s good PR for the restaurant or the hotel, it brings people together and gets them talking, and it gets people unified on things like sustainability,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

The bees are also going to make honeycomb, which Papineau believes would make a nice garnish on some of the resort\u2019s dishes or could find its way into some of the resort\u2019s desserts, all of which dovetails with Beaver Run taking a renewed look at its sustainability programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a symbol of our effort,\u201d Papineau said of the bees and the goods they\u2019ll make, adding that these products will be something tangible guests can take home that is both unique to Beaver Run and promotes larger conversations about sustainability.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret bees help keep up the food chain by pollinating a wide variety of plant species,. As some of the populations of pollinators across the globe decline, however, many people fear the world\u2019s rapidly loosing a key piece of the ecosystem, especially with the bees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would correct that,\u201d Studinski said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a fear; it\u2019s a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

How important are pollinators? The staff at Keystone Science School, a nature-based local nonprofit group, say they directly account for one-third of food that people eat, and three-fourths of all flowering plants on earth depend on these insects and animals for reproduction.<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t sound like the bees will be the final piece of Beaver Run\u2019s push to institute sustainable business practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have it in the works to do a rooftop herb garden, too\u201d Papineau said, adding that they\u2019re going to start small but want to ultimately grow enough herbs to fully support Beaver Run\u2019s kitchen operations.<\/p>\n

Clearly, Papineau and other officials at the resort don\u2019t think four colonies of bees, a rooftop garden or other efforts to make Beaver Run more sustainable are going to make a giant impact on their own, but they\u2019re not going to shy away from their part.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s incumbent upon all of us, no matter what our belief system is, to take care of where we live,\u201d Papineau said of the resort\u2019s efforts to be more sustainable. \u201cBeing a good steward of earth is the right thing to do, and if everybody did their one small party, pretty soon it\u2019s a really, really big part for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beekeeper manages the four colonies of honey bees on the rooftop of Beaver Run Resort and Conference Center Thursday, May 23, in Breckenridge. The bees will produce honey for sale at the resort, and contribute to the resort\u2019s renewed mission to increase sustainability.Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com The Beaver Run Resort and Conference Center in Breckenridge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 20:50:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}