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Food shelf finds new purpose for excess produce

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The La Porte County

A sweet enterprise Beekeeper shares ins and outs of the honey business

By MATT FRITZ

Staff writer 1-866-362-2167 Ext. 13887 mfritz@heraldargus.com

KINGSBURY — Walking through his apiary in Kingsbury, Rich Geiger stops and gently pulls loose a honeycombed frame from a nondescript box—unleashing dozens and dozens of bees.

The black and gold insects soon cover him, crawling over his white beekeeper suit and veiled helmet, soaring by his head and looking for any way to get under his gloves. But Geiger calmly ignores them, inspecting the frame, looking over the thousands of golden chambers, and seeing if the queen is producing enough larvae.

“I’m always searching for evidence of a queen,” he says, returning the frame to the box, which serves the bees as a hive, “because if she’s out, or if she’s not working, then we’ve got to do something.”

Geiger was conducting this visit as part of an effort to explain some of the ins and outs of the honeymaking business, something he has been doing with his sister Ann for the past four years under the name Bee Madness Apiary. It is an endeavor that is both a side business and a continual learning experience for Geiger, who has received national recognition for his honey, and a string of adventures since bringing home his first hive in 2010.

That’s because the first hive, which he purchased at a meeting of the Indiana Beekeeper Association in Anderson, unexpectedly

burst open in his van while he was trying to drive to his home in Rolling Prairie with his mother.

“And my initial reaction was ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to get stung,’” he said.

“But it’s not like they’re hornets. They’re honey bees. They’re not as aggressive. But luckily the sun was behind us and so the bees were riding in the back window. They like to fly toward light.”

At his Kingsbury apiary, Geiger, who also has apiaries in Rolling Prairie and Mill Creek, begins filling plastic containers full of sugar water, turning them upside down and connecting them to the tops of the hives, the water gently seeping through perforations so the bees can eat.

“Right now I’m feeding them,” he says. “I don’t feed them when I’m taking honey, but in order to get more bees to produce more honey, you have to feed them and build up their numbers before the trees start flowering.”

Geiger noted that getting the right queen is important, the honey season being short in the Midwest.

To produce enough honey, he said he needs his queens to lay about 1,200 eggs per day to get the proper workforce. But there are other considerations too.

Several years ago he had purchased a hive from a local beekeeper, and later found himself running around the perimeter of his house, chased by hundreds of bees

Photo by Matt Fritz

TOP: Rich Geiger holds up his beekeeper helmet, one of the necessary pieces of equipment for the honey-making business. LEFT: See BEES, Page A3 Rich Geiger holds up a frame from one of his beehives. RIGHT: Bees emerge from the top of their hive at an apiary in Kingsbury.

Exchange Club honors Marquette basketball team

21-year-old Grants eyed for landfill reuse project wanted on

By GABRIELLE GONZALEZ

By JESSICA O’BRIEN

Staff writer (219) 326-3870 ggonzalez@heraldargus.com

MICHIGAN CITY — Attending their last scheduled public appearance of the school year, the Marquette Catholic High School boys basketball team was honored by the Michigan City Exchange Club on Tuesday.

The 2014 IHSAA Class A state basketball champions each received a medal from the Exchange Club, acknowledging their achievement. The medals were distributed by member Bob Johnson, who told the team that it was fantastic that they could bring the championship home to Michigan City.

“Next year we expect the same thing,” Johnson said, as he presented the medals, which hung from blue and gold ribbons.

Donovan Garletts, coach of the Marquette boys basketball team, said that although there has been an incredible amount of talent in boys basketball in Michigan City over the years, it has been 48 years since the city won a state championship in the sport.

Breaking that streak, the Marquette boys won the state championship back in

La PORTE — The plan to reuse the Deercroft Landfill at Interstate 94 and U.S. 421 may soon be able to receive grants for implementation.

La Porte County Planner Mitch Bishop gave a presentation at Tuesday’s meeting of the La Porte County Parks and Recreation Board for their support of the project and to place the project’s fledgling design in the appendix of the county park’s five-year Grand Master Plan.

Bishop said in order for the county to receive grants from entities such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the project needs to be recognized in a long term plan.

The board approved looking into supporting the project, with no additional obligations to the parks and recreation, and will look to making a decision at their next meeting on June 10 at 5 p.m. at Red Mill County Park.

The concept for the landfill is in its preliminary

Staff writer

Photo by Jessica O’Brien

Donovan Garletts, coach of the Marquette Catholic High School boy’s basketball team, speaks during Tuesday’s meeting of the Michigan City Exchange Club. The team, recently named state champions, was invited to the luncheon as the club’s guests of honor.

March, beating Barr-Reeve in overtime, 70-66, at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

In honor of their special guests, the Exchange Club printed some interesting information that was gathered about the Marquette team.

Some of the “fun facts” included the fact that this was

the school’s first appearance in the boys basketball state finals in the school’s history.

Also, Marquette was 8-6 at one point this season, before winning 11 straight games on its way to winning the state championship game - outscoring its opponents See EXCHANGE, Page A3

stages according to Bishop.

He said the landfill has 300 acres and will be a four seasons facility. Activities being discussed for the revitalized land include sledding, zip-lining, mountain biking, horseback riding and fishing.

Bishop said the landfill will be leased with waste management. The recreation vendors will be subleased by the county. Bishop referred to the La Porte County Office of Economic Development and the La Porte County Commissioners as overseeing the leases.

Bishop said most of the grants are an 80 percent federal coverage and 20 percent county match. He said parks and recreation will not be responsible to budget any of the 20 percent match.

In other park news: ■ The 2015 budget was approved. The cost of propane has doubled and the only change to the budget is an increase of the propane allocation.

■ The board approved to replace a lawnmower that died this spring after 14 years of use. The new See BOARD, Page A3

warrant is found in LP A La Porte man who was being sought for an outstanding warrant for charges related to heroin has been arrested.

Investigators from the La Porte C o u n t y Metro Operations Unit and the La Porte County Sheriff’s DePOINTON p a r t m e n t ’s Emergency Response Team, as well as officers from the La Porte Police Department, executed See ARREST, Page A3

THURSDAY WEATHER HIGH LOW 54 40 FEW SHOWERS

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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

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Local | State

Indiana: Feds delayed No Child Left Behind report INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Department of Education officials said Tuesday that they expected to hear about concerns with the state’s No Child Left Behind waiver last fall, but federal monitors delayed releasing the report until last month without explanation.

Schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz said Indiana originally was promised the report 45 days after U.S. Department of Education monitors flew to the state last August. She also said her department has been working hard since she took office to implement the waiver, which was crafted by former Superintendent Tony Bennett, whom she defeated in November 2012.

“Did the department know we had work to do? You betcha,� she said Tuesday. “We were told we were going to get this in October.�

However the report was delivered last month, catching many in the state off guard. A spokeswoman for U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

Federal education officials alerted the state that its waiver may be in jeopardy because of problems monitoring low-performing schools and conducting teacher evaluations, as well as the state’s decision to withdraw from Common Core.

News that the waiver

might be in jeopardy surprised many members of the State Board of Education, who called for a special meeting to grill the Department of Education. Board members, appointed by the state’s last two Republican governors, put Ritz, a Democrat, under the microscope Tuesday. “I think the reason for this meeting is to figure out how this happened and how we can help get the Department of Education back on track,� said Gordon Hendry, a Democrat appointed to the board by Gov. Mike Pence. “Clearly there are issues within the department that need to be addressed. This isn’t a blame game, but we do need to resolve the issues.

And we want to be clear that we’re disappointed that we found about this the way we did.�

Board members said Tuesday they were angry they did not find out about the concerns with the waiver until the report was delivered last month. But Ritz and her staff said they delivered updates to the board from last fall through this year.

The tense, hours-long meeting recalled some of the board’s recent battles centered on the power struggle between Ritz and Pence.

The state has until June 30 to submit an amended waiver to the U.S. Department of Education. Ritz has said she is confident the waiver will be maintained.

Lemur researcher wins conservation prize INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An expert on the lemurs of the Madagascar rainforest who is credited with helping protect the species was named the winner of the 2014 Indianapolis Prize for animal conservation on Tuesday.

The award was given to Stony Brook University anthropology professor Patricia Wright to honor her work since the 1980s studying and advocating for the small endangered primates native to the island off the eastern coast of Africa. Her work has included helping create the island’s Ranomafana National Park, which was established in 1991, and is

featured in the IMAX documentary, “Island of Lemurs: Madagascar,� released this year.

Wright will receive the $250,000 prize and the Lilly Medal on Sept. 27 from the sponsoring Indianapolis Zoological Society, which presents the award every two years.

Wright’s work stood out from among the six finalists, said Paul Grayson, the Indianapolis Zoo’s deputy director and senior vice president of conservation and science. “Everyone marvels at what she’s accomplished in a very difficult environment, the kinds of obstacles that she

has worked under,� Grayson told The Indianapolis Star.

Wright first went to Madagascar after receiving a doctoral degree from the City University of New York and starting work at the Duke Lemur Center in Durham, North Carolina. She is credited with finding a lemur species believed extinct for more than 50 years and discovering the golden bamboo lemur that hadn’t been identified before, according to Indianapolis Prize organizers.

Wright said she grew worried about the lemurs’ future as timber companies increasingly encroached on the animal’s natural environment.

“I became a conservationist when they came into that forest and started to cut down the trees. I knew if I didn’t do something about it, nobody else was going to,� she told WTHR-TV. Wright’s supporters say the national park, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has boosted the tourism industry in Madagascar.

Wright said her plans for the prize money include funding a fellowship to help budding scientists from Madagascar, buying land in the island’s north where gold has been found, and providing electricity for villages near the national park.

BEES

be 3,000 or 4,000 worker bees to start, minimum.

Then after three days she’ll hatch out.�

He said he always keeps a ready supply of extra queens.

Geiger said Bee Madness Apiary has traditionally produced two kinds of honey, its lighter spring honey, and its darker summer variety.

But Geiger said he’s been moving out into other varieties, including chunk honey, which is honey mixed with chunks of comb; cut comb honey, which is just sections of the honeycomb packaged for sale; and cream honey, which is crystallized honey.

He pointed out that there’s a market for the chunk honey and cut comb because of the antibacterial and antiinflammatory properties of the comb. “The bees keep the inside of the hive antiseptic because they all live so close together,� he said. “But I am in no way making medi-

cal recommendations.�

Geiger is also trying to get into the pollination business, having already used his bees to pollinate a farm of apricot, plum and apple trees in Hartford, Michigan.

He said he is also looking to pollinate certain types of crops, particularly blueberry and other fruits, noting that these plants can impart a hint of flavor to the product.

Another part of the business is bee rescue, which involves the retrieval of unwanted bees from area properties. He said hives are often located up in trees. “As long as you get the queen,� he said, “in a little less than half an hour the whole mob of bees will go into the box.�

But once he had to retrieve a hive situated between the floor joists of a house in Long Beach. “Reaching in there and taking the comb, I just got a lot of stings,� he said. “I

don’t like to do too much of that.�

But his work has been paying off. In November of 2013, Geiger received an honorable mention in the National Honeybee Research Center’s Black Jar Honey Taste Contest.

And his Bee Madness honey is carried at Burek Farms on CR-400S, Feeney’s Hometown Goods in New Carlisle and more recently at Temple News Agency in La Porte.

A carpenter by trade, Geiger said he is still learning the ins and outs of the honey business, but noted that learning about bees has been the most rewarding part.

For more information on Bee Madness Apiary and its pollination service, contact Geiger at 363-8393. He can also be reached by email at beemadness@gmail.com, or by visiting the apiary’s page on Facebook.

From Page A1 apparently agitated by his intrusions into their hive.

He eventually lost them by running past an orchard of flowering trees, then came back and removed their queen, replacing her with a less aggressive one.

To make a queen, Geiger said he removes a threeday-old larvae from its original cell and places it in a new cell modified to be a queen’s cup. This tricks the worker bees into feeding it royal jelly. “The regular bees are fed raw jelly for the first three of four days,� he said, “the queen’s fed raw jelly for the whole time she’s in the larval stage and she pupates earlier. From the day she’s laid, she takes 16 days (to mature). A regular bee takes 21 days. On the 13th day you can move her to her hive of bees, which would

BOARD

From Page A1 lawnmower will cost $19,850. â– The Coolspring Township Request was granted. â– The facility and shelter fees for 2015 were approved and are the same prices as pre-

vious years. â– The Standard Operating Procedures manual for park employees was approved. â– The board approved the Action Plan Update of 2015 to 2019. â– The expansion of the Luhr parking lot and renovation of the Luhr pond will be applied for in June of 2015.

Follow Matt Fritz on Twitter @ matt_fritzHA.

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From Page A1 a search warrant at a home located at 316 G St. in La Porte.

Brandon Pointon, 21, was located inside the residence and arrested pursuant to an outstanding arrest warrant for Revocation of Suspended Sentence for an original charge of Possession of a Controlled Substance (heroin). The warrant had been issued

by La Porte County Circuit Court.

The arrest was made Fri-

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day, according to a news report from the La Porte County Sheriff’s Department.

Pointon was taken into custody without incident and transported to the La Porte County Jail. He has since been released from custody.

This recent arrest is the result of on-going investigations involving the distribution of narcotics and illegal drugs in and around the La Porte area, according to law enforcement officials, and additional arrests are anticipated.

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79.0-57.6 during this streak.

Garletts added his own interesting facts to the list, reminding the audience that in addition to winning the state championship, his team broke three state records during the final game. The Blazers made a total of 11 3-point shots in that game – breaking one record – with seven of those shots from one person, Ryan Fazekas, another record breaker.

Fazekas scored a total of 34 points during the championship game, which Garletts said ranked him in fourth place in the scoring in the history of the state finals.

Coaching the Marquette boys basketball team for the past four years, Garletts said he was proud of what this team accomplished.

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With three graduating seniors leaving the team this year, all with the opportunity to play college basketball, Garletts is already looking forward to working with next year’s team. “This is a great group of young men coming back next year and it’s going to be fun,� he said.

Included among next year’s returning team members are eight sophomores, all of which will be on the 2014-15 varsity team. Although he hopes to defend the state title next year, Garletts said he is still coming to terms with this year’s win. “It still hasn’t sunk in,�

Garletts said, adding that he and his team are still adjusting to the reality of what happened. “I don’t know if it will sink in until we go play our first game next year, put on our uniforms and realize that we’re state champions.�

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EXCHANGE

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and other opportunities not available to most tourists.

The event is Thursday starting at 6 p.m., with dinner starting at 7 p.m.

For reservations, call Spire at (219) 575-7272.

The cost of the event is $95 per person. For those who can’t make it to the dinner, but still want to donate, go to www.youcaring.com/ help-jay-make-the-pay/.

For more information, go to farm2table4education. com.

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La PORTE — New Buffalo High School Junior Jaylun Cook will be hosting a fundraising dinner at Spire Farm to Fork in La Porte on Thursday to support his participation in the People to People Student Ambassador Program this summer.

Called Farm-to-Table Dinner for Education, the event will assist him in raising money for a trip through Europe as a student ambassador, allowing him to take part in local customs

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