At Granny Kat’s Bee Farm, hives hum, and jars of golden honey line the shelves — but owner Kathy Goahlke says the work here is about more than a sweet product. It’s about protecting pollinators that are essential to agriculture and teaching the community how to help them thrive.
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Monticello’s Granny Kat’s Bee Farm Teaches Community to Protect Pollinators
“Every year I lose about 25 percent of my bees to all the different things going on with bees,” Goahlke said. “Then when spring comes, we’re doing our best to split and make more hives and more colonies.”
Honeybees pollinate roughly one-third of the food we eat and contribute billions of dollars to U.S. agriculture, a role that local beekeepers say makes their work urgent. At Granny Kat’s, that mission is front and center: the farm offers hands-on classes for beginners and experienced keepers, demonstrations that take visitors from the hive to the jar, and practical training on hive health and colony management…