By Alex Tuchman | Director
Dear Friends,
Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary was established in Floyd County, Virginia in 2009 to be a consciously cultivated honeybee sanctuary promoting sustainable and biodynamic beekeeping through education, experience-based research, and a honeybee sanctuary. We wish to help restore the health and vitality of the honeybee worldwide.
Our 41-acre sanctuary is located on the banks of the Little River in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains on traditional Tutelo lands. Since arriving here in 2008, we have developed an abundantly flowering landscape, rich with sources of nectar and pollen which enhance the nutrition and health of the honeybees and native pollinators and support the thriving of our diverse agricultural ecosystem.
Over the past decade, Spikenard's efforts have inspired thousands of people to work in their communities on environmental issues, including stopping the use of toxic chemicals, planting forage for pollinators in meadows, gardens, and roadsides, and communicating about the needs of insects. At Spikenard, we raise awareness about all facets of beekeeping, including the creation of diverse ecological landscapes for honeybees to find food and medicine. The past century of agriculture has brought incredible challenges: neurotoxic pesticides, viruses, and monocultures; moreover, many now-common beekeeping practices have diminished the health of bees: migrating hives from farm-to-farm, using artificial queens, sugar or corn syrup feeding, and preventing swarms. All of these suppress the life force of the bee and decrease its ability to handle illnesses, mites, and the challenges of weather and climate.The declining honeybee population is important to everyone, as they are the main pollinator of over 70% of the 100 crop species that provide 90% of the world’s food.
Spikenard offers the only intensive 2-year biodynamic beekeeper training in the U.S.; experience-based classes and workshops on sustainable and biodynamic practices for beekeeping, farming, and gardening; seasonal festivals which celebrate our sacred relationship to earth and cosmos; beekeeper apprenticeships and short-term training opportunities; and local, national, and international speaking events reaching 2,000-3,000 people a year. With the right space to host these events and house apprentices and visiting learners, our impact can grow. When people come, whether for a two-year intensive course or a simple Friday Open Day to visit the hives and learn our innovative approach, they see opportunities to work within their local ecosystem to support to the bee's key role in the biodiversity of the earth.
Sanctuary Infrastructure and Current Needs
Our acreage primarily offers a true Sanctuary for honeybees, native insects, and plants. A successful $800,000 campaign in 2015-2017 enabled Spikenard to build a caretaker cabin, purchase 14 additional acres, and construct a multi-purpose Bee Barn which now hosts all of our indoor work: all educational offerings, offices for Spikenard staff, product making space (for salves, lotions, tinctures, and Bee Tea), a woodshop (to make hives), and much more. With the loss of rental space for housing and offices in Floyd last fall, we now must create new space for research, learning, and collaboration in service of the honeybees.
To address this need and support the continued development of our land as a Sanctuary for human beings, we began planning the Spikenard Community House earlier this year: a two-level, 2,400 sq. ft building for educational work: weekend intensives, one-week immersion studies, advanced training seminars, school class visits, and spring break service projects. We are also planning for five small, basic, passive solar cabins at the same time, so that we have onsite housing for apprentices, visitors, student, friends, and families on the land. The loss of our rental options has left us the challenge of having no current place to house visitors and guests, and the opportunity to establish the Community House and cabins on our land to create a long-term and sustainable solution to this challenge.
Construction of the Spikenard Community House will begin when we receive commitments of $500,000, with a total project total of $652,000. We are hoping to inspire enthusiasm for the project and draw in enough resources to begin building by February of 2023. We are working with a Floyd-owned and operated construction company, called Omnibuild, who does fantastic quality work and who built our Bee Barn. They are excited and ready for this project, and if we can draw in enough resources soon, they will be ready to break ground in Fall 2022, with an anticipated the opening of the Community House in summer of 2023.
Thank you for considering your support towards these needs and being in solidarity with us concerning the importance of this work in service of the Bee. Your gift will inspire confidence in our shared future, where this land can truly be a sanctuary for honeybees and human beings alike.
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