[Pollinator] Hurd creating a buzz with Pollinator Conservation Award

Wed Nov 5 17:14:38 PST 2008

Hurd creating a buzz with Pollinator Conservation  Award  
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_ (http://www.coopersjd.com/)  

11.04.2008 
By CAROL KINSLEY
Staff Writer

HARRINGTON, Del. — It may have been  the need for bees to pollinate his 
pumpkins, cucumber, squash and other crops  that launched Chuck Hurd of Lister 
Acres into a new vocation for which he has  just received a national award. 
The North American Pollinator Protection  Campaign and National Association 
of Conservation Districts presented the  “Farmer-Rancher Pollinator 
Conservation Award” in ceremonies at the Organization  of American States in Washington, 
D.C., on Oct. 22.
Noting that former  recipients have mostly had Ph.D after their names, Hurd 
said he was “humbled by  the honor.” 
He added that it was a great honor for Delaware to be recognized  for its “
pollinator-friendly practices.”
Dr. Faith Kuehn, administrator of  the Delaware Department of Agriculture 
Plant Industries Section, nominated Hurd  in recognition of his efforts on behalf 
of DDA’s long-term bee conservation  project. 
In 2005, she said, Hurd offered DDA the use of three-quarters of an  acre of 
Lister Farm to plant a native wildflower meadow for use as a bee survey  study 
site. 
“As part of his agritourism program, he thought it would be a  great learning 
experience for the children to walk through a field that was  alive with 
butterflies and other insects,” she wrote. 
DDA developed a  pollinator seed mix that Hurd planted in the plot and 
continues to maintain,  even though the farm’s focus is no longer on agritourism. 
The plot contains 17  native species.
Earlier, in 2000, Hurd had installed 14 acres of Conservation  Reserve 
Enhancement Program (CREP) filter strips, which he delays mowing until  after most 
of the flowering plants have stopped blooming, thereby preserving  season-long 
forage for pollinators. 
“Natural plant community succession  continues to introduce a number of 
native bee forage plants into the filter  strips,” Kuehn said.
Hurd smiled broadly as he recalled how he’d “planted”  black-eyed Susans on 
the CREP acres. “I had collected a 5-gallon bucket full of  seed,” he said. “
And on a windy day, I just drove along the filter strips  tossing seed into 
the wind.” 
The tiny seeds had taken hold and yielded a  bounty of flowers for honeybees 
and other pollinators.
He recalled, too, that  he had asked to take steps, when the CREP acreage was 
originally installed, to  make sure the crop of vegetation was successful. 
Farmers now are allowed to  employ such management skills in the first year, 
he added.
Hurd got into  beekeeping by default, he said. In 1995, he moved to the farm 
started by his  great-aunt and uncle, Matilda and Joshua Lister, in 1927. Farm 
production in  recent years has included cucurbits, lima beans, tomatoes, 
peppers, onion and  cabbage, as well as mums and strawberries. 
A few years ago he opened his  pumpkin patch to the public and added an 
elaborate corn maze.
Originally he  had a hobby beekeeper tend the hives needed for pollination, 
then a commercial  beekeeper for a while, later retuning to the services of 
another hobbyist. “But  I found I was caring for them more and more myself,” he 
said. 
So he took  some classes and read Dewey Caron’s book, Honey Bee Biology and 
Beekeeping.  Caron, professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the 
University of  Delaware, was helpful to him, but has since retired to Oregon. 
When Caron  learned of the award, he called to congratulate Hurd and said he 
was sending a  tie. 
Unsure of what sort of tie an entomologist of 40 years would send, Hurd  was 
pleased to receive one decorated with butterflies, another native  pollinator.
Now Hurd is the one moving hives around. He rescued a number of  swarms and 
built his own hive boxes. One farmer with whom he worked planted lima  beans in 
four successive plantings, providing nearly a four-week window of  
pollination which allowed the bees to work longer than an eight-day window in  most 
cucumber fields. 
“I got terrific honey flow from the limas,” Hurd  said.
The honey is being marketed casually by Hurd and his wife Suzanne as  the bee 
population grows. One of Suzanne’s friends was an early recipient of the  
sweet, golden product. “Your honey’s honey!” she exclaimed, and Suzanne adapted  
the name to its present form: “My Honey’s Honey.”
In 2006, two weeks into a  seven-week cycle of mum production, Hurd 
considered keeping up the pace for five  more years. 
He quickly made up his mind to make it five more weeks — until  the mum crop 
was sold. 
For now the Hurds are taking a break from intensive  agritourism and farm 
stand marketing — which has been in addition to off-farm  careers — to spend 
more time with their five grandchildren and parents.
Hurd  continues to tend a large garden for the family — and the bees — and 
he shares  the bounty with friends. 
He said the pick-your-own strawberry operation will  continue at the farm on 
Route 14 between Harrington and Milford.

Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Pollinator Partnership 
423 Washington Street, 5th floor
San Francisco, CA  94111
415-362-1137
LDA at pollinator.org

_www.pollinator.org_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 
_www.nappc.org_ (http://www.nappc.org/) 

National Pollinator Week is June 22-28, 2009. 
Beecome  involved at _www.pollinator.org_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 
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