Prior Lake, Minnesota - The bees are resting for the winter after a productive year on the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. More than 1.5 million honeybees in the 30 hives maintained by the SMSC were indeed busy, producing nearly 250 gallons of excess honey during the summer of 2006. The 40,000-60,000 honeybees in each hive fed on clover, New England Asters, dandelions, willow, and other plants and flowers in native prairie areas of the Community. Bees make honey to use as a food source to get them through the winter. It is their excess honey which is harvested by SMSC staff and Community children from the white bee boxes on five different apiary sites on the reservation.

Honey will be available for sale at Village Market in Prior Lake by mid-November. The owner of Village Market Dave Chromy is thrilled with the new product. "We take pride in working with local producers of products. We're neighbors working together to help bring the finest quality products for your family table."

Corrugated cardboard covers with a waxy coating will provide insulation and protection from snow for the bees during the winter. The bees will stay in their hives and live off the rest of the honey they produced. An internal hive temperature within the box and its cover will average around 90 degrees in spite of the cold Minnesota winters. In the spring the covers will be removed, and the bees will become active when temperatures are above 40 degrees.

The 24-ounce plastic bear bottles available for sale were filled with honey during three full days of processing over a one-month period. First the boxes were transported via truck to the processing site on the Community. Each box of honey can weigh up to 75 pounds. Then each of the nine frames in each box are taken out by hand. A heated knife is then used to remove or "uncap" the wax that the bees put on each side of the frame when the honey becomes ripe. Then each frame is put in a machine called an extractor, which spins the honey out of the comb. Up to 45 seconds of spinning per side is needed. Honey piles up in the bottom of the extractor and is then filtered into a 5-gallon bucket. Then the honey is filtered a second time before it is bottled. (Since heat tends to affect the taste of honey in a negative way, much of the honey produced today throughout the country is not pasteurized; infants under one year of age shouldn't eat it.) On a cool shelf, (50-60 degrees) honey has a shelf life counted by years, not weeks or months. If the natural sugar in it starts to crystallize, simply put the container in a pan of warm water (not boiling and not in a microwave) and let it sit until it dissolves.

Four years ago the SMSC Land and Natural Resources Department started the honeybee program with four hives. The success of those hives resulted in the creation of new hives from splitting the existing hives and acquiring new ones available commercially. In addition to Village Market, the honey will continue to be sold at the Shakopee Dakota Convenience Store and Dakotah Meadows RV Park on the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.

As a steward of the land, the SMSC engages in a number of restoration activities to preserve and protect the land for future generations. The SMSC Land Department and Natural Resources Department has re-established native prairies on more than 80 acres of former farmland. Approximately 17 acres were restored in 2006 with an additional 40 acres planned for future restoration. Prescribed burns are used to maintain and improve native prairie conditions on the reservation. Wild rice is sowed in Community wetlands. Maple sap is collected from Community trees and maple syrup is made. Trees and other native flora are planted. Environmental specialists are also active in restoring and managing wetlands, surveying wildlife, and taking an inventory of existing natural communities. Hydrologists assess water quality, coordinate the Community's Wellhead Protection Program, plan projects to improve water quality, and implement erosion control.

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