To protect his hives, beekeeper Ray Farmer isn’t afraid to kill.
The Abbeville County resident and 2010 S.C. Beekeeper of the Year maintains a constant vigil to protect his honeybees from dangers like the notorious hive beetle. “The beetles winter in clusters of bees,” he explains. “The bees are so nice they actually feed them.” The beetles return the favor by tunneling through combs, killing infant bees and contaminating honey with their waste. Pesticides aren’t an option, so to save an infected hive, Farmer will literally take matters into his own, bare hands and delicately comb through an entire swarm of bees to find and kill the tiny invaders one by one. “You go in there and mash them with your fingers,” he says.
For amateur apiarists like Farmer, dirty jobs like squishing beetles (and suffering the occasional sting for their troubles) are all in a day’s work. And honeybees, it turns out, need all the help they can get. In contrast to their fearsome reputation, bees in South Carolina and the U.S. have become downright domesticated. Without the assistance of beekeepers, most couldn’t survive.
The honey that beekeepers collect in return for their efforts is a nice side benefit (see "Harvest Time" at the end of this article), but for truly dedicated apiarists, the sweetest reward is helping generations of the insects stand their ground against a growing number of threats, says Jack Collins, a 50-year veteran beekeeper.
“Honeybees are very delicate insects,” Collins says. “To me, it’s not about honey; it’s about how I can keep them alive for another year.”
The good old days
Life was once much easier for bees. The problems began decades ago with the arrival of Varroa destructor, a parasitic mite. The mites reproduce inside hives, where they enter the cells that store the young bee larvae and weaken them by sucking out hemolymph (aka bee “blood”) and spreading a virus that can deform bee wings and other appendages. Those pesky hive beetles were discovered in South Carolina in 1996. Then in 2006 there was the mysterious colony collapse disorder (CCD)—most likely caused by a combination of diseases and stress from agricultural pesticides— that decimated bee populations across North America. Rampant use of pesticides by beekeepers to control mites may have played a role in the CCD epidemic as well: The parasitic mites adapted to the chemicals and grew stronger, while the bees were slow to evolve natural defenses, says Mike Hood, professor of entomology at Clemson University.
Nationally, bee populations have dropped from 5.5 million colonies in the 1940s to 2.4 million colonies today. In South Carolina, populations have remained fairly stable for the past 10 to 15 years at around 25,000 to 30,000 managed colonies, Hood says. He credits that success largely to the state’s small-scale beekeepers, many of whom have enrolled in the South Carolina Master Beekeeper Program (see "Getting started" at the end of this article).
To help bee populations recover, researchers are attempting to breed mite-resistant strains of honeybees. “If we can just get these genes into our bees, bees and mites could live in harmony, the way it’s supposed to be,” Hood says. But, he admits, “I don’t know if we can totally fix the problems to return to the easy beekeeping times of 30 years ago.”
Family traditions
Collins, a member of Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, remembers those times well. He was introduced to beekeeping by his father when he was just a toddler. “He had six or eight hives. When I was big enough, my mother made me a bee veil, and I put on a long-sleeve shirt. My daddy gave me some gloves, and we went out to the bee gum,” he says.
Even back then, there were few truly wild bees.
“They were domesticated, but there were some that were hostile,” he says. “We called them hot bees. If I saw a swarm come out, I’d catch ’em and put 'em in a box. My daddy would come home on weekends and say, ‘Son, you catch any bees? ’ and I’d say, ‘Yeah,’ and he’d say, ‘Well, that’s good. Now you’ve got to take care of them.’”
Collins has been doing that ever since. Retired from a career as a tool and die maker, he now spends his days managing more than 150 hives spread across Oconee County. He no longer wears the veil or gloves, but instead relies on his knowledge of the insects and an antique smoker handed down from his father. The smoke keeps the bees calm and clustered in their hives without doing harm to the insects.
He lifts the lid off a white hive box to reveal a buzzing mass of insects packed into 10 wooden frames of wax and honeycomb. The majority of the worker bees are female, so he offers his traditional greeting—“Hello girls. How you all doing?”—before assessing the health of the colony. “I check them for mites and look for anything that will improve them,” Collins says.
Much of his time is spent helping weak hives grow stronger by feeding them sugar water and tricking the queen into laying more eggs. He has spare colonies used to “seed” weaker ones, and he sometimes swaps boxes of bees with other beekeepers in hopes of breeding stronger and bigger bees. “I’ve got some that look like B-52s taking off,” he chuckles.
Farmer also clocks a lot of miles—9,600 miles last year alone—working with bees. In addition to managing his own hives, he trains other beekeepers, and removes unwanted hives free of charge. “I love it; I love my bees; I love helping others,” he says.
Like Collins and Hood, Farmer also worries about the future of bees and what could happen to the state’s agricultural economy if bee populations crash. Honeybees are important as primary pollinators of many food crops including apples, blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupes, cucumbers, squash and watermelons, and the annual contribution of bees to food production in the United States is estimated to be $14.6 billion. “It’s got to get better,” Farmer says. “If things don’t improve, we’re going to have to change our diet tremendously.”
Future generations
The average lifespan of a honeybee is just 42 days, so a big part of a beekeeper’s job is making sure each generation survives to spawn the next. Just as important is teaching the next generation of beekeepers the art of caring for the insects.
Hood says there are only about 10 commercial honey producers in the state, meaning much of the responsibility for safeguarding bee populations falls to small-scale beekeepers. It helps that South Carolina has a lot of beekeepers— more than 2,000 at last count—and that there are 20 local beekeeper associations and a statewide association to help attract newcomers. “Over the past three years, we’ve had tremendous interest in beekeeping with over 250 new beekeepers enrolling in beginner-level courses annually,” he says. “Fortunately, it’s all age groups. In the past 20 years, it was often retired folks, but now we’re seeing middle-aged people and a few younger children.”
Collins does his part teaching future beekeepers through the Oconee County Beekeeping Club. He also advises Oconee County high school biology teacher Angela Cobb, who last year received a $31,000 grant to teach beekeeping at West-Oak High School in Westminster. But sometimes Collins worries that enough young people aren’t taking up the activity.
“Old beekeepers are getting out,” Collins says. “I’m seeing young people who are really enthusiastic, but I don’t think the old beekeepers are being replaced as fast as they go. I’ve seen a lot of them sell their bees and equipment. I’ve been to the sales.”
For his part, Collins says, he’ll keep careful watch over his hives as long as he is able.
“I’m thankful the good Lord gave me the ability to work honeybees,” he says. “These bees were put here for me to take care of, and I’m going to do the best I can.”
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Harvest time
When beekeepers like Jack Collins check their hives this month and next, they will have another item on their to-do lists: begin harvesting honey.
Bees collect plant nectar in their honey stomachs, then transport the nectar back to the hive where it is processed into honey. During its short life, each bee in a hive makes about 1/12 of a teaspoon of the sweet liquid, which is stored in cells of the hive’s honeycomb.
This time of year, when plant nectar production is at its peak, the bees produce more honey than is needed to support the hive. From mid to late summer, beekeepers collect the excess honey, then bottle and sell it for anywhere from $5 to $10 a container. Collins won’t reveal how much honey he produces each year, but all that’s required for him to sell out by the end of the collecting season is a modest sign on his mailbox: “Honey for Sale.”
The only jars he won’t sell in a typical season are the ones he takes home for his own family’s enjoyment.
“Honey is a life-sweetening substance,” he says. “I eat it on almost everything.”
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Getting started
The best way to get started in apiculture is to enroll in the Master Beekeeper program offered by the South Carolina State Beekeepers Association through Clemson University’s entomology program and local beekeeping clubs. There are four levels of certification:
Certified Beekeper: Requires completion of an 18-hour classroom course with a field day, basic instruction, written and practical tests.
Journeyman Beekeper: With two years of experience as a certified beekeeper, apiarists can pursue this certification, which requires a 15- to 18-hour classroom course, a written test and practical tests. Candidates also earn credits through public service projects like giving a demonstration to school kids.
Master Beekeper: For truly serious beekeepers, this course requires passing a written exam, becoming an expert in several beekeeping subspecialties and requires 10 hours of public service.
Master Craftsman: On par with obtaining a master’s degree, Master Craftsman certification requires candidates to conduct an independent research project, publish the results and pass an oral exam.
For more information, visit scstatebeekeepers.org.
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