Stinging risks, sweet rewards

By Doug Carder, dcarder@miconews.com

Rural Drexel beekeeper Gregg James recently repopulated three of his hives with 10,000 to 15,000 bees per hive. Each hive could swell to 30,000 to 50,000 bees. He will begin harvesting honey in July. (Photo by Kathy Fitzke)

Gregg James likes to stroll into his backyard in the evening after he gets home from work and watch the bees carrying pollen to their hives.

These are no ordinary, garden-variety bees. These light-colored, Italian bees produce more than 100 pounds of honey each summer.

James, who keeps bees as a hobby, has four hives behind his home five miles north of Drexel, Mo.

“People are always interested when they hear I have bees,” James said. “It’s really fascinating, but it’s a lot of work. Most people don’t realize what’s involved.”

James recently repopulated three of his hives, after those bees apparently froze to death this winter. Each of the new hives contains about 10,000 to 15,000 bees, and a queen bee that can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day. The fourth hive, which survived the tough winter, contains 30,000 to 50,000 bees.

That’s a bonnet-full for a man who was wary of bees as a child.

“Dad kept bees, and it seems like I was always getting stung. I would stand 10 or 15 feet away, and they would come find me. I guess they just liked me,” James mused.

But his fear waned as he grew older, and now the 50-year-old corrosion specialist for BP Pipeline in Freeman, Mo., doesn’t mind being around bees. He even takes care of the hive his 82-year-old dad, Vernon James, still keeps in his backyard in Freeman.

James, who has had his bees for four years, has to go through his hives regularly to make sure there are no signs of red mites or other diseases that can plague his bees.

“I have to give them antibiotics in early spring and late fall to prevent diseases, because you can’t administer antibiotics when they are making honey,” he said. “You also have to look for red mites that can attach themselves to the bees and make them too weak to leave the hives.”

Diseases have been especially hard on the U.S. bee population this year. The country’s major operations report about 30 percent of their bees have died because of diseases, James said.

“It’s scary, really. Bees are so important to our agriculture industry for pollination. It’s a serious problem,” James said.

Other beekeepers are finding empty nests when they inspect their hives. Researchers at several universities are studying this phenomenon, called Colony Collapse Disorder. And there’s always the fear of swarming, in which an angry queen bee leaves the hive and takes about half its population — thousands of bees — with her.

“They just move on to a new location, and you lose all your production out of that hive for a year,” James said. “You hear about bees making hives in trees out on farms. That’s usually what has happened. They have left another hive somewhere else.”

James will begin harvesting for honey in July, and then again in September. When all four hives are fully populated, he should be able to produce around 150 pounds or 15 to 20 gallons of honey. But you won’t find James’ honey for sale at any retail outlets.

“I just give the honey away to people or donate it for things like church gatherings,” James said. “But it’s getting to be an expensive hobby, and I might have to start selling some of it.”

As for why James chose Italian bees to produce his honey, that’s painfully simple.

“They are supposed to be gentler than other breeds.”