Photos by Kyle Crawford

What is beekeeping?

So basically, you just have a bunch of bees to keep them for the environment and collect their honey. You monitor them every couple of days that they are doing fine and doing everything you are wanting them to do and watch their progress and make sure they’re not doing anything bad.

Could you go through the beekeeping process?

You have a couple of boxes that are stacked on top of each other. When you first put them in, you start off with one box, and it has 10 trays in it, and those trays have these little rectangular plastic things that are painted with wax for the bees to use. And when you put them in there, the bees take the wax from the sheet and wax they get from the environment, and they build their combs themselves. That takes a while for them to do. After that, they will start filling them with eggs and other things to raise their younglings with. They’re very fast because they know that when they have to settle into a new place to make sure to do it quickly, so it is set up for a safe place to raise their babies. There is a tray that separates the queen from the rest of the bees, so she does not just lay eggs in the honey. Then, they start making honey storages and start storing them in the winter.

When do you beekeep?

You do this year round, but in the wintertime you need to make sure you leave enough honey for them. If they survive, they survive. You can put hay around the container to make sure they are well insulated, but the main concern is to make sure they have enough food. Each bee can live about 30 days or so. The queens can live for a couple of years, like five or something, and when the queen gets weak they can make another queen again.

Where are the bees kept?

They stay in a big white box, so it reflects heat from the sun, and they sit out there. They like the heat, so they sit outside. In the winter it gets cold, but it is still OK because they huddle.

How long have you been beekeeping for?

I just started this year, so this is my first time.

What first got you into beekeeping?

My neighbor worked in the Peace Corps down in South America, and he taught people down there how to raise bees so they can be self-sufficient. So he brought that back to Carmel, and he had his bees, and I thought that was cool, so I started that as well.

Who taught you how to do this?

Well, it’s pretty much self-learned. You look up stuff on the Internet. I guess I have a neighbor, so I ask him a couple of things. I have a book on beekeeping. But most of the stuff you figure out your technique for you, and that’s just what you do.

Do you take all the honey from the bees when you collect it?

This year we got four gallons from the bees from just one hive, but it was too much probably. You are supposed to leave a little bit in there for them to still have honey left.

Do you sell the honey?

This year we just gave it all out to friends of family. We kept probably a gallon, but there is still a lot left.

What’s the difference between this honey and the honey at the supermarket?

I think it tastes better. And this is much more fun. It’s just like growing your crops and being able to consume it yourself. Some people have a garden, and that is there hobby, but this is what I love.

Are bees upset or aggressive when you take their honey?

Some bees are. There are certain kinds of bees called African Honey Bees that are a lot more aggressive, which is what they had in South America and other places, and then the ones I have are not very aggressive. You can go up to the hive and mess with them a little bit, and they are not going to sting you, but then when you take the lid off or start opening the hive, if you are very careful, you will probably be OK. Like, if you start shaking things or moving too fast, then they will get more aggressive.

Can you directly consume the honey collected from the bees?
So what we do is we have this huge machine that my dad’s friend owns, and it fits like 20 bee frames in it. It spins around, and it spins around for two hours, and it spins all the honey out and drains out a spigot and a little cheesecloth just to filter out any of the wax. Then that’s it, and you can just eat anything else there.

Are you scared of this job?

Not really. At first I was. Last year when I got a box of 13,000 bees and (had) to shake them up and dump them in, that was very scary at first because I’d never dealt with so many. But after a while I just got used to it, and it didn’t bother me.

Will the bees sting you and has a bee stung you?

Yeah, I got stung a lot, but mostly out of my own stupidity when I go out wearing shorts or do something like that. They don’t really sting me until I start opening the hive. As soon as you kill a bee, that’s when they get mad. If you touch them, they’re not going to sting you, but if you kill one of them, then all of them know it, and they start getting upset. When you take the stuff out and it is pretty much fine. But when you put the stuff back you’re going to end up stinging one of them since there are 50,000 in there, so it’s hard not to. So you really have to be careful when you’re putting them back.

What things can go wrong when you are bee keeping?

Mostly bee allergies. I’ve been stung probably 20 times by these bees, but I’ve only done this for one year and haven’t been stung much. I actually, one of the times, I had an allergic reaction because it stung me in the vein so maybe it went in faster. So now I have an EpiPen whenever I go out there, I always have that with me. And that is for me and for anyone with me if there is someone who doesn’t know they have an allergy, but they actually do.

What do you wear when you do this?

Usually, jeans will be fine with closed-toe shoes. As long as you have something for your face, like, I have a jacket bee suit that has a hood that goes over my face that I can wear.

What are some common misconceptions about bee keeping?

Most people get scared about the bees because they can sting. I mean, that is logical, but really, the bees are not going to sting you until you try to kill them or attack them. I just wish people would be less afraid of bees when they are just flying around. Some people squash bees when they’re just on a flower, and the bee isn’t trying to hurt anything; it’s actually just helping out the environment.

What have you learned from bee keeping?

I’ve learned how important bees are for the environment. A lot of bees are dying out, and if we do not have people taking care of bees and living with the bees, then eventually we wouldn’t live for very long either.

Why is this job so important?

Without bees we would have four years to live. This job is really important for pollination, crops and the environment.

Is there a specific memory of beekeeping that is special for you?

Well, I didn’t know this at first when I collected the honey. I took a brush and just wiped the bees, so there were just a bunch of bees flying around everywhere, and I would just put them in a box and close the lid really fast and then keep doing that for the 20 trays I had. Then I had to go somewhere, so I left it out there. But the bees wanted to get their honey back, because it is a lot of honey, so by the time I got home the entire hive was swarming around our house, in our garage, just everywhere, and you couldn’t even go anywhere, and it was really bad. Now I know to keep the honey somewhere they can’t find it.

Is beekeeping something you will continue later in life?

I will as a hobby. I’ll probably have maybe two to five hives or something like that at my house throughout my life, and I’ll probably try to rent out a few farmers because they will actually pay you to put your bees on their farms because it will actually help them pollinate their crops. I’m thinking of doing that in college and try to find a farm to put them on.

How do people react when you tell them you’re a beekeeper?

Actually, most people just think it’s weird. I haven’t told anyone other than my best friends. I don’t know anyone else who has beehives.

What other thoughts or comments would you like to share with readers?

Beekeeping has really established my connection with the environment because I feel like I’m a part of it, and I’m doing my part for it. It is unique because before this, I would just go to my house when I came home from school, but now that I have this, it is just a feeling that helps make me more conscious of recycling and the gas mileage on my car; it just keeps me thinking about these things much more.