How did a boy who would rather fall off a ladder than get stung by a bee grow up to contemplate becoming a full-time beekeeper? It was a long journey, but once the seed was planted, it was a quick and complete transformation. The journey is common to a lot of beekeepers – you just get hooked. One or two colonies is not enough. The more you learn, the more you want to do. My path has come to a major fork. I am taking early retirement as a successful scientist, and making the leap to a full-time beekeeper. Scary? Yeah. But exciting too. I’m sure I’m not the only one with these thoughts and it’s nice to know you are not alone. So, I’m going to share my story as someone who is in the middle of taking the leap. Who am I? How did I get in this predicament? What decisions do I need to make? Later, I hope to update you on my progress so you can decide for yourself if you want throw away your stable life for a life of daily buzzes and stings . . .

This is a picture of me visiting the University of Florida apiary where I spent a couple of weeks doing research. Only one of the great bee experiences my scientific career has given me.

I grew up in a blue-collar city in upstate NY. My parents were school teachers. I inherited their intelligence, but I was far from an intellectual. My way of studying “bees” was to throw rocks at yellow jacket’s nests and run like mad. I loved being outside and dreamed of living off the land like “My Side of the Mountain” or “The Call of the Wild”. Ultimately, I went to college and, because it was closest to the environment, I got my degree in Biology. From there, a PhD in molecular biology and a post-doctoral fellowship studying root hair growth in the weed Arabidopsis thaliana. After 11 years of post-graduate education, I landed my first job with Monsanto. It was an incredible opportunity to help agriculture. Agriculture, the outdoors, the environment. They are all linked and right up my alley.
I worked happily for 15 years at Monsanto with no trace of bees in my life. I had thought about them though. Remember that dream of living off the land? That never really went away. I gardened, hunted, fished – and beekeeping fits that thought. Produce your own honey. But beekeeping is a lot like fly fishing. It’s hard to get started without knowing someone who does it. My chance came in 2011. I volunteered to help with a field trial that was six hours away. I shared a ride with Tim Fredricks, a guy who had started beekeeping the year before and is currently president of Three Rivers Beekeeping club. We spent 5½ of those six hours talking about bees. By the end of the trip, our plans were set on me becoming a beekeeper. I read some books, built some hives, took a beekeeping course, and ordered two packages.
Having bees does not make you a beekeeper, though. I was successful and grew my two packages to four hives that year and overwintered three (a storm blew over one hive). It took a series of fortunate events over several years for me to become a bonafide beekeeper. It started in 2012 (my first year with bees) when Monsanto purchased the Israeli bee company Beeologics. Along with Beeologics, Monsanto hired Jerry Hayes, a legend in the beekeeping community. Who could ask for a more knowledgeable mentor? I then started helping the Bee Health Team with their field trials. I took trips to fields and worked side-by-side with commercial beekeepers and bee researchers. Walking into yards with hundreds of mating nucs, warehouses full of equipment, and incredible honey houses opened up a whole new world to me.

My humble
beginnings started with two top bar hives and a pitcher full of honey. I
remember thinking ‘how much more could a person need?’

It got better. I joined the Bee Health Team and ran their field trials. These were the largest honey bee field trials ever performed and we partnered with some of the best commercial beekeepers in the U.S. and Canada. These guys became my friends. We worked side-by-side in their yards. They shared their know-how and welcomed my questions. We were allies fighting the same pest (Varroa) and they were happy to be a part of it. I took what I learned and applied it to my own bees, eventually developing my own system. This is when I became a true beekeeper. But I also feel “less qualified” as a beekeeper now, than when I first started. These guys, my friends, also opened my eyes to the complexity of bees and beekeeping, and the difficulties of running a bee business. Like with the rest of agriculture, your business is dependent on many things that are out of your control: weather, disease, pests, exposures, and even traffic. My system has been working pretty well, although I know it’s a matter of time before I’m hit with some curveballs. Will I be ready?
If you talk to my wife, this experience has been a double-edged sword. It takes bees to manipulate bees. You want to raise your own queens? You need mating nucs for that. To make the nucs, you need enough hives to establish them. You want to sell splits? You need enough hives to split from. You want a large honey production? You need productions hives as well as “split-able” hives. Fortunately for me, she just rolls her eyes when someone asks me how many hives I have and the number is larger than the time she heard before. What can I say? It’s hard to be working with commercial beekeepers without secretly wondering, “can I do this?”

In 2010 I ran ~80 production hives, 30 nucs and produced 4,500 pounds of honey. The question that comes up now is, “how big do I want to get?” I’ve gone from suburban yards with one or two hives to rural yards of 20 and I graduated from an 8/4 extractor to a 20-framer. How many yards will I need? Will I need to build a
honey house? Only time will tell.

I am not a big operation, but every year I’m expanding. Two years ago, I overwintered 33 of 35 hives. I sold a few nucs and produced my first ton of honey in a single year. I had two “real” bee yards (greater than ten colonies) and a few scattered around town. Last year, I overwintered 84 of 89 hives. I sold 25 nucs and produced 4500 pounds of honey in 2020. I carried about 30 nucs for queen rearing, etc. After a mid-summer split and generating 150+ queen cells, I’m going into the winter with 148 colonies with the goal of selling 50+ nucs this spring and producing >6000 pounds of honey. I’m now in 6 “real” apiaries, and have two more lined up for next year. To some, that may sound like a lot, but it is truly a small sideline business. If I’m lucky, I’ll gross $40,000 ($5 a pound for honey and $160 per nuc). From that, you need to subtract equipment, supplies, medications, feed, etc. It’s clear, if I want to be more than a small, sideline business, I need to expand and have a plan.
This year, I maxed out my ability to keep my bees and my day job. Running 100+ colonies took all my spare time and there were times when I had to take vacation days to work my bees. Truth be told, my bees are going into the winter in smaller clusters than I would like because I missed some important feedings. I have to choose between toning down the bee operation or growing it. I was pleasantly surprised by my ability to develop markets for our bees and honey. I ran out of both even though I produced more than twice the amount as last year. Given the new found confidence in my ability to find customers and given the well-timed opportunity to take early retirement, I am taking the plunge. At the end of 2020, my day job is over and I am going to focus on bees. This leaves me with a lot of questions that I need to answer. How big do I want to be? What’s my business model? How much do I invest? Do I get involved in bee research (I am a scientist, after all)? I will provide an update when I have some answers and an idea of how it’s going.

Click here to go directly to Part 2 – What’s in a Queen?!

Short History of your state Apiary Program: The State Apiarist position was created by the State Legislature in 1986, but the position was not filled until Phil Craft was hired in 1999. Sean Burgess was hired in 2012.  Tammy Horn Potter was hired in 2014.

2-3 Interesting facts about your program: Since it is a non-merit position, the State Apiarist has a lot of flexibility. Tammy Horn Potter has prioritized hive health, and that decision has led to grants that help with virus identification, queen production and diversity, and the USDA Honey Bee Health Survey to establish a baseline of hive health.

Overview of beekeeping in your state – Honey production, crop pollination etc. Mirroring the national profile of beekeeping, Kentucky beekeeping is primarily hobbyist, with approximately 92% having hives in backyards, a sideliner group that is approximately 6-7% aimed at specialty markets, and then the commercial beekeepers make up the remaining 2% that pollinate watermelons, pumpkins, strawberries, and other crops.

# of Beekeepers: 2500 approximately

# of Colonies: 50,000 approximately

Upcoming (or recent) events in your state: Covid-19 has forced many cancellations

Share a short story from an exciting day on the job- (could be a best, worst or anywhere in between) A goal of mine is to help beekeepers know what they are putting in the honey bottles, and know what is going on inside their hives. I have worked on four grants with different agencies or beekeeping associations.  The most recent grant with a lot of potential to help beekeepers in Kentucky is a KY Agriculture Development Board grant that funds University of KY Dr. Clare Rittschof to provide virus information to beekeepers.  There is a research component to this grant, since it is also tied to the floral resources through the agricultural season. This grant was just awarded in Feb.  In the past year, I have been able to work with four different groups to have four grants awarded: one for honey marketing, one for queen diversity, one for honey testing, and now the virus-testing lab.

Pollinators are a vital part of the agricultural production landscape and USDA plays a critical role in monitoring pollinator health and ensuring they thrive. Our efforts are extensive, but focus primarily on factors that influence pollinator health, crop production, and conservation. Ultimately, USDA exists to ensure Americans have access to a variety of fruits, nuts, and vegetables needed to support a healthy diet.

Efforts to support pollinator efforts can be seen across an array of Department of Agriculture programs. In all, 14 USDA offices and agencies contribute substantially to pollinator initiatives. It’s easy to imagine that synchronizing actions across so many offices and agencies in a Department employing more than 100,000 people can be challenging.

We know the stakes are high from an economic perspective alone, with USDA estimates for annual production of honey bee products valued at $700 million. More than 100 U.S. crops, with an annual production value of $18 billion depend at least in part on pollinators – not including the 40 crops that rely on pollinators for seed production. Given the breadth and critical importance of pollinator-related activities happening at USDA, Congress recognized the need for enhanced honey bee and pollinator activity coordination, as outlined in the 2018 Farm Bill. During the Trump administration, USDA created a coordinator position within USDA’s Office of the Chief Scientist to work across USDA to help ensure that research, extension, education, and economic activities related to pollinators are done in a focused and harmonious way. USDA’s pollinator coordinator aims to integrate the input and needs across USDA offices to aid in establishing annual pollinator strategic goals and research priorities.

So, what does this all mean? For starters, USDA has never had cross-cutting coordination working across every office and agency with the pollinator portfolio. The impact from simply creating opportunities for pollinator-centric employees to come together has had major payoff in and of itself. Offices that typically work solely on pollinator policy now have a way to easily connect with research-oriented offices, and vice versa – information that is of interest to multiple offices is being shared more quickly and easily. This may not seem intuitive, but with 14 offices, multiple sister federal agencies, and dozens of outside stakeholder groups with an interest in pollinators, having a hub to connect, coordinate, and share information quickly and easily across each of these nodes is critical to successfully addressing pollinator health. That means valuable information makes it to our customers and stakeholders more quickly.

But taking things to the next level – that is, developing these new relationships to work cohesively as a unified team in establishing Department-wide pollinator strategies – has been an extraordinary effort and success. To date, we have over 60 federal employees that are working together on strategic planning. They share a collective vision and common goals to help the greater public good. We have also made concerted efforts to engage and garner contributions and ideas from more than 100 external stakeholders in the managed honey bee, research and crop production realms. USDA is using this information to help shape its priorities for 2021 and onward. We plan to disseminate information on approximately 15 research priorities in the coming months. These priorities will be shared with funders of pollinator research, researchers, and the general public – including beekeepers such as yourselves.

More details to come, but to keep abreast of ongoing efforts and other pollinator initiatives taking shape at USDA, visit our new pollinator landing page: https://www.usda.gov/pollinators.

I collect bee paraphernalia and two of my tokens prompted me to write these articles. The first token is a civil war token dated 1863, good at Tyler’s Beehive Dry Goods, 2 West Washington St., Indianapolis. The other token was good for one cent in trade at C.H. Pilger, Bee Hive Grocery, Norfolk, Neb. If the stores existed today, I would bet that they would be honored at their face value. What were Beehive stores? The ones that I have found don’t seem to be a chain store like Wal-Mart or K Mart, but there were/are a lot of buildings, businesses, and objects with the “Beehive” name.

Beehive Augusta Tavern constructed in 1769 has been a private residence, a general store, a pharmacy, an office for the ferry to Boudes Landing, and currently a tavern. In 1862 the building was set on fire (Civil War). After the flood of 1937 the building continued to deteriorate until in early 1970s, the Augustans saved it and other row houses by putting them on the National Registry of Historic Sites. In 1985, Luciano “Sean” Moral bought the building and renovated it. It was named the Beehive, for the large beehive found in the basement during the renovation. In 2017, Lance and Lalani Bates bought the building and have tried to keep the interior and structure as original as possible.

Sutton’s Beehive was built in 1854 and was once the Methodist Church, the Holbrook house, and the Sutton Center Apartments. This building was originally on a site on the west end of the Town Common. Eleven preachers served in the Methodist Church in different years until 1869 and the building was sold at auction to Stephen B. Holbrook who disassembled and moved it to the corner of Boston Road and Singletary Avenue in Sutton, Massachusetts. In the rebuilding it became a residence, an old fashioned store, and the Post Office was in the basement. Hot and cold water were plumbed throughout the house. Wilder S. Holbrook kept the store and Post Office in the building until 1888. The building sat on four and one quarter acres, but in 1908, one and six tenths of an acre was sold to the town of Sutton for a High School. The building was owned by Herbert Ray who moved the Grocery Store and Post Office to a Brick Building for about eleven years. Then there was a succession of owners; Ernest P. Putnam, Wallace F. King, William H. Davis, John Hebert and Frank H. Paine in 1936. November 1945, Alfred and Barbara Beaton purchased the property and the top two floors were converted into four apartments and a four car garage was added. In 1946, the ground floor was converted into a grocery store and operated by George Grandchamp. In 1947, the store was replaced by two apartments and thus the six apartments became known as “The Beehive”. Many families occupied the Beehive and one of them, Howie Bottomly, recalls finding a grave stone under the floor in the stable/garage. It turned out that the stone was the old headstone that had been replaced. In the early 1990’s Getty Petroleum purchased the property and neglected it. This caused the tenants to leave. The building was demolished Thursday, April 2, 2020.

Tyler’s Dry Goods Bee Hive of Indianapolis, Indiana was established March 1861 on the corner of Washington and Meridian Streets. The store was 22 feet x 60 feet long. The next year 20 feet more were added to the length. In 1886 George M. Traver and C. Tyler Jr. were admitted as partners. The second floor was used for manufacturing and jobbing. In 1887 another 20 feet was added to the floor space making it 120’ in length. The basement of 22’ wide x 80’ long was an apartment. There were 15 salesmen and five cash boys. In 1861, the sales were $860,000 and in 1868 the sales were approximately ½ million dollars. Hiram P. Wasson started out as a stock boy. Wasson acquired an ownership interest in the Bee Hive Department Store in 1874. In 1883, Wasson moved it down the street with a new name, H.P. Wasson and Company. Hiram Wasson died July 21, 1910 and his son, Kenard died in 1912. Thus the store was sold to Gustave A. Efroymson and his brother-in-law Louis P. Wolf. Louis Wolf was killed in a plane crash in Alaska in August 1967. In October the stores were acquired by Goldblatts. Suffering heavy losses, all the stores were closed. The Kokomo store was the last to close February 27, 1981. After some renovations in 1980’s of the original store, became the home to the State Department of Health.

The Bee Hive near Sioux City, Iowa opened in 1884 and was run by Dave Davidson. Dave’s brother, Ben, then ran this store while Dave opened up another store in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The South Dakota store was situated on the west side of Phillips Avenue, between 9th and 10th Street. It opened on May 1, 1886 and was a dry goods store as it sold carpets, clothing, boots, and shoes. The two stores were approximately 75 miles apart. In April 1893, the South Dakota Bee Hive was sold to Herman C. Freese and Charles M. Rhode. Additions were made to the store in 1904, 1910, and 1924. Rhode died shortly after a heart attack in 1930. Freese carried on a few years, but sold the store to Fantle’s before he died in 1936. The final days of the Bee Hive, it was a four-story building with a restaurant, hair salon, and many departments. Montgomery Ward opened its first store at the old Bee Hive location in 1935. Dave Davidson shocked those that knew him by committing suicide on January 15, 1931.

Waiuka Beehive Store, New Zealand started September 1905. It was run by Stephen Perrin, who opened it in the Flexman Building on the corner of Bowen and Queen Streets. Bad luck seemed to follow Perrin, for about a year after the store opened, he was in a bus accident where the horse drawn bus went over an embankment between Waipipi and Waiuku. He was badly bruised and thought that he would be confined to his bed for some time. Perrin declared bankruptcy in 1910 but just before his trial, he fell off a train carriage platform. He later closed the store.

Beehive Wool Shop, Victoria BC was founded in 1906 by the Fowler family. They started by selling yarn and fabric and the woolen underwear was proudly displayed suspended from the ceiling. The store moved locations several times before settling on Fort Street where it remained for several decades. In the 1950s, the Orme family purchased the store and the specialty became British Woolen Yarns and Fabric. In the 1970s, knitting had a big renaissance and the “Condo Sweater” craze began. This prompted the opening of the Beehive Store at Hillside Mall, Mayfair Mall, and on Oak Bay Avenue. By 1995 the multiple store locations had been combined into the Oak Bay Avenue location. In March 1997, Valerie Huggett bought the Beehive. In 1999, the Beehive was moved back downtown to 1700 Douglas Street, just a few blocks away from its original location. In 2018, Valerie’s daughter Julia joined the team, making it a family ownership tradition again.

The C.H. Pilger Bee Hive Grocery, Norfolk, Nebraska trade token did not have a date, so my research really began. There were three grocery stores and two newspapers in early Norfolk, but no names of the businesses were given in the documents. The village of Norfolk was settled in 1866. Did you know that Norfolk is the contraction for the words North Fork and the original abbreviation offered was Norfork, but the postal authorities thought that it was a spelling error and changed it to Norfolk? The Nebraskans still pronounce it Norfork. The village was incorporated in 1881. I found that Augustus Philip Pilger, 1849-1906, married Bertha Gerecke, October 2, 1870. In 1871 Augustus set up a tin shop and later was a dealer in stoves and hardware. He was the father of Charles Henry Pilger born May 9, 1877 in Winnetoon, Nebraska and died April 12, 1945. Charles married Helene Wilhemma Pasewalk on September 25, 1907. She was born in 1885 and died in 1963. Charles served from 1907 to 1909 as the fire chief of Norfolk. He was listed on the 1920 census as living in Nebraska, but on the 1930 census he had moved to Los Angeles, California. Thus the trade token must have been made about 1907 to 1920.

Living in Norfolk must have been a chore as they had a record of 66 years of floods in Stanton County from 1823-1940 in the Elkhorn Basin. They had three major floods and 17 minor floods. The floods that would have affected Charles Pilger were the March 27–29 to early April 1912 where they had 76 inches of snow melting, the snow and rains of 1917 that caused two floods that year, and the April 20-26, 1920 flood. In 1924, the Sanitary District began to make improvements at Norfolk but Charles Pilger may have moved by then. The floods also weakened the bridges so people would to have walk across, rather than drive over the river.

Just 22 miles due east of Norfolk is a town, Pilger, Nebraska. It was incorporated in 1887 and named after Peter Pilger. They had two beehive stores in Pilger, one store at 155 W 1st Street and the original Bee Hive store at 405 W 1st Street. On June 16th and 17th of 2014, twin tornadoes (both EF-4’s) came through Pilger and damaged most of the town. The older Beehive convenient store is pictured, after the tornado.

The Bee Hive Grocery in Omaha was run by David and Mary Bernstien. I thought for a moment that it may have been the C.H. Pilger store as it said that the store had been started by his great uncle. The Burnstein store was located at 822 N. 16th Street and started in 1913 however the date was wrong for the Pilger store. There was a list of 1000 defunct grocery stores in the Omaha area, two of which were Bee Hive stores. One was the Bee Hive Grocery Store at 2421 N. 24th Street which was in operation from 1902 – 1998. The other was the Burnstien Bee Hive Grocery Store that was in operation from 1904 – 1999. David Wolf Burnstien, Mary Reva Bernstien (Fried), children: Gerald and Donna have passed away and their grand children: Mark and Ronald had other pursuits. So Bruce was the one to continue the store until his death in 1999.