Education is saving our bees, and here’s one young man’s part in that process.
Angela Minor
New beekeeper, Wes Davis, suits up and performs regular maintenance of cleaning and caring for the needs of his hives.
Wes Davis looked up from his computer science studies one day and found bees. “I had to take a nature class for my degree. And with a marine biologist sister, I wanted something in life sciences. During a presentation,” he recalls, “I learned about bees and their current endangered situation.”
According to William Schumacher, VP of Operations at American Honey Bee Protection Agency (AHBPA): “Ninety percent of all food sources would disappear off the face of the earth without bees.”
Davis continues: “So I found the Ocoee Region Beekeepers Association (ORBA) on social media; contacted and joined; and learned about the Hive Grant.” The state of Tennessee offers start-up funds to new beekeepers through local organizations like ORBA.
“I wrote an essay and won! Then I took a crash course on cleaning and caring for hives, and was completely convinced that I really like learning about bees,” Davis says.
“The best part was having the chance to get into the mentoring program with Mr. Dale. Everybody says that if you ask 10 beekeepers the same question, you’ll get 11 answers,” he laughs. “So the 100% best thing you can do—borrow those experiences from someone else.”
His mentor, Ken Dale, is a multi-certified Advanced Master Beekeeper, apiary inspector, organizational leader and possessor of encyclopedic bee knowledge who is currently beta-testing bee apps.
“Beekeeping is local,” Dale says. “As little as 20 miles can make a difference in how you keep and maintain them. What is available for forage within a couple of miles is important. Honey bees usually only visit one type of flower each time out; one reason they are so important to pollination.”
As Davis tends his hives, he says, “Bees are sentient animals. They make decisions, do math, know the seasons and understand temperature.” He learned from Dale that they navigate by the sun even on cloudy days. And, when they return from a successful foraging trip, they “waggle dance” to communicate.
“They transmit vibrations through the comb in the darkness of the hive to tell direction, distance and food source amounts [of pollen and nectar] to the rest of their community,” Dale says.
Angela Minor
Bees create honey and sustain human food supplies.
Throughout the day, Davis’s bees fly to the neighboring cow pasture to “get nutrients. And they sit on rocks in our birdbaths to drink water. The females fly and fly their whole lives, until they can fly no more.”
According to Dale, these social insects and their colonies are considered a super organism: “The colony as a whole works together similarly to the human body. There are three types of bees in each. A worker bee (female) who has many various duties during her short six- to eight-week lifespan. The queen (female) who’s only duty is to lay 1,500-2,000 eggs per day in her three- to five-year lifetime. And drones (male) who’s only duty during a lifespan of a few months is to mate with a queen’s single mating flight, 20- to 30-feet off the ground.”
On the topic of temperament, experts agree that most honey bees are quite gentle and have no interest in stinging as they die shortly after.
However, according to Davis, “It’s not if you’re going to get stung. It’s when!” As we talked, one stung his head.
“She was mad because she got hung in my hair,” Davis calmly states. “She released an attack pheromone that tells the others ‘I’ve stung here. Come and sting more.’” So Davis quickly used a lemon-scented wipe to get rid of the “message to the hive.”
These days the young beekeeper applies his freshly minted college degree in the cyber security world. While he enjoys his new career, Davis says, “I’ve got to try everything. I do scuba diving, mountain biking, and now I keep bees.”
After a moment smiling as his charges buzz around us, Davis concludes, “I’ll definitely have hives when I get my own house.”
Finally, this young beekeeper settles back in a chair near his hives. As he sits with his cup of coffee “watching them fly,” he suggests, “One easy thing everyone can do to help bees is to let the dandelions and other things bloom before cutting the lawn.”
Buzz in the Blue Ridge
What began as a mined land restoration project now provides economic opportunities to 17 counties in West Virginia. Apiculture through the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective has become a workforce development presence in rural areas struggling to keep pace with cost of living demands. “We help our members learn the art, science and business of earning a sustainable income through beekeeping” (appheadwaters.org/beekeeping). Expansion plans include southwestern Virginia and eastern Kentucky projects.
The story above appears in our May/June, 2020 issue. For more subscribe today or log in to the digital edition with your active BRC+ subscription. Thank you for your support!