Features
JUNE 2021 26 WHAT ITS LIKE FOR YOU
ALL?
TO HOLD
// 3 3 O L D
THE QUEEN
BEE
IN YOUR
COLORS GET NEW LIFE
IN
HANDS
SW E E T, SW E E T, SW E E T
// 3 1 W H O
NEW ORLEANS
COOKS
FOR YOU? WHO
COOKS
W
A P E R F E C T S WA R M
The Secret Life of Beekeepers DARING AND A LITTLE DANGEROUS, A PROFESSION IN PURSUIT OF GOLD
Story and photos by Jason Vowell
S
he moves slowly, methodically; her long abdomen adorned with the most extravagant bronze. A flurry of servants buzz around her, tending to her every need: cleaning her, feeding her, protecting her. She is the beating heart of an entire colony that couldn’t exist should she fall ill; a thriving distillery that produces an invigorating and nutritious elixir—a condiment born of golden sunshine, floral and sweet. In her lifetime she will have up to thirty male suiters, and her unmatched fertility will produce nearly 26
two thousand offspring a day. When she becomes old and infertile, the servants who have slaved so tirelessly their entire lives to protect her will turn on their queen, exiling her and those who choose to stay loyal to her rule. Or, they will kill her and replace her with a new, younger, and more fertile Empress. Without her, and her brood, a large swath of plants and animals, including humans, would starve. She is one of the most important organisms on the planet. She is the Queen Honey Bee.
J U N E 2 1 // C O U N T R Y R O A D S M A G . C O M
Often, the first thing most people think of when they hear phrases like “swarm” or “hive” is getting stung. But to a beekeeper, these words elicit pure joy. Wonder. Excitement. Love, even. Getting stung was certainly the first thing I thought of when Nick Usner, owner of Wild Woods Apiary in Waldheim, Louisiana, turned around and placed a large queen bee directly in my hand. He instructed me to hold her gently between my ungloved fingers and not let her fly away—a task easier said than done.
“Drones cannot sting you,” Usner told me. “Worker bees can, they have little barbs that catch in the skin and stay when the bee flies away. A queen, though? They have smooth stingers, but most beekeepers are never stung by queens.” As Usner walked away to fetch a “queen cage”—a small clip used to keep a queen safe while transporting her to a new home—the world suddenly came into sharp, distilled focus. I stared down at this beautiful, regal insect trying her best to wrestle free, but—to my surprise—not attempting to sting me. Thousands of drones whipped around my body like a buzzing tornado, their sole purpose in life to protect their Queen in my hand. Exhilarated, I found myself intensely aware of my surroundings, filled with adrenaline. In that moment, I realized why some people fall so deeply in love with the tradition and craft of beekeeping. Bees have five eyes: three that perceive fluctuations in light, and two compound eyes that specialize in recognizing complex shapes and patterns. Their vision is perfectly attuned to ultraviolet light. This serves to direct them toward the brightest, most nectar-rich flowers. They can easily differentiate between hives to
