The importance of bees that keep making honey

Negotiations with George (the publisher of this newspaper) to write this column were brief. I sent writing samples about honey bee swarms and flowers; great information to help honey bees, I thought. I also suggested an article on honey laundering, to which George replied, “Why not start with an article about your business?”

“Oh geez. That’s hard. Bees are much more interesting," I replied.

I tried to entice him with “all the boy honey bees get kicked out of the hive by the girl honey bees in the winter. They are left to freeze or starve to death, and some girls will actively kill the boys.”

He wasn’t biting. George has a mission. He said he would “like to concentrate on being a local paper, with a focus on interesting things in the area, one of which is you and your work”

He was the second person in a week who said I was interesting. Well okay then, let’s see if I can weave together some interesting musings and escapades of a female beekeeper who typically manages just over 100 colonies at 40 locations across the east end of Long Island.

About 30 of the colonies I manage are my own, and they live on a gorgeous oceanfront organic farm in Sagaponack. I manage a few colonies in Springs and Hampton Bays as well. These colonies produce my award winning Bonac, Bees honey, which is available at select establishments throughout the east end.

You can also find me (and my honey) at fairs from late fall through early spring. I rarely have time during the beekeeping season to attend spring and summer markets, but even if I did, I just do not have the volume of product to be able to do so. Unlike some other “local” honey companies, I sell out every year, while their supply seems limitless. More on this topic will be revealed in subsequent issues: Stay tuned!

The remainder of the colonies I manage are located on amazing estates from Eastport to Montauk. Many of my clients are well-known figures, and their identities are top secret!

The addition of honey bees to a prop-

by Deborah Klugher, owner of Bonac Bees

erty makes the site an apiary and offers a number of benefits. Honey bees provide ecological servicing to the apiary and other properties within a 5 mile radius. They provide pollination for many flowering plants including trees and bushes, native species, and fruits and vegetables. Pollination produces seeds and food for both humans and wildlife, and also provides habitat for wildlife.

My clients also get to enjoy the honey that their bees make! The average yield of surplus honey on Long Island is about 40 pounds per colony. The bees typically make more than that, but we need to leave them about 75 pounds of the sweet stuff to get through winter. The nectar flow typically starts around mid-May, and lasts through mid-July, so they only have a small window of opportunity to gather nectar and make it into honey. If winter reserves are low, they are fed sugar in either a thick syrup, bee fondant, candy boards, or plain white granulated sugar.

I manage more honey bee colonies than any other female beekeeper on Long Island, and quite possibly have the largest operation overall. (I welcome input from my male beekeeper friends on this assertation.)

Keep in mind that beekeepers, myself included, have a hard time counting by ones. Is a nuc (a small colony) counted as one or half of a colony? Are only production colonies counted or are all bees in hives included? How about newly caught swarms or queenless colonies? Professional, or commercial beekeepers often keep apiary locations and colony numbers top-secret, for a variety of reasons, so the world may never know…

Before becoming a beekeeper, I never gave bees a second thought. I didn’t give them a first thought either! Beekeeping is one of those occupations that is typically a family business, with knowledge (and bees) passed down through generations. I took a look at my family tree all the way back to the 1500s and found no mention of bees or beekeepers. While beekeeping may not be a familial thing for me, my name, Deborah, literally means “the bee.” Interesting.

In the Hebrew Bible, Deborah was one of the most famous women. She was the only woman of her time whose prominence was established on her own merit and not due to her relationship with a man. My beekeeping operation is a solo venture. Built over the last decade, it’s just me and the bees! While my business was definitely built on my own, I have learned from and studied with some of the best beekeepers and researchers in the world!

At the beginning of my beekeeping journey, I knew I needed to know more. Much more. I applied and was accepted into the Eastern Apicultural Society’s (EAS) elite Master Beekeeper work with tens of thousands of bees, where one, or multiple stings can kill you. Is it wise to put oneself in such a position? As it turns out, I learned that honey bee venom is medicinal. Throughout history there is documentation of the use of honey bees and their hive products on both humans and animals for health and healing. This practice of using honey bee venom, and all of the bee hive products is known as apitherapy, and is a topic I have become well versed in.

While I spend almost all of my time managing bees, I also offer presentations at major beekeeping conferences on the subject of apitherapy. I have presented original research at Apimondia, the International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations where beekeepers, scientists, honey-traders, agents for development, technicians, and legislators meet to listen, discuss, and learn from one another. I also offer lectures for all ages on beginning to advanced beekeeping topics and techniques, status of the bees, how to help the bees, and so much more.

Certification program. It is a program that does not teach you. It tests you. You are vetted into the program and must come fully prepared to sit for 4 rigorous examinations. They give you 5 years to pass written, laboratory, oral, and field examinations. I passed after three years and am proud to be a Certified EAS Master Beekeeper. Beekeeping is not easy. Although it is quite rewarding, it is also physically and emotionally demanding. You must devote a good deal of time to the bees, but more importantly, you have to get the timing right to be a successful beekeeper. There are outside influences over which beekeepers have no control: Pesticides, parasites and disease, lack of forage, weather and climate, habitat loss, poor beekeeping practices, detrimental legislation, ignorance, and greed are just a few problems we beekeepers must contend with.

Okay, now back to the Hebrew Deborah; she was known to be wise and courageous. One must be brave to

Through the years I have entered honey shows at national and international beekeeping conferences. The competition is always fierce, but I have managed to amass quite the collection of ribbons and awards for my hive products. I have won the “Sweepstakes Award” twice at EAS, where you gain points for each winning entry, and the person who amasses the most points in the show wins the coveted silver bowl, purple ribbon, and bragging rights! By entering (and winning) honey shows, I have learned how to make and offer the public the highest quality (award winning) hive products possible.

In January I will be attending two different conferences and plan to enter some of my products into both honey shows. First, I will be in Louisville, Kentucky at The North American Honey Bee Expo (NAHBE), which started just a few years ago. There will be an acre of vendors and over 2000 beekeepers in attendance. We will come together to learn, network, and talk about bees. If you know a beekeeper, you know how much we love to talk about our bees, or other people’s bees, or wild bees, or any bees, really.

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