Heroes of Honey

Heroes of Honey

Greater Hot Springs Beekeepers Association keeps Arkansas pollinated.

Text by By Denise White Parkinson

With summertime upon us, bees are out and about working their magic, helping crops, gardens, flowers and trees grow and bear fruit. These powerhouse pollinators deserve all the help they can get, so let those dandelions grow and lay off the lawn chemicals—after all, Arkansas is the Natural State.

To bee-keep or not to bee-keep? That is the question. The answer: Yes, please do! The Greater Hot Springs Beekeepers Association can show you how. And for Lee Coatney, newly elected president of the Greater Hot Springs Beekeepers Association, beekeeping is definitely a family affair. I caught up with the Coatney fam at one of their three “bee yards” – an enclosure amid a wildflower meadow in the hills of Fountain Lake. Lee and his wife Martha arrived with son Zach and daughter Hayleigh, both kids wearing “I’m a Keeper” tee shirts and everyone ready to suit up in protective gear.

“I had to place an electric fence around this bee yard last year,” explains Lee of the enclosure holding dozens of hive boxes. “I came to harvest honey and a black bear had emptied 24 hives. Scattered them like a deck of cards!” Considering that each full-sized hive can hold 30,000-60,000 bees and produce 60 pounds of honey per hive, the lucky bear that gorged himself (honey, bees, comb and all) has fortunately not been seen since. Maybe he got a toothache!

Lee, in addition to working full time, has been a beekeeper for seven years. He markets wildflower honey under the brand “Arkansaw Bee Man” at Hot Springs Farmer’s Market and in Bismarck at the Happy Tree and Frontier Pharmacy. The Coatneys bring along an “observation hive” to educate Farmer’s Market visitors on the splendor of beekeeping. Fourteen-year-old Zach helps sell the honey: “I lost my freckles at the age of 10,”he grins. “So I work now!” Zach is also on the Fountain Lake football team; you might say he is a busy bee. Sister Hayleigh, a pro at age seven, dons her beekeeping suit and grabs the hand-held smoker, ready to calm the bees so we can check on their honey-making progress.“Mom and I painted the hives,” she says proudly.

“We’ve made creamed honey,” notes Martha.“You can add cinnamon and nuts to flavor it too—it’s so good.” Other products in the planning stage include lip balm and lotion. The Coatneys witnessed firsthand the awesome benefits of wildflower honey when Hayleigh developed allergies that led to daily breathing treatments. “We mixed our honey in with her milk when she was three,” explains Martha. “And she stopped needing the breathing treatments.”

Lee uses organic solutions for varroa mites (the bane of bees and beekeepers) and advocates planting white clover—a crucial Spring food plant for bees. Originally from Northeast Arkansas, Lee is concerned about the latest threat to Delta-area bees and beekeepers: “Use of the chemical Dicamba is killing off redvine, a native food plant for bees,” he observes.

“When we bought our first home and I mowed the lawn for the first time, I only mowed the grass in strips and left all the patches of clover,” Lee recalls. “Martha wondered what I was doing—I had to spare the bee’s food.” White clover needs no spraying or mowing, makes a carpet ideal for bare feet and is an example of “one man’s weed is another man’s wildflower.”

As we enter the enclosure, a musical hum greets us. Hayleigh aims the smoker at a hefty wooden hive box and Lee opens the top, pulling out a slender frame covered with bees. The bees, intensely focused on bee-ing, ignore our intrusion. Lee initially bought a commercial beehive and studied its design. He now builds all his hive boxes, large and small, out of pine, spruce or cedar. The smaller hives, called “nucleus colonies” or simply “nucs” are like starter kits, a mini-family of bees. “There’s a bee supply store in Russellville and Cabot, and we like Bemis Farm near Wrightsville,” notes Lee. “Bemis Honey Bee Farm hosts the Arkansas Honey Festival every October.”

Beekeepers also order bees through the mail, and with “nuc” hives, beekeepers can grow their own queens to expand their yards or sell to other beekeepers. Film star Morgan Freeman famously converted his Mississippi farmstead into a bee sanctuary—and his “nucs” came from Arkansas beekeepers! Lee can put up a “swarm trap” to capture bees when they swarm. “If you see a swarm, don’t try to handle it yourself,” he advises. “Contact the Greater Hot Springs Beekeepers Association.” Find a swarm catcher at www.greaterhotspringsbeekeepers.org. Some superheroes don’t wear capes, they wear beekeeping suits!

Lee is looking forward to a great year with the Association. Its longstanding mission is simple, direct and profound: to encourage beekeepers and educate the public on the importance of protecting, preserving, and expanding the honeybee population in the Natural State. “Beekeeping is animal husbandry,” muses Lee. “It’s important not to get discouraged after your first year if some of your bees die.” The Association’s 70-plus members have amassed a wealth of information and experience to share with the community, plus they’re a fun and hospitable bunch.

Meetings of the Greater Hot Springs Beekeepers are held every last Thursday of the month at Lake Hamilton Church of the Nazarene, 200 Lockhaven Point, off Albert Pike Road in Hot Springs. Visitors are always welcome, so check out the buzz! ∞