No. 19 Vol. 8
www.mypaperonline.com
October 2021
Randolph Man Continues to Learn and Raise Bees
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By Steve Sears andolph resident, Ken Hartman, who is entering his fifth year as owner of iKenBee apiaries, which are located at Denville’s Union Hill Farm and Randolph’s Little Brook Farm, is always ready with a bee story. He calls the following a funny story. Well, now it is, but his introduction to bees almost 40 years ago wasn’t pleasant. “I have been deathly afraid of bees ever since I was a kid. I did a stupid thing: we threw rocks at a hornet’s nest one day when we were little and, not knowing that the bees can follow the air path of something that attacks them, they followed the stream of the air from where we were throwing the rocks, and a bald-faced hornet landed on my upper lip and went backwards up inside my nostril. It was stinging me inside of my head.” He laughs, then continues. “I can tell you that, at age 51 - and I think I was about 11 or 12 when that happened - I still can feel it and see it as if it happened 10 seconds ago, and I’m sure my poor mom probably can, also.” It taught Hartman respect for bees. “It definitely taught me never to mess around with the bees, because even though they’re small insects, they have a significant amount of power. I had no clue about the intricacies of bees until I started to literally immerse myself into learning about them five years ago.” After seeing that neighbors had gotten into beekeeping, Hartman jumped in, facing his fear head on. He bought some hives and connected with master beekeeper and owner of Morristown’s Eco Bee Supply, Mike Banker. “He and I got to be close,” Hartman says, “and I just literally immersed myself into reading, studying, watching every video that I could on the internet, buying every book that there was available about bees, and just literally took on the task of
learning it myself.” Hartman raises several varieties of Apis Mellifera. “In my aspect, I felt like it would be great to try to put bees in two different locations,” Hartman says of his two separate apiaries which are four miles apart, “to see if I could get sort of different versions of honey and see how that would collect from one town versus another. And then I did some experiments, like keeping some bees where I did some treatments on them to fight away some of the disease and mites, and then I did some experiments on not doing any treatment.” Per Hartman, there are two types of beekeepers, treatment and treatment-free. “Unfortunately, treatment free did not work for me because New Jersey is a tough place for bees to live.” Hartman feels that perhaps the number one issue for beekeepers in New Jersey are fighting pests like Varroa mites (which bring disease, viruses, and potential decimation of a hive) and predators. “Keeping predators and humans away, that’s a big challenge. I think that beekeeping brings upon a curiosity, but also is a direct snack for our biggest predators, the bears, and some other different types of animals that like to make their way to the apiaries.” Thus far, the iKenBee apiaries and the resident bees have been untouched by intruders. For Hartman, who sells his gathered honey at Dash of Thyme in Denville, it’s a continual learning process which he loves. “The number one main facet that my master beekeeper went over with me, is my passion is to do this to help the bees. The honey is a bonus. But I leave a significant amount of honey on Ken Hartman near one of his iKenBee apiaries. Photo courtesy of Ken Hartman and iKenBee apiaries the beehive so the bees can survive, and it’s about finding that right mixture of human interaction and freedom to go out and do what they do, because they’ve been doing it for inspections of the hives - the treatment of the hives millions of years.” and maintaining them - but also giving the bees their For more information about iKenBee apiaries, visit www.ikenbee.com.
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