Noel insurance agent Ryan Epperson got into beekeeping out of curiosity and has been loving it.
He said he didn't understand beekeeping, so he decided to watch some videos online and read a book. Then he ended up ordering a nucleus hive, which is one that split from a larger hive and that a beekeeper captured and sold. He bought the nucleus, or "nuc," hive in Arkansas, put it on his land and let the bees get oriented to their new surroundings.
"They just kind of do their own thing," he said. "They're really neat creatures. I was surprised at how calm they are. A wasp will sting you, but a bee -- you have to really make them mad."
He has two hives at his home in Pineville. One is strong, with about 30,000 bees. The other is weaker, with about 5,000. He puts out sugar water for the bees, and they collect nectar and make honey. One hive made three and a half gallons of honey when he harvested it in the fall, he said.
"Everybody's liked the honey. We've sold it," he said. "I don't do any heating. I leave it in its natural state, like getting it out of the hive, because I think that's the way it's meant to be."
Epperson has learned a lot about the behavior of bees from his hobby. The queen bee lays up to 1,000 eggs a day, and they hatch every 21 days. If the box gets too full of bees, the bees can swarm, which means they will make a new queen and the old queen will take half the hive and find a new home. Epperson keeps an eye on his bees to make sure when the boxes get full he puts another box on top. That way, the bees move into the new box and continue their work, rather than make a new queen and split the hive, he said.
Bees use pheromones to communicate, and this is why beekeepers use smoke to calm bees down. The smoke disrupts the pheromones that bees use to communicate "attack," Epperson said.
He thinks he will have more honey in July or August. Over time he hopes to build up enough hives to take honey to a farmers market, but he has to spread them out. He plans to put a couple of hives at his father's farm and may ask some other farmers for permission to put hives on their land.
Asked how he enjoys beekeeping, he responded, "I love it. The bees are fascinating creatures. They work so well together. And I'm an outdoorsy guy. I like being outside. I'm stuck in the office a lot, so when I get a chance to be outside any time, I do it."
General News on 04/28/2016