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Ohio beekeepers keep their honey hobby at small-scale

By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

LOVELAND, Ohio — When it comes to beekeeping, Bill and Cam Jones of Loveland are the perfect couple. Bill, self-dubbed the “swarm chaser,” is often called on by residents to rid their yard of unwanted hives.

Cam, who uses this hobby as a form of stress relief, makes a good home for each honey-producing swarm that Bill finds.

“My grandmother was a beekeeper; so was my dad,” Cam said, from her home on Epworth Road

in Clermont County. “We’ve been at it five years now and we haven’t produced a lot of honey, but for us it’s just a hobby. We’re not in it for the money.”

Five years ago the couple attended a local beekeeping school and found the hobby intriguing. Cam is presently secretary of the Southwest Ohio Beekeepers Assoc.

“And the strange thing is I’m allergic to bee stings,” she said. “I’ve been stung a lot because I’m in there taking care of the hives several times a week.”

The couple resides on three-quarters of an acre. They have a total of five boxes (or hives) on three locations in the neighborhood – one at their home, two at her father’s house one block away and one each in the yard of her brother and sister, who each live nearby.

“We have roughly 50,000 honeybees in each box,” Cam said. “That’s a lot of bees.”

And, a lot of honey in good years. The Joneses normally harvest about 50 pounds of honey from each box.

The hives are self-sustaining in the winter months. Bees swarm the queen during the cold weather to keep the hive a comfy 94 degrees. According to Cam, bees won’t emerge from the hive until temperatures reach 55 degrees. Nor will they emerge during very windy conditions.

Problems for most beekeepers like the Joneses arise in the spring, when it’s necessary to rid the hives of such things as trachael and varroa mites. Such pests can often decimate a colony.

“Some beekeepers spend a lot of money using special chemicals to kill the mites, but I find just a little sugar water does the trick,” Cam said.

Those not familiar with beekeeping may find the hobby dangerous, but most honeybees are not aggressive. That’s the up side to this hobby; on the down side, the hobby can be expensive. Hive boxes may cost up to $125 apiece.

“Most are made of wood, but ours is made of Styrofoam and I believe this to be better because it helps keep the hives warm in the winter and cooler in the summer,” Cam said.

Added costs would be a bee veil ($75, used at the time of honey extraction), coat ($75) and smoker ($50, used to chase bees away from the hives during honey extraction). Beekeepers often have to mail-order a queen or two when starting from scratch – and queens can be quite expensive (roughly $100 apiece).

“Having a queen in the hive is so important, because without one the hive will die off,” Cam said. “The queen’s job is to repeatedly lay eggs. And the queen is the only bee in the box that can sting you over and over again.”

Within each bee box, or hive, are 10 frames, used by the honeybees to create combs that will hold larvae and honey.
“If you’re a small hobbyist like we are and you’re doing it for the honey, you’ll likely be disappointed,” Cam said.

To hone their skills, the two attend the annual Southwest Ohio Beekeeping School, held each spring at the Oasis Center in Loveland. The one-day school teaches the latest techniques in beekeeping and attracts more than 2,000 beekeepers from the tri-state region.

This farm news was published in the May 21, 2008 issue of the Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.
5/21/2008