Beech Tree News Network

 A recent visit to Bobby McKee’s Butler County beehives resulted in me meeting a large number of Italians, Italian bees that is. There are about as many different types of bees as there are cows. As I stepped out of my car to meet Bobby, I could hear thousand of them not more than thirty yards away from me. Bobby and his partner Kenny Kemp maintain 27 hives in different locations. The sound they made reminded me a little bit like the 2 cycle chain saw my dad had running at medium low. I had come to talk to Bobby about Butler bees and he cheerfully complied with an invitation to visit the hives. While Bobby put on his protective gear and fired up the smoker I stood by in my shorts and t-shirt and reminded myself that the best thing to do around bees is to stay calm.

Bobby shot one of the hives full of smoke from his Beekeeper’s bee hive smoker and proceeded to take it apart to educate me.  He explains that “A good healthy hive will produce an average of 120 pounds of honey a year”. I took his word for it, after all he was the one with the suit and bee knowledge going back to his High School years. Bees are social and will live in colonies. Each bee has a job, it might be to fan the hive to keep it cool, feed the Queen, rummage pollen from the countryside or to be a Mortician bee.

As Bobby kept working and talking one thing I noticed right away was that these girls are busy! (The worker bees are all girls)  He pointed out to me different areas of the comb filled with pollen, stored honey, baby bees and we even saw her majesty the Queen. The hive will send out scouts in the morning to find where nectar is and they will come back to the hive to let the workers know to come out and get to work. Queens live for years but workers live only for only about a month or so in the summertime.

Bees have so much hair that it’s also in their eyes, they can see in color and can flap their wings as fast as 11,000 times a second. Bees are not aggressive by nature and are essential for the pollination of fruits and vegetables. Lighter colored honey probably came from clover while the darker from trees like Tulip or Poplar. Bobby and Kenny belong to the Butler County - Green River Swarm Catchers Association and will sell their honey at local Markets. For more information contact Greg Drake II County Extension Agent at (270) 526-3767

Jim Baird  Beech Tree News