Beekeepers abuzz with links to top pollinators

COURTESY CYNTHIA BOLDEN

Beekeeper Cynthia Bolden of Pembroke, North Carolina, embraces the challenge of learning the job.

Something’s always buzzing in Brett Tempest’s backyard.

Tempest, a Charlotte beekeeper, owns about 100 beehives that he’s cultivated over 13 years.

“My favorite part of it is the connection that the bees give you,” explained Tempest, 45, who is one of an estimated 10,000 beekeepers in North Carolina. “Something natural to you. When you’re attuned to the bees, you're a lot more attuned to the seasons. You know what's going on in the natural world.”

Honeybees are often underrated for the work they do. Although spring’s arrival also means complaints about pollen everywhere, these insects are vital to our environment. They are essential pollinators of helping plants grow, according to the National Park Service. Bees extract sweet nectar from flowers and plants and is turned into honey.

Bees, moths, butterflies, birds, and bats pollinate apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, melons, peaches, potatoes, vanilla, almonds, chocolate, and coffee, according to the United State Department of Agriculture. Without them, many fruits and vegetables would be genetically modified and human nutrition would suffer.

According to the North Carolina Beekeepers Association, the state’s bees produce between 5 million and 6 million pounds of honey worth approximately $10 million in addition to over 120,000 pounds of beeswax. Honeybees also contribute another $70 million plus to the state’s agricultural economy through crop pollination.

According to the USDA, honeybees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops in the U.S. yearly, including more than 130 types of fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Honey production by bees is worth an estimated $3.2 million a year, according to the 2017 USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service.

It’s neat how honey is extracted from a hive.

It’s stored in combs at the upper part of the hive. When bees fill the combs with honey and cover them with wax caps, the honey is extracted.

Cynthia Bolden, who lives in Pembroke, North Carolina, can tell when her bees are happy, sick, or in a bad mood.

“They have their own body language and attitudes and when you learn your bees, you learn how to work with them, “said Bolden, a beekeeper for two years. “But if you don’t learn your bees, you have a little bit of turmoil. If you go into your hive and it’s a mess, that’s a sign that your bees might be sick, or there’s something wrong.”

As a relatively new beekeeper, she said it has been “challenging.”

Bolden typically checks on her beehive every two weeks. But recently, she has started checking on the hive more.

“My queen recently left the hive, so I’m in a distressed mode,” she said. “I’ve been checking every week.”

The queen bee, who is mother to the entire colony that usually ranges from 15,000 to 50,000, is significantly larger and does most of the work. The males, also called drones, are like “couch potatoes,” Bolden said.

“There’s only a few male bees within the hive and they literally don’t do anything,” she explained. “Their whole purpose in life is to mate and after they mate, they die.”

Bolden advises potential beekeepers to first attend a couple of meetings at their local beekeeper association. Seventy North Carolina counties have a local beekeeper chapter, making it the largest beekeeping association in the United States. Another tip is to start with two beehives in order to compare the insects’ development and wellness.

Despite the bees misbehaving sometimes, Bolden takes an interest in learning about them and is even thinking of one day making honey wine from their nectar.

“It has nothing to do with the money or the honey,” Bolden said. “I’m just really interested in this ecosystem, watching the bees and what bees do is really fascinating. It’s almost like watching God create the world within one little small box. There’s so much going on in there and they get so much done is really amazing and being able to see up close and personal to a certain extent, is just a very miraculous thing.”

Every other week, Tempest and his wife Tina, sell honey at the uptown farmers market in Charlotte. Their jars are also sold at Camp North End, Ballantyne, and in Virginia.

The Mecklenburg County Beekeepers meet every third Thursday of the month at Providence Baptist Church at 4921 Randolph Road.

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