One swarm at a time

Local beekeeper advocates saving the honey makers

Chappie McChesney’s calm is not one of a man about to approach 30,000 of nature’s most feared creatures.

His hands are bare and steady. He kneels beside a swarm of honey bees huddled on a shrub in his lawn and boldly shakes the limbs, persuading the swarm into a safe wooden box.

Once the queen heads inside, all her workers will take to the wooden hive in minutes so McChesney can take the runaway bees to a more secluded spot away from concerned neighbors.

With the coming of spring, instincts are now telling bees to ditch their original hive with their queen and relocate – ending with a rise in sightings of swarms settling in mailboxes, barbeques and shrubbery. As one of the few self-proclaimed swarm catchers in the area, McChesney spends these months on-call removing swarms from frightened locals and spreading the word about saving bees.

“All my life I’ve seen the value in what bees do for us, and without bees it’s going to be tough on the next generation,” he said. “When swarms come around people want to kill them, but no, just call me and I’ll save them.”

As the founder of The Alachua County Beekeepers Association and the Save Our Bees Squad, McChesney is the unofficial leader of the local beekeeping community. He’s also the only local beekeeper, outside of exterminators, to remove unwelcome swarms and relocate them to spots where they can reproduce in peace instead of killing them at first sight.

February through May is the busy season for swarms, when queen bees lay the last of their eggs and flee their old hives. Nearly 60 percent of the bees in each hive will follow their queen on her way out, which means swarms of close to 30,000 bees zipping through neighborhoods to relocate.

These swarms are unwelcome guests for most; especially since docile honey bees are often confused with their aggressive counterparts, the African honey bee. McChesney says people often rush for the can of repellant when they sight a hive, contributing to the steady decline of bee populations in the state.

“When you see a swarm in a tree, they’re not aggressive, they’re just looking for a new home,” McChesney said. “People think to kill them because they’re scared. They try to kill them, and that’s a sickening sight.”

But some say McChesney’s heart for saving swarms is a quest that goes against the recommendations of State experts. Because of the inability to tell the difference between the docile honey bees and the aggressive Africanized bees, the Florida Department of Agriculture recommends residents who encounter swarms call a trained pest control operator for immediate extermination, not a well intentioned beekeeper.

Dr. Jamie Ellis Jr., entomologist and leader of the University of Florida’s Honey Bee Research and Extension Lab, said the state’s recommendation is a heartbreaking debate in the bee community.

“You get this picture here of everyone on the planet knows about honey bees right now, that they’re on the decline, but African bees are also present,” Ellis said. “I know it sounds harsh and cruel, but it’s the position of the Department of Agriculture has taken for public safety, because you just can’t tell,” he said.

Ellis said north Florida does not have a population of the African honey bees responsible for attacking dogs, horses and even people, but it’s only a matter of time before they migrate to this part of the state.

“A lot of people in the north part of the state like in Alachua county may take the approach [McChesney] is taking because African bees haven’t saturated this part of the state yet. But due to their thick presence in south Florida, there’s going to be a day that they’re here, and what if they’re already here?”

But McChesney insists on saving all swarms since Florida’s population of European honey bees has already been hit hard by a curious disease that’s killing bees across the country. Colony Collapse Disorder is the trend of worker bees mysteriously disappearing from hives, which has been responsible for an 80 percent loss in commercial beehives.

With a county rich in peanut, vegetable and barley crops, a loss in bees also means a drop in Alachua County’s plant pollination. The Florida Department of Agriculture estimates there is a $20 million increase in production numbers for crops from the natural pollination work done by honey bees alone.

“People don’t realize just how valuable our bees are,” McChesney said. “There’s just so many things growing here that these farmers need us.”

And with roughly 50,000 bees in each hive, a beekeeper like McChesney raising five hives of his own employs hundreds of thousands of worker bees that travel as far as three miles out to collect nectar and pollinate along the way.

But McChesney is in good company in supporting the local bee population. Alachua County has 73 commercial and hobbyist beekeepers and 125 members in the local beekeepers association.

Most of those beekeepers are banned from selling honey they extract twice a year from their hives because of strict code standards enforced by the state.

Because honey production is thrown into a category with the likes of orange juice and milk, local beekeepers wanting to sell their honey have to invest in costly honey houses with plumbing and sanitation to meet requirements of the codes. That high cost holds back the amateur beekeeper to simply raising the bees as pets – though locally made honey goes unquestioned and understood in area shops and neighborhoods.

The bee community makes a constant effort to maintain the population of worker bees in the state, but Jackie Rose knows that population also comes with the occasional unannounced visit.

Rose is one of hundreds that has had to call McChesney to round up bees over the years. Last swarm season the grandmother of 10 called McChesney to her home outside of Newberry when she spotted a troop of bees under a side of her home.

“I know you have to have bees to pollinate, but you hear all about the killer bees and all that,” she said. “They’re not all bad, but I didn’t want my grandkids out there and those be the wrong bees to mess with.”

A common fear, McChesney says. But to him and to his bees it’s all about respect. It’s what got him into the bee business at the age of seven and what set him on a mission to keep bees from disappearing, especially from frightened residents exterminating swarms.

“It’s more than just a hobby, it’s a passion,” he said.

If you encounter a swarm of bees, McChesney suggests calling on him at 386-462-2637 for assistance in removing the swarm and saving the bees.

The Florida Department of Agriculture, however, recommends swarm removal by contacting a certified pest control operator or the local agriculture extension office.

 

Cont: Swarms can be active through May