A Day in the Life of a Bee-Keeper: Deonne Sullivan Talks Honey Harvesting, Safety, and More
“Each bee has a job, each job is essential, the colony is the organism for which they all work to strengthen.” Today’s woman dreamer, Deonne Sullivan is a professional bee keeper with over 15 years of experience. In an interview with Khushee Nanavati, Deonne details her life as a beekeeper, importance of honey harvesting, passion for the field, and safety (and of course - the common question if she ever got stung) Check out her unique story.
How did you first get into the activity of beekeeping and what was your first step towards pursuing this?
I began keeping bees about fifteen years ago after being interested in them for a long time. Although I had an interest in bees I realized quickly that I had a lot to learn. I began by asking an aging friend who was a beekeeper many questions, reading about the basics, and attending a local beekeepers’ club. This was winter, a time when bees are usually inside their cozy hives keeping each other warm and waiting for spring. One February day, my friend called and informed me that her bees had swarmed and the swarm was near her beeyard. This was a very unusual thing for them to do in winter, but she said if I wanted them to come get the swarm and all her equipment, I could have them. She was ready to hang up her bee suit. I didn’t own a bee suit at the time but I put on a loose black velvet blouse which I thought would provide a little protection and allow me to move freely. When I showed up to collect the swarm my friend started laughing because, as she explained, the two things you absolutely do not want to wear when working bees are something with a raised texture and something black- it reminds the bees of bears.
I now own and use all the protective wear I need and chuckle every time I think about my first step into the beeyard. Many people have been generous with sharing their knowledge and there is no end of knowledge to be had from simply observing the bees.
2. What does the day to day upkeep - of bees and their hives - look like?
The health of bees has been a topic of discussion in many spheres in recent years. One of the factors of particular concern to beekeepers is a pervasive pest to bees called the varroa mite. These tiny mites infest the hive and cause the health of the bees to deteriorate. A common practice is to treat the hive with chemicals which kill the mites but do not harm the bees, but an alternative approach is to provide support for the bees through integrated pest management, development of a strain of bees which is naturally mite resistant, and paying special attention to bee nutrition so the bees can thrive without the addition of chemicals to their hive. This is commonly called treatment free beekeeping and is gaining the attention of many beekeepers around the world. This is the route I am attempting to follow both for the health of the bees and the health of the humans who use the products of my hives.
The daily upkeep of the hives is seasonal with fall and spring being the busiest times of year. In the fall a beekeeper must do everything possible to support the bees in their preparation for winter. The colony must have enough honey for the bees to eat until the flowers bloom again in the spring and more honey can be made. The hives should be protected from moisture and wind but good ventilation is a must. In spring, the population of a healthy hive will increase rapidly so care should be taken that the bees have adequate space otherwise they will swarm (the queen and about half the bees leave to find a better home). During the summer months the bees busily make and store honey so that when winter comes they are prepared with plenty. One of the most rewarding aspects of beekeeping is the participation in the cycle of nature through the year. In our modern society one can easily lose sight of which flowers are blooming when or how the rainfall or temperature affects the timing of those blooms, but these are monumental occurrences in the lives of the bees and therefore the beekeepers.
3. What is your biggest role in honey harvesting? How often can one harvest the honey?
Beekeepers simply help the bees do what they do best which is to exist in their remarkably intricate world of activity. Each bee has a job, each job is essential, the colony is the organism for which they all work to strengthen. When all the factors are favorable (healthy bees, good weather, absence of pests) a colony is capable of producing more honey than it needs to survive the winter. At that point a beekeeper may harvest the excess, always leaving enough for the bees. I harvest once a year in late summer and it is both the most exciting and exhausting day of the year. Early in the day I collect the frames which the bees have filled with honey and transport them to a local commercial honey house where I put the frames in a large centrifuge which spins the honey out of the honeycomb. When the spinning is complete, a spigot is opened and out flows the delicious golden honey into large buckets. I then take the honey home and put it into smaller bottles which bear my label.
4. Have you ever had any bad experiences in working with bees? What are some safety precautions you recommend one must take?
Everyone asks if I ever get stung. Yes, I do, but it is most often when I get in a hurry and don’t put on my suit or gloves or veil. I have a friend who has multiple sclerosis; she told me about a type of alternative treatment called apitherapy (the honeybee is apis mellifera) which uses controlled bee stings directed to specific points on the body to decrease the effects of the disease. Many older beekeepers say that they are healthier and experience less arthritis than their peers because of all the bee stings. I can’t offer any scientific proof of that but the benefits of beekeeping are tremendous in many physical and emotional ways. When I can marvel at the precise construction of a honeycomb, so perfectly designed, or smell the floral scents particular to that year’s honey because of that year’s flowers which were abundant, my life is improved and my admiration for the world around me is increased..
5. What is your advice to anyone who is interested in pursuing beekeeping and honey harvesting?
My advice to anyone interested in beekeeping would be to find other beekeepers. In my experience they are an open, generous, and practical group of people. But be prepared, the saying goes that if you ask five beekeepers how something is done you will get ten different answers. While internet videos are handy, some contain impractical or erroneous information and nothing can replace the physical experience of learning with live bees.