To bee or not to bee was never a question for Suffolk beekeeper

By Shirley Brinkley

Correspondent

SUFFOLK

When Steve R. Black is working, he takes special care not to annoy the other workers. If they get irritated, they'll sting him.

It's all part of beekeeping, although the benefit honeybees bring the Suffolk beekeeper more than make up for the discomfort.

Besides selling honey to those who use it for food or to fight allergies,

Black, 63, partakes himself. He eats a bee secretion called propolis thought to boost the immune system. The Lake Prince resident is battling his second bout with kidney cancer.

"My prognosis is good," he said, smiling. "Now, I'm revamping my life. I want to do less mowing of grass and go fishing a little bit more."

Black is concerned the bees in the Hampton Roads area may become an endangered species.

"Thirty-five states have discovered a problem called 'collapsed hive disorder,' " said Black, who is a member of the Tidewater Beekeepers Association. "One beekeeper had 2,500 healthy bees and plenty of honey, but later, could find no bees in the hive. Other bees won't rob the honey, and no one can determine what the problem is."

Black explained that there may be a new pesticide that's supposed to be safe, but interferes with the bees' ability to navigate. Bees use the sun to direct them back to the hive.

"It's not happening here yet, but if pollinators go out of business, there will be no almonds or strawberries. Peaches, apples, blueberries and cucumbers also depend on pollination," he said. "Beekeepers who have private gardens have seen their productivity increase by 30 percent."

The Tidewater Beekeepers Association, a nonprofit organization, encourages people of all ages to become involved in beekeeping.

A mentor will advise people about what to do with bees at certain times of the year. There are also videos that are shared with new members.

Black, a native of Durham, N.C., moved to Hampton Roads 20 years ago as vice president of operations for Boddie Noell Enterprises.

He was introduced to beekeeping by a neighbor of one of his supervisors.

"The gentleman had beehives in the Dismal Swamp," Black said. "He was sick, so I bought used bee equipment from him."

Another beekeeper became a mentor and taught him what to do. Then Black helped one of his neighbors with beekeeping.

"I consider myself a novice," he said. "Two friends, who are close to 70, have been beekeeping since they were kids. And there are a lot of women beekeepers in the area."

He sells his honey for $8 a pint. He has 40 pints now, and will get more in June or July. He has several regular customers who take a daily spoonful for allergies.

Black often receives requests to make presentations at schools. He takes a frame of live bees, enclosed in glass, for the children to observe.

"A beehive is one of the most complex systems," Black said. "It takes 556 worker bees flying 35,854 miles to produce one pound of honey."

A worker bee finds a source of nectar, and flies back to the hive. By performing a "bee dance," the other workers learn the location of the nectar, how are far away it is.

"Worker bees live for 45 days," Black said. "The queen bee lays eggs continually. When the new little bees come out of a cell, they clean out the cell so the queen can lay other eggs. This keeps the number of worker bees at a proper level."

When winter comes, worker bees push 100 drones, who mate with the queen, out of the hive and the queen stops laying so many eggs. The honey supply in the hive has to sustain the bees through the cold weather.

As the workers eat the nearby stores of honey, they will generate heat from the metabolizing of the carbohydrates in the honey.

"The workers have to keep the queen alive," Black said, "so in sub-freezing temperatures, the hive may starve. The workers won't leave the queen to go 3 inches to get the honey."

The insects are so dedicated to the welfare of the colony that a starving bee will pass a last drop of honey forward to the queen rather than consume it.

Black's home is a modern, log cabin located in the Lake Prince area of Suffolk. Several of his beehives are at the bottom of a small slope behind the house. Nearby are tall tulip poplar trees, loaded with buds that will soon become beautiful yellow flowers, which makes the sweetest honey, Black said.

"When the temperature is in the 70s, the bees begin making the honey. We call it the 'honey flow.' When you can go outside at night without a shirt, the flow is over. It's almost over in June," he explained.

Bees need water, so Black cautions visitors not to walk in the bees' flight path leading to a bird bath beside his house.

After a drink, most of the bees flew directly back to the hive, but a few lingered in the side yard.

"If you don't swat at a bee, and back off, it won't bother you," said Black.

He has handled his 20,000 bees with ease for the past 10 years, taking precautions against provoking them. But he's not always successful. Black, who used to be afraid of stinging insects, admits to being stung at least 200 times.

Before Black opens a hive, he dons a white beekeeper's suit and gloves. Then he zips a "veil," which resembles a hood to the suit, providing a mesh cover over his face.

"One time, I realized I hadn't zipped up the veil to my suit," Black said, "and one bee got inside, and stung me. Then, other bees came, and I was stung about 10 times. It's very important not to be stung on your eyeballs."

As he opens a hive, Black uses a smoker to "smoke" the bees. This calms them, and makes the bees less aggressive.

Black has other hives on Trumptown Road in Isle of Wight County, in strawberry fields near the Suffolk Executive Airport, and on the grounds of his second home at Lake Gaston in North Carolina.

"In the early spring, bees swarm," Black said. "If anyone sees bees hanging in trees, call me, and I'll come and get them. These little insects are important."

Shirley Brinkley,

vptabwriter@yahoo.com