Bees-iest beekeepers

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28 • Polk County SUN

Friday-Thursday, October 30-November 5, 2015

Bees-iest b Happy Hives is buzzing with happiness in Lake Wales where beekeepers Jack and Judy Stokes smile with happiness as they share their passion for bees. In addition to providing honey for sale, their bees become teachers at demonstrations about the importance of protecting the environment. “Seeing the faces of kids light up when they taste our honey makes our day,” say the Stokes, who take their hives to schools, farmer’s markets and community events including Bok Tower Gardens’ annual Boktoberfest to give students a bee’s-eye view and safely explore the hives of honeybees. Kids aren’t the only ones who are happy with Happy Hives. Regular customers enjoy sampling a variety of raw, unprocessed honey and purchase honey products from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Fort Blount Park Bartow Farmer’s Market every Wednesday. Swamp Wildflower and Orange Blossom honey are popular products along with their Body Bars. “This is a super luscious handmade remedy for winter itch,” says Judy Stokes, whose husband Jack, legendary for his wry sense of humor, shares the advice from a honey bee posted on their Facebook page: “Create a buzz. Sip life’s sweet moments. Mind your own beeswax. Work together. Always find your way home. Stick close to your honey. Always bee yourself.” Call 863-676-1375 for more information. BIG BEES-NESS The Stokes aren’t the only ones who have discovered the bliss of beekeeping. With 17,570 colonies of bees, Polk County is the number one county for honey production in Florida. “Being a beekeeper is the ultimate tree-hugging exercise,” says UF/IFAS Cooperative Extension Service Agent Mary Beth Henry. “It’s all about fresh air. It’s getting outdoors, taking pride in producing your own food and the knowledge that you are contributing to the pollination of all the fruits and vegetables and wild plants in an entire two-mile area around you. Bees pollinate a lot of plants that other wildlife feed on, including berries and seeds. You definitely get the feeling of being part of nature.” ROLE OF BEES With more than 300 varietals, each with defining characteristics of the flower from which it was harvested, honey is much more than just “nature’s sweetener” and native to different

Happy Hives beekeeper Jack Stokes in Lake Wales.

parts of the country, as are the plants from which its created which is why many local beekeepers work closely with the citrus industry specializing in orange blossom honey. The list of crops that simply won’t grow without honey bees is a long one: apples, cucumbers, broccoli, onions, pumpkins, carrots, avocados, almonds and many more. A 500-acre watermelon patch, for instance, requires one colony of honeybees per acre PHOTO BY CASSIE JACOBY to handle the needed pollination. Mary Beth Henry, UF/IFAS Extension Polk County agent, points out the demonstraWithout bees to polli- tion bee hive in her office in Bartow. nate many of our favorite combination of factors could be making bees fruits and vegetables, the United States could sick. Pesticide exposure, pollution, invasive lose $15 billion worth of crops. Bees pollinate parasitic mites, an inadequate food supply and more that 30 percent of the food we eat, and a new virus that targets bees’ immune systems honey bees also produce other products that along with habitat loss. Another culprit may people use including honey, pollen, wax, royal be sunspots. Fluctuations in magnetic fields, jelly and propolis. including those caused by solar storms, may Honey bee management is popular worldinterfere with the magnetoreceptors in honey wide and varies greatly in style and scale. bees so that fewer bees return to their hives Commercial beekeepers may maintain 2,000 or from foraging trips. more colonies, whereas a hobbyist beekeeper may have as few as one. POLK COUNTY BEEKEEPERS BEE-HAVEN HONEY FARM: 9340 Hall Road, BEE BIOLOGY Lakeland, 863-670-2581. Running the whole hive, the queen bee lives Family-owned and operated, Bee-Haven is for two to three years and is waited on foot and stinger by worker bees, mostly females, who live dedicated to the production of raw Florida honey. Mike Sadler and his sons Chris and Colby three to four weeks. Each bee has a designated keep the legacy founded by Stoney Sadler alive. role. They take pride in having some of the purest “Their ability to communicate as a social colorange blossom honey around by placing their ony is fascinating,” says Henry. “They are able to let each other know where there is pollen and bees in established orange groves, producing a very sweet, slightly citrusy honey. nectar. You will see the queen producing eggs “All of our honey is unprocessed, going from and larvae. You will wonder how the work is the hive to the jar with minimal handling. We split up. Some bees guard the hive, some forage believe in the natural and healthy properties and some tend to the queen. All the bees on of raw honey and never want to remove any of the flowers are female worker bees. If the hive them from our product. Local honey is not only doesn’t have a queen, the hive will die.” loaded with antioxidants, but it is also great for Beekeepers started getting stung by disapthe prevention of allergies and is the healthiest pearing bees in 2006 when seemingly healthy alternative to processed sugar,” says Sadler. bees were simply abandoning their hives en From start to finish, we produce and packmasse, never to return. Researchers estimate age three separate varieties of natural honey: that nearly one-third of all honey bee colonies Orange Blossom Honey, Gallberry Honey, in the country have vanished due to colony known as wildflower honey, and Florida Allergy collapse disorder. Scientists studying the disorBlend Honey. “Not only is each type delicious, der are unable to identify any single smoking but each is also associated with its own unique gun cause for this phenomenon and believe a and flavorful taste. Our Orange Blossom Honey is very sweet and has a citrusy aftertaste and is produced on the citrus ridge that runs through the middle of Florida where our bees are placed in these orange groves that have been around for more than 100 years,” says Sadler. One of the best things about fresh honey is that it doesn’t spoil quickly. However, if you don’t plan on eating the entire bottle right away, Sadler says it’s best to store it properly so that it retains its fresh and flavorful taste. Short-term storage: when you purchase fresh honey from our honey shop, there’s no need to store it in the fridge. Instead, you can keep it on your kitchen counter or in your pantry as long as it doesn’t get too hot in these areas. Additionally, when you are picking a place to store your honey, make sure you keep it in a spot where the temperature remains constant. Even slight variations in temperature over time can cause your fresh honey to lose some of its flavor. Long-term storage: when fresh honey starts to get older, it can begin to crystallize and harden. PHOTO PROVIDED BY HAPPY HIVES Keep in mind that this process is natural and will usually happen anywhere from three to six months after you purchase your honey. If you