“The Business of Bees” presented at garden club
By Carole Kelly
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- Stan Yeagley (left) is welcomed by Happy Gardeners Club hostesses Merrie Anderson (center) and Paula Wimbish (right) at the club’s March meeting, where he described the satisfaction and enjoyment in working with honey bees.
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- Stan Yeagley brought a bee hive to display as he talked about his work with bees. Items for beekeeping were also shown, including a frame spacer that maintains a consistent distance between frames within a hive box, a smoker to reduce the likelihood of bees becoming agitated, and a soft-bristled bee brush used to remove bees from a surface. He demonstrated the necessary apparel to wear in working with bees, including suit, gloves and head gear. Asked about often-seen white bee hives, he stated that the bees have shown no preference concerning the color of their hive homes.
“Rewarding” and “demanding” are words Stan Yeagley used to describe his work with honey bees, as he spoke to members of the Happy Gardeners Club at the March meeting at the Episcopal Church of the Creator. Retiring from the world of computers and his career as deputy director of the state’s Department of Finance and Administration, he became immersed in the world of honey bees in 2002 with the encouragement of a friend.
His talk was highlighted with a display of the book The Hive and the Honey Bee, a bee hive, several items that go with maintaining the hive, and the appropriate attire for approaching the sometimes-stinging producers of the sweet substance of honey.
Yeagley doesn’t consider himself a bee keeper, an apiary or honey farmer, or apiculturist.
“I really don’t keep the bees, he says, “I work with bees.” He adds, “I cannot see how anyone working with bees doesn’t believe in God.”
The intricacies and timing, the details involved in the bee hive, the functions of the one and only queen of the hive, the drones and the worker bees are fascinating, he declares.
The queen bee lays eggs and emits pheromone, which affects social behavior among the hive inhabitants. Drones mate with the queen, do not participate in any hive tasks, but sip the honey until “told” to leave the hive. Other bees are called workers, infertile females that forage and create wax cells to fill with honey and pollen. Queens may live for two to three or even more years, while worker bees live for a few weeks in the summer and several months in the winter.
Cheryl Yeagley works with her husband with the bee hives, which over the years have decreased from seventy hives to four.
Sad to say, he told the Happy Gardeners, their hives have not produced enough honey during the past two seasons, adding, “I have to have honey.” He headed to Revell Ace Hardware to buy Pennington Farm Honey. His bee mentor in 2002 was Don Pennington.
The Happy Gardeners Club meets the last Monday of each month. Present for the March meeting were Merrie Anderson, Mary Katherine Callahan, Diane Eubanks, Judy Ferguson, Janie Fields, Carole Kelly, Sandy McGuire, Vallie Beth Penn, Paula Wimbish, Gloria Wright, and guests Suzanne Pegues, Glenda Marberry and Phyllis Seawright.
