Plan Bee
Guy Fricks*, the Bee Guy, grew up in the South Carolina portion of Appalachia. There was no money to send him to college, so he moved on in search of employment and landed in New Orleans where he found work as a boat builder and carpenter. He took a few courses at Tulane and met his future wife, Ingrid, who was studying Pharmacology there.
They moved to Chapel Hill so she could get her doctorate, but Guy discovered that paddle-wheel builders were not in great demand in the North Carolina Triangle. He tried a number of different trades, but eventually decided to turn a hobby into a livelihood and became an apiarist. For a while, he wasn’t sure it had been a good choice. ”I made one bad decision after another,” he says, but “eventually, I got it right. I couldn’t be happier.”
Today and he and Ingrid, who continues her career as a regulatory consultant and writer in the pharmaceutical industry, own Fricks Apiaries, managing bee colonies over a three county area and selling honey and other hive products, which you can buy online.
Guy also sells actual live pregnant queen bees in case you want to start an apiary of your own. You can pick them up at the Fricks farm in Chapel Hill, or, if you prefer, get them by mail (overnight only). I don’t know how the Fricks answer the question about fragile, liquid or hazardous materials, but I’m guessing that the postal service employees take extra care to make sure they don’t break any packages that buzz. The live queens are only available from April to September, because that’s when they are fertile.
The queen bee sales project is part of Fricks’ commitment to what he calls a “closed population breeding program.” The buzz on that is that there is a problem in the bee nation. It’s called Varoa Destructor, and it is a tiny mite that has been spreading from hive to hive since sometime in the 1980’s. This nasty little critter burrows its way into the bee’s fat cells and slurps away. Worse, it can transmit serious bee diseases and other bad stuff.
Fricks has been in the forefront of the movement to develop management techniques to combat the spread of the evil mite. He even has a grant from the NC Department of Agriculture to use artificial insemination to control them. This, it seems to me, must put a lot of male drone bees out of their one and only business. It is not certain that the queens (or drones) really appreciate the idea either, but they probably would if they understood about the mite thing. It is, after all, in their best interest.
And in our best interest, too, because we really ought to eat more honey, which unlike any other sweetener, contains healthy enzymes and also wax, which (Who knew?) is good for us. (BTW, beeswax lip balm is the best kind there is, and Fricks will be happy to sell you a few tubes.) Honey is also anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. Nothing can grow in it, so it lasts more or less forever and requires no refrigeration. Oh, and lest I forget to mention, it is really, really delicious.
When queen bees get old, or just turn out to be lacking in vigor or leadership ability, the peasant bees all get together, form a swarm and force the issue, so to speak, that results in the production of a bunch of new eggs which will grow into suitable candidates for replacement queens. One of them will then supersede the old, grumpy queen who is sent into retirement, or whatever. This process is called supersedure. Sometimes the swarm will connive with a nearby hive, which is good thing, not just because it rhymes but also because it refreshes the local gene pool, which can get skimpy after a while and might indeed may be the cause of grumpy old queens to begin with.
Or, Guy Fricks may come along with his magic inseminator wand and solve the problem tout sweet, if you will allow me a little French honey bun, er, I mean pun.
Speaking of France, they grow a lot of grapes there, and so do we, here at Union Grove Farm. It’s our main thing, but as you know, we are polyculturists and also grow sheep, worms, sunflowers, mushrooms and cover crops. And, thanks to our partnership with Guy the Bee Guy, bees. Guy had colonies at Maple Grove Dairy Farm even before its consolidation into Union Grove Farm, and we are now planning to expand the bee presence. Grapes actually self-pollinate, so we don’t need bees for that purpose, but they do pollinate many of the cover crops, and besides, we just like having them around. The world needs more honeybees, and we’re happy to do our part.
You can see the bees, from a safe distance of course, when you visit Union Grove Farm, which you simply must do. ‘Tis the season right now, and you can book a tour or an experience like helping Sophie the Wonder Dog herd the sheep - by check out the details. Bring your honey, and the kids, too. You’ll all have a great time.
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*Guy Fricks should not be confused with the British terrorist Guy Fawkes, who attempted to blow up the Parliament Building on November 5, 1605. Guy Fricks would never do such a thing. To this day, the failure of the Gunpowder Plot is celebrated with fireworks (of course) as Guy Fawkes Day in the U.K.