The Wingham Advance-Times, 1972-08-31, Page 6Page 6411e Wingham Advance -Times, Thursday, August ill, tw ;
A POPULAR EXHIBIT for visitors to the Fear apiary here is this glass covered bee
colony which shows the bees and their activities in the hive without exposing the viewers
to the painful stings, (Staff Photo)
IN A NORMAL YEAR a hive wil I produce about 70 pounds of honey: Here Mr. Fear iS seen
unloading more than a quarter ton of the sweet stuff still in the comnbs_ just removed from
the hive locations. In background is the honey house where extraction and packing is car-
ried o,t. (Staff Photo)
AFTER PROCE
tainers for rha
pending on the
identified by I
S.SING the clear amber honey flows readily from a
Honey is packed in one, two, three and five poun
arket, and in much larger tanks for wholesale deals.
or stamp on container. Mrt. Fear helps at this stage
rketing.
m
abel
storag
d
E
e tank into con -
containers, Be-
ach 'producer is
Staff Photo)
THIS IS THE WAY honey is seen bymost users, packed in small jars or cans. Behind the
containers is the apiarist, and behind him an organization of perhaps 60,000 tiny workers
who willingly work for a small percentage of the honey they produce. (Staff Photo)
for
assert,
By Art Elliott
Russ Fear, whose em
number more than any
business in Wingham, h
nninn nrnhlems and a mi
payroll. He has 50,000 employ
all bees, and pays thein off
fraction of the honey they
for him, plus a bit of sugar s
It's a sweet set-up.
Actually, the apiary busin
far from being that simple.
is a great deal of work involved,
and some essential know-how
without which the -work would be
in vain. One must be patient and
fearless, know something about
entomology, biology, botany,
inevitably, a few thousand bees,
pl o will go along for the ride, clinging
to the combs, racks and boxes,
as `no and will fly in droves into the
ni ma.l honey house, loath to be parted
from their precious product. The
with a hum in the honey house rises to a
locate near roar at the height of the
yip• unloading activity. However; a
simple technique of attracting
ass Is them by light manages to lure
There most of them out, and for thefew
remaining, exit traps permit
them .to leave, but not re-enter
the building. Finally all is calm.
Ready For Market
Next stage is when Russ and
his family helpers knife the seal=
ing beeswax from the combs and
insert them into a whirling device
which spins out the honey and
leaves the wax comb suitable for
another installation in the hive.
The extracted honey is strained
in a liquid state and will stay,that
way for months in containers.
This form is tthe,most popular and
the bulk of honey is sold as liquid,
althpugh there are those who pre-
fer their honey solid, or at least
"gooey"' and easily spoonable.
Next comes the bottling or can-
ning process and the product is
packaged in a variety of jars or
cans, depending on the demand.
Large quantities are moved in
multi -gallon containers.
Presently the market situation
is good, Mr. Fear told The Ad-
vance -Times. Increasingly, the
major honey producers in
Canada, principally in the prairie
provinces, have found lucrative
markets in Asia and much of the
output has been exported. This
appeared to be creating a short-
age in the rest of Canada which
could be exploited By producers
in Eastern Canada. The price
started. to rise as a natural devel-
opment. However, other natural
developments were late frost
which destroyed nectar sources,
and cold rainy weather which cut
back production drastically.
• floriculture, chemistry anc?
lot of common sense.
Like most agricultural pi u-
ducers, apiarists are not getting
filthy rich. Every time a big
break seems headed their way,
say a situation in which price and
production go up together, Old
Mother Nature steps in with
horrible weather, or production
exceeds demand and the price
sags, or a shortage develops, the
price rises and weather ruins
production. There may be ally
combination of these factors. The
honey men are dicing with
Nature in the same wav eash
croppers are the biggest ,.gam -
biers in the world, betting every-
thing on the weather.
Honey has been on the human
diet for thousands of years, still
few householders see much far-
ther than the label.
Comes a warm day in spring
and the sight of a honey bee buzz-
ing about a sugar maple or
hovering over a newly -opened
dandelion bud gives us a tiny
thrill and a euphoric feeling, that
summer can't be far behind.
Hard At Work
Actually, the bee is not just' -
part of the scenery. He's hard at
work, having punched out of the
hive with the sun, and is covering
miles of ground to fill his nectar
quota and report back to the hive.
He , didn't go to school: 'Nobody
told him how or drew pictures or
maps for him. Over the centuries
evolutionary processes devel-
oped the instinct in bees to do as
they do, or there would be no
bees.
Bees are not dumb. While there
is no recognizable . spoken bee
-. language as such, bees returning
to the hive have, as, yet, little
understood ways of communica-
ting to other workers the exact
direction in relation to .the sun
and the hive, as well as the dis-
tance, of nectar -producing
blooms.
When Russ Fear, the Wingham
beemaster, unwraps his hives.
from their winter protective cov-
erings of tarpaper, and the young
bees ' hatch • and emerge from
their eggs, they join some of the
bees which have wintered over.
Depending very sensitively on
the temperature and the strength
of sunshine, they 'sally forth to
carry out the built-in drives that
actuate them. Nature, like a vast
computer, . has in fact pro-
grammed them..
' In May the trees come into
bloom. The bloomq are not osten-
tatious, in fact are seldom con-
sidered by people as flowers.
Not nearly as visible as the
exotic horse chestnut blossoms
and eye-catching magnolias, the
• maple and basswood trees are
the significant ones to the bees,
althotin some nectar is gathered
from a wide variety of sources.
° As the season advances, new va-
rieties of blooms become avail-
able arid each in its season is
worked by the bees. Summer
fields of clover and buckwheat
are the main sources, with gold-
enrod and fall flowers making
their contribution.
Pollenization
An important career for bees
and a vital contribution to crop
improvement is the beneficial
effect bees have on pollenization
of orchards and clover fields.
Hives are in fact leased out on a
custom basis to perform these
functions for special crops. It is
not guess work. It has been
worked out to• an exact science
after extensive research.,
The actual operation of bee
hives is a complex .and fascina-
ting study in itself, and books
have been written on the subject.
How the honey gets from the hive
to the table is a much simpler
matter.
When he determines that wax
combs are getting filled up with
honey early in the summer, Russ
drives out to one of several hive
locations in the area, dons his
protective veil and gloves and
sets to work. He lights a smudge
of special smoke' -producing
materials, puffs some into the
hive entrance and under the lid,
then lifts out the racks of honey-
comb, gently shaking off the
clinging bees.
The racks are stacked in
special containers on his pickup
truck and when the load is made
up, it is driven home to the honey
house and unloaded into a storage
room .
1
Combine a price up by &'l per
cent with production down 30 per
cent and what do you have? Just
another season of hard wk and
a hard-earned dollar.
Still, it's a very aweet set-up,
and Russ has stuck with it for
about 20 years, hope springing
eternally that production and
prices, for once, will climb at the
same time. But they it may never
bee.
Aux�b
LGRAVE T 1;wore
l' t ,toothe meed,, et.the
otr Aux ary, in the Orange
Nelt Saturday morn, Boitale
Walker opened the meetingby
leading' in games.
The preeident, April McBuir.
ney, led in the opening exercises.
Sheila Anderson took charge of
the roll call andminutes of .the
last meeting were read by Connie
Meurs. The treasurer's report
was given by Audrey Scott,
Betty Meurs helped with the
worship service. The offering
was collected by Patsy Scott and
April McBurney and the offertory
prayer was .recited by Kelly
CALMED BY SMOKE, hundreds of worker bees are sten
clinging to this rack of honeycomb which beekeeper Russell
Fear is lifting from one of the hives he has located in Morris
Township, near Belgrave. The finely meshed head veils are
standard equipment for beekeepers for obvious reasons.
(Staff Photo)
USED as a sort of tranquilizer as beekeepers open hives in warm weather
when the bees are very active. A puff at the hive's ,front door or entrance hole and a larger
puff as the roof is taken off seems to calm the insects sufficiently. A small firepot equip-
ped with a bellows is used to produce the smoke. (Staff Photo)
hors and jin4001 worked
*sea and
t�,,
p. y ��'tpated in
knit alnd 1 knitting.
meeting clU d with a boy n and
a .prayers
Leaders Ior next mecti
games, Betty Memo, slog-song;Bonnie Walker; to help with, werw
ship service, Karen Scott; clean-
up girls, Cathy Shiell and Usa
Thompson.
GOOD THINGS
HAPPEN
WHEN YOU HELP
QED GROSS
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BACK TO SCHOOL
WITH EARL
The Clothing Squirrel
BOYS' 8-16
LONG SLEEVE
SPORT SHIRTS
BOYS'
STRETCH
SOCKS
GIRLS' 7-14 LONG SLEEVE
NYLON &
KNIT SHIRTS
199
!FANS
ON SALE BOYS' 8-16 n
BLUE DENIM
KNIT
• PULLOVERS FRON
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ON SALE GIRLS' 7-14 LONG SLEEVE
ZIFRON
ON SALE
S ' 49
GIRLS'
ASST. SHADES
KNEE SOCKS •59
ON SALE
'2"
ON SALE
5298
ON SALE
EARL'S FAIR
JOSEPHINE ST.
WINGHAM ONT.
0