Some kids in Southern Maryland are trading swatting at bees for tending to the pollinators.
The older generation of beekeepers sees interest from young people as important for the survival of the honeybee. The young beekeepers also see it as fun.
A young start
Mikey VanRyswick, 10, of Leonardtown has two hives at his home and two at the home of his grandmother, Patricia. Mikey is responsible for the hives at his house, especially the one that is at the side of the house. The other, he said, is in a wooded area near his home.
Mikey said he first got into beekeeping when he and a friend went to a farm festival that had a display on bees. Mikey signed up to take a course about bees and “it turns out, I actually kind of like it,” he said.
His grandmother, also a beekeeper, helps Mikey. He said he likes that it’s a project the two of them can do together.
Brother and sister beekeepers Trevor and Thirzah Griffioen of Bryans Road started their first beehive this year at their home after taking a strong interest in insects and learning that family friends, Heidi and Stefano Briguglio of Marbury, were beekeepers. With mentoring from the Briguglios, they are well on their way.
For now, Trevor and Thirzah are soaking up all they can about bees, and watching them work. “I like to sit there and just watch them,” Trevor said.
Without bees, Thirzah said there wouldn’t be much to eat because bees help pollinate plants, which help grow different foods. Trevor said that insects like bees “pollinate fruits, vegetables, flowers, nuts and trees.”
‘They work themselves to death’
The Briguglios left the city life to get back to nature. They settled in Charles County at an old farmhouse and took up growing their own food and keeping bees to help pollinate their crops.
The two knew little about bees and beekeeping five years ago when they began, but Stefano Briguglio said that what he’s seen in watching them work is that they are so neat, clean, efficient and organized that most people could model bee habits.
Heidi Briguglio said the bees have a great work ethic and she likes “seeing how they are as creatures and seeing how perfectly they work to achieve a common goal.”
The Briguglios, like many beekeepers, keep several colonies. In the winter months when bees run out of food, they feed them honey or pollen nothing artificial. Other beekeepers choose to feed bees sugar water and a pollen substitute.
Rick Fisher of Port Republic has had many years of experience as a beekeeper. A bee is born to work, he said, and “they work themselves to death.”
Fisher has some of his hives at a farm in St. Mary’s County and he keeps two big hives and two small hives at his home. “I don’t want a whole bunch,” he said.
But even with just one hive, Fisher said a beekeeper could have thousands to tend.
All of the work begins with the queen, the only fertile bee of the bunch. The bees produced by the queen all work to keep the hive thriving.
Each bee has a designated job. Fisher said the queen lays eggs that will become worker bees. As larvae, they are fed and cared for by nursing bees and then emerge as hive bees, meaning they do housekeeping duties such as cleaning and creating comb cells for more eggs. Forager bees go out and bring in the food for hive bees to reduce to honey.
Trevor said bees do this by fanning their wings rapidly. The honey is stored in the comb cells created by worker bees. Fisher said worker bees have short life spans, just a couple of weeks in the summer, but work every moment of their lives.
Tending to the bees
In order to see to the bees, Mikey VanRyswick has to “go in and check the bees to make sure they are all OK.”
What he’s looking for, he said, is that the bees are active and there are no signs of mites, which he said are harmful to bees. Varroa mites and various types of beetles attack honeybees.
Fisher said in the late 1980s to early 1990s, the Varroa mites began to be a problem in Southern Maryland. In the South, beekeepers were having trouble with small hive beetles, though Fisher said they are not as much of a problem here.
Fisher said that during a hive inspection beekeepers look to see that the hive is strong, the bees are working and that there is sign of a queen. Even if the queen is not visible, he said, “if you see eggs, the queen is there.”
Some beekeepers use chemicals to spray on the bees and the hives to protect them from parasites, while others, like Fisher and the Briguglios, choose not to use any types of chemicals in or around the hives.
Fisher said he selects good, strong queens for his hives and knows that a strong hive often can protect itself from intruders like mites.
Fisher does not keep bees to gain fresh honey. On the contrary, Fisher does not enjoy honey as many beekeepers do. “I do it because I like messing with them ... they are fascinating creatures,” Fisher said.
Fisher has kept bees on and off since 1971. His interest is in the biology and behavior if bees. He first started learning about bees while studying entomology at the University of Maryland. He took several years off from beekeeping while working for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, then got back into it several years ago at the urging of a close friend. Now, Fisher is retired and happily tending to bees.
Not only is he not a fan of honey, Fisher said, “I found out I’m allergic to the little buggers.”
Fisher, like most beekeepers, wears protective gear around his hives, though he did go through sting therapy years ago. Sting therapy uses bee venom to treat people for various conditions. Small doses of venom are used to treat bee allergies, getting the body to cope with a bee sting. The allergy came back, he said, so now he carries epinephrine with him in case of an emergency.
Stefano Briguglio said he has no concerns checking his hives in his bare feet and without gloves or a veil. While he has been stung on occasion, he said his bees are gentle and there really is no need for the safety clothing.
To each beekeeper his own, Fisher said. However, he will stick to the safety clothing as “even the nicest bees in the world are going to be mean someday.”
Sharing knowledge, hives
Aside from providing bee-related and other homemade merchandise, Azure B. LLC, Stefano and Heidi’s shop in Marbury, also provides beekeeping courses year-round. Many of these courses are geared toward children.
The youngest student is Austin Rhodes, 3, of Pasadena.
Heidi Briguglio said the more younger people learn about bees and their importance to pollination, the better for the environment in the future. Also, she said, learning about bees at a young age can help children to be less intimated by them as they get older.
Karen Cooksey, member of the Association of Southern Maryland Beekeepers, said it is important for the younger generation to become interested in beekeeping and potentially become beekeepers, not only to ensure that beekeepers continue generation after generation, but so that youth can be involved with nature and learn about the environment.
Trevor Griffioen said there is a lot to learn just by watching the bees.
He said bees communicate by doing a dance, which he said was basically like a series of circles. The dance, he said, “is kind of like telling a story.”
Trevor said he also has learned that bees have two stomachs, one for the nectar and the other for food and water.
The lesson his sister Thirzah said she likes to share is that one should not be afraid of bees because “they can actually help you.”
Being a beekeeper, Mikey said, is a good opportunity to learn about the natural environment. It also can be a lucrative business. “I like to sell the honey,” he said.
In his first year of being a beekeeper, Mikey sold honey to family and a few of his teachers. He said typically beekeepers won’t see honey in the first year. However, he said he lucked out with his bees. He and his grandmother ended up with 40 pounds of honey.
He said this year may be a better year for honey because “my bees are hopping.” Fisher will sell his honey to friends and give some away to family.
The Briguglios created a business out of their bees from making boxes for the hives and selling some of the honey their bees create. Azure B. LLC is named after the Briguglios’ 1-year-old son.
All three of the younger beekeepers said they would continue to keep bees as long as they could. Mikey said it could become costly to buy equipment, but he recommends it to anyone interested in bugs.
Others should get in involved, Trevor said, because it is “important for our world and our ecosystem.”
gphillips@somdnews.com
