Hope Lions Learn About Honey from Beekeeper Roger Davis

The Hope Lions Club heard a fascinating program Monday (9-22) about bees and honey from Roger Davis of Papa and Gran’s Honey in Emmet.  Davis jokingly noted they are biggest minority employer in Hempstead County because they have between 4 and 4.5 million females working for them!

Davis said there are seven types of honeybees.  These include 4 European varieties including German, Italian, Carniolan, and Caucasian. Non-European are African, Egyptian, and Syrian.  The Spanish brought the honeybee to Florida and Cuba in the 1500’s.  The English brought the honeybee to Virginia in 1622.  Prior to this, there were no honeybees in what is now the U.S.  There were other pollinators but no honeybees.  Modern day beekeeping dates to 1851.  Native Americans called the bee the “white man’s fly”. Davis said the honeybee can fly about 15 miles per hour and the colony is a “super organism”.  They work an area around a two-mile radius of the hive.  Bees add enzymes to convert sucrose in nectar to glucose and fructose which becomes honey.  A healthy hive this time of year has between 40,000 and 60,000 bees this time of year.  The number drops in the winter.  Bees only sting to defend themselves or the beehive.

Queen bees from egg to maturity is 15.5 days.  As a larva, they are fed royal jelly which is a superfood because the aim is to get the queen up to maturity and laying eggs.  Her lifespan can be several years.  Commercial beekeepers will kill the queen each year and put in a new queen because they want the queen at her full potential.  As she matures, her ability to lay eggs drops.  The queen bee also mates with a group of drones, usually between 5 and 40 drones.  When she makes it back to the have, she lays 1,500 to 2,000 eggs per day.  The queen lays fertilized eggs and unfertilized eggs.  The fertilized egg produces a worker bee, a female.  The unfertilized egg produces a male.  The females do all the work.  Davis also explained the process of how the bees turn the nectar into honey.  Also, as it gets cooler in the fall, the worker bees (all females), run the drones, the males, off and they die.  The drone dies after mating with the queen and only have a lifespan of 40 to 50 days.

Davis answered a number of questions about bees and honey.  The Lions were  fascinated by the program.  Davis sells his honey at local farmers markets and also at the 67 Gas & Grill in Emmet.