Beekeeper Mike Rossander and his wife, Margie, help their boys, Paul, 3, and Sean, 6, taste test honey samples from different years. (Photos by Larry Bennet)

The garden may be gone,
but local family abuzz with success
By Thea Steinmetz
Insights
Published Sept. 20, 2006

Rossander examines a bee-filled tray in his back yard.

This is not a story of a beautiful garden filled with color and fragrance. Here, multiple undesirable visitors have ravaged the back yard. Deer have eaten the tomatoes down to stubs, and raccoons and groundhogs have had their way with vegetables that were planted not for them, but for the family.

This is a different story of success. It is all about bees.

Margie and Mike Rossander of Westlake are happy with their honeybee-keeping hobby. It was with some concern that I recently visited the beehives in this suburban backyard. I came away completely satisfied that honeybees are safe to keep on one’s own property. It is the lack of knowledge and the misinformation we have about honeybees that keeps us in a state of constant trepidation. After having had a crash course on bees, I feel that many of the stings attributed to them came from yellow jackets. They are nasty. Honeybees do not want to sting you because it means suicide for them. The bumblebee is a relative, and equally inept when it comes to producing honey.

It is a complex system that leads to our pleasure of enjoying the sweet end-product of the nectar-gathering bee. It is impossible for me, as a novice, to understand all the complexities of what it takes to be an apiarist. It is estimated that in this area there are about 12 beekeepers within a five-mile radius.

The first thing I noticed was that the bees fly at the height they come from when leaving their wooden hive. On this sunny afternoon they were quite active but did not fly toward us, but rather in the opposite direction. Even though the main flower season has passed, these busy bees keep gathering nectar right through October and onto early November. Their production and swarming ceases once the temperatures dip below 54 degrees.

There are two hives, which were being split a couple of years ago. Before this split, Mike could count on getting about 125 pounds of honey for the year.  After the split, the production went down. “This has been a difficult year,“ he said, “and I don’t think we’ll get more.” He believes that the record for one hive in this region is 300 pounds. Some books suggest that with optimum conditions a hive could produce as much as 500 pounds.

The top trays of the hives are called supers and are used for honey production. The bees spend the winter in the lower tray. A queen bee might lay as many as 3,000 eggs a day in the brood chamber.  The female bee is the worker bee and the male is the drone.

All of the bees cluster together during the winter to keep the queen warm. It is most remarkable that anywhere in the world where bees are kept, the center temperature is a steady 90 degrees, winter and summer. To survive, a hive needs to have 70 pounds of honey available to feed on. The colder the temperature, the tighter the cluster becomes. 

Other than providing us with honey, bees, perform a very important part in nature. We know that some plants are wind pollinated, some rely on birds and the rest have a symbiotic relationship with bees and other insects. In addition to gathering nectar from flowers, the bees provide the distribution system for pollen. As the bees hop from flower to flower, the pollen clinging to the bee’s body falls off, making it possible for seeds to form.

All is not first-rate in the world of bees. These tireless gatherers are having a rough time. Parasitic mites are their worst assailants. The varroa mites and tracheal mites have threatened their colonies. Russian bees and Italian bees have been imported to save the United States honey production. It is hoped that the Russian bee will live up to its reputation for mite resistance and economic expectations.

I came to the Rossanders loaded with questions, but then I found out that Mike had once been a high school science teacher. After that, everything I asked sounded so elementary and I questioned my decision to write about bees.

Margie soon came to my rescue, and we had a honey tasting session. Margie offered me samples from the spring, the summer and the fall seasons, as well as from different years. This proved to be an out of the ordinary experience. The spring honey was lighter in color and texture and tasting the fall honey, stronger and darker flavors came to the forefront. I also tasted the woodsy overtones Mesquite honey from the Southwest desert, and traces of cinnamon in Westlake fall honey.

With the worldwide popularity of honey, it is not surprising that various cultures have utilized this tasty treat for medical applications. From arthritis and hair loss to bad breath, weight loss and even infertility, honey has been used for a wide range of problems.

One thing is clear, the Rossanders are having a good time with their bee-keeping hobby. Their two little boys are right there with them when the testing begins. Friends are delighted to share the sweet culinary treat at their get-togethers.