Dance Of The Worker Bee

In Moravian Falls, Steve and Sandy Forrest marvel at the miraculous bee.

By Ralph Grizzle

If you're beginning to think that life is short on miracles, you should talk to Steve and Sandy Forrest. Owners of Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, eight miles up a winding ribbon of road from Wilkesboro, Steve and Sandy live daily with miracles. These aren't the types of miracles you're apt to see on late-night ministries or read about in supermarket tabloids. They're of a subtle nature, and they've been happening for years. You've seen them yourself if you've ever observed the activity of what is arguably the most miraculous of all insects: the bee.

Oh sure, you know that bees are critical to pollination. And you've probably heard about how eating honey can help develop resistance to allergies and about the old folk medicine belief that honey, when combined with vinegar, is good for digestion and can ease the pain of arthritis. You may even have heard how honey was used to pack wounds in WWI--bacteria couldn't live in it--and that bee pollen gives runners more stamina.

But you may not have heard of "sting therapy." That's right, there are people who allow bees to sting them for a therapeutic effect. Steve and Sandy had just heard of it when, several years ago, they suggested it to a neighbor, Sam Handy, who complained of a severe pain in his big toe. The pain, which Sam says he later discovered was gout, was so severe that he had cut a hole in his boot to keep the leather from rubbing against his toe.

"When Steve told me that he wanted to let a honey bee sting me in the toe, I said, 'But you don't understand, I'm already in pain,' " Sam says. "But we tried it, and it worked. Two or three minutes later the pain was gone. We've done it half a dozen times since, and I haven't been bothered with gout in years."

Now, you may be wondering how one would direct a bee's sting. Surprisingly, Steve says it isn't easy to get the bee to sting at all. They have to be coaxed into it. And the bee is coaxed into it by picking it up (that's right, with bare hands) and agitating its rear against the place you want it to sting. Of course, it's important to grab the bee properly: right behind its wings.

Steve and Sandy caution that sting therapy is not for everyone and that some people have died from allergic reactions to bee stings, but they add that others are seeing some remarkable results from sting therapy, among them, sufferers of multiple sclerosis, some who have up to 40 stings per day every other day. There have been documented cases, Steve and Sandy say, of remission.

Home Is Where The Hive Is

There are, of course, less painful ways to experience the miracles that bees perform. Beekeepers, for example, get pleasure out of "just sitting and watching their bees," Sandy says. "It really is fascinating."

Oh, but could watching bees really be that fascinating, you ask? "Well, they do provide a window to nature," Steve says. "Bees tend to bring around more wildlife. Beekeepers spend time watching nectar flows, which are much more susceptible to climatic changes than anything else. Then there's the fact that a bee's whole life is based around the sex drive of plants."

You may recall learning in elementary school that bees fly from flower to flower, distributing pollen that they pick up on their electrically charged bodies. What you may not have learned is that bees keep their hives at a constant temperature, 98 degrees year-round and 50 percent humidity. "We can't even do that in our houses," Steve says. Winters, bees warm their hives by eating honey, then balling up and generating heat. Summers, they cool their hives by collecting water.

Bees eat honey to propel themselves from the hive to the nectar source, and they know just how much to ingest for the trip. An average hive in North Carolina, by the way, generates about 50 pounds of honey each year. Beekeepers take half of that for consumption and leave the rest for the bees. Back at the hive, bees dry their honey by fanning it with their wings. "Bees are the most studied insects in the history of the world, and yet we've just scratched the surface," Steve says.

It was a German scientist who unraveled the mystery of the worker bee's dance. Using syrup as bait, he recorded the flight patterns of the worker, who would determine where the syrup was then return to inform the rest of the hive. When the scientist moved the syrup behind a hill, the worker bee flew around the hill to get to the syrup, but when she returned to the hive, she must have told the others to take a short cut and fly directly over the hill, because that's what they did.

"They are these seemingly little crummy creatures," Steve says. "And yet, what they do is mind-boggling. They're miracles. They really are."

A Buzzing Business

In recent years, the wild bee population has declined dramatically because of two mites, the Varroa Mite and the Tracheal Mite. Bees, which until recently needed no help in propagating, now have to be raised by people who need them to pollinate their orchards, and their flower and vegetable gardens.

The advent of gardening as an increasingly popular pastime has been good for Steve and Sandy's business, which they describe as a mail-order hardware store for beekeepers. As more and more people keep bees, Brushy Mountain Bee Farm's revenues have been soaring, to more than $2 million last year. They put out a catalog and even have a web site--www.beeequipment.com. Not bad for an operation that they started in their basement a little more than 20 years ago.

On the January morning that I visited the Forrests, a couple had driven from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to peruse the beekeeping hardware in the store located just a few yards from Steve and Sandy's house. The Cajun couple said they keep about 20 hives, and like 50,000 others worldwide, they purchase the bulk of their goods from the Forrests.

It costs about $250 to get started in beekeeping, Sandy says. That will set you up with two hives and a supply of bees. Two hives are ideal, Steve adds, because if something goes wrong with one hive, you can fix it with the other. You'll also need protective clothing and a smoker. The smoker drives the bees to the bottom of the hive so that you can work on it.

And you'll need to consider the cost of treating for mites. If you're interested in raising bees to aid with pollinating your garden, the best time to start is April, just before the poplars start blooming.

The plight of the beleaguered bee has been much publicized in the media. There's even been a movie, "Ulee's Gold," in which Peter Fonda plays the role of a beekeeper. Steve and Sandy say they have "a very positive attitude about" the future of bees and beekeeping. "It's encouraging for people to say, 'I hear the bees are really in trouble,' " Steve says, "rather than the usual, 'Do you ever get stung?' "