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All About Bees and Honey In Kitsap

Last modified on 2009-02-09 23:29:02 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Classes and Starter Kits Available For Beginning BeeKeepers

With the country abuzz about the collapse of an estimated 30 per cent of bee colonies in the country and the importation of Chinese honey that contains additives and whose bees have been treated with substances that are not legal here, it’s wonderful to know that there are thriving local hives and colonies here in West Sound. You can buy honey directly from local beekeepers or local brokers who purchase only from locally known sources.

Kitsap honey harvesters

The Queen of honey and beekeeping here in Kitsap County is 79-year-old Barbara Stedman.   Barbara and Al Stedman (who died this past November) began their venture into honey bees about 38 years ago when he retired from the then Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.  It soon grew from a hobby to a full time business and Barbara also retired from her job as director of the PSNS Children’s Services to help out with the bee business.

At one time they had about 500 hives flourishing on their three acre plot on Anderson Hill Road but now the majority of her time is devoted to brokering honey, making and ordering bee supplies, and ordering bees from California for those who want to start colonies.

“A beginning three-pound packet of 10,000 bees, including a queen runs about $70,” says Stedman.

Throughout all the years of the business, Barbara Stedman has continued to maintain direct customer honey sales seven days a week in a little shed out behind the house.  She also has a small gift shop next door. Bees wax candles, pollen and even honey candy are also available here.  At any given time there are at least five kinds of honey in the shed, depending on the season and production of the bees. Her son, Paul Mottner is now helping her with the business

“I buy my honey only from local sources where I know how they keep their hives and make their honey,” says Stedman.  She says she has about 70 barrels currently on hand and her honey is carried at Helen’s Health Food, Farmer George’s, Willow’s Naturally on Bainbridge Island and is used at Silver City Brewery and Restaurant.

Stedman is also the education chair of the 60-member West Sound Beekeepers Association, an organization she and her husband founded, and it will soon be offering beginner bee keeping classes on the third Tuesdays of the month at Stedman Bee Supplies, Inc, beginning February 17 at 6:45 p.m. and running through October 20. It is located at 3763 NW Anderson Hill Road, Silverdale, WA,Telephone 360-692-9453.

Paul and Lisa Lundy have been bee keepers since 1997 when they started their first colony in Seattle before moving to Kitsap County.  He said the impetus for him to get started was having fruit trees that weren’t getting pollinated.

“I got hooked immediately on bee keeping and haven’t looked back,” said Paul.

He also added that, since moving over here, and with a lot of help from Clint Dudley, Kingston Farmers Market manager, he has really gotten into producing his own food, including vegetables, chickens and eggs.  He and Lisa are now producing three to four hundred pounds of honey a year in 10 hives with about 50,000 bees under the name Myra Springs honey – it’s sold at Sack’s Feed and Pine Cone Gifts in Kingston. He says he really enjoys teaching others about the joys of bee keeping and honey production.

David Mackovjak, vice president of West Sound Beekeepers, has only been keeping bees for about three years but as a recent retiree from the Navy, he remembered a class he had taken ten years ago at M.I.T. on beekeeping and says he became fascinated with it then.

His six hives are located with a three mile radius of his Olympic View home and his honey is made from local wildflowers in the spring and blackberries in June and July. He doesn’t sell his product but uses it for his own consumption and says he gives a lot away.

“Some people even take their hives up to the mountains so the bees can get fireweed,” says Mackovjak.

David Mackovjak

Mackovjak is also very interested in educating people about bees.  He talks of the perfect heating and air-conditioning bees perform in the hive all year round to keep the queen at exactly the right temperature and the 21 days it takes from the laying of an egg to a mature bee.  And he talks of the fascinating way the bees set up residence by drawing up the comb in a block with frames. He says West Sound Beekeepers is also very active in working with WSU to do research on the collapsing of bee colonies.  He says various theories have been set forth, including proliferation of certain mites, low level pesticides and nozema disease.

Mackovjak also mentions that there are commercial pollinators living here too who take their bees to various places to pollinate trees around the west, beginning with almond in California and ending with apples and peaches in Washington.

West Sound Beekeeper president George Purkett of Port Orchard has been keeping bees about 15 years and has raised up to ten colonies.  He talks about the some of the lesser known health benefits of bee products – it’s called apitherapy and employs the use of bee products, including, pollen, royal jelly and venom in the prevention cure and treatment of diseases.

“Some of the resins bee collect from certain plants have antibiotic properties and can even be used on open wounds,” says Purkett.

George Purkett

Purkett urges anyone who has an interest in bees, their products and beekeeping to attend the February 17 meeting at 6:45 for beginning classes or just come to the business meeting that follows immediately afterward.  For more information go into the West Sound Beekeepers web site at:  www.westsoundbees.org or call David Mackovjak at:  (360) 698-5228.  The web site also has a full list of resources for would-be bee keepers.