About 200 area residents harbor bees’ benefits to environment, health
By Sarah Vetter For The Beacon-News May 27, 2011 1:28PM
MARIANNE MATHER / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Bronwyn Weaver makes honey Friday at Heritage Prairie Farms in La Fox, just west of Geneva.
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Updated: July 7, 2011 2:03PM
It’s a mild and sunny spring day, and it’s time to check the honeybees. Charles Lorence pulls on a white suit that covers his entire body and a protective mask. He lights a bee smoker, which is used to calm the bees. Slowly and carefully he approaches a small group of hives amid a cluster of trees on a forest preserve on the Far West Side of Aurora. His colonies of bees appear active, but not agitated, as they go about their important work of pollinating crops and making honey. Lorence handles his hives with a gentle fatherly affection, clearly fond of his brood.
He was first stung by the idea of beekeeping back in 1971. “I was at my dentist’s office when I picked up an article on the subject in ‘Mother Earth News’ and decided I wanted to raise my own bees,” Lorence recalls. Along with his wife, Karen, Lorence ended up not only raising bees but also selling honey, skin care and beeswax products during the past 40 years.
He’s also mentored about 1,000 area residents interested in learning about these amazing insects.
“He truly is the grandfather of local beekeepers, a wonderful educator who has taught so many people how to raise honeybees,” said one of Lorence’s students, Laura Anderson, of Campton Hills.
Buzzing attraction
Anderson now maintains about 10 of her own hives and periodically conducts educational seminars at LaFox’s Garfield Farm. “I’ve always been intrigued by bees and fascinated by all the things they do that benefit us,” she explains.
The Lorences and Anderson are among the nearly 200 registered beekeepers in DuPage, Kane and Kendall counties, according to Steve Chard, supervisor with the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s bees and apiaries program.
That group also includes Reid Root. Not long ago, Root sat down at the kitchen table and told his wife he needed a hobby. “It wasn’t fishing, bowling wasn’t my thing and my photography wasn’t going anywhere,” Root laughs. Soon after, he was given the opportunity to raise bees at Norton Farm in St. Charles. Root finally found the perfect hobby, and a way to make what he calls “a little mad money” on the side. “It’s a win-win,” Root said. “They sell my honey, I pollinate their crops.”
And Bronwyn Weaver, who grew up on a small organic farm where her mother kept bees, now raises “Bron’s bees” at her family-run Heritage Prairie Farm in LaFox and several other locations, including Morton Arboretum in Lisle.
“We are committed to raising our bees and managing our hives as organically as possible,” Weaver said. She sells her raw honey at specialty stores such as Whole Foods and Fruitful Yield, infusing some varieties with simple flavors such as chocolate, mint and cinnamon, “to make it as versatile as possible.”
Hives and health
Oswego beekeeper Ed Bell, also known as “Dr. B,” says local honey is thought to strengthen the immune system.
“I had one guy let me set up hives on his property in exchange for local honey. He told me it was his best year in over 30 years of suffering from allergies,” Bell said.
“Another beautiful thing about buying local honey is you can truly taste the flowers near where you live,” Karen Lorence said.
People often are surprised to discover the huge and very real impact bees have on the nation’s food supply. “The pollination service that bees provide to the country is worth $40 billion,” Lorence said. “They pollinate one-third of our crops, so every third spoonful of food you put in your mouth is made from bees.”
However, beekeepers are concerned about a relatively new problem plaguing honeybees known as “Colony Collapse Disorder,” or the breakdown of the hive, resulting in weakened bees dying off. CCD has been reported especially on the east and west coasts as beehives are transferred around the country for pollination purposes. “Federal investigators believe CCD may be caused by pesticides, viruses, pathogens, parasites, or a combination of these factors,” Chard said. He and his group have not yet confirmed reports of CCD in Illinois, but he is quick to point out that doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist here.
The Lorences strongly advocate against the use of pesticides that may have a potentially devastating effect on the honeybee. “As a society we need to get off the regime that we need to kill everything,” Charles said.
He snuffs out his bee smoker and steps out of his bee suit, satisfied that the hives are in good shape heading into the summer months. His colonies of bees may produce up to 100 pounds of honey this season. Lorence believes honeybees take care of people, and now it’s time for people to step in and take care of them. These days, he says, it’s in fashion to be a beekeeper, or in his words, “a nurturer of nature.”
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