Backyard beekeeping's popularity leaves one veteran of the hobby stumped
Veteran beekeeper Sam Parise said people who want to get into the hobby are 'crazy.'
Ronald Ahrens | For AnnArbor.com
He's also blunt about what he thinks about people who embrace his longtime hobby.
“They’re crazy,” Parise said. “That’s the truth. It’s an expensive hobby.”
The 83-year-old former teacher said he missed the recent story about Antoinette Pucillo, the Pittsfield Township woman who was stung dozens of times while checking her hives on Tuesday. But hearing about it, he opened a book of photos that included one of his own grandson’s swollen face after being stung.
He often brings observation hives to public events in order to conduct beekeeping seminars. And the veteran of World War II contributes his knowledge to Growing Hope, the Ypsilanti program that helps people to grow their own gardens and improve their access to healthy food.
Despite the fact that interest in backyard beehives has surged, Parise, a beekeeper for decades, doesn’t offer encouragement.
“For someone who’s just starting out, my advice is: Go buy your honey at the farmers’ market.”
He raises queen bees at his home near Saline and transports them to his 120-acre Fairview Farm in northern Michigan, where he said he keeps 35 to 40 hives.
A recent improvement at the farm was the installation of a solar-powered electric fence to keep bears from getting at the honey.
The farm has a licensed bottling room where he puts up the honey he sells at the farmers’ market.
The interest in apiculture started with a question asked by his son Stephen and a subsequent father-son trip to the library to learn about bees. Parise lived in Royal Oak in those days, and when the local police department received a report of swarming bees, he and the boy captured the swarm.
Parise bottles his own honey in a special bottling room.
“We just dropped them into a bushel basket.”
The Parises established hives at a friend’s orchard and have been involved with bees and honey ever since.
Stephen went on to study apiculture at Michigan State University and today is the state of Vermont’s chief apiculturist.
Parise said he has witnessed the backyard beekeeping boom, but he couldn’t offer a guess as to what has driven it. However, he finds himself affected when he calls to order supplies and finds that his needs won’t be met for weeks.
Various sources attribute the hobby’s rise in popularity to the enthusiasm for locally produced organic foods and to the sustainability movement. Even the White House now has a beehive with 70,000 bees near the new kitchen garden. “There is a movement to try to bring this type of agriculture back into the cities,” said Roger Sutherland, president of the Southeast Michigan Beekeepers Association. Sutherland said he has seen “a dramatic increase” in the number of signing up for beekeeping classes. Several factors are at play, he said. One is “the great publicity we’ve had in the national press on colony collapse and disorder. There’s that kind of interest. So people are saying, gee maybe I can help out by starting beekeeping.”
And Parise concedes that people probably won’t heed his advice about avoiding the hobby.
“Good luck to them,” he said.
Comments
Janet
Wed, Sep 15, 2010 : 12:48 a.m.
I can't imagine that there isn't enough room for anybody who wants to keep bees as a hobby. I think bees are cool, and I love honey, and I really like old people. But this fella seems to have an obvious ax to grind, which is that he now has to wait longer for his supply orders than he did when there wasn't so much competition. Well, that's capitalism in action, old dude. Maybe just place your orders a little sooner than you used to and it should all work out for everybody.
Julie Martin
Wed, Aug 18, 2010 : 8:21 p.m.
Sam Parise - keepin' it real, old guy style. I love it!
Lisa Bashert
Mon, Aug 2, 2010 : 7:57 a.m.
jcj--Perspective is indeed called for. Many more people are injured and killed every year by new inexperienced drivers than by honeybees. No one suggests that driving be banned, though it contributes to global warming and harms not just a few neighbors but our habitat. A dangerous dirty harmful "hobby." Whereas honeybees pollinate 1/3 of the food we eat every day, causing them to bear fruit and feed us. Because of our industrial agriculture system of enormous farms planting just one kind of crop (and the resulting blowback of pesticides, erosion, pollution, chemicals, fuel use, etc.), agricultural areas are no longer friendly to honeybees who need a variety of nectar & pollen. Bees moving to the city is a direct result of how we choose to farm -- and how that system is affecting our pollinators.
julieswhimsies
Sun, Aug 1, 2010 : 2:09 p.m.
@Edward of annarbor.com Interesting. I remark about the preponderance of "bee" articles, and I'm sent a link to ALL bee articles and then some...PLEASE don't send me a link to all of the articles on UofM football. It could cause my computer to crash.
julieswhimsies
Sun, Aug 1, 2010 : 2:04 p.m.
@laiane The never-ending articles about U of M football are equally tiresome.
tommy_t
Sun, Aug 1, 2010 : 9:27 a.m.
What happens if my bee kills a neighbor through anaphylactic shock? Can I bee sued, can the city bee sued since the bees are licensed by the city?
KJMClark
Sun, Aug 1, 2010 : 7:45 a.m.
We didn't get our bees for honey. We first got them because we have a lot of fruit trees in our back yard, and a good deal of pollinated garden plants. We had a few years where there weren't many bees around, so we decided to try having our own pollinators. The honey is a side benefit. I can't just go down to the farmer's market and pick up some pollination. All hobbies are expensive. We have over a dozen bikes in our house, which we use for fun and transportation. But they weren't cheap to buy. And I maintain all of those bikes, so now you're talking an inventory of spare parts and lots of tools. Beekeeping is cheap compared to that, and biking is cheap compared to cars, boats, vacation homes, etc. The nice thing about beekeeping is the bees do most of the work, and they're happy to do it. Most of the year you don't have much to do as the beekeeper.
runbum03
Sun, Aug 1, 2010 : 7:42 a.m.
The bees know.
Laiane
Sun, Aug 1, 2010 : 6:22 a.m.
I found this much more informative and news-worthy than the never-ending "news" articles on U of M football. To each her own.
julieswhimsies
Sun, Aug 1, 2010 : 6:08 a.m.
Another column about bees and their "keepers"...Seriously? Seriously? Someone send annarbor.com some news. Please.
jcj
Sat, Jul 31, 2010 : 9:10 p.m.
While I know how important bees are to all of us. I tire of hearing how gentle they are and what a shame so many had to die while protecting their hive. If there were an article about some child who had been stung and went into Anaphylactic Shock there would be as many post about the poor bees as the child. Get your priorities straight people!
frozenhotchocolate
Sat, Jul 31, 2010 : 7:29 p.m.
Yea wanting to a an amateur beekeeper is crazy
cibachrome
Sat, Jul 31, 2010 : 6:23 p.m.
I'm sure it sounds scary and dangerous to those unfamiliar with beekeeping, but an 'attack' by 50 bees is not extraordinary. That's about how many are guarding the hive front door at any one second in time. Goodness, she has a suit, helmet and gloves on for protection. In my opinion, she lost her 'cool' and the girls sensed it. Maybe a more exciting headline whould have been "Woman Kills 50 bees in Hive Relocation Attempt". The poor things give up their lives to sting for the sake of the colony. It will make a great story for her though in her 'cool' circle'.